Miscellaneous Works On China

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THE SHINTO PANTHEON.
ALTHOUGH probably every one of the myriad writers on Japan

has a tilt with its religions, no treatise on Shinto, its ethnic faith,
has thus far appeared. Yet the material now at hand well
deserves a treatise. Since Professor C. P. Tiele in 1877 (His
tory of Religions) and Professor Max Mller in 1878 (Origin
and Growth of Religion) forbore to treat Shinto from lack of
data, research has been conducted on the field with every advan
tage that New Japan could offer, mainly by three distinguished
Englishmen, Mr. E. Satow and Mr. W. G. Aston of the British
Embassy, and Professor B. H. Chamberlain of the Imperial Uni
versity, Tokyo. The contributions of these scholars, found mostly
in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, will be
constantly used in this article; they quite supersede even the
modern contributions by such writers as Rosny, Pfizmaier, and
Hoffmann, who never saw Japan and possessed a very inadequate
knowledge of archaic Japanese. They equally supersede the
writings of men like Kaempfer (16511716) and Siebald (1796
1866), who, though they lived in the Dutch settlement near Naga
saki, saw exceedingly little of Japan; and even this was under such
strict surveillance from a jealous government that all they heard on
politics or religion was garbled. Hence the erroneous reports on
Shinto presented down to a decade ago even by standard works
on religion such as Dr. Tylor's Primitive Culture. The aim
of the present article will be to present a careful summary of the
reliable modern monographs on at least the pantheon of Shinto,
together with some new material the nature of which will duly
appear. The very interesting and equally accessible cult must
remain for treatment on some future occasion.
Shinto, the name by which the ethnic faith of the Japanese is
commonly known, was adopted as the Chinese equivalent of the
vernacular Kami no michi, commonly translated God-way, but
properly meaning Way of the Superiors, and denoting not
only nature-gods and ancestral spirits, but certain living men,
and even extraordinary animals and things a truly remarkable
case of primitive undifferentiation. The relations of Shinto to
'75 f 5
2 ... . The Shinto Pantheon.
its imported rivals, iddhism and Confucianism, will best appear

from istoric sketch... Here three periods must be distinguished.
During the first of th&se, from an unknown early time until
550 A. D., those primitive ideas prevailed of which the Kojiki,
Records of Ancient Matters, and the Yengishiki, Ceremonial
Laws, form the most reliable extant literature. These works
indicate a union of political and religious elements which were
differentiated only later. Chinese culture with Confucianism
slowly filtered in during the early centuries of the Christian
era.
The advent of Buddhism in the sixth century A. D. inaugurated

the second period of Shinto, one of complete arrest of develop
ment, and of almost complete absorption by Buddhism, whose
priests diplomatically identified Shinto deities as avatars of ancient
Buddhas a doctrine of hben or pious fraud. Shinto was thus
for the first time differentiated from the State, which, however,
supported both Buddhism and Shinto. Only in the provinces of
Izumo and Ise was Shinto maintained in approximate purity.
Most of the Shinto shrines came to be served by Buddhist priests,
and their cult to be modified in accordance with Buddhist ideas, and
thus arose the important Rybu Shinto, a mixed religion respon
sible for the general tolerance on religious subjects prevalent since
its rise in Japan. -
The third period began about 1700 A. D., and owed its begin
ning to the revival of Confucianism in the preceding century.
In conformity therewith, Japanese literati turned their gaze to
their own past, and consequently inaugurated a politico-religious
movement which led at the same time to the disestablishment
of Buddhism, the overthrow of the Shogunate that had usurped
the Mikado's throne, and the opening of Japan to foreign inter
course. The literary leaders in this movement were the great
Japanese scholars Mabuchi (16971769) Motoori (17301801)
and Hirata (17761843) whose work was an indispensable pre
liminary to that of the English scholars named above. Since the
revival of pure Shinto in 1868, Buddhism has in part slowly
reasserted itself, while Shinto, in spite of state and imperial patron
age, has shrunk to ever smaller proportions, and Confucianism,
with its associated Chinese culture, has vanished at the sight of
Western science.
While other faiths of the Japanese are thus missionary reli
gions, Shinto is native to the Japanese people, and we must therefore
look for its origin, with their own, somewhere on the Asiatic main
The Shinto Pantheon. 3
land. The latest view, that of Professor Chamberlain, is that geo

graphy, legend, history, and the present distribution of population
in Japan almost force the assumption that the bulk of the Jap
anese race entered southwestern Japan from Korea via Tsushima.
These invaders drove the aboriginal Ainus partly southward,
whence arose a striking relationship of the modern Luchuan lan
guage with archaic Japanese; but especially northward, subjuga
ting or exterminating them, until now their feeble and moribund
remnant is found only in the northern Yezo and Kuriles. Yet
there is no Ainu blood in the Japanese strain, as has often been
stated, for hybrids between the two become barren in the third
or fourth generation. The marked difference between the two
Japanese typesthe pudding face of the lower classes and the
oval face of the samurai, arises, according to Dr. Baelz, from two
streams of invaders, one landing in Izumo, the other in Kyushu ;
linguistic and mythologic evidence points the same way. But one
must not, therefore, forthwith identify Japanese and Chinese.
The similarities in culture between the two are readily accounted
for, partly by Japanese borrowing from their more civilized neigh
bors, partly by fundamental human tendencies. The differences
demand a distinction as wide as can be found within the limits of
the Mongolian race that spreads from Finland to Japan. Profound
differences in physiognomy, temperament, artistic endowment,
language, social structure, and religion indicate that the Japanese
descend, not from the hundred families that entered China
some thirty centuries B. C. from the far West, but from the abo
rigines that those invaders everywhere found and fought, though
later they derived from this source the elements of music and
drawing.
The two chief sources of information upon primitive Shinto are,
by common consent, the Kojiki and Yengishiki, and no extant
works hold the mirror up to nature at the barbarian stage more
faithfully than do these same two. Their antique flavor is dis
cernible in every line, and any fair comprehension of them is impos
sible without the aid of the learned notes of Mr. Chamberlain *
or Mr. Satow. Another book of annals, the Nihongi or Chron
icles of Japan, is of secondary importance; though written only
eight years after the Kojiki, it was composed in a Chinese ration
* Trans. Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xxi., for 1893.
* Kojiki, being the Supplement to vol. x. of Trans. A. S. J.
* Ancient Japanese Rituals, being vol. vii. parts 2 and 4, and vol. ix. part 2,
of the same Transactions.
4 The Shinto Pantheon.
alistic spirit. Per contra, the Kojiki was composed wholly in the
native spirit, and where Chinese influence is discernible, this is
because it has affected the folk-faith, which the Kojiki records.
Among other traits its unblushing coarseness stands in antipodal
contrast with that prudery of the Chinese Classics which distin
guishes them indeed from all other ancient literature. But the
hierologist will prefer the Kojiki, as giving him the priceless
truth about barbarian nations, to the expurgated and didactic Shu
King. It is quite an error to suppose with several writers that
the Kojiki trangresses the proprieties as no other literature in the
world. Not to mention the generally inaccessible Tantras one
may compare with the Kojiki the Proben der Volksliteratur
Sud-Siberiens passim, especially vol. v., pp. 183 ff., or to come
nearer home, an unexpurgated edition of Chaucer's poems.
Some space must be devoted to an outline of the legendary first
volume of this remarkable work, beginning with a quotation from
it" which is indispensable to an estimate of the subsequent inter
pretation, and is, at the same time, a typical barbarian cosmogony
and theogony.
I. The names of the Deities that were born in the Plain of
High Heaven when the Heaven and Earth began were the Deity
Master-of-the-August-Centre-of-Heaven, next the High-August
Producing-Wondrous Deity, next the Divine-Producing-Won
drous Deity. These three Deities were all Deities born alone,
and hid their persons. The names of the Deities that were born
next from a thing that sprouted up like unto a reed shoot when
the earth, young and like unto floating oil, drifted about medusa
like, were the Pleasant-Reed-Shoot-Prince-Elder Deity, next the
Heavenly-Eternally-Standing Deity. These two Deities were like
wise born alone, and hid their persons.
The five Deities in the above list are separate Heavenly
Deities.
II. The names of the Deities that were born next were the
Earthly-Eternally-Standing-Deity, next the Luxuriant-Integrating
Master-Deity. These two Deities were likewise Deities born
alone, and hid their persons. The names of the Deities that were
born next were the Deity Mud-Earth-Lord, next his younger
sister the Deity Mud-Earth-Lady; next the Germ-Integrating
Deity, next his younger sister the Life-Integrating-Deity; next
the Deity Elder-of-the-Great-Place, next his younger sister the
Deity Elder-Lady-of-the-Great-Place; next the Deity Perfect
* As translated by Mr. Chamberlain in his Kojiki, 1520.
Exterior, next his younger sister the Deity Oh-Awful-Lady (or

Oh-Venerable-Lady); next the Diety the Male-who-Invites, next
his younger sister the Deity the Female-Who-Invites.
III. Hereupon all the Heavenly Deities commanded the two
Deities, His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites and Her August
ness the Female-Who-Invites, ordering them to make, consoli
date, and give birth to this drifting land. Granting to them an
heavenly jeweled spear, they thus deigned to charge them. So
the two Deities, standing upon the Floating Bridge of Heaven,
pushed down the jeweled spear and stirred with it, whereupon,
when they had stirred the brine till it went curdle-curdle, and drew
(the spear) up, the brine that dripped down from the end of the
spear was piled up and became an island. This is the island of
Onogaro.
IV. Having descended from Heaven on to this island, they
saw to the erection of an heavenly august pillar, they saw to the
erection of a ball of eight fathoms. . . . Their first child they
placed in a boat of reeds, and let it float away. Next they gave
birth to the Island of Aha. This likewise is not reckoned among
their children.
Resort to divination showed that failure had arisen from the
woman speaking first. On improvement in this respect, the Jap
anese primitive pair gave birth to the various islands constituting
Japan, which, the native commentators explain, have grown enor
mously since birth. Izanami (to use the familiar Japanese name
instead of F-Q-I) then similarly bears to Izanagi certain deities
presiding over various spheres of nature, the last of whom, the
Fire-Deity, occasions her death in parturition. Izanagi slays the
offender, and visits his wife in Hades. While Izanagi washes
himself from the pollution thus incurred, numerous deities arise
from the articles of clothing he throws down and from the parts
of the river he visits, but especially three from certain bodily
members, namely, Amaterasu-O-Mi-Kami, Heaven-Shining
Great-August-Deity, from his left eye (the left is the more honor
able throughout the Far-Orient); Tsuki-Yomi-no-Kami, His
Augustness Moon-Night-Possessor, from his right eye, and Taka
Haya-Susano-no-Mikoto from his nose. The third deity whose
long name is usually abbreviated to Susano, Impetuous Male,
was expelled by his father, whereupon he rushed up to Heaven
and quarreled violently with his sister Amaterasu, who then re
tired, as every Japanese child knows, into the Heavenly-Rock
Dwelling and thus threw the Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains
%
into darkness. The eight hundred myriad kami combine to
induce her to reappear, and then oust Susano, who descends again
to Japan at the province of Izumo where he has various adven
tures. His rule over Izumo descends through six generations to
the famous O-Kuni-Nushi, Great-Land-Master. This person,
after various adventures, which are reserved for analysis later,
is visited by several deputations from Amaterasu to demand his
abdication in favor of her scion Ni-Nigi-No-Mikoto, known in
the rituals as the Sovereign Grandchild, who finally descends
from Heaven, not as one expects, to Izumo, but to Kyushu, a large
island some two hundred miles south of Okuninushi's home. He
brings with him from Heaven the jewels, mirror and sword that
have since then constituted the Japanese regalia, and is accompa
nied by the leading actors in the enticement of Amaterasu from
the Rock-Dwelling. Now, what the leading actors did to draw
forth the Sun-goddess was just to perform certain religious cere
monies; and at this important juncture of the descent from Hea
ven they are individually identified as ancestors of the several
priestly families of Japan, notably the Nakatomi and Imibe, while
the imperial line is traced to Amaterasu herself. The estab
lishment of this ancestry in nature-deities and their ceremonial
attendants of the imperial and sacerdotal families, obviously fur
nished the principle for the selection and rectification of myths
and legends, which, as the Japanese preface (of equal date with
the body of the work) explains, formed the Kojiki. Hereby the
Kyushu oval faced tribe showed its descent from the supreme and
worthy Amaterasu and her companions, while the Izumo pudding
faces were traced to the inferior and rebellious Susano, though
ultimately both could therefore trace ascent to the primitive pair,
Izanagi and Izanami. Here, then, as so often elsewhere, the con
quered race asserts itself in the resultant composite. In fact, a
majority of the legends deal with deities of the conquered, while
down to the present day, though Amaterasu occupies the first
place, the second and third are filled by Susano and Okuninushi,
both deities of the Izumo tribe.
From this point, Yamato Province, whither the conquerors had
advanced from Kyushu, under the lead of the famous Jimmu
Tenno, accounted by Japanese their first human sovereign, forms
the scene of the drama, though the Izumo Deity, Okuninushi, now
called the Great-Deity-of-Miwa, figures largely in the cult, and
even becomes supposititious father of the maiden whom Jimmu
1 Kojiki, 9.
makes his chief empress. The mythical element now decreases,

and legend gradually passes into annals which can be confirmed
from Chinese sources until the Kojiki ends with the fifth cen
tury, A. D.
It is worth while to notice how, in contrast with the coalescence,
both in blood and culture, of these two kindred Mongolian tribes,
the Izumo and Kyushu, the Ainus, belonging to quite another
race, whose ethnology is yet unsettled, have left as little influence
upon Shinto faith as they have upon Japanese blood.
The Rituals, though recorded in print no earlier than 927 A.D.,
must have their composition referred to the same times as the
Kojiki, say within the first five centuries A. D. Such, then, is
the thread on which are strung the various myths and legends of
the deities we have now to interpret.
None of the deities mentioned in I. and II. (cf. pp. 4, 5),
except the last couple, are known to Japanese folk-lore, but the
first, the Lord-in-the-Very-Centre-of-Heaven, has recently become
interesting to the specialist because Professor K. T. Kume, of the
Imperial University, Tokyo, has attempted to show his identity
with Tien, Heaven, of the Chinese." An examination of Pro
fessor Kume's article, which probably embodies all ascertainable
data in favor of his view, shows that his thesis is not proved.
This negative conclusion is, however, by no means useless, for it
proves an important difference between Shinto and the ancient
religion of China, which, added to the many others that are forth
coming, is decisive against the attempt to assimilate Shinto as a
whole with it, and therefore favors its inclusion in the Turko
Tartar group.
Another Japanese student of Shinto, Professor T. Matsu
yama, would construe the second and third deities as simply the
Master-of-Heaven under the aspect of producer or creator, and
translates the second sentence of I., These three deities were one
and invisible. He then argues that this grand truth gradually
grew fainter, while at the same time ancestral and nature gods
were introduced. Thus the title Amaterasu was first bestowed
on a princess as a laudatory epithet, and only later mistaken for
the sun. This mixture of the traditional theory of the rise of
ethnic religions from a primitive single revelation with Spencer
ian animism, which I gather from his lectures in Japanese, is
equally discernible in Mr. Matsuyama's contribution to the Par
* Shikai for January, 1892, Tokyo, suppressed soon after publication from
Politico-religious reasons.
liament of Religions (pp. 13703), where almost every sentence

embodies an error. In strong contrast with it stands the correct
account of Shinto by one of its priests on pp. 1374-5 of the same
work.
A similar account of Shinto, though here allowed to be re
formed, was presented at the Parliament by the Rt. Rev. R.
Shibata, whose lady admirers went so far as to kiss him, from
respect for his truly exalted views. As Saint Xavier was preach
ing far and wide in Japan ten years before the founding of the
sect to which Mr. Shibata belongs, it is not unlikely that its inno
vations were suggested by Christian monotheism rather than by
the Spirit of Mount Fuji.
Mr. Satow's more scientific method gives the following results:
The central place in Japanese mythology is taken by the sun.
Legend makes this goddess the daughter of Izanagi, but this
genealogy reverses the order of the generation of the myth. In
the Kojiki the three original deities who existed before all things
are called Lord-in-the-very-Centre-of-Heaven, the Lofty-Pro
ducer, and the Divine-Producer, besides whom we find men
tioned in the ritual of the Praying for Harvest three other
creator-deities named, Vivifying-Producer, Fulfilling-Pro
ducer, and Soul-Lodging-Producer; and even then this list
of producers is not exhausted. The most natural explanation
of these numerous names is that they were originally synonymous
epithets of the sun, denoting the various aspects under which it
was contemplated as working benefits for the human race, and
this supposition is confirmed by the mention in several places of a
deity entitled From-Heaven-Shining-Producer, who is mani
festly the sun. Lord-in-the-very-Centre-of-Heaven is an ex
tremely apt epithet for the great luminary, probably chosen after
it had been recognized as an object of adoration. Sometimes the
Divine Producer and the Lofty Producer are spoken of
together as the progenitor and the progenitrix of the Mikado,
while on other occasions the From-Heaven-Shining-Great-Deity
is substituted for the Divine Producer, and in one place the
Sun-Goddess is called both progenitor and progenitrix. There
were a few temples sacred to the Lofty Producer, and a great
many dedicated to the Sun; and while there is nothing surprising
in the fact of several temples being dedicated to the Sun-God
under different titles, from the non-existence of temples of the
1 Parliament of Religions, pp. 4515.
* Westminster Review, July, 1878.
Lord-in-the-Very-Centre-of-Heaven, the Divine-Producer.

and others, it would be perfectly reasonable to infer that these
were not originally separate deities.
This theory of the origin of the remarkable triad that heads
the Shinto pantheon is probably the best that the very scanty data
afford, but something may well be added both on the triad and on
its successors. Though the titles of the two Producers in our
triad are ambiguous as to sex, an ancient identification of them as
Progenitor and Progenitrix of the Mikado" plainly implies their
nature as a sexual pair. This fact easily suggests a derivation of
the triad from the well-known Chinese one, the taiki, yang, and
yin ; but while the preface to the Kojiki, made by Yasumaro,
the selecter of its contents, shows that he was informed at least
on the yang-yin, he identifies it, not with the two Producers of
our triad, but with the last couple of this deity-series, Izanagi and
Izanami, while he speaks of our triad simply as the Three Dei
ties.
Another negative conclusion results from a promising com
parison of the Heavenly - Eternally-Standing-Deity and the
Earthly-Eternally-Standing-Deity with the Chinese Tien and
Heutheu; for while Heutheu (Earth) is feminine in China
and universally in myth, the Earthly-Deity is masculine in
Japan. It was probably as Earth-god that he was worshiped at
Gekusan in Ise, where the Food Goddess has since displaced
him.
The four pairs preceding Izanagi and Izanami are so transpar
ently fictions that even the orthodox native commentator, Hirata,"
considers them merely names descriptive of the various stages
through which Izanagi and Izanami passed before arriving at
perfection. In the parallel passage of the Nihongi, the Earthly
Deity" makes the beginning and is followed by others wholly dif
ferent, with one exception, from those introduced in the Kojiki,
while other ancient authorities give yet other variations.
The occurrence of a triad is curious and, in the absence of more
specific ground, it is worth while to note that it belongs with the
odd five mentioned at the end of I., and with the odd seven at
the end of II. As the favorite Shinto numbers are certainly
* Trans. A. S. J., v. 7, part 2, p. 114.
* Sacred Books of the East, xvi. 375.
* Kojiki, 11.
* Handbook for Japan, Third Ed. p. 248.
* Trans. A. S. J., v. 3; Appendix, p. 58.
the even ones, four, six, and especially eight, the myth-maker
may herein have sought to further distinguish his philosophically
grounded deities from their home-made successors. In any case
no pregnant notion should be sought in this triad. -
The ideal scheme of the series is apparent. The native cos

mologist had, not the Heaven-Shining-Deity only, as Mr.
Satow supposes, but Izanagi and Izanami, who are obviously cases
of genuine folk-lore and current to-day everywhere in Japan, as
the primitive pair, for a starting point, and worked backward with
increasing abstractness. Thus Izanagi and his sister-wife (after
the fashion of the Incas and Pharaohs), procreate children, while
the four preceding pairs simply succeed each other, and the seven
deities preceding them are single only. The statement made of
these seven deities that they were born alone and hid their
bodies means were single (not married) and invisible. In
spite of Mr. Chamberlain's excellent judgment he seems to have
tripped in his interpretation (note 7 in loco) came into existence
without procreation . . . and died. Hirata translates as given
by us above. Notice that became alone is predicated of all
those unaccompanied by a sister-wife, but of no others. When
Izanami, likewise a heavenly deity, dies, she is said to retire,
not to hide her body.
But, if I. and II. show plain marks of invention and compo
sition at the hands of the nobleman Yasumaro, and have, with
their deities, since that time remained unknown to the com
monalty, on the other hand, III. and IV. introduce veritable
folk-lore. The complete absence of any attempt by students of
Shinto to interpret these two curious sections has probably arisen
from failure to connect them with a certain stone cult widely
spread in Japan, but resembling these two sections in that their
common lot heretofore has been relegation to the category of the
obscene. As the stone cult belongs to the phallic type, well
recognized by all students of primitive culture as a widespread
cult, it will be best to let archeology here plain and unambigu
ous illustrate our obscure text. We write archeology, but,
indeed, the symbols, though green with lichens, still enjoy the cult
of the folk." -
The next great deity met with in the Kojiki after Izanagi and
Izanami is Amaterasu-O-Mi-Kami, Heaven-Shining-Great-Au
gust-Deity, the supreme deity of the Shinto pantheon, whose
* The import of these symbols may be understood by reference to Phallicism
in Japan, by E. Buckley, University of Chicago Press.
name, function in mythic story, and cult combine to demonstrate

her origin in sun-myth. Thus, she sprang from the eye of her
nature-father, Izanagi; eternal night prevails when she retires
into her rock dwelling; the cock that crows in the morn is her
attending animal; the mirror with eight (semi-cardinal) points is
her symbol; she is induced to restore light by a ceremony per
formed by other gods according to the counsel of the eight hun
dred myriad deities: she held the sovereign right to transfer the
rule over Japan from the Izumo to the Kyushu chieftain, and is
still worshiped from the summit of Mount Fuji by thousands of
pilgrims who make the toilsome ascent to greet Amaterasu-O-Mi
Kami as she begins day for the world upon the Land-of-the
Rising-Sun."
This obvious mythical nature is quite confirmed by the relation
of Amaterasu to her brother Susano, the Rain-Storm God, as will
be seen presently, yet the Japanese euhemerist is not wanting.
Thus, early in the last century Hakuseki made great use of the
ambiguity in the word kami to show that the gods were originally
but men. In the present century Moribe, though an orthodox
Shintoist, decided that some of the (so to speak) uselessly
miraculous incidents need not be believed in as revealed truth,
but were childlike words. Similarly Mr. Takahashi Goro, a con
temporary writer, supposes the existence of a queen called Sun,
and so forth. This is a useful hypothesis for those who believe
man incapable of personifying nature, except by the aid of a
ghost.
Mr. Satow, while allowing the independent nature of Shinto
sun-cult, would account for the connection of the imperial line
with it by means of a verbal error. Hiko and hime, ancient
titles usually translated Prince and Princess, mean literally sun
(or fire) male and sun (or fire) female. The use of these lauda
tory epithets led in time to the belief that the monarch was really
of the sun-race, especially as kami meant both chief and deity.
The sex of the sun was fixed by the fact that the first remembered
ancestor of the Mikado was a distinguished woman. Against
this view, however, the following considerations hold good. Ama
terasu belongs to myth, and must, therefore, have had sex from
the very outset, for myth involves personification, and that in
turn sex. Hiko and Hime may just as well have been effect as
cause of the identification of chieftain with chief deity, and this
Kojiki, pp. 4258, 93-113.
* Kojiki, Introduction, p. 11.
process of identification is so natural that its ground may be

better sought in logic than in verbal error. It is doubtful whether
even the barbarians' fancy identified simply and absolutely a
flesh and blood ancestor with the sun. Amaterasu secures issue
only so far as it is her jewel that Susano transforms into a man.
In Shinto myth the drama of the sun is worked out in connection,
not with the moon Tsuki-Yomi, who is mentioned only to be
dropped but with the Rain-Storm God, Susaho, whose charac
ter will be considered next. As the noisy and violent rain-storm
is undoubtedly male, the quiet and calm sun would in contrast be
female, somewhat as in the nursery tale current with us where
the wind and sun compete in making a traveler take off his coat,
and the sun wins by the female trait of gentleness. Indeed a
woman is compared to the sun by the Tartars of South Siberia,
who moreover actually describe the sun as silvern and female,
while the moon is golden and male, precisely as in Shinto."
These comparisons seem quite inappropriate to us who speak
of the silver queen of night, but the fact is that sun and moon
play a rle in myth varied with the zone where the myth-makers
live, as may be abundantly seen in Mr. Tylor's very interesting
account where it appears that many peoples besides our Tartars
regard the sun as feminine and the moon as masculine. The
parallel with the Tartars is the more important for us because
the Tartars belong to the same Mongolian race, and probably even
to the same Ural-Altaic branch of it as do the Japanese, while
the classic Chinese, who make the sun and moon respectively mas
culine and feminine, though nearer geographically are remoter
ethnically. It is possible that where, as among the Japanese, the
sun is not only female but chief, the reason lies in an original
matriarchate, an indication of which may be found in the Japan
ese ancient custom allowing children of the same father, but not
of the same mother, to intermarry. It is only much later in the
stream of Japanese legend that we meet with a Chinese importa
tion, the sun-bird with three legs (with difficulty identified only
recently by Mr. Aston), while yet later the legend of Yamato
Take, which bears some resemblance to sun-myth, is again genu
inely Japanese."
* Proben der Volksliteratur der Trkischen Stmme Sd-Siberiens, ii., pp.
203, 480, 484.
* Primitive Culture, ii., pp. 286, 287, 291, 299, where the rationale is given.
* Trans. A. S. J., v. xxii., part I., 3133.
* Kojiki, pp. lxvii. and 205220.
If Amaterasu occupies the first place in the Shinto pantheon,

the second and third belong to her brother Susano and his de
scendant of the sixth generation, Okuninushi. No student of
Shinto known to the writer has attempted an interpretation of
these deities, though their general mythical nature has been occa
sionally noticed. Yet, if Amaterasu be plainly interpretable in
sun-myth, Susano, who stands in immediate connection with her,
should be equally interpretable. The following traits indeed
indicate that he represents the rain-storm. His name means
Impetuous Male. He was born as Izanagi washed his august
nose, that nose wherein is the breath. The Chinese version of
the myth indeed states that the breath of Pan-ku was transmuted
into the wind." He abandons his appointment to rule over the
sea-plain, i. e., the rain-storm blows up in the southwest mon
soon from over the sea. His weeping dries up all the rivers
and seas, an apparent contradiction and a standing puzzle to the
Japanese commentators, but plain enough, when the rains flood
the country and hide the boundaries of rivers and lakesa thing
of annual occurrence in Japan. He mounts with great noise
heavenwards to the great terror of his sister, Amaterasu, and
devastates the country, whereupon Amaterasu retires into a cave
and thus plunges the land into eternal night. In nature-fact,
the rain-storm rises from the horizon with thunder, obscures the
sun, and spoils the carefully terraced and irrigated rice-fields of
Japan. Another episode of the same struggle describes certain
Torrent Princesses born from Susano's sword, while Gods of
Luck, of Heaven, and of Life arise from Amaterasu's jewels;
i. e., waterfalls notably increase after rain, and nature smiles when
the sun reappears. For his misconduct Susano is expelled, where
upon he kills the Food-Goddess, from whom then spring the
various cereals, and then in Izumo he kills the serpent with red
eyes, bloody belly, and eight heads and tails, by first making him
drink wine from eight vats arranged upon a platform; i. e., rain
destroys the planted seed from which can then grow the new
crops, and extinguishes fire, for which purpose it is to this day
stored in tubs placed along the house ridge (the platform of the
myth). From the tail of this serpent Susano extracts the mar
velous Herb-Quelling-Great-Sword, famed in subsequent story;
* Meyer's Chinese Reader's Manual, p. 174. This myth was not classic
Chinese, and therefore probably folk-lore of the aborigines that the Chinese
found in Eastern Asia, whence its similarity to the Shinto may be cognate and
not derivative either way. .
i.e., the steel sword is forged in the fire. When he began to

build the palace of Suga, Pure, clouds rose up thence; i.e.,
clouds encompass the elevations where tarns form, and here the
Impetuous-Male at last rests in peace, for in the usage of the
Kojiki the erection of a palace closes the career of a hero.
Those familiar with the frequent obscurities, fragmentariness,
and even contradictions of many undoubted myths, will grant
that so clear and continuous a parallelism can have arisen only in
mythopoeic fancy, and not in any incidental correspondences with
heroic history. Moreover, the facts have not been selected, but
are all that are recorded of Susano. A comparison with the
Vedic meteorologic myth will both confirm this mythic interpre
tation of Susano, and also show how the hue and form of myths
vary with climatic conditions. Japan suffers from floods, never
from drought, and sees lightning usually not more than once in a
year. Per contra, India suffers from drought, rarely, I believe,
from floods, while thunderstorms are frequent and terrific. Hence
the Japanese myth makes Susano devastate, while the Indian
myth makes Indra bless the land, and that by striking with his
bolt the Vritra that withholds the desired rain.
The following specifications from the Kojiki account of Okuni
nushi will plainly show that his origin lay in moon-myth." He
has eighty brethren (stars) with whom he competes for the hand
of a princess, and wins her by the help of a hare (a world-wide
mythologic companion of the moon) that he had benefited. The
eighty deities, enraged at this, roll a red hot stone upon him and
thus kill him. (Sunrise conceals the moon.) Hereupon Prin
cess Cockle-Shell and Princess Clam restore him to life. (The
Chinese also connect shellfish with the moon, probably through
the tides, which were very early associated with the moon, though
the correct reason was of course not known.") Okuni thus be
comes a beautiful young man, and wanders off, only to be again
caught and tortured by insertion into the cleft of a tree which on
withdrawal of the wedge crushes him to death. (Phases of the
moon.) Again restored to life, he visits the Nether-Distant
Land, whence he is pursued by a deity so far as the Even
Pass-of-Hades. (New moon appears once more on the horizon.)
He then slays his eighty brethren. (Stars fade when the moon
Kojiki, pp. 68105.
* Meyer's Chinese Readers' Manual, p. 288. Huish, Japan and its Art,
p. 131.
* Les Ftes annuelles Emoui. De Groot, p. 128.
appears.) Throughout his course he carries on amours, marrying

in all eight women. (So ever with the inconstant moon. )
Finally Amaterasu requires him to abdicate in favor of her scion.
(Sunrise conceals the moon.)
It is this last trait that fitted the Moon-God of the Izumo tribe
to represent it, probably through identification with its historic
chief Okuninushi, who abdicated in favor of a historic Ninigi,
in the mythical scheme of the Kojiki, which, of course, had to
express the views of the conquering Kyushu tribe that traced its
chief's ancestry to Amaterasu. The first to state the general truth
of some reflection of legendary fact in the Kojiki at this point
was P. Kempermann, and all serious students have since his
time one way or other concurred. But while mythical consistency
would require that the Kyushu heaven-born chief descend upon
Izumo, the legend is faithful enough to fact to represent him as
descending upon Kyushu, whence indeed the legend goes on to
relate his scions advanced eastwards, ever conquering. The legend
navely adds that Kyushu is opposite to the land of Kara,
which so far, therefore, corresponded to the heaven of the myth.
Besides all the other evidence (cf. p. 3) pointing to Korea as
the continental point of departure for the Japanese emigrants,
and therefore as identical with the heaven of the myth, there is
an odd bit of direct evidence for the synonomy of Korea and
Heaven in the shape of the two animals, identical in appearance
and function, in that they guard, one on either side, the entrance
gates of Shinto shrines, but which bear the names Koma-inu,
Korean-dog, and Ama-inu, Heaven-dog. These are obvi
ously congeners of the tigers found at the gates of Chinese tem
ples and yamen, whose function is to scare away evil spirits.
As tigers were never known in Japan, the sculptor degenerated
his form until the folk could recognize in it only their familiar
dog.
As sole condition of his abdication Okuninushi had specified
that he must be provided with a great temple, and this is still
represented by the famous shrine called Izumo O Yashiro, Great
Temple of Izumo, the second holiest shrine in Japan. Hither
some quarter of a million pilgrims annually wend their way from
all quarters of Japan; the sound of their hands clapped to call
the attention of the deity is often strong and unbroken as that of
* Tylor's Primitive Culture, i. 355.
* Mittheilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft Ostasiens, Jan., 1874.
* Les Fetes annuelles Emoui. De Groot, p. 608.
a cataract. This is because, though the scion of Amaterasu as
sumed the outward sovereignty of Japan, the realm of the In
visible was granted to Okuninushi. This Invisible connotes,
not the underworld or future world (which in the primitive Shinto
world-view are not places of judgment), but means properly the
present day world of thought and secret action, in other words,
just what escapes the observation of the earthly ruler and his civil
servants." The tutelary gods of every province in Japan must
resort to the O Yashiro every October hence called everywhere,
except in Izumo, the godless month there to report upon
the condition of each individual's soul. Okuninushi rewards and
punishes by means of the natural good and evil that happen to
men. Thus, e.g., the birth of a child should be thankfully rec
ognized in the temple of his agent the tutelary god. On the other
hand, the sending of a pestilence and the dumbness of a royal
prince were both attributed to him, and the ground for their in
flictions turned out to be ceremonial offense. The occasional
association of Okuninushi with the underworld and future world
must be regarded as a later invention under the influence of Bud
dhism.
The son of this Okuninushi, by name Koto-shiro-nushi, Events
Symbol-Lord, a title given in reference to his abdication with his
father, though of much less importance than any of the deities
already described, is yet accounted a great god, and as such is
figured on the kakemono, or scroll-picture of the twelve chief
deities, sold in the vicinity of the Izumo O Yashiro. If we now
add the name of Sukuna-hiko (probably an ancestral deity, for
whom cf. p. 22), we shall have named all the deities figured there
in the following order:
Ama no mi naka nushi,
Lord in the very centre of heaven.
Kami musubi, Taka mi musubi,
Divine producer. Lofty august producer.
Izanami, Female who invites. Izanagi, Male who invites.
Amaterasu,
Heaven shiner.
Susano, Impetuous male. Tsuki Yomi, Moon night possessor.
Okuninushi,
Great country ruler.
1 The Great Temple of Izumo, a Japanese work by Baron Sengi, high priest
of the Izumo Temple.
* Trans. A. S. J. vol. iii., Appendix, p. 77.
* Kojiki, pp. 175, 193. -
Koto shiro nushi, Events symbol Lord. Sukuna hiko, Small Prince.
Saruta hiko,
Monkey field Prince.
All these twelve except the first triad and Tsuki-Yomi are hon
ored by temples more or less numerous. In contrast with this
Izumo scroll, we find the largest one obtainable in the vicinity of
the Ise Shrine to Amaterasu contains figures of the following
deities:
Amaterasu.
Izanami. Izanagi.
Toyouke-bime.
Kasuga. Hachiman.
Saruta-hiko.
Notice here the absence of Susano and Okuninushi with his

son, the great rivals of Amaterasu and her scion Ninigi; and at
the same time the introduction of three new deities, all of whom
are closely associated with Amaterasu and the imperial line.
The chief of these three is Toyo-uke-bime, Abundant-Food
Lady, the goddess of food, usually represented with a sheaf
of rice in her arms, since rice is the staple food of the Japan
ese. Her other names, Ukemochi and Ogetsu, have the same
meaning as Toyouke. Such a deity would in any case be of
great importance, but she became yet greater by the removal
of her temple 478 A.D. to the neighborhood of the great Ama
terasu's Shrine in Ise Province. She is a thorough nature-deity,
since, besides her name and sphere, she is represented in the
Kojiki as slain by Susano, the rain god, after which she can pro
duce the various cereals from her bodily members. A ritual for
Luck Wishing of the Palace invokes Yabune-Toyouke, House
Abundant-Food, without obvious significance, unless an alterna
tive meaning of Toyouke, viz., Abundant Support, be taken, in
which case she could, as Earth Deity, support the palace founda
tion." If so, we should have a ready explanation for what is other
wise quite unaccountable, namely, the association with Toyouke
of the fox, which burrows in the earth, as also for the square
ness of Toyouke's temple fence, square being female in Chinese
symbolism. Perhaps in Japan, as in China, the very various
functions of earth were later divided among more special deities;
for besides Yabune Toyouke we find other deities derived from
Toyouke, such as Kukunochi, the producer of all trees, and Kay
* So Mr. Satow in Trans. A. S. J., vol. ix. Part II. p. 210.
* Les Ftes, etc., De Groot, p. 153.
anu Hime, the parent of all grasses. The silkworm and even cattle
were likewise produced from her slain body, all of which deriva
tives point to an original earth wounded by agriculture. There is
no doubt about the notion of division of functions of a deity, for
Shinto writers recognize all such derivatives as Waki-no-tama,
Parted Spirits. It should be noticed that the choice by
Amaterasu (as revealed by her in vision) of Toyouke as neighbor
at the Ise Shrines harmonizes with the unerotic relations of Ama
terasu with Susano and Tsukiyomi. Another lack in data about
this deity consists of the ignorance as to the nature of her symbol
or seat in her temple at Ise, though that of Amaterasu, her neigh
bor, is well known to be a mirror.
The great shrine to this goddess at Inari, near Kyoto, has im
parted its name to the deity it honors in accord with a common
practice in Japan of naming persons or gods after the place where
they reside. In consequence the deity to whom are devoted the
thousands of tiny wayside shrines in Japan is called Inari Sama
after their model at Inari. Furthermore, since the attendant
animal of Toyouke, the fox, invariably flanks the entrance to her
shrine, though ever so small, the farmer has exaggerated associa
tion into identity, and considers that Inari is the fox. Thus we
find transformation from Earth through Food and Inari to Fox
Deity, truly a remarkable series.
Thus much, then, for the great nature deities of Shinto as re
corded in the Kojiki, its most reliable archive of theogony. But a
millennium of ordinary wear and tear, the manipulations of Bud
dhist priestly ingenuity (shown in the sect of Ryobu), and espe
cially the graftings of hero and ancestor cult have hidden from
the Japanese folk the original nature of all except Amaterasu,
whose sun-clear character could hardly be mistaken. This process
is exemplified, as we have just seen, in the Earth-Deity. The
Moon-Deity becomes, on the subjugation of his tribe, a Nemesis
or Providence, and this notion would doubtless have become a
dominant moral force had not imported religion arrested natural
development. Still later the same deity becomes a Ruler of the
Dead, though Buddhism overshadows this notion also. Again,
Susano, though demonstrably a Rain-Storm god in origin, is no
longer recognized as such even by the learned among the rest that
throng his temples scattered throughout the land. For all these
Susano is a wholly historic person, hero of a hundred exploits,
and ancestor of Okuninushi believed to have been simply ruler
* Trans. A. S. J., vol. iii. Appendix, p. 75.
of Izumi. Thus Shinto well illustrates that law of increasing

anthropomorphism which ends by nearly concealing the nature
origin of great deities. There is, however, no case in Japan of
a historic person supplanting a nature-deity (unless Okuninushi
furnish such a case), as has so often happened in the neighboring
China." No doubt even Amaterasu has gained added lustre as
ancestress of the line imperial unbroken for a hundred and twenty
generations. Kompira San has come into the Shinto (but only
the Ryobu sect) pantheon from no one knows where. His great
shrine in Shikoku is a place of immense resort especially for
sailors, whose votive ships, in thanksgiving for deliverance from
the storm, crowd an extensive hall called ema do, such as is often
provided for votives in picture or model.
It must by no means be supposed that the above series has
exhausted the tale of Shinto nature-deities, which is, indeed, of
indefinite limits, as the number usually assigned, eighty myri
ads, sufficiently shows. Though many of these are not known to
have been actors in mythic drama, their names sufficiently indi
cate their mythic nature. Thus in the Harvest Ritual we read
of Blessing-Well, Powerful-Rock-Gate, Country Vivifier, Takechi
Farm, and Asuka Mountain. In other rituals and records we
read of Gods of the Wind, of Pestilence, of Rivers, and of Fire.
The cult of this last is still represented by a festival in November
when slight fires of straw probably only a remnant of the ori
ginal blaze are lit in the temple courts. At the same date
Hettsui-no-Kami, Goddess of the Kitchen Range, is celebrated
in the households. A drill is still used for kindling fire to cook
the offerings at the shrines of Ise and Izumo. The Taoist cult of
the Fire, wherein at the Spring Festival priests and people walk
the fire with bared feet, has in Japan developed into a test of
purity, its original significance as a solar symbol being quite for
gotten. At the great shrine of Susano, in Kyoto, numerous
braziers burn through the New Year's Eve, at which thousands of
people kindle a bit of rope with which to convey the new fire to
the household shrines and hearths.
A remarkable case of personification is involved in the ritual
for Yabune-no-Mikoto, Abode Augustness, which is simply the
royal palace. Indeed, all other things whatsoever which possess
powers of an extraordinary and eminent character are called
* Les Ftes etc., De Groot, pp. 360, 680, and many other places.
* Les Fates, etc., De Groot, p. 134.
* Occult Japan, P. Lowell, pp. 4762.
kami, superiors, or, as the word is usually translated into Eng

lish, deities. Lastly, we should notice that kami may be evil.
Let us hear Hirata again. Eminent does not mean solely
worthy of honor, good, or distinguished by great deeds, but is
applied also to the kami who are to be dreaded on account of
their evil character or miraculous nature. Thus, the dragon,
goblins, fox, tiger, and wolf are all kami. Motoori tells us, fur
ther, that whenever anything goes wrong in the world it is to
be attributed to the action of the evil gods, whose power is so
great that the sun goddess and the creator god are sometimes
unable to restrain them. The people prayed to the good gods
in order to obtain blessings, and performed rites in honor of the
bad gods in order to avert their displeasure. Both Hirata and
Motoori, however, are modern expositors and apologists for Shinto
in competition with Buddhism and Confucianism. As for the
Kojiki (p. 41), it recognizes only evil deities in general who are
offset by certain rectifying deities, but neither class is heard of
more than once. No one individual bad deity is ever mentioned,
and misfortunes are traced to one or other of the great gods, e.g.,
the Great Deity of Miwa, or the Wind Gods. Least of all is
there any organization of evil deities or any arch-demon. Nor is
there any ritual for evil deities in the Yengishiki; and very few
charms are issued in the names of evil gods, such as those from
the Pestilence God, and from the Small Pox God.
Ancestral deities cannot be better introduced than in the words
of Motoori. Amongst human beings who are at the same time
kami are to be classed the successive Mikados, who in the Man
yefu-shifu and other ancient poetry are called distant gods on
account of their being far removed from ordinary men, as well as
many other men, some who are revered as kami by the whole
empire, and those whose sphere is limited to a single province,
department, village or family. These various classes may be
most conveniently noticed in reverse order.
Ancestor cult has passed through as many changes and is as
obscure in history as the nature-cult we have just considered.
Thus the household ancestor cult has passed into the hands of
Buddhism, the tablets, averaging 8x3 inches in size and following
the Chinese pattern, being found always in the Butsudan Buddha
shelf, and not upon the kami-dana kami-shelf. The revivers
of pure Shinto would purge Japanese homes of these Buddhist
* Trans. A. S. J., vol. iii., Appendix, p. 42, quoted from Hirata.
* Trans. A. S. J., vol. iii., Appendix, p. 43.
corruptions, but meanwhile they mostly continue to carry the

day, for the masses are comprehensively Shinto, Buddhist, and
Confucian. Every morning some member or even servant
of the family must present a first small portion of the freshly
cooked rice, and on anniversaries of the death-day a full variety
of foods, including those known to be favorites of the deceased.
This household cult of an ancestor is discontinued after a hundred
years, because, as some say, the deceased is then born again, or,
as others, he then becomes a kami, but both these notions are of
Buddhist origin, and the real ground is no doubt the inevitable
weakening of regard as distance increases, combined with the
practical inconvenience of accumulated tablets and services.
Each district honors an uji-gami, family-god, the nature and
origin of which are variously explained. This local or tutelary
deity is the agent of Okuninushi, and to him, therefore, the new
born is presented for adoption as an uji-ko, family child, while
the traveler from home will secure a paper charm from the same
source. Festivals for the dead, tamamatsuri, soul festivals,
used to be held at fixed times, when all the people laid offerings
of flowers, edibles, and wine upon the graves. This developed
into an annual observance at the rice harvest, when the first
fruits were offered to the ancestral manes, and this practice con
tinues in a modified form until the present." Like the household
ancestor cult, the annual festival of the dead, known to foreigners
as the Feast of Lanterns, but properly to be called All Souls
Day, has fallen into the hands of Buddhism. The spirits of
dead ancestors are believed at this time, July 1316, to visit the
household altar, and special offerings of food are made to them,
while the living eat sparsely. In the rural districts the festival
is celebrated by a dance. Note in contrast herewith how, in
China, ancestor cult has maintained itself quite independently of
Buddhism, and at the same time in stronger force than in Japan.
Indeed, so far as I know, no literary remains or cult-survival
affords evidence for the existence of household ancestor cult pre
vious to the introduction of Buddhism. The presumption, how
ever, is strongly in favor of its existence.
All cases of the deification of eminent men, that is, of hero
worship, which have happened since the advent of Buddhism
have likewise fallen into its hands, mostly under the sect known
as Ryobu. Thus with the great minister and scholar Michizane,
whose death, A. D. 903, during an unjust banishment, was fol
* Trans. A. S. J., vol. xix., part 3.
lowed by many portents. Apotheosized as Tenjin Sama, Heaven

Spirit-Lord, he is now adored as God of Calligraphy, a very
important art in the Far-Orient, and equivalent to letters, for
which accordingly there is no god in Japan as there is in China.
His temple at Kitano, a suburb of Kyoto, has the largest income
but one of the three thousand shrines in that city sacred to
Buddhism. Hachiman San, the apotheosis of the Emperor Ojin
300 A. D. as God of War, in which character he is figured
on the Ise kakemono, and Toshogu, the apotheosis of the great
Shogun Iyeyasu 17th century A. D. are likewise adored in
temples belonging to Ryobu Shinto, Two-faced Shinto, one
looking towards Shinto, the other towards Buddhism. Kompira
San, noticed above, was also in charge of this sect, which at
the revolution in 1868 was deprived of its spoils in favor of
the revived pure Shinto. The present reign has witnessed the
apotheosis, now of course a la pure Shinto, of several eminent
persons, among whom is notable the scholar Motoori, a shrine to
whom stands at his birthplace near Tsu. Sukuna-hiko, The
Little Prince, of sufficient importance to be figured among the
chief twelve deities on the Izumo scroll, and to be honored by
several temples, is yet relatively small in significance and of very
obscure origin. The account of him given in the Kojiki is best
interpretedso among others by Professor Kume euhemeris
tically, and it is probable that he brought with him the elements
of Chinese medicine, for he passes as God of Medicine, and is
figured as an old man bearing a pot in his hand. If so, he must
be counted among the earliest cases of hero-worship, and of course
previous to the introduction of Buddhism.
The ancestral gods of a single family may, under favorable
conditions, become objects of a national cult. Thus Kasuga San,
figured on the Ise scroll as an old man riding a deer, really rep
resents four deities one a goddess, the ancestral gods of a
certain priest who in 767 A. D. built them a shrine, and whose
descendants, on becoming powerful, raised their family god with
them. Kasuga is simply the name of the place where the shrine
stands, become a name for the god (cf. p. 18) about whose indi
viduality the folk entertain no doubt.
But the highest effect is produced where the cult of powerful
ancestors and that of great nature-deities combine forces. This
has happened notably in two cases, just those connected with the
great shrines, Naiku San in Ise and O Yashiro in Izumo, which
* Trans. A. S. J. vol. vii. part 4, p. 394.
stand respectively first and second in point of sacredness and pop

ularity in Shinto, even as Mecca and Jerusalem do in Islam, the
latter shrine in both cases being that of the conquered but related
people. At Naiku San, Inner Temple, is carried on in great
state the cult of Amaterasu O Kami, considered ancestress of the
Sovereign Grandchild's Augustness, Ninigi no Mikoto, that
descended from Heaven (i.e., Korea) to Japan and founded the
imperial line that rules Japan to-day. Small wonder then that
the Mikado previous to the revolution in 1868 was considered too
holy to leave the palace and set foot upon common ground, that
his title still in common parlance is Tenshi Sama, Heaven-Son
Lord, and that at death he is supposed to become a kami. Second,
but like unto this, is the union of the Moon-God with the Ruler of
the Izumo tribe. The name Okuninushi, Great-Country-Ruler,
fits moon or chieftain equally well, and his descendant of the
seventy-sixth generation, the present high priest of the Izumo
OYashiro, used until recently to be styled Ikigami, Living God.
The very courteous reception and the kind exhibition of the numer
ous and valuable temple treasures afforded me by this nobleman
for his present style is Baron Sengi confirmed my opinion,
otherwise easily demonstrable, that Shinto deities have never
been of the jealous and bloodthirsty kind sometimes met else
where.
While the ancestral tablet, brought by Buddhism from China,
is in exclusive use in the household ancestral cult which has been
appropriated by Buddhism, the means used in the temple ances
tor cult of Shinto to represent the ancestor is, not a tablet (as it
is in Buddhist temples in Japan and in all temples in China), but
some personal belonging of the deceased, especially a sword, if a
male, and a mirror, if a female. These and similar articles are
called tamashiro, spirit-substitute, or kanzane, god-seed."
Such an article is the proper representative of the deity wor
shiped at any particular temple, and is kept carefully secluded
from view in the remotest chamber of the temple, while overt pur
poses are answered by a gohei or wand with pendent paper strips.
There can be no doubt that this concept is animistic, in that the
spirit of the deceased is held to be really present in the shrine, as
appears perhaps still more plainly from the practice of often pla
cing a pillow in the shrine with the express purpose of signify
ing the deity's presence, while the purpose also of the recently
revived Shinto funeral is to retain the spirit of the deceased in
- * Trans. A. S. J., vol. ii. p. 119.
the tamaya, spirit-house, which is to be kept in the home for

ancestral worship. Evidently the spirit was considered to be
attached one way or other to the object it had once used. Thus
the Kojiki (109) represents Amaterasu as saying to Ninigi be
fore his descent from Heaven, Regard this mirror exactly as
if it were our august spirit, and worship it as in our presence.
Yet only confusion is made by calling this notion fetishism which
has a very different connotation, distinguished in particular from
this before us by not involving ancestor cult. The deity is com
monly supposed to reside in an idol also, but idolatry must not
therefore be classed as a variety of fetishism. The ground of the
Shinto notion is plainly the belief in the continued existence of
the soul after death somewhere or other, to which the association
of ideas adds the notion, here by his personal belonging. To the
same order of ideas belongs the popular practice of depositing
a doll or toy of a child in the Tai-shi-do of the great Buddhist
Temple, Tennoji at Osaka, after which, on the ringing of the
Indo-no-kane, Bell of Leading, the prince-saint Shotoku-Taishi
leads the soul of the child into Paradise. The same ideas sur
vive in degree in the Buddhist or Roman or Greek Christian
who reveres relics of the saints, and in the mother who treasures
up toys and clothing of the dear departed, while fetishism finds
its modern descendant in the lucky-stone of the boy or boor.
On the other hand Kempermann quite mistakes the sources of
this relic-worship when he regards it as an evidence for die
Tiefe ihres Gefhls und ihrer wrdigen Auffassung des Wesens
der Gottheit." The Shinto notion of the nature of deity was
quite conformed to the barbarian type, and the absence of idola
try probably dependent on the fact that naturism borrowed its
temple properties from ancestor cult, or, in other words, that
ancestor cult was grafted on to nature cult before art had enabled
the latter to fashion its deities in conformity with their nature
attributes.
Ancestor cult appears very plainly, of course, in the funeral
rites of Shinto. Here we can give only fragmentary items about
the archaic usage, for during the last twelve centuries the priests
of eschatologic Buddhism have conducted all funerals, even those
of Shinto priests, just as they have also controlled those other two
services for the dead, the household ancestor cult and the annual
All Souls Festival, Shinto being prevailingly cosmologic and
earthly. The following data are gathered from the article on
* Mittheilungen., etc. Jan., 1874, p. 32.
Japanese Funeral Rites, by Mr. A. H. Fay of the British Lega

tion." Burial was, so far as is known, the most ancient mode of
disposing of the dead. Various ceremonies were observed on
the occasion of a death. The body was deposited in a moya, or
mourning-house, and left there until the preparations for perma
nent interment were completed. Obsequies were performed for
seven or eight days and nights, for which period also food and
drink, fruit and favorite dainties were placed as oblations in the
moya, and a fire, niwabi, was kept lighted in front of the same
Music was played, slow measures danced, the praises of the dead:
chanted and much weeping and wailing done. The purpose of
the music was to induce the spirit to return to the body. The
funeral procession consisted of a bearer of the food - offerings,
broom-bearers, cooks, rice-pounders, hired mourners, lantern
bearers, a survival from times when the burial was effected by
night, assistants and the bereaved relatives. In the rear came
men bearing flags blue, red and white in color, and lastly musi
cians. The primitive grave was a shallow hole filled up to the
extent of a small mound which developed into the tumulus. The
head was placed towards the north (whence the living in Japan
will not sleep in that position). Earthenware articles alone have
been found in mounds of the earliest period; stone ornaments,
metal rings, coins, etc., in the later mounds. The custom of mak
ing a hitogaki, man-fence, round the mound was abandoned
about 1 B. C. in favor of the humaner use of clay images of
men.
Since the revolution in 1868, the Shinto funeral rite has been
restablished, and Mr. Fay gives an interesting account of its
various parts as resuscitated or constructed anew by Shinto schol
ars. Of burials in a recent year 526,000 were in accordance with
the Buddhist rite, 225,000 with the Shinto, and 3,000 with the
Christian.
1 Trans. A. S. J. vol. xix. part 3.
**
CONT ENT S.
Dedication - - - -
Preface - - - -
Introduction:
Bibliography on Phallicism in Japan -
Bibliography on Shinto - -
Bibliography on Phallicism -
Museums of Shinto Cultus Implements
Museums of Phallic Cultus Implements
I. Phallicism in Japan
I. Temples - - -
-
|
IO
II. Symbols - - - -
I4
III. Festivals - - -
IQ
IV. Rituals - - - -
22
V. Phallicism in the Kojiki -

22
II. Creed of Phallicism - - -
26
III. Place of Phallicism in the Evolution of Religion 30
IV. Does Phallicism belong to Shinto? - 32

V. Suggestions for Further Research 33
DEDICATION .
Respectfully dedicated as an expression of highest esteem to

Emil G. Hirsch, Ph.D., Professor of Rabbinical Literature and
Philosophy in the University of Chicago and Rabbi in the Sinai
Congregation, Chicago, that profound scholar and ever ready
patron of liberal learning, without whose generous aid in the
Emil G. Hirsch fellowship, this thesis could not have been
written.
PR E FA C E .
This thesis is meant for a study in Shinto, while a work com

plete at least in outline will be published so soon as oppor
tunity offers.
The circumscription in the circulation of an academic mono
graph renders admissible a detail and frankness in the treatment
of phallicism which would be inadmissible in work destined for
the general public. Should any general reader happen upon
this article and find it unduly stimulating his lower sensibility,
he may thereby judge his distance from the scientific purpose of
the writer, and will do better in passing the article to fitter
hands. Finally let me say that in breaking such new ground as
is here done, errors both of commission and omission must occur,
and these should meet with prompt correction at the hands of
the many scholars in Japan who are best fitted to the task.
INTRODUCTION.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON PHALLICISM IN JAPAN.
On this topic no book of course is to be expected, but there

is moreover no monograph, article, or chapter, and but four
stray references to the topic as such in any of the very numerous
works treating of Japan, or of Shinto, its native faith, which I
have been able, after visiting libraries in many capitals, to con
sult. These four references are a description of a phallic festival
by Dresser, a single sentence by Dr. J. J. Rein, a footnote by
Rev. W. E. Griffis, D.D., and a brief paragraph in the Hand
book to Japan. Each will be quoted in its proper place.
Neither in accounts of Shinto is any mention made of phal
licism, nor in the accounts of phallicism given in special works
to be described lateris any reference made to Japan. The
encyclopaedias of course reflect this omission of the special works.
Thus Meyer's Conversations Lexicon sub Phallos states that
phallicism extended from India to the shores of the Nile and
Ionian Sea, no doubt ignorant of the cult of Inyoseki in Japan,
as of Fricco among the Teutons.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON SHINTO).
The authorities referred to in this work are Transactions of

*he Asiatic Society of /apan, Vols. I.-XXI. ; /apan, Kaempfer in
Pinkerton's Voyages, Vol. 7; /apan, Caron in the same; /apan,
S. S. Rein; /apan, Dresser; Mikado's Empire, W. E. Grif
fis; Manners and Customs of the /apanese, Humbert; Hand
book for /apan, Chamberlain and Mason; Mythology and Reli.
gious Worship of the Ancient /apanese, Satow in Westminster
Review for July, 1878; /apaneseEnglish Dictionary, Hepburn;
Anyseki, Hirata no Kuro Tane, being selections from the
Aoshiden of Hirata Atsutane; AVotes on the Ancient Stone Imple
ments of /apan, T. Kanda, Tokyo. The only articles on Shinto
at once original and, at least in outline, complete are the three
following which are named in their time order:
5
Mittheilungen ber die Kamielehre, by P. Kempermann in
Mittheilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft fr Natur und Volker
kunde Ostasiens, January, 1874.
Mythology and Religious Worship of the Ancient /apanese, by
E. Satow in Westminster Review for July, 1878.
Introduction to the Kojiki, by B. H. Chamberlain in Transac
tions of the Asiatic Society of /apan. Supplement to Vol. X., 1882.
It is noteworthy that each of these correct and learned treatises
altogether overlooks the phallic cult which is undoubtedly extant
in Japan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON PHALLICISM.
Though the range of this article is limited to Japan, the gen

eral subject of phallicism is so little known even to those
likely to meet this paper that a specification of some general
sources will probably prove acceptable. It is a matter for regret
that treatises on comparative religion omit all recognition of
phallicism as a general phase of religion. Of such may be noted:
Primitive Culture, E. B. Tylor, 1871; Introduction to the
Science of Religion, F. Max Mller, 1882; Prologomena of the
History of Aeligions, A. Reville, 1884; Ecclesiastical Institutions,
H. Spencer, 1885; Religionsgeschichte, C. Saussaye, 1887; Myth,
Aitual and Religion, A. Lang, 1887; Science of Religions, E. Bur
nouf, 1888; AVatural Religion, F. M. Mller, 1888; Physical
Religion, F. M. Mller, 1890; Anthropological Religion, F. M.
Mller, 1891.
We venture to draw special attention to the last but one, which
in treating nature-worship should have included phallicism. But
while it treats abundantly of fire, it makes no mention of the
phallos, or linga as it is called in India, to which country all Mr.
Mller's treatises are confined. Yet while the traveler in that
country sees little or nothing of fire-cult, he sees hundreds of linga,
the whole number being estimated at nothing less than thirty
millions !
Saussaye's classic of course mentions phallicism in its historic

sections, but no due recognition is made of phallicism in the top
ical treatment of the subject entitled Phenomenologischer Theil.
Strangely enough, the immense Encyclopaedia Britannica has no
article on our topic, but the American and International Encyclo
6
paedias, and the German Conversations Lexicons give correct
general statements of it. An excellent account of Indian phalli
cism appears in the Hinduism and Brahmanism of Sir M. Wil
liams (cf. index sub linga), and in his Buddhism, p. 372. For
the wider Aryan field consult Mythology of the Aryan Nations, by
Sir G. W. Cox, though the details here advanced are still under
discussion. It is not too much to say that all the works hitherto
devoted exclusively to phallicism are unreliable. In fact the rule
seems to be, as stated to me by Dr. Reid of the British Museum,
that so soon as one begins to study phallicism he goes crazy.
The writers of these special works on phallicism are all amateurs
a plurality being medical doctorsand most of them are
warped by an anti-Christian bias. They represent the reaction
inevitable on the general neglect of the topic by those theologians,
philosophers and anthropologists who have for one reason or
another ignored a phase of religion, as natural as it was in fact
general, if not quite universal. The chief of these special works
are :
A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, by R. P. Knight, to

which is added An Essay on the Worship of the Generative Pow
ers during the Middle Ages of Western Europe, Anon., London,
1865. The starring of this work in Sonnenscheins Best Books
must be taken strictly in relation to such other works as exist,
and not as a sign of satisfactoriness, which in fact it does not
possess.
Ancient Paiths embodied in Ancient AVames. T. Inman, M.D.
This is a work of Dr. Reid's crazy kind, full of false etymologies
and identifications, and intensely doctrinaire and anti-Christian.
Its lexical form affords excellent opportunity for the repetition
in which it abounds through the 792 pp. of Vol. I., and the 1028
pp. of Vol. II. The uncritical nature of the whole may be
inferred from the author's caution that where statements in the
later portion of the work differ from those in the earlier, the
later must be considered correct | Such books will continue to
entrap the unwary until accredited writers deal with the topic in
its rightful place. Yet Inman demonstrates some survivals in
Christianity which its accredited teachers find it convenient to
hush up. Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism. Same
7
author. The statement in Sonnenschein that this work will suf
fice for acquaintance with the author's views I cannot confirm.

Wholesale condemnation of such works are usually as falsely
motived as the works themselves. -
Rivers of Life. Forlong. 1883. The experience of this

writer throughout a long residence in various parts of India as
military engineer makes him an authority on rarely known facts,
but his neglect to specify names of places and persons lends the
whole an untrustworthy air, and damages it as proof. In the six
chapters into which his 548 folio pages are divided, no analysis,
progress or order whatsoever is discernible.
Tree and Serpent Worship. J. Fergusson, 1873. This is the
Fergusson of archaeological and architectural fame and the star
ring of his work in Sonnenschein is well deserved by his extensive
acquaintance with the phallic phenomena of India.
Monumens du Cu//e Secre/ des /)ames Romaines. A. Capre,
1874. These are chiefly reproductions of gems engraved by Greek
artists at Rome about the time of Augustus, and exhibit in great
beauty and detail the phallic sacrifices and processions of their own
and preceding ages. Particularly one on Plate 50, representing a
phallic procession carved on cornelian, about 2 by 1 inches is, so far
as I know, after searching museums around the world, a unique
monument of that once familiar rite. It comprises besides the
phallos which is borne in triumph under a canopy, a gigantic
kteis (pudenda muliebria), a bull, a goat, and numerous musi
cians.
I met the above works, among others, in the British Museum,

most of them in the reserve shelves, to which only special stu
dents are allowed access.
MUSEUMS.
1) Of Shinto Cultus Implements. The only museums outside

Tokyo where I have seen or heard of Shinto cultus implements
are the Leyden Museum, the Muse Guimet in Paris, and the
Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford. The last two make no preten
sion to completeness, and indeed both are conspicuously incom
plete. Phalloi from Japan these museums have none, nor had
their curators learned that such objects were found there. Of the
Leyden Museum I unfortunately know nothing in detail,
8
2) Of Phallie Cultus Implements. The implements of the
phallic cult where possessed at all are mostly withdrawn to secret
cabinets, except where so conventional as to run no danger of
scandalizing the prude and the prudent or of pleasing the pru
rient and the vile. Only in the Naples Museum is any notice
given of the existence of such cabinet, or is admittance granted
the general public. In all other museums examination is granted
only on request and that for scientific purposes. An eminent
American anthropologist, known to me, visited the British
Museum armed with full credentials to the curator of the religious
section, and was allowed to leave without information that a
phallic collection originally valued by R. P. Knight at 50,000
was preserved there. It is such precautionsnecessary in some
degree in behalf of present-day moralitythat have made possi
ble that garbling of history, philosophy, comparative religion, and
theology that at present misleads the majority of even the highly
educated. But true science knows no sex, and those who cannot
forget the latter should eschew the former. Altars, reliefs, neck
laces, gems, but especially Greek and Roman vases form the most
likely places for phallic monumentsexcept of course phalloi
themselves, and generally stand mixed with other objects quite
safe from the observation of the average museum visitor.
Living Authorities on Phallicism in /apan. Though I found
no one in Europe or America aware of the presence of phallicism
in Japan, I never found an old resident in Japan ignorant of it.
It is evidently high time that some mediation be made between
these two parties, and such will be the purpose of the present
thesis.
I. PHALLICISM IN JAPAN.
Phallicism forms an integral part of nature worship, and as

such will, if normal, possess a cult and a creed, though the
latter may be in part or even entirely implied, and can then be
elicited only by questions put to the devotees. The content of
its religious consciousness may then be compared with absolute
religion, and finally it may be tested for conduct. These four
spheres of religious activity suggest a convenient scheme for tab
ulating data, and will now be considered in the order named.
The phallic cult, that is worship or ceremony, requires a con
sideration of temples, symbols, festivals, and rituals.
I. Temples.Such phallic temples include (1) the fully equip
ped miya or temple with resident priest or priests; (2) the
smaller miya with only occasional services; (3) the mere sheds
protecting from the rain, rows of phalloi; and, (4) a mere fence
or boundary, while the phallos stands in the open. To the
first class belongs a miya at Kasashima, fifteen miles south of
Sendai, said to have been founded about 250 B.C. by Yamato
Takeru No Mikoto. The deity worshiped is Saruta Hiko No
Mikoto, of whom more later. In the service of this famous temple
were once fifteen resident priests with their families and houses.
To the same first class belongs a miya at Makiborimura in
Iwade Ken. The deities here are Izanagi, Izanami, and Saruta
Hiko, which three are associated with Konsei Dai Myojin
Root of Life Great Shining God.
To the second class belongs the shrine at Kande, eight miles
inland from Akashi near Kobe, locally called Dai Seki Miya, or
Ra no Seki MiyaGreat Stone Shrine, or Penis Stone Shrine.
Its seclusion in the country has saved its gigantic phallos from
the iconoclastic zeal of the reformer to bless the eyes of the
archaeologist. I hope the moss-grown pillar deity I found here
may yet be granted a place of honor in some museum when the
rising sun of an exacter science and a nobler faith has enlight
IQ
ened the simple, honest country folk who now trust in him for
various daily needs. This miya is about ten feet square, hung
with native pictures, furnished with altar and goheisymbol of
divinity, and provided back and front with a wooden grating
through which the four feet high phallos may be seen standing
behind the miya within an oblong stone fence, but unsheltered
save by the bamboo forest around. The ground inside this fence
is thickly covered with shells, of which more later. Some score
yards from the shrine and phallos stands a kteis, formed in this
instance by a natural collocation of three rocks, the whole being
some five feet high, and requiring so much imagination to con
strue into a kteis that I doubt not the time will come when the
closet philosopher will deny they were ever so considered. Any
doubts that such a rough pile of rocks was really worshipped
would have been soon dispelled by the tiny native paper flags
bearing the legend, Osame tatematsuru, respectfully dedicated,
which had been stuck into the ground before the symbol. The
local names for this interesting pair are for the phallos Okko
San, for the kteis Mekko San, which are names given by the Ainus
the dwellers in the land before the Mongol invasion to the
hill on which the two now stand and a neighboring hill similar
in size and shape, on which the phallos formerly stood. Local
tradition preserves the fact, and the /apan Mail of August 22,
1891, p. 224, refers to Oakkan and Meakkan as names given two
neighboring hills in Yezo where the Ainus are still extant.
Of the third, the mere shed class, I found a good specimen
in a shrine to the phallos as Konsei on the Konsei Pass above
Lake Yumoto near Nikko. That this shrine dates back to the
first possession of the land appears certain from the impartation
of its name to the pass on which it stands. It may turn out that
Okko and Mekko are also names of the pudenda, and originally
gave their names to the hills on which they once stood. I got
track of this shrine from that model Handbook for /apan (third
edition) issued by B. H. Chamberlain and W. B. Mason, two of
the foremost scholars in Japan. Their brief note runs thus:
Tradition says that the original object of reverence was made
of gold, but that having been stolen, it was afterwards replaced
by one of stone. Ex-votos, chiefly wood and stone emblems, are
i. i.
often presented at the shrine. Very little is known about the
origin of phallic worship in Japan, although it appears to have
been at one time nearly universal in the country districts,
especially those of the north and east. This brief statement is
the only general one that has yet appeared on the subject, and
no doubt summed up general knowledge on it three years ago.
It was to be corrected in the forthcoming edition. The shrine
consists of a wooden shed some four feet square with a low shelf
running round three sides on which stand some dozen phalloi
of various sizes in stone and wood. Hard by stands a large
stone lantern. On the shrine appears the name and address of
a Tokyo hotel company specially catering to pilgrims, and at
whose expense the shrine had probably been restored.
Another shrine of this class stands at Yamada outside the
northwest corner of the famous Naiku San the Ise shrine to
Amaterasu, the Heaven-Shiner, regent of the Shinto pantheon,

and between two temples, one to Oho-yama-tsu-mi-no-kami
the Deity-Great-Mountain-Possessor, and the other to his
daughter Ko-no-hana-saku-ya-hime, Princess-Blossoming-Bril
liantly-Like-the-Flowers-of-the-Trees, who presides over Mount
Fuji. The shrine frames a typical phallos and kteis side by side,
though scores of native miniature torii (wooden gateway to tem
ple) ever pile over and hide these antique dual deities from the
careless observer. These torii had been removed for the occasion
when the photograph found at the frontispiece of this work was
taken. At the neighboring temple of the Ko-no-hana-saku
ya-hime native phalloi and ktenes are brought or taken by
persons desiring children, spouse, or healing of diseases of the
generative system. An erotic story is related of this deity, Kojiki
115; and her sister /wa-naga-hime, Enduring as the-Rocks,
presiding over Mount Oyama, is symbolized by a large stone in
the shrine at its summit and there worshiped by the harlots
from Tokyo. This stone should be examined to learn whether
it be a kteis or simply symbolic of the deity's name as explained
in a legend or myth, Kojiki 1 16.
To this class probably belonged the cases mentioned in the Mika
do's Empire 33: I have noticed the prevalence of these shrines
and symbols, especially in eastern and northern Japan, having
I2
counted as many as a dozen, and this by the roadside, in a trip
to Nikko. The barren of both sexes worship them, or offer them
ex-voto. In Sagami, Kadzusa, and even in Tokyo itself, they were
visible as late as 1874, cut in stone and wood. The road here
referred to from Tokyo to Nikko is about 100 miles long, and
three-fourths of it is part of one of the chief highways in Japan.
Of the last class, where the temple reduces to its original
notion of a separated space in the open, there are naturally many
cases of so primitive a cult. Such I infer from the remains was
the now dismantled platform at Nikko, the stone phalloi having
been all dumped below an adjacent Buddhist temple where
they now lie in response to the remonstrance of the then
American minister, on the ground that the place was one of great
summer resort for foreign families.
I transfer from a sheet published by Myase Sadao, and
extracted by him from the Koshiden (Ancient History) of the
famous Japanese historian and archaeologist Hirata Atsutane, the
following cases. All belong to the last-named class or a
subdivision of it yet to be mentioned :
Phallos in the open at Kotakamura, in Katorigori, province
of Shimosa.
Ditto at Otamura, Inabagori, Shimosa.

Ditto at Ishigimura, Mishimagori, Echigo.
Ditto at Shibuimura, Nishi Kasaigori, Musashi,
Phallos with kteis beside it at Matsuzawamura, Katorigori,
Shimosa. Both like to drink wine, and hence are called Sake
nomi ishi, Wine drinking stones. The worshiper presents wine
which they absorb very quickly. More than 250 years ago the
kteis departed to the next village, and in consequence no mar
riage could be contracted between the people of the two villages.
Sixty-two years ago the stone returned.
Lastly come an interesting sub-group, standing in the open
hut distinguished by being naturally of sexual shape. Whether
art of man has assisted groping nature, or the artist has embel
lished his sketch, I cannot judge. Certainly any such stones
would not fail to attract the attention of primitive man and sug
gest or confirm that sexual philosophy of life which meets the
student of primitive culture in every part of the world.
I3
First comes an entire island, though of course a very small
one, of height greater than breadth and bearing on its crown
some dozen trees. It lies northeast of Awaji and is named
Onokorojima, Spontaneously congeled island, or Eshima,
Placenta island, about which more later.
Next comes a natural phallos some twenty feet high and a
kteis of proportionate size, about two-thirds of a mile apart, on
Inushima in Bizen.
Last on this sheet of Hiratas is a natural phallos and kteis

placed suitably for the inception of coition. Some one did
injury to the rock and was destroyed, and all his house.
This is simply the list of a single observer and enquirer, and
needs the complementation that can easily be given when once
attention is called to the importance of the subject as a legiti
mate branch of nature worship, and one of the normal manifes
tations of religious thought in its search for some clue to that
Absolute Ruler of Nature that the deepest thinkers still declare
unsearchable.
Last in this strange story come two groups, each of four

immense natural phalloi 15200 feet high, situated in the court
of a Buddhist temple called Reiganji, near Kuroki in the province
of Chikugo.
II. Symbols.Next let us consider phallic symbols, and here I
cannot do other than describes the phallic part of my own col
lection of Shinto cultus implements now on exhibition in the
Walker Museum of the University of Chicago."
PHALLOI.
1. Natural water-worn phallos of stone with a nodule forming

the glaus penis. Highly prized by former owner as the phallos
of a deity. Cn. 22 x 10. From one of the very numerous brothels
at Yamada, where stands the famous shrine to the Sun Goddess.
2. Natural water-worn phallos, the ridge of the glaus being
formed of a harder stratum, 9.5 x 4.8. From temple at Mizusawa.
3. Like No. 2 in all respects but size which is 7.1 x 2.3. From
Mizusawa.
4. Natural Phallos but so little like its original that only its
*All measurements are given in centimeters.
I4
source from a phallic temple would induce an unpracticed for
eigner to credit that it was ever considered one. From phallic
shrine at Yamada. -
5. Phallos cut from volcanic stone, well executed and new,

20 x Io. From shrine on the Konsei Pass.
6. Phallos of baked clay, blackened by age. Realistic,

22 x 7. From brothel at Yamada, where it stood on the Kami
dana God-shelf, for occasional worship when an inmate had
obtained a good fee.
7. Phallos of cast iron, 9.1 x 3.2. From Mizusawa.
8. Phallos of wood, 17 x 4. From Mizusawa.
9. Another, 1.9 x 4.
Io. Another, stained pink, 22 x 6.
11. Phallos used in pairs as amulet for boys. Octagonal
shaft surmounted with octagonal pyramid, stained in pink, scarlet
and green. A string passing through central and vertical hole
serves to suspend over child's shoulder. From Mizusawa.
12. Phallos of clay, gilded and painted to represent the
shime-nawa or sacred rope, 3.5 x 1.5. From earthenware store
opposite the Inari shrine.
13. Phallos-glaus, forming head of a seated man in ceremonial
costume. Clay, with impressed and colored garments, 6.5 x 5.5.
Old, from dealer in Miyajima. A remarkable case of personifi
cation.
14. A Priapus, phallos enormous and colored bright red.

Clay, 4.5 x 3.5. From Inari store.
15. Phallos in shape of enormous mushroom, borne on a wom
an's back. Painted clay, 7 x 2.5. From Inarestore. A toy, cf. No. 17.
16. Phallos in shape of a wood obelisk, being a votive for
easy parturition, 12 x 6. From a shrine at Nikko.
17. A nest of five objects carved in wood and gaily painted,
as follows: a, Fukusuke. A man in old Japanese style beckon
ing with his left hand. Common in stores to insure success in
trade. Compare Robin Goodfellow. 14 x 10. b. Otafuku. A
woman of the fat type of beauty. Function similar to above,
both are known to every Japanese child, 9 x 5. c. Phallos painted
red with sacred rope round, 6 x 4. d. Phallos painted yellow,
with rope, 4 x 2.5 e. Hoshi-no-tama Jewel of Omnipotence.
I5
An onion-shaped object of Buddhist origin, 2 x 2, cf. p. 29.
From a store in Nikko near the site of a demolished phallic
shrine and meant for use as a toy. The associates of the phallos
in this group plainly show that it has here sunk from the rank of
a god receiving worship to that of a more or less efficient sign of
good luck, much as the horseshoe, cornucopia and slipper all
probably symbols of the kteis are still used in England. This
use was exceedingly common in Japan until about twenty years
ago, the toy shops, earthenware shops, and hawkers being well
supplied with them. (Mikado's Empire, W. E. Griffis, 33.)
KTENES.
18. Natural water-worn kteis, being a flat piece of slate with

irregular periphery some 4.5 in diameter, and having a water-worn
aperture near the center. From Mizusawa.
19. Natural kteis of quartz with deep indentation near centre,
but not water-worn. Irregular, 4 x 2.5. From Yamada shrine.
20. Sea ear shell, Latin Hallotis tuberculata, Japanese Awabi.
Bears name of donor to the Kande shrine. The living shellfish
is so suggestive of the kteis that Japanese women often use its
name in that sense. From Kande shrine.
21. Cowry shell, Latin Cypraea porcel/ana, Japanese Taka

ragai, treasure shell. Presented at temples by barren women,
3.5 x 2.5. From Yamada store.
MISCELLANEOUS.
22. Bamboo grass rings interlinked to symbolize coition, but

precise use not learned. From Mizusawa.
23. Votive picture on wood from the phallic shrine at Kande,
representing a tiger which symbolizes the month in which the
donor was born, 32 x 25.
24. Votive picture on wood representing a horse, from the
phallic shrine at Yamada, 6 x 4. For meaning cf. p. 29.
25. Akaza no tsue. Canes of the thorny shrub Chenopodium
album, from Mizusawa. These are used to set up round the
house lot to preserve boundary lines. This combination of
phallic and boundary ideas by a temple dedicated to Sarutahiko,
whose ephithet here is Dosofin Way-beginning God, which
may refer to his function (Kojiki, section 33) as guide, easily sug
I6
gests the same triple combination in Hermes. Other evidence
for identity between the phallos and the road-god appears in Mr.
Satow's article in the Westminster Review. Was the phallic cane
placed in the field to render it fertile, then made to serve also as
boundary mark, and finally to preside over the roads which would
naturally often adjoin boundaries 2
26. Peach made in candy and sold to children by hawkers at
certain festivals as a symbol of the kteis, for which it appears its
cleft adapts it. So the apricot is used in India. From Kyato.
27. Ginseng, Chinese Genseng, Japanese Minjin. The best is
grown in Corea. Price varies with degree of the root's resemb
lance to the human form, which in some cases is remarkable.
The best specimens fetch three dollars each for use in medicine
where it passes for a panacea. It is the mandrake of Genesis 30,
but not the plant wrongly so named in the United States.
CHARMS.
Of all cultus implements paper charms are by far the most

numerous in Japan, no house being without some dozen. Among
the various kinds is the phallic.
28. Charm guaranteeing easy birth bearing the name of
Konsei. Cf. p 18, 11 x 5.
29. Charm bearing the inscription An-san-marmori, Easy
birth-charm. The paper is folded into a triangular shape and
contains a natural equilateral triangular black stone, 16 x 8.
This shape is unique among all the ten thousand charms in
Japan and can be accounted for in no way except its resemblance
to the pudenda viewed externally, which, as seen, e.g., in statues,
is just that of this talismanic stone taken base uppermost. The
color is also thus alone accounted for. Of the same color is the
famous Diana of the Ephesians now in the Naples Museum.
Her numerous breasts, and the erotic symbolism on her robe all
indicate the sexual idea. From Sumiyoshi temple.
p
30. Charm bearing the inscription Honorable-God-offering,'

and containing rice and seaweed, the broth from which must be
drunk by a barren woman. 20 x 12. From Sumiyoshi temple.
31. Charm bearing the inscription Seed-lend-temple-divine
ticket. 16 x 5. From Sumiyoshi temple.
17
32. Charm bearing the inscription Sh ichi i Konsei dai myo
in Zai hatsu. True first rank, root life, great shining deity, great
charm. Right and left of this central text stand the words
Good for all diseases below the belt. Life will be long. Good
for woman when rearing child. Mother and child will be
healthy. Inside this envelope is a slip bearing the inscription
Ho sai. Saruta hiko. /zanagi. Izanami. Chinza. Harai tamae
Kiyome de Zamae. Offering, purification. Saruta hiko. Izanagi.
Izanami. Seat (of worship). Grant to clear away and clean.
The introduction into this charm of Izanagi and Izanami
will become clear on reading the section, Phallacism in the
Kajiki. Saruta hiko finds mention here, I believe, owing to an
extension or misunderstanding of Saruta's original function as
guide to Ninigi no Mikoto when descending from heaven,
Kojiki, 1078. His consequent title michi moto, road origin,
has been taken in the sense of life-origin, while he has been said
to have been born spontaneously. All the data known to me
indicate that his true place is in a lightning myth.
This charm is water-stained in consequence of its having been
consigned in a box together with many like it to a neighboring
pool on suppression of the cult some twenty years ago. When
iconoclastic zeal had somewhat abated, the box was fished up, and
its owner courteously presented this precious relic of a well nigh
extinct cult to a zealous collector of cultus implements. The
supreme interests of science should protect the giver from any dis
agreeable consequences that might be inflicted by those about
him now ashamed of the cult. The very high rank, next that of
the Mikado himself, here assigned Konsei shows the high con
sideration the cult could receive. The presence of a phallos today
in the garden of a samuraithe old military and literary class
well known to me, though long ignored by the noble family, affords
additional proof that the cult was not limited to the lower class.
33. Charm bearing the inscription Konsei, great shining
god. Easy birth god charm. From temple at Mizusawa.
Before leaving this topic a caution on the danger of confusing
phalloi with other stone monuments, of which there are in Japan
as elsewhere several kinds, may not be wasted. Not every stand
ing stone or log longer than it is thick is a phallos, though some
18
90 per cent. of phalloi are included in that definition, the
remainder lying horizontal or pendant but in either case then
accompanied by the scrotum. One needs first of course to learn
the history, use, and any inscription on the stone, and then
frequently discovers that the stone is a wayside gravestone, a
boundary stone, a sign post guiding to a place of pilgrimage, a
weather-worn Mure-butsu an unsheltered image of one of the
Buddhasor some memorial stone, perhaps, of an extinct tree,
perhaps of an execution ground. These specifications all find
examples in Japan, and might be mistaken by the tyro anxious to
find spoil. Per contra the phalloi now extant and the product of
handicraft in Japan are unmistakable by reason of their realism,
though those produced by nature need a practiced imagination.
III. Phallic Festivals.Every temple in Japan besides celebrat
ing the great national festivals makes one in honor of the
deity to which itself is specially dedicated. In 1892 I visited
the Kande shrine a second time on such an occasion held
there on the 18th day of the 3d month, old style, which cor
responds to a varying date in our March. The date of the
festival at the phallic shrine at Morioka varies from this by only
a day, and both plainly concur with the Springtide festivals of all
peoples. Tylor's Prim. Culture II., 297. This festival presented
no features other than those usual on such occasions. A Shinto
priest came from a distance for the occasion and presented in the
little shrine the usual offerings of rice cake, fruit, etc., accom
panying them with prayers. Men, women and children from the
country side came and departed after making the little offering
and brief prayer, and purchasing refreshment at the temporary
stalls hard by. The neighboring kteis received no offerings
though most of the worshipers visited it also. The conduct of
all was irreproachable, and the bearing quite unembarrassed, for
their errand was the honest one of entreating sexual health and
family increase from that deity whose attributes best fitted him to
grant them. Here is an account of a more questionable phallic
procession as given by Dresser, pp. 1979: At the next village
(en route from Tokyo to Nikko, where Griffis saw the dozen
phalloi) which we reached a great Shinto festival was being held.
Thousands of people were laughing and shouting and following
I9
an enormous car, something like that of Jaganath in India. On
this car is a platform surrounded by a low railing, while in the
center rises a mast thirty or forty feet high from the top of which
fly the cut papers which symbolize the Shinto religion (gohei are
meant), while around its lower portion a tent of red and white
cloth is suspended from a hoop. On the platform are musicians
making rude music with gongs and fifes, and a masked actor,
whose actions would not be tolerated in England. The staff of
this actor is unmistakably phallic. He appears alternately as a
man and womanchanging his dress in the tent of which we
have spoken. It seems that, since foreigners have been permitted
to enter the country, such ceremonies have been shorn of many
of their characteristics, symbols have been reduced in number,
while the processions themselves are now but of rare occurrence.
(This was written in 1882. The restriction referred to resulted
from the first Japanese embassy to Europe in 1872.)
I have learned orally from an old resident in Japan of a pro
cession similar to this, where the center of interest was an
enormous phallos carried in appropriate position by a man.
The magnificent procession described by Humbert on pp.
3223 of his Manners and Customs of the /apanese as taking place
in Tokyo in 1863 was not properly phallic, though it included some
suspicious objects, such as a model lobster, buffalo, and monkey,
and seven prostitutes majestically attired in state costumes.
The following festival may easily be a survival of a thoroughly
phallic one, and affords evidence for a sexual symbolism that
strikes the modern mind as very strange. It is held in the court
of a Buddhist temple, which probably adopted and modified the
originally coarser rites. Young men and women meet at this
Gwanzandaishi temple located half way up Mount Hiyei, amidst
a vast forest traversed only by footpaths, in the month of August
of an evening, and spend the entire night in a peculiar dance,
where forming promiscuously in lines they work their way through
the crowds of elder and younger people with a simultaneous
swing of the arms, meanwhile singing a composition, which after
expressing sympathy with a certain criminal Gorobei by name,
in his examination before the stern judge, proceeds to the erotic
effusion of a young woman, from which I cull the symbolic part:
20
With what words shall I compose my love letter? With those
belonging to birds, or fishes, or vegetables? Yes, Yes, as I am
a greengrocer, I will use the names of vegetables. After several
vegetable metaphors and puns suited to expressing her passion,
she continues, Would you like to taste the first fruit of the long
bean P If not, would you not try to break the hairless peach P
Oh quick Ego sum cupidus coiendi tecum.
Lastly, here is a neat piece of sexual metaphor which speaks
volumes for the familiarity in the primitive times, from which the
Manyefushifu where it occurs dates, with such symbols. White
shells seem to be a synonym for hairless peach. Generally of
course in the Orient the kteis is figured or described as black,
while the phallas is colored red, if at all. It is necessary briefly
to premise that the piece refers to a method of divination called
Tsujiura Road-divining where the person planted a stick in
the road, made offerings to it and besought an answer:
When I went out
and stood in the road,
and asked the evening oracle
when he would come back
who went over the sweetheart's mount
and the lover's mount,
saying that he would
pick up the awabi shells
which come ashore
in the Region of Woods,
the evening oracle said to me:
Sweetheart |
he for whom you wait
is searching for
the white shells which
come near on the waves
of the offing, the white shells
which the shore waves
bring near.
He does not come,
he picks them up.
If he be long,
'twill be but seven days,
if he be quick,
'twill be but two days.
He has heard you.
Do not yearn,
my Sweetheart!'"
Trans. As. Soc., Vol. 7, p. 427
21
IV. Rituals.No fixed ritual for the phallos is known to me.
Certainly none is contained in the list of the Yengishiki, the
official collection of rituals made 927 A.D. (Trans. As. Soc.
Vol. 7, prt. 2, pages 103-4.) The content of the impromptu
prayers made in this case is always request for some good in
connection with generation, e.g., the charm from Makibori bears
guarantees of easy birth, health of mother and child, cure of dis
eases of the generative organs, and long life. Inquiries from
worshipers elicit similar ideas and they reappear in the practice
of borrowing a phallos from the shrine during child-birth, and,
when the issue has proved good, of returning two new ones.
V. Phallicism in the Kojiki.Having examined some extant
data we are in a position to attempt the interpretation of two
passages in the Kojiki, the sacred book of Shinto. This was
committed to writing 7 12 A. D., when a collation was made of
the then extant traditions purporting to extend backward to a
divine age which ended some 1500 years before. None of the
authorities on Shinto known to me have attempted any detailed
interpretation of the cosgmogony forming Volume 1 of this
Kojiki. The general, and for the rest correct statement that
Shinto is a compound of ancestor-worship and nature-worship
has not been further discussed by any writer except Mr. Satow, who
enters more fully into the matter in his Westminster Review
article, without however at all noticing separate myths, and mak
ing no mention of sections 3 and 4, which we here copy from Mr.
B. H. Chamberlain's translation given in the 77 ans. As. Soc. Sup
plement to Vol. X.
Section 3.Hereupon all the Heavenly Deities commanded
the two Deities, His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites and Her
Augustness the Female-Who-Invites, ordering them to make,
consolidate, and give birth to this drifting land. Granting to
them an heavenly jeweled spear, they (thus) deigned to charge
them. So the two Deities standing upon the Floating Bridge of
Heaven, pushed down the jeweled spear and stirred with it,
whereupon, when they had stirred the brine until it went curdle
curdle, and drew (the spear) up, the brine that dripped down
from the end of the spear was piled up and became an island.
This is the island of Onogoro.
22
Section 4.** Having descended from Heaven onto this island,
they saw to the erection of an heavenly august pillar, they saw
to the erection of a hall of eight fathoms. Tunc qusi
vit (Augustus Mas- Qui - Invitat) a minore sorore August
Femin-Qui-Invitat : 'Tuum corpus quo in modo factum
est ? ' Respondit dicens: Meum corpus crescens crevit, sed
una pars est qu non crevit continua.' Tunc dixit Augustus
Mas-Qui.Invitat : ' Meum corpus crescens crevit, sed est una
pars qu crevit superflua. Ergo an bonum erit ut hanc corporis
mei partem qu crevit superflua in tui corporis partem qu non
crevit continua inseram, et regiones procreem ? ' Augusta
Femina-Qui-Invitat respondit dicens: Bonum erit.' Tunc
dixit Augustus M.-Q.-I. : ' Quod quum ita sit, ego et tu,
hanc coelestem augustam columnam circumeuntes mutuoque
occurrentes, augustarum (i. e., privatarum) partium augustam
coitionem faciemus.' Hc pactione fact dixit (Augustus M.
Q.-I.) : ' Tu a dexter circumeuns occurre ; ego a sinistr occur
ram.' Absolut pactione ubi circumierunt, Augusta F.-Q.-I.
primum inquit : ' O venuste et amabilis adolescens !' Deinde
Augustus M.-Q.-I. inquit : ' O venusta et amabilis virgo !'
Postquam singuli orationi finem fecerunt, (Augustus M.-Q.-I.)
locutus est sorori, dicens : ' Non decet feminam primum verba
facere.' Nihilomimes in thalamo (opus procreationis) inceperunt,
et filium (nomine) Hirudiuem (vel Hirudini similem) pepere
runt. This child they placed in a boat of reeds, and let it float
away. Next they gave birth to the island of Aha. This likewise
is not reckoned among their children.
Now our view is that from beginning to end of this Vol. I is
presented a series of nature-myths still susceptible to interpreta
tion, and that among them these sections 3 and 4 attempt a cos
mogony expressed in terms of a phallic symbol sec. 3 and of
a phallic ceremony sec. 4.
First, no one will deny the transparency of the epithets
Male-Who-Invites and Female-Who-Invites. They are just
the complementary pair so indispensable to reproduction pro
jected backwards to account for original production. Hirata,
a Japanese antiquarian of first rank, considers the jeweled
spear'' a phallas and scrotum (7rans. As. Soc., Vol. 3, Appendix,
23
p. 59), while the Island of Onogoro on account of its peculiar
shape passes in the native imagination for a gigantic phallos,
and is said to contain many such scattered about it. Hear the
redoubtable Hirata again in the Inyoseki under the sketch
described in this article, p. 14. He writes: This is Onokoro
jima, etc. It is solitary and has no connection in its roots. It
stands in the midst of waves and never moves in spite of great
earthquakes even. In the island are many curious stones, many
of them being shaped like male and female generative organs.
The stones produce dewlike liquid, and have a mineral taste on
the outside, while within (the stones?) are earths and sands.
Now, though this record was made by Hirata so late as 1812,
since the phenomena are all natural, they of course antedated
the mythical imaginings of the Kojiki, to whose authors the
island was well known, and doing so they evidently formed the
elements of the myth. The only need then was for poetic fancy
to weave primitive pair, artificial phallos, and phallic island into
some connected whole, and this made section 3. What was
Hirata's ground for his view of the jeweled spear is not stated,
but Japanese archaeology gives monumental evidence of the
existence in the polished stone age of phallic rods in great
variety, though their exact use is a matter only of inference.
These stone rods or stones, called locally Raitsui or thunder
bolts, are figured, along with numerous other remains, in an
admirable monograph by the owner of the finest collection of
raitsui in Japan, ex-Governor T. Kanda of Tokyo. In this
monograph Plate 7, Figs. 2 and 4; Plate 8, Fig. 8, and Plate 9,
Fig. 1 show incised figures which are plainly the kteis, in full
accord with another statement of Hirata's, that the jeweled
spear bore on it the figure of the female organ (/nyseki).
In section IV. our mythical cosmogony first introduces coition
as a means of conceiving origins. After using, in sections I. and
II., terms of terrestrial motion and vegetable life, and in section III.
a mixture of terms from terrestrial and animal life, the myth pro
ceeds to fuller circumstantiality in the familiar terms of purely
animal life. Our previous investigations make quite obvious
the meaning of heavenly august pillar, while apart from those
side lights the terms here employed must have remained unintel
24
*
ligible, or at least conjectural. Plainly it was a phallos. As to
the parallel reading in the Wikongia nearly contemporaneous
but much rationalized a la Chinese account of Japanese history
which Mr. Chamberlain translates they made the island of
Onogoro the central pillar of the land, and which he considers
more rational than the account in the Kojiki, the obvious truth
is that it is more rational only to those not aware of or not
awake to the phallic phenomena described in our preceding
pages. Per contra in the light of those phenomena the Kojiki's
account is fully vindicated. Textual purity can never be verified
better than by archaeology. The hall of eight fathoms was
probably a coition house. Mr. B. H. Chamberlain writes in his
Introduction to the Kojiki XXVIII., It would also appear to be
not unlikely that newly married couples retired into a specially
built hut for the purpose of consummating the marriage, and it
is certain that for each sovereign a new palace was erected on his
accession. (Trans. As. Soc., Vol. X. Supplement.) Mr. Cham
berlain no doubt bases his view on the specifications in the Kojiki
of a thalamus as the place of first coition for man and wife. Of
such mentions I count three, viz., pp. 20, 66, and 75, and note
further the following, which seems to indicate a similar purpose:
Eight clouds arise. The eightfold fence of Idzumo makes
an eightfold fence for the spouses to retire (within). Oh! that
eightfold fence. (Trans As. Soc., Vol. X., Supplement 64.)
The parturition house is described, Kojiki 1 18, as eight fathoms
long, and this is the length of the coition house in our myth, eight
being the perfect number of the Japanese, and probably often
used in the sense of fitting or proper. The purpose of such a
coition house will be obvious to those familiar with the original
function of the bridegrooms best man as protector during the
consummation of a marriage which depended on capture, and
with the jocose interruptions made on a bridal pair after retiring,
e.g., even in England, and so late as the sixteenth century,
according to Brand's Antiquities. The sequel of section IV. rather
implies that the column stood in the thalamus, but whether within
or near it, the running round the column before the marriage
consummation will be best understood in the light of those
notions we have found everywhere connected with phallic cult,
25
among which that of productivity is plainly the proper one here.
In Japan, as elsewhere under the patriarchal government of
primitive times, the more children a pair had the richer they were
likely to become, and such a recognition of Konsei as this would
be considered effectual to that end. If so, nothing would be
more natural than for mythic fancy to express in terms so familiar
that fruitful union which resulted in the production of nothing
less than the islands of divine Japan, as the later sections pro
ceed to relate. The later Shinto apologists of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries smooth all difficulties by stating that the islands
have grown enormously since birth ! I submit that this view
meets all the special and concrete notions of the myth, while no
other view can meet any, and would have to account for a sense.
less farrago of ideas, ending in what must then be regarded as a
mere bawdy tale, for which the undoubted general coarseness of
manners in primitive Japan, as everywhere under like conditions,
affords no sufficient ground.
II. CREED OF PHALLICISM.
To every cult belongs a creed, implied or expressed, written

or oral. Of the phallic cult the creed is implied. It shares its
world-view with the nature-worship of which it forms one phase,
and, as such, sees a superior being, spirit, or god embodied in
objects naturally or artificially made to resemble animal generative
organs. I write embodied in advisedly, having in mind par
ticularly the natural phalloi which are prized vastly higher than
the manufactured ones, and being found in nature could hardly
be taken for aught else than the veritable organ of the god.
Mysticism would cover all difficulties in the view. To such
superiorswhich is all that the Japanese kami, often translated
gods or god, meansprimitive man turned in his needs, and
naturally, to that particular one presiding over the sphere in
which his need occurred. Hence comes the phallic cult which
forms as natural, proper and legitimate a system of worship as
that of the sun or fire, and can only by gross misconception be
associated with obscenity, though this is often done by those
devoid of sympathetic, historic imagination and anxious to point
26
a moral or adorn a tale. That the whole symbolism, though
most natural and striking for that ever mysterious vital force of
nature, has become inappropriate for us who are wont to say:
God is spirit, affords no proof that its first intent was not
wholly as described above. Cf. Mythology of the Aryan Nations,
by Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, 34950.
I have written in the preceding paragraph as if the object of
the phallic cult were one single thing, the phallos; and, if the
reader has accepted the assumption without challenge, he has
but thought in accord with the general treatment of the subject
which faultily neglects to duly express the duality of the cult.
We speak of phallicism and the Germans of Phalluscult, and
thereby tend to ignore the kteis-cult which prevails but little if
any less than phallos-cult. But just as the term man is used for
mankind, i. e., man and woman, so phallicism serves for what is
properly phalloktenism, cult of the phallos and kteis. This
dualism shows itself in the usual juxtaposition in India of the
linga and yoni, in Syria of the masseba and ashera (I take the
masseba as the male symbol), in Greece of the phallos and kteis
(Monumens des Dames Romaines, Plate 50. Mythology of the
Aryan AVations, G. W. Cox, 362), in Egypt of the cross and
ring combined into the crux-ansata, in China of the yang and
yin as seen intertwined in the Corean crest called in Japanese
futatsu-tomoye, and finally in Japan of the yoseki and inseki.
This dualism is equally conspicuous in the more anthropo
morphized objects of worship represented by the phallos and
kteis. Thus Hinduism cordinates Kali with Siva, whose symbols
in particular the kteis and phallos are, and Minakshithe local
goddess at Madura identified with Kaliis carried every night
to share the couch of Sundaresvara. Indeed, in India, where
pretty much everything both rational and irrational has been
tried, a whole sect, the Saktas devotes exclusive attention to this
feminine side of nature. In Syria Astarte cordinated with Baal,
in Egypt Isis with Osiris, in Greece Demeter with Dionysas
(Mythology of the Aryan AVations, G. W. Cox, 362), and in north
Europe Freya with Freyr, and each of these goddesses has often
received exclusive honors, usually with the same demoralizing
effect as in India. Some students point to Mariolatry as the last
27
example of the same tendency (Mythology of the Aryan Nations
G. W. Cox, 355). So obviously necessary to reproduction is
duality that where a spouse is wanting, feminine qualities are
attributed to the male, as with Quetzalcoatl god of reproduction
among the Aztecs (American Hero Myths, Brinton, 127).
Similarly in Japan we find the couples Kami-musubi-o-kami
and Takami-musubi-o-kami, the Divine-Producer and Divine
Produceress as some understand them (Parliament of Religions,
J. H. Barrows, 452. Lectures on Shinto, Professor Matsuyama,
Kyoto. Kakemono from Izumo O Yashiro), and again Izanagi
and Izanami, the Male-that. Invites and Female-that
Invites, compared by native Christians with Adam and Eve, a
comparison made in the first place naively, but hitting the mark
quite closely since both couples belong to phallic myth, though
they differ absolutely in subsequent moralization and consequent
religious value. But in Japan, where phallicism remains still, as
in India, a living faith, it becomes possible to trace out this dual
ism into a number of details not otherwise, I think, easily expli
cable.
A quite unequivocal case is that of the interlinked rings of

bamboo grass (No. 22 p. 16) expressly designed to represent
coition. Equally significant is the presentation of awabi shells
(No. 20)symbols of the kteisbefore the phallos and not the
kteis at Kande. Conversely a woman borrows from the Mizu
sawa temple a phallos, not a kteis, to help her in parturi
tion. At Yamada the reciprocity is recognized only in so far as
votives of both sexes are presented, though whether any distinc
tion is made in the deity before which they are placed I have yet to
learn. The rule valid there to offer a phallos in order to obtain
a husband or son, and a kteis for a wife or daughter implies the
notion underlying all magic that formal likeness with anything
insures power over it. Here too belongs the offering only of
phalloi to the phallos on the Konsei Pass. Perhaps a further
detail of the dualism necessary to all fruitful issue appears in the
practice of pouring wine over the phallos and kteis at Matsuzawa
which are said to rapidly absorb it, and in the statement of Hirata
that the phalloi and ktenes of Onogoro-shima secrete a dewy
liquid. Similarly tiny wooden tablet votives bearing a sketch of
28
a horse are presented to the Yamada pillar pair. This horse can
hardly mean other than in Buddhist symbolism, namely, the fer
tilization rain cloud (Indian Buddhism, T. W. Rhys Davids, 133).
The rain falling from this cloud is the impregnating medium
from heaven to earth in the cosmic myths of so many peoples.
Were it not that the hosbi-mo-tama, Jewel-of-Omnipotence, like
wise a Buddhist symbol, has been introduced on to the sacred
Ise Shrine in the same town, I should hesitate to believe that any
Buddhist symbol had penetrated this citadel of Shinto. The
horse, however, may prove, together with the sacred albino horse
common in great Shinto shrines, a survival of the great horse
sacrifice of the Mongol shamanism from which Shinto is descend
ent. With this Japanese notion of fertilization compare the effu
sion of watersometimes with bilva leaves and marigolds in
the Indian cult of the linga-yoni (Brhmanism and Hinduism, M.
Williams, 439). Lastly, in the phallic procession described by Mr.
Draper, an actor appears dressed alternately as man and woman
with which compare the exchange of attire in Western orgies.
Further data may require modification of the position here taken,
and it is much to be hoped that such will be obtained by many
investigators in Japan before this primitive formal biology yield
to the modern causal science of that name. In any case some
special reason must be sought why the votive offering to phallos
and kteis are duplicates or reciprocals of themselves. No paral
lel to this practice outside of phallicism is known to me either
in or out of Japan; for the foxes so often duplicated there are
so-called servants of Inari San, to whom, therefore, they are
offered, and not to the fox itself.
The creed or mental equivalent of the phallic cult, then, is
that reproduction is controlled by two deities related as man and
wife, that these are best represented by their reproductive organs
found by man in stream and field, and that they are best wor
shiped by the presentation of similar objects of a sex, either
opposite or similar to that of the deity concerned. In the case
of Konsei, worshiped near Yumoto without any sexual partner,
emphasis is placed, as frequently in other cults, on the male
element.
One commentary on such a creed is obvious and unavoidable

29
and will serve equally well for all creeds. The mental elevation
and consequent value of gods varies solely and directly as the
mental elevation of their worshipers. Show me your man, and
I will show you his god.
III. PLACE OF PHALLICISM IN THE EVOLUTION OF

RELIGION.
First, there is no need to search for any simpler or more obvi

ous principle on which to base phallicism than its own, namely,
worship of the superior beings that control reproduction. In
other words phallicism may easily be, what no existing evidence
confutes and all confirms, namely, a thoroughly primitive form of
that naturism nature worshipwhich judicious thinkers regard
as cordinate with animism spirit worship instead of attempt
ing, as H. Spencer, to derive it from the latter. This contention
rests particularly on the existence of the natural phallos and
kteis, than which, of course, nothing can be more primitive since
man has roamed this earth. Wherever the erosive action of water,
whether rain, river or sea, produced from rocks and stones the
shapes which even now can vividly suggest to our restrained
imaginations the animal generative organs, there a fortiori the
primitive savage must have seen indubitable evidence of what to
him would seem explicable only as a partial embodiment of the
controllers of his otherwise often unaccountable fortunes. Thus
in a very striking way Nature the instructor of primeval man

has suggested to him not only his inventions but his worship
(Tylor's Primitive Culture, I., 64). But, moreover, and of
peculiar interest in its bearing on the contention of naturists and
animists as to the origin of religion, here in the phallos and
kteis were found direct indications of the anthropomorphic
nature of those his controllers, for which sun, moon, star, or any
other object whatsoever of nature worship failed to afford any
morphological hint. If here were the veritable phallos and kteis
of his controllers, the controllers themselves could not be far
off, and would necessarily be imagined in full complementation
of the visible organs, that is as human beings, or minds in bodies,
which conception is precisely what animism sometimes supposes
itself alone able to account for.
30
Second, as to the sequences of this cult. The light thrown
by phallicism on the essential nature and evolution of religion
is clear and striking. Both the distance and the direction of
the newer views of God from the older are made apparent.
That distance is not immeasurable but has lain in time, and
that direction is not inscrutable but has consisted in progress.
Man has been the measure of thingsif not the individual
yet the race, and that whether his measure has worked as the
limit of capacity or limit of construction. If the former
alternativethat of capacitybe taken, an objective, real
god has revealed himself progressively, and therefore at any
single stage only partially, to man, just because such partial
revelation has been all that man could receive ; if the latter
alternativethat of constructionbe taken, a subjective, unreal
or according to some thinkers nevertheless real God has
been constructed, imagined, or projected by man, but always
only progressively, and therefore at any one stage only par
tially, just beecause such partial construction was all of which
man was then capable. (Self Revelation of God. S. Harris,
passim). And therefore, in any case, as man has evolved through
out his physical and mental nature, his concept of God has pari
fassu improved. Du gleichst dem Geist den du begreifst
holds equally true in its converse form. We understand the
spirit we resemble. In the case of the Absolute Spirit this under
standing can never reach completeness, and our principle there
fore reduces in its case to the humbler proposition: Man under
stands God so far as he resembles him. The challenge of the
skeptic: Show me your God, must be met by the answer alike
of Christian, philosopher and anthropologist : Show me your
man. There was a stage in man's mental progress when God
could be revealed to or constructed by man bestthat is most intel
ligibly and impressivelyas phallos and kteis. Among all the
things that are made it would have been marvelous indeed, if organs
so conspicuously instrumental to the mysterious propagation of life
had not been used to perceive the invisible things of him since
the creation of the world even his eternal power and divinity.
Rom, 1:20. Of all the power desired by man alike for himself,
flocks and fields, productivity was the chief, and consequently
3I
the objects considered to embody that power the most honored.
That man thus often submerged his god in nature instead of
conceiving him as an eternal power above nature was natural
anthropologically, though justly repudiated by Paul, a represen
tative of a more progressed order. The original symbols, now
so shocking to us in their bare materialism, have been refined
with man's refinement until finally in the exquisite legend of
the Sangreal the symbols have become a sacred thing, which only
the pure in heart may see and touch. (Mythology of the Aryan
Mations. Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, 360.)
IV. DOES PHALLICISM BELONG TO SHINTO P
Since phallicism has shrines, festivals, priests and amulets

identical with those of Shinto, and since its principal symbol
and ceremonial receive mention in the sacred book of Shinto,
and since phallicism belongs of right to nature worship, which
in Japan constitutes, with ancestor cult, Shinto, it seems probable
that the phallicism of Japan forms an integral part of Shinto.
And so Rein in his /apan Like phallic-worship, which, together
with its symbols formerly so numerous and widespread, has, as a
result of foreign influence, been entirely banished since the begin
ning of the reign of Meiji (1868), belonged to Shintoism, so also
does this ancestor-worship appear at least to have judged the
Yoshiwarasprostitute quartersvery mildly, if not to have
directly favored them. /apan, p. . Note several errors here,
however. Phallicism, as we now know, has not yet by any
means been entirely banished. Shinto is not rightly designated
ancestor-worship, certainly not if it includes phallicism. Nor
should phallicism ever be linked, as here, with an undoubtedly
immoral institution like the Yoshiwara, the Japanese name for
the harlot quarter, primarily in Tokyo, but subsequently anywhere.
On the other hand, the somewhat unequal distribution of
phallicism in Japan, e.g., its apparent absence from the great
highway called the Tokaido, the absence of its ritual from the
Shinto official prayer-book or Yengishiki, and some philological
and archaeological facts that point to the Ainus as the source of
the cult require consideration before the connection with Shinto
32
can be considered settled. Batchelor indeed makes no mention
of phallicism in his Ainu of /apan, but the fashion of garbling
treatises from all that would unfit them for parlor reading prevails
to such an extent that negative evidence on this topic and kindred
sociological and physiological ones amounts to simply nothing.
The above data best suit the view that phallicism, while originally
and properly a part of Shinto, was little if at all recognized in
later official religion, though it persisted in the folk-religion,
where indeed it still survives in moribund state.
One general remark. The bearing of the discovery of phalli
cism in Japan upon the science of comparative religion is of con
siderable interest. Phallicism, long since demonstrated for the
Indo-Keltic race and easily demonstrable for the Semitic, now
turns up among the Mongols. Thus this now obsolescent cult
appears to have prevailed in all three of the historic races. This
generality well matches the naturalness and obviousness of the
notion involved. The bearing of Japanese phallicism upon the
controversy between Canon McClatchie and Dr. Legge upon
Chinese phallicism must remain for future treatment.
V. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH.
Are there other dances of the Gwan-Zan-daishi type?

How did hashira come to be the numeral for gods?
Why are snakesdried and enshrinedworshiped in
Idzurmo as protectors from fire and flood? The snake associated
with Benten, and worshiped at Shirakumo-jiuja, Kyoto, by the
presentation of toy pails of water probably came with Benten
from Hinduism via Buddhism.
Why does a bit of awabi, or its picture, accompany every
present made in Japan P Kaempfer in his chap. 13 writes,
it is intended to remind them of the frugality as well as
the poverty of their ancestors who lived chiefly upon the flesh
of this shell. Pinkerton, 7, 734. Probably no such high
didactic motive ever entered the heads of men of the period
when this custom began. Kaempfer assigns the same reason
here well known to be falsefor preserving the primitive type
of structure in the Ise Shrine. Does this bit of awabi mean I
33
*
am clinging to your friendship, in the sense of Awabi no kata

omoi. Or does the awabi here signify a wish for that abun
dance which the kteis mediates and in other lands symbolizes?
And does its lozenge-shaped envelope symbolize the same organ?
Why were so many phallic shrines found on the highway from
Tokyo to Nikko (Mikado's Empire 33), and none on the much
longer road from Tokyo to Kohe, i.e., the great Tokaido? That
none were there when Caron, Kaempfer, and Siebold traveled it
is fairly inferable from their silence as to them, while they did
not spare the licentiousness they found common around them.
(Caron 613, 629, 634. Aaempfer chap. xx.) Kaempfer, how
ever, remarks on other religious objects on the road, as also
other monstrous images and idols.
Why are red and white the favorite colors of Shinto, as seen
in the miko's dress at the kagura, in the flags carried at funerals,
and in those about Miya, as at Miajinja dedicated to Hiruko, the
leech child of Izanaji and Izanami?
CH INA
BY
JOHN L. STODDARD
ILLUSTRATED AND EMBELLISHED WITH ()NE II UNI) REI)

ANI) TWENTY-TW () RE PR () I.) UCTIONS () F
PH ()T() (, RAPHS
CHICAGO
BELFORD, MIDDLEBROOK & COMPANY

MDCCCXCVII
COPYRIGHT, 1897
BY JOHN L. STODDARD
ENTERED At STATIONERs' HAll, LoNDoN

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
HINA defies the world to equal her in three important
C respects: age, population, and industries. As for
the first, she undoubtedly has the oldest Government
on earth. Even the Papacy is young compared with it; and as
for our republic, it is a thing of yesterday. A Chinaman
once said to an American: Wait till your Government has
been tried before you boast of it. What is a hundred years?
Ours has stood the test of forty centuries. When you did not
exist, we were. When you shall have
passed away, we still shall be." -
In point of numbers, too, the Chinese

empire leads the world. Its area is nearly
twice as large as that of the United States,
and it has six times as many people. The
governor of one Chinese province rules
over sixty million souls. Have we a defi
nite conception of what four hundred
million human beings are? Arrange the
inhabitants of our globe in one long line,
EMPEROR OF CHINA,
and every fourth man will be a Chinaman.
As for her industries, Musa, the Saracen conqueror of
Spain, once aptly said that Wisdom, when she came from
heaven to earth, was lodged in the head of the Greeks, the
tongue of the Arabs, and the hands of the Chinese. China
4 CHINA
was once what the United States is nowthe birthplace of

inventions. Paper was manufactured there in the third cen
tury of our era. Tea was produced a century later. If
Europe had enjoyed communication with China, it would
A ChiNESE TEMPLE.
have learned the art of printing many centuries before it did;

and who can say what might have been the result? A thou
sand years ago the Chinese made designs on wood. Print
ing from stone was a still earlier industry among them. In
China, also, gunpowder was first inventeda thought by
which, alas! so many thoughts have been destroyed. This
same astonishing race produced the mariner's compass in the
fourth century, porcelain in the third, chess and playing
cards in the twelfth, and silk embroideries in almost prehis
toric times. An empire, therefore, of such vast antiquity,
CHINA 5
overwhelming population, and great achievements must be,

despite its faults, a country of absorbing interest.
The most delightful portion of the voyage from Japan to
China lies in the Japanese Mediterranean, known as the
Inland Sea. It is a miniature ocean, practically land-locked
for three hundred miles, with both shores constantly in sight,
yet strewn with islands of all shapes and sizes, from small and
uninhabited rocks to wave-encircled hills, terraced and culti
vated to their very summits. It seems as if volcanic action
here had caused the land to sink, until the ocean rushed in
and submerged it, leaving only the highest peaks above the
WalVCS.
We lingered here all day upon the steamer's deck, like

passengers on the Rhine, fearing to lose a single feature of
the varied panorama gliding by on either side. By night it was
more glorious even than by day; for then, from every danger
THE JAPANESE MEDITERRANEAN.
ous cliff flashed forth a beacon light; the villages along the
shore displayed a line of glittering points, like constellations
rising from the sea; and, best of all, at a later hour, moon
light lent enchantment to the scene, drawing a crystal edge
6 CHINA
WAVE - ENCIRCLED HILLS.
along each mountain crest, and making every island seem a

jewel on a silver thread.
When we emerged from these inland waters, we saw be
tween us and the setting sun the stretch of ocean called the
China Sea. At certain seasons of the year this is the favorite
pathway of typhoons; and the Formosa Channel, in particu
lar, has been a graveyard for countless ves
sels. Indeed, only three weeks before, a sister
HUGE SAILS LIKE THE WINGS OF BATS,

CHINA 7
ship of oursthe Bokhara,"had gone down here in a ter

rific cyclone. Yet when we sailed its waters nothing could
have been more beautiful. Day after day this sea of evil omen
rested motionless, like a sleek tigress gorged with food and
basking in the sun.
After a three-days' voyage from the Japanese coast, we
began to meet, in constantly increasing numbers, large,
pointed boats, propelled by huge sails ribbed with cross-bars,
like the wings of bats. Upon the bow of each was painted an
T
THE HARBOR OF HONG-KONG.
enormous eye; for of their sailing craft the mariners of China,

in elementary English, say: If boat no have eye, how can
boat see go? We were assured that these were Chinese sail
ing craft, and that our destination was not far away; but it
was difficult to realize this, and I remember looking off beyond
those ships and trying to convince myself that we were actu
ally on the opposite side of the globe from home and friends,
and in a few brief hours were to land in that vast Eastern
empire so full of mystery in its exclusiveness, antiquity, and

changeless calm.
8 CHINA
That night the agitation that precedes one's first arrival

in a foreign land made sleep almost impossible. It seemed to
me that I had not closed my eyes when suddenly the steamer
stopped. To my astonishment, the morning light had already
found its way into my state-room. We had arrived ! Hurry
ing to the deck, therefore, I looked upon the glorious harbor of
Hong-Kong. A hundred ships and steamers lay at anchor here,
displaying flags of every
country on the globe. Al
though the day had hardly
dawned, these waters

itfittitt *III:
*III:
---
THE CITY OF VICTORIA.
showed great animation. Steam-launches, covered with white

awnings, were darting to and fro like flying-fish. Innumerable
smaller boats, called sampans, propelled by Chinese men and
women, surrounded each incoming steamer, like porpoises
around a whale. On one side rose some barren-looking moun
tains, which were a part of the mainland of China; but for
the moment they presented little to attract us. It was the
other shore of this magnificent harbor that awoke our interest;
for there we saw an island twenty-seven miles in circumfer
ence, covered with mountains rising boldly from the sea.
CHINA I I
Along the base of one of these elevations, and built in terraces

far up on its precipitous slopes, was a handsome city.
What is this? we inquired eagerly.
The town itself, was the reply, is called Victoria, but
this imposing island to whose flank it clings, is, as you may
suppose, Hong-Kong."
The first impression made upon me here was that of mild
astonishment at the architecture. Almost without exception,
the prominent buildings of Victoria have on every story deep
porticoes divided by columns into large, square spaces, which
A STREET IN HONG - Kong.
from a distance look like letter-boxes in a post-office. We

soon discovered that such deep, shadowy verandas are essen
tial here, for as late as November it was imprudent not to carry
a white umbrella, and even before our boat had brought us
from the steamer to the pier, we perceived that the solar rays
were not to be trifled with.
As soon as possible after landing, we started to explore

this British settlement. I was delighted with its streets and
buildings. The former are broad, smooth and clean; the lat
ter, three or four stories high, are built of granite, and even
on a curve have sidewalks shielded from the sun or rain by
I2 CHINA
the projection of the roof above. Truly, the touch of Eng

land has wrought astounding changes in the fifty-five years
that she has held this island as her own. Before she came
it was the resort of poverty-stricken fishermen and pirates.
DEEP PORTICOEs AND COLONNADEs.
But now the city of Victoria alone contains two hundred

thousand souls, while the grand aqueducts and roads which
cross the mountains of Hong-Kong are worthy to be com
pared with some of the monumental works of ancient Rome.
Along the principal thoroughfare in Victoria, the banks,
shops, hotels, and club-houses, which succeed each other rap
idly, are built of the fine gray granite of the adjacent moun
tains, and show handsome architectural designs. Everything
looks as trim and spotless as the appointments of a man-of
war. Even the district of the town inhabited by Chinamen
is kept by constant watchfulness immeasurably cleaner than
a Chinese city; although if one desires to see the world-wide
difference that exists between the British and Mongolian races,
CHINA I3
he merely needs to take a short walk through the Chinese

quarter of Victoria. But such comparisons may well be de
ferred until one reaches Canton. There one beholds the gen
uine native article.
The police who guard the lives and property of the resi
dents of Hong-Kong, are for the most part picked men of
English birth, and are considered as trustworthy as regular
troops. But several hundred of these guardians of the peace
are Sikhsa race imported hither from Indiarenowned for
bravery, loyal to the British government, and having no sym
pathy with the Chinese. These Sikhs have handsome faces,
brilliant eyes, and dark complexions, the effect of which is
wonderfully en- hanced by their
immense red turbans, con
THE BANK, HONG-KONG.
spicuous two or three blocks away, not only by their startling

color, but because their wearers exceed in stature all other
races in Hong-Kong.
Strolling one morning through the outskirts of the city, I
came upon some troops engaged in military manoeuvres, and
I4 CHINA
attired in white from head to foot, to shield them from the

sun. What traveler in the East can forget the ever-present
soldiers of Great Britain, of whom there are nearly three
thousand in
the garrison of
Hong-Kong? I
know it is fre
quently the
fashion to sneer
at them and to
question their
efficiency in
- case of war. I
POLICEMEN. know, too, that
in certain ways the vast extent of England's empire constitutes

her weakness. But I must say that in a tour around our planet
I was impressed as never before with what the British had ac
complished in the way of conquest, and with the number of
strategic points they hold in every quarter of the globe. We
had but recently left the western terminus of England's North
American pos
sessions, yet in
a few days we
discerned the
flag of England
flying at Hong
Kong. Next
we beheld the
Union Jack at
Singapore, then
at Penang, then SoLDIERS DRILLING.
at Ceylon, and after that throughout the length and breadth

of the vast empire of India, as well as the enormous area
of Burma. Leaving Rangoon, if we sail southward, we are
- ---
CHINA 17
reminded that the southernmost portion of Africa is entirely

in English hands, as well as the huge continent of Australia.
Returning northward, we find the same great colonizing power
stationed at the mouth of the
Red Sea, in - - - the British
citadel of . Aden. Again

a trifling journey, and we reach
Egypt, via the Suez Canal, both vir
A BiT OF CHINATOWN IN HONG-KONG.
tually controlled to- day by Eng

land. Then, like the three stars in Orion's belt, across the
Mediterranean lie Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar; in fact, we
find one mighty girdle of imposing strongholds all the way,
bristling with cannon, guarded by leviathans in armor, and
I8 CHINA
garrisoned by thousands of such soldiers as were drilling at

Hong-Kong.
One of the first desires of the visitor to Hong-Kong is to
explore the mountain which towers above the city of Victoria
to a height of nearly two thousand feet. To do this with the
least exertion, each of our party took a canvas-covered bam
boo chair, supported by long poles, which Chinese coolies
carry on their shoulders. On level ground, two of these
bearers were enough, but on the mountain roads three or
CHAIR-COOLIES AT HONG - KONG.
four men were usually needed. To my surprise, I found the

motion of these chairs agreeable. The poles possess such
elasticity that, leaning back, I was rocked lightly up and
down without the least unpleasant jar. In fact, at times the
rhythm of that oscillation gave me a sense of drowsiness diffi
cult to resist.
But, alas! we had not here for carriers the cleanly natives
of Japan. It may be, as some residents of Hong-Kong
assert, that Chinamen are more trustworthy and honest than
the Japanese, but certainly in point of personal attractiveness
the contrast between these races is remarkable. The bodies
CHINA I9
of the lower classes of Chinese reveal no evidence of that care
so characteristic of the natives of Japan. Their teeth are

often yellow tusks; their nails resemble eagle's claws; and
their unbecoming clothes seem glazed by perspiration. Nor
is there usually anything in their manner to redeem all this.
Where the light-hearted Japs enjoy their work, and laugh and
talk, the Chinese coolies labor painfully, and rarely smile,
THE MOUNTAIN ABOVE VICTOR1A.
regarding you meantime with a supercilious air, as if despising

you for being what they call a foreign devil.
Nevertheless, despite the repulsive appearance of our
bearers, we thoroughly enjoyed our excursion up the moun
tain. At every step our admiration was increased for the
magnificent roads which wind about the cliffs in massive ter
races, arched over by majestic trees, bordered by parapets of
stone, lighted with gas, and lined with broad, deep aqueducts,
through which at times the copious rainfall rushes like a
mountain stream. It will be seen that such a comparison is
2O CHINA
not an exaggeration, when I add that not many years ago,

thirty-two inches of rain fell here in thirty hours. This
mountain is the favorite abode of wealthy foreigners, and
hence these curving avenues present on either side, almost to
THE CABLE-ROAD TO WICTORIA PEAK.
the summit, a series of attractive villas commanding lovely

views. On account of their situation, the gardens of these hill
side homes are necessarily small; but in the midst of them,
about five hundred feet above the town, a charming botanical
park has been laid out.
Forgetful of our coolies at the gate, we lingered in this
garden for an hour or two, delighted with its fine display of
semitropical foliage. It is marvelous what skillful gardeners
have accomplished here, in transforming what was fifty years
ago a barren rock into an open-air conservatory. Palms,
banyans, india-rubber trees, mimosas with their tufts of gold,
camellias with their snowy blossomsall these are here, with
CHINA 2 I
roses, mignonette, and jessamine, surrounded with innumer

able ferns. Occasionally we encountered in this fragrant area
a Chinese gentleman, indulging leisurely his love of flowers;
for this delightful park is open to all without regard to race
or creed, although the population of the island is extremely
cosmopolitan. Englishmen, Americans, Germans, French
men, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Parsees, Mohamme
dans, Jews, Hindus, and fully one hundred and fifty thousand
Chinamen, are residents of the city of Victoria alone.
In this retired park one does not realize that Hong-Kong
is such a rendezvous for different nationalities; but frequently,
while we were walking here, the sharp report of a cannon
forced a discordant echo from the neighboring hills and told
us that some foreign man-of-war had just appeared within the
bay ; for here
some ship or
steamer is con
tinually arriv
ing or depart
ing, and many
times a day
there comes a
deafening inter
change of Sa
lutes that sends
a thrill through
every window
pane upon the
mountain.
One can well
THE BOTANICAL PARK, HONG-KONG.
un d e rst and,
therefore, that with so mixed a population and in such close
proximity to China, the officers sent out here by the British
government must be men of courage, the garrison of the island
22 CHINA
strong, and its administration prompt and resolute. A single

incident revealed to me the crimes which would undoubtedly
creep forth, like vipers from a loathsome cave, were they
not kept in check by vigorous justice and incessant vigilance.
In one of the residences on the height above Victoria, I
met one day at dinner the captain of a steamer anchored in
the bay. He asked me to come out some evening and pay a
AN or EN - AIR CONSERVATORY.
visit to his ship. The following night, soon after dark, I

walked down to the pier, intending to embark on one of the
many boats along the shore. I was about to enter one, when
a policeman rapidly approached. Give me your name and
number," he said roughly to the Chinese boatman. Then
turning to me, he politely asked my name, address, and des
tination, and when I intended to return. I am obliged to
do this, he explained, for your protection. There is a
population of twenty thousand Chinese living in this harbor
i.
A HONG-KONG STREET IN THE CHINESE QUARTER.
IN THE BUSINESs SECTION, HONG-KoNG.
upon boats alone, besides the usual criminals who drift to

such a place. Before we adopted this precaution, a foreigner
would sometimes embark on one of these craft and never be
seen again. In such a case search was useless. He had dis

appeared as quietly and thoroughly as a piece of silver
dropped into the bay."
When I stood on the apex of Victoria Peak, I thought that
I had never seen a finer pros
pect. Nearly two thou
VICTORIA PEAK,
26 CHINA
sand feet below us lay the renowned metropolis of the East

which bears the name of England's queen. From this great
elevation, its miles of granite blocks resembled a stupendous
landslide, which, sweeping downward from this rocky height,
had forced its cracked and creviced mass far out into the bay.
Between this and the mainland opposite, curved a portion of
that ocean-girdle which surrounds the island, and on its sur
face countless boats and steamers seemed, in the long perspec
tive, like ornaments of bead-work on a lady's belt.
Around the summit of the mountain are several handsome
villas and hotels, whither the residents of Victoria come in
summer to escape the heat; but, as a rule, in riding over the
island I saw outside of the city very few houses, and little
agriculture. The soil of
Hong-Kong is not fer
tile; but politically and
commercially the island
is immensely valuable, for
England has now made
of it the great emporium
of the Far East, and, gar
risoned by British troops,
it guards completely the
approaches to that river,
upon which, ninety-two
miles inland from the
ocean, lies the city of

Canton.
The RACE-TRAck, HONG-KONG.

One of the pleasantest
excursions in Hong-Kong
may be made in sedan-chairs, some six miles over the hills, to
the great reservoir which supplies the city with water. The
aqueduct which comes from it is solidly constructed, and on its
summit is a granite path protected by iron railings. This
CHINA 27
winds along the cliffs for miles, and is in many places cut
through solid rock. It is an illustration of the handsome, yet
substantial character of everything accomplished here. One
feels that such works are not only artistic, but enduring. Here
are no wooden trestles,

no hastily constructed
bridges and no half-made
THE AQUEDUCT, HoNG-KoNG.
roads to be destroyed by
mountain torrents, but everywhere the best of masonry, cyclo
pean in massiveness and perfect in detail.
On reaching the terminus of this granite pathway we saw
before us the principal reservoir of Hong-Kong. Though
largely artificial, it looks precisely like a natural lake hidden
away among the mountains. Before it was constructed the
island's water-supply was lamentably insufficient, and the no
torious Hong-Kong fever" gave the place an evil name.
But now, in spite of its large native population, Victoria has
as low a death-rate as most European cities. The foreign
residents are very proud of these magnificent water-works;
yet, after ten days' sojourn here, when I took leave of sev
eral gentlemen by whom I had been entertained in private
28 CHINA
houses and at clubs, candor compelled me to confess that, so

far as I had been able to observe, the foreign population
makes very little use of this water for drinking purposes.
On starting to
descend the
mountain, we
found a shorter
route than the
circuitous path
by which we had
comean ad
mirably man
aged cable-road.
In viewing this,
A MOUNTAIN ROAD, HoNG-KoNG. the question nat
urally arises how the Chinese can look on such conveniences

as England has here introduced, and still remain content to
have in their enormous empire scarcely a decent road, and
only a few miles of railway, built to transport coal. Canals
AN EASY DESCENT.
CHINA 29
and rivers are

still the usual
arteries of travel
through the
most of China.
In the northern
provinces, where
carts are used,
the roads are
often worn be
low the surface
of the adjacent
land, and hence
become, in the
A CHINEs E ROAD. rainy Sea SO n,
mere water-courses. Travelers are occasionally obliged to

swim across them; and cases have been known of people
drowning in a Chinese roadway. Moreover, the characteristic
carts of China are of the most primitive description, having
no seats except
the floor, and no
springs save the
involuntary ones
contributed by
their luckless
passengers. Yet,
in many dis
tricts, even such
vehicles can find
no path, and
people travel
about in wheel
barrows pro
pelled by coolies A CHINES E VEHICLE.
3O CHINA
who are sometimes aided by a sail. The Bishop of North

China, for example, makes many of his parochial visits in
a wheelbarrow.
There is now in China a small progressive party which

favors building railroads, as the Japanese have done, but the
immense majority are against it. Some years ago a foreign
company built a railroad near Shanghai, but the Chinese
speedily bought it up at a great cost, transported the rails and
CHINFSE GRAVES.
locomotives to the sea, and left them to rust upon the beach.
This opposition to railways is principally due to the belief
that the use of them would deprive millions of people of their
means of gaining a livelihood, and that they would, more
over, disturb the graveyards of the country. This latter objec
tion seems at first incredible; but it must be remembered
that Chinese cemeteries are strewn broadcast over the land,
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa.
One sees them everywhere, usurping valuable tracts of terri

tory needed for the living. Outside the city of Canton, for
:
CHINA
example, there
is a graveyard
thirty miles in
length, in which
are buried fully
one hundred
generations.
Yet the Chinese
insist that not
one grave shall

be disturbed, lest
multitudes of
AN ELABORATE TOMB.
avenging ghosts
should be let loose upon them for such sacrilege. In fact,
the permanence and inviolability of graves lie at the very
foundation of Chinese life and customs, which is ancestor
worship. From childhood to old age the principal duty
of all Chinamen is to propitiate the spirits of their ances
The Foreign ceMETERY, HONG-KoNG.

tors, and to
make offerings
to them regu
larly at their
tombs. This
custom cripples
the colossal em
pire of China as
paralysis would
A FELLOW PASSENGER. a giant, and fear
of doing violence to their dead holds China's millions in

an iron grasp.
The discussion of this theme, as we were descending the
mountain, suggested to us the idea of visiting the foreign
cemetery in Hong-Kong. In this, as in the public garden,
charming results have been obtained by care and irrigation.
We were accompanied by a gentleman who had resided on
the island nearly thirty years. In spite of the beauty of
this place, he said, I dread to think that I shall probably
be buried hereunable to escape from China even after death.
For notwithstanding many pleasant friends, my life, like that
of many here, has been at best a dreary banishment from all
that makes your Occidental life so stimulating to the intellect
ON THE CANTON RIVER,

CHINA 35
and so rich in pleasures. The world at home, he added,

sometimes blames us for faults, the cause of which is often
only an intense desire to counteract the loneliness of our ex
istence; and foreigners in the East deserve some sympathy, if
only from the fact that in these cemeteries, kept with so
much care, the graves of those we love increase so rapidly.
After a few days at Hong-Kong we embarked on one of
the American steamers which ply between Victoria and Can
ton. These boats are modest imitations of the Fall River
steamers on Long Island Sound. We found the one that we
RIVER BOATS.
took clean and comfortable and its American captain cordial

and communicative. During the trip he related to us many
incidents of his life in China. This he could easily do, for
there were only two other foreign passengers on board, and
hence, so long as we remained upon the promenade deck, the
spacious vessel seemed to be our private yacht.
On passing, however, to the deck below, we found a
number of Chinamen, likewise going to Canton. Most of
them were smoking, lying on their backs, their heads sup
ported by a bale of cloth. At first we thought these consti
tuted all the passengers; but presently we learned, to our
astonishment, that farther down, packed in the hold like
36 CHINA
sardines in a box, and barricaded from us by an iron gra

ting, were more than a thousand Chinese coolies. A sentry,
heavily armed, stood by the padlocked grating constantly;
while in the wheel-house and saloon were stands of loaded
* * -
six: xx:
# ". -
|
. '.
|
Ex ECUTION OF THE PIRATES.
muskets ready for emergencies. The danger is that Chinese

pirates will come on board in the disguise of coolies, and at a
favorable moment take possession of the ship. One naturally
thinks this an impossible occurrence; but only a few years
ago this actually took place on one of these boats. A well
armed band of desperadoes swarmed up from the hold, shot
down the captain in cold blood, and also some of the passen
gers who tried to interfere. Then, taking command of the
ship, they forced the engineer and crew to do their bidding,
steered to a lonely point where their confederates awaited
CHINA 37
them, unloaded the valuable cargo into their boats, disabled the
engine so that the survivors could not give the alarm, and
finally made their escape. Such are the indisputable facts.
Yet, sailing up this peaceful river, reclining in our easy chairs,
and soothed by the soft, balmy air, the tragedy seemed so
incredible that we were obliged to put our hands upon the
guns, in order to realize that precautions were still needed.
As an additional proof, the captain showed us a photo
graph of the sequel to that act of piracy. For, as a matter
of course, the British Government demanded satisfaction for
this outrage, and in compliance nineteen criminals were
beheaded. Whether they were the actual pirates, however,
has been doubted. China always has scores of men awaiting
executiona dozen here, a dozen there. What matters it
if those who merit death are said to have committed one
crime or another? England had no way of identifying them.

Accordingly she shut her eyes, accepted what the Chinese said
of them, and took it for granted that the decapitated men
were the real culprits. At all events, as an eye-witness told
us, the deed itself was quickly done. In each case there was
WITH starino, EYEs TURNED Upw ARD.

38 CHINA
only one swing of the executioner's arm, and one flash of the
two-edged sword; then, like a row of flowers clipped from
their stems, the heads of all the kneeling criminals were lying
in the sand,
with staring -
eyes turned up- |
ward to ward --->4. |

the sky.
On leaving
this repulsive AN old chis Esk Forr, CANTON River.
picture in the
captain's cabin, we found that we were approaching the once
important settlement of Whampoa. Its glory is gone now,
but formerly it
played a prom
in ent part in
Eastern politics
and commerce;
for previous to
the Opium War
of 1841 and the
establishment of
the Treaty Ports,

this was as far
as foreign ships
were permitted
to come, and
Whampoa was
then a kind of
CO unter a CrOSS
OPIUM-SMOKING.
which Cantonese
and Europeans traded. We now began to observe along the

shore strange-looking boats protected by a roof and filled with
fruits and vegetables for the Canton market. Moreover, on
CHINA - 4I
both sides of the river for many miles we looked on countless

little patches of rice, bananas, oranges, and sugar-cane. At
one point our attention was called to an island on which are
some old fortifications used by China fifty years ago in her
attempt to exclude opium from her territory. I suppose that
no intelligent student of the subject doubts that the real cause
of the war of 1841 was the attempt of England to force upon
the Chinese a drug which no one dares to sell in London, even
now, unless it bears the label poison." In 1840, the Com
missioner of
Can to n thus -----
addressed the
Queen of Eng
land:
How can
your country
seek to acquire
wealth by sell
ing us an article
so injurious to.
mankin d ? I
have heard that A CHINESE BRIDGE.
you have a gen

erous heart; you must be willing, therefore, to obey the
motto of Confucius, and refuse to do to others what you
would not have others do to you.
In an address to foreign traders, issued in 1840, the
Chinese also said: Reflect that if you did not bring opium
here, where could our people obtain it? Shall, then, our peo
ple die, and your lives not be required? You are destroying
human life for the sake of gain. You should surrender your
opium out of regard for the natural feelings of mankind. If
not, it is right for us to drive every ship of your nation from
* *
our shores.
42 CHINA
Finding that these appeals were of no avail, the Chinese

finally compelled the British merchants in Canton to give up
all the opium in their possession. It amounted to twenty
one thousand chests, or about three million pounds. This
-
-
-
-
- -
-
-
- -
-
-
- - = -
THE CURSE OF CHINA.
mass of poison the Chinese threw into the river, chest after
chest, much as Americans treated English tea in Boston
harbor. As it dissolved, it is said that a large number of
fish died. England retaliated by broadsides from her men
of-war, and in 1842, after an unequal struggle, China was
forced to pay her victorious enemy twenty-one million dollars
six millions for the opium destroyed, and fifteen millions
as a war indemnity, besides giving to England as her property
forever, the island of Hong-Kong, and opening five new ports
to foreign trade.
About a century ago opium was rarely used in China
except as medicine. To-day it enters through the openings
made by English cannon, at the rate of six thousand tons a
CHINA 43
year, and at an annual profit to the Indian treasury of from

thirty to forty million dollars. But this is not the worst:
the vice of opium-smoking has spread with such rapidity that
in one Chinese city alone, where thirty years ago only five
opium dens existed, there are now five thousand. In the
minds of many Chinamen, therefore, Christianity is principally
associated with the gift of opium and its attendant evils.
China has now begun to cultivate the poppy for herself, and in
some provinces six-tenths of the land is given over to produc
ing opium, to the great detriment of agriculture. For the
Chinese argue that if they must have it anyway, they may as
well profit by it themselves, and let their own crop yie with
that which England sends from India. It should be said that
earnest protests have often been made by conscientious Eng
lishmen against this conduct of their Government, but all
A VII.L.AGE SCENE.
remonstrances have failed to change its policy. Hence, when

our British cousins sometimes humorously say that we Ameri
cans worship only the almighty dollar, it may be well to ask
if any deity under the sun is more devoutly reverenced than
the omnipotent pounds, shillings, and pence.
44 CHINA
When we had steamed about five hours from Hong-Kong,

we came in sight of our first Chinese pagoda. It is a hollow
tower of brick about three hundred feet in height, and re
sembles, on an enormous scale, one of those tapering sticks
which jewelers use for sizing rings. At first, I thought that
the nine circular terraces which mark its different stories were
adorned with flags or tapestry, but closer scrutiny revealed the

melancholy fact that weeds and bushes are now growing here.
Indeed, like most of the sacred buildings that I saw in China,
it looked both dirty and dilapidated.
Soon after leaving this neglected edifice, we found ourselves
amid a constantly increasing throng of Chinese boats, and I
began to realize that these were specimens of that floating
population'' of Canton of which we have all read, but of
which nothing but a visit to it can
give an adequate idea.
Hardly was our steamer an
chored in the stream before the
city, when hundreds of these boats

closed in upon us on all sides,
like cakes of floating ice around a
vessel in the Arctic sea. Wedging
and pushing frantically, the boat
men almost swamped themselves.
They fought for places near the
ship like men and women in a
panic. The din of voices sounded
like the barking of five hundred
canines at a dog-show ; and
PAGoDA, NEAR CANTON River.
Chinese gutturals flew through
the air like bullets from a mitrai/
leuse. It seemed impossible to disembark in such a mob.

But suddenly I felt a pressure on my arm. I turned and
saw apparently three laundrymen from the United States.
CHINA 45
A glance assured me they were father and sons. Good

morning, sir, said one of them in excellent English, do
you know Carter Harrison, of Chicago?'"
This question, coming in such a place and at such a time,
NEARING CANTON.
rendered me speechless
with astonishment.
He mentioned us in -
his book, A Race with the Sun,'" continued the young

Chinaman. This is my father, the famous guide, Ah Cum.
This is my brother, and I am Ah Cum, Jr. The others are
engaged for to-morrow, but I can serve you. Will you
take me?'"
So you are Ah Cum?'' I rejoined; I have heard much

of you. Your reference book must be a valuable autograph
album of distinguished travelers. Yes, we will take you;
and, first of all, can you get us safely into one of those boats?
And if so, who will guarantee that we shall not be mur
dered ?'"
Ah Cum.''
Accordingly we came, and presently found ourselves

in a boat. I cannot relate how we got there. I do not
know, myself. I think of it now as one recalls the pulling of
46 CHINA
a tooth when under the influence of laughing-gas. I have a

dim remembrance of jumping from one reeling skiff to another,
of stumbling over slippery seats, of holding on to Ah Cum, Sr.,
and being pushed by Ah Cum, Jr., and now and then grabbing
frantically at a Chinese queue, as a drowning man catches at
a rope. The only reason that I did not fall into the water is
that there was not space enough between the boats. At last,
however, bruised and breathless, we reached a place of ref
uge, and watched our boatmen fight their way out through
the crowd, until
we landed on
the neighbor
ing island of
Shameen. Af
ter the pande

monium around
the steamer, this
seem ed a per
fect paradise
of beauty and
repose. It is
about a mile and
ChiNESE BOATs, CANTON.
a quarter in cir
cumference, and is reserved exclusively for foreigners.
Shaded by drooping banyan trees, stand many handsome
houses inhabited by Englishmen, Germans, and Americans
whom the necessities of business keep in banishment here.
Their social life is said to be very pleasant, and I should
think, indeed, that in so small a settlement the members of
this little colony (if they did not hate) would love each
other cordially. This pretty place, before the capture of
Canton, in 1857, was nothing but a hideous mud-bank.
But foreigners have transformed it almost as completely as
they have Hong-Kong, and have built around it broad
-
-
-
-
-
-
. -
-- -
CHINA 49
embankments made of solid granite, which form an agreeable

promenade.
Unfortunately, however, Shameen boasts of only one
hotel, and of this such dismal stories had been told us that we
had half made up our minds to eat and sleep on the American
steamers, changing from one to another every morning as they
INTERior of A EUROPEANs House.
came and went. This seemed, however, so difficult, that we

resolved to try the accommodations here. We did so, and
discovered that in this case the devil is not so black as he
is painted." At all events, clean, comfortable rooms made

some amends for a meager bill of fare.
I cherish no delightful recollections of our meals on the
island of Shameen. In fact, when a globe-trotter has
reached India or China, the time has come for him to eat
50 CHINA
what he can get, and be devoutly thankful that he can get

anything. Misguided souls who live to eat should never
make a journey around the world. Of course, the foreign
residents here live better than travelers at hotels; but a gen
tleman who entertained us apologized for his poor table, and
said that it was especially difficult to get good beef, since
Chinamen consider it extravagant to kill such useful animals
as cows and oxen. Accordingly, he added, we classify
the so-called
beef that we con
SU11 in C als 'donkey
beef,' c am el
beef,' and preci
pice beef.
Precipice
beef!'' I ex
claimed, what in
the world do you
mean by preci
pice beef?
That, he
replied, is nea -
THE JINRikishA IN chinA.
est to the genu
ine article, for it is the product of a cow that has killed
herself by falling over a precipice."
On one side of this island flows the Canton river, and on
the other is a small canal which separates it from the city.
Two bridges span this narrow stream, each having iron gates
which are invariably closed at night and guarded by sen
tinels. No Chinese, save employees of the foreigners, may
come within this reservation. In 1883, however, a Chinese
mob attacked it fiercely, and swarmed across the bridges, as
the legendary mice invaded Bishop Hatto's tower on the
Rhine. The English, French, and German families escaped
STARTING FOR CANTON.
to steamers in the river, leaving their houses to be plundered

or burned. During my stay here, every evening when this
bridge was closed, and every morning when it was reopened,
I heard a hideous din of drums and horns, concluding with
the firing of a blunderbuss. Our consul told me that the
object of all this was to inspire fear. Tremble and obey!
are the words which close all Government proclamations in the
Chinese empire.
The morning after our arrival, we found awaiting us outside
the hotel door some coolies
with the sedan - chairs in
BRIDGE AT CANTON. - -
52 CHINA
which we were to make our first excursion through Canton.

Another party also was about to start, including several ladies,
each of whom held in her hand either a flask of smelling-salts
or a piece of camphor wrapped in a handkerchief. In fact,
the druggists of Hong-Kong do quite a business in furnish
ing visitors to Canton with disinfectants and restoratives.
Some of these ladies feared being insulted by the Canton pop
- ulace, and told
* '', exciting stories
| - of an English
lady who had
been recently
- # - Spat upon, and
# - . #. of American
' #' | ladies who had
#
| *: been followed by
#4 ~ a hooting crowd.
##!", ####| || Ah Cum, how
#|| | *|| . ever, smiled
- * * |- #|| complacently.
--- - - | '' There is no
danger," he as
- sured us; my
'. father will take
-
A CANTON STREET.
care of you la
-
dies, as I will of
these gentlemen. Every one here knows us. Our people
are always safe."
Accordingly we started, crossed the bridge, and two min
utes later found ourselves engulfed, like atoms in a sewer, in
the fetid labyrinth of Canton. One should not be surprised
that illustrations of its streets are not clearer. The marvel is
that they are visible at all! Streets, as we understand

the word, they cannot be truthfully called. They are dark,
CHINA 55
tortuous alleys, destitute of sidewalks, and from four to eight

feet wide, winding snake-like between long lines of gloomy
shops. Comparatively little daylight filters through them to
the pavement, not only by reason of their narrow limits, but
from the fact that all these passageways are largely filled up,
just above the people's heads, with strips of wood, which
serve as advertising placards. Many of them are colored
blue, red, white, or green, and bear strange characters, gilded
or painted on
their surfaces.
These in the
dark perspec
tive of a crowd
ed alley look like

the banners of
some long pro

cession.
These letters
do not give
the merchants'
names, but serve
as trade-marks,
like the dedi
TEMPLE OF CONFUCIU's, CANTON.
catory words
above the doors of shops in France. How any one can read
them is a mystery; not merely on account of the twilight
gloom, but from the fact that here at every step one comes
in contact with a multitude of repulsive Chinamen, many of
them naked to the waist, who seem compressed within this
narrow space like a wild torrent in a gorge. To stop in such
a place and read a sign appeared to me as difficult as study
ing the leaves of the trees while riding through a forest on a
Texas broncho.
As our bearers pushed their way through these dark,

56 CHINA
narrow lanes, the people squeezed themselves against the

walls to let us pass; then closed about us instantly again, like
sharks around the stern of a boat. At any moment I could
have touched a dozen naked
shoulders with my hand, and

twice as many with my cane.
Meanwhile, to the noise of the
loquacious multitude were
added the vociferations of our
bearers, who shouted constantly

for people to make way, ascrib
ing to us, we were told, dis
tinguished titles that evidently
excited curiosity even among
the stolid Chinamen. Occasion
ally we met a sedan-chair com

ing in the opposite direction.
Both sets of bearers then began
A CANTON COOLIE.
to yell like maniacs, and we
would finally pass each other
with the utmost difficulty, our coolies having frequently to
back the chair-poles into one shop, and then run them for
ward into a doorway on the opposite corner, thereby blocking
the noisy, surly crowd until the passage could be cleared.
The faces packed about us, while not positively hostile,
were as a rule unfriendly. An insolent stare was
characteristic of most of them. Some disagreeable
criticisms were pronounced, but Ah Cum's
expression never changed, and we, of course,
could not understand them.
Once a banana-skin, thrown
probably by a mischievous
boy, flew by my head; and
I was told that China's
A WHEELBARROW FOR FREIGHT,

CHINA 57
favorite exclamation, foreign devils, was often heard. But

I dare say that if a Chinese mandarin, in full regalia, were to
walk through some of our streets, he would not fare as well
as we did in Can
ton; and that if
he ever went to
the Bowery,
hed never go
there any more.
As we kept
passing on
through other
alleys teeming
with half - clad
specimens of the
great unwashed, ONE OF THE BROADEST STREETs.
I called to mind
the fact that this low class in China has been deliberately
taught to hate, despise, and thoroughly distrust all foreigners.
The unjust opium war with England, the recent territorial
war with France, the stories told them of the treatment of
their countrymen in the United States,all these would, of
CHINESE TEA-Pickers,
58 CHINA
themselves, be enough to make them hostile; but they are as

nothing to the effect produced upon an ignorant, superstitious
populace by the placards posted on the walls of many Chinese
cities. I read translations of a few of these, and I believe
they cannot be surpassed in literature for the vulgarity and
infamy of their accusations. They are in one sense perfectly
absurd; but when we recollect the riotous acts to which they
CH1NESE MERCHANTS DR1NKING TEA.
have frequently incited their deluded victims, they challenge

serious consideration.
On entering some of the shops that line these passage

ways, I was astonished at the contrast they presented to the
streets themselves. The latter are at times no more than
four feet wide. Not so the shops. Many of them have a

depth of eighty feet, and in the centre are entirely open to
the roof. In the corner of each is placed a little shrine. A
gallery extends around the second story, and on that floor, or
CHINA 59
in the rear of the building, the owners live. Some of these

shops are handsomely adorned with ne wood-carving and
bronze lamps, and on the shelves is stored a great variety of
goods, frequently
-*
including articles #
as dissimilar as -
.
|
silk and cotton
t
-
fabrics, fans,
jewelry, umbrel =
las, Waterbury milm II:
|
clocks, and Chi

nese shoes. #
* ..."
# - **
F.
|
Among these HALL IN A CH1N ESE HOUSE.
shops we saw a
building used partly as a temple and partly as the Guild Hall
for the Canton silk merchants. Guilds, or trade-unions, have
existed here for centuries. They permeate every branch of
Chinese indus
try, legal and

illegal. Even
the thieves form
themselves into
a guild, and I
suppose there is
honor among
the m . The
origin of these
unions is partly
due to unjust
A CHINES E BED AND FURNITURE.
taxation. Can
ton contains a
vast amount of wealth, but those possessing it are careful

to conceal all trace of any superabundance. On this account
disputes between the various guilds are settled by arbitra
6O CHINA
tion. To allow their affairs to go into court would show too

plainly to the tax-ce" tors their financial status. Accord
ingly litigation is almost unknown. Moreover, when a case
is settled by arbitration, the losing party not only pays the
disputed sum, but is obliged to give a supper to the victor.
In another building that we passed I saw a curious cere
mony, which Ah Cum explained as that of three Buddhist
priests who were clearing a house of evil spirits. It appears
that, two weeks before, a
man had committed sui
cide on the premises, in

order to avenge himself on
the proprietor. For in
China a man, instead of
killing his enemy, some
times kills himself, the
motive being a desire that
the hated one shall be re
garded as responsible for

his death, and be pursued
by evil spirits here and in
the world to come. To
be annoyed by ghosts must

ExORCISING SPIRITs.
be exceedingly unpleasant,
but, on the whole, I hope
that all my enemies will try the Chinese method.
Occasionally we discovered in these streets an itinerant
barber. These Chinese Figaros carry their outfits with them.
First in importance comes a bamboo pole, which is the im
memorial badge of their profession. To this is usually
attached one solitary towel,free to every customer. From
one extremity of this pole hangs a small brass basin, together
with a charcoal stove for heating water; the other end is
balanced by a wooden cabinet, which serves the patient as a
LADY AND MAID.
|
CHINA 63
seat during the operation, and contains razors, lancets, twee

zers, files, and other surgical instruments.
It matters not where one of these tonsorial artists prac
tises his surgery. A temple court, a flight of steps, a street,
or a back-yard, are quite the same to him. He takes his
queue where he can find it. One of his commonest duties is
to braid that customary appendage to a Chinaman's head,
without which he would
be despised. It is com
ical to estimate the
thousands of miles of
Chinese queues which

even one barber twists
in the course of his
careerenough, if tied
together, end to end,
to form a cable between
Europe and America.

Yet this singular style
of hair-dressing (now
so universal) was in
troduced into China
only two hundred and
fifty years ago. Before CHINESE BARBER.
that time the Chi
nese wore full heads of hair, and the present fashion of

shaved crowns and twisted queues is of Tartar origin, and was
imposed by a conquering dynasty as a badge of servitude.
The wearing of a mustache in China is an indication that he
whose face it adorns is a grandfather. In fact, until he is
forty-five years old, a Chinaman usually shaves his face com
pletely; but this fact does not prove that after that time he
can dispense with the services of a barber. For the tonsorial
art in China is exceedingly varied; and Chinese barbers not
CHINA
only braid the queue; they also shave

the eyebrows, clean the ears, pull
teeth, and massage. Moreover, they
scrape the inside of their victim's eye
lids a custom which is believed by
foreigners to be the cause of much
of the ophthalmia in China.
Chinese fortune-tellers had for me
a singular fascination. I found them
everywherein temple courts, at gate
ways and beside the roadsinvariably
wearing spectacles, and usually seated
at a table decorated with huge Chinese
characters. Their services seemed to
A CHINES E MERCHANT.
be in great demand. In every case

the ceremony was the same. Each applicant in turn ap
proached, and stated what he wished to know; for example,
whether a certain day would be a lucky time for him to buy
some real estate, or which of several girls his son would better
marry. Upon the table stood a tin box full of bamboo sticks.
One of these
slips the cus
tomer drew at
random, and
from the sen
tence written on
it the fortune
teller gave his

answer in oracu
lar words
which could, as
usual, be inter
preted in vari
ous ways. A ChiNESE FoRTUNE-TELLER.
CHINA 65
At length,
however, leav
ing for a time
the shops and
dimly - lighted
alleys, we found
ourselves ap
proaching a
huge gate. For
Canton, like
A WALL OF CANTON.
m O St other
Chinese cities, is divided into certain districts, each of which
is separated from the adjoining one by a wall. The gateways
in these walls are always closed at night, and are of special
use in case of fires or insurrections, since they are strong
enough to hold in check a surging crowd till the police or sol
diers can arrive.
Passing through this portal, we made our way along the

wall until we arrived at
a prominent point of ob
servation, known as the
Five-storied Pagoda.
Whatever this may once
have been, it is to-day a
shabby, barn-like struc
ture, marked here and
there with traces of red
paint, like daubs of

rouge on a clown's face.
All visitors to Canton,
however, will recollect
the building, with a cer
tain amount of pleasure,
as being the resting-place The FIVE-STORIED PAGODA.
66 CHINA
in which one eats the lunch brought from the steamer or

hotel. Not that there is not food of certain kinds obtainable
in Canton itself, but somehow what one sees of Chinese deli
cacies here does not inspire him with a desire to partake of
A WAYSIDE RESTAUTRANT.
them. In one of Canton's streets, for example, I entered a

cat-restaurant. Before the door was a notice which Ah Cum
translated thus: Two fine black cats to-day, ready soon.

On stepping inside, I heard some pussies mewing piteously in
bamboo cages. Hardly had I entered when a poor old
woman brought the proprietor some kittens for sale. He felt
of them to test their plumpness, as we might weigh spring
chickens. Only a small price was offered, as they were very
thin, but the bargain was soon concluded, the woman took
her money, and the cadaverous kittens went to swell the
chorus in the cages. Black cats, by the way, cost more in
China than cats of any other color, for the Chinese believe
that the flesh of dark-coated felines makes good blood.
CHINA 67
To some Chinamen, dogs fried in oil are also irresistible.

In one untidy street, swarming with yellow-skinned human
ity, we saw a kind of gipsy kettle hung over a wood fire.
Within it was a stew of dog-meat. Upon a pole close by
was hung a rump of uncooked dog, with the tail left on, to
show the patrons of this open-air restaurant to what particu
lar breed the animal had belonged. For it is said there is a
great difference in the flesh of dogs. Bull-terriers, for exam
ple, would probably be considered tough. Around this kettle
stood a group of coolies, each with a plate and spoon, devour
ing the canine stew as eagerly as travelers eat sandwiches at a
railway restaurant after the warning bell has rung. Some
hungry ones were looking on as wistfully as boys outside a
bun-shop. One man had such a famished look that, through
the medium of Ah Cum, I treated him at once. Moreover,
hundreds of rats, dried and hung up by the tails, are exposed
for sale in Canton streets, and shark's fins, antique duck
eggs, and sea-slugs are considered delicacies.
We tried to bring back photographic proofs of all these
horrors, but it was impossible. Whenever we halted in the
CHINAMEN OUT ON A PICNIC.
narrow lanes, in fifteen seconds we would be encircled by a

moving wall of hideous faces, whose foremost rank kept clos
ing in on us until the atmosphere grew so oppressive that we
gasped for breath and told our bearers to move on. Nor is
68 CHINA
this all. These crowds were sometimes positively hostile. A

superstitious fear of being photographed by foreign devils'
made them dangerous. This fact was several times made dis
agreeably evi
dent. Thus, in
a garden adjoin
ing a Chinese
temple, I wished
to photograph
some sacred ''
hogs which were

attached to the
sanctuary in
THE SACRED HOGS. SOme unknown
capacity. But scarcely had the exposure been made, when a

priest gave the alarm, and in three minutes a mob of men and
boys were rushing toward us, uttering yells and throwing
sorTING TEA.
stones. Ah Cum himself turned pale. He sprang in front of

us, and swore (may heaven forgive him ) that not a picture had
been taken. Of course we offered money as indemnity, but
CHINA 71
the priests rejected it with scorn, claiming that by the pointing

of the camera we had stopped the growth of the hogs. I do
not think I exaggerate the situation when I say that if the
politic Ah Cum had not been there to defend us, we should
have suffered
personal injury.
Standing up
on the summit of
the Five-storied
Pagoda, we
looked out over
the city of Can

ton. For wide
A CHINES E FARM -HOUSE.
spread, unre
lieved monotony, I never saw the equal of that view in any
place inhabited by human beings. True, the confusion of the
foreground was to be excused, since a tornado had recently
blown down many of the native houses. But far beyond this
mass of ruins, stretching on
and on for miles, was the same
monotonous, commonplace
vista of low, uninteresting
buildings, seamed with mere
crevices in lieu of streets.
Meantime, from this vast area
came to us a dull, persistent
hum, like the escape of steam
from a locomotive, reminding
us that here were swarming
nearly two million human be
ings, almost as difficult for a
foreigner to distinguish or
identify as ants in a gigantic
ant-hill. THE FLOWERY PAGODA, CANTON.
72 CHINA
The exact population of Canton is hard to determine.

The number arrived at depends upon where one leaves off
counting the three hundred suburban villages, each of which
seems a part of the city. Bishop Harper, who lived here for
forty years, says, that if one should plant a stake in the centre
of Canton, and count all around it within a radius of ten
miles, one would find an aggregate of three-and-a-half million
people. One village, for example, eleven miles away, noted
for silk and other
manufactures, is
thought to con
tain eight hun
dred thousand
inhabitants.
Out of this
wilderness of
mediocrity there
rose in one place
a pagoda, which
by contrast
seemed to pos
sess prodigious
CANTONEs E PAWN-shops.
height; but such
objects are ex
ceptional. To understand what Canton is like, one must
picture to himself a city which, with its suburbs, is larger
and more populous than Paris, yet has not one handsome
avenue, one spacious square, or even one street that pos
sesses the slightest claim to cleanliness or beauty. Worse
than this, it is a city without a single Chinese building in its
whole extent that can be even distantly compared in archi
tectural elegance with thousands of imposing structures in
any other city of the civilized world. But are there no
European edifices in Canton?" the reader may perhaps in
CHINA 73
quire. Yes, one, which makes the contrast only more appar
ent. It is the Roman Catholic cathedral, whose lofty tow
ers are, strangely enough, the first objects in the city which
the traveler sees in sailing up the river from Hong-Kong.
This handsome Gothic structure, built entirely of granite,
rising from such a sea of architectural ugliness, at once
called forth our admiration. To the Chinese, however, these
graceful towers are objects of the utmost hatred. It angers
them to see this area, which French and English conquerors
obtained by treaty, still occupied by a Christian church. So
far, it has escaped destruction; but there are those who
prophesy its doom and
say that the time will
come when not one stone
of it will be left upon
another.
There are, however,
five or six other buildings
in Canton, which rival
the pagoda and the Cath
olic church in height.
These hideous objects,
which look like mon
strous granite boxes set | -

on end, are pawn-shops. *
One might conclude from . ...
their enormous size that
half the personal property
of the Cantonese was in
pawn. They certainly

are well patronized, for
pawning clothes is such
a common thing in China
that hundreds of the
CATHOLIC CATH FDRAL, CANTON.

74 CHINA
Cantonese send here for safe-keeping their furs and overcoats

in summer, and their thin summer clothes in winter, receiving
money for them as from any pawn-broker. The Chinese
mode of guarding these tall structures against thieves is cer
tainly unique. Upon the roofs are piled stones to be dropped
upon the heads of robbers, and also reservoirs of vitriol,
with syringes to squirt the horrible acid on invaders.
Astonished at this lack of imposing architecture, we asked
TEMPLE OF FIVE HUNDRED GODS.
if there were no temples in Canton. Assuredly there were

eight hundred of them, all more or less defaced and incrusted
with dirt. One of the oldest and most sacred is called the
Temple of Five Hundred Gods, because within its walls
are seated five hundred life-size images of gilded wood, repre
senting deified sages of the Buddhist faith. But they are all
coarse specimens of sculpture, and many are amusing carica
tures. In front of each is a small jar of ashes, in which the
worshiper burns a stick of incense in honor of his favorite god.
Offerings of money, too, are sometimes madebut not of
CHINA 75
genuine money. The Chinese are usually too practical to

use anything but imitation money made of gilded paper. I
do not know what the gods think of this Oriental style
of dropping but
tons in the con
tribution - box,
but the priests
do not like this
sort of currency.
They are all
hard money
men.
But, if we ac
cept the ancient
proverb that TO AN old TEMPLE, CANTON.
labor is to pray," then are the Chinese devout indeed. What

ever other faults they may possess, idleness is not one of them.
The struggle for existence keeps them active. Yet they live
on almost nothing. A German merchant told me that one
of his coolies,
after twenty-five
years of service,
had recently had
his salary raised
to ten dollars a
month. The
laborer was, of
course, delight
ed. Now, he
exclaimed, I
APPROACH TO A SHRINE.
intend to marry
another wife. For years I have longed to have two wives,
but have never been able to afford it; but now, with ten
dollars a month, I can indulge in luxuries!
76 CHINA
In strolling about among these Chinese coolies, I found

that life in China is indeed reduced to its lowest terms. In
some of the Canton shops, for example, I saw potatoes sold

in halves and even in quarters, and poultry is offered, not
only singly, but by the pieceso much for a leg, so much
for a wing. Second-hand nails are sold in lots of half-a
dozen. A man can
buy one-tenth of a
cent's worth of fish
or rice. I under
stood, at last, how
Chinese laundrymen
can go home from
the United States
after a few years'

work, and live
upon their incomes.
When one perceives
under what condi
tions these swarm
ing myriads live, one

ONE OF THE MANY. naturally asks how
pestilence can be
averted. One source of safety is, no doubt, the universal
custom of drinking only boiled water in the form of tea.
If it were not for this, there would be inevitably a terrible
mortality, for the coolies take no precautions against infec
tion. A gentleman in the English consular service told us
that he had seen two Canton women in adjoining boats, one
washing in the river the bcdclothes of her husband who had
died of cholera, the other dipping up water in which to cook
the family dinner!
If, perchance, these people should fall ill, I fear they
would not be greatly benefited by any Chinese doctor whom
CHINA 77
they might erhploy. Chinese physicians are thought to be

ignoramuses, unless they can diagnose a case by merely feeling
the pulse. Hence, if they are called to attend a lady, they
see of her usually nothing but her wrist, thrust out between
the curtains of the bed. Those who prescribe for internal
diseases are called inside doctors, while others are out
side" men, just as some of our medicines are labeled for
external use only. A story is told of a man who had been
shot through the arm with an arrow. He first applied to an
outside" doctor, who cut off the two ends of the weapon
and put a plaster on each wound. But, said the patient,
the remainder of the
arrow is still in my
arm. Ah! replied
the outside'' doctor,
that is not my affair.
To have that removed,
you must go to an 'in
side' man."
One day, in passing
through a temple gate,
a half-clad Chinaman
offered me for sale a
box of grasshoppers,
which, when ground
into a powder, make a
popular remedy for A CHINES E DOCTOR.
some ailments. In fact,

aside from ginseng and a few other well-known herbs, the
medicines used in China seem almost incredible. A favorite
cure for fever, for example, is a soup of scorpions. Dysen
tery is treated by running a needle through the tongue. The
flesh of rats is supposed to make the hair grow. Dried lizards
are recommended as a tonic for that tired feeling," and
iron filings are said to be
a good astringent. Chi
-->''.
nese physicians say that*
: . . certain diseases are cur

.* - - -
-
-
- * --- -
- * 4. able only by a decoction

-
whose chief ingredient is
a piece of flesh cut from
the arm or thigh of the
patient's son or daughter.
To supply this flesh is
thought to be one of the
noblest proofs of filial de
votion. This is not an
exaggeration. In the
A MEMORIAL GATE.
Pekin Officia/ Gazette of
July 5, 1870, is an edi
torial, calling the emperor's attention to a young girl who
had cut off two joints of her finger and dropped them into
her mother's
medicine. The
mother recov
ered, and the
governor of the
province pro
posed to crect
a monument in
honor of the
child.
In view of
such a pharma
copoeia, it is a
comfort to learn
that in the Chi
nese theology a
BEGGARS ON THE TEMPLE STEPs.
|
*. a . . a =
CHINA 8I
special place in hell is assigned to ignorant physicians. All

quacks are doomed to centuries of torture, the worst fate
being reserved for doctors who abuse their professional skill
for purposes of immorality. Their punishment is the cheer
ful one of being boiled in oil. Another curious, and not
altogether absurd, custom of the Chinese is to pay a physician
so long as they continue in health, but if they fall ill, the
A GROUP OF CHINEs E WOMEN.
doctor's salary ceases until they recover, whereupon it com

mences again.
Chinese women seemed to me, as a rule, exceedingly
plain, but, even were they Venuses, one of their characteris
tics would make my flesh creep. I refer to their claw-like
finger-nails, which are so long that apparently they could be
used with equal ease as paper-cutters or stilettoes. Gloves
cannot possibly be worn upon these finger-spikes, so metal
sheaths have been invented to protect them. To show what
82 CHINA
can be done in nail-growing,

the following lengths were meas
ured on the left hand of a
Chinese belle: thumb nail, two
inches; little finger nail, four
inches; third finger, five and
one-quarter inches. Under
these circumstances we cannot
wonder that in China it is not
the custom to shake hands:
otherwise, painful accidents

might occur. Accordingly, the
Chinese clasp their own hands
and shake them gently at each
other.
LILY FEET.
A still more repulsive pecu

liarity of Chinese women is their stunted feet, which for the
purposes of locomotion are little better than hoofs. All
Chinese ladies of the better class
must have these lily feet, as

they are called. Sometimes a
Chinaman will have two wives;
the first an ornamental one with
lily feet," the second, a large

footed woman for business. The
origin of this barbarous custom of
preventing the growth of the foot
is unknown. Perhaps it sprang
from a sentiment which Ah Cum
graphically expressed by saying:

A small foot is much safer to
live with. A big foot runs about
too easily and gets into mischief.
Moreover,'" he added, with a MOTHER AND CHILD
CHINA 83
smile, a big-footed woman sometimes kicks." One China

man assured me with great pride that his wife's foot was only
two and a half inches long. There is a class of women here
whose regular business it is
to bind the feet of little
girls when about six years

of age. The process of re
pressing the natural growth
of the foot lasts for seven
yearsthe four smaller
toes being bent under
until they lose their
articulations and become
identified with the sole
of the foot. When this
has been accomplished,

the second and severer
operation commences
of bringing the great toe
and the heel as nearly
together as possible.
A DISTORTED FOOT.
The bandage is drawn
tighter, month by month, until the base of the great toe
is brought into contact with the heel, and the foot has be
come a shapeless lump. By this unnatural treatment the
leg itself becomes deformed, and its bones are made not
only smaller in diameter, but shorter. The circulation also is
obstructed, and the large muscles are soon completely atro
phied from disuse. The agony caused by such interference
with nature can be only faintly imagined. It made the tears
come to my eyes to hear a Chinese gentleman describe the
methods taken to console his suffering children and help them
forget their misery. The poor little creatures scream and
moan from the incessant pain, and often lie across the bed
84 CHINA
with their legs pressed against the edge, in the hope that this
will lessen their distress; but nothing can relieve them but
freedom from the torturing bandage, which is never relaxed.
It makes one sick at heart to think that such a custom has
prevailed in China for more than a thousand years.

Should we approach a group of Chinese merchants in Can
ton, and ask any one of them How many children have
you?'' we could be almost certain that he would not think of
counting his daughters, or
that he would at least make
this distinctionI have two
children, and one girl. For

to a Chinaman nothing in life
is so important as to have a
son to offer sacrifices for him
after death and worship at his

grave, since, in their opinion,
a daughter is not capable of
doing this. When a boy is
born, therefore, the father is
overwhelmed with congratu
lations, but if the newcomer
be a girl, as little reference as
A CHINESE LADY. possible is made to the mis
fortune. Friends are informed of the birth of a child by strips
of paper carried through the street. If it be a boy, yellow
paper is used, but in case of a girl any color will do. This
feeling, intensified by poverty, is the cause of the infanticide
which has been, and still is, in certain provinces, so dark a
blot on the domestic history of China. It is said, for ex
ample, that in the vicinity of Amoy thirty per cent. of all
new-born girls are strangled or drowned, as unwelcome kit
tens sometimes are with us.
On our second day in Canton we investigated another
phase of Chinese
life, in some re
spects stranger
than anything
we had thus far
seen. Along the

sh or e s of the
Canton river, and
in its various ca
nals, is a popula
tion of a quarter
of d million souls, THE HOMES OF THOUSANDS.
living on thousands of peculiar boats crowded together side

by side, and forming streets, and even colonies, of floating
dwellings. Moreover, these conditions prevail in every river
town throughout the empire.
Each of these sampans, as they are called, though only

about twenty feet in length, constitutes the home of an entire
family. Eight people frequently live on one boat-grandpa
and grandma, father and mother, uncle and aunt, two or three
children, and a
baby. The lat
ter is tied to the
back of its moth
er, even when she
is rowing. As
for the other chil
dren, their pa
rents f as ten
a round the m
pieces of bam
boo, like life-pre
servers, and tie
them to the rail
A CHINESE PATERFAMILIAS.
86 CHINA
by a cord. If they tumble over, they float until some one

gets a chance to pull them in. Upon these little boats thou
sands are born, eat, drink, cook, and sleep, and finally die,
having known no other home. Under the flooring are stored
their cooking utensils, bedding, clothing, provisions, oil, char
coal, and other requisites of their aquatic life. Above them,
A MARKET-PLACE.
usually, are movable roofs of bamboo wicker-work, to give

protection from the sun and rain.
Some of these families even take boarders! I verified this
by going at night among this floating population, and found

that sleeping space on the boats is rented to those who have no
fixed abode. Planks are laid over the seats to form a floor,
and on these lie the numerous members of the household and
CHINA 87
the lodgers. Conspicuous figures in this boat-life are the

itinerant barbers and physicians, who go about in tiny sam
fans, ringing a bell and offering their services.
Occasionally, however, we beheld a boat much larger and
finer than the craft around it. It proved to be one of the
Chinese flower-boats, which are the pleasure resorts of China's
jeunesse dore. By day they are conspicuous by their size and
gilded wood-work, and in the evening by their many lights.
Never, while memory lasts, shall I forget an excursion made
at night with our hotel-proprietor among these flower-boats
and their surroundings. Many of them were anchored side
by side, and planks were stretched from one to the other, like
a continuous sidewalk. As we walked along, we passed by
countless open doors, each of which revealed a room hand
somely furnished with mirrors, marble panels, and blackwood
furniture. Here were usually grouped a dozen or more hilari
ous Chinamen, who were eating, drinking, and smoking, to
gether with professional singing-girls, who are hired by the
owners of these flower-boats to entertain their guests with
songs and dances. We could not pause to observe them care
88 CHINA
fully, for foreigners are not wanted here, either as visitors or

patrons. Meanwhile, at the very doorways of these hand
some rooms, beggars in greasy garments crowded around us
and almost threateningly demanded alms. Look out for
* *
your pockets," was the proprietor's constant warning.

I have an indistinct remembrance of thus passing row
after row of lighted boats, room after room of painted girls,
group after group of sleek, fat Chinamen at tables, and then,
on leaving these, of seeing miles of loathsome boats contain
CHINESE MUSIC.I.A.N.S.
ing half-clad men stretched out on bunks and stupefied by

opium, hag-like females cooking over charcoal braziers, and
ragged children huddled in dark corners. I have a vivid
recollection, too, of walking over slimy planks, of breathing
pestilential odors, and of looking down on patches of repul
sive water, so thick with refuse that they resembled in the
lamp-light tanks of cabbage-soup. We also shudderingly
passed some leper-boats, whose inmates are afflicted with that
terrible disease, and who are forced to live as outcasts, beg
ging for alms by holding out a little bag suspended from a
CHINA 89
bamboo pole. But finally shaking off the beggars who had
followed us, and fleeing from this multitudinous life, as one
might turn with horror from a pool of wriggling eels, I stag
gered into the boat belonging to the hotel. As it moved out
into clearer water, I drew a long breath and looked up at the
stars. There they werecalm and glorious as everscat
tered in countless numbers through measureless space. At
any time, when one looks off into the vault of night, our lit
tle globe seems insignificant, but never did it seem to me
so tiny and
comparatively
value less, as
when I left
these myriads
of Chinamen,
swarming like
insects in their
narrow boats,
apparently the
reduction of hu
manity to the
grade of mi
crobes.
A TYPICAL CHINEs E. CRAFT.
The gentle
man who had accompanied me on this occasion was a Wall
street broker. Well, he exclaimed at last, I have spent
fifteen years among the Bulls and Bears, and I think my
nerves are pretty strong, but for experiences which unnerve
a man, and things which (glad as I am to have seen them
once) I never wish to see again, nothing can compare with
the sights and smells discovered in a trip to Chinatown '''
What impressed me most, however, in this experience was
the idea that the millions in and around Canton are but an
insignificant fraction of the Chinese race. It filled me with

90 CHINA
horror to reflect that all I had witnessed here was but a tiny
sample of the entire empire. For Canton is said to be supe
rior to many Chinese cities.
One writer has declared that, after walking through the
Chinese quarter of Shanghai, he wanted to be hung on a
clothes-line for a week in a gale of wind. Tientsin is said to
be still worse for dirt and noxious odors. Even Pekin, from
all accounts, has horribly paved and filthy thoroughfares,
and its sanitary conditions are almost beyond belief. If such
A WHEELBARROW BUILT FOR Two.
then be the state of things in the capital, what must it be in

the interior towns, so rarely reached by foreigners?
It may, however, be objected that in the open ports,
where they encounter foreign influence, the people are at
their worst. But Chinamen are not impressionable, like the
North American Indians or the aborigines on the islands in the
Pacific, who eagerly adopt the vices of their conquerors, and
speedily succumb to them.
China is one of the oldest countries in the world. Most of
her ideas, customs, as well as the personal habits of her people

CHINA 9I
are of immemorial antiquity, and her inhabitants are too con

servative to change them. What one beholds in Canton,
therefore, may be fairly supposed to exist from one extremity
of the empire to the other.
But now, among so much that is disagreeable, one naturally
inquires, Are there not some redeeming features in this Chi
nese life?'' I must confess there are not many discernible
to the passing traveler, but I will gladly mention one about
which I made careful inquiry. It is their honesty in business.
It is the almost invariable custom for Chinese merchants every
New-Year's day to settle their accounts, so that no errors
may be carried over into the coming year; and I was told
that if a tradesman fails to meet his liabilities at that time, he
is considered a defaulter and his credit is forever lost. Eng
lish and German merchants spoke to us of Chinese commer
cial honor in the highest terms, and drew comparisons in this
respect between them and the Japanese which were not flat
tering to the latter.
Even in Japan, I found at all the foreign banks, in some
of the shops, and in the Grand Hotel, that the cashiers were
not Japanese, but Chinamen. Of course, one who has never
traded with them cannot judge of their comparative abilities
in a business way, but merchants in Yokohama, Shanghai,
and Hong-Kong, as well as on the island of Shameen, told
us that Chinamen were more trust
worthy than the Japanese, and
- could be usually depended on to
A MARRIAGE PROCESSION.
92 CHINA
live up to their contracts, whether they proved favorable or

unfavorable.
An English gentleman who had resided both in China and

Japan for years, once said to me: The more you see of
the Japanese the less you will like them. The more you see
of the Chinese the less you will dis
like them. You will always like the
Japanese; you will always dislike
Chinamen; but the degree in which
you cherish and express these senti
ments will constantly diminish.
Besides the numerous differences
between Oriental and Occidental
customs noticed in Japan, we found

in China many other proofs of
what has been well called a state
of topsy-turvydom. Thus, our tail

ors draw the needle inward; Chinese
tailors stitch outward. With us mili
tary men wear their swords on the

left side; in China they are worn on
the right. In boxing the compass a
Chinaman says East, West, South,
North." To mark a place in a book
we turn the corner of a page inside;
a Chinaman bends it the other way.
A chixEsB JUNK.
We print the title of a volume on
the back; the Chinese on the front.
We play battledore and shuttlecock with our hands; the
Chinese use their feet for a battledore and catch the shut
tlecock on their foreheads. We use our own names when
engaged in business; in China fancy names are taken. We
carry one watch hidden in our pocket; a Chinese gentleman
sometimes wears two outside his clothes, with their faces
CHINA 93
exposed. We
black our boots;
the Chinese
whiten theirs.
With us it is con
sidered impolite
to ask a person's
age; in China it
is a high compli
ment, and there
a man is con
sACRED Rocks, iNtERior of CHINA.
gratulated if he
is old. Men, at least in the Occident, have plenty of pockets;
the Chinaman has none, and uses his stockings as receptacles
for papers, and at the back
of his neck inserts his folded
fan. At our weddings youth

ful bridesmaids are desired;
at Chinese nuptials old women
serve in that capacity. We
* .
launch our vessels lengthwise;
the Chinese launch theirs side
wise. We mount a horse
from the left; they mount

J. their horses from the right.
w SNS We begin dinner with soup
and fish, and end with des
sert; they do exactly the re
verse. Finally, the spoken
- language of China is never
written, and the written lan
guage is never spoken.
After all, however, we
should remember that China
Li hUNG chANG's visitixG-CARD.

94 CHINA
men who travel in our own country think that our customs are
as strange as theirs appear to us. A prominent official of the
Flowery Kingdom, who made the tour of Europe several
years ago, took notes of what he saw, and published them on
his return. Among them are the following: Women, when
going to the drawing-room of Queen Victoria regard a bare
skin as a mark of respect. When people meet and wish
to show affection, they put their lips and chins together and
A Joss-House.
make a smacking sound." This is not so difficult to under

stand, when we recollect that, like most Orientals, the
Chinese do not kiss, and that even a mother does not kiss her
own baby, although she will press it to her cheek. Again, he
thus describes our dancing parties: A European skipping
match is a strange sight. To this a number of men and
women come in couples, and enter a spacious hall; there, at
the sound of music, they grasp each other by both arms, and
leap and prance backward and forward, and round and round,
-
-
|
-|| | =
||
-#
|- -
-
-
- --|
-
-
-
-
-- E. -
-
-
-
--- .s|||
-
CHINA 97
till they are forced to stop for want of breath. All this, he
adds, is most extraordinary;" and when we Occidentals
think of it, perhaps it is. A Chinese youth, after eating for
the first time a European dinner, wrote of his experience:
Dishes of half-raw meat were served, from which pieces were
cut with sword-like instruments and placed before the guests.
Finally came a green and white substance, the smell of which
was overpowering. This, I was informed, was a compound
PlacE OF EXECUTION, CANTON.
of sour milk, baked in the sun, under whose influence it

remains until it becomes filled with insects; yet the greener
and livelier it is, the greater the relish with which it is eaten!
This is called Che-sce.''
The object of most gruesome interest to me in Canton was

its place of execution. On entering this, I looked about me
with astonishment; for almost all the space between the rough
brick walls was filled with coarse, cheap articles of pottery.
Ah Cum explained, however, that when a batch of heads
are to be cut off, the jars are all removed, much as a hotel
98 CHINA
dining-room is cleared for dan

cing. The condemned prisoners
are always brought in baskets
to this place, and are compelled
to kneel down with their hands
tied behind their backs. Their
queues are then thrown for

ward, and they are beheaded
at a single stroke. Traces of
blood were visible on the
ground, and from a mass of

rubbish close at hand a grin
ning Chinaman pulled out sev
eral skulls which he had hidden
there, and claimed a fee for
A PAGODA. exhibiting them. I was pre
sented to the executioner, and asked him how many men he

had himself decapitated, but he could not tell. He kept no
count, he saidsome days six, some days ten, in all probably
more than a thousand. As he was resolutely opposed to hav
ing his picture taken, we placed his two-edged sword against
the wall, and photographed that. When I was told that, once
a week, twenty or thirty men are brought into this filthy court
to die like cattle
in a slaughter
house, I stood
aghast, but when
I subsequently
learned that this
is the only ex
ecution-place in
a great province
with a popula
tion of twenty DRAW ING WATER.
CHINA 99
millions, the
number did not
seem so appall
ingly excessive.
This is, however,
merely the aver
age in ordinary
times. After
certain insurrec
tions, such as the
Taiping rebel
lion, this hid
eous square has
FEMALE CULPRITS.
seemed almost a
reservoir of human blood. The venerable missionary, Dr.

Williams, states that he saw here one morning at least two
hundred headless trunks, and stacks of human heads piled
six feet high. Careful estimates place the number executed
here during fourteen months, at
eighty-one thousand,or more
than thirteen hundred every
week!
I doubt if many criminals be

headed here feel much regret at
leaving life, so horrible has been
their previous condition in the
Canton prison. We visited this
institution, but to obtain a pic
ture of it was impossible. Within
an ill-kept, loathsome area, we
saw a crowd of prisoners wearing
chains, while around their necks
were heavy wooden collars,
which, being from three to five A PR1SONER,
IOO CHINA
feet square, were so wide that the poor wretches wearing

them could never possibly feed themselves, but must depend
on others for their nourishment. How they lie down to sleep
with them on I do not know. Yet they must wear such collars
for weeks, and
even months, at
a time. I have
no sentimental
sympathy for
criminals, and
thoroughly be
lieve in the en
forcement of just
laws, but I was
shocked at the
JUDGE AND Prison ERs.
sight of these
poor creatures. Whatever may have been their guilt, such
treatment is a degradation of humanity.
Leaving the place of execution, we made our way to one
of the criminal courts of Canton. It was in session when we
entered it, and I never can forget the sight that met my gaze.
Before the judge was a prisoner on his knees, pleading for
mercy and protesting innocence. Chains were around his
neck, waist, wrists, and ankles. Beside him knelt an aged
woman, whose gray hair swept the floor as she rocked back
and forth, imploring vengeance on her son's assassin. At
last the culprit confessed his crime of murder, and was led
back to prison. How sincere his confession was, it would be
hard to say; for if, in the face of powerful adverse testimony,
an accused man still asserts his innocence, he is often pun
ished in the court-room till he does confess. Around the hall
were various instruments of torturebamboo rods to flog the

naked back; hard leather straps with which to strike the pris
oner on the mouth, thus sometimes breaking the teeth and
CHINA IOI
even the jaw; thumb-screws and cords by which he is sus

pended by his thumbs and toes; and heavy sticks with which
to beat his ankles. I did not happen to see these used,
because in the three trials I witnessed all of the prisoners
confessed. But they are used; and just as I was entering the
court, I met a criminal being led back to prison, so weak and
crippled by his punishment, that he could hardly step with
out assistance. Curiously enough, after the torture has been
administered, the culprit is required to fall upon his knees
and thank the judge. This I should think would be the
most unkindest cut of all.
It seems impossible to say anything in defense of such a

system as this; for in China a man is not only looked upon as
guilty till he is
proved innocent,
but is kept in
loathsome con
finement, and
may be even put
upon the rack, in
spite of the es
tablished fact
that torture is
never a test of
truth. And yet

a foreign resident
made, as an apol
ogy, the follow
ing statement: A CHINESE Court.
You must re
member that testimony here amounts to nothing, and that,

by paying sixpence apiece, you can pack the court-room with
men who will swear that black is white. Hence, where a man
can easily bribe false witnesses to ruin his enemy, the Chinese
I O2 CHINA
law provides that no one shall under any circumstances be

put to death unless he has confessed his crime. But since a
prisoner on trial for his life will usually protest his innocence
to the last, the court attempts by torture to force him to
confess.''
We visited finally an object in Canton far pleasanter than

its scenes of punishment, yet equally characteristic of the
national life. It is the place where natives of this province
take the first step in the only path which in China leads to
political and social rank. It is the scene of the competitive
examinations, the fame of which has filled the world.
the ExAMINATION GROUND, CANTON.
The courtyard where the contest takes place is by no means

inviting. It is an area of sixteen acres, covered with nearly
nine thousand rough brick sheds. At the time of an exam
ination each of these is occupied by a candidate. Before he
enters it, his person is carefully searched, and soldiers and
policemen guard all passageways to prevent communication.
Each in his narrow cell, these applicants for office then
remain for three consecutive days and nights, about as pleas
antly lodged, I should imagine, as Jonah was for the same
length of time; for these dirty dens of brick are only four
feet long, three feet wide, and possibly six feet high. One
of the horse-sheds in the rear of a New England meeting
CHINA
house would be a far more comfort
able place in which to eat and sleep.

Perhaps they are meant, however, to
emphasize the triumph of mind over
matter. Their only furniture consists
of two small planks, one for a seat.
the other for a table. Rest is, of
course, impossible in such a cage, and
candidates have sometimes died here
from physical and mental strain. All

this seems inexcusably cruel; yet the
Chinese government may have good
reasons for maintaining this severity. A STUDENT.
: For instance, such a system, if intro

duced at Washington, would rid the District of Columbia of
nine-tenths of its office-seekers within twenty-four hours.
While some of these students persevere in their attempts
till they are seventy or eighty years of age, others are quite
young; but the fact of youth is not considered discreditable,
for Confucius said: A youth should always be regarded with
respect. How do we know that his future may not be su
perior to our present? At all events, the highest place is
open to them,
if their brains
will take them
there; for every

village in China
has its school,
and every free
b or n citize n
may qualify for

this struggle,
the governing
FiSiiiNG ON THE Rivek. principle of
IO6 CHINA
which is Let the best man win ' '.' It is the law of the sur
vival of the fittest exemplified in politics.

In all the provinces of China, on the appointed day, thou
sands of candidates assemble, eager for the contest. Subjects
are given them on which they must produce a poem and orig
inal essays. Their work is then examined by officials ap
A ChiNESE GENERAL AND HIS ATTENDANTS.
pointed by the Government, and so extremely rigid is the

test, that out of every thousand applicants only about ten
gain the first, or District, degree. There are, however,
three degrees to be attained by Chinese aspirants for fame.
Those who come out as victors in the first receive no office,
but are at least exempt from corporal punishment, and may
attempt the examination for the next degree. Even the few
who pass the second, or Provincial," test (about one in a
CHINA IO7
hundred) receive no government appointment. Yet they

are distinguished among their countrymen by wearing a gold
button in their hats, and by a sign over their houses signifying
Promoted man.
Those who succeed in standing the third, or Imperial,

test at Pekin,-severer even than the other two,-have reached
the apex of the pyramid. They
are now mandarins, and have
acquired all they can desire,
social distinction, office, wealth,
and (what is sometimes still
more highly prized) great na
tional fame. For in the results
of this examination the entire
country takes the greatest in

terest. The names of the suc
cessful men are everywhere

proclaimed by means of cour
iers, river-boats, and carrier
pigeons, since thousands of
people in the empire have laid
their wagers on the candidates,
as we might do on horses at the
Derby. Strange, is it not, to
think that this elaborate Chi
Li HUNG CHANG.
nese system was practised in

the land of the Mongols substantially as it is to-day, at a time
when England was inhabited by painted savages?
Moreover, the honors of successful candidates in China
cannot be inherited. Young men, if they would be ennobled,
must surpass their competitors and win their places as their
fathers did. Even the youthful son of Li Hung Chang, whom
General Grant considered, next to Bismarck, the most re
markable man he met with in his tour around the world, is
IO8 CHINA
not entitled, because of his father's office, to any special rank.

Hence, China, though an absolute monarchy, has no privi
leged class whose claims rest merely on the accident of birth.
Her aristocracy consists of those who have repeatedly proved
themselves intellectually superior to their rivals. Among no
people in the world, therefore, have literary men received
such honors as in China; and it is a remarkable fact that this
vast nation has worshiped for two thousand years, not a great
LI HUNG CHANG AND suite ON THEIR TOUR AROUND THE WORLD.
warrior, nor even a prophet claiming inspiration from God, but

a philosopher, Confucius.
I have often thought that were I asked to compare the
Chinese empire of to-day with some material object, I would
select for such comparison the Great Wall on its northern
frontier. This mighty work has hardly been surpassed in the
whole history of architecture, not even by the builders of the
Pyramids. It is no less than twenty-five feet high and forty
feet broad, with watch-towers higher still, at intervals of
CHINA IO9
three hundred feet. And yet it has a length of nearly fifteen

hundred miles, a distance exceeding that from Boston to St.
Paul, and in its uninterrupted march spans deep ravines and
climbs to lofty mountain crests, in one place nearly five thou
sand feet in height. Although it was built three hundred years
before the birth of Christ, it still exists, and during fourteen
- -
->
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.
centuries sufficed to hold in check the savage tribes of Tartars

from the north. It has been calculated that if the Great Wall
were constructed at the present time, and with Caucasian

labor, its cost would pay for all the railroads in the United
States. One hundred years ago an English engineer reckoned
that its masonry represented more than all the dwellings of
England and Scotland put together, and, finally, that its
I IO CHINA
material would construct a stone wall six feet high and two
feet thick around the entire globe.
In many respects this great rampart is typical of China.
Both have a vast antiquity, both have an enormous extent,
and both have
had their pe
riods of glory,
China her
age of prog
ress and in
vention, and
this old wall a
time when it
was kept in
perfect order,
when war ri
ors stood at
every tower,
and when it
A GATEWAY IN THE GREAT WALL- stretched for
fifteen hundred miles an insurmountable barrier to invasion.

But just as this leviathan of masonry has outlived its useful
ness, and is at present crumbling to decay, so the huge Chi
nese empire itself now seems decrepit and wholly alien to the
nineteenth century. Her roads, once finely kept, are now
disgraceful; her streets are an abomination to the senses; her
rivers and canals are left to choke themselves through want
of dredging; and even her temples show few signs of care.
Stagnation and neglect are steadily at work on her colossal
frame, as weeds and plants disintegrate this mouldering wall.
Will this old empire ever be aroused to new activity, and can
fresh life-blood be infused into her shrunken veins to animate
her inert frame? There is, I think, a possibility that, in the

coming century, the new, progressive party here will overcome
CHINA I I I
the dull conservatism of the nation, connect her vast interior

with the sea, utilize her mineral wealth, develop her immense
resources, and make her one of the great powers of the world.
Napoleon once warned England that if the Chinese should
learn too well from her the art of war, and then acquire the
thirst for conquest which has characterized other nations, the
result might be appalling to the whole of Europe. For think
what inexhaustible armies they could raise, and what great
fleets they could build and launch upon their mighty rivers!
But this is a problem of the future, about which no man can
predict with certainty.
Many have asked me if I am glad that I went to China,
and I have always answered that, as a unique and useful
study of humanity, I think it one of the most valuable expe
riences of my life. Still I am bound to say, that when I stood
upon the deck of an outgoing steamer, and felt it move be
neath my feet responsive to the engine's stroke, I drew a
breath of pleasure and relief. For I was assured that the
A LEVIATHAN OF MAsoNRY.
II 2 CHINA
swarming millions of the Chinese empire were being left

behind me, and that my face was turned toward that historic
land where, lighted by the Southern Cross, I was to visit
Hindu shrines and Mogul palaces, and gaze on the Himalayas
and the Taj Mahal.
AN EXPOSITION
OF THE
CONSTRUCTION AND IDIOMS
CHINESE SENTENCES,
AS FOUND IN
COLLOQUIAL MAND AIRIN.
For the use of Learners of the Language.
BY
A. SYDENSTRICKER.
SHANGHAI:
AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN MISSION PRESS,
1889.
EPEREET ACE.
THE following little volume is the result of the author's studies of the
idioms and construction of Chinese colloquial. It is of course crude,
imperfect and unfinished, as every first attempt almost necessarily is.
Friendly criticism is invited.
The author had not studied Chinese long before he felt convinced
that there was a far better method of acquiring a speaking knowledge of
it than by learning every sentence by rote de novo. Having acquired the
words and their use, there must be some general principles by which they
are construed into sentences.
Three things seem essential to acquire Chinese, or in fact, any
foreign language: First, A correct pronunciation, that is, one free from
our native accent. This, in Chinese, includes a correct enunciation of the
tones. This pronunciation is of course gotten from the native teacher,
guided, however, by the experience and directions of older foreign
speakers of the language. The beginner makes perhaps no more serious
blunder than to follow his own crude pronunciation, acquired through his
untrained ears, in preference to the experience of acknowledged
authorities. If the pronunciation is faulty, the very foundation of his
acquirements in the language is corrupt and vitiated. Second, A correct
use of words. This is derived at first from dictionaries, &c.; afterwards
from the people themselves. Third, A correct knowledge and use of the
idioms and construction of sentences. This volume is an humble attempt
to guide the student in this third department of knowledge. Whether
the author has succeeded or not, is not for him to judge; if he has, he
will be grateful; if not, he will not be disappointed.
If any are disposed to criticise my devoting precious time to such
work as this, I simply answer, That this has been my method of studying
the language. While I have heard others speak of memorizing sentences
by the score, I can truly say that I have committed to memory scarcely a
dozen sentences in all the several dialects that I have had occasion to
study. My plan has always been to acquire words with their pronuncia
tion and use, and thus combine them into sentences in accordance with
ii PREFACE.
some general rules or principles. Given the rule, any number of

sentences may be correctly formed by it, thus avoiding the irksome task
of committing to memory every sentence.
I would by no means underrate phrase books which have their use,
especially for beginners, and a very important use too. Nor would I
throw overboard grammars which are exceedingly useful, especially in
giving one a general view of the language. In writing this volume, I
have consulted all the phrase books and grammars on Chinese that I
could secure, that is to say, about all written in the English language,
and while I willingly acknowledge the help derived from them, yet I
must say that they very often left me to grope my own way; so that this
volume, whether a failure or success, has at least the merit of being, to a
large extent, an original production.
The principles and rules, &c., laid down, are given rather as general
guides or finger-posts than as rigid rules that must be mechanically
adhered to in forming sentences. I do not claim the name of grammar
for the book, since many things belonging to that department are not
here discussed; such as style, tones, dialectic disctinctions, &c. I have
confined myself strictly to construction and idioms and used Romanized
spelling simply as a help to the student in reading the sentences. Hence,
tone-marks are omitted, and hence, also, I have adopted a general
pronunciationa combination of Northern and Southern Mandarin,
omitting the local pronunciations of each, a pronunciation which I have
found to be of the greatest service among all classes of mandarin-speak
ing natives.
A table of it will be found in Appendix No. II. It is of course
imperfect. I have spelt the short tones of the peculiar sh and ch and j
sounds by simply adding a h after a hiphen, e.g, # sh-h, H j-h, &c.
One is almost tempted to change the initial j to r, as the latter is widely
used, but j is certainly scientifically more correct, since it is simply the
aspirated 2 (j=zh) of Chiangnan. Here, as in one or two other places,
strict accuracy may have been sacrificed to scientific correctness. One
more remark on the spelling seems called for. The initial i I have always
spelt yi, and o, wo, &c. I may be more correct, but as y is distinctly
heard before in, ing, &c., I have added it in all these initials for the sake
of uniformity.
And now the volume is committed to the public, the book-shelf, or
the waste-basket, whichever place is the most suitable for it.
A. SYDENSTRICKER.
T'SING-KIANG-P'U, 1889.
CHAPTER I.
THE ANALYSIS AND FORMATION OF WORDS.
SINCE in Mandarin Colloquial many words are often, and in many

cases necessarily, made up of two or more characters, we must
in accordance with our general plan, begin with the Analysis and
Formation of Words. We give simply a general outline of the
formation of those compounds which will at the same time show
their component parts, or analysis.
I. Many single characters which of themselves express the
whole meaning intended by the word in question, yet add a charac
ter in order to distinguish words that otherwise would be alike or
similar to other words in sound, i.e., for clearness of expression and
ease of pronunciation.
1st. The characters added may be mere suffixes, and as such
lose their own meaning and are combined in pronunciation with the
preceding character. Such are
(1) + ts and 5 er, both meaning son when alone, but
losing this meaning when appendede.g., # + choh-ts table,
# + yi-ts chair, #3 p'an-ts plate, # + shen-ts body, # + l-ts
donkey, Hi + chu-ts cook, # 5 miao-er bird, # 5 hua-er flower,
# 5 p'ing-er bottle, F 5 men-er door, &c.
Remarks.1. Perhaps usage alone decides which of the above two characters is
to be added to a given word. In some cases either may be used. In general, the
Southern Mandarin, with its dialects, prefers + ts, while the Northern Mandarin, with
its dialects, prefers 5. ei".
2. The excessive use of 5. er is very vulgar. Hence, it is more common among
the uneducated than among the cultured. In public speaking, especially, one should
be careful of its use, as the excessive use of it tends rather to the confusion than
the clear distinction of sounds.
3. When 5. er is combined in pronunciation with the preceding character, the
final nazal (n or ng) of the latter is generally dropped or only slightly heard. Thus,
# 5. c'hien-er becomes chier, Fij 5. men-er becomes mer, &c.
4. 5. er is sometimes (vulgarly) added to words already dissyllabic: # # 5.
ul-lunger (k'u-lur), hole, # + 5. chi-ts.er (chi-tser) hen's egg.
2
(2). HH Teu, head, is added (a) to names of material things having

a blockish shape: S HH muh-t'eu wood, H H sh-h-t'eu stone, H HH
j-h-t'eu sun, # # ch-t'eu finger, $ # chien-t'eu fist, #H# lang-teu
hammer; (b) to monosyllabic verbs in order to give them the force of
abstract nouns: # k'an to look, # # k'an-t'eu something to look
at; # t'ing to listen, # # t'ing-t'eu something to listen to ; # wang
to hope, # HH wang-teu hope; # shoh to say, speak, t # shoh-t'eu
something to say; nien to think, # j# nien-t'eu thoughts; (c) to
locative terms intimating the extremity or end. Here its meaning
head is not entirely lost sight of: If hsi west, # # hsi-teu west
end; # tung east, # # tung-t'eu east end; # che this, H H che
t"eu this end, # na that, #5 H ma-teu that end; so # # li-teu
inside, #, HH wai-t'eu outside, E # shang-t'eu topside, etc.
(3). K. Chu, place, is added to a limited number of words form
ing abstracts: # 59 yih-chu advantage, # hao good, # It hao-chu
benefit; # hai to injure, # 5: hai-chu injury; # ti ground, # It
ti-chu place; # nan difficult, # 3 nan-c'hu difficulty.
Remark.In some compounds the meaning place is distinctly retained in
le c'hu : 4:tso to sit, 43 }: tso-c'hu place, or room to sit ; # tsew to walk, # l:
tseu-chu place to walk; # loh to rejoice, # l: loh-c'hu place, or ground for rejoic
ing; EH ming bright, open, BH l: ming-chu in an open place, openly.
(4) # Chia, family, is added to nouns relating to individuals:

A # jen-chia person, E # kueh-chia kingdom, # ts-chia oneself.
2nd. The first character is sometimes repeated, chiefly those
denoting family relations: # # ko-ko elder brother, # # ti-ti
younger brother, #k #k mei-mei younger sister, $ $ pa-pa papa,
## ma-ma, mamma, #### mo-mo loaves (native).
Note.Many monosyllabic words are repeated for the sake of emphasis. A
discussion of these does not concern us now.
3rd. Often two synonyms are united to form a word: JJ #

p'eng-yu friend, J# 35 kung-lao, merit, # 5 ti-hsiung brethren, bro
ther, # # cha-'kao to investigate, # # mai-tsang to bury, # #
kuan-k'an to behold, # # huan-hsi to rejoice, # # ling-huen soul.
Remark.Usage largely decides which of these two synonyms precedes. In
some words either may begin the word: ## tsang-mai and # # mai-tsang, #
# c"ha-k'ao and # # k'ao-cha, ## ling-huen and # # huen-ling, # +3.
huan-hsi and ## hsi-huan, &c. It might be said that where the two characters
are identical in meaning, and interchangeable, either of them may precede.
3
II. In very many cases no single character contains the whole

meaning intended to be conveyed in the word; hence, combination is
resorted to.
1st. Characters conveying opposite extremes of meaning are

united to denote the meaning contained between the two extremes:
# shen deep, # chien shallow, # # shen-chien depth; # c'hing
light, H chung heavy, # # ching-chung weight; # chang long, #
tuan short, # # chang-tuan length; # to many, p shao few, $ 25
to-shao amount, how much? # lai come, # wang, go, # # lai-wang
intercourse; # mai buy, # mai sell, # # mai-mai mercantile busi
ness; # hao good, 37 tai bad, #5 hao-tai quality; # yien distant,
#1 chin near, # II yien-chin distance.
Remark.Here also, perhaps, usage decides which of the terms precedes.
2nd. Abstract nouns are formed by adding the character # fah

plan, to verbs referring to the modus operandi : # tso to do, make,
# #: tso-fah the plan of doing; nien to read, & # nien-fah plan,
method of reading; # chiu to save, # # chiu-fah plan of salvation;
# chiao to teach, # # chiao-fah method of teaching.
3rd. Here the first character in the word is specific in meaning,
the second is general. Thus the first limits, and so modifies, the
meaning of the second (compare the English lamp-wick, tea-pot,
house-boy, &c.): # # ts'ao-liao (lit. grass material) feed, #5 #
ma-ping (lit. horse soldiers) cavalry, # # teng tsao (lamp grass)
lamp-wick, # fi teh-hsing (virtuous acting) virtue, + JV chu-jen
(lord man) master, JH A yung-jen (use man) servant, '' 48 yi-sheng
(heal life) physician, #1 % chin-ai (relatives' love) love of relatives (to
each other), # # lien-ai (pity love) love springing from pity, # #
ch'ah-k'an (investigate look) to examine, # R ai c'hiu (grief entreaty)
entreaty (springing from a sense of misery). So also a man's name and
title: # # 4: Chang hsien-sheng, Mr. or teacher Chang, # k #
Li ta-ko elder brother Li, GJ #4: Pao yi-sheng Dr. Pao, etc.
This method of combination is very common, and may be extended
to any required need. Almost any characters suitable to convey any
desired meaning may be thus combined. Witness the facility with
which the Chinese coin words to designate foreign innovations: # #
luen chuan (wheel boat) steamer, # #5 tieh-lu (iron road) railway,
# # tien-pao (electric message) telegram, etc.
4.
4th. Composite terms denoting occupations are made up of a

verb and its object referring to the occupation in question, followed by
the descriptive particle fij tih : # # chang-kuei to have charge of
the money chest, # # 63 chang-huei-tih accountant; # Fij k'an-men
to watch the door, # F# #j k'an-men-lih porter; & # nien shu to
read or recite books, $ # #j nien shu tih student; # # kan-chioh
to drive animals (lit. feet), # # 65 kan-chioh-tih muleteer, # H
t'uei c'he to push barrows, # H #4 t'uei c'he tih barrowman, etc. The
particle # tih is a relative-descriptive character, and means he, who or
that which performs the action designated by the verb.
Remarks.--In a few cases 65 tih is omitted, in others Mjen takes the place of
#j tih ; further, jen may be added to composites with #4 tih, making the appellation
more distinct : # #] hsien-ch (fore know) prophets, #l f hsi-tsoh spies, ' # M.
tuh-shu-jen, students # # #j A mai-mal tih jen merchants (lit. those who buy
and sell.
III. Finally, there are a few words, chiefly anomatopoetic, that

cannot be analyzed: # 5 k'eh-seu cough, H. W. a-l'i to sneeze, * *
ha-ha loud laughter, 13 || 3 huh-huh sound of wind, # 5 JB ha-na-li
broad (lit. Holland) cloth, # H ya-p'ien opium, etc.
CHAPTER II.
THE SENTENCEGENERAL DIVISION OF WORDS.
HAviNG considered the formation of compound words, we now come

to the general classes or kinds of words in a sentence. The most
general divisionand, perhaps, as such, the bestis that adopted by
native grammarians, as follows:
First,-Dead or Fixed Words (35 H S ts) i.e., Substan
tives, nouns and pronouns, the names of things, actions, &c. As
names, these have a fixed use and fixed position in the sentence, and as
such can be used for no other purpose# 64 stih dead, immovable.
Second,Living or Movable Words (## hoh ts) i.e., the
predicate, words that imply action and are, therefore, not fixed in
any one place or use.
Third,Empty or Meaningless Words (## hsii ts), i.e.,
particles, including conjunctions, interjections, terminals, &c.; words
that are supposed to have no meaning of their own, but depend on
their environments for this.
It is evident that these divisions describe the places in which

words are used rather than definite classes of words. This is evident
from the fact that a given character or word may very often be used
as a 35.5 s ts, # # hoh ts, or if H hsii ts without change of form,
the class to which it belongs being determined by the place it occupies
in the sentence.
In fact, it may be stated as a general principle, that the part

of speech of a word depends not on its form, but on its position in
the sentence.
Remark.The chief exceptions are the forms given in Chap. i., I, 1st (1), (2), (3),
and (4) which, as such, can only be nouns. We will now take up each of these
divisions in order, and attempt to give their subdivisions, idiomatic uses and what
belongs to each.
PART FIRST.
DEAD WORDS. OR SUBSTANTIVES, WITH THEIR

ATTRIBUTIVE MODIFIERS.
CHAPTER III.
SUB STANTIVE S.
THE Substantive may be

I. A Nou.N, or anything used as such, or, II. A PRONoUN.
I.With regard to Nouns we here need to notice only Number.
1st.To personal nouns alone belong number, properly so called.
The singular has no specific form. If there is nothing in the context
to indicate the contrary, the ordinary form is singular. It may be
added that unless the plural is emphatic, it may be left to be gathered
from the context, omitting the usual plural ending. But the plural of
personal nouns is regularly formed by adding the syllable || men :
# 5 ti-hsiung brother, # 5 # ti-hsiung-men brothers, brethren;
# A: ['i hsien-sheng-men teachers, # + || hai-ts-men children.
RemarkM jen seldom, if ever, takes this plural ending, being too general in
meaning.
2nd.With reference to concrete nouns other than personal, it
may be said that they refer rather to classes of things than to the
individuals themselves. The form of the noun has no reference either
to the singular or plural. Hence, when either number is required it
must be indicated by modifying words. Thus, the singular is indicated
by placing before the noun,
(1) The numeral yih one, and the appropriate classifier:
- || A yih ko jen one (or a) man, - # # yih t'iao kew one (or a)
dog, - # # # yih k'uai yang chien one (or a) foreign dollar.
/
7
Remarks.1. It will be seen from the examples given, that the numeral " yih
covers the ground of the English indefinite article.
2. Even here the numeral makes the classifier rather than the noun singular:
- # #] yih tiao kew, really one piece (pidgin English) of the dog kind.
(2). The singular demonstratives # che this, and #5 na that,
especially when followed by a classifier: E A che ko jen this person,
# As # na pen shu that book, #### che k'uai yang chien this
dollar.
4s
Remarks#5
the.
che and #5 na also cover the ground of the English definite article
The plural is indicated

(1). By the numerals above yih, followed by the classifier
appropriate to the noun: E # # + san chang choh-ts three tables,
+ +i (# 4 AH sh-h-wu ko hsioh-sheng fifteen pupils, + # chill
pen shu seven books.
(2) By the plural of the demonstratives, # it che hsie these, and
#5 it na hsie those : E + A che-hsiejen these men, #5 it # na
hsie shu those books.
(3). By the collective classifiers : - # # yih chiin chu a herd

of swine, - # 3 # yih t'ao yi-shang a suit of clothes, - # A
vih panjen a class of men.
Remarks.When a numeral above " yih is used with a collective classifier it
makes the classifier plural: E # # san chiin yang three flocks of sheep, J #
&# span hsioh-sheng, four classes of pupils (see above singular, (1), Remarks, 2).
This rule is an exception to singular (1), above.
(4). By adjectives having a plural sense, as # chung the whole

number of, # 3 shii to very many, 3 p to shao how many? # chi
several, - # yih hsie a few, &c.; # W chung jen the whole number
of persons, the multitude, #3; # II hsil-to sheng-keu many beasts,
# P # to-shao chien how many cash 7 - # 3: A yih hsie n jen
a few women.
Remarks1. In the above varieties of plural, when personal nouns are in question,
(# men may also be added: # # + # che-hsie hai-ts. men these children,
fi fi :# 5t. " wu ko ti-hsiung-men five brothers, E # # 4: [' san pan
hsioh-sheng-men three classes of pupils.
2. The plural is often clear from the connection, and is not indicated specially
by any modifying word: JV # jen shoh people say.
II. The PRONoUNs. Pronouns may be1st, Personal; 2nd,
Reflexive; 3rd, Interrogative; 4th, Correlative.
8
1st. Personal Pronouns. To these belong both person and num

ber. To form the plural the same suffix is added as to personal nouns:
(F men. We give the personal pronouns in tabular form:
SINGULAR. PLURAL.
l. 3' wo I, me. # (# wo-men we, us.

2. ($ ni you, thou, thee. fR (; ni-men you, ye.
3. *b, ta he, she, him, her. {b t'a-men they, them.
Remarks.l. {b, t'a is properly personal, and is sparingly used for inanimate
objects (Eng: it), though freely for animals. The noun referring to the inanimate
is generally repeated instead of a pronoun in the nominative; for the objective the
Chinese idiom is so construed that the equivalent for it is generally not needed.
However, the third personal pronouns # c'hi and 2 ch from the wen-li are fre
quently used in colloquial language, especially in sentences formed after the book style.
# chi is used in the nominative and possessive, and 2 cl in the objective cases:
# # |# t'ing chi men I hear reports of it, 5: r 2 t'ien ming ch heaven
decrees it, 2 # # na ch chii pa take it and begone!
2. In North China || | tsa, plural |IH # tsa men (contracted to # tsan), and
{# an are much used for the first person.

2nd. Reflexive Pronouns. Those in universal use are # E ts
chi and # # ts-chia, equivalent to myself, yourself, &c., in
English. When used with personal pronouns, they follow the latter,
as in English: # # D, wo ts-chi I myself, 5, E. 3' + ta ts-chi
ai pa let him come himself, {b, H E # # E, t'a ts-chi hai ts-chi he
injures himself.
Remarks.1. # ts really means from, and B, ohi is the true reflexive, # .
ts-chi from oneself, of one's own accord.
2. The shortened forms ts and B. chi are aften used alone in sentences
formed after bookish models, but never in connection with the personal pronouns;
H ts in the nominative and objective, and E. chi in the passive and objective cases:
# # D. ; ts hai chi shen to injure oneself, Ijt ts hung ts to deceive oneself,
# A #) B, hai jen lichi to injure others for personal advantage, # M #Il C.
ai jen ju chi to love others as oneself.
3. When the reflexive is modified by a character, # ts alone is used: # #
# woc'hin ts in person, {. # # t"a tuh ts he alone.
4. The reflexive is more used than in English, especially with or instead of
5. t"a, as the latter might refer to a third party: {b, # T # D. # % #
t"a shah liao ts-chi tih fu-chin he has killed his own father, where (b. #j %. t"a
tih fu c'hin simply, might mean someone else's father.

Note.This is because {. ta in book language means other, not he.
5. The words Z# pen shen, As A pen jen, and a few similar terms, often
replace the reflexives: 5. As f % # t"a pen shen yu ping he himself is ill.
9
3rd. Interrogative Pronouns. The most widely used are,

(1). # shuei (in Northern Mandarin), and #5 ( na ko (in
Southern Mandarin) who? whom? These two are used only of persons,
and form possessives with #4 tih : # 65 shuei tih, # 5 # na ko tih
whose ? They have no plural forms. # # chao shuei whom are you
looking for ? # #T # F# shuei ta-choh men who is knocking at the
door? #5 || # T na-kolai la who has come P E + #5 || #4 #H +
che sh na-ko tih mao-ts whose hat is this?
(2) # A na-yih-ko, plural ### na-chi ko, which one?

which ones? This pronoun is used both of persons and things: # -
# A na yih ko jen which man? #5 # Z: na chi pen which volumes?
A possessive is formed with #4 tih : E # #5 - || # chi sh na yih
ko tih which one's is this?
(3) # # shen-mo what? is used of things and (vulgarly) of
persons: # # # 5 che sh shen-mo what is this? ($ # # # # ni
lai tso shen mo what did you come to do? # # # 5 shen-mo tung
hsi what thing? # # M shen-mo jen what man (vulgar for # shuei
or #5 || na ko who P).
Remarks.l. }: Mo, alone, |# sha and f+ # sh-h mo are used in some dis
tricts for # }# shen-mo, but are too local to be considered good Mandarin.
2. It will be easily seen that both #5 - || na-yih-ko and # # shen mo are
freely used as interrogative adjectives: # Z: # ma-i-pen shu which book?
-
# # }: P shen-mo tung-hsi what things?

3. Of course in #5 |- |# na-yih-ko any appropriate classifier takes the place
of # ko : # - Z: # ma-i-pen shu which book? # e-# # + ma-yih
chang choh-ts which table P # Na as an interrogative is pronounced in the shang
sheng.
As to Position, the interrogatives take their normal place in the sentence, unlike
their English equivalents: {i, % J. # ni lai chien shuei whom do you come to
see ? # # # k'an shen-mo what are you looking at P
Exception.An exception to this rule for position occurs when an interrogative

is used intending a strong denial of a preceding expressed or implied assertion; the
interrogative here begins the sentence and is emphatic: # # # #j # #. shwet
sh wo tih mu-c'hin, who is my mother? (implying that the one supposed is not),
# }: R: * shen-mo wei liang-hsin, what is conscience P As will be seen
hereafter, this is in accordance with the general rule for emphatic clauses. It will
be noticed, too, that it is precisely like the English idiom.
The INDEFINITE USE of the INTERRoGATIVE PRONoUNs.Besides
their use as direct interrogatives, the above words are used also in the
sense of the indefinite words whoever, whatever, anyone, no one, &c.
These uses we will now attempt to make clear in detail.
10
(1). Whoever, whatever, &c. When there occurs an interrogative

in the protasis of a compound sentence, its sense is then indefinite,
and it may or may not be repeated in the opadasis, or, its place there
may be filled by a personal pronoun: 3: # # # IJ C # ni yao
shuei, shuei chiu k'o-yi lai whomsoever you desire, may at once come,
# # # II PI # # shuei yu chien k'o-yi chin lai whoever has
money may come in, #5 - fit # # 5, # # 5 # na-yih-wei
yu sh, t'a chiu hao lai chien wo whichever gentleman has business, it
will be well for him to come to see me, #3: # - # # 4: #5 -
# ni yao na-yih-pen chiu na na-yih-pen take whichsoever volume you
Slre.
Remark.When the interrogative is in the objective, it, or a personal pronoun,

had generally best be expressed in the apadasis: # # #. # # #] # wo p'eng
chien shuei chiu wen shuei, whomsoever I meet, I will ask him; H # # F# # #
gu shen-mo, c'h-h shen-mo, eat whatever there may be at hand.
(2). The indefinite words anyone, everyone, anything, everything,

are represented by the interrogative pronouns placed at the beginning
of the sentence, followed by such words as # tu, # chiai, all, &c.: #
# HJ J', 2's shuei tu k'o-yi lai anyone (or, everyone) may come, #
}: # f {# shen-mo tu hsing teh anything (or everything) will do,
# - || # # na-yih-ko chiai hao whichsoever one is good, i.e., they
are all good.
(3). The negative indefinite words no one, nothing, none, are
represented by simply negativing the above construction: # # 7. f
# shuei tu puh ha lai no one is allowed to come; # 5 # Z: # J#
shen-motu puh hao yung nothing is good to use; #5 - # # ZF +
# na-yih-ko tu puh hoh-sh-h none fits; # # Z. { % shuei chiai
puh k'en lai no one is willing to come.
(4). The negative answer to an interrogative is made by repeat
ing the predicate in negative form, followed by the interrogative which
is here indefinite: # # chao shuei whom are you looking for ? Z.
# # puh chao shuei I am looking for no one; # # # yao shen mo
what do you want? A: 3: # 5 puh yao shen mo I want nothing.
(5). The equivalents of the English someone, something, are these
interrogatives in the ordinary affirmative construction when the predi
cate and not the interrogative is emphatic: ; H || # + # 5: 5;
* + + # , che ko hai-ts wei shen-mo k'uh 2 pih sh shen-mo
11
yao t'a why is this child crying?there must be something biting it;
{{R #5 ZR # 2, #### (; ni no puh tung, pih chao Shuei pang ni
if you are unable to move it, you must call someone to help you; 5.
# # # 3; T t'a mai shen-mo chii la he has gone to buy something;
# # ## T wo chao shuei lai la I came to look for someone.
Remark.The correlative force of the interrogatives is emphasized in each of
the above constructions, except the last one (No. 5), by placing before them the
indefinite phrases X. # puh luen, # # ww luen X. #j puh chii, Z. |# puh wen,
meaning no matter; Z. # # # puh luen na-ko no matter who, i.e., anyone, every
one;Z. # # # puh chil shan-mo no matter what ; X. | #5 -# # ZS
## puh wen na-yih-ko tu puh neng chi no matter which one--none can go.
Note.The above remark shows that, although used in an indefinite sense, these
words still retain their character as interrogatives.
4th. Correlative Pronouns. Correlation in the use of pronouns

is expressed,
(1). By the book terms # pei that, and j', t's this, placed to
gether: # ##### pei t's tuei wen ask each other; {, }; Rij || A #
j}, fil # T t'a-men liang ko jen pei t's ho hao la they have been
mutually reconciled; # 5 # It #4 ## t'a men pei t's tih chung
tan their mutual burdens; # # # # 5 # # yu cheu kai pei t's
an-wei if we have sorrow we ought to comfort each other.
(2). By H. # hu-hsiang or simply # hsiang before another
verb. These terms convey the idea of mutual: {, }; Rij || H # #
R; ta-men liang ko hu-hsiang an-wei they comfort each other; # * H.
# ### wo-men hu-hsiang pang-chu we help each other; # # # #:
# A ji ji fi kai ting-kuei tsai shen-mo ti-fang hsiany huei we
ought to settle at what place we will meet each other; H E # E A
# ###| |E} chung kueh wai kueh jen-o'hing ts-jan hsiang-tung the
feelings of Chinese and foreigners are of course mutually alike; # #4
# F# #1 # # ni tih hsing wei ho hain hsiang twei your actions
and your heart mutually agree. The two methods of correllation may
be combined in the same sentence: # "H # # pei t's hsiang ai
love one another; # j # # # # # # #j ni men ta chia pei
t's hsiang pang hsiang chu you all give each other mutual assistance;
II C. B. H # # # 5 k'o-yi kai j-h peit's hsiang chien we may see
each other on another day.
CHAPTER IV.
APPOSITION.
THE next feature of the Substantive that comes up for consideration is

Apposition. This may be classed under three heads,-1st, Descriptive;
2nd, Pronominal; 3rd, Quantitative.
1st. Descriptive Apposition. Here the term in apposition precedes
the name or noun, in accordance with the general principle that the
modifying term precedes the one modified by it: H E & # # #
chung-kueh huang-ti kuang-hs; Kuang-hs, the Emperor of China,
# E #: @ # ### # Chang-san tih fu-ch'in, Chang-yi-suen, Chang
yi-suen, Chang III.'s father.
Remarks.1. The clause in apposition may follow the noun parenthetically, as
explanatory of it: EE - # #j H] M. # # f wang-er, wo tih yung-jen hen
lao sh-h, or +. # # 3# #4 J# JV. wang-er, chiu sh wo tih yung jen, Wang
II., my servant, (or, who is my servant), is very honest.
2. Titles do not come under the above rule for apposition; the proper name is
attributive to the title and may with it be considered as one compound word (See
Chap. i., 2, 3).
2nd. Pronominal Apposition. In this idiom the term in apposi

tion follows the pronoun as explanatory of it (see Remark 1, above):
# F# F# ( wo-men liang ko, we two; #5, # H. : W tea-men wu ko
jen, they five men; (b || |I| H A t'a-men shan-hsijen, they Shansi
people; # F# #5 # 63 A ni-men na-pen tih jen, you people over
there.
3rd. Quantitative Apposition. This consists of a class of terms

following the subject of the sentence in order to designate how far
the subject is concerned in the action of the predicate. These terms
are: # to many, p shao few, # tu, & ch'ien, # chiai, {{ chii,
all, ## t'ung-tung, ## lung-tsung, &c., the whole number of,
4# A mei jen each person, # A koh jen, || || A koko jen &c.,
every, k + ta-pan, 3 + to-pan the greater part of, k # ta-kai
13
generally, E > san fen three-tenths and fractional terms generally:

# H # A ### T t'a men chungjen tu lai la, the whole number of
persons have all come; # 6, # # 7. E. feng-suh koh yu puh tung,
every custom has points of difference; Kj # #4 it ######
miao li tih shen t'ung-tung sh chia tih, the gods in the temples are
every one false; is k #2 + r # A t'a-men ta-pan sh chiang-su
jen, they for the most part are Kiang-su people.
Remarks1. When two substantives precede the predicate, the quantitative term
refers to the one nearest to itself: {i, JL # # # H jj ni fan sh tu teh chuh
lih, in all things you must use exertion; 5. # # I. # f t'a-men, peh kung tu
huei, they can do all kinds of work. When it is desirable to quantify both substan
tives, two terms must be used, one referring to each term respectively: {b, # #
A. f I. # f t'a-men met jen peh kung tw huei, they each are skilled in all
kinds of work.
2. These quantitative terms are separated from the predicate only by adverbs
qualifying the latter; auxiliaries precede the quantitative term : BH 5K ). ##
j. ming-t'ien pih tu k'an-chien, to-morrow everything shall be seen; 5. #5 # #
# # T t'a-men tu k'uai-k'uai tseu la, they all quickly left.
3. These terms may refer back, not to nouns or pronouns, but to any word or
clause used substantively as well: B: 4. # B. 4: H #5 f hoh tso chuan hoh
tso c'he tu hsing, whether boat or cart, either will do; B. # B. # #5 # hoh heh
hoh peh tu hao, either white or black is good.
CHAPTER W.
THE ATTRIBUTIVE MODIFIERS OF THE NOUN SUBSTANTIVE.
HAVING done with the Substantive, we now come to the Attributive

Modifiers of the Noun Substantive. The general rule for the position
of Attributive Modifiers is, that they must precede the Substantive
modified.
- Exceptions.1. When a noun has already been given, it may be
separated into different classes by attributives following it: # Wii #I
# # #4 # #4 # # yang pu, hung tih, huang tih, lantih, tu yu,
foreign cloth, red, yellow, and blue, are all on hand; # # # # #
% T chiao-yu man n tu lai la, the Church members, both male and
female, have all come.
2. An explanatory clause descriptive of the subject may follow
it parenthetically: # # # 48 # J# E 64 HJ J') is # # pen-ti
hsien-sheng na yung kung tih k'o-yi neng chin-tah, native teachers
those who make an effortmay be able to get promotion.
NoteThe above exceptions are apparent rather than real. The noun, having
already been given, is omitted in the parenthetic clauses simply to avoid repetition.
It will be noticed that the English has the same idiom.
Attributive Modifiers may be divided into five classes, viz., 1st,

Numerals; 2nd, Classifiers; 3rd, Possessives; 4th, Demonstratives;
5th, Adjectives.
1st.Numerals.
(1). Cardinal Numbers. The first ten are yih 1; - er 2; E

san 3; W S 4; fi wu 5; 7's luh 6; chih 7; WV pah 8; jL chiu 9;
+ sh-h 10. The combinations to form higher numbers are founded
on the unit and decimal systems, as in English, and are of course
exceedingly simple: + - sh-h yih 11; + = sh-her 12; + fish-h
wu 15; + JV sh-h pah 18; ~ + er sh-h 20; - + - er sh-h yih 21;
L + fier sh-h wu 25; + + san sh-h 30; # + wu sh-h 50; -
15
Bi yih peh 100; SH 5 wu peh 500; - + yih chien 1,000; - + #.

T yih chien wu peh 1,500; - # yih wan 10,000; - + JW 5 JV +
V\ yih chien pah peh pah sh-h pah, 1888, &c.
Remarks.1. When one or more ciphers occur in the middle (not at the end) of a
number, the fact is indicated by inserting the word # ling surplus, which may be
repeated for two or more ciphers: - + E + vih chien ling sansh-h 1,030,
- + # E |# yih chien ling san (or ling ling) ko 1,003; fi. # # E Tiff
wu wan, ling san peh 50,300; - + # + fi yih chien ling sh-h ww 1,015.
2. When a number ending with one or more ciphers is stated absolutely, i.e.,
without a substantive or classifier following, the denominations indicated by the
-
ciphers need not and generally are not expressed: fi. + - wu chien san 5,300,
- H - yih peh er 120, E # fisan wan wu 35,000. But when it is less than
100, or when there are already ciphers in the middle of the number indicated by
# ling, the denominations of the ciphers at the end must in any case be given in
#. + wu-shih 50 ; ju +
full, otherwise their denominations would be uncertain :
chiu sh-h 90; -- + : + gih chien ling san sh-h 1,030; E T # 7": {#
san peh ling luh ko 306; fi # (#) T # E {# wu wan (ling) s peh
ling sanko 50,403.
3. In ordinary colloquial, Rij liang takes the place of ~ er, (except in com.
pounds,) before concrete nouns, while - er is used with abstract nouns and where a
bookish style is imitated: # |# A. liang ko jen, two men Rij # # liang tien
chung, 2 o'clock; but + - sh-her 12, - -i er sh-h 20, &c.
2nd. Ordinals. These are simply the cardinals prefixed by #

ti No., or in the case of yih by HH t'eu head: # - te'u, or # -
ti yih No. 1, # ti s No. 4, # = + + || tier sh-h wu ko No.
25, # - # # E # ti yih peh ling sanko, the 103rd, &c.
Exception.In general, historical dates omit # ti : # #-F
kuang hs sh-h nien the 10th year of Kuang Hs, HI # # # - +
JV # JV + A ye-su chiang sh yih chien pah peh pah sh-h pah
nien, the year 1888 of the Advent; IE J + H. cheng yeh sh-h wu,
15th day of the 1st moon; 7's H + XV luh yieh sh-h pah, 18th of the
6th moon. But the days of the month from 1 to 10 inclusive take #1
ch'u to begin instead of # ti: # 7, chu pah, the 8th; #1 chu yih
the 1st. Days of the week are similarly given, the number of the
day following the word # # li pai, or simply pai, week: Et # E
li pai san, the 3rd day of the week, i.e., Wednesday; # # fi li pai
wu 5th day of the week, i.e., Friday. In the case of historical
dates the date given is supposed to include all up to it.
Note-Sabbath is not included in the weekly enumuration, but is called it #
H ii-patj.h, # & H an-hsih j-h, &c.
16
Remark.In asking the day of the month, if supposed to be under 11, #) #

chu chi is used; similarly from 10 to 20 + # sh-h chi, and from 20 to 30 - +
# er sh-h chi respectively are used: 4. 5: + # chun t'ien sh-h chi to-day is
which day of the month ? (supposing it to be more than the 10th), &c.
3rd, Fractionals. (1). Decimals.The common word for

tenth in measures and elsewhere is # fen division; + 3 # sh-h
fen hao, ten-tenths good, i.e., perfect; > 3; it # WV # (# er fen
tsai yoh pah fen tsai ni (the cure) depends two-tenths on the medicine,
eight-tenths on yourself; H. Z. &# # wu fen nuen cheng five-tenths
(i.e., one-half) of a crop.
Remark.In divisions of taels the first is called # chien, the second (1}o iael)
fen, the third |H li, &c. In long measure + t'suen is T', foot, as inch, and fen
1', t'suen. In the foreign dollar f; chioh, corner, is used for one-tenth and is the
common word for dime; % fen is the word for cent. In foreign time # # tien
chung, or T # hsia chung, stroke of the bell, is used for hour, % fen for minutes,
and #| k'eh a piece cut off, for the quarters: - # 5. # fi. } yih liang san
chien wu fen 1 tael 3 mace and 5 candareens; fi # E fi. % ww k'uai san
chioh ww fen $5.35; E R 7: -j JU % san c'h-h luh, t'swen s fen 3 feet 61% inches;
E# - %| fi % san tien yuh k'eh wu fen, 3 o'clock 1 quarter and 5 minutes
(3.20).
(2). Fractions not decimal are expressed by giving the numerator

as modified by the denominator. Here the character X) fen is used
for the denominator and denotes the size of the parts taken, their
number being indicated by the numerator: VI 2 = 8 fen ch san, 3
of the size, or, more briefly, s ch san; jL # 2 W, chiu fen chs
four-ninths; + 2 - chien ch yih Yo'no. Half is expresed by
pan: || H pan ko yieh half a month; E E + san kopan, 3}.
Fractions are attached to whole numbers by the word # ling and
must follow the classifier, as that indicates whole things: E | # =
# 2 - San ko ling san fench yih 3}; H # # /\ || H wu mien ling
pah k0 yeh, 5 years and 8 months.
Remark.When pan is the fractional term used, it is placed either after the
whole number and the classifier, or after the noun; in the former case # ling is not
used: E |# J} san ko pan yieh, or E {# J} # - sam ko yeh ling
wih pan, 33 months.
Note.The former construction is perhaps used only with pan.
17
4th. Approximate Numbers. The Chinese have several words

used to give a number not definitely, but approximately.
(1). For expressing the idea of the English word about, the
terms # yoh, k # ta-yoh about, and # Z. 4 etha puh to (lit.
differ not much), almost, may precede the numeral: #4 # Hi + yoh
gu wu chien, about 5000; k # - # ta-yoh yih wan, about 10,000;
# ZS 3 - + cha puh to yih chien, almost 1,000. Or, when - yih
or any round numbers are in question, they may be followed by 56
# kuang-ching aspect, E T shang hsia, # # lai wang, more or less:
- # 65 % # yih peh tih kuang-ching, it has the appearance of 100;
fi + -t T. wu sh-h shang hsia, fiftymore or less; E + $ $
san sh-h lai wang, above or below thirty.
(2). For expressing units above a round number with a classifier,
# chi several, and # lai came, are inserted: + # # sh-h chi ko,
several more than ten; : + # # 3, 4: er sh-h chi ko hsioh-sheng,
more than thirty pupils; # # # # = + 3's II + wo chia li yu er
sh-h lai k'eu tsz, in my family there are upwards of twenty mouths to
feed; + # E A sh-h lai kofen, more than ten men; #5, # H + X:
Du Hi ta yu wu sh-h lai p'ih ma, he has more than 50 horses; $ to,
many, may be added to any round number from 20 upwards, with or
without a classifier: Hi + 3, wu sh-h to, more than 50; - # 3 #
# # yih peh to k'uai yang-chien, more than 100 dollars; it pa, to
take hold of, may follow any number without a classifier in the sense
of more than: 5: # # t'ien palu, a day's journey or more; # #: peh
pa more than 100. Between two numbers it signifies either: Fij # E
liang pa san, two or three. Finally, yi, # 6% yu y, # ling, #
# ling yu, may follow any round number without a classifier: W. H.
f f: s peh yu y, more than 400; E + # san chien yi, more than
3,000.
5th. Finally, Alternate Numbers are given as in English, except
that no equivalent for or is inserted (but see above, 4th, (2) # pa):
W H # 8 wu ko, 4 or 5; - JV # chih pah chang, seven or eight
sheets (of paper, &c.) This idiom applies also to round numbers
from 20 upward, in which case the unit only of the first number is
expressed: fi + || s wu sh-h ko, 40 or 50; E W H || A sans
peh ko jen, 300 or 400 men; E H H 7's -H # san peh wu luh sh-h
ku'ai, 350 or 360 pieces.
18
Remark.With the large numbers Ti peh, + chien, &c., when followed by a

number indicating more than, the numeral - yih, may be omitted before them; so
also any round number with # 10a : + 3. # chien to li ti, more than 1,000 li;
f # peh pa, more than 100.
II. Classifiers. It must be remembered that Chinese nouns in

dicate rather classes of things than individuals themselves. Standing
by themselves, therefore, their meaning would often be uncertain both
in sense and sound. Hence the employment of a class of modifying
terms, whose office is in a single character to describe by some tangible
feature the noun modified. They are generally designated Classifiers.
They have reference to the shape, weight, amount, or some other
prominent feature of the object in question. Hence their use is
mostly with concrete nouns. They are also almost always used in
connection with numerals, especially the cardinals.
Classifiers may be divided into three kinds: 1st, Descriptive; 2nd,
Collective; 3rd, Quantitative.
1st. Descriptive Classifiers. These generally have reference to
some prominent feature in the shape of the object referred to. Thus
# t'iao, a switch, is used as a descriptive classifier of long, flexible
things: - # #] yih ti'ao keu, a dog; - # # yih ti'ao lung, a
dragon; E ### san ti'ao she, three snakes, &c. #' pa, to grasp with
the hand, is a classifier of things with handles: 7's #: JJ + luh pa
tao-ts, six knives; - # 54 + yih pa chien-ts, a pair of scissors;
- # #| + yih pashuah-ts, a brush, &c. So the word Ef so, an en
closure, is a classifier for houses, courtyards, &c.; IH ling, top, for sedan
chairs, caps, &c. (from the buttons on the tops of these articles).
Thus throughout the entire list.
Remark.Lists of descriptive classifiers with the classes of words used with each
may be gathered from phrase-books and dictionaries. It is best always in learning
a new noun to ascertain at the same time which of the classifiers is appropriate to it.
A list of classifiers will be found in the appendix to this volume.
The Descriptive Classifierswhen used.
The general rule is that a noun preceded by a numeral must also
have its appropriate classifier. This rule has the following exceptions:
(1). Natural divisions of time omit classifiers, while artifiicial
divisions take them. The reason for this difference seems to be that
natural divisions are abstract terms, artifiicial divisions concrete. Thus
H j-h, 5< t'ien day; nien year, and often # sh, # # sh-heu,
19
omit, while # R& shchen, hour (Chinese); # # tien-chung, hour

(foreign), and it # li-pai, week, take classifiers; J yieh, month, with
cardinal numbers takes # ko, with ordinals is without a classifier:
Fij je liang ti'en, two days; W # s nien, four years; E # It # san
ko li pai, three weeks; Fij || # 5x liang kosh-chen, two hours (four
foreign hours); W H J s ko yieh, four months; W H S yieh, the
fourth month.
RemarkH # tien chung or T # hsia chung are apparently an exception to
this rule, but as a matter of fact # tien and T hsia are themselves classifiers of
the word # chung, stroke of the bell.
(2). The large round numbers # peh, + chien, # wan, are

themselves used as collective classifiers, hence no other is admitted
with them: # M yih wan jen, 10,000 men; + + yih
chien yin-ts, 1,000 taels; ~ 5 # er peh chien, 200 dollars. With
H peh, classifiers may or may not be used.
(3). For the omission of classifiers with approximate numbers,
see above under that head.
Remarks1. With reference to the classifier ko, individual, it may be said
that, besides being a particular classifier for certain nouns, it is also used in a general
way with nouns that have already been mentioned and whose nature is therefore
known. Thus it is often found with the demonstrative # che, this, and #5 na, that'
Hence the very common forms # # che ko and #5 |l na ko. It should be borne
in mind, however, that the proper classifiers are always admissible with # che and
#5 na, and it is often best to use them.
2. It may be well to remark that descriptive classifiers have a few representa

tives in English. Thus we say, twenty head of cattle, &c.
2nd. Collective Classifiers. These, instead of referring to individ

uals, embrace collections of the individuals spoken of. They are used
in English as well, and so need but a brief notice here. Examples
are: - # # yih chiin chu, a herd of swine; Hj # 4 + liang pan
hsioh-sheng, two classes of pupils; 7% fj # luh hang ts, six columns
of characters, &c.
3rd. Quantitative Classifiers have reference, as in English, to the
amount of the thing spoken of: - JT W yih chin jeu, one pound of
meat; W Rj # + s liang yin-ts, four ounces of silver; E = % san
teumi, three pecks of rice, &c.
General Remarks1. When a noun has already been mentioned in conversation,
in referring to it afterwards, generally only the classifier is given. This is very com.
mon in business transactions, questions and answers, &c.
20
2. In lists of goods, &c., the name is given first, followed by the numeral and
Ali E ZE pw san p'ih, cloth 3 pieces; # : # shu luh t'ao, books
classifier:
4 copies, &c.
III. Possessives. Possessive Attributives are nominal or pronom
C2
C inal, but as the construction is precisely the same they are considered
together. They differ from the two classes already given in that,
i
# besides preceding the noun they modify, they are also generally con
nected with it by the descriptive particle #4 tih : 5% + 65 H + hsien
sheng tih mao-ts, the teacher's hat; # #4 + to tih sheu t'ao, my
gloves; (; ; # # # ni-men tih sh-c'hing, your affairs; # # #4 #
+ wo-men tih hai-ts, our children. This rule has, however, some
exceptions:
(1). When two possessives come together, the first generally omits
# tih for euphonys sake: A is fij : # jen hsin tih yi-nien, the
purposes of men's hearts; HH #4 ##! # t'a peng-yu tih ping li
hai, his friend's illness is severe; # 5% + #4 # #] k wo hsien-sheng
tih hsioh-wen ta, my teachers scholarship is great. -
(2). The use of the demonstratives # che and #5 na may super

sede the necessity of #4 th: {, }} } { } + t'a-men na kofung-ts,
that house of theirs; # # ## wo che kuan pih, this pen of mine;
3E 5% + #| || 4 |# wang hsien-sheng na ko haioh-wen, that scholar
ship of Mr. Wang's.
(3). Often in short phrases #4 tih is omitted, implying simply a
class connection, the possessive and the thing possessed. This applies
more especially to pronoun possessives: # 3. # wofu chin, my father;
# E # t'a koko, his elder brother; # E ta kueh, his kingdom; #
it wo hsin, my heart; # 54 ni shen, thy God; # + wo chu, my
Lord; W is jen hsin, the human heart.
Remarks1. There is apparent ambiguity between possessive pronouns where
the demonstrative replaces #3 tih, and the apposition of a pronoun with a following
noun; the two constructions look precisely the same: # # |# # #R {# ni che
ko woh nu puh, you, this wicked servant; {b. # |l # # M t'a na ko lan to
jen, that lazy fellow; # # |# 'H + wo che ko mao-ts, this hat of mine; fb. #5
#) ta na ti'ao keu, that dog of his. The meaning can be ascertained by noticing
whether the noun and pronoun belong to the same or different categories; if the
former, they are in apposition; if the latter, it is a possessive: so, generally, all
ambiguity may be avoided by inserting #j tih.
2. #4 tih may be used even with a demonstrative, though generally not necessary:
# # # |# Hj wo tih che ko p'eng yu, this friend of mine; # #j # 4+ $
ni tih na chien sh, that affair of yours.
21
3. The wen-li pronoun # ch'i is used in sentences modeled after book style;
%| # # Z. #! # }); Pl # ch chi jam puh ch c'hi so-yi jan; # Hach'i chung,
in their midst; # # ti'ng chi wen, I have reports of it.
IV. Demonstratives. As already intimated in foregoing connec

tions, the Demonstratives are # che, this, and #5 na, that, with their
plurals # * che-hsie and #5 it na-hsie. The singular forms are
commonly followed by classifiers; but as the nouns to which the
demonstratives refer are already known, the most common classifier
is # ko (see above, Use of Descriptive Classifiers, Excep, 3, Rem.)
The plural forms exclude the classifiers: E [ ], # + che ko hsiao
hai-ts, this little child; #5 || # D na kosheng-k'eu, that beast; # *
# 4: # che hsie hsien-sheng men, these teachers; # * : A na-hsie
ni-jen, those women. -
Remarks.1. When the nature of the object referred to by the noun is familiar,
and especially if there is a tendency to book style, no classifier may be placed after
the demonstrative: # M chejen, this man, these men; # # che sh, this affair.
2. When the domonstratives are used absolutely, i.e., without a following noun,
they always take the forms # |# che ko and #5 |# na ko.
3. The demonstratives have a wider use than their English equivalents, covering
the ground of the English definite article (see chap. III., 1st, 2nd, (2), Rem.)
4. The wen-li demonstratives | t's, this, and # pei, that, are frequently heard,
especially the former; I't #4 t's ti, (this place) here: $t yin t's, on this account;
# y: ku t's, for this reason; #II }: ju t's, thus; # }: pei an, the other shore. A
few other characters have a demonstrative sense; as ZS pen , # tang; Z: J# pen
yeh, this (the present) month; # # # # # #j M wo-men sh tang ti tih jen,
we are men of this place.
5. On the demonstratives taking the place of #4 tih, see above, Possessives, Ex. 2.
As to position, the demonstrative comes next to the pronoun in beginning the
sentence: # E |# M. che san ko jem, these three men ; # # #j # #
na k'uai peh tih sh-h t'ew, that piece of white stone. When, however, there are two
or more adjective modifiers, or one long one, the sense is clearer if the demonstrative
follow them: # # H] 5% #) #5 fit # mien lao hsioh-wen ta tih na wei
hsien-sheng, that old, highly educated teacher.
W. Adjectives used Attributively.

The general statement may be made that any word, group of
words, phrase or sentence that conveys a suitable meaning, may be
used as an adjective modifier. Adjective modifiers may be used both
attributively and predicatively. We consider them now as used
attributively.
22
The general rule is, that adjectives used as attributes are con
nected with the noun substantive, which they modify by the descriptive
particle #4 tih. Exceptions will be noted in their proper places. We
may divide adjectives conveniently into the following general classes:
1st. Quantitative terms, as # chung, the whole number of; #
chu, all; # koh, every; mei, every; JL fan; 5% N. ta-fan; JL #
fan-peh, all; % to, many; # 3; hsil to, very many; 3 JP to-shao, how
many? &c. This class of adjectives, which is quite limited in number,
simply precedes the noun, without 64 tih or a classifier, and all in the
above list, except the last three, are used only as attributives. #
chung and # chu, when modifying persons addressed, take the
honorary classifier fit wei ; # W koh jen, every man; # #| f |& koh
tao koh chu, everywhere; R. ji fan sh, every affair; % J. A ta-fan
jen, all men; J.L H # # # fan-peh yang sh-c'hing, all kinds of
affairs; # 3 # DJ hsil-to sheng-keu, very many beasts; # /> #
to-shao chien, how many cash 7 H. B. JR H shen-mo tung-hsi, what
thing? # fit 5% A chung wei ta jen, honored gentlemen; # fit # 7.
chu wei ti-hsiung, respected brethren.
Remark# 3. hsil-to and % 3. to-to may take the particle fij tih as a
connective: if 3 & # II hsil-to tih sheng-keu, very many beasts; 3 3 #j
A. to-to tih jen, very many men.
2nd. The second class includes all those adjectives that ascribe
qualities to the nouns they modify. This class is, of course, very large
and varied: M. jenjen, humane people; # WA ai hsing, loving hearts;
# A hao jen, good people; # 6, # ching-sch yi-fuh, dark blue
clothing; t # 63 fi fi shang t'eng tih pin-hsing, superior behavior;
s fil #4 # # p'ing ho tih tao-lu, level, easy roads; # ' fij :# #
p'ing-chang tih sh-c'hing, ordinary affairs, &c., &c. This class of
adjectives in general conforms to the rule already stated, of being
connected with the noun modified by the particle 64 tih. The chief
exception occurs when the adjective and noun are so closely united as
to be regarded as one word (see above, Possessives, Ex. 3): see examples
above given. So, also, when two adjectives are considered as one
modifier: }; 5 A kuang ming jen, enlightened persons; # It #
cheng sh-h hua, sincere words; so, again, when the adjective and noun
are both dissyllabic, thus forming a four-character group: Z\ # # +
kung tao fah-ts, equitable plans; & # k # hen shen shuei c'h, very
28 y
deep pools. In these examples # tih may or may not be used. The
point is, that omission is allowable.
3rd. The third class consists of verbal adjectives, i.e., relative
clauses. This class is, of course, also very large and varied. It may
be subdivided into two kinds, dependent on the use or omission of the
particle Eff so, an enclosure.
\
((1). Without Ef so. Here the verbal adjective describes simply

one or more of its class, like other adjectives. In this kind #4 tih is
necessary, hence always present: # #4 # shoh tih hua, words spoken;
# # 6: M pei hai tih jen, injured persons; # # #4 # # ting tso
tih yi-shang, clothes made to order; # j< # 6: A tsoh-t'ien lai tih
jen, persons that came yesterday; # # # #4 # tsai chia li k'an
tih shu, books read at home; E 3; # 64 M shang-nien chi-sh
tih jen, persons that died last year; &c.
(2), With E so. This character, in agreement with its meaning,
includes all of the class designated by the verbal adjective accompany
ing it. In translating into English, the definite article placed at the
beginning of the sentence gives the correct meaning: El Hi #4 # so
k'an tih shu, the books that are read; E X: # W so lai tih jen, the men
that came; E E 64 # so shoh tih hua, the words spoken; Ef ##
# A so pei hai tih jen, the persons that were injured. This inclusive
force of Eff so is emphasized by inserting after it the verb # yu to
exist, possess: Ef #4 # # so yu tih yi-shu, lit. what there are
of medical books, i.e., all of that class of books; Eff H #1 (# 64 so
yu hsiang-hsin tih, all that believe, all that there are of believers.
The position of Ef so in the clause must be observed. The rule
for its position may be stated thus: the subject of the clause, if any,
all adverbs of time, and prepositional phrases, precede Ef so, other words
all follow; # # j< Ef # # 63 A wo tsoh-t'ien so yi-chien tih jen,
the man whom I met yesterday; # # # Ef 3, #4 # wo chiang
lai so yao nien tih shu, the books that I wish to read in the future;
# E # # & #4 wo so shen ch-wang tih, that which I very much
hope for; # E #! # # R. t'a so chien ai tih hsiung-ti, his
dearly loved brother; # ### Ef 64 # tsai che li so nien tih shu,
the books read here; # (b. 5 # 63 A pei t'a so shah tih jen, the
men killed by him; # (# Ef $ pei ni so ai, the one, or ones, loved
by you.
24
Remark.The phrase # yw tih means some, there are those who; #

# yw tih shoh, some say; Ziff #j # # j't gw tih shu hen kuei, some books are
very costly. -
The Use of the descriptive particle, #3 tih, in connection with

Attributive Modifiers. From what has already been said in the chapter
it will be easily seen that, in general, # tih is used with possessive
and adjective modifiers. Exceptions to its use were noted in their
proper places. What was said, however, had special reference to these
two classes of modifiers considered in themselves, or when standing
alone. But when both adjective and possessive attributes modify the
same noun, the use of 64 tih is somewhat modified. The general rule
is that, except when these attributes are long, #5 tih occurs only once
before the noun modified. Hence:
(1). When two or more adjective modifiers precede a noun,
only the last one retains #5 th: # # 4 || k ##### 4 mien
lao hsioh-wen ta tih na wei hsien-sheng, that old, highly educated
teacher; H # H. JH # it #: NH # ting pao-pei ting tsuen-kuei tih
p'eng-yu, very precious and highly valued friends. So also with verbal
adjectives: # # # #| {# #: @ 44 yang-h oh chiao-hsin ni th fu
mu, parents that nourish and teach you; 4% (### 5 # # || 65
5: 48 pao-yu yang-hoh yin-tao wo-men tih t'ien-fu, a Heavenly Father
that protects, nourishes and leads us; # F# Ef 5k Ef # 64 wo-men so
chiu so hsie tih, what we pray for and what give thanks for. Even
when a possessive precedes two or more adjective modifiers, the rule
still holds good: #5, # 3, 4 BH 6: J. 5 + t'a ling chiao ts'ung
ming tih hsiao er-ts, his clever, intelligent little son; # # 5 # it
$ v. fij H. W. wo che ko lao-sh-h chung-hsin tih yung-jen, this honest,
faithful servant of mine.
(2). When a possessive and one adjective precede the noun, the
former takes #4 tih, the latter omits it: # 4: #j je #H + hsien
sheng tih ta mao-ts, the teacher's large hat; # 2E fi : # "f hsioh
sheng tih kao choh-ts, the pupil's high table; # 65 IH #f HH # wo tih
ting hao p'eng-yu, my excellent friend. But when a demonstrative
follows the pronoun, or when the adjective is verbal, the latter takes
# tih : #5, #5 # JH #! # 65 # t'a na tiao ting li-hai tih keu, that
very dangerous dog of his; ($ # # # 5 + ni c'hin ai tih er-ts,
your dearly loved son; # E # Z. {f #4 # 48 wo che ko puh hao tih
hsioh-sheng, this worthless pupil of mine.
25
(3). A verbal adjective takes #5 tih in preference to any other

modifier: # Ef H #4 # Z: je fi ni so mai tih na pen ta shu, that
large book which you bought; ER 2's #5 # # # # A so lai tih na
hsienien-lao jen, those old men who came; #5, # #j # + t'a mai
tih ta choh-ts, the large tables bought by him.
(4). Finally, when the phrases are long, #5 tih is allowable with
each, as already intimated above: # 5< Ef # #4 # fift ### ifi
# 5% # tso-ti'en so lai tih na wei nien-ching t'i-mien tih hsien-sheng,
that young fine-looking teacher that came yesterday.
Remara-i. In the case above given, 6 tih is thus omitted merely for emphony's
sake. It sounds very harsh to have # tih following each short possessive adjective.
In such cases it should be used as sparingly as clearness of construction will allow.
In the Mand. New Test., #4 tih is very often inserted at the sacrifice of euphony
and the easy flow of the sentence.
~ (.2. It will be seen from what has been said above that the tendency in general.
is to put #j tih as near the noun modified as possible.
The relative positions of the Attributive Modifiers with reference to
each other.The rule for these positions is important, but simple.
Suppose we have a clause in which all the five varieties of modifiers
above given occur. It will be seen that they come in the following
order, beginning at the head of the sentence: 1st, Possessive; 2nd,
Demonstrative; 3rd, Numeral; 4th, Classifier; 5th, Adjective. {R #
E # k # niche san pen ta shu, these three large books of yours;
fb. # ## # W H J # 4 t'a-men tih na-hsies ko hsiao shioh
sheng, those four small pupils of theirs. When any of the five classes
of modifiers is wanting, the others still preserve their relative positions
with reference to each other: {{R 6: E. B. k # + ni tih San c'hu ta
Jang-ts, your three large houses; - # k H H yih k'uai ta sh-h t'eu,
a piece of large stone; E # # san k'o shu, three trees; W fit 58
s wei hsien-sheng, four teachers. When, however, the adjective
modifies the classifier, it must precede the latter: - }< # H H yih
ta k'uai sh-h t'eu, a large piece of stone.
To the above rule for position there are two exceptions:
1. That with reference to moving forward the demonstrative,
already noticed (see above, Demonstratives, after Remarks 5.)
\2. A verbal adjective or prepositional phrase comes next after the
pronoun in position: ($ R$ H # # Hj ni tsoh-j-h lai tih peng-yu,
your friends that came yesterday; # #2; # # 3' + wo tsai pen
ti tih Ju-mu, my parents who are in my native land; # E R #4 #5
Ef IH # E + ni so mai tih na so ting kao fang-ts, that very tall
house which you bought.
PART SECOND.
THE PREDICATE WITH ITS MODIFYING WORDS.

LIVING WORDS.
CHAPTER WI.
THE PREDICATE IN GENERAL.
THE Chinese predicate requires careful consideration, as it plays the

most important part in the construction of sentences. We will first
take a general survey of it, and afterwards give the several varieties
and what is peculiar to each.
I. The most general division of the Predicate is into: 1st, the
Incomplete Form; and 2nd, the Complete Form.
Neither of these two forms have any direct reference to time, but
only to the state or action of the predicate as to its completeness or
incompleteness as viewed by the speaker.
1st. The Incomplete Form gives the state or action as simply
existing or going on ; # || 3: H # che ko tung-hsi hao, this thing
is good; # # # # it wo-men tsoh mai mai, we are engaged in
mercantile business; jenjen tu yu tsuei, all men have sin.
2nd. The Complete Form indicates that the state or action, as
viewed by the speaker, is completed. This form is made by adding to
the end of the sentence, i.e., the end of the predicate, the character T
liao, (generally pronounced la in this connection), to complete, to finish:
# tsoh, to make, to do; # T tooh la, made, done; # hao, good,
well; # T haola, has gotten well, allright; # * BH H # I wo
men ming-j-h chii la, we will be off to-morrow; (b. Hj T t'a
tsai puh lai la, he is not coming again; J# JJ + # T & T yung
tao-ts shoh liao t'a la, killed him with knives, &c.
27
II. We now come to Tense and Mood, as they are exhibited in

the Predicate viewed generally.
1st. Tense. There are four tenses belonging to the predicate
taken as a whole: (1) Present; (2) Past; (3) Perfect; (4) Future.
All of these tenses occur in both the complete and incomplete forms of
the predicate, but no separate mention of both forms is necessary in
treating of the tenses.
(1). The Present Tense may be either (a) general, (b) specific,
or (c) negative.
(a) The general present has no notes of time, but simply gives
the state or action in its most general form as existing or going on : #
# 6: # # {# wo-men tsai cheng li chu, we live in the city; 3.
# # #j t'a sh hao chiu tih, he is fond of wine; # 64 # 7. It
T ni tih fu-c'hin puh tsai la, your father is dead; # # # T wo
men tseu la, we are off; ZF #f # puh hsii t'eu-tao, thou shalt not
steal, &c.
(b) The specific present is formed by adverbs denoting present
time placed before the predicate. These adverbs may refer to present
time generally, as # hsien-tsai, #11 49 ju-chin, # 4 hsien-chin,
now ; # # hsien sh, the present time; # ft 5i che huei-er, this
time, &c., or they may refer to a particular period of present time:
4, 5- chin-t'ien, to-day; it #| t's-k'eh, this moment; IE cheng, just
now, &c.; # H # 3. # A hsien-tsai yu hsil-to ping jen, now
there are many sick people; # #| T H t's-k'eh hsia y, at this
moment it is raining; # E # 5 ZR # wo che huei-er puh ch, I am
not going this time; # # #: # "Hi ni-hsien tsai hao ma, are you
well now f { }] IE I'5 # t'a-men cheng ch-h fan, they are just now
eating.
(c) The negative present is regularly formed by placing the
negative adverb ZF puh, not, before the predicate: # Z. 3; wo puh
chii, I am not going; # F# # # 7. # 1' wo-men hsien-tsai puh
nien shu, we are not studying now; 5, j Z. {: ' ' t'a-men puh
two mai-mai, they are not engaged in mercantile pursuits; 4 j- Z.
T chin-ti'en puh hsia yi, to-day it is not raining, &c.
(2). The Past Tense may be (a) positive, like the specific present
above; or (b) negative,
28
(a) The positive past is indicated in general by adverbs denot

ing past time. These adverbs may refer to past time generally, as
# # ts'ung-chien, JX 5% yi-hsien, J.I # yi-c'hien, HH # t'eu-chien,
# # hsien-chien, formerly; H H tsao j-h, in early days; H # teu
li, at first; # ts'eng ; or they may refer to particular dates, as # j<
chien ti'en, the day before yesterday; # chii-nien, last year; #
# 5< c'hien chi tien, several days ago; # H tsoh-j-h, yesterday, &c.:
# # it # # 4 ts'ung-chien kuei hsien-tsai chien, formerly costly,
now cheap; # Wu H 4: # # # 63 che p'ih mats'ung-chien sh wo
tih, this horse formerly belonged to me; #5, # 4 + || ||} + t'at'eu
chien sh ko tsai-chu, he formerly was a rich man; # 5: # #4 #:
# # T chien-t'ien tsai tih hua ts'ai hoh liao, the flowers plucked the
day before yesterday have just bloomed; # 3; # # # #: ####:
# ni chi-nien chin ching tsai na li chu choh, when you went to the
capital last year, where did you lodge? # # 5: # # # chien chi
ti'en wo yu ping, some days ago I was ill; &c.
(b) The negative is formed, as with the present, by the negative
adverb Z. puh: 4: # ZF # t'a ts'ung-chien puh hao, formerly he
was worthless; # T. H. # 5< 2. # 5 tea puh sh c'hien-ti'en lai tih
ma, did he not come the day before yesterday? 5, # # E 4: #
# t'a ts'ung-chien suan puh teh ts'ai-chu, formerly he was not reckoned
a rich man; # A # #1 ff.: # # # Z: # # shjen wu ch tih sh
heu shen puh chuei-chiu, at the time when men were ignorant, God
overlooked; # Z. if f= # 4: # f: chii-nien puh hsiang-hsin
hsien-tsai hsien-hsin, last year he did not believe, now he believes;
# # H Z: #| # wo tsoh-j-h puh ch-tao, yesterday I did not know.
Remark.The character ZF puh negatives the predicate at the time designated
by the term indicating past time; the characters # muh or # % muh yu would
negative the predicate up to the time indicated by these terms; i.e., would form a
pluperfect tense which does not belong to the predicate as a whole.
(3). The Perfect Tense may also be designated as (a) general,

(b) specific, (c) negative.
(a) The general perfect is regularly formed by adding the com
pletive particle T liao to the predicate. In meaning, it generally
corresponds to the English perfect with have, has, when
reference is had to present time, and to the English pluperfect with
had when reference is had to past time, and to the English future
29
perfect with shall or will have, when the reference is to future

time: (b. 64 # # T t'a tih ping haola, his illness has gotten well;
# F# G# T # wo-men c'h-h la fan, we have taken a meal; #5, # #
# {# T # 3; H + t'a tsai c'heng li chu liao hsil-to j-h ts, he has
lived in the city for many days; 5, # #| || || ## T # 3, #
t"a tso che ko mai-mai p'ei liao hsii-to chien, he by engaging in this
mercantile business has lost much money; 5, T # 3, ## 1'.
# T ta shoh liao hsii-to hua ts'ai la-tao la, when he had spoken, or,
having spoken, many words, he then broke down; (b) WR # T # #
:W #5 # T t'a chuei-mieh liao teng wo yu tien choh la, when he had
blown out the lamp, I lighted it again; f: # I # | T 5: HJ DI
% + # # tsoh-wan liao che ko kung-fu k'o-yi lai kao-su wo, when you
will have finished this work you may come and tell me; 5, | T #
# # # # t'a tao la chia wo chiu yao ch, when he will have, or
when he has, arrived at home, I wish to go at once; H #5 # T #
+: # # A chung-fan hao la ts'ai c'hii c'hing k'eh-jen, when dinner is
ready, then go and invite the guests.
Remark.The difference between T liao in the complete form of the verb,
already noticed, and T liao with the perfect tense, is that in the former construction
it comes at the end of the sentence without any reference to time; in the latter it
comes immediately after the verb. When the verb has no object, the position of the
two coincides and the sense alone determines which use of liao is intended.
(b) The specific perfect is formed by prefixing to the general

perfect the adverbs E. # yi-ching, F # ts'eng-ching, &c., already:
# E # F# T # wo yi-ching ch-h la fun, I have already eaten; # #
D. # # T wan-fan yi-ching haola, supper is already prepared; #
5K b # # E # #| # T chien-t'ien ta tih ping yi-ching li-hai
la, the day before yesterday his illness had already become severe;
# #| T (b. D. # 35 T wo taola t'a yi-ching sla, when I arrived
he had already died, was already dead; # ### E # 5 # T
wo k'an choh ni yi-ching ch-h paola, I see that you have already eaten
to satisfaction; #5, #: @ # E # Z. ET t'a tih fu-mu yi-ching
puh tsai la, his parents are already dead.
Remark.The perfect with these adverbs can perhaps not be used with reference
to future time.
(c) The negative perfect is regularly formed by prefixing the

adverb # muh, or # # muh yu, have (or has) not ; # wei, # # wei
t'seng, have not yet, the dissyllabic forms being used with dissyllabic
30
predicates. As these adverbs indicate incomplete or unperformed

action, T liao is not properly used in connection with them, as it always
implies a completed or finished state or action: # 65 # ## t'a tih
ping muli hao, he has not gotten well; #5, # # # 2's #| t'a-men
muh-yulai-tao, they have not arrived; # # # # 5 # wo-men wei
ts'eng ch-h fan, we have not yet eaten; R # # # F# ni huan muh
chii a, you have not yet gone! # * (#######, wei-ts'eng
c'huan tao yen neng ti'ng-chien, if there has yet been no preaching
how can (they) hear? (b. 5 # j< # # # ### t'a-men tsoh
ti'en han muh-yu pei-pan hao, yesterday they had not yet gotten ready;
# 65 % # # # 8A H R 38% t'a tih ping han muh hao ming
j-h puh neng lai, if he shall not have gotten well he cannot come to
morrow; 4 4E X: # 4 & # 4E Z. {{# E # chin-nien wei-ts'eng
hsioh-huei ming-nien puh neng huei chia, if this year you shall not
have become proficient, you cannot return home next year.
(4). The Future Tense, like the majority of those already given,
may be (a) general, (b) specific, (c) negative.
(a) The general future is indicated by the auxiliary verbs #
chiang, on the point of ; # chiu, at once; # yao, will; 2 pih, shall;
# # chiang-yao, will; and 2, # pih yao, shall; E E # + # 35
che ko hai-ts chiang s, this child is about to die; 5, 3: T t'a chiu
lai la, he will be here presently; M M # 2, # 5 # #4 # #jen
jen tu pih sheu ying teh tih pao ying, all men shall receive due reward;
# A BH + X: t'a yao ming-nien lai, he will come next year; # ||
A k + che ko jen pih chii, this man shall (or must) go; # T #
A # 4 g # # + mah-liao shjen chien pih-yaojen chiu-chu, at
last the inhabitants of the earth shall all acknowledge the Saviour.
Remarks.-1. # Yao implies free agency, willingness on the part of the subject;
J. pih implies compulsion or necessity from without, like will and shall in
English.
2. In position, these auxiliaries must precede all adverbs, unless it is intended
that the adverbs modify the auxiliaries, in which case they precede the latter.
(b) The specific future is indicated by adverbs, either general,
as # 2's chiang-lai, in the future; # T wang-hsia, afterwards; # #
ts heu, after this; or special, as # Wil ko-shang, afternoon; BH 5:
ming-ti'en, to-morrow; W # # 8 nien heu, four years afterwards, &c.
These adverbs replace # chiang, but not necessarily any of the othe
3]
future auxiliaries: # # 2, ##! ( heu-lai pih-yao ta-chang, after

wards there shall be fighting; # E + # * : [E] E. heu san
wu nien wo-men yao huei kueh, after three or five years we will return
to our native country; 3: BH H # t'a yao ming j-h chii, he will
go to-morrow.
Remark.The above examples show that the auxiliary # chiang is the only
real future, (see above (a) Rem. 1).
(c) The negative future is formed by the words V. Z. pih-puh,
# 2, wei-pih, and ZF puh, with adverbs denoting future time: # "j
# 2, # ni-men wei pih s, ye shall not surely die; b, \, X # #
# # 9- 6 ft # t'a pih-puh neng kuan che yang fatih sh-ching, he
shall not be able to manage so large an affair; T + j : R _E #5
hsia-pan-ti'en wo puh shang chiai, I am not going on the street in the
afternoon; 5, ZF # t'a ming nien puh lai, he will not come
next year; # ZS 3: # j< #| # # 35 wo puh yao ming ti'en tao
hsiang li ch'i, I do not wish to go to the country to-morrow.
Remark.With simply . Puh, for the future negative compare above (2, b.
Remark). It negatives the future at the time designated by the future adverb, from
which point of view the future is really a present.
2nd. Mood. The Moods of the predicate may be divided into
(1) Indicative; (2) Potential; (3) Imperative; and (4) Infinitive.
(1). The Indicative has a much wider range than in English,
including the subjunctive and potential of the latter. It is the mood
of ordinary direct discourse and needs little said about it here.
Remarks.1. The subjunctive is in Chinese indicated by the position of sub
ordinate clauses and does not effect the structure of the predicate,
2. The English potential with may, can, must, &c., is generally repre
sented in Chinese by the indicative, followed by an infinitive, as will be seen
hereafter.
(2). The Potential is very fully developed in Chinese and is in

constant requisition, especially the negative form of it (there are many
things that the Chinese cannot do). At present we give only a
general outline of it common to the predicate as a whole, reserving
a fuller discusion till we come to the verbal predicate.
The form of the potential is made by adding to the predicate for
the postive # teh, for the negative ZF puh, followed by a suitable
word to complete the state or action expressed in the predicate: # #
32
E k'an teh chien, able to preceive by hearing; # ZF # chao puh

choh, not able to secure by seeking, &c. The different varieties of
potentials is determined by this completive word; a few are common
to the predicate as a whole, others are used only in the verbal pred
icate,we here give the former.
(a) The most general variety, and which includes all the others,
is made with # lai, to come, as a completive. This simply states
the possibility, or the contrary, of the state or action expressed in the
predicate, without assigning a reason; # ZS 2# tso puh lai, cannot
be done; # ZS # mai puh lai, cannot be bought; P E X: shao-puh
lai, cannot be dispensed with; # # #4 # # # 6 F # t'a
chiang tih tao-li wo huei puh lai, what he preaches I cannot take
in; SE 4: $ #### che chien sh-c'hing tso teh lai, this affair
can be worked; # E # # ZS 2# # 3% # tsai cheli mai teh lai
hao yi-shang, here cannot be bought good clothing, &c.
(b) In the next general form T liao takes the place of lai,
indicating the possibility, or the contrary, of bringing the action of
the predicate to completion. The action may in itself be possible,
but its completion is the point in question: 3 AS T to puh liao, it
cannot amount to much; H # # # Z: T wu tien chung wan puh
liao, 5 o'clock cannot be too late; # 2. J chia puh liao, it cannot
turn out to be false; E E H + (5 : RE # {# R T che chu
fang-ts ni-men liang chia chu puh liao, this house you two families
cannot fill up; # D # + # 4+ T : chek'eu tai-ts cheng-teh
liao ma, will this bag contain all? # E #4 # T # I # #####
# T R T sh shang tih k'u liao-teh-liao ti-yuh li tih k'u liao-puh
liao, misery on the earth can be brought to an end, in hell it cannot
be ended.
Note.Care must be taken to give T liao its full sound when used in this idiom
not la.
(c) A third general form, though less used than either of the
above, is made with # teh as a completive term. This form has
reference to the fitness of the action of the predicatewhether it
will do or not: # Zk ## *p ZF # # che pen shu sh shao-p'uh
teh tih, this book is indispensable; # | # F# Z. 45 che ko fan
c'h-h-puh-teh, this food is not fit to eat; 5, # 5 # 1' 4: # Z.
# t'a na yang kuang-ching sh-tsai k'an-puh-teh, he in that plight is
83
truly not fit to be looked at; E S T R # che-ko liao-puh-teh, this

is not fit to have an end, unending, awful.
Remark.In the positive form of c, where # teh would be repeated, its repeti
tion is omitted for euphony's sake: # # # # # Z. # Z. # # k'an-teh
gao mai, k'an-puh-teh puh yao mai, if seen to be suitable, buy; if seen to be unsuit
able, do not buy; # M3. H # # # # {# Z. # an-hsih-j-h yi ping sh teh
sh puh teh, is it proper or improper to heal on the Sabbath day?
(3). The Imperative. (a) The mildest form of the imperative is

identical in construction with the indicative, just as in English: 3:
# ni lai k'an, you come and see; ($ 3: # #ff (b. ni chil kao-su ta,
you go and tell him; 3: # # ni lai pei ts, come and recite, &c.
(b) A direct command is given when the subject addressed is not
mentioned (here also compare English): # lai, come; # # 35 k'uai
k'uai-chi, go quickly; # # 3' k'uai chilai, get up quickly !
(c) The imperative of (b) is emphasized by appending #pa, to
have done with, to the end of the sentence: # # chipa, begone;
# F# # kuan men pa, shut the door !
Remarks.-1. When the person addressed has not been previously spoken to, his
name or title (or a pronoun referring to it) is first called, followed by a pause often
strengthened by ||| a, then the command is given: # J #: if: % E watt
shuen, k'uaichi laipa. Wan-shuen, get up quickly; # ['i #j Fij # # chang
kuei-tih a, lai suan chang, cashier, come take accounts.
2. The imperative is often softened by inserting words like IJ J) ko-yi, may;
# hao, it is well to, &c.; H] J). # fji k'0-yi pai fan, you may set the table; {#
# # + # 5. ni hao chi kao-su t'a, it is well for you to go and tell him.
(d) The negative imperative is formed with Z. puh : R A puh
yao, do not; F II puh k'o, you have no right to; F if puh hsil, you
are not allowed to; ZF # puh k'uh, do not cry; Z. & #T 5 puh yao
ta t'a, do not strike him; A HI # # puh k'o sah hugng, do not lie,
lying is not allowable; Z: # # M puh hsil shah jen, thou shalt
not kill; (, ; # # puh yao chin lai, do not come in.
Remarks.1. The above positive forms can all be turned into negatives except
that with # pa, which is used only with positive forms.
2. In North China Z. # puh yao is often contracted into #| pieh or # pai;
in Southern Mandarin I': moh is very commonly used for Z. puh or ZR # puh-yao.
(4). The Infinitive. This word is known by its following an

adjective or a verb on which it depends: # # hao k'an, good to look
at, beautiful; # # nan k'an, difficult to look at, ugly; 3, BH #
34
yung-yi ming-peh, easy to understand; $ # # # # ni lai tso

shen-mo, what do you come to do? # # lai k'an, come and look;
# 5% (b. ch'il han ta, go to call him, &c.
Exceptions to this position of the infinitive are:
1. When the infinitive is emphatic, it may, according to a
general rule, begin the sentence: # # UE # h if # UE # # chu
ti ni, wu lih, t'ao fan mi, pa hsiu, to dig I have no strength, to
beg I am ashamed; # # b # # DJ + c'huan tao t'a muh yu
k'eu t'sai, as for preaching, he has not command of language.
2. The two verbs of direction, # lai and # chil, very commonly
follow the infinitive, being put at the end of the sentence. Here
again emphasis seems to be the controlling principle: { {{# # #
T t'a mai shen-mo chu la, he went to buy something (see chap. iii.
Indefinite Use of Interrogative Pronouns, 5); # #j (; # 2' T wo
men c'huan taolai la, we have come to preach.
Note.The verb of direction may even be repeated: 5. j; # T ta c'hit
na chii la, he went to take it; # # # X # # wo chis mai yi-shang chii, I
am going to buy clothes;but this is inelegant.
Remarks.1. The English potential is represented in Chinese by the indicative,
with a dependent infinitive (see above 2nd, (1), Rem. 2): # ) fr # neng-yi
hsing lu, able to travel; f # # huei-mien-shu, can read; EJ J) # # k'0-yi
chin-lai, may come in; }# # J. it, ging-tang hsiao-hsin, ought to be careful;
* # # # pih teh k'uai lai, must come quickly, &c. That these are indicatives
and not mere auxiliaries is easily seen rom their identity of construction with the
indicative and infinitive generally, and also from the fact that they may be modified
by adverbs like other indicatives: # # # I. hen neng tso kung, quite able to
work; f #: Z. # # sh-h-tsai puh hao-k'an, truly unsightly; # f # #
shan huei chiang hua, skilled in talking, &c.
2. The verb # neng, and its compounds # J) neng-yi, and #8 # neng-keu,
expressing ability, with an infinitive are equivalent in meaning and interchangeable
with the potential under (2) above: # {# neng-tso-# # % tso teh lai, &c.
3. A tentative infinitive is formed by repeating the principal verb, followed by
# k'an in the infinitive. The general form is # # sk sh k'an, give it a trial,
but any verb may take the place of # sh: , # # nien mien k'an, read it by
way of trial; # % # chang chang kan, taste it and see.
4. An infinitive indicating capability is formed by H] k'o, to have a right to,
followed by an infinitive. In meaning it corresponds to the English suffixes able,
ible, &c.: III # k'o-ai, lovable; HI # k'o-lien, pitiable; IJ # k'o-k'ao, trustworthy,
&c.
CHAPTER WII.
GENERAL DIVISIONS OF THE PREDICATE.
THE Predicate may be divided into1, Adjective; 2, Verbal; 3,

Noum Predicates.
1. The Adjective Predicate. Adjectives in general have

already been discussed under Attributive Modifiers (see chap. v. 5).
But, as a general rule which has few exceptions, adjectives without
change of form, but merely of position, are used as predicates. As
such they have the range of moods and tenses given in the former
chapter. It should be specially noticed that they have a predicative
power of their own and need no copula to connect them with the
subject: # Z$ # k che pen shu ta, this book is large; # ##| 4:
* ## na tiao keu tsung-chien li-hai, that dog formerly was very
dangerous; #| BH jR (b. 64 # 2, # #f T tao ming-t'ien ta tih
ping pih-yao haola, his illness will be well by to-morrow; (b || 3:
sk # ta k'uan-hung t'a-liang, he is magnanimous; # 4+ K ###
# & che chien yi-shang kai chien hsie, this piece of clothing ought to
be a little cheaper; k - # # ta yih tien pa, a little larger; E #
# # 7. $8 # che k'uai yang chien puh neng hao, this dollar cannot
be good; #5, #4 # (# ZG T ta tih hua chia puh liao, his words
cannot turn out to be false; je 3 k # k # ti'en-fu ta t-s ta pei,
the Heavenly Father is very compassionate and sympathetic, &c.
Remarks.-1. The negative forms common to all classes of the predicate have
already been given in chap. vi. It may be further remarked here that an emphatic
positive is very often given by an adjective of opposite meaning in negative form:
5: X. H. t'ien puh tsao, it is not early, i.e., quite late; # # # A. Z. 2P tsai.
cheli jem puh shao, here the people are not few, i.e., very many, &c.
2. It may be said further that negative adjective forms, corresponding to
the English prefixes in, un, &c., are generally compounded of the negative
puh and the adjective of opposite positive meaning: Z. # puh yi, unrighteous,
- ZR f 64 puh hsin tih, unbelieving; ZR f puh huei, incompetent; ZR # puh
neng, unable, &c.
The most prominent feature of adjective predicates that calls for

separate discussion is Comparison.
36
1st. When the object with which the comparison is made is

not expressed. In this idiom there is no word used to express the
comparison, but when a state or quality is ascribed to one or two of
two or more objects, it is thereby implied that the others lack it: E
{# k che ko ta, this is larger, or the largest; # Rj (: # cheliang
chien hao, these two pieces are better; # E # A JE #5 - ||
# k na san ko jen ni na yih ko nien-suei ta, of those three men,
which is the oldest? # Rj it #5 As it cheliang pen shu na
yih pen kuei, of these two volumes, which is the costlier?
Note.It will be noticed that in the last two examples the subjects with which
the comparisons are made, are given before the sentence, hence, they form no excep
tion to the rule.
Remarks.1. In this implied comparison it is not asserted that the subjects with
which the comparison is made totally lack the qualities ascribed to the others, but
that they have or may have them in lesser degree; good and bad, &c., are relative
terms; when one thing is good, all inferior to it are considered bad.
2. It will be seen, too, from the above construction that there are no defined
degrees of comparison as in English. A thing may be better or best according to the
Sense.
3. The comparison may be strengthened by prefixing to the predicate various

# tsai, % yu, again; Hi keng, still more; JH ting, the
qualifying adverbs, as
top; # tsue, very; X chih, extreme; # ch, uttermost; # l, tsai hsiao, still
smaller; # {# 2% # Hi # che chien yi-shang keng kuei, this piece of clothing is
still more costly; # # # J# # na koshu ting kao, that tree is the very highest;
# # chih hao, the best; # #g # # ch sheng ch shan, extremely holy and
good.
4. The amount of difference between the objects compared, follows the predicate
in the shape of a result, or sequent: #E # # + # it. che chang yi-ts ching
hsie, this chair is a little lighter; # #j # # # wo tih ping hao yih tien,
-
my illness is a little better; # ZN # % # # che pen shu ta chipei, this vol

ume is several times larger; # E JR twan san c'h-h, shorter by three feet.
2nd. When the object with which the comparison is made is

expressed.
(1). When the subjects compared are alike or similar. This
idiom takes such words as () spa s-hu, $ fang-fuh, hsiang, #
{# hao-hsiang, #f H hao-pi, #1 ju, ll [i].ju-tung, &c., all meaning
like; or, finally, ho, with, between the subjects compared: # 4,5
# A fiq # + che ko fang-fuhjen tih yang-ts, this is like a human
form; #5 || W #11 F + DI na ko jen ju-tung sheng-k'eu, that man
is like a beast; #f Ji Et hao pi shoh, as if to say; # 4% # # hao
hsiang yao tseu, just as if wishing to walk, &c.
37
Remark.1. The comparison is strengthened by appending to the predicate the

phrases - # gih-yang, of one kind; " # gih pan, alike; {} #j s-tih, like.
With #! ho, such an addition is essential; fil ho, with - # yih-yang, and # [H]
hsiang-t'ung, means, of the same kind; H #, # M. {} #j hsiang wai-kueh jen s

tih, like foreigners; {j # # % - # Jang-fuh chiang 8 yih pam, as if about to
die; # #E {# # {# # # {} #j k'an che ko eu-hsiang hao hsiang hoh s
tih, when looking at this image, it looks just as if alive; Aft # # # {!! #j
fang-fuh shoh hua s-tih, as if speaking; #l {b, - # hota yih-yang, of the same
kind with him; 5. # 2% # fil # {# # |[i] t"a c'huan yi-shang howo men
hsiang-tung, he wears clothes like we do.
Note[i] T'ung or $ y (bookish) may take the place of fil ho in this con
struction.
2. Of course clauses and sentences may be compared equally well: # # fij

# #Il |H] # # M. #j # she wo tih tsuei ju-tung wo she jen tih tsuei, forgive
my sins as I forgive the sins of others; (# # # #1 # # "' # ni shoh hwa,
ho wo-men yih k0 yang, you speak just like we do. So a subject with a following
predicateverb or adjective: {b, {} 32 Ziff # #. t"a s-hw yu hao yi-s, he
appears to have good intentions; Aft # E: # fang-fuh yao tseu, as if wishing to
walk; 5. #Il |E] &# # t"a ju-tung sheng-ping, he appears to be taken ill; #
|# Aft # # che ko fang-fuh hao, this is apparently good.
Note.Here the terms expressing similarity are really adverbs modifying the
predicate.
3. Dissimilarity is expressed by negativing some of the above terms: as ZR
puh hsiang, ZR #ll puh ju; or after fil ho by Rij # liang-yang, ZS # |[i] puh
hsiang-tung, &c.: X. #Il % puh jus, not like death; H: Z. {# 5||N
chung-kueh puh hsiang wai-kueh, China is not like foreign countries; #l 5. Fij #
ho t'a liang yang, different from him; {# fil {b, X. H |H] ni ho t'a puh hsiang
tung, you and he are mutually different.
4. Of course these forms of likeness or unlikeness may be modified like other
predicates; T # 5. keng hsiang t'a, more like him; # # Xi HH IE #|| [i] -
# - # chek'wai sh-h-t'ew cheng ju-tung yih k'o shu yih yang, this piece of
stone is precisely like a tree; {b, # : {b, f: % # t"a hen hsiang t'a tih fu
chin, he is very like his father.
/ - ^p."
(2). When the subject compared is different from (better or ''''
worse than) that with which the comparison is made.
(a) The terms () s, #1 ju, like; # ko, # # ko y, #
sheng ko, # () sheng-s, &c., to surpass, or # chi, to excell, are
placed between the predicates of the first and the second subjects: {,
# 4) # t'a chiang s wo, he is stronger or better than I; # Z: je
# # Z: che pen ta chi na pen, this volume is larger than that; %
% # # # # 5 # ai fu-mu ko yii ai hsiung-ti, love parents more
than brothers; see also Matthew x, 37; Mark ix.4357.
38
Remarks.1. Different degrees of the same thing are compared by simply placing
the degrees to be compared side by side, without inserting words implying comparison:
- J# # *- } yih t'seng kao yih t'seng, higher each step; - JE: - vih
t'seng yih t'seng, step by step; - j- # - j: yih ti'en hao yih ti'en, better each
day; - j: - 5K yih tw'en yih ti'en, day by day.
2. The negative takes Z. #ll puh ju, not like, # Ziff muh yu, &c., and the
predicate comes at the end of the sentence: # # {b, # muh yu t'a hao, not as
good as he; Z. #II # 4: # % # puh ju muh sheng chuh lai hao, not as good
as not to have been born; # | # % #5 # j't che-ko muh yu na-ko kuei, this
is not as costly as that; # # # ZS #Il # # # # t80 mai-mai puh ju chung
ti wen-tang, mercantile pursuits are not as reliable as agriculture.
(b) The words H. pi, to compare, # yu, to possess, and, in larger

sentences, # # chiao-pi (or pi-chiao), are placed between the subject
compared, much as in English: E H # + HE # # # che ko fah
ts pi na ko hao, this plan, compared with that, is better; 4 5: HE HE
j< * chin-t'ien pi tso-t'ien leng, to-day is colder than yesterday;
# As # # # As # che pen shu yu na pen hao, this book is better
than that; III # A # r $ # 3 shan-tung jen, yu chiang-su tih
to, Shantung has more people than Kiangsu; for examples of # It
chiao-pi see Luke xv. 7, 14, 18.
Remarks.1. In comparing one term with two or more *.
others (English super
lative) a quantitative term is placed before the predicate: # # Jt. # * #
# che ko pi na-hsie tu kuei, this is dearer than any of those; 5. Jt. # %. # #
# 5% ta pi chung hsiung-ti-men tu ta, he is larger than any of his brothers.
Otherwise, the whole class may be subjected to an individual by the word |: shwh,
to yield: th # J\ #5 R; 5. # HH chung-kueh jen tu shuh t'a t'swmg-ming, the
Chinese all yield to him in wisdom.
2. For the negative under this idiom, Z. J puh pi, # muh yu, ZS X
puh chih, not reach up to; # Z. E kan puh shang, cannot come up with, &c., are
used: # f ZR Jt. # # puh hsing puh pih c'hi ma, to go afoot does not com
pare with horseback riding; #: II Z. }: J. # + # BH sheng-k'ew puh chih
hsiao hai-ts t'sung-ming, beasts do not reach children in intelligence; # &
W. # ZR l ($ ma-hsie jen k'an puh shang ni, those men cannot come up to
you ; #E it. 2% # # Z #5 i # cheh hsie y-shang muh yu na hsie hao, these
clothes are not as good as those.
3. A double comparison is formed by placing before each predicate # gieh or
# # yeh-fah, to go beyond: # 3. # # yieh to yieh hao, the more the
better; # # # yieh, chwan yieh p'o, the more it is worn the more it is torn;
# # yieh tsev yieh cha, the further he walks the farther he goes astray;
# # # 2, #4 # #! # yiel-Jah chang-chiu vieh-yah ii-hai, the longer the
more Severe.
CHAPTER WIII.
THE VERBAL PREDICATE.
THIS Predicate asserts or denies an action of the subject: examples

are not necessary.
to 1. The first thing that claims our attention is a further con
sideration of that peculiar form of the verb which we may style the
* . Completive. It will be remembered that in chapter vi., when speaking
of the Potential Mood, mention was made of the potential form with #
teh or ZF puh and a completive word. Three varieties were considered,
i.e., those with # lai, T liao, and # teh, as being usable more or less
with other varieties of the predicate. These three forms are usable
perhaps only in the potential. The completive form of the verb is a
fuller development of which those three varieties there given are
merely the outlines. The completive in the verbal predicate is by
no means confined to the potential mood but may be used anywhere.
This form is made by adding a character of suitable meaning
to the verb to complete the action designated by the verb. Of
course the meaning of the added characteror completivemust be
adopted to that of the verb: # t'ing, to listen; # chien, perceive;
# E t'ing-chien, to perceive by listening, i.e., to hear; # yi, to
practice the healing art; # hao, well, good; # # yi-hao, to heal,
cure; Fj kuan-men, the act of shutting the door; E shang, up,
ascend; # E Fli kuan-shang-men, to shut up, or close the door; #
tiao, the act of carrying; # tung, move, agitate; # # tiao-tung,
to move by carrying; # tseu, to walk, go; # ko, to pass; # #
tseu-ko, to go across, to pass over, &c., &c.
Two general features should be noticed with reference to these
completives.
(1). A given completive may be used with any one of a class of
verbs that have a suitable meaning. Thus + shang, as a completive,
may be used with verbs denoting elevation, addition, increase: #
40
tat, to bear (by two or more), # E t'ai-shang, to bear or carry up;

# an, to place; # E an-shang, to place or lay up upon; # t'ien, to
add; # E t'ien-shang, to increase; # ti, to mention; # E t i-shang,
to bring to mind, &c.; # chan, the act of studying; # chan-chu,
to stand still, secure; ; lih, to set up; tr. ft lih-chu, to set up,
establish; $J ting, the act of nailing; #1 (+ ting-chu, to fasten by
nailing, nail up; #K chua, to grab at; #K # chua-chu, to fasten by
grasping, &c., &c. These are only examples selected. The actual
number of words ordinarily used as completives is limited perhaps
only by the necessity for their use.
Remarks.-1. It will be seen from the above examples that the verb merely
expresses the act, while the completive indicates the accomplishing of that act, of
course without any reference to time. -
2. The verb may be considered as indicating the means by which the result
denoted by the completiveis brought about. Thus {# chu, to fasten; $J {#
ting-chu, to fasten with nails; # {# so-chu, to fasten with locks; # {# choh-chu
# {# k'uen-chu, to fasten by tieing with cords, &c.
to secure by seizing;
(2). On the other hand, a given verb may be followed by any
one of a number of completives showing the different directions or
shapes in which the completion may be accomplished. Thus, the
verb # tseu, to walk, may be completed as follows:
# # tseu-lai, to come, i.e., come by walking.
# T tseu-liao, to come, completed action.
# # tseu-ko, to walk past, to pass.
# Lt. tseu-shang, to walk up, ascend.
# T tseu-hsia, to walk down, descend.
# # tseu-chin, to walk in, enter.
# # tseu-chuh, to walk out, exit.
# # tseu-tung, to walk through.
# #| tseu-tao, to walk to, arrive.
# # tseu-kai, to walk apart, separate, &c.
# kan, to look, may be completed thus:
# E k'an-chien, to see, perceive by looking.
# # k'an-t'eu, to look through, comprehend.
# # k'an-c'huh, to look out,
# # k'an-chin, to look in,
# E k'an-shang, to look up,
# T k'an-hsia, to look down,
# # k'an-tung, to look through (as, a hole), &c.
41
Remark1. Some of the completives are never used, except in the potential
mood; these are omitted in the examples given.
2. This complete form has something in common with the English verbs followed
by adverbs of direction: as up, out, &c., come up, cast up, throw out, cast
down, &c., &c.
2. The second feature peculiar to the verbal predicate to be

noticed is that the two verbs of general direction, % lai and # ch,
generally follow verbs denoting bodily or mental action. In position
they come at the end of the predicate, i.e., after the completive and
the object of the verb. As to ther import, # lai indicates motion
toward the speaker, and # chii, motion away from the speaker.
They answer the rhetorical purpose of rounding off the predicate or
the sentence when they end it.
# # # chao-chuh lai, to hunt up; # # # kan-c'huh lai, to
see, to find out; # #3, na-chuh chii, take out; # # 3' ti'ao-chin
lai, jump in ; # # 3: t'ai ko ch, bear a cross; # # # tu-ko chii,
to ferry over; & # # + # na ko yi-ts lai, bring chairs over;
# ####j + k'an-c'huh nati'ao keu chii, drive out that dog;
# (b. 5 ling t'a chii, lead him away; # 3' na t'a lai, bring him
(this way); # # # # 3: T : ni sung-ko hsin chii la ma, have
you taken letters over ? , # # || 3: UE t a chi-sh huei lai ni,
when is he coming back? &c., &c. -
Remark.In some connections these verbs of direction modify the meaning of

the verb: na, to take; % na ai, to bring; # +: na chi, to take away, &c.
3. We must now consider further the subjects of Tense and

Mood, as these have a fuller development under the verbal predicate
than elsewhere.
1st. Mood. Here the potential again claims our attention.

There are two methods of expressing ability or inability. (1). The
first has already been given in chapter vi, when speaking of the poten
tial. It needs only to be added here that with all verbs ending in a
completive, ability to perform the act expressed by the verb and its
completive is indicated by inserting # teh between the two: # # H.
k'an-teh chien, can see; # # 35 na-teh-ko-chi, can take across;
# ### ti'ng-teh chuh-lai, can hear him; ### chao-teh-choh,
can find ; # # # 5, ; if # t'ing-teh-tung t'a tih hua lai, can
understand his words; ji' 4: # # # t'a chiai-teh-tiao ya-p'ien,
he can break off opium smoking, &c., &c.
42
The negative, expressing inability, is formed by inserting R puh

instead of # teh : # 7. Yi k'an-puh-tung, cannot see it so as to
understand it; # ZF # 35 na-puh-ko chii, cannot take it across;
# ZF + t'ai puh-tung, cannot carry (too heavy;) # Z. & tsal-puh
teu, cannot guess it; (b) # 7. H # # t'a nien-puh-chuh Shu lai, he
cannot read books aloud; # # 7. BH i wo t'ing-puh-ming-peh, I do
not understand (hear, but not so as to comprehend, do not comprehend
by listening); E 4, 5- # Z: # che sh chin-t'ien tso-puh-wan,
this affair cannot be finished to-day; E # # # A. E. chiai
Shang jeh-mao chi-puh-tung, the streets are crowded, one cannot
elbow his way through ; # # # # 7. BH tsai che-li tseu puh
k'ai, here, there not room to walk, &c.
Remark.It is important to observe generally with reference to these comple
tives in the potential that % lai after the negative ZR puh expresses simply inability
without hinting at the cause of this inability; the other completives contain in the
meaning of the characters used more or less clearly, the reason for this inability
or ability. Thus Hi, tung, to move, as a completive, has reference to the strength of
the actor as to whether it is sufficient or not to accomplish the action of the verb;
{b, # X. Hi, t"a tsew-puh-tung, has not sufficient strength to walk; T liao, has
reference to the completion of the action, generally within a given space or time:
4. H #| -* ZR *T chin-j-h tao-p'uh-liao, cannot complete the journey to-day; #
-
{# {# Z[. f #E {# J# + wo-men chu-puh-liao che ko fang-ts, we cannot occupy

this whole house, i.e., it is too large for us; |# k'ai, to open, refers to the space in
which the action of the verb is to be performed: # # {# X #| # {j H' +
wo-men chu-puh-k'ai che ko fang-ts, we cannot occupy this house, i.e., it is too small
for us; # # # 4: X. |# tsai che li tso-puh-k'ai, there not sufficient room to
it here, and so on with other completives. (See also chapter vi, 2, 2nd, (2), b. c.).
(2). Ability or inability may be expressed by the verbs # neng

and its verbal compounds, meaning natural ability, and by huei,
meaning acquired ability, skill (See chapter vi. 2, 2nd (4), Remark 2):
{b, A. He # # t'a puh neng tseulu, he cannot walk; # $, $ wo
huei hsie ts, I can (have acquired the skill to) write characters. This
idiom, which is potential in meaning but infinitive in form, has
already been given when treating of the Infinitive (see above refer
ence), and needs no further discussion here.
Remark.The other moods were sufficiently discussed when treating of the
predicate as a whole. (See Chap, vi, 2, 2nd).
2nd. Tense. What was said in Chap. vi, 2, 1st, about tense
holds true here, but we must add a few more varieties of tense
peculiar to the verbal predicate, to those given there.
43
(1). The Aorist. This is formed by adding to the verb the

character # ko, to pass, to go by. It indicates that the action of the
verb is over and gone. This condition of the action may be with
reference to past or future time. The action is represented as being
over and gone at the time indicated: # 5 # 6, wo chien ko t'a, I
saw, or have seen him; 3; # E # # # nichii ko peh-ching
muh yu, have you (ever up to this time) been to Peking? ## T
chii kola, have been there; 5, 3: # t'a chien nien chii ko, he
went year before last; # # 5 - # - s wo-tsoh-t'ien mai ko yih
pen, I bought a volume yesterday; # (E (b. E #2: # I # hsien
tsai ta yi-ching lai ko la pa, at present he has probably already come;
# T + 5. H. ####### 2, ##### I tao hsia-pan-t'ien wu
tien chung wo-men pih-yao chiang koshu la, afternoon at five oclock
we will have lectured; #| BH &# {, }, XE # I tao ming-nient'a
pih s kola, by next year he shall have died.
For the negative of this tense, when reference is had to the past,
the same terms are used as with the negative perfect: # #j # muh
tao ko, have not been there; # # # 5 # 5 muh yu k'an-chien ko
t"a, have not seen him, &c. When reference is had to the future,
the same terms are used as with the future tense: #| BH H # E (b.
b). ZF #) tao ming-j-hwan-shang t'a pih puh tao ko, by to-morrow
evening he shall not have arrived, &c.
Remark1. As this tense has reference to a completed act, T liao may be
appended ad libitum to the positive form. This is T liao of the completive form
not the tense sign of the perfect.
2. When the verb is followed by an infinitive dependent on it (see Infinitive),
# ko follows the infinitive: # # # 7 ting shohl, la, have heard it said,
3: #. # {b. T chii chien ko t'a la, went to see him; ## ## muh ting
chiang ko, have not yet heard it preached.
3. # Tseng, a general sign of the past, may be used with # ko: # ##
T t'seng shoh kola, but this is bookish.
4. T Liao, in the perfect tense, is not interchangeable with # ko. The former
has reference to the completion of the verb's action up to, and continuing complete,
at the time specified, like the English perfect tenses; the latter has reference to a
definite act of the verb past and gone at the time specified, somewhat like the
Greek aorist.
(2). Continued action. The particle # choh (in some localities J/ >
pronounced ch in this connection), added to the verb, indicates that
the action of the latter is going on at the time in question. Thus it
44
y sometimes is equivalent to the English present partiple: # # chan

choh, standing; 4: ' tso-choh, sitting; # # E ### tsai c'huang
shang t'ang-choh, lying on the bed; # - j # ### H + na yih
t'ien wo kan-choh che-ts, that day I was driving carts; # F# #
$ # # tsai shu-fang li mien-choh shu, in the library reading. This
tense is much used in subordinate clauses to indicate that the actions
designated by their predicates are in process when the action of the
principal predicate occurs: $; $ # # 3: I t'a chi-choh mai lai
'a, he came riding on a horse; H #### (b. 2' yung chuang
tai-choh sung tai lai, bring him carried on a bed; b # # # ; H
% t'a na-choh shu nien-chuh lai, he holding a book reads aloud. This
tense is also much used in narrative style with subordinate clauses
as describing the circumstances: {1 + #5 # E ; # F# #k # 1't
# # # ta tsai na-lifeng kuah-choh y lin-choh sh-h-tsai nan ko, be
there, the wind blowing and the rain pouring, is truly in difficulty; #5
| A # # # 3: $; # JH # #f # If i na ko jen chuan-choh
c'heu-yi tai-choh ting-mao sh-h tsai t i-mien, that man, wearing silk.
clothes and a buttoned hat, is really handsome. .
(Note# choh is much more frequently used with monosyllabic than with
dissyllabic verbs, since with the latter it is generally not euphonious, yet even here
it is often admissible.
V Remark.This idiom has no reference to time as present, past or future; this is

determined by other words in the sentence, as in any other form of the verb.
(3). What may be called a cessative form is regularly formed

by placing the negative Z. puh before the complete form of the verb
with I liao. (See Chap. vi, 2). It indicates that the action of the
verb has stopped; R & # 1 pull mien shu la, have stopped reading;
. H. I puh chien la, no longer seen, lost; b. 'j . ' '. T t'a
men puh ting chiang la, they no longer listen to explanations.
CHAPTER IX.
3. THE NOUN PREDICATE. V
THESE have substantives, i.e., Nouns or Pronouns in the predicate

instead of adjectives or verbs.
It is a characteristic of Noun Predicates that they have verb
copulas to connect the subject with the predicate. The verbs serving
the purpose of copulas are # sh, is, are; # tso; tsoh, to do,
make; wei, be, become, and verbs meaning to designate, call, style,
&c. We divide on the basis of these verbs.
1. # Sh is used with the indicative. It has the range of time

in the three general divisions of present, past and future: (###5
fi # #| ||# ni sh na wei hsien-ch ma, art thou that prophet? # T.
.# (b, wo puh sh t'a, I am not he ; # 4: # H || # A t'a ts'ung
chien sh ko hao jen, he formerly as a good man; b. It # (# # HH
t'a chen sh ko hao p'eng-yu, he truly is a good friend; ($ H. H. H.
+ ni sh ko tsai-chu, you are a wealthy man; # # || # A wo sh
ko pin jen, I am a poor man.
2. # Tso or # tsoh is used when action instead of simple
existence is intended: { {: # "a tso kuan, he is a mandarin; #
# F# 65 WH; ni tso kan-men-tih ma, are you porter ? As f: tso is an
active verb, it is used in all the moods and tenses as a copula: # #
A tso hao jen, be good men; 2: # # puh yao tsotseh, do not be
a thief; b 3: ( # # t'a ch-nientsoh ko kuan, last year he
was a mandarin; # F# # # # + ni kai tso ko hao han-ts, you
ought to be a good fellow.
Remark-l. # Tang either alone, or with f: tso, is used as a copula in the
sense of acting the part of : 5. {# # J: #j t'a-men tang ping tih, they serve as
soldiers; # {# # 4: tang-tso hsien-sheng, fill the place of a teacher.
2. In bookish style wei is used for .# sh or # tso: # }# R *
shen-mo wei liang-hsin, what is conscience; # # # A. tsai sh wei jem, to live
in the world.
46
3. # Wei is used colloquially in the infinitive with an accusa

tive after verbs denoting to call, style, &c.; also in the corresponding
passive form: # # 43 k + cheng t'a wei chiu-chu, call him savior;
# #5, # # feng t'a wei shen, exhalt him to be a god; if 43 A.
# lih ni wei huang-ti, elevate you to be Emperor; # (; # (#
p'ai ni wei chai-sh, appoint you as an official messenger; passive:
{b # 48 % + t'a cheng wei chiu-chu, &c.
Remark1. When action is prominent (see 2 above), tso in thoroughly colloquial
style takes the place of wei: 5. {# # f ($ # # # t'a-men p'ai liao ni tso
chiao-sh, they set you apart to be a missionary.
2. When the noun in the predicate is a proper name, the copula (in this case
# tso; {{: tsoh) may be omitted: 5. % P} # t"a ming chiao chang, his name
was called Chang.
3. When there is merely a supposition that the subject is identical with the
predicate, it is expressed by the compound verb J) gi-wei, literally, take to be,
the subject (which here becomes an accusative with the infinitive comes in between
the two parts of the verb: J} {, , H}} Z: yi t'a wei p'eng-yu, take him to be a
friend; {b, # J) #E {# # # # t'a-men yi che-ko wei hsi-chi, they considered
this strange, &c. The same idiom may be given more colloquially by substituting
# swan-tso, or % # suam-sh; # # tang-tso; # H] tang k'o, &c., to take, or
reckon, to be : # {b, IJ }: tang t'a k'o ch tih, consider him as something to
be ashamed of.
CHAPTER X.
THE MODIFIERS OF THE PREDICATE.1. THE ADVERB.
ADvERBs may be classified as follows:

1. Monosyllabic. 1st. Real adverbs, as # tsai, again, AR hen,
very: # shen, very; k tai, too, very; # tsuei, very; # ts'ai, just
now, then; R puh, not, &c.: # 3% tsai lai, come again; 3, t'ai to,
too many, very many; # # shen kao, very high; # k tsuei ti,
very large.
2nd. Words taken from other parts of speech; as % hsien
before (in time); # heu, behind; H shang, ascend; # ch, to arrive
at, as an adverb, extremely, &c.; % #1 hsien ch, to foreknow; E #
shang-lai, come up; Hg ch sheng, extremely holy; # # chiu laa,
come at once (chiu, to approach), &c.
2. Disyllabic. 1st. Repetition or combination of monosyllabic
adverbs, as #| || kang-kang; # # kang-ts'ai, just now; 5% if hsien
c'hien, formerly; # jan heu, afterwards. So also adverbs in
combination with verbs, especially with # lai; as # 35 heu-lai,
afterwards; ): # yen-lai, ZS 2# pen-lai, originally, &c.
2nd. Adverbs ending with # jan, thus as # # t'u-jan; #
# wang-jan, in vain; # # eu-jan; # huh-jan, suddenly; # #
ts-jan, of course; # # hsien-jan, openly, &c. This class is limited
in number.
3rd. Adverbs composed of a noun or a numeral and some other

word, or of an adjective and noun and similar combinations, as
# j, chieh-lih, with the whole strength; in f# chia-pei, doubly; El
* t'ung-hsin, unitedly; - ifi yih ch-h, and # If pih-ch-h, straight
on; - [i] yih t'ung : - # 5 yih-k'uai-er, together; # yih lu,
all the way; - \, yih-hsin, with all the heart, &c. Ex: {: HF # #
I t'a wang-jan tso kung, he works in vain; # # 6, ####|
k'ung-p'a t'a eu-jan lai tao, lest he arrive suddenly; # * g #3;
48
wo-men ts-jan ch, we of course go; # - If #: if # yao yih ch-h

wang chien tseu, must go straight forward; # * - || # wo
men yih-t'ung tseu, we go together; [i] # # t'ung-hsin pan sh,
unitedly manage affairs; - # # , yih-lu pang-chu, help all the
way, &c.
As to position, the above varieties of the adverb simply precede
the verb they modify without the particle #4 tih, to connect them.
We come now to
3. Adjective-Adverbs, i.e., words that may qualify nouns or verbs

without change of form. Whether they are adjectives or adverbs
depends entirely on the character of the word they modify. Thus #:
k'uai, sharp; # JJ k'uai tao, sharp knives; # # k'uai tseu, walk
fast; H tsao, early; H # tsao chi, to rise early; # hao, good; # f:
hao tai, treat well, &c. Often the adjective is duplicated in becoming
an adverb for the sake of emphasis: # peh, white; # H #4 # pel
peh tih p'ao, to run in vain; # # p'ing-an, peaceful; # ### #
*# p'ing-p'ing-an-an tih tseu, go in peace; ###4 # k'uai-k'uai tih
lai, come quickly, &c. It will be seen that in this class, when the
adverb has more than one syllable (from duplication or otherwise), it
is generally connected with the verb by 6 tih, similar to adjectives.
This variety of adverbs is very large, in fact, by using #5 tih, we may
coin almost any phrase that we wish to modify the adverb.
Remark.Thus also anomatopoetic adverbs are formed: R& |g #4 huh-huh tih,
sound of wind blowing; # # fi: hah-hah tih, sound of laughter, &c.
4. Demonstrative Adverbs are formed by adding to the demons.
tratives # che and #5 na the characters # mo; # # mo-choh ;
}: # mo-yang; or # yang: as E che-mo; # 5 # che-mo-choh ;
# # # che-mo-yang; # # che-chang, all meaning thus, or in this
way; # Wis na-mo; # 5 # na-mo-choh, &c., meaning thus, or in
that way; E. B. Eit che-mo shoh, to speak thus; # W. ### R fi
na-mo-yang pan sh puh hsing, to manage affairs in that way will not
do; # He fi : X che-mo k'an-chi lai, thus you may begin to see.
Remark.The book word #II }: ju-t's, thus (lit. like this) is much used in the
colloquial; #ll l' # # ju-ts k'an-lai, thus it will be seen; #. # #ll |
yesh ju-t's, is also thus.
5. Interrogative Adverbs are formed by adding the same words
above given to the interrogatives 5 tseu, how P and 3 to, how
much? & 9: t; # WE tseu-mo-yang shoh ni, how is one to speak?
49
# 5< & B # 3: # tsoh-t'ien tsen-mo muh lai ko, how is it that you
did not come yesterday? # 4 H H & B ### che chien sh tsen-mo pan
fah, how is this affair to be managed ? & H k to-mo ta, how large?
Remarks1. Other interrogative adverbs are the book words #Il fi! ju-ho and
f] J) ho-yi, and the more colloquial # c'hi, how P # # "an-tao, #
man-shoh, is it possible? (lit. hard to say); # # #E # JB chi sh che yang ni,
how, or why is it thus? # X. .# kf !' chi puh sh hao ma, is it not good? #
# K # {b, W# man-tao yao shah t'a ma, you don't say that you are going to kill
him P So also # geu and #5 # na-li how; implying a negative answer: % A.
# # # # WE s jen yen neng fuh-hoh ni, how can the dead arise? Z: # J\
#5 # f #, # UE pen-ti jen na-li huei shoh wai-kueh hua ni, how (lit.
where?) can natives speak foreign languages?
2. The above interrogative adverbs (except # chi and # # man-tao ; #
# man-shoh,) have the same correlative uses as the interrogative pronouns:
# {# }}# # {# # # # }: # tra kan-su ni tsen-mo tso ni chiu, yao tsen
motso, you must do just as he tells you; # 3. # Sk f: % }: 5% yao to-mo ta.
tso to-mo ta, make it as large as you want it.
6. Adverbs of place are formed by adding to the demonstratives
# che and # na, the locative terms # li, inside; # pien, side; iii
mien, face; and HH t'eu, end: #E # che-li, here; # # na-li, there;
# # na-pien, on that side; #5 Ili na-mien, on that side; E # che
t"eu, at this end, &c. Similar combinations are made by placing
before the words # pien, Ifil mien and # t'eu the characters #
chien, before; and # heu, after : ## chien-pien; # Wii chien-mien,
before; # fil heu-mien ; # # heu-teu, behind, &c.
Nearly every variety of adverbs above given may be used as
predicates: exceptions generally are Nos. 1 and 2, 1st. When used
as predicates, they of course became descriptive adjectives: # 4+ +
# # 58 6.j na chien sh sh che-motih, that affair is thus; # E #
# # # i fi fij tsai che-li ch'uan tao sh peh-peh tih, to preach
here is vain; # # # 5: # WE che sh tsen-yang ni, how is this?
45 k # H + ##### tso ho-luen-che-ts sh k'uai-k'uai tih, to
travel by rail is very speedy; # ###, k'an shu yung-yi, to read is
easy; # 5 # hsie ts nan, to write is difficult.
Remarks1. In thus construction when an action is the subject (as in the last
three or four examples), the verb is in the infinitive and is construed as a substantive.
2. Although the position of the adverb as such is before the predicate, it is not
always certain as to whether it follows the subject or begins the sentence, the subject
following it. It may be said generally that long or important adverbs begin the
Sentence: # % 5. hew-lai t'a shoh, afterwards he said; #E W$ # # X. #
che-mo-choh wo puh, chii, if this is the case, I am not going; 4. j- {b, X. %
chin-ti'en, ta puh lai, to-day he is not coming.
CHAPTER XI.
2. ADWERBIAL CLAUSES.
THESE form quite an important part of adverbial modifiers. They

may be divided into1, Prepositional; 2, Locative; and 3, General
Introductory Clauses.
1. Prepositional Clauses. These clauses are introduced by
prepositions. Many words used in a prepositional construction are
really verbs, but as the idiom is the same, they will here be classed
as prepositions, in order to complete the list. They may be classified
as follows:
1st. Locative Prepositions referring to rest in, or motion to, or

from the noun before which they are placed. These are # yi, p.
hu (both bookish), denoting vaguely proximity to a place; tsai ; #
tang (with time) at, in; # ts; tsung ; # 4: ts-tsung; #T ta,
from; # teng (to wait); # tao ; # #| teng tao; # ch, until up
to; # lin, at the time of; (ii hsiang; # wang; # wang; towards;
E shang; T hsia; # tuei, to, over against; # y (bookish); Rij
tung; #1 ho, with: # 5 -E tsai t'ien shang, in heaven; # E #
tsai shang-hai, at Shanghai; 4: ' ' # T tsung kuan-tung lai
la, came from Manchuria; # 5 # 4 tsku ch chin, from ancient
times till now; E E #1 #5 || Hi + che-ko ho ma-ko pi-liang,
compare this with that; EJ (b. 5: # tung-ta shoh hua, talk with
him; # #5, ### tuei t'a shoh hua, talk to him; (ii) (b. # # hsiang
t"a shoh hua, talk at him; # #### wang wo t'ao chien, beg cash
of me, &c.
Remark.-1. # tsai, in the predicate uniformly has its proper meaning of to be,
exist, consist in: 5. #! t"a tsai wuh li, he is in the house; # # # + J.
shu tsai choh-ts shang, books are on the table; # j- + shen tsai t'ien shang,
God is in heaven.
The following particulars may be specified.

51 -
(1). When followed by a substantive without a locative, it means to depend on,

to consist in f# As f: E hsin puh hsin tsai ni, whether you believe or not
remains with you; Z. # # J; # f; puh tsai shoh-hua nai tsai shing
wei, it does not consist in words, but in acts.
(2). Followed by # chia, without a locative, it means to beat home: 5.
ZR # # ta puh tsai chia, he is not at home; #| # + # # # tao wan,
shang ts'ai tsai chia, will be at home by evening.
(3). When standing alone, tsai means to be living. {# #4 %. + #
Z: # ni tih fu mu tsai puh tsai, are your parents living ? # # huan tsai, still
living.
2. The prepositions #1 ho, [H] tung and $ y may be followed at the end of
the sentence by the phrases - |E] viht'ung, [H] # tung tsai, - # 5. yih k'uai
er, together with; - # yih yang, - # jih pan; like, &c., fil # E
ho t'a tung tsai, together with him; [E] {# # 5. tung ni yih k'uai-er, together
-
with you; $ 5. - # yi, t'a yih yang, like him; #l {# -# 5. # ho mi

yih k'uai-er chii, go in company with you. (Compare chap. vii., 1, 2nd (1), Rem. 1).
3. j# yi is used colloquially in expressions modeled after wen-li: # # yil sh
(lit. at this) thereupon; # # kuei yi, to belong to, return to; # # #Il l'
ch yi ju-t's, as far as this, to this point.
2nd. Prepositions of Advantage. These are # chih, # pa

(in southern mandarin), # yii, to, for; yin, wei, [k # yin
wei, # yin-choh, T wei liao, # 63 wei-tih, # # wei
choh, because of, on account of ; # ti, ft. tai, #ft t'i tai, instead
of: # # : I chih wo tso kung, work for me; # ### yi ni
2010 yih, ofno advantage to you; # 5, 64 wei ta tso tih, done on
his account; K (#4 # 48 # yin hsin teh cheng wei yi, on account
of faith to be pronounced righteous; # k # I t'i ni tso kung, work
in your stead; # 5 ft 5k tita tai chiu, entreat in his stead, &c.
Remark.The prepositions yin and # with some of their compounds may
be strengthened by # # yen-ku, cause, reason, following the noun: -
yen-ku is generally construed in the possessive after the noun: T , #j #

# wei liao ni tih yien-ku, on your account; # # #j # # yin ta lai tih
gen ku, because of his coming.
3rd. Prepositions denoting Manner, as # an ; # # an-choh ;

# chao; #4 # chao-choh, according to ; # p'ing ; # chii, to prove
by; # yi and tsai (with a verbal phrase following) in accordance
with: # # # #E # # an-choh kuei-chii pan sh, manage affairs
according to rule; # # # # chao-choh lh-fah, according to law;
# (b. Eit taking as proof what he says; # (R #4 # yi ni tih hua,
according to your words; # # ## tsai wo k'an lai, in my view of
the case, &c. -
a a to wo" , * ,
52
4th. Prepositions preceding the means, agent, &c., as # sh,

J# to use, by means of ; # pei, by (with a personal agent); # na, to
take, make use of; JH jJ # (b. yung tao shah t'a, kill him with a
knife; & # # # Wi ma chien mai tung-hsi, make use of cash to
buy things; # (b. # # pei t'a shah-tiao, killed by him; ### (b.
#T # sh chiang pei ta ta-shah, killed by him with a gun; # # #
# 3 pei chiang-tao chiang-toh, taken by robbers, &c.
2. Locative Clauses. These are formed of a substantive followed
by a word locating the action of the predicate with reference to the
substantive. Locative Phrases may be divided into 1st, those of place;
2nd, those of time.
1st. Locative Clauses denoting location in space. The locatives
here used are the points of the compass, as # tung, east; if hsi,
west; man, south; : E peh, north, &c., and such terms as H #
chung-chien ; # H tang-chung, in the centre, among; # li; H
chung, in, among; # wai, outside; # pien ; # # p'ang-pien,
side, by the side of ; # # tso-pien, left side; fi # yu-pien, right
side; E above; T hsia, below, &c.; # # cheng li, in the city; E
% wuh li, in the house; F #1 men wai, outside the door; # + E.
ZH # choh-ts shang yushu, on the table are books; (; ; # HH in,
or, among you; H ' His t'a-men tang-chung, among them, &c.
It will be seen now that locative clauses are simply locative pre
positional clauses viewed from a different standpoint. (See above 1,
1st). As a general rule in these locative clauses a preposition precedes
and a locative follows the substantive. We now note the principal
exceptions to the rule.
1. The locative is omitted (1), after the proper nouns of places:
# E # tsai shang-hai, at Shanghai; # 38 K tsung peh-ching,
from Peking; #| # # tao hang-chow, to Hangchow, &c.
(2). After the idiomatic uses of tsai, given under 1, 1st,
Rem. 1 above (see examples there given).
2. With reference to the omission of prepositions it may be
said (1), that in the ordinary construction of the sentence, tsai
may or may not be used in a locative phrase used attributively.
Thus, we may say # + E # # choh-ts shang yu shu, or # # +
E H if tsai choh-ts shang yushu, on the table are books, &c.
53 -
(2). The other locative prepositions indicating motion to or from

a place are required, except that 4: tsung, and its compounds may
be omitted in what we shall call the descriptive constructions. (See
chap. xv); # # # 5 # 65 wo sh peh-ching lai tih, I am from
Peking. But even here the prepositions can always be used.
Note.Locatives are used only with those prepositional phrases where rest in
motion to, or motion from, a place is indicated.
Remarks1. When separations from the substantive is intended, it may generally
be denoted by the character J21 yi placed before the locative: # Cl + ti yi
shang, above the earth; # b. El #N chu t'a yi wai, besides him; ch may take
the place here of Pl gi. The amount of separations is given by a numerical term
following the locative; J) yi is then not used: # # # E T# H! li che-li san
peh li, distant from here 300 li; # -E E JG Ziff i: HH t"ew shang san ch-hyu
shen-ming, three feet above one's head there is divine light; # # # ZR #
li wo-men puh yen, not far from us; F# # - # # # # men wai yih chang
gu chang pih, ten feet outside the gate there are walls.
2. With pronouns the locative adverbs ## che li and ## na-li must be
used when the locality of the person and not the person is intended; # {# #5 #
the place where you are; # # # # tsai-wo che-li, where I am, here.
3. Often a locative is not preceded by a noun. Its construction is then the same
as that of any other adverb or adjective: # # _E. # # #j wo-sh shang t'ew
lai tih, I am come from above; 5, HH Ziff #f 3, M wai-teu yw hsil-tojem, outside
are very many men;# # #j H. + li-pien tih fang-ts, houses that are inside;
T M ti-hsia jen, underlings.
Locative Clauses of Place used predicatively. Here they denote
the terminus ad quem of the verb's action.
# tsai has two uses in the predicate. (1) When there is no
other verb in the sentence, it is itself a verb with the meaning is,
are, &c.: # # + -t shu tsai choh-ts shang, books are on the
table; { {# # F# t'a tsai li-teu, he is inside. In this idiom it
cannot be omitted; (2) When there is a previous verb, tsai has
the meaning so as to be; but in this idiom it may be omitted: #
# #: # + E pai shu tsai choh-ts, place books (so as to be) on the
table; # 7k #| #I # pa Shuei tao kang li, take water (and) pour
(it) into the stone jar.
The other prepositions are construed like # tsai, under (2)
above; but are not omitted: # 5, ] ### sung t'a tao cheng li,
accompany him to within the city; # #! # F# # kan kew tao men
wai, drive dogs out of the door. The preposition here becomes really
a verb. (Comp. chap. xii., 3, 2nd). Thus verbs are freely used in
this construction where in English we use prepositions: # # #
- 54
# # chiu wo-men chuh tsuei, save us from sin; 4% ($ # XE pao ni

mien s, protect you from death; # # # E j< # chiw ling-huen
shang t'ien t'ang, save souls into heaven, &c.
4. The difference between the attributive and predicative positions
of the locative clause is that in the former position it describes the
sphere of the verb's action; in the latter it indicates the tendency or
result of the action; # + E ## tsai choh-ts shang pai shu,
means that the action of arranging books goes on upon the table, it
begins and ends there; # # *E # + E pai shu tsai choh-ts shang,
means that the end of the action is upon the table, but it begins some
where else; so #: B # # tsai wuh li tseu, to walk inside the house;
# #: B # tseu tsai wuh li, a walk that terminates in the house.
(Compare Greek ts.)
5. General direction is indicated by the verb of motion f# wang,
followed by a locative: it wang-tung, eastward; # T wang-hsia,
downward; # E # wang shang p'ao, run upward, &c.
2nd. Locatives denoting location in Time. The locatives here
used are # li, # chien, in (with months and years); % hsien,
before; # heu, before; 9 E yi shang, above, before; # T wang
hsia, downward, afterward, &c. With general designations of time,
as # sh, # # sh heu, no locative may be used when the same time
is meant. The prepositions are used here as with locatives in space,
which see. Here # tang must be added to the list of prepositions
used attributively only with the same meaning as # tsai. It must
be noticed further that with locatives denoting priority in time the
preceding predicate must be negative. Finally, the general designa
tions # sh, # # sh-hew, and the locatives # hsien and # heu are
generally connected to the preceding noun by 2 ch, El yi, or, in the
case of # # sh-hew, by 6 tih : { % #4 # G# t'a lai tih sh-hew, at
the time of his coming; #5 # # tsai na kosh-hew ; #5 (#| ||#
# na kosh-hew; # # # tang nash, &c., at that time; #| # 5<
# C. chuang-tsao ti'en ti yi heu, after the creation of heaven and
earth; # 2's 2 # t'a laich heu, after he came; # # ft # 2 %
t"a wei tiseng lai ch hsien, before he came; # + # # # # 91 %
chiu chu muh yu chiang sh yi hsien, before the Savior's advent; #
# # 4 f Ll L. K'ang-hsi muh tso wei yi shang, before K'ang
hsi sat on the throne; # #4 #| K'ang-hsi nien chien, during the
time of K'ang-hsi; 7% H # luh yiehli, in the sixth month.
55 -
Remark.1. As with locatives of place, the amount of time before or after an

event is given by numerical phrases following the locative.
- - - - .. 4:
4 # # T E
#: *** - -
T ts'ung Kang-hsi wang hsia san peh mien, from K'ang-hsi down for 300 years;
# # # |# # J) # *- + chiu chu muh yu chiang sh yi hsien yih
chien nien, 1,000 years before the Savior's advent.
NoteAn exception occurs with reference to position under the above rem.,
when no verb is given. The amount of time may then precede or follow the locative:
- # san mien heu, as # ~ hew san nien, three years after.
2. When no noun precedes, the locative has the same construction as an ordin
ary adverb: J) # yi heu, afterwards; J) # yi hsien, before, &c. (See above
1st, Rem. 3).
Further examples of locative clauses with prepositions: # #

tang sh, at that (or the same) time; # 5% ### F# G# 2 % tang
Kuang-hsii wei tso huang-ti ch hsien, before Kuang-hs was emperor;
#] { % #4 # tao t'a lai tih sh-heu, until the time of his
coming; # it fil] # 5< # CA 3: ts^ing shew chuang-tsaot'ien ti
yilai, from the time that God created heaven and earth; # # 65 %
# lin, ching tih sh-hew, when the end comes, &c.
3. General Introductary Clauses. These are exceedingly varied
in character. It is rather the position that can be defined than the
character of the clauses that may be used. The general office of
these Clauses is to stand before the sentence and thus introduce it, in
a general way modifying the whole or part of the sentence. They
stand at the head as being the most emphatic position. They may
form the logical subject of the sentence, if suitable; but the gram
matical subject may generally be inserted in its proper place after
them. These introductory clauses are very common in colloquial.
We may divide them as follows:
1st. Dissyllabic or Polysyllabic Adverbs giving the general

character or circumstances of the thought; as J. 38 yen-lai, Z: #
pen-lai, originally; # 33 chiu-ching, after all; j K. tao-ti, finally;
#11 # ju-t's ; # 5 # che-mo-choh, thus, &c.; Ji. X: T. H. # 5 #
yien-lai puh-sh che-mo-yang, originally it was not thus; #| H. (j; H
# ## * tao-ti ni yushen-mo yi-8, to come to the point, what is
your intention?
Remark.These adverbs, if they have no more than two syllables, may precede
or follow the subject. (See Chap. x, 6, Rem. 2).
56
2nd. Locative clauses of time (see above 2nd), very generally

serve as introductory clauses. # F# # 5 - T -k # HE T Kang
hsi nien chien t'ien-hsia tahsing-wang lu, during the time of K'ang-hsi
the empire prospered greatly; # 3' 65 H4 # # # tang t'a
lai tih sh-heu wo yu ping, at the time he came I was ill; # # # #
3. M. XET tang-sh yu hsil-to jen sla, at that time there were many
persons died.
3rd. A general subject may be stated first after which particulars
may be given. This general subject itself may be introduced by
such phrases as # #j hun-tao, ###| chiang-tao, to discuss, &c. If
the grammatical subject is a person, it is generally inserted after the
clause: # #| ###################, luen-tao
chin-yoh, luh-fah sh sheug-shan tih yi-li sh chuen-chie tih, as to the
Old Testament, its laws are holy, its ceremonies pure; 2's #4 # WE
{b, E #31 + # T Li ta ko ni, t'a yi-ching wu shh suei la, as to
brother Li, he is already 50; 3B # 6: N || + k if: peh-pien tih
jen ko-ts ta-hsie, as to northern people, they are rather large in
stature; H F #5 A (b || # 3; # * # chuh men tih jen ta
men kai to tai hsie c'hien, for those that go abroad it is necessary to
carry a little more money; # 55 E M #5, # k # # # # #]
luen-tao wai-kueh jen, t'a-men ta-kai yu hsie hsioh-wen, as to foreigners
they generally have a little education. (Comp. chap. iv., 3).
CHAPTER XII.
THE WARIOUS FORMS OF THE PREDICATE.
1. Transitive and Intransitive Forms of the Verbal Predicate.
THERE is in Chinese no distinction between transitive and intransitive

verbs. Any verb may be transitive or intransitive, dependent on its
having or not having an object. Perhaps every verb in the language
may be used transitively when occasion so requires.
1. Hence, the general rule, a verb in colloquial mandarin never
has a preposition with an object after the verb. Apparent exceptions
will be noticed in their proper places: # # tseulu, to walk on the
road; 4: $ + tso chiao-ts, to sit (ride) in a sedan; E # shang ching,
to go to the capital; # 5's ir tseu wai chiang, to go along the outside
river; H H tsew chung-chien, to go along the middle; k # #|
#I shuei yao tao kang, the water you must pour into the stone jar;
# ### # E shu yao koh chuang-t'ai shang, the books must
be placed on the window sill; # # & + # I mei c'heng tai-ts li
la, coal is put into bags, &c., &c.
Note.It will be seen from the above examples that it is not necessary to insert
before the object the word # tsai (to exist) as a preposition. More of this hereafter.
Remarks.1. When no object is intended, the verb of course is intransitive:
b. # # T t'a-men tseu-la, they have gone; J. # + # # hsiao hai-ts
shuei-chiao, the little child is asleep; so where the object has already been mention
ed, as in questions, it is often omitted in the answer: f; T # }#fu la chien ma,
have you paid the money P fi T fu-la, I have.
2. In some cases the verb is repeated, as if to supply the lack of an object:
# j# #
tsew tsew, or -e # tseu yih tseu, to take a walk, walk a little ; #T
#I ta yih ta, give it a lick, &c.

2. The object together with its modifiers, in the normal construc
tion of the sentence, comes directly after the verb, as in English:
# 4# E # # #5 wo tsai chiai shang chien-ko t'a, I saw him on the
street; 5, # - || $f # 63 Hi + t'a kai-choh yih chu hao-k'an
tih-fang-ts, he is building a beautiful house; # #5 5: ###
# # wo na-yih t'ien tsai chia li mien-choh shu, that day I was at
58
home reading books. The tense-signs. T liao and # ko, and #

choh, being considered part of the verb, of course precede the object:
{#3; # 38 K H ni chi-ko peh-ching ma, have you been to Peking?
# 5 # b wo chien-kota, I saw him; 5, J T # t'a tao-la chia,
he has gotten home; #5, # # #1 + t'a kan-choh che-ts, he is
driving carts.
3. The Secondary Object. This 1st, Precedes the direct: # (b.
- # sung t'a yih kuan pih, present him with a pen; # # - #
# # chih wo yih k'uai yang chien, give me one dollar; 5< 3: $; #
# k & ti'en fu t's women ta en, the Heavenly Father bestows
upon us much, or great grace.
2nd. When the secondary object also has a verb, both follow the
primary object, as being in order to, the terminans ad quem of the
primary object: # fB # (b. shao hsin chih t'a, send a letter (to give)
to him; # ### (; mai shu chih ni, buy books for you; # # E #
sung wo shang c'huan, accompany me to the boat; # #j + # F# #,
kan keu-ts tao men wai, drive dogs (to) outside the gate; # # #:
# + E pai shu tsai choh-ts shang, place books upon (so as to be on)
the table; # 5, J ### sung t'a tao cheng li, accompany him to
(within) the city; # # # # E c'hi ma tsai lu shang, to ride
horses upon the road; # # # E tiao tsai ti shang, to fall on the
ground, &c., &c. (See chap. xi., 2, 1st after Rem. 3).
3rd. When the first object is not present, both verbs come before
the second object; in this case the second verb fills the place of a
preposition: # # 5, chiang yi t'a-men, explain it to them; }}
# (; ; fen chih ni-men, divide to you; ###| || ti chih t'a-men,
hand to them; # # + $ # # R pa yin-ts sung chih-nan min,
give silver to the sufferers. -
4. A secondary accusative may follow the direct object showing

the extent of the verb's action: # 5 -H # # # fah t'a sh-h k'uai
yang-chien, fine him ten dollars; # T # = # 3: # tew liao wo
san chien yi-shang, stole from me three pieces of clothing; #| || H.
# # # went'a shen-mo yi-s, ask him the meaning; # ####
chiu wo wu k'uai chien, beg of me five dollars; # # 4 men ta an,
ask after his welfare, &c.
CHAPTER XIII.
2. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS.
THE distinction between the active and passive forms of the verb is
not always clearly marked as in the English. Often in fact, a clear
distinction is unnecessary. We give a few general rules with refer
ence to active and passive constructions.
1. When the action of the verb is completed by either (1) T
liao, (2) a completive, (3) a sequent, or (4) a secondary object denoting
the terminus ad quem, the verb is active when it has an object,
passive when it has no object: # T #### E t'a koh-la
shu tsai choh-ts shang, he placed books on the table; # # # # +
_E shu koh tsai choh-ts shang, books are placed on the table; # #
T #wo tien-la teng, I lighted the lamps; ####T teng tu tien
la, the lamps are all lighted; # # # # wo wei-t'seng ting-kuei,
I am not yet decided; # # # E # E 4: $; $ wo wei-ts'eng
ting-kuei che chien sh-c'hing, I have not yet decided this matter; #
T # F# E tiao-la tsai-lu shang, dropped on the road; Fij || ET
men kuan shang-la, the door is closed.
Remark.1. This form of passive of course applies generally to verbs that can
also be used in an active transitive sense.
2. When it is desired to designate the agent in the above passive construction, it
assumes a descriptive form, the agent being introduced by # sh, and followed by the
predicate; active : # # #E # shuei tso che ko, who does this P. Passive : # | #
# # # che kosh shuei tso tih, who is this done by ? # |# # #E Zx # #
#1 _E ma-ko fang che pen shu tsai ti shang, who threw this book on the floor; # ZN
# .# #5 {# # # # -E f: che pen shu sh na-ko fang tsai ti shang tih, by
whom was this book thrown on the floor; # # # {# # # |# che hua sh ni
shoh tih ma, were these words spoken by you? # 5. fij sh t'a shoh tih, they
were spoken by him.
2. A formal passive occurs when a person is the sufferer as
well as the actor. The verb # pei, to cover, becomes in this construc
tion the sign of the passive. The subject may or may not be expressed.
The construction is similar to the English passive: # b # T pei
t"a shah-liao, killed by him ; # # pei shah, to be killed; # R Ef #
60
pei ni so ai, those loved by you; (b || # # # T ## T t'a-men

tu pei ping-ting shah-chin-liao, they were all killed by soldiers; # #
# I pei tsih lioh-liao, captured by thieves; # # pei hai, to be
injured by a person ; # # shew hai may mean that the injury
comes from some other source.
NoteThis construction is not confined to persons, though properly used only
when they are the agents and receivers.
Remark.H. chiao, to cause, is used in some ports of northern China instead of
pet.
3. There are a few verbs that with an active construction have

a passive meaning. Such are # sheu, to receive (in a suffering sense);
# meng (lit. to cover) to be favored with; # ai, to rub against,
come into contact with ; # chien, to seem; # feng, to receive from
a superior; 5, T #T t'a ai-la ta, he received a beating; # # shew
k'u, to suffer; # , it meng en-tien, to be favored with grace; #
# A feng ming-ling, to receive command, to be commanded; (b. 5.
# t'a chien hao, he seems to be well.
Remark.That these are not real passives is seen when the agent is given :
# # E. fij $. J# meng huang-shang tih en-tien, receive the Emperor's favor;
# jih #j # #feng shen tih chai-chien, to receive commission from God; # '#
#j #T ai kuan-fu tih ta, to receive a beating from the mandarin.
CHAPTER XIV.
3. INTERROGATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS.
(FoR questions not requiring a categorical answer, see Interrogative

Pronouns, Chap. iii., 2, 3rd; also Interrogative Adverbs, Chap. x., 5).
For questions requiring categorical answers yes or no, there
are two main constructions.
1. Repeating the predicate with a negative (Z. puh, for the
present or future; # muh, 1% f muh yu, for the past). In this
construction the questioner simply places before the party questioned
both the positive and negative sides of the predicate, and the latter
shows which of the two he accepts by repeating it: (b. 2' T & #
ta lai-liao muh yu, or # # muh lai, has he come? # # muh lai,
no; # 35 ZR # nichi puh ch'i, are you going or not? F # puh
c'hu, no ; (; H T f{ }}# # # mi mai-liao sheu-mo muh yu, have
you bought anything? # T mai-la, yes, have bought. (b. 4 3.
# Z. 3, t'a chin-t'ien nien shu puh nien, is he studying to-day? #
# nien shu, yes, he is.
Remarks.1. In the negative part of the predicate and in the answer there is
quite a good deal of latitude as to how much of the predicate-modifiers, object, &c.
is to be repeated.
In the question at least the negative adverb with the following predicate (adjec
tive, verb or noun) noun must be repeated; more may be repeated, but is not essential.
In the answer, when negative, only the negative adverb is necessary, but also the whole
sentence may be repeated: # |# A. # ZR # {b. na ko jen sh puh sh t'a, is that
man he P ZR Puh, no; 1. 4. 5K # T # # t"a chin-t'ien lai-la muh yu, has he
come to-day; 4. j: # % chin-t'ien muh yu lai, has not come to-day.
2. When the verb has an object, the predicate may be repeated before the
object, or the latter may also be repeated: {# f X. f: b. ni hsin puh hsin t'a, or
{{R f {b, ZS f: 5. ni hsin ta puh hsin t'a, you believe him?
3. Very often when an affirmative answer is expected, especially when the
question is long or complicated, instead of repeating the predicate negatively, simply
Z. # puh sh, in the sense of isnt it so? is put in the place of it : , 4. j:
# # EH 5: [E] % As # ni chin-t'ien yao chii ming-ti'en huei lai puh sh, you
wish to go to-day and return to-morrow, don't you ? {b. # # Z. % t"a yao mai puh
sh, he wants to buy, doesn't he P The answer is of course .# sh or ZN .# puh sh,
or the predicate repeated.
62
4. A still more vulgar form, when an affirmative answer is expected, is to give

only the affirmative part of the predicate, looking for the assent of the interrogated
party: {# 4. j: % T ni chin-ti'en lai-la, you came to-day? ( fi. + }: T
ni wu-sh-h suei la, your are 50? The suggestive particle # pa may be appended
to this form: {b, BH H # # t"a ming-j-h chii pa, I suppose he is going
to-morrow? {j # # # 3. &E T # ni hai che hoping to mien la pa, I
suppose you have had this illness for many years?
5. The general forms of assent to a preposition, not interrogative, are: # sh, #
# sh-tih, # T sh-la, # T twei-la, ZR # puh tso, (no mistake), &c.
2. The second form of interrogative sentences is to append to
the predicate the interrogative # mo (pronounced ma and often
written ||5); # # T # t'a lai-la ma, has he come? A: I # 1';
ch-h-la fan ma, have you eaten? ($ ### F# ni huan yao ch
ma, do you still wish to go? The answer is in the same form as No.
1, above: (#4 H $ # 1's ni chin-j-h nien shu ma, are you studying
to-day? A: 3; # puh nien shu, no.
Remark.When a positive answer is expected, the predicate must be negative:
{. # # # T !' t"a huan muh lai-la ma, has he not yet come PZR # {# I'
puh sh mi ma, is it not you? So when existence or possession is intended, the
negative phrase ZR .# puh sh is followed by Ziff yu : ZS # Ziff Fij |# # + ||#
puh sh yu liang ko hai-ts ma, are there not two children? {# X. # ZH fi # #
'# ni puh sh yu wu k'uai chien ma, have you not five dollars? Another construc
tion is simply to place the negative # muh before yu : {# # Ziff Hj
WH; ni muh yu p'eng-yu ma, have you no friends? fb. # # |# t"a muh yu chien
ma, has he no cash P
3. Alternate questions are construed in the same way as No. 1,
above, i.e., by giving the two sides of the predicate. The second part
of the question may begin with # hoh, E' }, hoh sh: # ($ $ 5.
sh ni sh t'a, is it you or he? 4, 5- # E + EH 5 # ni chin
t'ien ch ch sh ming-t'ien chii, are you going to-day or to-morrow?
# 2, # # # #4 # 3 #5, # # che pen shu sh ni tso tih hoh
sh t'a tso tih, was this book made by you or by him. Ans.: # #5, #
# sh t'a tso tih, it was made by him. Again, the first number may
be closed with the emphatic particle UB ni: H. (b 3: T ): R. Eff sh
ta lai-la ni, sh shuei, was it he that came or who was it? ($ ##
# VE EX + # 5 mi lai chao wo ni, hoh sh chao t'a, did you come
for me or for him?
Remark.The character $ y may be placed between the two parts of a sentence
{# [i] , # $ Z. # you
in the sense of the English or: ask him whether
he wants it or not; # Z. %ll # f Z. wo puh ch-tao hoh yi puh hoh,
do not know whether it suits or not.
CHAPTER XV.
4. THE DESCRIPTIVE CONSTRUCTION.
THE office of this construction is to describe the subject. The predi

cate is therefore adjective in meaning, although it may be a noun,
verb or adjective.
This construction is regularly formed by placing before the pre
dicate the verb # sh, to exist, followed at the end of the sentence by
the descriptive particle #4 tih. It describes the subject as being one
or more of a class of things of which the same could be predicated:
{{ {# # # # # 63 t'a-men sh tso mai-mai tih, they are of the
merchant class; # # #3; # wo sh yao chii tih, I (am one that)
want (s) to go; ####|ji 65 ni tsuei sh chuh lih tih, you are
one that very much exerts himself ; # 4: # # # F# 65 ta tsung
chien sh k'an men tih, formerly he was a gate-keeper; H. & 5
# #4 # ni sh chin-t'ien lai tih pa, I presume you came to-day, &c.
Here belongs a large class of predicates that describe their
subjects as to their origin: E # # # # # chesh shen-mo tso tih,
what is this made of ? # # # 64 sh tieh tso tih, it is made of iron;
# 4+ K # 3 & #5 # # 64 che chien yi-shang sh t'sung na-lilai
tih, where did this piece of clothing come from ? # # #| # 65 sh
su-chow lai tih, it came from Suchow; # 44; 3% E # 63 che chien
sh ting-tso tih, this piece was made to order; # # # F# # 65 na
sh hsien-cheng mai tih, that was bought ready made.
The copula verb # sh precedes all the modifiers belonging pro
perly to the predicate. The change of position of # sh gives a
different shade of meaning: 5, # # F# G# t'a sh "sung
chien k'an-men tih, he is a former gate-keeper; 5, ### F# 65
t"a tsung-c'hien sh k'an-men tih, he formerly was a gate-keeper, &c.,
that is to say, the modifiers preceding # sh qualify it instead of the
predicate.
CHAPTER XVI.
5. SEQUENTS.
WE conclude the discussion of the clauses of the simple sentence by

giving a brief notice of whatfor want of a better namewe call
Sequents. These are words, phrases, or clauses attached to the end
of the sentence indicating the tendency, extent, or result of the action
of the predicate. They differ from adverbs in that they indicate
the result, &c.; while adverbs indicate the manner of the predicate's
action, e.g., 4th BH # t'a ming shoh, means he speaks clearly, referring
to the manner of his speaking as to enunciation, &c.; (b) # EH ta shoh
ming, means he makes a clear statement, although his pronunciation,
&c., may be very faulty. The one refers to the manner of making
the statement, the other to the character of the statement made.
Remark.In adjective predicates the distinction above given is not always so
clear:# # hen hao, means about the same as # # # hao teh hen.
Sequents may be classified as follows:
1. Sequents of Tendency. These indicate the tendency of the
action of the predicate, without intimating that the result is actually
reached. In form they are generally short words of one or two
syllables. They are used with present or future time in all moods,
especially the imperative: # BH shoh ming, state distinctly; # X
hao chih, very good; # (b. 4R H fah t'a hen chung, punish him very
severely; H ## hsie ts ching-chu, write (so as to be) clear, &c.
2. Sequents of Result. These are united to the sentence by #
teh (or #3 tih), or, the sequent is followed by T liao, both indicate
the reenlt as reached. They are used with past time: # ###
hsie teh ching-chu, written so as to be distinct; #5 || K # 63 fil
# na ko shuei shen tih li-hai, that water is dangerously deep; H #4
P} N # 7, # 2. chung tih chiao jen tai-puh-chi lai, so heavy
that men cannot lift it; R: # T yah ying liao, pressed compact; #
# T c'huan p'o liao, worn through, to rags; +T # T ta shang
liao, struck so as to be wounded.
65
Remark#4 tih is perhaps wrongly used for # teh, as the two are similar
in sound.
3. Sequents of Extent. These indicate the extent of the predicate

action. (See Chap. vii., 1, 1st, Rem. 4, with Ex.): # Z: # #f $
3 che pen sha hao teh to, this book is much better; # ### + #
# na chang choh-ts kao hsie, that table is a little higher; # F# #
* # - # na tso chiang-pih kao yih chang, that wall is one chang
(10 ft.) high; # F# E R # it; BH chii teu san c'h-h yu shen-ming,
raise the head three feet and you have the gods.
Remark.This variety may or may not take # teh according as the result is or
is not supposed to have been reached.
4. Sequents of Number, used with verbal predicates to indicate

the number of times the action of the verb takes place. The words
used as sequents are # t'ang, t's, # tuen, [E] huei, &c., which may
be translated times, &c.: # # - # chii ko yih t'ang, went once;
# T E lai la sant's, have come three times; ### E lai ko
chi huei, how often did you come; # # J' 2, yao chii li t's, must
go many times.
Remark.This variety does not admit of # teh.
Note.Sequents must not be confounded with the completives following verbs.
In the former the character# teh implies that the result is actually obtained, in the
latter it implies only the possibility of bringing to completion the action of the predicate.
CHAPTER XVII.
6. THE EMPHATIC POSITION.
FROM what has been said in former Chapters, it may be readily seen
that the relative normal positions of the clauses in a sentence are
as follows:
(1). At the head ofor rather, beforethe sentence, come
General Introductory Clauses and Words. Then comes
(2). The Subject, preceded by its modifying words;
(3). The Predicate, preceded by its modifying words;
(4) The Object, if any, preceded by its modifying words;
(5). Finally, there may follow a sequent, concluding the sentence.
Thus the sentence in its normal form. We must now look at the
variations from this form. While the position of attributive modifiers
with reference to the words modified is fixed, i.e., the former precede
the latter, the clauses with reference to each other have not an
invariable position. Emphasis may change their relative position.
Hence, the Emphatic Position of clauses. Before going further, it
may be well to state, first, that the Chinese do not express emphasis,
as we do, by difference in type, nor yet necessarily by tone of voice,
| but more generally by the position of emphatic word or clause in the
sentence. Second, That the emphatic position is at the beginning of the
sentence. Hence, when it is desirable to emphasize any given clause of
the sentence, this clause is taken out of its normal position and placed
at the beginning of the sentence. We will now take up the clauses of
the sentence that are thus brought forward and notice peculiarities.
1. The most frequent and important clause in this construction
is the object of a transitive verb. It is brought forward under two
forms:
1st. By simply placing the object at the beginning of the
sentence: # | }{# # ($ 4: $ H # na ko teng-lung ni teh chao
chuh lai, that lantern, you must hunt it up; - # 7. 44 yih yen
puh tah, not a word is said in reply; # E #4 M #5, # # # sh
shang tih jen ta tu neng ai, he is able to love all men.
67
Remarks.-1. When no subject is mentioned, the construction may be passive; see

second example above (Comp. xiii., 1): 3: # # # # # gi-shang teh hsi kam
ching, clothes must be washed clean; #5 # {# .# # T WH; na feng hsin tai chil
la ma, has that letter been taken P # 5' 6' 3% # # F# 95 hsien-cheng tih
wi-fuh neng mai ma, can ready made clothing be bought P
2. When the object thus brought forward refers to a person, i.e., is a noun or
pronoun, its normal place in the sentence may be filled by a pronoun, as in English:
#5 # M {j H] J) # {. #| # # # na ko jen ni k'o -yi sung t'a tao cheng
lichii, that man, you may accompany him to the city; : 5% &# # W {i, #
Li hsien-sheng yao han ta lai, Mr. Li, you must call him to come. (See chap. xi, 3).
3. The emphasis of this construction may be strengthened by placing before the
object the adverb # lien and before the predicate # ye: # 5. #j # +
4. 't T lien t'a tih hsiai-ts ye mai liao, even his shoes were also sold ;
# # {. #, ZK. $5 lien fan ta ye puh c'h-h, he does not eat even rice ;
# - # 4, Z. # lien yih yen ye puh tah, not even a word is said in reply.
(2). By bringing forward the object introduced by an instru
mental verb # pa, # chiang (rare in colloquial), and (more loosely) #
na, meaning to take. Vulgar English has the same idiom (take and
do this), but this construction in Chinese is standard. Of the verbs
given, pa is most commonly used in speech, # chiang is used in
books: # # + # 5 chiang choh-ts no k'ai, move the table away;
# F##### E pa men tu kuan shang, shut up all the doors; # # #
# # # # # T #5, #j wopa che-hsie huo tu kao-su liao t'a-men, I
have told them all these words. By inserting a pronoun in the
normal place of the object (see (1) Rem. 2), this construction and the
one above under (1) may be combined: #k # #j ($ 4+ {, }k #
juan-joh tih ni teh pat'a fu-chu, the weak you must support.
Remarks.-1. It must be observed that in the above idiom (2) the verbal predicate
must be completed. (See chap. xiii., 1)., e.g., we cannot say: # # #5 # pa men tw.
kuan, we must add a completive, else the sense is not clear.
2. When the subject of the sentence is expressed, it begins the sentence;
{# # #E # {# # # ni pa che feng hsin sung chil, take this letter.
3. The tense-signs # ko and T liao are connected with the principal, not
with the instrumental verb, but adverbs and auxiliaries precede the latter:
## ## # # # T wo pa na pen shu mai ko la, I sold that book:
# # {b, # # # T chiang-yao pa t'a-men shah chin liao, will exterminate
them.
4. This construction connects itself with that of such verbs as #fi hsii, # chih
(pronounced here chi) to allow, |: chiao, to cause, &c., followed by an infinitive :
ZS g # J. # + # # 5. # puh chi hsiao hai-ts tsai che li wan-wan,
do not allow little children to play here. The fundamental idea seems to be to
take the matter in hand and do it wg.
5. As the construction No. (2) is more commonly used than No. (1), it is also
less emphatic.
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2nd. The Subject. When this is thus emphasized it is really

placed before the sentence. Its normal place in the sentence may
then be filled by a pronoun or a term denoting quantitative opposition.
(See Chap. iv., 3): # k # VE #5 B # Ji + # T Li ta ko ni ta
yi-ching wu-sh-h suei la, brother Li, he is already 50; R. t # #
J. V. Jan sh tu teh hsiao-hsin, in everything one must be careful;
# || M #####5, #: @ #! na ko jen wo jen-sh-h t'a tih fu-chin,
that man, I know his father; III # A k ##! #4 # + # Shan
tung jen ta-kai sh ta ko-ts tih, Shan-tung men are generally large in
stature. (Compare Chap. xi, 3, 3rd, with which this construction
is really identical).
3rd. The Predicate, when emphasized is, like the subject,
placed before the sentence, and since it cannot be represented by a
pronoun, it is itself repeated in its normal place. The predicate, when
thus brought forward, leaves behind it all modifying words and tense
signs: # # # #4 hao shao hao tih, as to good it will do, but ; # 2,
# 35 (; T ping pih ping s ni liao, as to your getting sick, it will
sicken you to death; # # ## # E # tseush tseu teh ma-shang
k'uai, as to going, it goes at a galloping pace.
Remarks.1. When the predicate has an object, the latter may also be brought
forward, and in this case it need not be repeated with the predicate in its normal
position: #T # # # # #T # 5% # ta 8a0 ti-pan yao ta-sao kan-ching, in
sweeping the floor, you must sweep it clean; or only a modifier of the predicate, or a
sequent may fill its place: f: I. # # ji tso kung yao chuh lih, in work you
must put forth strength.
2. When an infinitive after an indicative is emphasized, the latter ends the
sentence, preceded by the infinitive. This is true, especially of the two verbs of
direction% lai and # chii : # # # T k'an shuei lai liao, came to see whom ?
# # # # #T wo-men c'huan taolai liao, we come to preach; {b, it # #T
t"a mai shu chii liao, he went to sell books, &c.
4. When Sequents are brought forward, they are repeated in

their normal place, accompanied by modifiers, if any : # # 4: 5:
k'uai tseu hen kuai, as to fast, he goes very fast; # It 5, # 7.
j- # 1't chieh-sh-h t'a pang teh puh ta chieh-sh-h, as to secure, he
did not bind it very secure.
5. The ordinary infinitive, after an indicative, is also brought
forward for emphasis, as in English: # UE # j, c'hu ti ni wu lih,
as to digging, I have no strength; # # WB # # t'ao fun ni p'a c'h,
to beg, I am ashamed.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PART THIRD.-PARTICLES OR EMPTY WORDS.
Conjunctions and the Connection of Words, Clauses and Sentences.

SINCE Conjunctions connect and show the relation between words,
clauses and sentences, the subject of conjunctions will also include a
discussion of simple, compound and subordinate sentences with refer
ence to their inter-relations. This whole subject may be divided as
follows: -
1. The connection of Substantivesnouns and pronouns.

2. The connection of Modifiers and Predicates.
3. The connection of Co-ordinate Sentences.
4. The connection of Principal with Subordinate Sentences.
1. The Connection of Substantives. These may be connected
without, or with the use of conjunctions.
1st. Without conjunctions.
(1). When two or more substantives are taken together as one
conception, no conjunction is used: # + wah-ts hsiai, socks and
shoes; 5: # t'ien ti, heaven and earth; j\ }{i : 4% t'ien ti wan wuh,
heaven, earth and all things-the universe; III 2k shan shuei, hill and
waterlandscape; H H II # er muh k'eu pih, ears, eyes, mouth
and nosethe countenance; H H R K j-h yieh hsing chen, sun,
moon, stars and empty space-the sky, the heavens; # # ni wo,
you and Iwe; + I fish nung kung shang, scholars, farmers,
artizans and merchants-citizens; # =E # E chtiin-wang kuan
shang, emperor and mandarins-the rulers; R 5: # T min-fu
ping-ting, citizens and soldiers-the people, &c.
(2). When there is placed at the end of the list of substantives
a general term summing up the whole, such as # teng, # lei, class;
# yang, kind, &c.; or, a term denoting quantitative opposition. (See
chap. iv., 3): # ### chuan c'he tu yu, boats and carts are all on
hand; # # k H J H - # # = # wo yao tac'he, hsiao che,
er-pa-shew San yang, I want large, small, and double end barrows,
these three kinds; ########| ma, lo, niu, lii, chu, yang,
teng-lei, horses, mules, cows, donkeys, hogs, sheep, &c.
2nd. With Conjunctions. Conjunctions are used.
70
(1). Between substantives that express different conceptions, as

where there is an implied contrast, &c.; # #1 (b. # # # # wo ho
t"a muh yu lai-wang, I have no intercourse with him; # # fil # #
chiu-yoh ho hsin-yoh, the Old Testament and the New ; # # | fil
# El H; # pa che-ko ho na-ko pi-liang, compare this with that;
# 4: E 44; hsien-sheng t'ung hsioh sheng, teachers and pupils, &c.
(2). When there is danger of confounding some other relation,
such as apposition, the possessive, &c., with co-ordination existing
between two or more terms: # 5 # 4 t'a-men hsien-sheng, might
mean they, the teachers (apposition), or their teachers (possession);
to make co-ordination clear a conjunction must be inserted: # "j fil
# 4: t'a-men ho hsien-sheng, they and the teacher; so # 54 # #
sheng-tien yoh-kuei, may mean the ark of the temple, but with a
conjunction the co-ordinate idea is unmistakeable: # A fil # #
sheng-tien ho yoh-kuei, the temple and the ark. Thus in numberless
instances.
The conjunctions used under Nos. (1) and (2) above are # yi
(in bookish style), fil ho (general in northern mandarin), and [H] tung
(general in southern mandarin), all meaning with, together with.
Remark.Other words are used as conjunctions instead of the above terms in
dialetic variations, but are not good mandarin.
(3). In enumerating more than two co-ordinate substantives the
conjunctions just given may be omitted, except before the last term,
precisely as in English. Or, which is preferable, the last term may
be added as something extra by using the conjunctions j ping, # H.
ping-chie, moreover, # lien, even, too, X chih, or J. K. yi-chih, up
to the extreme: J # + # M H E # A R ######## hsiao
hai-ts ni-jen t'ung nien-lao jen puh neng pu-hsing tseu lu, little
children, women and old persons cannot travel on foot; # 63 AH #
# JL #5. Ef 64 t'a tih niu li ping fan ta so yu tih, his cows and
donkeys, with everything that he has; JJ + X + fil #8 + # 5 #
H #4 tao-ts cha-ts ho ch-ts sh c'h fan yung tih, knives, forks and
spoons are used in taking meals; # 6' 5 + # # # # + # 35
T t'a tih er-ts, kuei-m lien chi-ts tu sla, his son and daughter and
even his wife all died. So also when the conjunctions used above
under 2nd (2) are already in the sentence, the last co-ordinate term
or terms may be attached by conjunctions given under (3): 64 R;
# fil # # # NH + & # T # T t'a tih ma-kua ho t'ao-k'u ping
71
mao-ts chien toh liao chii liao, his coat and leggings and also his cap
were all snatched away; # 65 (#4% [i] # # 3: # C. K. R. Ef
# ##### Two tih chia-ho t'ung shu ping yi-fuh yi-chih fan so yu
tih tu shao-tiao liao, my furniture and books and clothing, together
with all that I possessed, were all destroyed by fire; 3E ' fi j<
# El K. 5< T ##### # tsai peh-ching hot'ien-chin yi-chih t'ien
hsia chih yien tih pien-chiai, in Peking and Tientsin and even to the
uttermost limits of the Empire.
Remarks.1. When both terms of two co-ordinate substantives are emphatic,
each is preceded by # lien, or the first by # lien, the second by # tai, like the
English bothand : # # # # # # lien shu-hsiang lien p'u-kai, both book
boxes and bedding; # 2: M # # + lien n-jen tai hai-ts, both women and
children.
2. When two or more objects come after the same verb, the latter may be
repeated before each object, in which case no canjunction is used, (comp. 3rd
below): 't # # # W: H #. mai peh-tsai mai jew mai yii, buy cabbage and
meat and fish. The repetition may be avoided by using synonyms: # 4: # #
shah miu tsai yang, kill oxen and sheep; #% III # # Jan shan ko ling, go around
mountains and cross over hills.
2. The Connection of Modifiers, i.e., adjectives and adverbs.

These are generally connected without conjunctions, unless the latter
are especially called for. The following cases may be specified:
1st. The last term may be attached as something extra by using
the conjunctions: # H. ping-chie, iff H. er-chie, or # H k'uang
chie. (Compare (3) above): it; # # If H ## nien shu hsie ts
er-chie c'huan tao, read, write and also preach; 4 5: 5% + +
# # & N. W. H. H. # chin-t'ien hsien-sheng yush-c'hing Ju k'eh-jen
k'uang-chie yu ping, to-day the teacher has business, his guests and
furthermore is ill; # 3 || # f # * if H # Z: # 63 A t'a sh
ko lao-sh chung-hsin ping-chie yu pen-sh tih jen, he is an honest,
faithful and withall a talented man, &c.
2nd. When two verbs follow a subject in close succession, they
may be united by the men-li conjunction if er in the sense of the
English and : f: Hij : # 65 hsin er sheu hsi tih, those that
believe and receive baptism; $ in # sung er lai, take and bring.
3rd. The object of two or more transitive verbs may be repeated
after each verb, like (3), Remark 2 above, and thus answer the
purpose of conjunctions: f: (b. 5: 5, 5 hsin ta ai t'a ken ta,
believe, love and obey him. So also an adverb is repeated before an
72
adjective: # # # k # # 63 H SH hen kao hen ta hen chung tih

sh-h-t'eu, very tall, large, heavy stones; # ### ch sheng ch shan,
extremely holy and good.
Note:-The repetition of the words in question is necessary in this construction
in order to avoid the verbs or adjectives running into compounds.
4. When each of two or more terms are emphatic, each is
preceded by X yu or ye, or, as under above (3), Rem. 1, by #
lien# tai : X #: N yu chuang yu ta, both strong and large;
5, #5, #1 ye tseu ye p'ao, both walking and running; # # # #
lien suny tai mai, both give away and sell; X # X # yu chuan yu
chiang, both preach and lecture. The same idea is expressed by
placing before each of two terms the phrase - il yih mien: - ifi
# - Ifil 4 yih mien chiao yih mien hsioh, both teaching and learning
- Ril 5: - Ifil & yih mien k'uh yih mien hsiao, both weeping and
laughing.
5. What will now be said of the other classes of conjunctions
applies to the connection of both substantives and predicates under
1 and 2 above.
1st. Disjunctive connection (Eng. eitheror) is indicated
(1), by E. hoh, E' }, hoh sh, or # # hoh-che before each number of
a compound: E. H. # E # 65 hoh sh nihoh sh t'a, it is either you
or he; HR 3 By # # # hoh hsi hoh nu wu yih ting, whether
pleased or angry is uncertain; # k E. 'J, hoh ta hoh hsiao, whether
large or small; # ########### hoh-che tsai chelihoh
che tsai na li, either here or there.
(2). By 7: # puh sh, before the first of two terms and # #
shiu sh, before the second: T. H. ($ # # (b. puh sh ni chiu sh t'a,
if it is not you, it is he, it is either you or he; # T. H. (# # # #
# # wo puh sh c'huan tao chiush mien shu, we either preach or read;
2, # # # # # puh sh heh shiu sh peh, it is either black or white.
(8). After # 8 wu luen, Z. 3 puh luen, &c., two or more
terms are disjunctively connected: # 8 J, wu luen ta hsiao, no
matter whether large or small; # # 4: H 4: ## IJ J'I + wu
luen tso che tso chuan tu ko-yi chii, can go either by cart or boat;
7. H. H." #h puh men chung-kueh wai-kueh, either Chinese or
foreign.
73
2nd. Negative disjunction (Eng. neithernor) is made by

a negative predicate after terms connected with conjunctions: # #
# ##| || #5 ZR # 3. lien che-ko tai na-ko tu puh hoh-sh-h, neither
this nor that fits; B' # # 4: By # #5 T. # # hoh tseu hoh tso
hoh t'ang tu puh shu-fuh, not easy either walking, sitting or lying
down; ZF # 54 (5 + (b. 5 ( i puh luen sh nish t'a tu puh neng,
neither you nor he is able.
3rd. Antithtical disjunction is expressed by placing Z. {H puh
tan, ## (H fei tan, or # # wei tuh before the first term, and ##
chiu sh, # H. ping chieh, &c., before the second: R (H # # #
# (b. puh tan sh wo chiu sh t'a, not only it is I but also he; R (H #
# fj H. # # puh tan nien shu er-chie hsie ts, not only read, also
write; # (H # in H E 1 fei tan huang-nien er-chie fan-luan,
not only famine but also rebellion.
3. The Connection of Co-ordinate Sentences and Clauses.
What was stated above under 2 holds true here as a general
principle, viz., That where sentences are strictly co-ordinate in time
and logical relation, they simply follow one after the other without any
connecting words. Conjunctions in Chinese generally have a meaning
of their own besides simply connecting sentences. Hence, when there
occurs a diversion out of the direct line of discourse, a turning back, a
new starting point, an addition, &c., a conjunction is introduced having
a suitable meaning, to note this break in the sentence. The principal
conjunctions will now be classified according to their uses in co-ordinate
sentences and clauses.
1st. An advance from a new starting point in the discourse is
indicated by # chin, ipien (in books), then, ff.: # y sh, thereupon
(lit. at this), # tsai, j fang, j ##) fang-ts'ai, or #| # kang-ts'ai,
all meaning then, just then, just now; and by It # t's heu, J.I #
yi heu, ###jau heu, &c., afterwards: 3: T # ' ' If H + T
t"a lai liao wo-men chiu tung shen chila, when he had come, we then
started and left; 5, # t'a chiu shoh, he then said; ## E # #3
# III C, # # tuh shu shang-chin tih pien k'o-yi tso kuan, those that
study and make advancement may become mandarins; # + # #
# # # 3: H #3 ### nan-ts yu teh chiu sh ts'ai ni-ts wu ts'ai
chiu sh teh, when men have virtue, that is endowment, when women
have no endowments, that is virtue; 2% H ## T tsj-h ts'ai chila,
74 -
he left on the next day; ##| 4 # E ###| T Mi ni tao chin

t'ien wan shang tsai lai-tao la ma, did you just arrive to-day at night
fall? # T H # E H ###ET ko liao wu-peh nien kueh-tu ts'ai
hsing-wang la, after 500 years the kingdom prospered; 'B' | # +
j # # che ko fah-ts fang-ts'ai hao, this plan then is good; # #
# F# F# #5, #! # ## T wo-men tao liao cheng men ta kang
ts'ai chuh lai la, when we arrived at the city gate he had just come
out; # 4 & 5< # # 5 - # C. # ZS # 35 wo-men chin
t'ien huan yao chii yih t'ang yi-heu tsai puh neng chii, we will go
to-day once more, thereafter we cannot go again; #5, # It # ZS 3:
t"a shoh t's heu puh chii, he says that after this he is not going. Of
the above conjunctive terms only # # y sh and the lacatives C.
yi heu, &c., precede the subject of the sentence, if the subject is given,
all the others follow it.
2nd. A sentence adding something extra is marked by # huan,
still, yet; X yu, again; # tsai, again; #5 ye, also; H chie, now,
further, all following the subject; or, by # # tsai-che, again,
further: }; # t's wai, besides; # # huan yu, still more; in H.
er-chie, 3 H k'uang chie, moreover, furthermore, all preceding the
subject: # # - # huan yu yih yang, there is still one kind;
5K # - || M. yu yu yih ko jin, again there was a man; # 8, #
- #! # wo ye yu yih chi hua, I also have a word; # #####
tsai-che wo-men shoh, again, we say that; # 55 (b. 4, R + 2}:
ts wait'a ye puh k'en lai, besides, he is not willing to come; ## 5.
t # j: R ### huan yu "a shoh yu sh puh neng lai, still more,
he says he is engaged and (therefore) cannot come; 5 H #5, # ##
k'uang-chie t'a shoh yu ping, furthermore, he says he is ill; 5, 5
H # # ni-men chie c'h k'an, you go now and see.
3rd. A sentence marking an adversative idea is marked by #|
chioh, Ji nai, however; 5 #jeng-jan, all the same; # # wu-nai,
but ; E fan, #| tao, 5 fan-tao, on the contrary, all of which,
except # # wu-nai, follow the subject of the sentence; and [H tan,
{H # tan sh, but; R ch-h, R. # ch-h sh, Z: # puh ko, only;
and # Wii jan-er, nevertheless; # 1' chi sh-h, but the fact is, all
preceding the subject: ####### t'a shoh yao lai c'hioh
mah yu lai, he said he would come, but has not come; # 4: # #
# A f: # 2, ### # E yi-sheng neng chiu pieh jen tao wei pih neng
75
chiu ts-chi, physicians can save others, but not always themselves;
{b #! # # #| Z. 41 # t'a ch-tao ni c'hioh puh ch-tao, he knows,
but you do not; A. H. A. D. #4 #### A J5 # H II #4 #8 #5
# A puh sh juh k'eu tih neng ww-huei jen naish chuh k'eu tih neng
ww-huei jen, Matt. xv., 11; # # 3: $; # ## (; ; ZF # #wo
men lai c'huan tao wu-nai ni-men puh t'ing tao, we come to proclaim
doctrine, but you will not hear it; 5, f ##### E # - fil
Z: ta shoh huei chiang ching shu fan-tao yih chi puh huei, he said
he could explain the classics, but not one sentence can he explain;
# # # 3 #### 4H # # # # Z. K wo yu hsil-to hua shoh tan
sh hsien-tsai shoh-pul-chi, I have a great deal to say, but at present
have not the time; # [i] & # T (H #f ; if k #j # woku-jan
tso liao tan tseh-pei tih hua tai li-hai, I have made a mistake, sure
enough, but (your) words of reproof are too severe; # || A Iff
_E 4: # Wii U, # ## T che ko jen tsai mien shang hsiao jan-er
hsin li k'u chih la, this man wears a smiling face, nevertheless in his
heart he is extremely miserable; (b. E:## JR #4 5- Z. #8 t'a ting
yao lai ch-h sh chin-t'ien puh neng, he certainly intends to come, only
he cannot do so to-day; # F# # # Z: # # # # wo yien-yi mai
puh ko muh yu chien, I desire to buy, only I have no cash; A # 3.
# # It # (b. 64 AH # jen shoh sh t'a chi sh-h sh t'a tih peng-yu,
they say it is he, but the truth is, it is his friend. So also two
adversative conjunctionsa stronger and a weakermay occur in the
same sentence: BH BH # b # 643; H # b # 7. Hi HH ming-ming
sh t'a c'hi tih sh tan sh t'a c'hioh puh chuh t'eu, clearly it is an affair
begun by him, but he, however, does not show himself; H # 5,
ZF # B), tan sh t'a tao puh shoh-ming, but he, however, does not make
a clear statement.
4th. A co-ordinate sentence bringing in the conclusion is intro

duced by #| T 5 tao liao-er, to come to the end; # T moh-liao,
# # T 5: moh-moh liao-er, the end; #| A tao-ti, finally; #
chiu-ching, after all, &c.: # T #5, # # moh-liao t'a chiu shoh,
at last he then said; # 3 ($ $ 3, 2P # tao-ti ni yao to-shao chien,
to come to the point, how much money do you want? {# T # #
5K # # T # # T t'a teng liao hao chi t'ien moh-moh-liao ts'ai
ch liao, he waited a number of days and finally left; # # R +
# 54 f. chiu-ching puh sh che-mu yang, after all, it not thus,
76
Remark.A general subject is generally introduced by # #! lwen tao, # #|

chiang tao, # # ch yil, &c., with reference to # #| # {# # lwen, tao che
chien sh, with reference to this affair, &c.

4. The Connection of Principal and Subordinate Sentences and
Clauses.
Subordinate Sentences may be divided into two general classes:
1st, Those preceding the Principal Sentence; 2nd, Those following
the Principal Sentence.
The former sustain a relation to the principal clause similar to
that of modifiers to the words modified; the latter, on the other
hand, are similar to sequents in their relation to the principal sentence.
1st. Subordinates preceding the principal sentence.
(1). It is very common to place a subordinate sentence before a
principal, without any conjunctions, the former sentence simply modify
ing the latter in a general way, while the latter completes the meaning
of the former. This is the simplest and most common form of protasis
and apodosis. The sense may be conditional, temporal, concessive,
&c.; or, there may be more than one of these ideas implied in a given
sentence. When the protasis and apodosis are strictly contempor
aneous, the latter follows the former without an introductory adverb
or conjunction; when the time is, or is conceived to be later, the
apodosis has # chiu, # tsai, X. pih, &c. (Comp. 3, 1st, above): #
# # # # E # # # ni yao chien wo tsai cheli yu chien, if, or,
when, or since, you want money, I have some here; (; ; # # #
# ni yao chii wo sung ni, as you wish to go, I will accompany you;
A # # # IJ J'I # jen yu sh-ching k'o-yi lai, if, or, when, &c.,
any one has business, he may come; # ### F# # yu ping ts'ai
hao ch-h yoh, when one is sick it is well to take remedies; # 5R 4
# yu chiu pih teh, if, or where, or when, &c., there is prayer, it shall
be answered; # #| H R & J & #: Two-men k'an-chien k'eh-tien
chiu chu hsia, if, or when, &c., we see an inn, we will put up; # #
# $ $ WS 2# WE muh yu sh wei shen-mo lai ni, since you have no
business, why do you come; # # # # # A wo chi chiang
muh yu jen ting, suppose I go to explain, there is no one to listen,
&c., &c.
We now come to where the protasis is divided into different
varieties as indicated by adverbial terms or particles. The first
variety that we will notice is the -
77
(2). Temporal protasis, which notes the time at which the action of
the apodosis takes place. This time in the protasis may be indicated.
(a). By the perfect tense with T liao in the sense of the English
perfect participle having, &c. (Comp. Chap. vi., 2, 1st. (3), a. with
ex.): #| T ###### tao liao cheng li tsai hao, when get into
the city, we shall be all right; J T 5: # # # T tao liao t'ien
liang chiu chil liao, went at daybreak; # E T (T S 2# # # #
t"a tseu liao ni chiu lai kao-su wo, when he has gone, come at once
and tell me; # # T E # j: # "j }. H fji pan-cheng liao cle
chien sh wo-men chiu c'h-h fan, when we have finished this affair, we
will eat; (b. 2: # T # # 3: I t'a lai liao wo chiu chil liao, he
having come, I then went away.
Note.It will be seen that in this idiom the apodosis contains a progressive term
tsai, # chiu, &c. See above under (1). - *
(b). By the use of a locative of time in the protasis (see Chap.

xi., 2nd): ###2% ########## t'a muh yu lai ch
hsien wo-men huan tsai cheng li chu-choh, before he came we were still
living in the city; # # #4 # (b. E. # 3: I wo lai tih sh-hew
t"a yi-ching chii liao, at the time of my coming, he had already gone;
|######### E # 5 #4, # 3: T lin chung tih sh-heush shang
tih fuh-chi chien ko chil liao, when the end (i.e., death) comes, the
happiness of this world shall all have gone by ; E 2 # 5, [E]
# # I san nien ch heu t'at'sai huei chia chii liao, after three years
he returned home.
(c). By the term # # chi-sh when, beginning the protasis,
followed by # chiu, # tsai, &c., or # # chi-sh, repeated correla
tively in the apodosis: # " # # # # # # # #ff (; wo-men
chi-sh tsai lai chiu yao kao-su ni, when we come again we will tell
you; # # # IHI # # # ##### # # t'a chi-sh huei-lai tsai hao
chiang che chien sh-c'hing, when he returns it will then be suitable to
talk about this matter; # ####### chi-sh neng chi-sh chil, go
whenever you can.
(3). A Conditional protasis, formally expressed, is introduced by
conditional particles, such as # # joh sh, # # t'ang-joh, #j B'
t'ang-hoh, #11 # ju-joh, &c., meaning if. The apodosis follows as
under No. (1) above: ##! (b. As 3' # Z$ 3; joh sh t'a puh lai wo
puh chi, if he does not come, I will not go; # # # Z. {# # IJ
p1 || # A t'ang-johni puh hsin wo k'o-yi wen p'ang jen, if you do
78
not believe me, you may ask others; # # 65 ZR # 5 # # #

###### t'ang-joh shoh t'a puh hao hsin lichiu chien-chien yien
hen chi lai, if one speaks of his being not good, there will gradually
arise in the heart hatred (against him); # E 5, # T joh chien
t"a chiu pa liao, if one sees him, that will end the matter. (See Gospel
of John, 6, 44; 6,62, &c).
(4). A Concessive protasis, formally expressed, contains chiu sh,
granting that; # suei, ## sueijan, although; or, when the notion
of time comes in, by # chi, #% # chi-jan, since seeing that. The
apodosis may begin with a suitable conjunction, generally one of the
adversatives or finals, #| c'hioh, # If jan-er, #| | tao-ti, &c.: # ||
# + #####| T # # # # + che ko fah-ts suei-jan la-tao la
huan yu kofah-ts, although this plan has fallen through, there is still
another; # ##### H H #4 # If H > f : T # A fij :R 4: wo
sueijan sh ts-yu tih jan-er kan hsin tso liao chung jen tih nu-p'uh, al
though I am free, yet I have willingly become the servant of all men;
{, }### 5:###| R. # # E ### t'a chiu sh che-mot'so tao-ti
huan neng huei-chuan-ko lai, although he is so far wrong, he can yet
after all return; # # # W:# # F# 49 jR ####| chiu sh che
mo yien wo-men chin-t'ien han kan-teh-tao, although it is so distant, we
can still get there to-day; 5, # 35 T (; ZF H + t'a chi-jans
liao ni puh yung chii, since he is dead, you have no need to go;
5, x # 7, 2% (5 k + t'a chi-jan puh lai ni kai chii, since he is not
coming, you ought to go; ### 3& # 63 vs. # # 2, ## (##
sueijan sh fu-mutih hsin-chang wei pih muh yu p'ien ai, although
it be the parents affections, they are not necessarily impartial; # *f
# # # # # ZS fir suei chien fah wan chi huan sh puh hsing,
although (we have) numberless plans and devices, it will not act.
(5). When an a fartori idea is formally expressed, the protasis
generally begins with fi H shang-chie, the apodosis with 3 ho
k'uang, how much more, or less? & # tsen-mo, how 2 #5%# na-li,
where? fij H. Z. EJ ##| A fij :# 6, HI # # E WE shang-chie
puh k'o shah pieh jen ho-k'uang tao k'o shah ts-chi ni, since we have
no right to kill others, how much less ourselves? # #4 #fff H.
# Z: # f X if fiq E H WE wo tih hua shang-chie tang-puh-c'hi
ho-k'uang shen tih cheu-tsu ni, if my words cannot be endured, how
much less God's curse. (See John, iii., 12; 2 Cor. iii., 78.)
79
(6). In a compound sentence giving the reason for a course

of action, the protasis has 5 yin, wei, and their compounds.
(See Chap. xi., 2, 2nd); the apodosis has E. J.I so-yi, therefore;
}, yin-t's, # 1't ku t's, for this reason, &c.; # # 3.
#4 # E DI # Z. 38 + yin-wei yu hsii-totih sh so-yi wo puh neng
chii, be there is so much business, therefore I cannot go; # 63 A
# E PI # Z. If wei tih jen to so-yi chi-puh-tung, because of the
many people one has not strength to press through; # T 5, #
# It # 35 wei liao t'a ching woku t's wo chii, because he invites
me, for this reason I go; # 6, # 5: ZF # Ef E! # # # 5 T
wei tih t'uei t'oh-puh-k'ai so-yi wo t'sai cheng-ying liao, it was because
I had no way to get out of it that I promised.
Remark.When caution or fear is the cause, the protasis has # p'a, # #
k'ung-p'a, ### wei-k'ung, for fear, lest; # * * Z. {# # Ef DI ## # H.
k'ung-p'a ni puh tsai chia so-yi wo lai teh tsao, for fear you should not be at
home, I therefore came early, 'H # Z. # # # j}: #2k 4: #5 {R p'a ni puh
hsiao-teh ku t's wolai kao-sw ni, lest you should not know it, therefore I came to tell
yon; : {b, ZS # | ### % wei-kung t'a puh lai yin t's kai c'h
han ta, lest he do not come, for this reason one ought to go and call him.
(7). A compound sentence instituting a comparison is indicated
by the protasis beginning with # ning, # II ning k'o, or ## yi
chi, rather, better; ZF in puhju, not like; # # 3: H # F# # +
R # # ning k'en to yung chiliang yin-ts mai hao tih, better be
willing to spend a few taels more so as to buy good ones; # H] p
# - # 7. ET 1: 3; # 7 ft ning k'o shao nien yih tien puh k'o
t"an to nien puh huei, better read a little less than desire to read much
and not comprehend it; # # 35 ZR HI # # y chi s puh k'o sah
huang, better die than falsify; R in # # 5 $ # puhju chi:
kao-su t'a sai hao, had better go and tell him then it will be
all right.
2nd. Subordinate Sentences following the Principal Sentence.
These generally indicate purpose or result and follow the principal
sentence as sequents follow simple sentences. We will notice
(1). Those indicating aim or purpose.
(a). When both the principal and subordinate clause have the
same subject. Here the latter may follow the former immediately
with any connecting word. When, however, the idea of purpose
is emphatic, such words as # yao, wish; ## Ku yi, for the
purpose of ; # * *eh wei, ## t'eh yi, on purpose, may introduce
80
the subordinate clause: (# 3: I' (b. nichii chiao t'a, you go to call
him; E. T. H. ''{1 + t'a shang liao ma p'ao chii, he mounted a
horse to flee; # || |H| # # 3' + wo-men huei chia chien fu-mu,
we are going home to visit our parents; t # # 2, # t'a
shang ching pan kung sh, he goes to the capital on public business;
# # 5% + # # # #wo ching hsien-sheng lai yao hsioh kuan
hua, I call a teacher to learn mandarin; #55 E M #| H E # #
# ### yu wai-kueh jen to chung-kueh lai teh wei yao fah tsai,
there are foreigners who come to China for the special purpose of
acquiring wealth; (b | # E # 3: A # # t'a-men che-mo
tso ku yi yao jen k'an chien, they act thus especially to be seen by men.
(b). When the subjects of the principal and subordinate clauses
are not the same, the latter is introduced by Pi chiao, # sh, (# 4:
sh-teh, to cause, in order to: # F# # (# # 4 ($ 'j je 4: # Ig
wo-men lai ch'uan tao chiao ni-men ta teh hao-chu, # # 63 HE #
|# # 5 WS # UE yi-choh ni tih chu-yi chiao wo tsen-mo pan ni,
according to your idea, how would you have me manage it; (; 5 #
5, i (b. 5: #8 (# F# ni ch'i pang t'a sh t'a k'uai neng tso cheng,
you go and help him in order that he may complete it quickly.
(See Matt. v., 14, 15, &c.)
(c) Negative purpose, the avoidance of a certain end is indicated
by beginning the final subordinate sentence with % #mien teh, #4,#
sheng teh, or with a negative before || chiao, or a negative predicate
after || chiao, &c.: # ## J. # + # 4:# (b | # #| yao k'an choh
hsiao hai-ts mien teh t'a-men tieh-tao, you must watch the children
lest they fall down; # j< * (# {fi: # "j # 4:# F# G# $# # yen
t'ien fu pao-yu wo-men mien teh hsien tsai tsuei li, may the Heavenly
Father protect us from falling into sin; # #3; # #### I j
yao k'uai chii sheng teh tan-wu kung-fu, you must go quickly so as to
save time; J. V. Z. P} {: " : 4; hsiao-hsin puh chiao t'a-men
hsiao-teh, be careful so as not to let them know; # ## (b. 7. It':
{b 3: # k #| # yao an-weit'a puh chiao t'a yu-c'heu t'ai li-hai,
must comfort him so that he sorrow not too excessively.
(2). Those indicating result.
(a). When the principal and subordinate sentences have the
same subject, the latter is introduced by # ch, #3: shen ch, ###
shen ch y, ifi ] ch-h tao, &c., all meaning up to the point indicated
81
in the sentence; also by # teh, to get, obtain: 5, 5 # E fl 33 fix

# XE (b t'a tih ping puh neng ch y ping sta, his illness cannot
cause his death; 5, ; # If # 3 ff. A # # # # T ta chuan
chiang ch-h tao t'ing tih jen tu k'uh-chi lai la, he preached until the
hearers all began to weep; # 6: A \, 4+ hsiang-hsin tih jen
pih teh chiu, those that believe shall obtain salvation; # E 5: !? 4+
E (b. 6; Ifil wo ming-t'ien pih teh chien ta tih mien, to-morrow I shall
get to see his face; # # # A # # #5, # 25 fl. 5. H. '
# 5, 5 shen aish jen shen ch pat'a tuh sheng tiher-ts t's chih t'a-men,
John 3, 16.
(2). When the subjects of the two sentences are not the same,
Here the causative conjunctions given under (1), b, above, are used.
(See examples there given.) The Chinese do not distinguish between
designed and natural results in case of a subordinate subject being
different from the principal: 2: Ug # # || M. H. ZF H # li s shoh
hua chiao jen t'ing-puh-chuh lai, Li IV speaks in such a way that
one cannot hear him; (; H # X # 14 M # # "Hi ni che yang
puh pa chiaojen hsiao-hua mo, by your acting in this way, are you
not afraid of exciting the ridicule of others? # T E # * A
# # # # + ### lai liao che-mo-hsie jen sh wo muh yu fah-ts
an-p'ai, there have come so many persons that have no way of
arranging them.
(3). Final subordinate sentences adducing proof of the preceding
proposition are introduced by K # yin-wei, &c. : M # # Z. if XE
# E ######## jen muh yu puh p'a stih yin-wei,
che sh t'ien-jan hsing-ching, there is no one who does not fear death
because this a heaven-given disposition; # ####! # (b. 5 # #
# IR 43, H. R. ' H. Kit # ni na-lich-tao t'a pih-jan che yang yin
wei feng-men t'ing-chien shoh lai, how do you know that he will
be of this character? because I hear it reported; J. fij \; # # p.
%l # E # # + $# F# jen tih hsin-shuh man-yi ch-tao yin-wei
t'sang tsai li t'eu, men's designs are difficult to be known, because
they are hidden within.
(4). A conclusion is introduced by GJ H k'o chien, it may be
seen; # ##### che yang k'an chi lai, thus it will be seen;
El J) so-yi, wherefore; # # 64 che-motih, thus, &c.: #[. # 63 k
2, # E D1 g E # kani li tih shuei pull to so-yi yao-p'uh
82
shang lai, the water in the jar is low, hence, cannot be dipped up;
HI # 5: # T # # E D # + # T chien chi tien fang liao
ping-hsiang so-yi yin-ts chien liao, a few days ago provisions were
given out to the soldiers, therefore silver has become cheap; # J#
# # 4 jR H F # II; W T # # # If H M #T # 7. H. H.
wo yien ting-kuei chin-t'ien chuh men c'hioh-c'hiao yu hsia-chi y
lai k'o chien jen ta-suan puh chung-yung, I had decided to go out
to-day, just then it began again to rain; hence, it is seen that one
reckons to no purpose; 5, H j< # # 4, 5- # E # # #
# ### (b. H. # Z. {# 64 tea shoh tso-t'ien yao lai tao chin-t'ien
wan shang han muh yu lai k'an-chi lai ta sh k'ao-p'uh-chu tih, he
said he would come yesterday, but until this evening he has not yet
come; thus we begin to see that he cannot be trusted.
((5). Finally, an explanatory sentence is introduced parentheti
cally after the subject or predicate, without breaking the line of
thought. This explanatory sentence very often corresponds to the
English relative clause. When short, it usually begins with # #
chiu sh, that is; when longer, with the pronoun b t'a : #% AH #
># # # # 64 49 j ZS 2# Chang hsien-sheng chiu sh wo chiao shu
tih chin-er puh lai, Mr. Chang, who is my teacher, is not coming
to-day; 3% # #5, # # 65 Hj # # Pao ta ko t'a sh wo tih
p'eng-yu yu ping, brother Pao, that is, my friend, is ill. See under
apposition.
CHAPTER XIX.
INTERJECTIONS AND FINAL PARTICLES.
1. Interjections. These stand before the sentence, or, with a

pause, after the subject or other important substantative. The most
commonly used are
1st. 3 ai-ya, or 3 # ai-yo, indicating surprise; ; hai,
# yi, denoting disgust, all placed before the sentence: X. X # El
# #: T Z. 44 ai-ya che-kosh-h-tsai liao-p'uh-teh, oh! this is truly
awful! # # 2, #1 # hai ni puh ch-tao, pooh! you do not know, &c.
2nd. If a, denoting emphasis, used after the name or title of a
person addressed, like Eng. O: + 'A chu a, O Lord, &c.
2. Of final particles # ma, T liao, and #pa have already
been noticed in other connections, and need no further discussion
here. We need to notice only
1st. # a, which, besides being particle of address (above 1, 2nd),
is also used at the end of a sentence to give emphasis to the preceding
statement: 5 # # 4 X W ni k'uai chu na lai a, you go quickly
and bring it, do you hear?
2nd. We ni is used as an emphatic particle after the subject of
a sentence, or any emphatic clause brought forward to the head
of the sentence, after the first number of an alternate interrogative
sentence, at the end of an interrogative sentence, and finally,
at the end of any emphatic assertion. It differs from ' a, in that
the latter is used especially with commands, like # pa, while UE
ui is used with an emphatic assertion of a fact: 3, # UE by
Z. 55% li ta ko ni t'a puh neng lai, as to brother Li, he can
not come; # # UE # j, chuan tao ni wu lih, as to preaching,
he has no strength; fl. 4: $; $ ZR # WE t'a wei shen-mo puh lai
ni, why does he not come P M # 4: # WB jen to teh hen ni, the
people are exceedingly numerous, &c.
Remark.The important fact to be noticed about W ni is, that it is not an
interrogative particle, but may follow any word clause or sentence where emphasis
is called for.
A EPEPENDIX I.
A List of the Descriptive Classifiers with their Definitions and the Classes
of Words with which they are used. (For a discussion of Classifiers,
see Chap. v., 2) :
1. # Ch, a branch, classifier of stiff slender things; pens,
pencils, arrows, chop-sticks, &c.
2. # Ch-h, a single bird, class. of things standing on narrow
bottoms or foundations; as ships, candles, birds, cattle; also

of things that go in pairs when only one of the pair is
mentioned; as legs, eyes, shoes, &c.
# Chan, a cup, class. of lamps.
. # Chang, a sheet, class. of extended or flat surfaces; as
tables, beds, chairs, paper, &c.
# Cheng, a carriage, class of sedan chairs.
kil O'heu, an axle, class of pictures and maps on rollers.
. # Chia, a frame, class of framed articles; as bells, clocks,
shelves, &c.
# Chien, a single article, class of affairs, pieces of clothing,
boxes, &c.
# Chien, a roll, class. of rolls, divisions in books.
10. I': Chu, a place, class. of houses and places.
12. # Chuang, a club, class of affairs (see also No. 8).
13. HR Chuang, a bedstead, class of bed-clothes.
14. # Feng, an envelope, class. of letters, epistles.
15. #f Kan, a pole, class of muskets and balances.
16. # Ken, a root, class of slender things standing on an end
or having a root; as posts, masts, blades of grass, &c.
17. [] Keu, a mouth, class. of things that contain or consume
as water vessels, coffins, bags and individuals (considered
as consumers), &c.
18. # Ko, an individual, class. of men, boxes, loaves, cash,
written characters, and may be used with anything that is
well known. (See Chap. 5, 2, 1st, Rem. 1).
19 # K'o, a kernel, class. with beads, pearls, &c.
85
20. # K'o, a kernel, class. of trees.

21. # Ku, a thigh, class. of things that branch off; as branches
of rivers, roads, detachments of troops, &c.
22. # K'uai, a slice or piece, class. of bricks, boards, dollars,
stones, &c.
23. # Kuan, a tube, class. of tubular things; as Chinese
pencils, fifes, &c.
24. # Lih, a grain, class of grains, beans, buttons, &c.
25. # Liang, a pair of wheels, class. of wheeled vehicles.
26. # Ling, a collar, class. of things rolled over; as mats,
straw beds, &c.
27. ifi Mien, a face, class. of drums, mirrors, and gongs.
28. # Pa, a grasp of the hand, class. of things taken or used by
one hand; as knives, forks, fans, brooms, chairs, &c.
29. As Pen, a root, class. of books and documents.
30. JU P'ih, a mate, class. of horses and mules.
31. # P'u, a spread, class. of beds.
32. H: Shan, a fan, class. of leaves of doors, shutters, &c.
33. Ef So, an enclosure, class. of houses, courtyards, &c.
34. # Tao, a road, class. of rivers and bridges.
35. HH Teu, a head, class. of cattle.
36. # Tiao, a switch, class of slender flexible things; as days,
dragons, snakes, roads, &c. (See above No. 1).
37. JH Ting, the top, class of hats and sedans.
38. 2: To, a cluster, class. of flowers and clouds.
39. E3 Tso, a seat, class. of mountains, tombs, temples, houses, &c.
40. # Tsuen, honorable, class. of cannon.
41. # T'ung, dignity, class of monumental tablets.
42. H. Wei, a tail, class of fish. (See also No. 36).
43. fi Wei, dignity, class. of gentlemen, princes, &c.
44. Y Wen, an inscription, class of coins and cash.
45. H Yeh, a head, class of leaves of books, doors and tiles.
46. # Yen, an eye, class. of fountains.
To the list might be added
47 # Shew, ahead, class of hymns, and perhaps others.
->-o-o
AEPENDIX II.
List of General Mandarin Sounds.
hsien - ||{ chiao - 2.
1. Vowel Ini hsiang - fil
tials with Cor yin - - # c'hiao - #5
responding As yao - - #
pirates. hsiao - - -], hsin - # chief: -h #
1st, a, asp. h. ye (# -h # 2. Consonant chie H. -h
Initials. chien -
a || -h \| hsie it -h #
yen - - # c'hien
ha WA -h W 1st, ch., asp.".
hsien- - 5t. chin -
ai - - # ch #il -h R.
yin - - # c'hin -
hai - - # c'h # -h
an - - # hsin - - A ching
cha 'E -h :
han - - # ying - - #! c'hing -
c'ha # chioh
ang - - # hsing- - fj chai -
yoh - - # c'hioh
hang - - #. chai -
hsioh- - # chiu -
a0 - - # chan -
c'hiu
hao - - # yu # -h # c'han
hsiu - - : chiung
2nd, e, asp. h. chang
yung- - J chiung
eh - - # chang choh -
hsiung - 5. chao -
heh - - # c'hoh -
0 or wo, chao
en - - ch fil
asp. h. che # -h
hen - - 4% c'hit #
eng - - ||# wo # -h # c'he H
chie
chen -
heng - - # ho ij -h B.
c'hen chie's
er - - 5. U or wu, chien
eu - - || asp. h. cheng
chiien
heu - - # cheng
wu it -h #1 chew - chiin
3rd, i, or yi," hu # -h # c'h liin
c'heu - -
asp. hs. hung - - #I chi t -h # chu + h
yi 3: -h - U or Jii, chi # -h #. c'hu #]

hsi Wii -h , asp. hs. chia # -h H chua -
gii - - #. c'hia!' -h # c'hua
ga + -h #
hsii # -h #1 chiai - - # chuai
hsia X -h #
yeh - - H chiai - # c'huai
yai - - #
hsiai - - # hsie # -h # chiang - #I. chuan
gien - - ): chiang - # c'huan - #

yang - -#
In spelling the sounds i is omitted after y as the latter contains the vowel
force of i.
87
chuang - #: kan - lao - 7th, n.

chuang - # k'an - leh -
lei -
na # h#
chuei - # kang -
nai - - #}}
chuei - Dk kang leng -
kao - leu -
nan - - #
chuen - #
kao -
mang - - #
chuen - # li # h
keh - nao - - #
chung - H liang
k'eh - liao -
nei - - PG
c'hung - 5:
ken - 'ieh - Tuen - - #
2nd, f. meng - - #8
k'en - lien -
fah - - #: lin - new - - #
fan - - 5. keng
ling -
ni (# h #
fang - - jj k'eng nieh - - #
keu - - lioh -
fei - - # nien - - #
k'eu - - liu -
fen - - ). 70272 - -
feng - - E. ko # h lo # ning -
few - - # k'o II h lu # : nioh -
ku # h luan -
Joh - - # niu -
k'u # h luen -
Ju 5: h H 720
#
j-h
3rd, j.
jan -
jang -
gao -
je
jen
jeng -
jeu -
-
# h#
-
- H
- #
- $
- #
- A
- #5
- Bj
kua JR
k'ua #
kuai -
k'uai
kuan -
k'uan
kuang
k'uang
kueh -
k'ueh
h lung -
mang
7/1(10
meh -
mei
6th, m.
ma # h #
mai -
*(17? -
-
nil
???!
nung -
pa #
pa fi
-
-
7t?! (17) -
711/6/2 -
---
h W\
h.
|
joh - - # kuei -
700,000 - pai - - #
ju in h A k'uei -
meng p'ai - - #
7/2010 -
pan - -
Juan - - # kuen -
mi # h p'an - - H%
juei - - # k'uen
miao - pang - - #
juen - - # kung mieh -
jung - - # pang - #
k'ung mien - pao - - 6).
4th, k, asp. . 5th, l. min - p'ao - - #.
ka - - 4 la h
ming peh - - #:
k'a - - - lai miu - p'eh - - #
kai -
k'ai -
- B:
- #
lan
lang -
- -
: mo #
**t # h
pei -
P'ei -
-
- #
#
88
pen - - Z: she h # tew - - H. tsao - - H1

pen - - # sen - - # t'ew - - # "sao - - #
peng - - # shen - - # ti # h #4 tseh - - Hil
p'eng - # seng - - # t'i # h # t'seh - - #
peu - -# sheng - 4: | tiao - - H tsen - - 5
peu - - #| | seu - - # tiao - -# t'sen - -%
pi # h \, shew - - # tie # h # tseng - #
p'i k h P: so Eff h # tieh - - # t'seng - #
piao - - # shoh - - #. tien - - J.H tseu - - #
p'iao - - # su # h # t'ien - - 5: t'seu - - #
pieh - - #| | shu # h # ting - - E tso # h
p'ieh - - # shua g h #| | ting - - # tso # h #]
pien - - - shuai - # tiu - - # tsu # h #
p'ien - - # suan - - # to # h # t'su # h (
pin - - # shuan - # to # h # tsuan - #
pin - - # shuang - # tu # h # t'suan - f'
ping - - # suei - - # t'u + h # tsuei - - #
p'ing - # shuei- - % tuan - - # tsuei - #
po # h # suen - - # tuan - || | tsuen - #.
p'o # h # shuen - N tuei - - # t'suen - if
pu Ali h A. sung- - # t'uei - - # tsung - #
p'u # h # tuen - - # tsung - 4:
10th, t, asp. . tuen - #
9th, s, asp. sh: ta k h # tung - - $ 12th, w, asp. .
s - - # t'a 5 h # t'ung - Ril wa # h #
sh ji h fi | tai - - y hua # h #
sa - h# t'ai - - % 11th, ts, asp. . wai - " - 5,
sha p h # tan - - # ts - - + huai - - #

sai - - # t'an - -# t's - - % wan - - #
shai - - # tang - - # tsa if h# huan - #
san - - E t'ang- - # tsah - - # wang - BE
shan - - III | tao - - # tsai - - huang - j:
sang - - $ t'ao - - # t'sai - - + | wei - - $
shang - # teh - - # tsan - - # huei - - []
sao - - # teh - - # t'san - # wen - - X
shao - - JP teng - - # tsang - # huen- - #
seh - - # t"eng - % t'sang - weng - #
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
AN
EXPOSITION OF THE MAIN CHARACTERISTIC
FEATURES OF CHINESE THOUGHT
BY
DR. PAUL CARUS
CHICAGO
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
LONDON : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trbner & Co.
1898
-
In reply to a copy of this article forwarded through the American representa
tive to H. M. the Emperor of China, the Tsungli Yamen, which is the Imperial
Foreign Office, returned the following informal communication:
THE TSUNGLI YAMEN TO THE HON. M.R. DENBY.
Informal. PEKIN, May 6th, 1896.

YoUR ExcelleNCY :
We have had the honor to receive Your Excellency's note, wherein you state
that by particular request you send the Yamen a copy of the Monistan American
Magazine. Your Excellency further states that it contains an article on Chinese
Philosophy" and the author asks that it be delivered to H. M. the Emperor.
In reply we beg to state, that the article in question has been translated into
Chinese by order of the Yamen and has been duly perused by the members thereof.
The article shows that the writer is a scholar well versed in Chinese literature,
and has brought together matters which indicate that he fully understood the sub
ject he has treated.
The book will be placed on file in the archives of the Yamen.
CopyRIGHT BY
THE OPEN Court PUBLISHING Co.
1896
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY."
INTRODUCTORY.
HINESE philosophy is as peculiar as the Chinese language and

Chinese customs, and it is difficult for Western people to un
derstand its nature or to appreciate its paramount influence upon
the national character of the Celestial Empire. It is a rare mixture
of deep thought and vain speculations, of valuable ideas and useless
subtleties. It shows us a noble beginning and a lame progress; a
grand start and a dreary stagnation; a promising seed-time and a
poor harvest. The heroes of thought who laid its foundations,
were so much admired that none dared to excel them, and thus be
fore the grandeur of the original genius which looms up in the pre
historic age, the philosophy of all later generations is dwarfed into
timid insignificance.
The Chinese are naturally conservative because their written
language is rigid and inflexible, rendering the task of forming new
words extremely difficult. And the people who are hampered in
forming new words are also hampered in their conception of new
ideas and the discovery of new truths. Butlet us remember that this
drawback of the Chinese script is only an incidental consequence of
its extraordinary advantages. Consider that whatever changes there
may have been in Chinese speech, i. e., in oral language, the Chi
nese scholars of to-day can read without great difficulty the books
that were written two and one-half millenniums ago. Moreover, their
ideographic script is more impressive and direct than our phonetic
* The Chinese characters that appear in this article were made by Mr. H. H.
Clarke of the Stationers' Engraving Company, Chicago, Ill.
2 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY.
method of writing in which the letters must be translated into sound

before they can be understood by the reader. Dr. Morrison says
in the introductory remarks to his dictionary (p. 11):
As sight is quicker than hearing, so ideas reaching the mind by the eye are
quicker, more striking, and vivid, than those which reach the mind by the slower
progress of sound. The character forms a picture which really is, or, by early as
sociations is considered, beautiful and impressive. The Chinese fine writing darts
upon the mind with a vivid flash; a force and a beauty, of which alphabetic lan
guage is incapable.
But it is not the rigidity of their language alone that is at the

basis of the Chinese conservatism, it is also the simplicity of the
fundamental ideas of their world-view and the striking symbolism in
which they are expressed and which makes it impossible for the Chi
nese to think in any other modes of thought than their own. The
inviolable power of their tradition is further strengthened by an im
perturbable patience and unbounded reverence for the sages of yore.
The former renders the people submissive to many unheard-of abuses
on the part of the authorities, while the latter keeps them in faithful
adhesion to established conditions.
From time immemorial the highest ideal of Chinese thinkers
has been to bow in modesty and submission to the insuperable gran

deur of their ancient traditions. Criticism is very meek, originality
of thought is strangled ere it can develop, and any attempted pro
gress beyond the old masters appears to them as insanity. It is as
if a Christian would dare to be better or wiser than Christ. In a
word, the whole Chinese civilisation is saturated with the belief in
the divinity, the perfection, and the unqualified excellence of its
principles, doctrines, and institutions.
In the following pages we shall attempt to delineate in large
outlines the philosophy that underlies the Chinese civilisation, and
we hope that it will not only enable the reader to comprehend how
the Chinese are hampered by their mode of notation in both their
thought-symbols and their language, but that he will also learn to
appreciate the causes which produce Chinese conservatism. For,
indeed, there is in the Chinese world-conception so much that ap
peals to us as self-evident and on a priori consideration as a matter
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 3
of course, that we can understand how difficult it is for the Chinese

to free themselves from the rigid forms of their traditions and adapt
themselves to the more plastic modes of Western thought.
A.
THE YANG # AND THE YIN |%
The ancient Chinese were distinguished by a mathematical turn
of mind. For, while the literature of all other nations begins with
religious hymns and mythological lore of some kind, the oldest docu
ments of the Chinese exhibit arithmetical devices, two among which
are known as the Ho T'u' and the # H# Zoh shu, the
map of the Ho, or [yellow] River and the writing of the (river)
Loh.
All Chinese scholars who have attempted to reconstruct the

map of the Ho and the writing of the Loh agree in adopting a dual
istic system, which conceives the world as the product of
YANG and |%
YIN. Yang means bright, and Yin dark.
Yang is the principle of heaven, Yin is the principle of earth. Yang
is the sun, Yin is the moon. Yang is, as we should say, positive; Yin
is negative. Yang is, as the Chinese say, masculine and active;
Yin is feminine and passive. The former is motion, the latter is
rest. Yang is strong, rigid, lordlike; Yin is mild, pliable, submis
sive, wifelike. Yang was originally represented by a small, bright
circle (o), Yin by a small, dark circle (), but in their combina
tions these symbols were replaced by full and broken lines,
and --.
The symbols of Yang and Yin are called the two I or ele
mentary forms, and the four combinations of the two I in twos are
called the four Figures or Siang." They are as follows:"
* The spiritus asper in T'u indicates that the T must be pronounced with a cer
tain vigor or emphasis. French and German sinologists spell Thu, which tran
scription, however, is misleading in English.
*Ho, the River, stands for Hoang Ho, the yellow river.
*
#
f shows the symbols place" and spreading";
A.
# is the shady
side of a hill.
*See Mayer's Chinese Reader's Manual, pp. 293 and 309.

* Yih King, App. V., Chap. VII.
4. CHINESE PHILOSOPHY.
- - - - *- -
*- - - - - -
the great Yang the small Yin the small Yang the great Yin
Groups of three or more elementary forms are called Kwai Y.
The eight possible trigrams, or permutations of three I, possess

their own names and meanings, which (according to Legge) are as
follows
- - - - - | rere.
KWA NAMES STANDING FOR SENTED BY
The
I = | chin. Heaven or sky. Strength. Horse.

|
2 E tui. Lake (water collected in Pleasure or satisfac- |Goat.

a basin). tion.
3 =E li. Fire (the sun or light- Brightness. Pheasant.

ning).
4 E E chan. Thunder. Energy or mobility. Dragon.

5 - siuen Wind. Penetration. Bird.

|
|
6 - || kn Moon, streams of water | Sinking down, danger. Pig.

in motion, clouds, rain.
7 = kan Mountain. Arrest, standstill. Dog.
8 EE kwun. Earth. Compliance or docility. Ox.
All the things in the world, man included, are thought to be

compounds of Yang and Yin elements. In this way the Chinese
philosophy has become a theory of permutation, and the origin of
all things is traced to a change in the combinations of Yang and Yin.
FUH-HI {R %
Y -\,f
Es: TIS. - -
AND YU T.I.Y
I'
As to the map of the Ho and the writing of the Loh, we must
state at once that nothing definite is known concerning their original
form and significance. Only this much is safe to say, that tradition
unanimously connects the former with Y. # Fuh-hi, the first
emperor of China and the legendary founder of the Chinese civilisa
1 The character .# shows on the left-hand side batton," on the right to

divine.'"
tion (about 3322 B.C., according to another calculation about 28oo

B.C.), and the latter with 'il the Great (about 2200 B.C.),
Y
the founder of the second Chinese dynasty.

We are told of a great deluge that devastated the country un
der the virtuous Yao, the last emperor but one of the first dynasty;
and that Kwen, the Minister of Works, labored in vain to control the
waters. Kwen was banished for life to Mount Y in 2286 B. C.,
while his duties were intrusted to his son, Y, who at last, after nine
years, in 2278 B. C., succeeded in draining the floods. Emperor
Shun, the son-in-law and successor of Emperor Yao, in disregard of
his own sons, raised Y to the position of joint regent in 2224 B.C.,
and bequeathed to him the empire. When Shun, in 2208 B.C.,
died, Y observed a three years' period of mourning, whereupon he
assumed the government, in 2205 B.C.
Much may be legendary in the records of the ancient history of
the Chinese, but there is no doubt that Yao, Shun, and Y are his
torical personages. They represent an epoch of civilisation which,
probably in more than one respect, has never been reached again by
the Chinese. Public works, such as regulating the course of great
rivers, were undertaken, and the sciences of mathematics and astron
omy flourished. Eclipses of the sun and moon were calculated;
we know that the brothers Hi and Ho observed and calculated the
planetary revolutions; and we possess in the Shu King documents

that give evidence of manliness and moral stamina. There is, for
instance, the speech delivered by Y's worthy son and successor,
Ch'i, at Kan in 2197 B.C., which reminds us of Frederick the Great's
famous address to his generals before the battle of Leuthen. No
wonder that these days of pristine glory are still remembered in the
proverbial expression, the heaven of Yao and the sun of Shun,
which denotes the highest prosperity imaginable.
If the Map of Ho #| and the Writing of Loh }% #
are not to be attributed to the Emperors Fu-Hi and Y p'n.'',
we can safely trust the old tradition, at least so far as to say, that
1 Mayer's Chinese Reader's Manual, Part I., No. 9oo.

*Sacred Books of the East, III., pp. 7678.
these two documents (whatever their nature may have been) belong
to the ages represented by Fu-Hi and Y.
E!
THE YIH 2/J AND THE KwA
The ancient kwa-philosophy, as we may call the system of com
prehending things as permutations of the two principles Yang and
Yin, plays an important rle in the thoughts of the Chinese people
and forms even to-day the basis of their highest religious conceptions,
their scientific notions, and their superstitions. With its help the
origin of the world is explained, rules of conduct are laid down and
a forecast of the future is made.
As to the original meaning of the kwa-philosophy, we have

positive evidence of its mathematical character, not only in various
suggestions of Chinese traditions, but also and mainly in the nature
of the kwa themselves. It is to be regretted, however, that in
times of war and civil disorder the historical connexion was inter
rupted. Says Chu Hi in his introduction to Cheu-tsz's T'ai Kih

T u : 1
After the Cheu (dynasty) [which ruled 1122255 B.C.] perished and Meng
Kho died, the tradition of this doctrine was not continued.
When further the T'sin were succeeded by the Han, passing the Tsin, Sin,
and T'ang, so as to arrive at our Sung [the dynasty under which Chu Hi lived] and
the five planets met in the Kwei (constellation) so as to usher in an age of science
and erudition, the sage [Cheu-tsz'] came."
The oldest work of Chinese literature which embodies the phi

losophy of Yang and Yin is the Yih King (or simply the Yih), };
i.e., the book of permutations.
In the Yih King we find the eight trigrammatic kwa combined
into groups of hexagrammatic kwa, resulting in eight times eight
or sixty-four permutations, every one of which has its peculiar name
and significance. To the sixty-four permutations of the kwa hexa
* See Gabelentz's German edition of the T'ai Kih T'u, p. 14.
2# (king) signifies a classical book of canonical authority; and %gim

means permutation"; the character shows the sun above the moon, the latter in
its archaic form. The translation change, which is commonly adopted by sinolo
gists, does not always convey the right idea.
grams an explanatory text is added consisting of seven lines." The

first line, written by Wen Wang, applies to the hexagram as a
whole, and the remaining six, written by Cheu Kung, have reference
to the six sundry lines of the hexagram, counting the lowest line as
the first and the topmost as the sixth. The full lines, representing
Yang, are called kiu; the broken lines, representing Yin, are
called I- luh. There can be no doubt about it that in its present
form the Yih King is chiefly used for the purpose of divination.
The most ancient commentaries of the Yih King have been ap
pended to the book in the shape of three double and four simple ad
ditions called the Ten Wings. The first addition of two sections,
called Twan is commonly ascribed to Wen Wang, the second called
Siang, to his son, Cheu Kung, while the rest belong to later periods,
containing expositions ascribed to Confucius.
The Yih King is one of the most enigmatic books on earth, the
mystery of which is considered by many beyond all hope of solu
tion; and yet it exercises even to-day a greater influence over the
minds of the Chinese than does the Bible in Christian countries.
Its divine authority is undisputed and every good Chinese, is confi

dent that it contains the sum of all earthly wisdom. There is no
Chinese scholar who cherishes the least doubt that there is any truth
in science or philosophy that could not be found in, and rationally
developed from, the Yih King.
The oldest mention of the Book of Permutations is made in the
official records of the Cheu dynasty, which succeeded the Yin dy

nasty in 1122 B.C. There three versions of the Yih are mentioned.
We read:
"The first and second kwa are exceptions. They possess an additional eighth
line, which refers to all the six I together.
* Wen means scholar, or scholarly," i. e., he who pursues the arts of
peace." Wang means king. Wen Wang received the posthumous title Si Peh,
i.e., Chief of the West." His proper name is Ch'ang; but as it is not respectful
to use the proper name, he is commonly called "Wen Wang.
* Kung means duke. Cheu Kung (i.e., the Duke of Cheu) was the fourth
son of Wen Wang ; his proper name is 7am.
*The original meaning of ju Kiu is nine, of -ANI - /uh six."

*-
The Grand Diviner had charge of the rules for the three Yih (systems of
permutation), called the Lien-shan, the Kwei ts'ang and the Yih of Cheu ; in each of
them the primary figures were eight which were multiplied in each till they amounted
to sixty-four.Sacred Books of the East, XVI, p. 3.
The third mentioned version of the Yih is ascribed to Wen
Wang, 12311135 B.C.), and his son Cheu Kung (11691116)."

Wen Wang, a man of unusual piety and stern justice, was the
most powerful vassal of the last ruler of the house of Yin, called
#j # Cheu Sin, the dissolute tyrant. When Wen Wang had
excited the wrath of Cheu Sin and of his equally brutal consort,
Ta-Ki, by expressing disapproval of some of their atrocities, he was
imprisoned, but after three years released through the intercession of
his son F, afterward called Wu Wang. The latter sent rich presents
to Cheu Sin and with them a beautiful girl, for whose sake the tyrant
gladly acceded to the requests of F." While in prison at Yew Li,
in 1143 B.C., Wen Wang studied the hexagrams of Fuh-Hi, and
comforted himself with the propitious prophecies which he believed
he discovered in their mysterious lines.
When Wen Wang died, F inherited his father's kingdom.
Meanwhile the tyranny of his suzerain, Cheu Sin became so intol
erable that even the tyrant's own brother K'i, the prince of Wei, fled
to his court and appeared before him with an iron chain round his
neck. After this event no choice was left Wu Wang. He had
either to betray the confidence of K'i or to resist the unrighteous
tyranny of Cheu Sin. In the spring of the year 1121 B.C. he offered
a solemn sacrifice to Shang Ti, the Lord on High, and marched
against his suzerain. He crossed the Hoang-Ho at the ford of
"The ancient rulers of China are called emperors or Ti; but the rulers of the
dynasty Hia preferred the more modest title of King or Wang. -
* The Yin dynasty is also named Shang.

* F, surnamed Wu Wang (i. e. the war king), was the oldest son of Wen
Wang.
*Cheu Sin (the dissolute tyrant) is a posthumous title. His proper name is
Show. The word Cheu " in the name Cheu Sin is not the same word as the
name of the principality of Cheu," after which the Cheu dynasty is called.
*-*
s (shang) above, high in heaven, or supreme, rji ti) Lord em

peror, sovereign. The etymology of ti" is doubtful.
Meng-tsin and gained a decisive victory in the plain of Muh. Cheu

Sin shut himself up in his palace, at Luh Tai, ordered his servants
to set it on fire and died in its flames in the year I 122 B. C. Thus
the Yin dynasty was superseded by the Cheu dynasty. Cheu Kung,
Wu Wang's younger but more famous brother, contributed much
toward the consolidation of the Cheu dynasty as chief counsellor,
first of Wu Wang and then of Ch'ung, i. e., the Perfecter, his
imperial nephew and successor to the throne after Wu Wang's
death."
There seems to be no question that the founders of the Cheu

dynasty revised and rearranged the traditional Kwa systems; and
the Yih of Cheu, is according to undisputed tradition, the Book of
Permutations which is extant to-day.
Tradition preserves two schemes of the eight trigrams in the
shape of a mariner's compass-card, in which south is always top
most. The older scheme is ascribed to Fuh-Hi, and the later one to
Wen Wang. Their arrangements are as follows:
s.
-
|
*- '. ~ S'
II |
-|| || || |:
S.
$
4.
*- -
2% SS
*
4. *- -
4.
-
*-N- -N=
Fig. 1. The Trigram According to FUh-Hi. Fig. 2. The TriGRAM According to Wen WANG
Fuh-Hi's table shows the Yang and Yin symbols evenly bal
anced, so that each couple of opposed kwa is made up of three full
and three broken lines.
We are unable to say why Wen Wang changed the more natural
order of the Fuh-Hi system. Probably he argued that if the world
were arranged in the evenly balanced way of the traditional scheme,
*See Victor Strauss's German translation of the Shi-King, pp. 3944.

IO CHINESE PHILOSOPHY.
it would not move, but remain at rest. Thus he naturally might

have come to the conclusion that change which is the condition of
the actual universe can only be due to a displacement of the regu
larly arranged order which would represent the elements of exis
tence in a state of equilibrium.
One of the arrangements of the hexagrams that are met with
in all the larger editions of the Yih King, consists, as can be seen in
the appended diagram, of a square surrounded by a circle.
FIG. 3. THE Kwa of FUH-HI ARRANGED IN SQUARE AND CIRCLE.
In the square the sixty-four permutations of the hexagrams are

arranged in the order of what may be called their natural succession;
that is to say, on substituting for broken lines zero (o), and for full
lines the figure 1, we can read the hexagrams as a series of num
bers from o to 63, written in the binary system. The topmost figure
in the left corner represents zero, i.e. oooooo; and reading from
CHIN ESE PHILOSOPHY. II
the left to the right, we have 1, i.e. ooooo.1; 2, i.e. oooo.Io; 3, i. e.

oooo 11; 4, i.e. ooo1oo; etc., until 111111, which, in the decimal sys
tem, is 63.
The circle contains the same symbols so arranged that those
which diametrically face one another yield always the sum of 63.
Thus heaven, i. e. or 63, and earth, i. e. # or zero, are, the
former at the top, the latter at the bottom of the circle. Beginning
with zero at the bottom, the numbers ascend from 1 to 32, after
which they reach, in the topmost place, opposite the zero, the num
ber 63; thence they descend to the right in backward order from 62
to 31, which is the neighbor of zero.
Chinese authors inform us that the square represents the earth,
while the circle that surrounds the square symbolises heaven.
There is another arrangement of the hexagrams, as follows:
57
E = H H#= ==# HH#H = HH==

55 53
| =HH
3o
H##==
35
27
|| 33
25
23.
E.E==H
2o
|
F:
FIG. 4.
#== ==H:
| : Io
E== E:= = = =
THE HExagrams According to WEN WANG.
I2 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY.
Beginning from the right on the bottom line, the sixty-four

kwa" are arranged in the order of the Cheu version, ascribed to
King Wen. The design exhibits in the even columns the inverse
arrangement of the kwa of the odd columns, with this exception, that
whenever an inversion would show the same figure, all the Yang
lines are replaced by Yin lines, and vice versa.
Thus the hexagram No. 44, called Kn is the inverted
hexagram No. 43, called Kwai , while K'ien, =# in No. 1,
is changed into Kw'an" =# in No. 2.
"The names and significance of the several hexagrams depend upon the com
bination of the two trigrams of which each one consists. Thus, No. 1 is sky upon
sky," viz., the active principle doubled, which means great and successful display
of energy. No. 2 is earth" upon earth"; the receptive principle doubled, which
means, great receptivity, fertility, stability. No. 3 is rain" above thunder,"
means fulness, boding prosperity to those who are constant, but threatening im
pending danger to those who venture to move, etc. No. 49 is water" above fire,
which means contrasts that confront one another; to boil; to transform (implying
that fire changes the nature of water).
The names of the hexagrams, according to a Japanese authority (in the Ta
ka-shima-ekidan), interpreted in the sense given by Western sinologists, mainly
by Harlez (in his Yih King), are as follows: 1. K'ien, sky, success; 2. Kw'un, earth,
stability; 3. chun, fulness; 4 meng, infancy, growth; 5. hsil, expectancy, danger;
6 song, litigation, lawsuit; 7 sz, an army or a commander; 8 p'i, friendship;
9. hsido chuh, being clouds but no rain, little progress; 10. 4, to march; 11. 7"i
penetration, no obstruction; 12 pei, obstruction, to be besieged; 13, thong zhin
union, fellowship; 14. tai yu, great, power; 15 k'in, condescension; 16 ytt, satis
faction, grandeur, majesty; 17 sui, faithfulness, obedience; 18. ku, care, business,
agitation; 19. Jin, dignity, authority; 20 kwen, manifestation, show, appearance;
21, shi hh, slander, censure; 22, pi, embellishment, flash of light; 23. poh, oppres
sion, deprivation; 24. /*h, reaction, return; 25 wa wang, openness, sincerity; 26. tai
ch'uh, accumulation; 27 f, to sustain, to feed; 28, ta kwo, rising of the great; 29.
'an, difficulties; 30. 4, brilliancy; 31, hien, harmony; 32. hang, endurance; 33.
tun, to retreat, to live in obscurity; 34, a chuang, great strength; 35. ts'in, to
advance; 36 ming f, descent, eclipse, stars; 37, kid zhin, family; 38. k'wei, oppo
sition, contrariety; 30. kin, difficulty; 4o, kieh, escape, deliverance; 41. sun, to
abate, to lessen; 42. Jih, aggrandizement, gain; 43. kui, dispersion, distribution;
44, k'', to meet; 45. tsui, to assemble; 46 shang, to ascend; 47. A'wan, distress;
48. tsing, a well; 49. koh, water over fire, to renew, to transform; 5o. ting, fire
over wood, caldron; 51 chan, thunder, terror; 52 kan, firmness; 53 chien, to in
choate, to move apace; 54 kuei, to give in marriage; 55 fang, wealth; 56 lit, a
stranger, a traveller; 57 stin, pliability, meekness; 58, tui, rejoicing; 59. hwn,
to flow over, to squander; 60 chieh, law, moderation; 61. chung, the right way, in
the middle; 62. hsiao Av, excess in small things; 63 ki tsi, consummation; 64. wei
tsi, non-consummation.
[The translation of the names of the sixty-four kwa, as given here, only ap
proximately agrees with the system elsewhere employed in this article.]
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. I3
If regarded as binary numbers, the order of King Wen's square

reads in decimal numbers as follows:
2I 42 12 51 5o 19 54 27
13 44 52 11 9 36 29 46
26 22 24 6 31 62 35 49
20 Io 53 43 4o 5 6o 15
28 I4 45 18 3o 33 57 39
32 I 41 37 3 48 25 38
4 8 61 47 7 56 55 59
2 16 13 58 17 34 o 63
THE MILFOIL 1-1 AND THE SPIRIT TORTOISE | #

The divining stalks" and the tortoise-shell have been in use in
China for the purpose of divination from time immemorial, for the
practice of divination is mentioned in the oldest documents of the
Shu King, where Y recommends the trial by divination.
The outfit for divining #
by the stalks of the divining
plant (Ptarmica Sibirica) consists of six little oblong blocks (like toy
construction-blocks) being, on two sides, divided by an incision after
the pattern of the broken line of Yin and smooth like Yang lines on
the two remaining sides; further, of fifty wooden stalks, a little
thicker than knitting-needles. The six blocks represent Yang lines if
the smooth side, and Yin lines if the incision, is uppermost. The
method of divination as prescribed by the Book of Eki in the Taka
shima Ekidan (Keigyosha, Tokio, 1895), is as follows:
First of all, wash your hands and mouth, clean your body, and sit per
fectly aright in a quiet room, and then you may take hold of the sticks' very rev
erently. Fifty sticks make a complete set, and it must be remembered that they
are the holy implements which reveal the will of the Almighty through their math
ematical changes. "Take out any single stick and let it stand in the stickholder,
-***
A4. H: _*:
1Shi tsao 2% the divining plant is a species of shi # milfoil," or
yarrow, the same plant which is cultivated at the tomb of Confucius. The sym
bol milfoil is composed of the three characters plant" on the top, old man"
in the middle, and mouth" or to speak" at the bottom.
*Part II., Book II., 2; Sacred Books of the East, III., p. 50.
I4 CH IN ESE PHILOSOPHY.
which is to be placed on the centre of the table. This particular one is referred to
the Great Origin.' Hold the lower ends of the remaining forty-nine in your left
hand, and slightly dovetail the upper ends. Apply your right-hand fingers to the
middle of the sticks, the thumb being nearest to you or from inside, and the other
fingers to be applied from outside. Lift the whole thing above your forehead. Now
turn your sole attention to the affair to be divined, close your eyes, suspend your
breath, make yourself solemn and pure, be sure that you are in interview with the
Almighty to receive his order, and further, do not diversify your thoughts to any
thing else. At the moment when your purity of heart is at its apex, divide the
sticks into any two groups with your right-hand thumb. The division must not be
voluntary.
It must be observed here that the moment when the purity of one's heart is
at its apex is, in other words, the moment when one communicates with the Al
mighty. The feeling at the moment of the communication is impossible to describe,
being like that which one feels when electric currents flow through his limbs. It is
absolutely necessary that one shall divide his sticks at the very instant when he feels
the feeling specified. This point of communication baffles every trial of descrip
tion, the only way of acquiring the exact idea being through a continued practice
and consequent dexterity of the student.
Now, the set of the sticks is in two groups, which correspond to the Heaven
and Earth," or "Positive and Negative,' in the terms of the Eki." Place the right
hand group on the table, and take out one from the group. This one is to be held
between the ring finger and the little finger of the left hand; the figures being that
of the Three Figures, namely, 'Heaven, Barth, and Mankind." Count the left
hand group with your right hand: it is to be counted in cycles, each cycle being
four times two by two, or eight sticks per cycle. When any number of cycles has
been finished, there will remain a number of sticks less than eight, including the
one on the little finger. This remainder gives a complement of the destined dia
gram.
If one remains you have Ken (=).
If two remain you have Da' (=).
If three remain you have Ri' (==).
If four remain you have Shin' (==).
If five remain you have Son (=).
If six remain you have Kan (==).
If seven remain you have Gon' (==).
If eight or naught remains you have Kon (= =)."
These are the eight emblems of Heaven,' Pond, Fire, Thunder, Wind,'
Water, Mountain, and Earth in their order. The trigram corresponding to
the present remainder is called the Inner Complement, and is to be placed at the
"Here the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese terms is preserved.

bottom of the diagram. The above-stated process is now to be repeated, and the
trigram corresponding to the second remainder is called the Outer Complement,
and is to be placed at the top of the diagram. Now you are in possession of a com
plete diagram of six elements.
The destined diagram is now before you; the only thing left is to observe the
change in the elements.'" The method of dealing out the sticks is the same as be
fore, except the mode of counting them. Here each cycle consists of six sticks, so
that three times two by two are to be counted per cycle. The remainder thus ob
tained expresses the element to be chosen. If your remainder is one, you have
obtained the first element of the diagram; if two, the second element, etc. The order
of the elements is numbered from below, that is to say, the bottom element is the
first, and the top one the sixth.
You have now thus obtained an element of a diagram."
Having thus obtained a definite element in a definite hexagram,
the diviner turns to the book and reads the sentence belonging to it.
This sentence is to him the oracle that he receives in reply to his
question, and must be interpreted in the light of the expositions
given concerning the whole hexagram. The two most important
lines in the hexagrams are the second and the fifth lines, because
they constitute the centre of the two trigrams of which the whole is
composed. The fifth stroke, representing the efficacy of the upper
or heavenly power, is always favorable, and wherever it is obtained,
it bodes to the divining person luck and unfailing success.
Divination by the tortoise-shell is in principle the same. In
the empty shell of the sacred tortoise, Shan Kwei, which is a small
species of Emys, three coins are shaken and thrown out in a dice
like manner. According to their showing heads or tails, an element
of one of the sixty-four hexagrams is determined, and from a con
templation of the sentence attached to the element of the hexagram,
as applied to the given situation, the outcome of the proposed action
is anticipated.
The Chinese conception of the spirituality of the divining stalks
and the tortoise shell is expressed in the third Appendix of the Yih
King as follows:
"Viz., of the particular line in the hexagram.
..]|}; shan, consists of divine and to extend"; while # zwei, is in

tended to represent the general appearance of a tortoise (Williams).
I6 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY.
Therefore heaven produced the spirit-like things," and the sages took advan
tage of them. (The operations of) heaven and earth are marked by (so many)
changes and transformations; and the sages imitated them (by the means of the
Yi). Heaven hangs out its (brilliant) figures from which are seen good fortune and
bad, and the sages made their emblematic interpretations accordingly."
Divination is practised officially in China by imperial diviners.

We read in the counsels of Y that Shun submitted the question of
succession to divination, and abided by its decision in somewhat the
same way as among the Israelites problems of grave importance
were settled by consulting the oracle of Urim and Thummim.
The seventh division of the Great Plan gives the following in
struction to rulers concerning the practice of divination :
Officers having been chosen and appointed for divining by the tortoise-shell
and the stalks of the milfoil are to be charged to execute their duties. They will
predict rain, clearing up, cloudiness, want of connexion, and disturbances, through
the inner and outer diagrams.
In all there are seven (examinations of doubt): five given by the shell, and
two by the stalks; and through them all errors can be discovered.
The officers having been appointed, when the divination is inaugurated, three
men are to interpret the indications, and the consensus of two of them is to be fol
lowed.
When you have doubts about any great matter, consult with your own mind;
consult with your high ministers and officers; consult with the common people;
consult with the tortoise-shell and divining stalks.
If you, the shell, the stalks, the ministers and officers, and the common peo
ple, all agree about a course, it is called a great concord, and the result will be the
welfare of your person and good fortune to your descendants.
If you, the shell, and the stalks agree, while the ministers and officers and
the common people oppose, the result will be fortunate.
If the ministers and officers, with the shell and stalks, agree, while you and
the common people oppose, the result will be fortunate.
If the common people, the shell, and the stalks agree, while you, with the
ministers and officers, oppose, the result will be fortunate.
If you and the shell agree, while the stalks, with the ministers and officers
and the common people, oppose, internal operations will be fortunate, and external
undertakings unlucky.
When the shell and stalks are both opposed to the views of men, there will
be good fortune in being still, and active operations will be unlucky.
*The divining stalks and the divine tortoise-shell

In justice to the original Chinese conception of divination we

must state that it was not intended to discover future events, but to
ascertain whether or not certain plans contemplated for execution
would be propitious. The tortoise-shell and the stalks are called
spiritual, not because they were supposed to be animated by spirits,
but because, like books and pens, they can be employed for the fixa
tion and clarification of thought. Sz' Ma, the most skilful diviner in
the time of Tsin (fifteenth century), is reported in the Lin Chi of the
Ming dynasty to have said to Shao P'ing:
What intelligence is possessed by things spiritual 2 They are intelligent (only)
by their connexion with men. The divining stalks are so much withered grass; the
tortoise-shell is a withered bone. They are but things, and man is more intelligent
than things. Why not listen to yourself instead of seeking (to learn) from things 2"
Spiritual accordingly does not mean possessing spirit in the

sense of being animated; it means that which is significant or is
possessed of meaning.
E. }% -
THE MAP OF HO #| AND THE WRITING OF LOH '' H#

- - - b
The first authentic passages in which the map of Ho
and # H#
} - - - -
the writing of Loh are mentioned, date as far back as

the age of Confucius. We read in the Yih King, Appendix III., 73:
The Ho gave forth the map, and the Lo the writing.S. B. E., XVI., p. 374.
In the Lun Y (the Confucian Dialogues), V., 7, we read that
Confucius said in an hour of dejection:
The bird Feng does not longer reappear, from the river no map comes up
again : " I am disappointed in my expectations."
The first author who appears to have given a definite shape to

the legends of the map of Ho and the writing of Loh is K'ung
Ngan-Kwoh, a descendant of Confucius (second century, B.C.). He
*This means in other words that divine revelation by a direct supernatural in

terference has ceased. The bird Feng (Fig. 6, p. 18) is like the Phoenix a mythical
creature whose appearance is said to announce great events. Feng, the Chinese
Phoenix, and lung, the dragon, are favorite subjects of Chinese artists. The female
of the Phoenix is called Hwang, hence the generic term Feng-Hwang, which is the
emblem of conjugal happiness. Lung, the dragon (Fig. 5, p. 18), is the emblem of
power; hence it is the imperial coat-of arms.
speaks of the dragon-horse that emerged from the waters of the

Yellow River and presented on its back an arrangement of symbols,
whence the divine ruler Fuh-Hi, derived his philosophy. Concern
ing the writing of Loh, K'ung Ngan-Kwoh adds that while Y was
engaged in draining the flood a spirit tortoise appeared to him
which carried on its back a scroll of writing and a system of divi
sions, in both respects exhibiting the numbers up to nine.
There is but one celebrated Chinese scholar, Ow-yang Sin, who
ventured to express disbelief in the legend while the schoolmen of
the Sung dynasty devoted themselves to a reconstruction of the
FIG. 5. LUNG, THE DRAGoN. (As it appears in

the imperial standard.) The lung is the chief of
scaly beings. It symbolises the watery principle
of the atmosphere. Cosmogonists mention four
kinds. In addition we read of the yellow dragon FIG. 6. The BIRD FENG. (After a
(the same that emerged from the river Loh) and Chinese drawing. Reproduced from the
the azure dragon. Chinese Repository.)
map of Ho and the writing of Loh. The schemes that have gradually
been accepted are the two diagrams reproduced on p. 19 from a Chi
nese edition of the Yih King. They were elaborated by Ts'ai Yuen
Ting who lived under the Hwei Tsung dynasty (11or-1125 A.D.).
The Ho T'u, or map of the Ho, according to Tsai Yuen-Ting,
shows the odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 in white dots or Yang sym
bols, and the even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, and Io in dark dots or Yin
symbols. (See Fig. 7.) This is based upon the theory of the Con
fucian commentary of the Yih King, which reads as follows:
The number 1 belongs to heaven; to earth, 2.; to heaven, 3; to earth, 4;
to heaven, 5; to earth, 6; to heaven, 7; to earth, 8; to heaven, 9; to earth, 10.
The numbers belonging to heaven are five, and those belonging to earth are
five. The numbers of these two series correspond to each other (in their fixed posi
tions), and each one has another that may be considered its mate. The heavenly
numbers amount to 25, and the earthly to 30. The numbers of heaven and earth
together amount to 55. It is by these that the changes and transformations are
effected, and the spirit-like agencies kept in movement.
#D TELET: #
<> . O-O-O-O-O-O-O |-|
#.
i - A
$
o Q. -e-o-o-e-Q
Fig. 8. The Writing of Loh. FIG. 7. THE MAP of THE Ho.

(According to Ts'ai Yang-ting; reproduced from a Chinese edition of the Yih King.)
The arrangement of the twenty-five positive or Yang and thirty

negative or Yin elements, is such as to make five the difference in
each group of dots. When we substitute for Yang +, and for Yin
, the Map of the Ho appears as follows:
+7-2
= +5
8 + 3 || 10 + 5 | +9 4
= 5 | = 5 | = +5
6 + 1
= - 5
The writing of Loh, reproduced (Fig. 8) from the same source,

consists of a magic square as follows:
| :
The sum of each line of three numbers in any direction, verti
cally, horizontally, and diagonally, is fifteen.
2O CHINESE PHILOSOPHY.
Although these two arithmetical devices of the map of Ho and

the writing of Loh according to Ts'ai Yuen-Ting are spoken of as
commonly accepted, we find another and almost more popular
scheme of unknown origin and perhaps of greater antiquity, accord
ing to which the map of Ho on the back of the river-horse is said
to exhibit the eight kwa, as represented in the adjoining illustration
(see Fig. 9), and the writing of Loh on the back of the tortoise is
identified with the five elements (see Fig. 10).
The inscription above the dragon horse reads from the right to
the left Lung ma fu t'u, i. e. dragon horse carrying map.
Fig. 9. THE DRAGoN Horse CARRYING THE MAP. FIG. Io. The Tortoise with the Writing.l
A- - - -
The five elements * according to Chinese notions, are

water, wood, fire, metal, and earth.
k+k&
1 Drawn after the photograph of a specimen in the possession of Dr. H. Riedel
The writing of the five elements which might be similarly traced in various ways,
is unduly emphasised, for the purpose of showing it at a glance.
A
21 J hing = "element" exhibits two characters, a step with the left foot,"
and a step with the right foot, which combined denote motion." The elements,
accordingly, are the moving ones," or the active agents."
.7% - shui, As\. y.

mith, ) hwo, 42 kin, and + 7"u. Shui ='' water
is in its original form the picture of three ripples; muh = wood, the picture of
a tree with its roots; hwo = '' fire" represents an ascending flame; 7"u =earth
denotes the place on which to stand; and kin = "metal or gold" is said to contain
the character 7"u = '' earth, because the metals come from the ground.
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 2I
They were, in old Chinese characters," written as follows:
\ X /\ ^+.
We need little imagination to trace these characters on the shell
of a tortoise, such as sketched in the drawing on page 20 (Fig. 10).
The five elements play a very important part in the thoughts of
the Chinese. In their symbolical significance they represent the
properties or actions that appear to be inherent in them. Their
conception is of considerable antiquity, for it is mentioned in the
Great Plan of the Shu King.
Tseu Yen, a philosopher who lived in the fourth century before
Christ, is reported to have composed treatises on cosmogony and the
influences of the five elements. Other sages who wrote on the same
subject are Liu Hiang of the first century before Christ, and Pan
Ku of the first century after Christ. -
When an idea has once gained a foothold in the Chinese mind, it

stays. Such is the case with the notion of the five elements, which
forms an ineradicable part of the Chinese world-view, so that even
Cheu-tsz', the most independent thinker of later generations, em
bodied it in his philosophy.
#,
THE GREAT PLAN I/ # #! IN NINE DIVISIONS ju F#
The Count of Chi, the grand master at the court of Shang, in
the time of the tyrant Cheu Sin, said once that if ruin overtook the
house of Shang, he would never be the servant of another dynasty.
Having displeased Cheu Sin, he was put into prison, and when the
former died in the flames of his burning palace, his conqueror, Wu
Wang, released the grand master from prison, but the latter,
faithful to his vow, refused to acknowledge his liberator as the
legitimate sovereign of China. Wu Wang, honoring the indepen
dent spirit of the Count, allowed him to leave the country for
Corea, and invested him with that territory. Hereupon the Count
felt constrained to appear at the court of Cheu, when consulted by
* In the so-called seal characters, the forms of shui and muh appear less angular
and are rounded at the corners.
Wu Wang on the principles of government, and communicated to

him the # Great Plan," with its nine divisions. Its trans
lator, Professor Legge, says:
The Great Plan means the great model for the government of the nation,
the method by which the people may be rendered happy and tranquil, in harmony
with their condition, through the perfect character of the king, and his perfect ad
ministration of government.
The Great Plan is preserved among the documents of Cheu,
but it is generally supposed to be of much older date. Says Legge:
That the larger portion of it had come down from the times of Hsia is not
improbable. The use of the number nine and other numbers, and the naming of
the various divisions of the Plan, are in harmony with Y's style and practice in
his Counsels. We are told in the introductory sentences that Heaven or God gave
the Plan with its divisions to Y."
The Great Plan is interesting as a sample of Chinese philos

ophy. Its metaphysical basis consists in a mystical play with num
bers, the reasons of which can no longer be fully appreciated; it
contains a great many confused notions of physics, mixed with
divination and astrology, and in addition some very practical injunc
tions for the moral conduct of rulers. The nine divisions of the
Great Plan are as follows:
1. The five elements.They are characterised as follows:
The nature of water is to soak and descend; of fire, to blaze and ascend; of
wood, to be crooked or straight; of metal, to yield and change; of the earth, to
receive seeds and yield harvests. That which soaks and descends becomes salty;
that which blazes and ascends becomes bitter; that which is now crooked and now
straight becomes sour; that which yields and changes becomes acrid; and from seed
sowing and harvesting comes sweetness.
2. Reverent attention to the five points of conduct.It pre

scribes (1) for deportment, a reverent attitude, (2) for speech, pro
}}: hung, literally vast, immense," but in connexion with #! fan=plan,

the word is commonly translated great. The character consists of water,'
which is the same radical as in the names Ho and Loh, and of all, its original sig
nificance being inundation." See Williams, Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese
Language, p. 236.
=#3,
.# (ch'eu = division) consists of field" and long life."
priety, (3) for seeing, clearness of vision, (4) for hearing, distinc
tion, (5) for thinking, acumen. By the observation of these five
points of conduct will be insured (1) gravity, (2) decorum, (3) cir
cumspection, (4) discernment, (5) wisdom.
3. Earnest devotion to the eight objects of government.They
are (1) the provision of food for the people, (2) the acquisition of
wealth, (3) the performance of sacrifices, (4) the regulation of labor,
(5) the organisation of instruction, (6) the suppression of crime, (7)
the entertainment of guests, and (8) the maintenance of the army.
4. The five arrangers of time.They are (1) the year, (2) the
moon, (3) the sun, (4) the planets and the zodiacal divisions, and
(5) calendar calculations. -
5. The ideal of royal perfection.It is characterised in the

following lines:
Without deflection, without halting,
Pursue the royal righteousness.
Without selfish preference,
Pursue the royal way.
Without selfish prejudice,
Pursue the royal path.
Avoid deflection, avoid partiality;
Broad and long is the royal way.
Avoid partiality, avoid deflection :
Level and easy is the royal way.
Avoid perversity, avoid one-sidedness:
Correct and straight is the royal way.
(Ever) seek for this perfect excellence,
(Ever) turn to this perfect excellence.
This ideal of royal perfection is unalterable and implies a command;yea,

it is a command of the Lord on High.
All the multitudes of the people, instructed in this ideal of perfect excellence,
will, by carrying it into practice, partake of the glory of the Son of Heaven. They
will say: The Son of Heaven is the father of the people, and the sovereign of all
nations under the sky.'"
6. The three virtues of a ruler are righteousness, severity, and

clemency. The first must be practised in times of tranquillity, the
second serves to put down disorder, and the third applies to high
minded persons.
7. The examination of doubts prescribes the directions of divi

nation, as explained above. (See p. 16.)
8. The eight ways of verification are astrological rules for the
prevention of misfortunes. Rain, sunshine, heat, cold, and wind
must be seasonable, lest evil originate. Gravity in deportment pro
duces rain, propriety sunshine, prudence heat, circumspection cold,
and wisdom wind, each in season. The king should examine the
year, the ministers the months, the officers the days, in order to insure
peace and prosperity. If the seasonableness is interrupted, there will
be failure of crops and misgovernment. If great men are kept in ob
scurity, there will be unrest. The chapter concludes: The stars
should be observed by the people at large. Some stars love wind,
and others love rain; the courses of the sun and moon determine
winter and summer. The way in which the moon follows the stars
produces wind and rain.
9. The five sources of happiness are (1) long life, (2) riches,
(3) health and equanimity, (4) virtue, and (5) obedience to the will
of heaven; and the six sources of misery are (1) shortness of life,
(2) sickness, (3) anxiety, (4) poverty, (5) wickedness, and (6) lack
of character."
In spite of its lack of system and its diverse aberrations from

the straight path of sound logic, the Great Plan has exercised, on
account of its moral ingredients, a beneficial influence upon the de
velopment of China. Yet even here there is a drawback, in so far
as the basis of Chinese ethics consists merely in reverence for the
past, for parents, and for authority in any form; it lacks the most
essential elements that give character to conduct, which are inde
pendence of thought, the courage of individual responsibility, and
bold progressiveness.
THE TAI KIH, WS. # THE ULTIMATE GROUND OF EXISTENCE.
The insufficiency of the dualism which finds expression in this

contrast of the Yang and Yin principles, must have made itself felt
"It is hard to understand why in one case there are five, and in an other six
Sources.
very early, for the Chinese philosophy, as it appears in all the clas
sics, exhibits a decided tendency towards monism. The Yang and
Yin are thought to have originated in a process of differentiation
from the T'ai Kih, which is the grand origin, der Urgrund, the
source of existence; Gabelentz translates it, das Urprinzip, Legge and
other English sinologists, the grand terminus, or the grand
extreme. Its symbol is a circle, thus O.
The word Tai, great or grand, is akin to Ta,
great or large; it implies that the greatness is not of size, but
of dignity.
Gabelentz defines the word 11, Kihl as follows:
Kih originally signified, as is indicated by its radical (which is No. 75, tree,
or wood'), the ridge-pole in the gable of a house. Because it is the topmost part of
the building, the term is used of all topmost and extreme points. Since we cannot
go beyond the top of the gable, but only cross over to descend on the other side of
the roof, Kih means goal,' or turning-point. This latter meaning implies the
idea of neutrality, which is neither on this nor on that side. As is well known, the
Chinese words possess the functions of various parts of speech. Thus Kih, as ad
verb, means very, highly, extremely'; as a verb, to reach the goal, to exhaust.'"
The T'ai Kih is not mentioned in the body of the
text of the Yih King, but is commonly believed to be implied in its
secret teaching. This opinion appears to have been established as
early as the time of Confucius, who is reported to have said:
Therefore in the Yih is contained the great origin, which produced the two
elementary forms [viz., Yang and Yin]. The two elementary forms produced the
eight trigrams. The eight trigrams served to determine good and evil, and from
their determination was produced the great world."Yih King, App. III., 7071.
Legge criticises the author of this paragraph, because there is
no way of deriving the full and broken lines, representing Yang and
Yin, from the circle, and we grant that there is a gap here. The
transition from the Yang-and-Yin dualism to the monism of the
T'ai Kih did not find its appropriate symbol. Nevertheless, we can
understand that the idea necessarily originated. Wang Pi, a cele
* See also Williams, S. D. of the Ch. L., p. 393.

*Although Wang Pi died at the early age of twenty-four years, his authority in
the mystic lore of the Yih King was so great that he is looked upon as the founder of
the modern school of divination.Mayer's Chinese Reader's Manual, W. J., No. 812.
brated scholar of the Wei dynasty (born 225 A.D.), (as quoted by
Legge, i.) says:
Existence must begin in non-existence, and therefore the Grand Terminus
produced the two elementary forms. Thi i [viz. T'ai Kih, the grand terminus]
is the denomination of what has no denomination. As it cannot be named, the text
takes the extreme point of anything that exists as an analogous term for the Thi Ki."
Professor Legge adds:
Expanding Wang's comment, Khung Ying-t says: Thi i [viz. T'ai Kih]
means the original subtle matter, that formed the one chaotic mass before heaven and
earth were divided;' and then he refers to certain passages in Lo-tsze's To-Teh
King, and identifies the Thi K'i with his To. This would seem to give to Thi Ki
a material meaning. The later philosophers of the Sung school, however, insist on
its being immaterial, now calling it li, the principle of order in nature, now to, the
defined course of things, now Ti, the Supreme Power or God, now shan, the spirit
ual working of God. According to Khang-tsze [Confucius], all these names are to
be referred to that of Heaven,' of which they express so many different concepts.
We here reproduce a diagram of the evolution of the Kwa

from the Great Extreme, which, so far as we know, has never been
reproduced in any Western translation of the Yih King.
Ji X + VA % 4k.
Fig. 11. THE DESIGN of Kwa-Evolution from THE GREAT ExTREME.

(From a Chinese edition of the Yih King.)
The eight characters of the title in Fig. 11 read from the right.
to the left:
{R Fuh 3% His >'s six--F typl] # four Kwa % serially

(or in their development) J# represented.
The marginal notes from below upward read the great ex

treme, the two I (or primordial forms), the four Siang or
figures, the eight kwa, the sixteen kwa, the thirty-two
kwa, the sixty-four kwa.
The inscriptions in the two large black and white rectangles
immediately above the circle read from the right to the left yin
and yang, in the second line from below consisting of two black
and two white rectangles, the great yin, the small yang, the
small yin, the great yang, in the third line ch'ien, tui, li, chan,
siuen, k'an, kan, and kw un, which are the names of the eight
Kwa, as quoted above. The thirty-two Kwa have no names. The
names of the sixty-four hexagrams are written in the Chinese original
over the small sixty-four rectangles at the top. They are here omit
ted because they would have appeared blurred in the present repro
duction, which is considerably reduced.
If we fold the diagram in the middle we find that the yin and
yang differentiations of the great origin cancel one another and the
whole world sinks back into nought. This symbolises the omneity
of the zero, which will illustrate what Chinese thinkers mean when
they speak with reverence of the great nothing, of emptiness, of
non-action, of non-existence, and of Nirvna. To them it represents
the omnipresence of the Deity in the All. It is that which remains
unchanged in all changes, the law in apparent irregularity and
chaos, the eternal in the transient, the absolute in the relative, the
universal in the particular, and rest in motion.
We are not accustomed to negative terms in just this sense,
but they are not entirely absent in Western literature. Thus Goethe
says:
- Und alles Drngen, alles Ringen
Ist ev'ge Ruh' in Gott dem Herrn.
[Yet all the strife and all resistance
In God, the Lord, 's eternal rest.]
THE MONISM OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY, OR CHEU-TSZ''S J.H +.

PHILOSOPHY.
The monism implied in the unitary and ultimate principle of

the T'ai Kih was worked out by Cheu Tun-i, commonly called Cheu
EXPLANATIONS:
Cheu-tsz' says in the T'ai kih t'u:

1. Having no cause, (Kih =
principle, origin, limit), therefore
the grand (original) cause.
[This statement may be com
pared to Spinoza's theory of the
uncaused causa sur.]
$ 2. The grand cause moves, thus

producing Yang. Having reached
the limit, however, it rests. Resting
yang |# # yin it produces Yin. Having rested to
the limit again, it moves. Once
moving, once resting; one state
moves #h # rests being conditioned by the other. In
separation it is (here) Yin, in sepa
ration it is (there) Yang. Thus the
two fundamental forms (viz. -
and --) are fixed.
3. Yang changes,Yin is added.

fire
|K. 2-(+) Thus are produced water, fire, wood,
metal, and earth. The five kinds
of weather are distributed. The
four seasons come forth.
earth
+
wood ".
* I metal
[Fire and wood belong to the
Yang, water and metal to the Yin;
while earth, standing in the centre,
is neutral.]
4. The five elements if united

K'ien's #. # Kw'un's are Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang
if united are the grand cause (Kih).
The grand cause is without cause.
norm# # Inorm The five elements receive at their

origin, each one its own nature.
[The circle indicates that the five
is): Jik is elements, when combined, can be
regarded as magnitudes of plus and
male 3 O
24 o'. minus which in their sum equal the
zero of the T'ai kih.]
the 5. The truth of that which has

"' no cause, the efficacy of the Two
(viz. the two forms - and -- and
of things}) of the Five (viz. the five elements)
in a wonderful way, now combine
and now separate. The K'ien's
through (==) norm is male, the Kw'un's = =)
change norm is female. Both aspirations
quicken one another, and through
originate *H. O transformations they produce all
things. All things are produced in
a process of production. Thus
change and transformation are in
finite.
1The myriads of things'' is a common phrase in Chi
nese, denoting the Universe.
Fig. 12. CHEU-Tsz' 's DIAGRAM of THE GREAT ORIGIN. [After Von Gabelentz.]
tsz', i. e. Cheu the Sage, who lived IoI71073. We do not hesitate

to say that Cheu-tsz is the first systematic thinker of China; he
certainly deserves the honorary title, Tao-Kwoh-Kung, Prince in
the Empire of Reason, conferred upon him after death. Lao-tsz'
may be deeper, Confucius more influential, Mencius more versatile,
but none of them is more methodical, none of them is more precise
and clear in comprehension than Cheu-tsz', and there is only one
who, in this particular line, is his equal: his great disciple, Chu Hi.
Cheu-tsz' and his school have systematised and completed the
philosophical world-conception of the Chinese. Whatever the an
cient traditions may have been, they are now understood in China
as interpreted by Cheu-tsz' and Chu-Hi.
Thomas Taylor Meadows says of Cheu-tsz in his book, The
Chinese and Their Rebellions, p. 358.
It is in the spirit of coalescence, and with a full personal faith in a virtual
identity of the teachings of the Sacred Books, that all Cheu-tsz's annotations and
commentaries were conceived. This circumstance, which rendered it unnecessary
for his countrymen, in adopting his views, to discard any part of what they had
long so highly esteemed; together with the fact that his style combined, in a won
derful degree, simplicity with completeness and lucidity with eloquence, procured
unmistakable supremacy for his writings soon after his death; and constituted him
the definitive fashioner of the Chinese mind."
Cheu-tsz has written a great number of works, but only two

have come down to our times; they are the \ if
7'at
Kih T'u, or the diagram of the Great Origin, and the T'ung Shul
# or general treatise, which found an expositor in Chu
1 (11301200 A.D.). Both books are excellently translated into
German the former by Gabelentz, the latter in part by W. Grube.
Cheu-tsz condenses the contents of his treatise on the Grand
Extreme in a diagram which is here reproduced. (See Fig. 12, p. 28.)

y:
l T'ung, general, universal, abstract, H# Shu, writing, treatise, book
The T'ung Shu is the second chapter of the Sigg li ta seuen.
When at the request of Emperor Kanghi an abridged edition of the philosoph
ical encyclopaedia was published in 1717, both treatises of Cheu-tsz were again em
bodied in the collection in their complete form together with Chu-Hi's annotations.
This proves the high esteem in which these two thinkers are held in China, and,
indeed, their opinions are recognised as the standard of Chinese orthodoxy.
* T'ai Kih Tu des Tscheu Tsi, Tafel des Urprincipes mit Tschu-His Commen
3o CHINESE PHILOSOPHY.
The first sentence of the T'ung Shu reads:
# =# HH /\ z \
Truthfulness" [is] the holy? man's root."
What a deep and after all clear and true idea is expressed in
these simple words ! And yet Cheu-tsz's treatise will be disappoint
ing to a Western reader, for in the progress of his exposition our
philosopher interprets virtue in terms of the Yang and Yin system.
He says in $2 :
Great is the Ch'ien's origin. All things thence derive their beginning
(It is) Truth's source indeed!
* Ch'ien is the first combination of three Yang elements, (=),

and stands in contrast to Kw'un (==), the pure combination of
three Yin elements; the former symbolises heaven, virile strength,
manhood, creative power; the latter, earth, stability, woman
hood, productiveness. This is one striking instance, among innu
merable others that can be found in Chinese literature, of how deeply
even the most powerful minds, with the sole exception of Lao-tsz',
are entangled in the Yang and Yin philosophy that looms up at the
mythical beginning of Chinese civilisation and still rules the thought
of the Celestial Empire to-day!
CHU HI'S DOCTRINE OF LI }: AND K'I #l THE IMMATERIAL
PRINCIPLE AND PRIMARY MATTER.
The mantle of Cheu-tsz' fell upon Chu Hi, also called Chu
Fu Tsz', who lived 11301200 A. D. In his exposition of the clas
tare. Dresden, 1876. The 7"ai Kih 7"u is the first chapter of the Sing li ta tseuen
(literally, nature principle in full completeness, or, better, philosophical encyclo
paedia) published in 1415 by the third sovereign of the Ming dynasty.
: ch'ing="truth," or truthful," consists of word" and perfect." =#

che, meaning thing, or substance changes its preceding word into a noun, just
as does the English word one" in such clauses as the true one," this one, or
that one." Accordingly the two words mean the truth essence, the most appro
priate translation of which seems to be truthfulness."
"H shing = "holy" or saint," shows the characters ear" and to in

form," denoting (as Williams has it) "one who on hearing knows the whole case, ...
intuitively wise and good, . . . holy, sacred, perfect.
sics and of Cheu-tszs works, Chu Hi' leaves no doubt about the
monism of his philosophy. His works were published at the re
quest of Emperor Kanghi in a collection called Cheu-tsz' Tseuen Shu
(i.e., the complete writings of Cheu-tsz'), containing among other
essays his treatise on The Immaterial Principle (li) and Primary
Matter (Kii), the first sentence of which reads, according to Mr.
Meadows's translation (J. W. p. 373):
In the whole world there exists no primary matter #l (K'i), devoid of the
immaterial principle; and no immaterial principle (li) apart from primary matter."
Williams in his Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language ex

plains (on p. 348) #l
i as follows:
Fume or vapor; . . . steam; ether; the aerial fluid; breath, air; vital force;
spirit, temper, feelings; a convenient and mobile term in Chinese philosophy
for explaining and denoting whatever is supposed to be the source or primary agent
in producing or modifying motion.
Williams adds that k'i is more material than li (order) and tao
(reason); more external than sin M (heart) and is conditioned by
its form (hing). It is opposed to chi # (matter), as 8am or
spirit is opposed to the body it animates.
1See Mayer's Chinese Reader's Manual, s. v., Chu Hi, No. 79, and Chow Tuni,
No. 73; Chinese Repository, Vol. XIII, pp. 552 et seq. and 609 et seq.; also Wil
liams, The Middle Kingdom, I., 683 et seq. Compare also Mr. Meadows's strictures
on Dr. Medhurst's translation, J. M. pp. 372-374. Mr. Meadows's voluminous book
is valuable in many respects. Having served as an interpreter in H. M. Civil Ser
vice, he knows the people and describes the conditions with great impartiality.
However his criticism of other sinologists, even though correct, is too severe. He
forgets the difficulties under which they labored and underrates the power of both
religious and national prejudice. When we remember how greatly the nearest
Western nations, such as the Germans and French, the English and Americans
misunderstand one another, we must confess that the misrepresentations of sinolo
gists are quite excusable.
The weakest part of Mr. Meadows's article on Chinese philosophy is what he is
pleased to call the unfailing pass-key to the comprehension of all difficult passages
in the Chinese sacred books, as understood by the Chinese themselves," which con
sists in the proposition that the differences between T'ai kih (ultimate principle),
A'i (ether), Tao (Logos), Li (world-order), Sin (heart), Sing (nature), teh (virtue),
t'ien (heaven), ming (fate), Ch'ing (sincerity) are purely of a nominal kind."
2 K'i" #l must not be confounded with Kih #

trees
*The character # chih shows the radical property" above which two taels
appear. Thus it may be explained as possessing the quality of weight."
# li is defined by the same authority (on p. 519) as:

The governing principle; that which is felt to be right and does not depend
on force; reason; directing principle; principle of organisation.
l' sing, nature, signifies the subjective disposition of things,
never the objective phenomena of the universe. The word sing is
composed of heart and to bear, to grow, denoting that which
is a manifestation of the inner character of existence.
M sin, heart, means not only the physical heart, which is

regarded as the lord of the body and one of the senses, but also the
core of things, as the wick of a candle, or the heart-wood of trees,
and the ultimate seat of desire, the origin and source of all activity.
Chu Hi (according to Dr. Medhurst's translation) continues:
When the primary matter is not collected and combined in form, there is no
lodging-place for the immaterial principle.
The primary matter relies on the immaterial principle to come into action,
and wherever the primary matter is coagulated there the immaterial principle is
present.
No priority or subsequence can be predicated of the immaterial principle and
primary matter, and yet if you insist on carrying out the reasoning to the question
of their origin, then you must say that the immaterial principle has the priority;
but the immaterial principle is not a separate and distinct thing; it is just contained
within the primary matter, so that were there no primary matter, then this imma
terial principle would have no place of attachment.
When the primary matter is brought into being, then afterwards the imma
terial principle has some place whereon to rest. In regard to great things it is seen
in heaven and earth, and with respect to small, in ants and emmets.
While dwelling on the truth that the immaterial principle is in
separable from primary matter, Chu Hi yet recognises the higher
dignity and priority in importance of the former, but finding no
word to express precedence or superiority (i.e., priority in rank) to
anteriority, (i. e. priority in time), he says:
. . . And it appears to be impossible to distinguish the priority or subsequence.
If you insist on it, the immaterial principle is first, but you cannot say, to-day the
immaterial principle is called into existence and to-morrow primary matter; still
there is a priority and a subsequence.
Wherever the primary matter is collected, the immaterial principle is present;
but after all, the latter must be considered as the chief; this is what is called the
mysterious junction."
Mr. Meadows translates a passage on the problem of the prior

ity of the li over the K'i as follows:
Being asked whether the immaterial principle or primary matter first existed
he (Cheu-tsz') said: The immaterial principle was never separated from primary
matter; but the immaterial principle is what is previous to form, while primary
matter is what is subsequent to form.
Chu Hi perceives that he is dealing with an abstraction of the

highest kind, an abstraction of the universal; and we feel in the
many repetitions which fill his treatise how he grapples with the
problem, the solution of which he has in his mind without being able
to find an adequate symbol to express it. Wherever he turns he
sees inseparableness and distinctness. The immaterial principle is
omnipresent in all things, and yet it is different from matter, in ex
planation of which Chu Hi says: We must not consider the mud
diness of the stream to be the water.
The li or immaterial principle, resembles Kant's a priori or the

purely formal," the laws of which remain true not only of this actual
world of ours, but also of any possible world, and even if nothing
at all existed. Chu Hi attempts to express his idea thus:
You cannot distinguish in this matter between existence and non-existence;
before heaven and earth came into being it was just the same.
The immaterial principle remains true for both existence and
non-existence, but it cannot manifest itself without the existence of
primary matter. Seen in this light, the last quotation will not ap
pear contradictory to the following:
Wherever the primary matter exists there is found the immaterial principle
and where there is no primary matter there is also no immaterial principle."
The immaterial principle is the natural order of the seasons,

the principle of virtue in the moral man, the wisdom of the sage. It
is, on the one hand, the mentality of sentient beings which makes
comprehension possible, and on the other hand, the rationality of
the universe, i. e., the cosmic order which renders the world intel
ligible. Chu Hi says:
1It is what we define in the Primer of Philosophy (p. 79 et seq.) as the rigidly
formal. -
That which perceives is the immaterial principle of the mind; and that which
enables it to perceive is the intelligence of the primary matter.
The immaterial principle as it affects the Yang and Yin is sym

bolised by a circle in which light and darkness are evenly divided.
Darkness contains the seed of light, and light con
tains the seed of darkness.
Chu Hi identifies the immaterial principle with

Lao-tsz's # Tao and with Cheu-tsz's T'ai Kih. O
He says: 3:.
SYMbol of the
The great extreme is merely the immaterial principle of Source
heaven, earth, and all things; speaking of it with reference to OF ExistENcE.
heaven and earth, then the great extreme may be said to exist within heaven and
earth. Speaking of it with respect to the myriad of things, then amongst the myriad
of things" each one possesses a great extreme.
The great extreme is not an independent separate existence; it is found in the
male and female principles of nature, in the five elements, and in the myriad
of things. . . . Should any one ask, what is the great extreme 2 I should say, before
its development it is the immaterial principle, and after its manifestation it is feel
ing; thus for instance, when it moves and produces the male principle of nature,
then it is feeling or passion. -
At the very first there was nothing, but merely this immaterial principle.
From the time when the great extreme came into operation the myriad things
were produced by transformation; this one doctrine includes the whole; it is not
because this was first in existence and then that, but altogether there is only one
great origin, which from the substance [abstract existence; in-itself-ness] extends
to the use [to its manifestation in reality], and from the subtile reaches to that
which is manifest.
Cheu-tsz called it the extremeless or the illimitable, by which he meant the
great noiseless, scentless mystery.
By noiseless and scentless is meant the incorporeal, i.e.,

that which is not perceived by the senses, but can only be compre
hended by the mindas, for instance, the truth of a mathematical
theorem cannot be apprehended by any one of the senses, but is a
matter of pure understanding. Thus Chu Hi says:
The immaterial principle cannot be perceived [viz., by the senses]; but, from
the operations of the male and female principles of nature [viz. the purely formal
"See footnote belonging to Fig. 12 on p. 29.

science of Yang and Yin permutations] we become acquainted with it; thus the
immaterial principle depends (for its display) on the male and female principles of
nature.
Should any one ask, what is the great extreme 2 I would say, the great ex
treme is simply the principle of extreme goodness and extreme perfection. Every
man has got a great extreme; every thing has got a great extreme; that which
Cheu-tsz called the great extreme is the exemplified virtue of everything that is
extremely good and extremely perfect in heaven and earth, men and things."
We would say, it is every one's ideal, as Rckert expresses it:
Worjedem steht ein Bild des, das er werden sol/,
Und worer es nicht ist, ist nicht sein Friede voll.
[An image of what it ought to be lives in each creature's mind

So long as that is unattained, its peace it cannot find.]
We can scarcely appreciate the difficulties which Cheu-tsz' and

Chu Hi had to overcome in the dualistic terminology of their na
tional tradition. The term T'ai Kih (Great Extreme) dates back
to earlier days, but the monistic conception derived from its appli
cation was new ; and it was a triumph of philosophical thought
which their inventors, considering the circumstances of the situa
tion, had good reasons to prize highly. Chu Hi says:
The great extreme is the immaterial principle of the two powers, the four
forms, and the eight changes of nature; we cannot say that it does not exist, and
yet there is no form or corporeity that can be ascribed to it. From this point is
produced the one male and the one female principle of nature, which are called
the two powers; also the four forms and the eight changes proceed from this, all
according to a certain natural order, irrespective of human strength in its arrange
ment. But from the time of Confucius no one has been able to get hold of this
idea. Until the time of Shu Kangtsie, when this doctrine was explained, and it
appeared very reasonable and pleasing. It may not therefore be treated with light
ness, and should be more particularly inquired into."
In a word, the monistic school of Cheu-tsz' and Chu Hi are

in the history of Chinese thought what Kant is in the Western
world. They discovered that the Yang and Yin manipulations are
what we would call the most abstract algebra of thought or the sci
ence of pure forms, embodying the universal and necessary laws of
both the objective realm of existence and the subjective realm of
man's mentality.
FILIAL PIETY #z
European and American civilisation has less firm foundations
in us as compared with the deep root which the Chinese view of
life has struck in the souls of Chinamen. It is reflected in their
thought," in institutions, in the habits of their daily life, in their
symbolism, in their language, and above all in their ethics which
reflects their views of the relation of Yang to Yin, being in its noblest
conception the completest submission of a child to the will of his
father, a virtue which is called in Chinese # A tao.
As an instance of the influence of the Yang and Yin philosophy

upon the life of all nations that have ever felt the influence of the
Chinese world-view, we state that the name of the greatest Japanese
monthly is The Great Yang; which is translated by the editors
by The Sun. The flag of the Coreans shows the diagram of the
symbol of the primordial source of existence (as it appears in Fig. 13)
in blue and red colors, surrounded by the trigrams Ch'ien, Kn, Li,
**
and Kw un, E == ==
The most important field in which the Yang and Yin philosophy
exercises its influence is in the domain of ethics. The dualism that
still lingers in Chinese thought finds its expression in the Chinese

code of morals which always implies an external relation between
two, an authoritative master and an obedient servant, the duty of
the former being wisdom in government, and of the latter submis
sion. One of the favorite treatises of Chinese literature, the booklet
entitled The Classic of Filial Piety, sets forth the idea that filial
"The Yih with its Yang and Yin is part and parcel of the mind of every edu
cated Chinaman. Even Lao-Tsz', the greatest adversary of Confucian scholar
ship, says: The ten thousand things are sustained by the Yin and encompassed by
the Yang; and the K'i (the immaterial breath) renders them harmonious." (Ch. 42.)
As a thoroughly reliable description of Chinese life we recommend Prof. Rob
ert K. Douglas's works, Chinese Stories, W. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, 1893.
and Society in China, A. D. Innes & Co., London, 1894.
*The character Hiao, , filial p

piety, shows a child supporting
porting an old man.
*Sacred Books of the East, Vol. III., pp. 447448. The book was written either
by Tsang-tsz', the disciple of Confucius, or by one of Tsang-tsz's school,
devotion is the root of virtue. Filial devotion is said to be the
maxim of Heaven, the righteousness of Earth, and the duty of man

The idea of filial piety is widened into devotion as it applies to
the five moral relations that obtain between man and man; viz.,
between (1) sovereign and subject, (2) parent and child, (3) elder
brother and younger, (4) husband and wife, (5) friend and friend."
When asked by Tsang whether in the virtue of the sages there
was not something higher, Confucius replied:
Of all (creatures with their different) natures produced by Heaven and Earth
man is the noblest. Of all the actions of man there is none greater than filial piety.
In filial piety there is nothing greater than the reverential awe of one's father. In
the reverential awe shown to one's father there is nothing greater than the making
him the correlate of Heaven.
The higher monistic ethics, which becomes possible only on

an advanced plane in the evolution of mankind, unites both the
governor and the governed in one person and expects every one to
be his own king, priest, and instructor, replacing the external rela
tion by an internal relation. This principle of a monistic ethics was
first proclaimed in the history of European civilisation by the re
formers of the sixteenth century, who taught self-dependence and
claimed the liberty of conscience. Liberty of conscience, self-re
liance, the right of free inquiry and free thought abolish personal
authority, not for the sake of anarchy, but to replace it by the su
perpersonal authority of justice, right, and truth.
Filial devotion remains submission, as we read in Chapter XI:
When constraint is put upon a ruler, that is the disowning of his superiority;
when the authority of the sages is disallowed, that is the disowning of (all) law;
when filial piety is put aside, that is the disowning of the principle of affection.
These (three things) pave the way to anarchy.
Rebels are punished with brutal severity, yet there are frequent
revolutions in China; and the Shu King goes so far even as to sanc
tion them, provided they be successful. We read:
*The fivefold relationship which constitutes the substance of Chinese ethics is

supplemented by K'ung Ki's principle that good is the middle way between two ex
tremesa doctrine, which by Western critics has been censured as the ethics of
mediocrity. K'ung Ki was a grandson of Confucius.
Heaven establishes sovereigns merely for the sake of the people; whom the
people desire for sovereign, him will Heaven protect; whom the people dislike as
sovereign, him will Heaven reject.
[The Sovereign's] real way of serving Heaven is to love the people.
When he fails to love the people Heaven will, for the sake of the people, cast
him out.
Thus revolutions are regarded as ordeals in which success or

failure signify the decision of heaven.
How the spirit of devotion is carried to the extreme, can be
illustrated by many instances of Chinese habits, history, and stories.
We quote one tale, which is at once typical and terse, from a pop
ular book called The Twenty-four Filials:"
In the days of the Han dynasty lived Koh K, who was very poor. He had
one child three years old; and such was his poverty that his mother usually divided
her portion of food with this little one. Koh says to his wife, We are so poor that
our mother cannot be supported, for the child divides with her the portion of food
that belongs to her. Why not bury this child? Another child may be born to us
but a mother once gone will never return.' His wife did not venture to object to
the proposal; and Koh immediately dug a hole of about three cubits deep, when
suddenly he lighted upon a pot of gold, and on the metal read the following inscrip
tion: Heaven bestows this treasure upon Koh F, the dutiful son; the magistrate
may not seize it, nor shall the neighbors take it from him.
The neglect of what Western nations would consider as the
highest duties is frequently enjoined for the sake of parents; and in
agreement with this code of morals, the Chinese Emperor of late
concluded to yield to all the demands of the victorious Japanese
only that the Empress dowager in Pekin should not be obliged to
be inconvenienced by a removal of the Imperial Court.
While on this important point our Western ideas of morality
are different from those of the Chinese, we ought to consider that
our American youths go to the other extreme. They can still learn
from the Chinese, whose devotion to old parents is sometimes truly
elevating and touching; and we have to add that one of the chief
obstacles, although not the only one, to the introduction of Chris
tianity into China are such words of Christ's as these :
E+PU #
* Quoted from Williams's Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., p. 539.
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my dis
ciple.Luke, xiv, 26.
I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."Matth.,
x, 35.
The dualism of Chinese ethics finds expression in a rigid code

of ceremonial forms. Who ever met an educated Chinese gentle
man and was not struck by his extraordinary and almost painfully
polite demeanor? How much stress is laid upon details in propriety,
we can gather from the following injunction of courtesy toward visi
tors as quoted by Williams, in his Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., p. 540,
from Chu Hi's Juvenile Instructor (Siao Hioh):
Whoever enters with his guests, yields precedence to them at every door;
when they reach the innermost one, he begs leave to go in and arrange the seats,
and then returns to receive the guests; and after they have repeatedly declined he
bows to them and enters. He passes through the right door, they through the left.
He ascends the eastern, they the western steps.
If a guest be of a lower grade, he must approach the steps of the host, while
the latter must repeatedly decline this attention; then the guest may return to the
western steps, he ascending, both host and guest must mutually yield precedence:
then the host must ascend first, and the guests follow. From step to step they
must bring their feet together, gradually ascendingthose on the east moving the
right foot first, those on the west the left."
E|
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE Z/YIH.
We ask now, what is the original significance of the Yih King,
and, without attempting to decide the problem, present some solu
tions which have been proposed by various scholars.
The oldest European interpretation of the Kwa comes from
the pen of no less an authority than the great Leibnitz. On ex
plaining, in the Mmoires de l'Acadmie Royale des sciences (1703, III.,
p. 85), the nature and advantage of the binary or dyadic system of
numeration, which employs only the symbols o and 1, expressing 2
by 10, 3 by 11, 4 by 1oo, 5 by IoI, 6 by 11o, 7 by 111, etc., he makes
reference to the Kwa of the Yih King, which he calls cova. He
says:
* Cova is the same as coua, v" being equal to u.

4O CHINESE PHILOSOPHY .
" Ce qu'il y a de surprenant dans ce calcul, c'est que cette arithmtique par o et
1 se trouve contenir le mystre des lignes d'un ancient roi et philosophe nomm
Fohy, qu'on croit avoir vcu il y a plus de quatre mille ans, et que les Chinois re
gardent comme le fondateur de leur empire et de leurs sciences. Il y a plusieurs
figures linaires qu'on lui attribue. Elles reviennent toutes cette arithmtique,
mais il suffit de mettre ici la figure de huit Cova comme on l'appelle, qui passe
pour fondamentale, et d'y joindre l'explication, qui est manifeste, pourvu qu'on re
marque premirement qu'une ligne entire - signifie l'unit ou 1, et seconde
ment qu'une ligne brise -- signifie le zro ou o.
- -
- -- = -- - = - - - --
- -- - - - -- - --
3 -
C)
O
-
-
-
8 O
- O
-
-
-
o C) C) - - - -
I IO II I OO IO I I 1O II I
O I 2 3 4 5 6 7
" Les Chinois ont perdu la signification des Cova ou linations de Fohy, peut
tre depuis plus d'un millnaire d'annes ; et ils ont fait des commentaires l
dessus, o ils ont cherch je ne sais quels sens loigns. De sorte qu'il a fallu que
la vraie explication leur vnt maintenant des Europens. Voici comment. Il n'y
a gure plus de deux ans que j'envoyai au R. P. Bouvet, Jsuite franais clbre,
qui demeure Pekin, ma manire de compter par o et 1, et il n'en fallut pas
d'avantage pour le faire reconnatre que c'est la clef de figures de Fohy. Ainsi
m'crivant le 14. Novembre, il m'a envoy la grande figure de ce prince philosophe
quiva 64, et ne laisse plus lieu de douter de la vrit de notre interprtation, de
sorte qu'on peut dire que ce Pre a dchiffr l'nigme de Fohy l'aide de ce que je
lui avais communiqu. Et comme ces figures sont peut-tre le plus ancient monu
ment de science qui soit au monde, cette restitution de leur sens, aprs un si grand
intervalle de temps, paratra d'autant de plus curieuse.
" Le consentement des figures de Fohy et de ma Table des Nombres se fait
mieux voire lorsque dans la table on supple les zros initiaux, qui paraissent
superflus, mais qui servent mieux marquer la priode de la colonne, comme je les
y ai supples en effet avec des petits ronds pour les distinguer des zros, et cet ac
cord me donne une grande opinion de la profondeur des mditations de Fohy. Car
ce qui nous parat ais maintenant, ne l'tait pas dans ce temps loign.
" L'arithmtique binaire ou dyadique est en effet fort ais aujourd'hui pour peu
qu'on y pense, par ce que notre manire de compter y aide beaucoup, dont il
semble qu'on retranche seulement le trop. Mais cette arithmtique ordinaire par
dix ne parat pas fort ancienne, au moins les Grecs et les Romains l'ont ignore, et
ont t privs de ses avantages. Il semble que l'Europe en doit l'introduction
Gerbert, depuis Pape sous le nom de Sylvestre II, qui l'a eu des Maures d'Espagne.
" Or comme l'on croit la Chine que Fohy est encore auteur des caractres Chi
nois ordinaires, quoique fort altrs par la suite des temps : son essay d'arithm
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BINARY System of Leibnitz. Evolution of the Kwa, or The Kwa Evolved

FROM T'ai Kih.
It will be of interest to compare Leibnitz's binary numbers with Cheu-tsz's design; the
similarity among which will appear as soon as o is identified with the black E and 1 with the
white D spaces.
tique fait juger qu'il pourrait s'y trouver quelque chose de considrable par rapport
aux nombres et aux ides, si l'on pouvait dterrer le fondement de l'criture Chi
-
noise, d'autant plusqu'on croit la Chine, qu'il a eu gard aux nombres en

l'tablissant. Le R. P. Bouvet est fort port pousser cette pointe, et trs capable
d'y russir en bien de manires. Cependant je ne sais s'il y a jamais eu dans l'cri
ture Chinoise un avantage rapprochant de celui qui doit tre dans une caractris
tique que je projette. C'est que tout raisonnement qu'on peut tirer des notions,
pourrait tre tir de leurs caractres par une manire de calcul, qui serait une des
plus importans moyens d'aides de l'esprit humain.
Prof. Moritz Cantor," disposes of Leibnitz's interpretation of

the Kwa because Mr. Duhalde had proved them to be projective
drawings of the knotted cords. He adds that they must, accord
ing to Bouvet, be regarded, on account of their names, not as num
bers, but as physical symbols, and explains Leibnitz's theory as
exclusively due to his philosophical interpretation of the binary sys
tem, which was to him an evidence in favor of his conception of a
creation from nothing or zero with the sole assistance of One or the
unit. But Cantor seems to overlook that in this very respect the
ancient Yang and Yin philosophy of the Chinese closely resembles
Leibnitz's idea, whether we regard the Kwa as numbers, or as a
binary system of such symbols as are still more general and indefi
nite. The fact of both their presence and their philosophical sig
nificance remains the same and cannot be doubted.
The first translation of the #, Yih is in Latin. It was made
by the Jesuit P. Regis with the assistance of some of his colleagues,
and edited in two volumes by Julius Mohl.
Prof. James Legge's translation is based upon the idea that the
book in its main parts and originally was intended to be a kind of
political testament of King Wen and the Duke of Cheu, enlarging on
moral and social questions, but enigmatically written after the man
ner and fashion of diviners. He therefore tries to bring his mind
en rapport with the mind of its authors and paraphrases the mean
ing of the disconnected words and sentences in the sense that he
In his Mathematische Beitrge zum Kulturleben der Vlker, Halle, 1863, p. 49.
*Y King, Antiquitissimus Sinarum liber, quem ex latina interpretatione P. Regis
aliorumque ex Soc. Jesu P. T., edidit Julius Mohl. Stuttgartiae et Tbingae. 1834.
CH1NESE PHILOSOPHY. 43
finds indicated in the text. He encloses his additions in parentheses,

saying:
I hope, however, that I have been able in this way to make the translation
intelligible to readers. If, after all, they shall conclude that in what is said on the
hexagrams there is often much ado about nothing,' it is not the translator who
should be deemed accountable for that, but his original.
A peculiar conception of the Yih King has been propounded by

P. L. F. Philastre, who lays much stress on the tradition that Fuh
Hi received his first idea of the Kwa by contemplating the starry
heavens and believes that he discovered in the Kwa combinations a
method of symbolising the astronomical lore of the ancient Chinese.

His lucubration embodies translations of the most important Chi
nese commentaries."
Canon McClatchie published a translation of the Yih King in

which he ventures to open its mysteries by applying the key of
comparative mythology. I have not seen it and quote only what
Professor Legge has to say about it (Sacred Books of the East, Vol.
XVI, p. xvii):
Such a key was not necessary and the author by the application of it, has
found sundry things to which I have occasionally referred in my notes. They are
not pleasant to look at or dwell upon, and happily it has never entered into the
minds of Chinese scholars to conceive them.
A. Terrien de Lacouperie believes that the Yih King is a mere

vocabulary containing those word-symbols which the Bak families
brought with them as a sacred inheritance of the Elamo-Babylonian
civilisation.
P. Angelo Zottoli says of the Yih King in his Cursus Literaturae
Sinicae :
A. Terrien de Lacouperie believes that the old Chinese civilisation is an off

shoot of the Elamo-Babylonian civilisation in the very stage of development that
had been reached a little after the middle of the third millennium B. C., and claims
that the hexagrams are the script which the Bak tribes, the oldest civilisers of
China, carried with them to the new homes, and the Yih King is originally a diction
ary of the ancient word-symbols with their lexicographical explanations, the mean
1Annales du Muse Guimet, Vols. VIII. and XXIII.

* The Oldest Book of the Chinese, the Yt King and Its Authors. London: D.
Nutt, 27o Strand, 1892.
ing of which was later on misunderstood without losing the awe that naturally was
attached to the book as embodying the wisdom of the sages of yore."
The book consists of the figures of Fuh Hi, of the divinations of King Wen,
of the symbols of the Duke of Cheu, and the commentaries of Confucius. From
the permutations which the two elements in the composition of the hexagrams un
dergo it is called Yih (the permutator), or Yih King, the Book of Permutations. What,
then, is this famous Yih King? It is, briefly, this. From the continuous or bisected
quality of the lines, their position either at the bottom or in the middle or topmost,
their mutual relation as being opposed and separated, or coming together, the body
or form of the trigrams themselves; further, from the symbol or image of the tri
grams, from the quality or virtue of the trigrams, sometimes from the difference of
one hexagram as compared to another, a certain picture is developed and a certain
idea is deduced containing something like an oracle that can be consulted by drawing
lots, in order to obtain some warning fit for guidance in life or to solve some doubt.
Such is the book according to the explanations of Confucius as handed down in the
schools. Therefore, you must expect neither anything sublime or mysterious, nor
anything unseemly or vile. I see in it rather a subtle play for eliciting moral and po
litical instructions, such as can be found in the Chinese classics, obtrusive, plain, and
natural. Since this book, as a reader of the original text will understand, has been
employed for fortune telling, one expects to gain by it the highest happiness of life,
mysterious communication with spirits and occult knowledge of future events.
Therefore, the book appears as a magic revelation, as a perfect light, as throughout
spiritual and conformable to the life of man. Hence the praises attributed to it by
Confucius, although quite exaggerated, will be seen specially added in the Appendix
of the book, if it is true at all as the common opinion goes, that he himself is the
author of the Appendix."
Ch. de Harlez, the originator of the idea that the nature of the
Yih King is lexicological, does not accept Lacouperie's theory of an
Elamo-Babylonian origin of the Yih King. He says in the preface
to his French translation of the Yih:
Notre systme . . . nous fait voir dans le Yih un reccueil mi-lexicologique,

mi-philosophique determes et de sentences, plein de raison et de sagesse.P. 11.
There remains one more hypothesis on the nature of the Yih

King which is by Dr. Heinrich Riedel, of Brooklyn, N. Y. He has
given me much assistance in my own Chinese studies and I am in
clined to believe that he has something to say on the subject that is
* Translated from the Latin. The original is quoted by Legge in his Preface to
the Yih King, p. xviii.
* Published in 1889 by F. Hayer, Bruxelles, rue de Louvain, 108.
worth hearing. Since his observations have never been published,

I deem it advisable, for the sake of sinology, to present some chips
from his workshop.
Dr. Riedel regards the Yih as a calendar of the lunar year, being
what the title of Cheu-tsz's book on the Yih indicated, a T'ung Shu,
a universal book, or almanac, embodying everything in the do
main of science, religion, ethics, and even sport that appeared of in
terest. T'ung Shu means calendar, and 6 64=384 (the number
of strokes in the hexagrams) is the number of days of the intercalary
year. As to the hexagrams, Dr. Riedel insists that the specific
order of the sixty-four hexagrams which is carefully preserved and
sacredly guarded by devices that remind us of the Massoretic pre
cautions taken in regard to the Hebrew texts of the Bible and which
has yet received little if any attention, is the soul and substance of
the Yih King, and trusts to be able to prove that the circular de
vice of hexagrams including the square represents the problem of
squaring the circle. Here are, in a condensed form, some points
of his theory:
There is in Chinese authors a frequent substitution of symbols
by homonyms; as Gabelentz says: The ancient authors either
through mistake or in emergency, or by sheer whim, used to replace
the character of a word by another one which probably in their age
had the same or a very similar sound. (Gr. Ch. Gr. p. 100.) And
this must be expected to have taken place in the Yih King rather
more freely than in other books. Now take the first sentence of the
Yih King and replace it by homonyms as follows:
H% 7U # #1] H
}:U-H fj }'' E.
Both lines read nearly alike: K'ien yuen hng liching; but
the former means K'ien, origin (and) progress determined by ad
vantageousness, while the latter means See the circle's path rec
tified by reason.
The aphorism belonging to the first (viz. the lowest) Kiu line
of the first Kwa, which reads Tsien lung wuhyung, Dr. Riedel
translates: A hidden dragon through negation is action, which is

meant to set forth the mathematical and logical powers of naught (o).
Legge is unable to bring sense into a passage in which robbery
is declared to teach ethics (Sacred Books of the East, III., p. 203,
48). The paragraph, however, becomes clear when we adopt Dr.
Riedel's proposition to regard robbery as a game like chess and
translate it by latrunculi or robbery-game. Burden-bearers, i.e.
peasants or laborers, should be translated by pawns. Other
allusions that occur in the passage, such as false moves, leaving
exposed, attacking, captured, remind us of our own chess
board terms. In addition, we meet in the Yih passim with generals,
the tsz, i.e., sages or advisers, horses, carriages, and elephants."
Legge translates the aphorism of the second Luh line of the
second Kwa thus:
(The second line divided) [shows the attribute of] being straight, square,
and great. (Its operation) without repeated efforts will be in every respect advan
tageous."
Dr. Riedel proposes a more literal translation :

Rectify, [or] square greatly (viz. ever so much), not continuously employing
naught, no gain."
The Yang and Yin lines are designated by kiu ju and luh %
two characters which ordinarily mean nine and six. Dr. Riedel
claims with great plausibility, that they are employed to designate
diameter and radius. Kiu means not only nine, but also to
go to the end of; to go through ; or, to bring together. It is a
homonym with , its inversion, which means to take hold of; to
join; to connect. Further, luh means six, and in analogy with
T 'rh, which means two and to divide into two, luh means
also to divide into sixes and then sextant, the sixth part of a circle
or the radius which is equal to the chord of a sextant. This makes it
probable that kiu in the Yih King means diameter-line; and luh
radius line, which again are identified with the full line of Yang and
the broken line of Yin.
On the chess of the Chinese see Williams's Middle Kingdom, I., p. 827.
2 l." mentioned by Williams in his Syllabic Dictionary, p. 413.

A passage quoted from K'ung Ngan Tsz Quoh reads:

The spirit tortoise carried a writing and methodically arranged divisions.
In both respects it had the digits up to nine.
Comparing this with a passage in the Book of Three Characters'

which declares that the five elements have their origin in num
bers, Dr. Riedel deduces from observations made on the carapace
of a half-grown Chrysemys picta, which on account of its abnormal
number of inner and outer plates a Chinaman would class as a shan
kwei, or spirit tortoise, the following writing of the nine digits as a
hypothetical reconstruction of the Loh Shu in its substance:
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
- -
- - m m * - - -
E- *- - *- - - |- - - - - -
*- *- - E- *- - *
*
The sum of the Kiu lines is 16, of the Luh lines 29.
The plates on the back of the tortoise yield the same numbers
in the same proportion. There are sixteen large inner plates, while
there are twenty-three small outer plates, and in addition we have
three pairs of small ones that appear to be superimposed upon the
three vertebral plates in the centre. The symbols of the five ele
ments, as written on p. 21, yield sixteen long and twenty-nine short
lines.
Now, by means of the same distribution of whole and broken

lines amongst the nine digits, Dr. Riedel claims to have constructed
an anagram of the number 7 in one hundred and twenty-three
decimal places, exhibiting the sixty-four Yih kwa in their specific
order, placed in rows of eight each, from below upwards. The use
of an anagram for the purpose of laying down a scientific truth at
the time inaccessible, is by no means a device unheard of in the his
tory of science; for in comparatively recent times such men as
Roger Bacon, Galileo, and Huygens have done the same thing.
The spiritual tortoise accordingly is a lusus naturae which ap
1 - + # An English translation of this booklet is published in The

Open Court, No. 412 The passage quoted above is characters 199204.
*See Fig. 10 on p 20.
48 CH1NESE PHILOSOPHY.
pealed to the mathematical mind of the Chinese and caused them to

see in it a spiritual being.
If Dr. Riedel's theory is not the restoration of the ancient Chi
nese conception, we may rest assured that it was some quite analo
gous scheme.
Dr. Riedel, in further attempts at proving the presence of the
number 7 in the order of the Kwa of the Yih King, quotes from
Hi tsz (App. iii, 1, $70) the sentence: The Yih contains the great
extreme, and says, Now as the great extreme which is symbolised
by a circle is not mentioned at all, and as we have in the Yih King
proper only the mutations of Yang and Yin, the Luh and Kiu, the two
primary forms (Liang i), I conclude that they, if anything, must con
tain the number by which to calculate the circle" (i. e., the symbol
of the great extreme). In addition to this argument, Dr. Riedel
quotes the passage Yih Nih Shu Ye, i. e., the mutations (are) a
refractory number, refractory number being defined in Shwoh
Kwa (App. V. 2) by making acquainted with the future, which
is the opposite to a number that has reference to the past, and is
consummated or compliant. Accordingly, says Dr. Riedel,
a refractory number can, in the adduced passage, mean only what
we call an irrational number.
In the beginning of the same Appendix we read: The holy

men of yore who composed the Yih, concealed their help in spiritual
light and thus gave life to the milfoil stalks. They triangulated"
the heaven, made twofold the earth, and relied upon calculation.
All commentators and interpreters agree that in this sentence heaven
means the circle, and earth the square. Dr. Riedel suggests that
making twofold the earth (viz., the square) indicates the primitive
method of approximating n by circumscribed and inscribed squares.
The aphorism of the fourth hexagram declares:
Novice, proceed. We do not seek the youthful and inexperienced. The
youthful and inexperienced shall seek us. In its first (elements) divination is pro
pounded. Further details (literally, the second and third) would be tedious. Te
dious rules are not propounded.
*The ancient character for the verb to triangulate" contains three triangles
Compare the English word trigonometry.
As to the original meaning of divination in the minds of the

Chinese, Dr. Riedel adduces from an English-Chinese dictionary the
explanatory character swan, which denotes the Chinese abacus,
to cipher, a calculation, which goes far to prove that the fun
damental meaning of divination is closely connected with math
ematical, arithmetical, and logical determination.
In addition to all this it is, at least, a strange coincidence that
the name of the dynasty Cheu, J#
after which the present book of
Yih is called, means periphery, curve, enclosure. The verb cheu
is translated by Williams, to make a circuit; to environ.
It cannot be my purpose to enter further into Dr. Riedel's argu
ments, not only because an elaborate proof must, in the very nature
of things, be very complicated, but also because I am not sufficiently
acquainted with all the details of his further evidence. Dr. Riedel's
proposition is, to say the least, not less probable than any one of
the other theories of the Yih King that have been advanced. I have
devoted more space to it because it is as yet unknown, and, being
very striking and ingenious, it is worthy of a careful consideration.
Many of his observations which I have inquired into as carefully as
I could, with my still limited knowledge of the Chinese language,
appear to me correct: but I have not as yet been persuaded to adopt
his main theories, that the Yih is a calendar and that a portion of it
is devoted to the problem of squaring the circle.
TIEN y& AND SHANG TI | if: THE BELIEF IN A
PERSONAL GOD.
At first sight there does not seem to be much room in the Yang
and Yin philosophy for a personal God. Nevertheless, the Chinese
believe in !. the Lord on High, who is the sole ruler of the
universe and the sole God above all the mythological deities.
The divine power to which men look up as to their authority of
conduct is commonly designated with the impersonal term
T'ien," i.e., Heaven, which may be translated by Godhood or Deity.
l y< T'ien consists of 7 \ great" and one."

If conceived as a personal being T'ien is called Shang Ti, i. e. the

High Sovereign, or the Lord on High.
The worship of Shang Ti must be very old, for we read that
after a severe drought Ching Tang, the founder of the Shang dy
nasty, which began 1766 B.C., publicly paid religious worship to
Shang Ti, confessing his offences, which were six. He had scarcely
finished his confession when the rain fell in torrents. We must add
that on this occasion the worship of Shang Ti is not related as an

innovation, but as a means of deliverance that naturally suggested
itself to a good ruler."
In the very oldest documents of the Shu King the term
Heaven is used as is our deity, implying even the conception of
a personal being. Thus we read in the Counsels of Ko-Yo:
The work [i.e., the bringing to an end] is Heaven's; but men must act for it.
From Heaven are the relationships with their several duties. From Heaven
are the [social] distinctions with their several ceremonies.
Heaven punishes the guilty.
Heaven hears and sees as our people hear and see. Heaven brightly approves
and displays its terrors as our people brightly approve and overawe. Such connex
ion is between the upper and lower (worlds).Sacred Books of the East, III., pp.
5556.
Quotations like these can be multiplied by the thousands. We

have purposely limited them to the most ancient documents in the
Shu King in order to prove that the idea of a supreme personal
deity is not of modern date. At present the worship of Shang Ti
is regarded as so holy that the emperor, as the High Priest of the
nation, is alone permitted to perform the ceremony.
Peking, the capital of China consists of three cities: the Tartar
city to the North, the Forbidden city with the imperial palaces and
parks lying within the Tartar city, and the Chinese city to the South.
In the southern part of the Chinese city is a park of about a square
mile containing the Temple of Heaven and the Altar of Heaven,
"See Williams's The Middle Kingdom, II., p. 154.

* Or better: Consummation is Heaven's, but men must work for it."
*We retain this traditional translation altar," although it is misleading since
it suggests the erroneous idea that it must be an altar such as we see in Catholic
churches or as it was used by the ancient Greeks.
which are to the Chinese the most sacred spots on earth. The
Temple of Heaven (or more correctly, the Altar of praying for
grain) is a triple marble terrace, twenty-seven feet in height, sur
rounded with marble balustrades and crowned with a temple which
rises to the height of ninety-nine feet. The three terraces and the
temple are circular. The symmetry of the proportions renders it
most beautiful; its dome imitates in shape and color the vault of
heaven, and as the round windows are shaded by blinds of blue
glass-rods strung together, the entering sun casts an azure light
upon the rich carvings and paintings in the inside. The same park
in which the Temple of Heaven stands, contains the Altar of
Heaven, which is enclosed by an outer square wall and an inner cir
cular wall; and it is here that the emperors of China at the time of
our Christmas have been in the habit, from time immemorial, of wor
shipping E. # Shang Ti, the Lord on High, or as the Emperor
Kanghi expressed himself: the true God. The Altar of Heaven
(a picture of which forms the frontispiece to the first volume of Wil
liams's Middle Kingdom) is described by Williams as follows":
It is a beautiful triple circular terrace of white marble, whose base is 210, mid
dle stage 150, and top 90 feet in width, each terrace encompassed by a richly carved
balustrade. A curious symbolism of the number three and its multiples may be
noticed in the measurements of this pile. The uppermost terrace, whose height
above the ground is about eighteen feet, is paved with marble slabs, forming nine
concentric circlesthe inner of nine stones inclosing a central piece, and around
this each receding layer consisting of a successive multiple of nine until the square
of nine (a favorite number of Chinese philosophy) is reached in the outermost row.
It is upon the single round stone in the centre of the upper plateau that the Em
peror kneels when worshipping Heaven and his ancestors at the winter solstice.
This round stone, we must remember, is the symbol of the
T'ai Kih, O, the ultimate ground of being. Williams continues:
Four flights of nine steps each lead from this elevation to the next lower stage,
where are placed tablets to the spirits of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the Year
God. On the ground at the end of the four stairways stand vessels of bronze in
which are placed the bundles of cloth and sundry animals constituting a part of the
sacrificial offerings. But of vastly greater importance than these in the matter of
1See Williams's Middle Kingdom, I., 7677, and . The Dragon, Image, and De
mon, by Du Bose, New York, 1887 (pp. 5764).
burnt-offering is the great furnace, nine feet high, faced with green porcelain, and
ascended on three of its sides by porcelain staircases. In this receptacle, erected
some hundred feet to the southeast of the altar, is consumed a burnt-offering of a
bullockentire and without blemishat the yearly ceremony. The slaughter
house of the sacrificial bullock stands east of the North Altar, at the end of an elab
orate winding passage, or cloister of seventy-two compartments, each ten feet in
length.
Such is the religious and popular conception of Shang Ti, which

is as deeply rooted in the Chinese mind, and perhaps more deeply
than is the God-idea in the West. But just as Western philoso
phers translate the God-idea of religion into a philosophical prin
ciple, (I mention Hegel's Absolute, Schopenhauer's Will, Fichte's
Moral World-Order, Spinoza's definition of Substance, etc.,) so
the educated Chinese speak of Lao-tsz's Tao or World-Logos, of
Cheu Tsz's T'ai Kih or the ultimate ground of existence, and of Chu
Hi's Li or immaterial principle. Chu Hi touches upon the problem
of the personality of God in his expositions on the immaterial prin
ciple and primary matter. He says after quoting three passages from
the classics in which the terms Shang Ti and T'ien (the Lord on
High and Heaven) imply the idea of a personal God:
All these and such like expressions, do they imply that above the azure sky
there is a Lord and Ruler who acts thus, or is it still true that heaven has no mind,
and men only carry out their reasonings in this style? I reply, these three things
are but [expressions of] one idea; it is that the immaterial principle of [the cosmic]
order is such.'"
This seems to imply that his conception of the k'i implies per
sonality; but he adds:
The primary matter, in its evolutions hitherto, after one season of fulness has
experienced one of decay, and after a period of decline, it again flourishes; just as
if things were going on in a circle. There never was a decay without a revival."
Chinese Repository, Vol. XIII., p. 555.
There is an extensive literature on the question; for some Chris

tian missionaries have objected to the translation of Shang Ti by
God and God by Shang Ti, proposing other words in its place."
*See The Chinese Repository, Vol. XVII., pp. 1753, 57-89 (Essay on the
Term for Deity," by William J. Boone, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church);
i. pp. 105-133, 161187, 209-242, 26531o, 321354 (Chinese Term for Deity,
The controversy began with the Roman Catholic missions.

The Jesuit Ricci, an unusual missionary genius, who rendered the
Chinese government so many valuable services that he commanded
the Emperor's highest respect and unbounded confidence, had drawn
up rules for his Christian converts in which he permitted certain
Chinese rites, such as honoring the memory of Confucius and of an
cestors, justifying these acts by an explanation of their purely sec
ular significance. Ricci at the same time translated, as a matter of
course, the word God with Shang Ti, and his methods were
silently approved in Rome.
Morales, a Spanish Dominican, however, jealous of the great
success of his Jesuit brethren, denounced Ricci for pandering to
idolatry. The propaganda condemned Ricci's methods as sinful,
and Pope Innocence confirmed the sentence in 1645. The Jesuits
remonstrated and succeeded. Pope Alexander VI. issued another
decree, in which, without directly revoking his predecessor's deci
sion, he sided with Ricci's policy," in agreement with which, in 1665,
the Jesuits drew up forty-two articles. The Dominicans did not let
things rest here; Navarette, one of their order, renewed the old de
nunciations, and Bishop Maigrot, an apostolic vicar living in China,
issued a mandate in which he declared that T'ien" signified noth
ing more than the material heaven, and that the Chinese customs
and rites were idolatrous. The Jesuits applied to the Emperor of
China for an authentic explanation of the significance of the words
for God and of the Chinese rites, whereupon Kanghi the Emperor
declared (in 17oo) that T'ien meant the true God, and the ceremonies
of China were political.
But the efforts of the Jesuits to influence the Pope failed; Pope
Clement XI. confirmed the mandate of Bishop Maigrot in a bull
(published in 1703) in which the words T'ien and Shang Ti were
by Dr. W. H. Medhurst); ib. pp. 357360 ("A Few Plain Questions by a Brother
Missionary"); and ib. pp. 489 et seq., 545 et seq., and 6or et seq. (Dr. Medhurst's
Reply to Bishop Boone").
"Ricci's Divine Law" is published in an unabridged form in Kircher's China
Illustrata, 1667.
rejected as pagan, while the expression T'ien Chu, i. e. Lord of

Heaven, was approved of.
From these days the rapid decline of the Roman Catholic mis
sions in China begins. Ricci's doctrines were not countenanced in
Rome, and Maigrot's followers were persecuted by the Chinese gov
ernment.
Among Protestant missionaries the Rev. Dr. Boone proposes

to translate God by Shin = Spirit," and takes the field against all
those who use the terms Shang Ti or T'ien; but he is opposed by
the majority of his colleagues, Dr. Medhurst, Sir George Staunton,
Dr. Bowring, Mr. Dotty, and Professor Legge.
Prof. James Legge has written a learned discussion on the sub
ject; adducing innumerable passages in corroboration of his views.
In his introduction to the Shu King he quotes Ti T'ung's diction
ary in defining the meaning of the word Ti. Ti Tung says:
Ti is the honorable designation of lordship and rule, therefore Heaven is
called Shang Ti; the Elementary Powers are called the five Ti; and the Son of
Heaventhat is, the Sovereignis called Ti.
Professor Legge adds:

Here then is the name Heaven, by which the idea of Supreme Power in the
absolute is vaguely expressed; and when the Chinese would speak of it by a per
sonal name, they use the terms Ti and Shang Ti;saying, I believe, what our early
fathers did, when they began to use the word God.
Ti is the name which has been employed in China for this concept for fully
five thousand years. Our word God fits naturally into every passage where the
character occurs in the old Chinese Classics. It never became with the people a
proper name like the Zeus of the Greeks. I can no more translate Ti or Shang Ti
by any other word but God than I can translate zan W. by anything else but man.'
The general belief that the Chinese are obstinately opposed to
Christianity and Christian ethics is a great error. The Chinese have
a contempt only for the dogmatism that is commonly preached to
them as Christianity. In spite of all the missionary efforts of Chris
tians, the Chinese know of Christianity as little as, or even less than,
Western nations know of Confucius, Lao-tsz', and Buddha. How
Jill, -
* The Notions of the Chinese Concerning God and Spirits, Hong Kong, 1852.
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 55
deeply the simple story of Jesus and his preachings of love and
charity can impress the Chinese mind, if it is told in a truly Chinese
way, without identifying Christianity with beef-eating or the opium
trade, can be learned from the fact that the Tai Ping revolution,
which shook the throne of the Celestial Empire, was conducted by
native Christians who could no longer stand the persecutions of the
Confucian authorities. Hung Sew Tseuen, a simple schoolmaster,
who in his youth had seen visions entrusting him with a religious
mission, read the Gospel, and, being impressed with its moral truths,
baptised himself and began to preach Christ's ethics of good-will
toward all. He was discharged and persecuted because he refused
to pay the customary worship to Confucius; but he continued to
preach until he saw himself at the head of an army that might have
overpowered the government of the Chinese Empire. While this
rebellion raged in China, the English did not even know that the
rebels were Christians. So little did they know of the affairs of the
interior of China !
Hung Sew Tseuen is described in The Chinese and General Mis
sionary Gleaner as of ordinary appearance, about five feet four
or five inches high, well built, round faced, regular featured, rather
handsome, about middle age, and gentlemanly in his manners.
Thomas Taylor Meadows, Chinese interpreter in H. M. Civil
Service, has published a detailed account of the Tai Ping revolu
tion" in his book, The Chinese and Their Rebellions, London, 1856.
He says on page 193:
My knowledge of the Chinese mind, joined to the dejected admissions that
Protestant missionaries of many years' standing occasionally made of the fruitless
ness of their labors, had convinced me that Christianity, as hardened into our sec
tarian creeds, could not possibly find converts among the Chinese, except here and
there perhaps an isolated individual. Consequently when it was once or twice ru
mored that the large body of men who were setting Imperial armies at defiance
were Christians,' I refused to give the rumor credence. It did not occur to me
that the Chinese convert, through some tracts of a Chinese convert, might either
fail to see, or (if he saw them), might spontaneously eliminate the dogmas and con
gealed forms of merely sectarian Christianity, and then by preaching simply the
great religious truth of One God, and the pure morality of Christ's Sermon on the
*See also Rev. Th. Hamberg's article in the AV. Am. Review, Vol. LXXIX., p. 158.
Mount, obtain numbers of followers among people disgusted with the idolatry and
the immorality that they and those around them were engulfed in. As we have
seen above, this was actually the case with Hung Sew Tseuen.
7.
LAO-TSZ" .# +. AND CONFUCIUS 4L +.
The Yang and Yin conception of the ancient Chinese has exer
cised a dominating influence upon all Chinese thinkers', with the
sole exception of Lao-tsz', who lived at the end of the sixth century
before Christ. Lao-tsz's # # # Tao- *:
(the Clas
sic on Reason and Virtue, that wonderful booklet on # Tao, i.e.,
the Path or Method, the Word or Reason, the Logos, that was in the
beginning and on * 7th virtue, propounding an ethics that repu
diates all self-asse'n, closely resembling the injunctions of both
Buddha and Christ), stands alone in the whole literature of China.

It is not less monistic than the doctrines of the T'ai Kih, but less
rigid, less a priori, less self-sufficient. It would have served the Chi
nese better than the Confucian philosophy.
Williams defines # tao, as follows:
A road, path, or way; . . . a principle, a doctrine, that which the mind ap
proves; used in the classics in the sense of the right path in which one ought to go
either in ruling or observing rules; rectitude or right reason; in early times, up to
500 A.D., the Buddhists called themselves tao-yan, i.e., men (seeking for) reason
[enlightenment], or intelligent men, denoting thereby their aspiration after pu-ti
(Sanskrit bodhi), intelligence; the Reason or Logos of the rationalists [the so-called
Taoists].8 . . . [As a verb tao means] to lead, to direct, to go in a designated path;
to speak, to converse.
1 On the literature of China, see Schott's Entwurf einer Beschreibung der

chinesischen Litteratur, gelesen in der Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1850, and
published in the Philosophisch-Historische K7asse in 1853, pp. 293-418.
A.
2 1'. is a combination of the three radicals to go, straight," and heart.

*The Taoists who regard themselves as followers of Lao-tsz have distorted
their master's doctrines beyond recognition. The Tao religion is best characterised
in The Book of Rewards and Punishments," translated in full only into French
by Stanislaus Julien under the title Le livre des rcompenses et des peines. Paris,
1835. See also Confucianism and Taoism, by Prof. Robert K. Douglas.
The character # tao, is composed of to go and head,

denoting marching at the head.
We are told that Confucius visited Lao-Tsz', who, being by
half a century his senior, must then have been about eighty years
old. While Confucius propounded the maxims of justice, the old
philosopher urged the principle of good-will toward every one, say
ing:"
Recompense injury with kindness.
Confucius, unable to fathom Lao-tszs meaning, replied:
With what then will you recompense kindness? Recompense injury with
justice (punishment), and recompense kindness with kindness.
Lao-tsz propounds the gist of his ethics in 49 of the Tao
Teh-King, where he says:
The good I would meet with goodness. The not-good I would also meet with
goodness; for the teh (virtue) is good (throughout). The faithful I would meet with
faith. The not-faithful I would also meet with faith; (for) the teh (virtue) is good
(throughout)."
Lao-tsz objected to the very basis of Confucian morality.

Confucius expected to make people good by teaching them pro
priety; if they were but respectful to parents and superiors, if they
brought sacrifices to the shrines of their ancestors, and observed the
appropriate rules and ceremonies, mankind would become moral.
Lao-tsz' exhibited an undisguised contempt for externalities and
ancestor-worship. He demanded purity of heart, emptiness of de
sire, and a surrender of all self-display, in imitation of the great Tao
(Reason), which serves all without seeking its own.
Sz' Ma Tsien, who lived about 16385 B.C., reports on the
authority of Chwang-tsz (about 330 B.C.) that Confucius in his
interview with Lao-tsz', showed himself overawed by reverence for
the wisdom of the ancient traditions. Lao-tsz' said:
"John Chalmer's The Speculations of the Old Philosopher, Lau-tsz', p. xviii.

4iii
21:
*See also Douglas's Confucianism and Taoism, pp. 176 et seq.
*The original Chinese text with a German translation is published by Gabe
lentz in his Anfangsgrnde der Chinesischen Grammatik, p. 111 et seq.
Lord, of whom you speak, the men and their bones, I suppose, have alto
gether rotted away. Their words only are still extant. Moreover, if a sage find
his time, he rises; if he does not find his time, he wanders about like a P'ung plant
[which is described by the commentators to be a plant, growing on the sand and
easily carried about by the wind]. I have heard, a wise merchant hides [his treas
ures] deeply, as if [his house or safe] were empty. A sage of perfect virtue gives
himself the appearance as though [he were] simple-minded y."
Give up your proud spirit, your many wishes, your external appearance with
your exaggerated plans. These all are of no advantage to the sage's person. This
is what I have to communicate to you, sir; that is all."
Sz-Ma-Tsien continues:
Confucius went; and he said to his disciples: Of the birds I know that they
can fly, of the fishes I know that they can swim, of the beasts I know that they can
run. For the running, one makes nooses; for the swimming, one makes nets; for
the flying, one makes arrows. As to the dragon, I do not know how he rides upon
wind and clouds up to heaven. To-day I saw Lao-tsz'. Is he perhaps like the
dragon ?' "
Confucius was more congenial to his countrymen than Lao-tsz',

for he was more typically Chinese. Although his life had been an
unbroken chain of disappointments, Confucius succeeded after his
death in becoming the moral teacher of the Chinese people. His
agnostic attitude in metaphysics and religion which neither affirms
nor denies the existence of a beyond, of God, or gods, and of ghosts,
but avoids investigating the matter, his unbounded reverence for
the past, his respect for scholarship and book-learning, his ethics of
traditionalism, which implies an extreme conservatism, his exag
geration of propriety, his ceremonialism, and above all his ideal of
submission to authority have more and more become national traits
of the Chinese nation.
What a pity that the weakness of China is an exaggerated vir

tue; it is reverence run mada virtue in which America is as much
deficient as China is in excess.
It was characteristic of a typical Chinaman like Confucius that
1 Gabelentz translates }. yil by dumm. The character contains the sym

bols denoting monkey" and heart or mind." See Williams's Syllabic Diction
ary of the Chinese Language, p. 112o.
he should have admired the Yih King solely on account of its age,
because it came down to him from the sages of yore. He said:
Should a few more years be granted to me, I shall have applied fifty to study
ing the Yih and thereby could be free from erring greatly.Ln Y, VII., 16.1
We know much more about Confucius than about any other

Chinese philosopher, emperor, or saint, but it appears that he was
more of a moral teacher than a philosopher or mathematician, and
it is probable that the Yih King was to him a book with seven seals,
the unintelligibility of which fascinated him.
Having impressed upon the nation his personality, Confucius
lived on in the souls of his countrymen; and, following their mas
ter's injunction, the Chinese continued to study the Yih King
without finding the solution of its problems. Instead of avoiding
grave mistakes, they committed the gravest one : they relied upon
traditional authority and ceased to be self-dependent. Instead of
deciphering the eternal revelation of truth that surrounds us in the
living book of nature and of our individual experiences, they pon
dered over the secret meanings of the holy Yih King; and even to
day there are many among them who believe that the Yih King con
tains all the wisdom, physical, moral, and metaphysical, that can be
conceived by any of the sages of the world.
The mistake of the Chinese is natural and perhaps excusable,
for it is founded upon a profound, although misunderstood and mis
applied, reverence for the great sages who laid the cornerstone of
their civilisation. We, as outsiders, can easily appreciate the merits
and reject the errors of the fundamental principles of Chinese
thought; but not all of us are conscious of the fact that in many re
spects we too suffer from an exaggerated reverence for traditionalism.
"Such is the translation according to Dr. Riedel, which, after a comparison

with the original, I find, so far as I can judge, as literal as possible. Professor Legge
translates: If some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to," etc.
*The claim that the Yih contains all science should be interpreted in the same
sense as we might declare that logic contains all possible rules of thought, and the
multiplication-table is the essence of all possible numerical relations.
CONCLUSION.
Whatever may be the solution of the mystery of the Yih King, it

is almost certain that the Chinese themselves do not understand it.
Thus in spite of the simplicity of their philosophy of permutations, as

we may briefly call the theory of constructing a world-conception
from Yang and Yin elements, all their thinking, planning, and yearn
ing is dimmed by mysticism; and the vain hope of divination fills
their minds with superstitious beliefs which makes them, on the one
hand, slavishly submissive to the various evils of life, and, on the
other hand, self-satisfied in the belief that their sages alone are in
possession of the philosophers stone. All this renders the Chinese
unfit to grasp the significance of reality, and abandons them almost
hopelessly to the mercy of their own barbarous institutions, such as
their antiquated penal laws and prison practices, extortionate taxa
tion, and the arbitrary government system, to which they patiently
submit.
Patience is a virtue which is much admired in China and highly
praised in prose and verse, as the basis of self-control, domestic
peace, and good government. We read in the famous Pih Jin Ko,
the Ode on Universal Patience:"
This song of patience universal,

Of universal patience sings.
Can one be patient, summer is not hot ;

Can one be patient, winter is not cold.
Can one be patient, poverty is yet happy;

Can one be patient, long life may yet be protracted.
With impatience, little evils change to great;

With impatience, a good nature at length becomes wolfish.
Kow Tsen tasted gall, and patiently waited for revenge;

Tan of Yen, from want of moderation, in the end was lost and perished.
-
Sze Tih, when spit upon in the face, patiently let it dry;
Tih Chaou, for want of patience, was a very dunce.
"See Chinese Repository, Vol. IX., p. 48, where the original Chinese is published
together with an English translation.
The benevolent endure what other men can hardly bear;

The wise submit to what others never would endure.
To repress anger and restrain the passions is the square of patience;

To wear the petticoat," and be humble, is the rule of patience.
Patience is the watchword for laying the foundation of perfection;

Patience is the watchword for forming the root of virtue.
Patience is the watchword to succeed among barbarians and savages;

Patience is the watchword to rule the violent and obstinate.
Can one bear toil and labor, one will have a superabundance:
Can one refrain from wild excess, one will be free from violent disease.
Can one forbear tattle, one will avoid slander;

Can one forbear strife and contention, one dissipates hatred and resentment
Can one submit to abuse and raillery, one shows his caliber;
Can one bend to thorough study, one accumulates learning.
Once patient, all blessings come in company;

Once patient, every woe is burnt to ashes.
The Chinese government, and with it the Chinese nation, seem

to be at present in a pitiable plight; and, indeed, their empire is
like a Colossus of brass on clay feet.
Nevertheless, there is at the foundation of the Chinese civili
sation and of the Chinese national character a nucleus of moral
worth and intellectual capabilities which may come to the front
again. To conquer China in war may be easy enough, but to com
pete with her children in the industrial persuits of peace may prove
impossible. The conqueror often succumbs to the less noisy but
more powerful virtues of the conquered. Thus Greece overcame
Rome and the Saxons Anglicised the Normans. When the walls
break down which separate China from the rest of the world so as
to give the Chinese a chance of learning from us all they can, it is
very doubtful what the result of a free competition with the Chinese
will be. Their imperturbable patience, their endurance, their stead
fast character, their pious reverence, their respect for learning,
1 This phrase means to be submissive to authority, as a wife ought to be to

her husband," being the reverse of a well-known expression in English slang.
should not be underrated. If these virtues are but turned in the
right direction and tempered by that breadth of mind which is in

dispensable for progress, the Chinese will soon recover; and nothing
is more apt to produce a national rebirth than hard times, trials,
and humiliations.
China is offered in her recent misfortunes the chance of a spir

itual rebirth. Should she avail herself of this opportunity, she
would, with her four hundred millions of inhabitants and her untold
virgin resources, at once take a prominent rank among the nations -
of the earth; and her civilisation might become strong enough to

influence and modify our own.
INDEX.
Altar of heaven, 50. Goethe, on rest, 27.

Great plan (Hung-fan), 16, 21, 22, 24.
Binary system of Leibnitz and the Kwa
in diagrams compared, 41. Harlez, Ch. de, 44.
Hexagrams, arranged in square and cir
Calendar (tung shu), the yih supposed cle, Io; according to Wen-Wang, 11;
significance of, 12.
to be a, 45. (Cf. t'ung shu.")
Cantor, Prof. Moritz, 42. Hiao, filial piety, 36.
Cheu Dynasty, 7, 49. Ho, Map of, 3, 5, 17; original table re
Cheu Sin, the dissolute tyrant, 8. produced, 19; dragon-horse carrying
the, 20.
Cheu Tsz's philosophy, 27, 28, 29, 30;
his diagram of the great extreme, 28. Hung-Sew-Tseuen, the originator of the
Chih, gross matter, 31. Tai-Ping rebellion, 55.
Ch'ing, truthfulness, 30.
Christian missionaries on the term Ideal, of royal perfection, according to
Shang-Ti, 5254. the great plan, 23; of Chinese moral
Christianity, the Chinese not opposed ity, submission to traditions, 2.
to, 54.
Chu-Hi, 6; his philosophy, 30-35. K'i, vitality and primary substance,
3033.
Confucius, 37, 5658. -
Conservative, the Chinese, on account Kih, the extreme, 31; t'ai kih (the great
of their script, 1. extreme), 2426, 29, 34, 41, 51.
Corea, the flag of, 36. Kwa, 4, 6; evolution from great ex
treme, 26, 3942.
Divination, 7; by stalks, 13; by the

Lacouperie, A. Terrien de, 43.
spirit tortoise, 1316.
Lao-Tze, 5657.
Douglas, Prof, R. K., 36, 56.
Legge, Prof. James, 26, 42, 46, 54.
Leibnitz, 3942.
Elements, the five, 20, 21, 22; appear Li, the immaterial principle, 3034.
in Cheu Tsz's diagram, 28.
Extreme, Kwa, evolution from great, Map of Ho, 3, 5, 17; original table re
26; the great, 35. produced, 19; dragon-horse carrying
the, 20.
Filial piety, 36, 37. McClatchie, Canon, 43.
Filials, twenty-four, 38. Meadows, Thomas Taylor, on the Tai
Fuh-Hi, 4, 26. Ping Revolution, 5556.
Milfoil, 13. Tao, Lao-Tze's, 34; the, 5657.

Moral worth of the Chinese, 61. Teh, 57.
Morrison, Dr., on the beauty of Chinese | Tortoise, 13, 15; illustration of, 20.
script, 2. T'ung shu (general treatise) Cheu-tsz's
book, 2930; the yih as a tung shu,
Nirvna, 27. 45. (Cf. Calendar.")
Trigrams, tables of Fuh-Hi and Wen
Patience, a Chinese ode on, 60. Wang, 9.
Philastre, P. L. F., 43. Tseu-Yen, on the five elements, 21.
Regis, P., the Jesuit, 42. Ultimate ground of existence (T'ai Kih,
Reverence of the Chinese for the great great extreme), 24, 25, 26, 28, 29.
sages, 59.
Riedel, Dr. Heinrich, 4447. Wen-Wang, 7.
Rckert, 35. Williams, 39.
Writing of the river Loh, 3, 17; original
Shan kwei, the spirit-tortoise, 13, 15; table reproduced, 19.
illustration, 20.
Shang-Ti, the Lord on High, 8, 4955; Yang and Yin, 3 ; on Cheu-Tsz's dia
Christian missionaries on, 5254. gram, 28, 36.
Shi, milfoil, 13. Yih, 6, 39, 42, 43, 44.
Shi tsao, divining stalks, 13. Yih-King, 7, 17.
Shu-King, quotation from, 50. Y, 4-5.
Siang, the four, 34.
Symbol, of the source of existence, dia- Zero, 27
gram, 34; of the T'ai Kih, 51.
Sz'-Ma-Tsien, 5758. Zottoli, P. Angelo, 43.
Since the first publication of this article, which appeared in 77te Monist, Vol.
VI., No. 2, in January 1896, the author has in many instances adopted other tran
scriptions of Chinese words which remain unaltered in this new edition. For the
assistance of the uninitiated reader we mention especially that the words here
spelled Chew (viz., the dynasty and Cheu Tsze), A'i (vitality or breath of life), A'i
(the extreme, or ultimate ground of existence), and Sze-Ma- 7s'ien have been tran
scribed Cho, Ch'i, Chi, and Sze-Ma-Ch'ien in the author's forthcoming translation
of Lao-Tze's 7 a.o. Zeh Azng. Further, the author would now prefer the spelling
Cho-72e to Cheu- 7sze. The words Fuh-//; and Yih are transcribed by Samuel
Wells Williams Fu-/ and /, by Sir Thomas Wade Fu-/ and Yi.
CHINESE FICTION
BY THE
REV. GEORGE T. CANDLIN
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL CHINESE WORKS
CHICAGO
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
For sALE BY
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trbner & Co., London.

1898
CoPYRIGHT BY
THE OPEN CourT PUBLISHING Co.
1898.
CHINESE FICTION.
BY GEORGE. T. CANDLIN.
NE of the most salient characteristics of modern life is its ten

dency to a cosmopolitan comprehensiveness. In the distribu
tion and exchange, whether of the material goods of commerce, or
of the richer and rarer treasures of the mind, we seem determined
to carry the circulation round the whole habitable globe, and down
through every layer of society to its lowest strata. From lucifer
matches and cheap oleographs up to the highest products of art, of
science, and of literature, there is an ever-increasing approach to
universality, so that we do not know in what remote region of the
earth we may pick up a translation of Shakespeare's plays, or
which newly enlightened band of savages may be disporting them
selves with Edison's phonograph. Our readiness to lend hardly
surpasses our willingness to borrow, and the cold mountains of
Norway furnish our theatres with the dramas of Ibsen, while Buf
falo Bill is imported from the Wild West to provide new circus at
tractions for the British public.
So deeply has the modern mind been imbued with the cos
mopolitan spirit, especially in the highest province of mental
activity, that while national schools of art and science are formed,
their attainments immediately become the common property of all,
a glad communism in which there is rivalry but not detraction,
patriotism expresses itself as the desire to have our own achieve
ments stand well in the general record, and a knowledge of the
distinctive features of each is thought necessary to a liberal educa
tion.
The wide field of fiction has been subject at least as much as
any other department to this widening influence. While our own
best novels have been translated into various languages no effort
2 CHINESE FICTION.
has been spared, by translations and critical disquisitions, to make

us acquainted with the genius of fiction as it has expressed itself
in other races, and the chief masterpieces of imaginative literature
are appearing with great rapidity in English dress. From of old
we have been readers of the Decameron, Don Quixote, of the Ara
bian Nights, and of Gil Blas; but the last two decades have seen
a new impulse to this desire for universality in the almost whole
sale importation of novels from Russian, French, and German
sources. It is quite impossible to go over the names of the works,
or even of the authors pertaining to other nationalities, with which
our literature has been enriched.
It is a step further afield to attempt to explore the novel liter
ature of the Celestial Empire, but considering what a great, an
cient, and singular people the Chinese are, and that they consti
tute more than a fourth of the whole human race, we cannot claim
to be truly cosmopolitan while we leave them out. Moreover the
Flowery Kingdom holds no mean rank amongst nationalities
distinguished for literature, and very much has been done by
Western savants to bring home to us the great value of its ethical,
historical, and poetical writings. Yet so long as it possesses an ex
C tensive repertory of fiction, some of which is of a very high order
indeed, but which is almost a complete blank, even in the best in
formed and widely sympathetic Western minds, our knowledge of
this interesting people and of their bibliothecal treasures cannot be
said to be exhaustive. It surely cannot be worthy of us as students
of universal literature, to be quite ignorant of the work which so
unique a people as the Chinese have done, and the success they
have achieved in this department. Even if, as appears to be the
case in certain quarters, we have concluded on some a priort
ground that they have nothing worth talking about in this class of
writing, would it not be well to know somewhat definitely and pre
cisely why it is to be rejected ?
If such motives as these are still considered insufficient to
stimulate us to an examination of Chinese fiction there remains an
appeal to what perhaps has been in the history of our race the
strongest of all incentives to exertion and research, the religious
motive. To many it may appear an extravagant indulgence in par
adox to associate very closely such different subjects as those of
religion and fiction. Yet it is not difficult to show that in many
cases their relations are most intimate. To confine ourselves par
ticularly to things Chinese, we may say that the connexion is
very evident. If we would know, indeed, how religious doctrines
CHINESE FICTION. 3
have been explained and expounded we need no help from sources

extraneous to the religious classics, but if we would understand
how religious beliefs have lived in the popular mind, and the su
pernatural conceptions with which they have through long ages
been wound up, popular fiction is the strong mirror into which we
must look. This, of course, is especially true if we wish to inter
pret not only the nucleus of truth which lies at the heart of Chi
nese religions, but also the massive nimbus of superstition by
which it has been accompanied.
Religion and fiction alike owe their strength to the power of
imagination, the mystic faculty which has peopled heaven and
earth with intelligences other than man, and has followed man him
self beyond the confines of our mortal life. So that whether we
speak of Confucianismthat most rationalistic of all the world's
great religions, so rationalistic as to almost forfeit its claim to be
considered a religion at allor of Buddhism or Taoism, in which
imagination has been allowed far less restricted play, not to men
tion other forms of faith which consist almost entirely of imaginary
conceptions, if we extend the meaning of the word religion so
as to embrace all its attendant superstitions, the field of fictitious
literature is the only one from which we can form an adequate con
ception of the way in which it has affected the national mind.
Goethe, somewhere, speaks of the poets as having brought
down the gods to men. But the poet does not write in verse.
Whether in verse or prose, let him satisfy the demand of the na
tional imagination and he may create a deity. Kuan Yn Ch'ang
is the Mars of China. He is also the hero of the national prose
epic, The History of the Three Kingdoms. It is hardly assuming too
much to say he is the god of the nation because he is the hero of
the national story. We may well doubt whether any temple would
have been built to his honor or any incense burnt at his shrine had
fiction let him alone. If Lo Kuan Chung had not immortalised
him he might long ago have been forgotten.
The Feng Shen Yen Yi has at least perpetuated, if it did not
originate, the persistent belief in a great hierarchy of supernatural
and mostly malignant beings. That peculiar mass of folk-lore
known as the fox-myths probably circulated orally or in far less
consummately elegant and less compact literary forms before the
Liao Tsai was written, but who can say that these myths would
not have died long ago if that brilliant star of superstitious liter
ature had not made them unforgetable P The Shih Yu, a book as
4. CHINESE FICTION.
cribed to a Taoist priest, is the Pilgrim's Progress of Buddhism, a

rich repertory of religious myths.
These instances sufficiently indicate the close connexion be
tween popular religion and popular fiction. But what it is impor
tant for our readers to understand is that the mere study of a reli
gion in its purified form affords no sufficient key to its influence on
the national mind either for good or for evil. We cannot under
stand the concrete value of any religion until we take it as a whole
with all its imperfections on its head. Superstitions themselves
thus become an important object of study. How could we under
stand the religion of the Greeks if we left out Greek mythology
if we knew nothing of Jupiter, of Venus, of Mercury, of Bacchus,
the Gorgons, the Fates, or the nobly suffering rebel Prometheus?
There is in like manner, closely associated with Chinese religious
belief, a whole world of mythical lore. If we are quite ignorant of
this we cannot understand the national mind or its mysterious
workings. Now such literature as we propose to examine is the
one channel open to us for the study of these complex supernatural
and superstitious beliefs. If our object is to know simply what is
true in Chinese religions we may safely neglect it, but then we
cannot understand the Chinaman as he actually is. If we would
understand how his religion has moulded his mind, through what
obstructions and distortions the purer rays of truth have worked,
we shall find in the historical and mythical novels of China the
chief material of our study.
But this is not all, nor the chief part, of what is to be said. It
is at least as interesting and much more instructive to observe
the light which fiction throws upon the deep moral principles and
spiritual intuitions which religions share in common, however di
versified in external appearance and however varied their concrete
value as agencies for the regulation of life, and which in reality
give them their hold upon the reason and conscience of mankind.
Fiction testifies not less to the common truths than to the diversi
fied errors embodied in religious systems, and even to what we
may call truth held in falsehood, as it shows us what are essentially
the same spiritual instincts wearing such strange guises, that,
though intrinsically identical, they appear strange and even antag
onistic to each other, like members of the same family who, being
dressed most diversely, have come to regard dress so exclusively as
to forget their common ties of blood and feature and to treat each
other as strangers and even enemies. No religion is wholly true
and no religion wholly false. The falsest has more truth than it is
CHINESE FICTION. 5
aware of, and the truest more falsehood than it will acknowledge.
Even of the pure Gospel as preached by apostolic lips it had to be
said we have this treasure in earthen vessels. There is place
here for the application of Emerson's apothegm, the highest
cannot be spoken of in words. Chinese devotees, whether Bud
dhist or Taoist, often refer to the beautiful legend of a zvu tzit
ching (a wordless classic), the idea being that of teaching so pure
and spiritual that words must inevitably warp its truth and stain
its purity. There is a common meeting ground of the creeds,
whether Christian or heathen, which the fiery polemics of every
camp alike ignore, and because they ignore it their word-contests
are too often fruitless and indecisive, depending hardly at all on the
intrinsic merits of the cause, almost entirely upon the intellectual
strength of the champion, powerless to win over opponents, strong
only to confirm each side in its own darling opinions. Why won
der that we do not reach pure truth and harmonise belief ? Our
discussions are too militant, too full of the fighting instinct which
the battle-skirted march of the race through all past ages has im
bued us with. Is it a question of civil or criminal justice P We
have a fight about it, and plaintiff and defendant contend in an
arena called a law-court. Is it a question of the wise government
of a country? We have a fight about it, and Whig and Tory, Re
publican and Democrat contend in an arena called a parliament. Is
it a question of religious teaching? We have a fight about it, and
the champions of rival creeds contend in an arena of polemical dis
cussion where confusion is greatest and feeling bitterest of all.
But it is always strife, not comprehension, victory, not edifi
cation, which is aimed at. All progress made hitherto has been
chiefly that the ring is better kept and the rules a little fairer than
they used to be. Only men of rare openness, fearless candor, and
calm, patient love, see adequately the common ground which it is
the interest of the champions to ignore, yet which has given to
their creed its credibility and is the secret source of its strength.
Even they are rather inwardly conscious of it than capable of giv
ing it adequate expression. They cannot state it in any way that
will in the least satisfy either the combatants or their several
crowds of admirers. But what thoughtful student has not at some
time had sight of the truth that the religions are all aiming du
biously and with but misty glimpses at a mark none of them ade
quately attain, that the heart of the matter, could they but think
so, is one. All lead toward the mystery which none of them solve.
All are conscious, however objectionable the manner in which they
6 CHINESE FICTION.
express it, of the Divine Power that rules our lives, of hopes be
yond the grave, of a life higher than the sordid struggle for wealth
or place, all pronounce the sacred word duty and have risen to the
exalting conception of righteousness. They differ ? Yes! as much
as you please; we will not minimise their discrepancies, by virtue
of which, says the infidel, they are mutually destructive. His con
clusion is wrong simply because in these high things they agree
and their many differences are a proof of the essential truth of what
they agree in. So fierce has been the strife between them they
would have differed in everything if they could have done, as in
deed in most cases they have persuaded themselves they do.
Now nowhere is this truth more clearly illustrated than in
those delineations of life and character which presented naturally,
which unconsciously let slip, as it were, in their dramatic course,
the unauthorised and unformulated religious convictions and im
pulses of mankind. Fiction shows us, and hardly any more so
than that of China, that every creed has nourished men of ear
nest and true piety, reverencing heaven, loving men, living pure
lives and doing noble deeds. At the Parliament of Religions in
Chicago, Buddhists and Brahmans alike spoke of God in much the
same way as the Christian divines who were present. This was
probably puzzling to many not only because those systems are
only thought of by great numbers as mere idolatries, but because
with more reason the most accomplished scholars have reduced
the first to Atheism and the second to Pantheism. Perhaps we are
right in saying that theoretically they are such, yet practice tri
umphs over theory, and the speakers were not conscious hypo
crites. They were instinctively aware that what we reverence as
God is in substance what they reverence. Fiction, saturated by
the ideas of these schools, exhibits the same peculiarities. -
Or to deal with religious conceptions of a more dubious char

acter, Christianity has been peculiarly stamped by the spirit of
chivalry, to which, perhaps, is due the elevation of woman of
which it claims the merit. In Roman Catholicism this tendency
has reached exaggerated expression in the worship of the Virgin.
We see how natural this is when we consider that Buddhism has
its Kuan Yin and Taoism its T'ien Hou Mang, both female imper
sonations of divinity, and in the pages of many a novelist we find
these goddesses appealed to from precisely the same motives and
for much the same objects as Mary would be in English novels
depicting life and manners amongst Roman Catholics. We may
be sure that while in each case the form which this natural feeling
CHINESE FICTION. 7
has taken is erroneous and super-stitious, there is some truth be

hind craving in vain for right expression.
Again, nothing is more noticeable on a comparison of religions
than that, while all have their sacred books, a formal doctrine of
inspiration is peculiar to the Bible and the Koran. Yet no fact is
worthy of more attention than that which fiction abundantly illus
trates that in practice all treat their classics precisely as if they
were inspired, reverencing them beyond all limits, so that paper
and ink and the very errors in typography become sacred, quoting
them as of final authority in controversy and regarding them as the
summary of all truth. If you ask a Confucianist, Are the Four
Books inspired? he will first be bewildered by the question, hav
ing never thought of them in that light. Your meaning having been
more fully explained to him, he will probably say, No. But in
the result he will treat them with the same pious reverence and
surrender with which you treat your Bible, if not even with more.
For him they are practically inspired. It is a beautiful and true
instinct of our humanity which cannot be eradicated by logic to
hold in pious love the text-book of our religious teaching whatever
it may be and the light literature which is the very opposite of the
sacred books was the fullest testimony to the constancy of the sen
timent.
Instances might be multiplied, but we have adduced enough
to show how much light fictitious literature can throw upon the
religious beliefs of those among whom it has sprung up; the
weight of its testimony supporting the conclusion that just as our
common humanity has shown strange diversity in different ages,
with differing climes, under differing physical and social condi
tions; in laws, in customs, in dress, in external manners and cere
monies; yet is wondrously one at heart; so the strange and often
wild and grotesque expression of those verities of the soul which
we name religion hinders not that the spring and secret of their
power has been alike, that it has been, though with varying dim
ness or clearness of insight, as the generations have kept their
watch through the night of history, a true hope and vision of eter
nal things.
The tone in which the novel literature of China has been
spoken of by Western scholars has for different reasons been
almost invariably a tone of disparagement. Men who have taken
pains to read but a strictly limited quantity, have not hesitated to
pronounce it crude, puerile, and grossly impure. Like Browning's
poems, it has been taken in quite homeopathic doses administered
8 CHINESE FICTION.
at long intervals, yet has been pronounced nauseous as the drugs

of the allopath. Those wonderful beings, a sort of Arhats or Ma
hatmas in literature, whose sacred function it is to reveal to com
mon mortals the profound esoteric mysteries of Eastern bibli
ography, we mean the sinologues, intent as they are on the ancient
and the heavy, would no doubt feel insulted if asked to take inter
est in anything so trifling as a mere novel. This whole field they
pass by with the sublime unconsciousness of superior beings to
whom such paltry matters are trifles light as air. Rarely in
deed has a voice been heard in approval. The one solitary testi
mony of any warmth which we have been able to find after much
hunting is this of Remusat, which we take from the Middle King
dom. In the midst of much respecting the defects and shortcom
ings of Chinese novels, he compares them (as a body, we suppose)
to Richardson, and says: The authors render their characters
interesting and natural by reiterated strokes of the pencil which
finally produce a high degree of illusion. The interest in their
pages arose precisely in proportion to the stage of my progress;
and in approaching to the termination I found myself about to part
with some agreeable people, just as I had duly learned to relish
their society. We give this with misgiving. It reads to us very
like the faint praise that damns. In fact China yet lacks that
Western mind which has enough sympathy with this very large
department of her literature to become in any degree its interpre
ter to the novel-loving Occident. Even Mr. Giles, the translator
of the Liao-Tsia, the author of Gems of Chinese Literature, with his
open sense and warm appreciation of all things Celestial, even Mr.
Giles (we really beg his pardon if we take his name in vain) that
Goliath champion of Chinese literature against the world, that
Philistinic blasphemer of the Western Israel, clerical and lay, has
held in such light esteem this field of fiction, as in a book, pro
fessedly illustrating the belles lettres of China, to write of the Yuan
the Mongol dynasty, which produced its great masterpieces, the
San uo 7zu, the Shui Hu, the Shih Hsiang, the P'i Pa Chi, and
the Hsi Yu, that the imaginative power became visibly weaker,
to decline later on to a still lower level of rule-and-line medioc
rity. Yet we hope to show our readers that the Chinese have an
enormous quantity (it is so hopelessly scattered and buried that we
can hardly call it a collection) of prose imaginative writing, the
great bulk of it by no means despicable, and some portions of it of
a very high order of merit, which does not yield in interest or in
literary finish, though perhaps it does in imaginative force, to the
CHINESE FICTION. 9
best Western fiction; and which furnishes a mirror of Chinese life,

household customs, ideals of character and superstitious folklore
to be found nowhere else.
The feature to which we will first call attention is the extent of
the field to be gone over by an investigator of Chinese fiction.
This is a matter on which it is too possible to be under a great
delusion. China is a country in which there is nothing ready to
your hand. Her literary productions are in a hopeless state of con
fusion, and no one knows what treasures of imagination may be
buried under mountains of comparative rubbish. You cannot look
at the end of a book and see advertisements of hundreds of others
of its class. You cannot send for publishers' lists and pick them out
at your ease. You cannot take up a history of literature and find
them chronologically arranged. China has had great critics, but
none who have dealt comprehensively with her literature. The
Taine of the Flowery Kingdom has not yet appeared. An in
quiry into the works of fiction she possesses is beset by difficulties
which can only be likened to the fabulous search of Hsuen
Tsang for the Buddhist canons. You must go on faith that they
exist, that they are precious, and that they may be had by un
daunted seeking : but it is a long way to fetch them, you have the
vaguest possible idea where to look, and there are untold difficul
ties to be surmounted in the quest.
Your first impression is that you are in for a nice, neat, com
pact little thing, though you have a very ugly feeling of being in
most disreputable company. The attitude of the ordinary Confu
cian teacher toward the fictitious writings of his ancestors is a
charming study in masculine prudery. It is really a high-class arti
cle in the way of sentiment. It is such a lovely mixture of intel
lectual superiority, moral reprobation, fastidious delicacy, and
hypocritical purity, as nearly withers you up. You are thoroughly
ashamed of having supposed it possible that he ever was so weak
as to betray the faintest interest in such low, trivial things. He is
nearly as much scandalised as though you should make bold to ask
him does he love his wife. Nothing can equal it except the avidity
with which he will read novels on the sly. If you muster courage
to go through this first stage and to be persevering in your inqui
ries, you will find that this highly proper individual knows more
about novels than is consistent with his virtuous professions. He
can if he likes give you a very fair outline of the History of the
Three Kingdoms, and the names of its noted characters, though
they amount to some seven hundred. He can detail no small num
*
IO CHINESE FICTION.
ber of the yarns in the History of the Contending States, give you the
plot of the Western Rooms, incidents from the Dream of the Red
Chamber, tales from the Diversions of a Studio, and the myths of the
fabulous Western Expedition, and he at least knows the name of
the Tale of the Guitar. You draw these things from him reluct
antly, he evidently believing that it is much to his discredit to
know anything about them. But there he comes to a sudden stop.
You ask if these comprise the whole or the main works of fiction.
By no means, and he perhaps vaguely remembers the names of
five or six others, some of which you must on no account read.
You try another teacher, and another, and still another with the
same result. But just as you are about to conclude that these
are all that are worth notice, and that you have a manageable
quantity to deal with, a sentence in the preface of a book or a stray
observation sets you on a new track, you find that there are more
and yet more books that no one you have met with has ever read,
that no literary guide ever mentions, the names of which most peo
ple are ignorant of ; and by dint of following a hint here and pur
suing a clue there, you realise that you are in a trackless wilder
ness of unknown extent and of unexplored growth. There is no
one publishing centre in China that corresponds to London: its
Paternoster Row is distributed loosely through the Empire, but
a very forest of timber must be tumbling about in lumber-rooms in
the shape of wood blocks on which novels are stereotyped. So that
we must dismiss from our minds the idea that Chinese fiction is a
very limited quantity. There is any amount if you can get at it,
but, bless us, it is like rummaging in an old second-hand book shop.
The owner turns you in, bidding you pick out what you like, you se
lect this and that from the dusty, piled-up heaps, but finally leave
in disgust, unable to cope with the confusion, yet covetously longing
to know all that's there. The quantity in existence may be inferred
from a single fact. Chinese fiction, like Roman Catholic theology,
has an Index Expurgatorius. In Wylie's AVotes on Chinese Litera
ture the list of prohibited novels published by this censorate con
tains the names of one hundred and thirty-seven different works.
If such be the mere parings, the excrementitia of their novel
literature, what must be the bulk of the whole body? A great deal
of it is worthless enough, imitations are numerous, every really
clever and popular novel has been plagiarised to satiety, but how
much there is that has real merit it is impossible to say. A cer
tain number of these books are known as works of genius. We
have got as far as ten of these in our researches, which we think is
CHINESE FICTION. II
KUANYUN CH'ANG, THE MARs of CHINA. See p. 3.

(From an illustrated edition of San uo Yen Yi.)
I2 CHINESE FICTION.
all, but are by no means certain. We give a list of fourteen of the

most famous of Chinese novels, the names of which for conveni
ence we have put into English, as follows:
1. History of the Three Kingdoms.
Annals of the Water-marshes.
The Western Excursion.
The Tale of the Western Room.
The Tale of the Guitar.
The Dream of the Red Chamber.
Diversions of a Studio.
The Contending States of the Eastern Chou.
Seeking a Match.
I O.The Pear of Precious Beauty.
11. The Jade Sceptre.
12. Story of P'ing San and Leng Yen.
13. Exorcising the Devils.
14. History of the Apotheosis of Spirits.
These are all novels fairly well known, written with consider
able force of imagination and literary skill. We shall not be able to
deal at large with them all, but propose, for want of a better judge,
to act as literary taster to our readers and try to give them an idea
of the principal ones, what they are about, their various excel
lencies of style, and what are the chief characteristics of Chinese
fiction, these being taken as the samples and criteria of judg
ment P
As an instance of the sentiment of Chinese poetry, we select a

poem entitled The Maiden and the Flowers, which is taken
from the novel The Dream of the Red Chamber:
THE MALDEN AND THE FLoweRs."
Flowers fading, flying, fly and fill the sky,

Colors melt and fragrance fails,who pities when they die?
Flossy festoons dance around the sweet spring arbor sides,
To th' embroidered screen soft down-heads fasten clingingly.
From her room a maiden issues pitying much the waning spring,
Full of sorrow past expression for the beauty taking wing;
Through the broidered screen she passes with her flower hoe in hand,
Stepping lightly 'mongst the blossoms, lest she trample anything.
Willow Floss and elm-tree scales unconscious fragrance pour,
Unregarded peach and plum-bloom hover light the wind before;
Peach and plum may bloom anew as next year's spring comes round,
But next year, alas! she knows not who will stand within the door.
1 A translation of a poem from the Chinese novel The Dream of the Red Chamber.
CHINESE FICTION. I3
CHANG-FEI. THE YoUNGER of THE THREE CoveNANT BROTHERS. A BRAVE BUT

RECKLEss WARRIOR AND WASSAILER. See p 18.
(From the San uo Yen Yi.)
I4 CHINESE FICTION.
Fragrant nests are all completed; 'tis the third moon's date.
'Neath the bridge the twittering swallows now have ceased to mate.
Though next year new flowers may bloom for plundering birds to peck,
Maiden gone and bridge deserted, nests may hang disconsolate.
Of the year the days are numbered just three hundred and three score;
Full they are of fierce annoyance cutting winds and keen frost hoar.
Glowing charms and fresh young beauty cannot last for long,
Swift as morn they ripple past us to be found no more.
Blowing flowers by all are seen, but falling disappear;

Sorely grieved the maiden buries what she held most dear;
Hoe in hand before the steps she scatters secret drops,
Drops that mark the naked boughs with trace of many a tear.
Cuckoo notes have silent grown and twilight comes apace,
Hoe in hand through double doors her steps she must retrace.
Bright the lamp gleams on the wall where now she turns to sleep,
Chill her couch and cold the rain-drops beating on her window-case.
Sad she muses: What deep feeling strikes with double smart
Half of pity half resentment through my aching heart 2
Pity spring should come so sudden, with resentment for its flight,
Come so silent without warning and so soundlessly depart.
Yester eve without the porch I heard a piteous strain,

'Twas the souls of birds and flowers departing as in pain;
Souls of birds and souls of flowers cannot be detained;
Birds are hushed and flowers in blushes all too swiftly wane.
Would that from my ribbed sides a pair of wings might spring

That to heaven's height with the flowers I my flight might wing.
Yet on heaven's height
Where to find their gathering 2
No! 'twere better the fair form embroidered shroud should wrap,
Gaiety be mounded o'er with fresh earth for a lap;
That which cleanly entered life as cleanlily depart,
Not abandoned to the gutter or defiled with foul mishap.
Poor dead flowers! I buried you to-day within earth's breast,

Not divining when my body must be laid to rest;
I, who buried flowers for pity, men would laugh to scorn:
Soon the mourner, as the flowers, to the grave must be addressed.
Thus the Spring must waste away, thus the flowers are gone;
Nature's hues and human beauty perish one by one;
One brief morning's dream of Spring and beauty hastens to old age;
Falling flowers and dying mortals pass alike to the unknown.
One interesting fact about Chinese fiction should not be omit

ted. It came to us almost as a shock of surprise that all this
branch of literature is comparatively modern. There are many dif
CHINESE FICTION. I5
HsEN-T. THE ELDER of THE THREE CoveNANT BROTHERs, AFTERwARDs RULER

of ONE OF THE THREE KINGDOMs INTo WHICH CHINA was DIVIDED,
A. D., 221685. See p. 20. (From the San Auo Yen Yi.)
I6 CHINESE FICTION.
ficulties connected with dates and authorship, but it seems certain

that most if not all the books we have enumerated have been writ
ten within the last three dynasties. Of course the events related
in the semi-historic novels belong to the distant past, the mighty
actors and the stirring scenes of the Chou and the Han and
the pious pilgrimages of the Tang dynasties. But we have not
been able to trace the authorship of any novel to an earlier age
than the times of the Mongols. There seems no doubt that the
great masterpiece, the San Kuo Tzu, was produced at this time.
This was China's golden age of fiction, but the production extended
on through the Ming and into the present dynasty, to which the
Hung Lou Meng and the Liao Tsai belong. The vast mass of fic
tion is later than Kang Hsi and is being added to at the present
time. This is a refreshing change. In reading Chinese books,
ethics, poetry, history, it is so difficult to escape the belief that
everything is a millennium old.
Let us commence our review with the work just referred to,
the San Kuo Tzu or History of the Three Kingdoms, a novel of
novels, which if it were the only work of fiction that the Chinese
had ever produced, it would be impossible to deny their claim to
be an imaginative people. It is of fine proportions, one hundred
and twenty long chapters, the reputed author Lo Kuan Chung, a
great genius gone down to oblivion with nothing left us but a name
and this product of his pen. The story is semi-historical, that is
about as historical as the Waverley novels, with which it may be
compared, and the events cover nearly a century of time. As Shake
speare borrowed his historical facts from Hollingshead, so this
author is indebted to an earlier but very dull work by Ch'en Hsou.
Williams, in the Middle Kingdom, confuses the two. The work has
been embellished with very racy notes from the pen of Mao Sheng
San, a brilliant littrateur, and to these again are added most ex
tensive introductions to each several chapter by Chin Sheng T'an,
as much a prince among literary critics as Chu Shi was a prince
of commentators. These two great writers and scholars have
agreed to set the stamp of their approval on the work. Their
names take the place of the author's on the title page. Thus in
reading text or notes or introductory passages you are amongst the
best models of Chinese style. If asked what book in Chinese fur
nished the best example of the power of the Chinese language we
should say the San Kuo Tzu. For simplicity, force, and fertility of
imagination, it is unsurpassed in any language. The author has
done his work with inimitable skill. While his diction is charged
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THE DEATH OF LUNG-CHO, which SHE DID BY AN INTRIGUE IN which SHE
PLAYED CLEvERLY A DouBLE PART BETweeN HIM AND L-PU. See p. 20.
(From the San Kuo Wen Yi.)
IS CHINESE FICTION.
with the richest metaphor it is chosen so simply that in spite of his

use of Wenli particles the Chinese characterise it as a book in
the Mandarin dialect. He has interspersed it with numerous
rhymes of no very high order, more stilted and less poetic than
the prose, but serving admirably the double purpose of mnemonics
to assist the memory and morals to apply the lessons. He is a
writer brilliant and perspicuous as Macaulay, simple as John
Bunyan.
Let us try to interest our readers in him by offering, with
apologies for its clumsiness, a prose translation of the little poem
with which he introduces himself:
The ceaseless stream of time, how its waters roll ever eastward.
The gifted and the brave are engulfed in its curling wave;
And right and wrong, and success and defeat, are gone with a turn of the head.
While as of old the green hills remain,
In a trice the sun reddens to even.
We old men, white-headed, at leisure; we spend our days as fishers and fuel
gatherers on our little isle in the stream.
We regard only the Autumn moon and the breezes of Spring.
With a pot of common wine we gleefully meet together,
And the past and the present, with all their concerns, are but food for a pleasant
tale."
The story opens with the fall of the Han dynasty. At the
accession of the Emperor Ling disorders break out at court, and
gloomy omen's presage distress. The scene passes to the neigh
borhood of P'ing Yuen in Shantung, where three mysterious broth
ers, possessors of magic powers, appear at the head of rebel hordes
who gather in strength myriadfold. The monarch is feeble, his
empire is ruled by eunuchs, but speeding through the kingdom are
requisitions for volunteers to arm and oppose the Yellow Cap
rebels. The spirit of loyalty is awakened, and now the heroes of
the story, the three immortal brothers, appear on the scene. Liu
Pei is of royal lineage but poor and unknown. He is twenty-eight
years of age as he stands sighing before the placard summoning
loyal subjects to battle, and Ch'ang Fei's abrupt greeting falls on
his ears: If a big fellow like you will not help his country, why
do you sigh so deeply? They adjourn to an inn, and while at their
wine Kuan Yuin Ch'ang enters wheeling a barrow. He joins their
conference and they declare their purpose to risk their all in up
holding the house of Han. Liu Pei is a dealer in shoes and plaiter
of mats, Kuan Yuin Ch'ang a refugee, Ch'ang Fei a seller of wine
and a butcher of pigs. The famous Covenant of the Peach Or
L-PU, A BRAvE WARRIOR AND RIDER OF RED-HARE, THE FAMOUs HoRSE.
THE MURDERER of TUNG-CHO, WHose FAvoRITE HE HAD BEEN.
See p. 20. (From the San Kuo Yen Yi.)
2O CHINESE FICTION.
chard is conceived in the happiest spirit of romance and forms one

of the most striking of the many episodes with which the book
abounds.
Let us take a short passage, once more with apologies for the
translation; and here first our readers shall have a picture of a
Chinese hero:
He stood nine feet in height and his beard was two feet long. His face was
like a heavy date, and his lips as rouge. With eyes like the red phoenix and brows
where silk-worms might nestle: stern and lofty was his countenance, and his bear
ing awful and menacing."
This is the original of the countless images scattered all over
China. You see one every time you enter a Kuan Ti temple, for
this man is the Mars of China.
But now for the covenant. The peaches, he is careful to tell
us, are in full bloom.
Next day in the peach orchard they prepared a black ox and a white horse
for sacrifice, with all other things needful, and the three men burnt incense, and
after repeated obeisances pronounced their oath, which read: Liu Pei, Kuan Yu,
and Ch'ang Fei, though of different families, yet as we have joined in brotherhood
with heart and strength to succor distress and support the weak, to show loyalty to
the Kingdom and to secure peace to the common people, care not to have been
born at the same time, we would only that we might die together. May Imperial
Heaven and our Royal Mother Earth search truly our hearts, and him who proves
traitor to the vow or forgets this grace may Heaven and men combine to slay."
The oath ended, they did obeisance to Hsuen Te as elder
brother, to Kuan Yu as next in rank, and to Ch'ang Fei as
youngest.
Then when they had finished their sacrifice to heaven, they
slew another ox, brought on the wine, and gathered the braves of
their district, more than three hundred in number, to the peach
orchard, where they drank to intoxication.
Next morning they are up betimes and off to the front of battle.
With true epic instinct and with a fire and force of spirit, to which
all material is plastic, the author proceeds to unroll the panorama
of events. Tung Cho's usurpation and the wiles of the maiden
Tiao Ch'an, Lu Pu's masculine beauty and invincible skill in bat
tle, Ts'ao Ts'ao, matchless in guile, kingly in statecraft, and his
path in warfare untraceable, Sun Chien strong and inexpugnable,
the piteous state of the fugitive child-prince : on through treachery
and bloodshed and ambuscade, the ceaseless shock of spears and
ring of bucklers, with the twang of strong bow-strings and the hiss
of poison-tipped arrows. Slowly and dubiously the three brothers
with their small band rise to power, till the unfathomable Chu Ko
CHINESE FICTION. 2I
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See p 20. (From the San Kuo Yen Yi.)
22 CHINESE FICTION.
Liang is wooed from his retreat to become the Moltke of a rude

wild age, and, espousing their side, unites magical resources with
military strategy to make their cause victorious. He can call the
rain and whistle the wind and shape wonderful automata that serve
as battle steeds. He can read the secrets of men's breasts and
fathom even Ts'ao Ts'ao's plans. All over the land the turmoil
sweeps, the tide of battle rolling now east, now west, and now
south, as Chu Ko goes to subdue the Man Tzu. A scene of wild
confusion, change, and strife; battle everywhere; in palace and
camp, in valley defiles, among mountain fastnesses, on land, on
water, among the countless boats of Wu. And through it all the
one golden thread of loyalty, the argument which gives unity to
the story, is never lost sight of, and through it all the mighty
three, true as steel in triumph and reverse, hold on their steadfast
way. At last the storm sinks through sheer exhaustion and ends,
not in complete victory, for Kuan Yuin Ch'ang has been trepanned
in battle and put to death by Sun Chien, and Chu Ko Liang's vic
torious career has been checked by Ssu Ma Yi. But Hsuen Te is
king of Shu, and a settled compromise is reached in the formation
of the Three Kingdoms.
This writer is great. He loves his characters, they are living
and distinct, each has his individuality and separate portraiture,
Ts'ao Ts'ao, subtle, treacherous; Kuan Yuin Ch'ang, brave, gen
erous; Ch'ang Fei, rash, coarse, but true; Hsuen Te, thoughtful,
kingly; they are men; loving, hating, striving, boastful, magnan
imous, often doing generous deeds, always their hearts throbbing
with strong human passion. Then how he has contrived to image
all the life and all the manners of the age, so that the China of by
gone days glows on his pages, so that as his witty commentator
says of the San Kuo Tzu that it is Wu shuo puyu"Nothing
that it has not got. How fond he is of incidents and genealogies,
with what loving tenderness or reiterated mention he dwells on this
and on that. Hsia Hou Tun swallowing his own eye, Yu Chis
priestcraft, Hua To's magic in surgery, Kung M'ing's harp, Yun
Ch'ang's sword, Lu Pu's spear, and the famous horse Red Hare,
that would go a thousand li in a day and cross water and mount
hills as though on even ground.
The San Kuo Tzu may be characterised in one comparison. It
is the Iliad of China. This was first pointed out by Sir John
Davis. Many of the qualities of old Homer are in it, consummate
dramatic art (which alone redeems the Greek epic from insuffer
able dulness), supreme love of battle, extravagant admiration of
CHINESE FICTION. 23
CHU-Ko-LIANG, THE MoLTKE of HIS AGE, A FAMoUs GENERAL OF THE HAN

DYNASTY. See p. 20. (From the San Ruo Yen Yi.)
24 CHINESE FICTION.
bravery and feats of arms, wide and universal sympathy which

puts him in touch with all his characters, fondness for detail, and
copiousness, which leads him to pour into it the most miscellan
eous facts, lists, names; skill in blending the supernatural with the
ordinary course of events (for the San Kuo Tzu has its machinery
as much as the Iliad), consuming patriotism that makes everything
interesting which affects his country. It scarcely yields to the Iliad
in fire and spirit and descriptive power. Like the Iliad, it makes
its heroes utter bragging speeches on the battle-field and do single
handed deeds of derring-do. Like the Iliad, it mingles strategy
with force and makes the sage the companion of the hero. Like
the Iliad, it is the darling of a nations heart because it has best
imaged forth what they most love and admire. For it is immensely
popular in China. Your 'rikisha coolie, if you are lucky in him,
can probably tell you more of this book than I can. It is drawn
upon copiously for the rude plays which the people passionately
love, its incidents are repeated in endless recitals in the tea-shops,
its heroes are glorified in the national imagination, one was a king,
another is still a god, and the burning passion of a nations life has
poured itself into this tale of a glorious past. Strangely enough,
not its author, but its lively annotator, like Homer, was blind. We
will part with it with one other specimen, Kuan Kung's first great
victory.
The champion, Hua Shiung, is vaunting in front of the army,
and the princes are deliberating in the tent whom they shall send
against him. He has just slain two bold heroes opposed to him
and their hearts sink with misgiving.
The general, Shao, said Alas my chief generals, Yen Liang
and Wen Chou, have not yet come. If only we had a man here we
need not fear Hua Shiung...
Before he had finished speaking from below the step which led
into the tent a loud voice called out, I will go, will cut off Hua
Shiung's head and present it before your tent.
They all looked at him and saw a man who stood nine feet in
height, with a beard two feet long. His face was like a heavy
date and his lips as rouge. With eyes like the red phoenix and
brows where silkworms might nestle. Stern and lofty was his
countenance, and his bearing awful and menacing.
Mark this. Precisely the same description as you have had
before. Pope has a long passage in the introduction to his Homer
in which he defends his constant practice of repeating his epithets.
Here we have just the same trick. It is a remnant of oral epics. If
Ts'Ao-Ts'Ao, THE VILLAIN of THE San Auo Yen Yi. His SoN BECAME
RULER of THE Second of THE THREE KINGDoMs. See p. 22.
(From the San Auo Yen Yi.)
26 CHINESE FICTION.
the matter is something which takes hold of the imagination the

people like to hear it repeated, as children love to hear the story
over again. There is just one addition:
His voice was like a great bell, and as he stood before the
tent Shao asked :
Who is this?
Kung Sun Tsan said, This is Liu Shuen Te's brother,
Kuan Yu.
Shao asked, What rank does he hold P
Tsan replied, He follows Hsuen Te as a mounted bow
man.
Then Yuen Shu cried angrily from the tent, Do you wish to
flout our princes with the want of a general? How is it that a com
mon bowman dares to talk nonsense in this presence P
But Ts'ao Ts'ao hurriedly stopped him saying: He must be
a brave man to speak so boldly, and methinks you would do well
to try him. If he does not succeed it will be time enough to re
buke him.
But, Yuen Shao objected, if we send a mere bowman to
fight Hua Shiung will laugh at us.
Ts'ao Ts'ao replied, This man's appearance and bearing are
uncommon. How should Hua Shiung know that he is only a bow
man P
If I do not conquer let me be beheaded myself, said Kuan
Yu.
Upon this Ts'ao Ts'ao heated a cup of wine to give him as he
mounted his horse. Pour out the wine, said Kuan Yu, I go
before I drink and be back directly.
He left the tent, took his sword, flew on to his horse, and the
princes heard without the gate the thundering sound of drums and
the clamorous shouts rising, as though the heaven was moved, as
though the earth had fallen in; it was like the shaking of lofty
peaks and the downfall of mountains. They all trembled with
alarm, but before they could inquire what was the matter, the
tinkling bells jingled as the horse came back into the ranks, and
Yun Ch'ang appeared with the head of Hua Shiung and threw it
on the ground.
And his wine was still warm.
He had done it in the time which it took the cup of wine,
poured out before he started, to be cool enough to drink.
This is genius, the sparing touch of a master's hand. Do not
misunderstand the comparison we made to the Iliad. We cannot
CHINESE FICTION. 27
HUA-T'o, THE FAMoUs SURGEON . See p. 22. (From the San Auo Yen Yi.)
28 CHINESE FICTION.
pretend to the knowledge of the subject and the critical capacity

which would enable us to compare Lo Kuan Chung's book with
Homer's and adjudge their respective merits, nor could our read
ers so divest themselves of preconceived ideas as to take the Iliad
in one hand and this in the other and give an unbiased judgment.
Here is none of the fineness and delicacy of the old Greek spirit,
and it is in prose, not verse. Yet it must be remembered that this
prose, like all the best writings of the Chinese, notably the four
books, is most rhythmic, and maugre its prose style it is virtually
an epic. Where it should stand in the list we will not venture
to say, but it is the work of a most gifted artist, and whether we
s recognise the fact or not, it deserves as much to be ranked with the
world's great books (perhaps in the humblest place) as the Iliad,
the AEneid, the Jerusalem, the Orlando Furioso, the Niebelungen
Lied, or the Paradise Lost.
This novel is typical of a whole class, the historical novel.
The two others we have on our list of this kind are the Annals of
the Water Marshes and the Contending States of the Eastern Chou.
Of these we shall have no room for extended illustrations.
Take the latter one first. The Chinese regard it as something
like authentic history. It is not a book for conscientious reading.
The parts of it which alone can pretend to be serious history con
stitute such a crowd of names of persons, names of places, and
dates, which with an elaborate show of order are jumbled into a
hopeless state of confusion, that if your intellect withstands the
strain, you are assured against a lunatic asylum for the rest of your
days. But having in mind the delicacy of the cerebral organisa
tion in man, we would not advise our readers to risk it. You are
familiar with the confusion which arises in the unstudious mind
from reading the book of Chronicles, and finding the events and
dates of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel recorded contempo
raneously. The writer hops to and fro from Israel to Judah with
an alacrity which you cannot imitate, and you find yourself every
now and then in Israel when you ought to be in Judah, hobnob
bing with Jehosophat when you ought to be walking with Ahab in
Naboth's vineyard. But that is lucidity itself compared with this.
This is as though a man should undertake to write the history of
the Saxon Heptarchy, carrying the whole seven kingdoms along
on his back in one continuous narrative, and keeping the other six
in your mind as he speaks of each one. Only, guessing at it, we
should think there are thirty or forty of them instead of seven.
The sole redeeming merit of the book is its lies. The author him
CHINESE FICTION. 29
self, or else one of his editors, warns you what to expect. In the
introduction to the work he tells you that all other light litera
ature, such as the Shui Hu, the Shih Yu, and the Feng Shen Yen
Yi, are a pack of falsehoods, the San Kuo Tzu alone having a meas
ure of truth in it, but the Lieh Kuo is different, being true in every
detail and in every sentence, that as he is unable to record the
whole truth, where should he have the time to add make-ups, and
though on this account it is less readable, yet its thoroughly relia
ble character is its recommendation. Sancta Simplicitas. And
then we have amongst court chronicles and battle scenes, unillum
ined by a spark of fire or life, such an endless series of absurd and
superstitious legends as were never launched on the world before
or since. They are all detailed in a tone of pious severity, but that
does not hinder them from being so extravagant, miraculous, and
scandalous, that Herodotus would blush to own them. It is the
most magnificent collection of historic yarns which China, as pro
lific in these as it is in proverbs, can boast. These, and these
alone, if you skip judiciously, make the book readable.
In the Annals of the Water Marshes we come back to a book
much like the Three Kingdoms but of a lower strain. It contains
less history and more personal narrative. Its style is phenomenal.
Coarse, direct, graphic, intense, each word is like a fierce stroke
from a graver's tool. If you have any notion that Mandarin Chi
nese is unexpressive, read this book. Here is the rude strength of
the mountain quarryman, who cleaves deep into the heart of the
rock; wild, fierce, sincere, Dante himself is not more terse and
vivid. In the one quality of power, rugged, relentless, gloomy,
like a storm-beat precipice, there is no book in Chinese to equal it,
and no book in any language to surpass it. It is all pictures, struck
with sharp, rough, but masterful strokes, and all the pictures are
silhouettes. -
In one respect this book is the very opposite of the Three

Aingdoms. That rings all through with the clarion-tone of loyalty;
this echoes only the harsh and menacing tone of rebellion. It rep
resents the sinister side of the shield, discontented China. Its plot
is laid in the time of Hui Tsung, one of the Sung emperors, and it
is occupied in detailing the exploits of one hundred and eight fa
mous outlaws whose stronghold was Liang San amongst the Water
Marshes. The stern, implacable demand of the undaunted rebel
spirit for a justice which the law is too feeble and too corrupt to
give, is enforced with terrible emphasis, and, as in Victor Hugo's
Les Misrables, or Schiller's Robbers, we get a deep insight into
3o CHINESE FICTION.
cruelties and oppressions done in an age when right is defenceless

and authority takes the side of the wrong-doer. This book illus
trates one somewhat repulsive side of Chinese humor. The fact is
not generally known in the Western World, but nearly every one
who has been long resident in China is aware that he is known
among the natives around him by a name which he neither derived
from his parents nor received at the baptismal font, one quite un
classical and generally not flattering. You can usually get to know
other people's but not your own. Nobody can nickname like the
Chinese. Their genius in this direction is preternatural. In this
novel we have a fine display of it. The Little Whirlwind,
Jade Unicorn, The Leopard-Headed, The Devil's Neigh
bor, Hail-Fire, and The Black Whirlwind, are but a few of
them. The book is the work of a powerful mind, though it is hung
over with menace and gloom. Unscrupulous, defiant, stern as the
fates, but true in covenant and brave in conflict, these men and
women are not of the smiling, temperate, human sort; they are
terrible; beings of the cave and the mountain den. On account of
its subject the book is a forbidden one, but in China that is no hin
drance to your getting it if you want to.
>k
2k >k
But now let us give our readers a change. We are tempted

here to let a bit of our secret peep out and tell them at once that
Chinese fiction broadly divides itself in our mind into a three-fold
classification; the historic, the mythic, and the sentimental. His
tory, under the potent spell of that mighty magician, the imagina
tive faculty, shades off on the spiritual side into the formless region
of myth, where man vainly tries to express the mysterious and in
expressible side of his nature, and on the other side melts into
the sentimental, where he finds happy play for its human side.
Now of the mythical novels we have four specimens on our
listThe Exorcising of the Devils, Diversions of a Studio, The
Apotheosis of Spirits, and The Western Excursion. This is a very
important branch of Chinese fiction and is the fountain-head to
which you must go if you would explore the folk-lore of the East.
And it is only by knowing this that you can get at the roots of
that inextricably twisted jungle-forest of superstition which chokes
and shadows the Chinese mind. The Exorcising of the Devils is
a kind of /ack the Giant Killer allegory. The Diversions of a Stu
dio is a collection of short stories, something in the line of the
Arabian Nights, where magical transformations and scenes of glit
tering enchantment abound, but all on the hypothesis that foxes
CHINESE FICTION. 3I
constitute an intermediate order of being between the human and

the demoniac, and that they assume at will the form of beautiful
men and women. Their appearances are always sudden, like that
of fairies, and, like fairies, they come with rich gifts, but inter
course with them is baneful. The book is exquisitely written in
the most refined classic style, but as there is a translation we will
say no more about it. About the third one we will say nothing at
all, because we have not read it. We will take the Shih Yu, The
Western Excursion, as our type of the mythical novel.
Every one knows of the journey of Shuen Tsang to India to
seek the Buddhist Canons. It was a journey full of danger, hard
ship and marvel. The author of our story is said to have made a
similar journey in Mongol times. However that may be, he has
used Shuen Tsang's pilgrimage as the foundation on which to build
a superstructure containing all the most noted myths of Buddhist
and Taoist beliefs. It is at the same time an extended allegory of
a very subtle character, running into spiritual meanings of the first
and second and even the third degree. Shuen Tsang is supposed
to be the brother of one of the T'ang emperors who had become a
priest, and who made a pious vow to perform the journey to India
and fetch the holy books. But as there are always difficulties in
the good man's path, he soon finds that this is no holiday excur
sion, but quite another guess matter. As soon as he begins to turn
his steps westward his way is obstructed by the most unexampled
hindrances. There are giants that want to eat him up and sorcer
esses that would fain betray him. He is put to it most sorely, for
all the nether regions seem astir to prevent his progress. But on
the other hand the celestial powers are propitious, and by dint of
giving him some most marvellous travelling companions, and fre
quent interferences from the goddess of mercy herself, he is kept
scatheless. Even the imperial sovereign of the skies, the great Yu
Huang, is deeply interested in these bustling affairs. The first
thing he knows he is caught up and swept off on the wings of a
whirlwind by a beautiful enchantress who would have him as the
companion of her bower, and his protectors have the most unheard
of trouble to get him out of her clutches. He finds a betrayed
maiden weeping sore in the forest, buried up to her waist in the
earth, rescues her by the aid of his travelling companion, and takes
her with him to the nearest monastery, full of pity for her distress.
But this lovely maiden is a complete fraud, as like Armida in fact
as you can expect any one woman to be like another. Sun Shing
Che, his right-hand man, is at his prayers at midnight, when she
32 CHINESE FICTION.
steals on him and assails him with the most seductive arts. But he
is a deep, suspicious customer, and has been all along persuaded
that there is something wrong with her. He is not to be cajoled,
but in the twinkling of an eye he finds her transformed into an Am
azon of fearful might, vomiting smoke and fire, and wielding a
magic sword of preternatural sharpness. In fact, you soon begin
0. to see that this is a Pilgrim's Progress and a Faerie Queene all
in one.
This Sun Shing Che is himself a most wonderful being. The
author has so far anticipated the Darwinian theory, or rather
Bishop Wilberforce's jocular description of it, as to derive his ori
gin from a monkey. He has been immortalised by the gods, and
in virtue of necromatic study, is gifted with extraordinary powers
of levitation, by means of which, like Puck, he can put a girdle
round about the earth in forty minutes. He has another trifling
accomplishment in the way of being able to transform himself at
will into the form and faculty of any member of the animal or in
sect kingdom. He has had escapades in the heavenly regions, such
as stealing the golden peaches of Paradise, and letting loose the
steeds of the immortals. A burly, humorous, infinitely mischiev
ous kind of Puck. He is a champion to one's mind, wielding an
iron staff with golden bands, which he got out of the sea-dragons
cave under the ocean, which was several thousand catties in weight
originally, but which he judiciously reduced by a few hundred cat
ties, so as to make it handy. When he finds it inconvenient to
carry, it can be diminished to the magnitude of a needle, which he
sticks in his ear. With a travelling companion like this and two or
three others, notably one who fights with a rake, the devout pil
grim has a good prospect of getting through.
Many, however, are the risks they run, and most various the
inducements held out to them to abandon the object of their pil
grimage. Here is a specimen of their adventures.
They are treading their way westwards through green hills and
shining waters, where they behold an endless luxuriance of vegeta
tion, and where flowers of every hue abound. But the way is long
and evening draws on apace, so the chief pilgrim puts the some
what human inquiry, Where shall we go to rest for the night?
The reply of Shing Che is in the most approved style of pious de
votion, but not comforting to flesh and blood:
My father, he who has left home and become a priest must
dine on the wind and lodge in the water, lie down under the moon
CHINESE FICTION. 33
and sleep in the frost; everywhere is his home, why then ask
where shall we rest?
This is all very well for our lightsome Puck, but Pa Chieh,
who is the burden-bearer and carries the pilgrim's baggage, which
is not inconsiderable, regards the division of labor as unequal; and
at any rate would like some more matter-of-fact arrangement for
the night. At a blow from Sun Shing Che's staff Shuen Tsang's
horse has started forward at a great pace, so that from the brow of
a hill Shuen Tsang espies in the distance a grove of cypress trees,
beneath the shade of which is a large enclosure, which they decide
to make for as a place of rest. On approaching it they find that it
is all that heart could desire, in fact a spacious establishment of
some magnificence, as near a palace as they can expect to come at
in those regions. As there is no sign of inhabitants, Shing Che
makes his way inside, and finds that it offers very attractive quar
ters. While he is looking round on black varnished tables and
gilded pillars a large scroll meets his eye on which the motto is
certainly inviting: Gentle willows hung with floss, and on the
bridge the level sun at eve. In snowy flakes the scattered bloom
has filled the court with spring.
While he is examining this, a lady about middle life, but of
very charming appearance and bearing, steps into the court from
an inner room with the inquiry, Who is it that has ventured to
intrude upon the household of a widow P In truth according to
Eastern etiquette he is in an embarrassing situation. But the lady
is most affable, and as he explains their condition, cordially invites
them in to rest for the night. They all enter, and Pa Chieh, who
is by no means beyond human infirmities, casts more than one sly
glance at the lady, whose attractions are thus described in rhyme:
The clouds of hair upon her brow aslant like phoenix wings,
And set with many a precious pearl her pendant earrings.
No artifice of paint' she needs her natural charms to aid,
Yet gay and winsome is she still as any youngest maid.
The natural way of opening acquaintance is by describing their

respective circumstances, and on her part the widow lady tells
them that she has been left in possession of riches in abundance,
her husband's parents having died as well as her husband, leaving
her in charge of three beautiful daughters with three very pretty
namesTruth, Love, and Pity. There is nothing like a Chinese
novel for a surprise, and our private opinion is that the holy pil
grims were taken at a disadvantage of an unwarrantable kind,
when the lovely widow made a plump proposal to them, not simply
34 CHINESE FICTION.
on her own behalf, but also on the part of her daughters three, and
in a very business-like way pointed out the advantages the four
pilgrims would derive from a quadruple marriage, which would se
cure to each of them a charming wife and store of wealth for the
rest of their days. In fact, in her view they cannot do better than
finish their journey here and be happy ever afterwards. Induce
ments are manifold. She has mountain lands for trees and fruit,
and broad fields for grain, and flooded fields for rice, and of each
kind more than five thousand acres. She has horses and oxen,
pigs and sheep beyond all count, and farmsteads some sixty or sev
enty, on her vast domain. The grain of a dozen years is rotting in
her granaries for want of eating, and mountains of silks and satins
are being moth-eaten for want of wear. As for silver and gold, if
the four pilgrims should turn prodigals they could not contrive to
spend it in a lifetime. Prosperous Job himself was but a portion
less beggar compared with her. To say nothing of herself and her
lovely daughters, and though she is becomingly modest about her
own attractions, they are not only the most surpassingly beautiful
but the most completely accomplished of living maidens.
All this Shuen Tsang hears unmoved except by anger, not sus
pecting her guile but enraged that she should so tempt him from
his heavenly purpose. Then ensues a contest between the lady
and himself, of which we had hoped to offer our readers a transla
tion, but no ingenuity we can command will avail to twist it into
presentable English verse. The respective advantages of a life of
worldly ease and of celibate devotion are sung by the two cham
pions, and at the conclusion of the wordy contest the lady, finding
her persuasions futile, angrily retires, slamming the door on them
and leaving them seated in the hall disconsolate and unprovided
for. During this scene the covetous Pa Chieh has taken another
view of the situation. He would have been glad to close with the
widow's terms, but seeing that may not be, he steals round to the
back and secures a private interview, in which he seeks to arrange
a marriage on his own account. Certain difficulties arise, mainly
on account of his lack of masculine attractions, for as Sun Shing
Che wears a monkey's form, so he wears a pig's, and his long face
and big ears are objectionable. But the lady is not altogether un
compliant. She is at once so far mollified as to provide for the en
tertainment of the travellers, and in the meantime, through the
prescience of Sun Shing Che, Pa Chieh's clandestine interview is
made known to his chief. They thereupon, after sundry passages
between them, insist upon his retiring within the household in the
CHINESE FICTION. 35
character of a son-in-law, the other three remaining merely as

guests in the guest-chamber.
But now a new difficulty of a knotty kind starts up. The
widow is apparently willing to give him one of her three daughters
to wife, but for the life of her cannot decide which is to be the fa
vored one. If she weds him to Truth, Love will feel neglected,
and if to Love or to Pity, Truth will naturally feel aggrieved. In
this dilemma, or rather trilemma, a very cunning expedient occurs
to her. She proposes to blindfold him with a handkerchief and then
turn the three girls in on him and let him have whichever he can
catch. Perhaps it was a supreme proof of courage, though not of
discretion, for Pa Chieh is quite willing to do wittingly what many
a man has had to do in real life unwittinglyplay at blind man's
buff for a wife. Yet as all three were consummately beautiful and
accomplished, his chances could not be said to be so bad.
But alas ! this was only another of those best laid schemes
destined to gang a glee. The bandage was tied over his eyes,
he found himself groping in darkness, the tinkling sound of female
trinkets was all around him, the odor of musk was in his nostrils,
like fairy forms they fluttered about him, but he could no more
grasp one than he could clutch a shadow. Right and left, to and
fro, he groped and fumbled. More female forms than he could
count were round him, but in vain he thought to hold one. One
way and another he ran till he was too giddy to stand, and could
only stumble helplessly about. Eastward it was a pillar he em
braced, westward he ran against a wooden partition, forwards
against the leaves of the door, backwards into the wall, bumping
and banging, head and heels, until with swollen tongue and bruised
head, he could only sit down panting.
Thus reduced to a state of mingled exhaustion and imbecility,
he was fain to seek a parley, for, as he expressed it, they were
much too slippery for him. Then his mother-in-law by anticipa
tion unloosed his bandage and gently broke to him the intelligence
that it was not their slipperiness but their extreme modesty which
had prevented a capture, each of them being generously wishful to
forego her claims in favor of one of her sisters. In fine, it was the
old story, so true also in real life, that a lady is extremely difficult
to catch when she is unwilling to be caught. Upon this he be
comes very importunate and urges his suit in a most indiscriminate
fashion for either one of her daughters, or for the mother herself
or for all three or all four. This is beyond all conscience, but as
an escape from their perplexity, the widow proposes a new crite
36 CHINESE FICTION.
rion of choice. Each of her daughters wears a certain garment, an

inner vest, embroidered in jewels and gold. He is to be allowed to
*| \\
A CURIOUS GAME AT BLIND MAN's BUFF.

(From an illustrated edition of the Shih Yu.)
try on one of these, and, in case he can get it on, he is to marry
the lady who owns it. He consents, only modestly stipulating that
CHINESE FICTION. 37
he shall have a try with all three and succeed according to his de
serts. There is no difficulty as to size, for, as most people know,
all garments whatever in China would be roomy enough for Go
liath. The good lady brings one in and he finds that one enough,
for no sooner has he got it on, just as he is tying the cord round
his waist, than it transforms itself to strong bands of rope wound
round every limb. He rolls over in excruciating pain, and as he
does so the curtain of enchantment falls and the beauties and the
palace disappear.
Next morning his three companions wake up, also to find the
scene changed. As the east shone white they opened their eyes
and raised their heads, only to see that the great mansion and lofty
hall, the carved beams and ornamental pillars had all disappeared,
and they had been sleeping all night on the ground under the
cypress grove.
But where was their errant companion, the eager bridegroom
of the adventure ? After a short search he was found bound fast to
a tree and yelling with pain. They cut him down bruised and
crestfallen, to pursue the journey sadder but wiser, and subject to
many a gibe from his mischievous companions.
Or as a specimen of the marvellous play of imagination which
this book affords, take the episode of the burning mountain. The
pilgrims find it getting hotter and hotter as they proceed, and on
resting for the night at a village by the roadside are told that they
can go no further in that direction, as there is an enormous moun
tain in their path all on fire which reduces the whole region to
sterility and which they can neither cross nor get round. Our
active lieutenant and man of all work, by the simple expedient of
questioning a vendor of pulse at the door, learns that the only way
to deal with this obstacle is to obtain the loan of a certain palm
leaf fan, made of iron, which will put the fire out. It is in the
hands of the iron-fan fairy, who dwells in a palm-leaf cave on a
mountain called Tsui Yun San, Beautiful Cloud Mountain. It is
fifteen hundred li away. That is of no consequence, says Wu
Shing Che, and before you can wink he was there. But he finds it
no such simple matter. This fairy, called also Lo Sah, is wife to
the ox-demon king, and a female of an uncertain disposition. Be
sides, while she is a sort of aunt to our doughty adventurer, he
suddenly recollects that she has an ancient grudge against him,
and it is more than likely that she will not put this indispensable
fan at his disposal. However, he goes on the principle that faint
heart never won fair lady, and puts a good face on the matter.
38 CHINESE FICTION.
#
*
#
#
THE QUENCHING of THE BURNING MoUNTAIN.

CHINESE FICTION. 39
The old lady is distinctly pugilistic, and they turn to with sword
and staff and have a royal battle there on the mountain. Sun
Shing is likely to get the better of her, but she lends him the use
of the fan in a sense he did not anticipate. She gives it one wave,
and to his amazement he is blown on the breath of a hyperborean
hurricane, against which he is helpless, and alights only by hold
ing hard on to a rock by both hands, fifty thousand li away, being
lucky to stop at that. Here he is helped by a friend, who gives
him a pill which he is to swallow, and then he can stand comfort
ably in the strongest wind that ever blew. Away he hies back, and
this time the fan waves in vain. Then the old woman retires in
side and slams the door on him. He turns into a bee, flies through
a crack of the door, and after a most surprising battle gets the fan
and makes off with it like lightning.
So now he will succeed, he thinks, and he will show his com
panions how it is done. They go as far toward the mountain as
they can for the heat and flame. Then Shing Che raised the fan,
and advancing near to the fire waved it with all his might. At the
first wave the blazing fire of the hill burst forth with intense heat.
At the second wave it increased a hundred-fold. He tried a third,
and the flame rose at least ten thousand feet high and singed all
the hair off his legs before he could get back to Shuen Tsang. He
cried out, Back! Back! Fire ! Fire ! Shuen Tsang mounted his
horse, and they all had to run for their lives.
Here's a pretty kettle of fish. The old aunty has played him a
jade's trick. She has cunningly given him the wrong fan. We
have no time to follow it in detail. Amongst other things, he
learns, for there is deep symbolism here, that this fire-flaming
mountain was kindled by himself, goodness knows how long ago.
But he is not to be beaten. He personates the old lady's husband,
who is playing truant with a younger fair, and goes through a very
sentimental scene with her in this character, not, however, passing
the bounds of propriety, if you remember the maxim, All's fair in
love and war. By this treacherous device he worms the secret out
of her, and finds that the right fan, the genuine article, is a little
thing, the size of an apricot leaf, but which can be magnified by
touching a point in its stalk into twelve feet long. This he gets
and again makes off. However, the ox-demon king is on his track,
and as personification is a game at which two can play, he appears
in the guise of Sun Shing's companion offering to carry the fan,
which, that worthy having magnified, he does not know how to
minimize, and on its being handed to him makes away back to the
40 CHINESE FICTION.
cave with it. Now Sun Shing's blood is up, and after a tremon
dous fight he gets final possession of it, and is once more before
-%-
-
-
THE STEALING of THE MAGIC FAN.

the mountain with his companions. In the meantime the ma
chinery is invoked, various celestial beings are on the scene wait
CHINESE FICTION. 4I
ing for the all-important event, and after due ceremonial he

took the fan, swung it one wave with all his might, and that fiery
flaming mountain slowly settled to rest, and the blaze went out.
Shing Che, greatly pleased, fanned one more stroke, and softly
sighing winds began to move; at the third wave over the whole
heavens the clouds gathered dense, and the gentle rain fell thick
and pattering.
Scandinavian legends and Thor's journey to Jotunland cannot
surpass this.
We have now only the sentimental novels to deal with. Of
these there are seven on our list, but their characteristics must be
summarised. The best known amongst them, either to foreigners **
or natives, is the Dream of the Red Loft. We are not ourselves
enamored of it; there are some pretty sentimental songs in it, but
a weary lot of tiresome repetition of trivial details. Its recom
mendation to foreigners is that it is full of conversations in first
rate Pekinese; but if aristocratic life in China is anything like this
picture of itdressy, vain, empty, proud, idle, sentimental, licen
tiousit is a wretched existence.
Seeking a Match is a very surprising story, and affords the most
graphic representation of the wiles and tricks of the unscrupulous
Celestial to be found anywhere. The Western Room and the Guitar
are the work of great artists. They are called novels, but are
dramas of the operatic kind, the dialogue only being prose.
By a sentimental novel we understand one the subject of
which is love, but as the marriage laws in China differ from those
in England, our notions on this head get a rude shock. In a cer
tain sense the Chinese novelist may be said to enjoy a great advan
tage over his brother artist of the West. When, for instance, as in
one of these stories, a remarkably smart Chinese girl who is sued by
an unwelcome lover, has cleverly contrived to juggle the engage
ment document, which a treacherous uncle has compelled her to
write, and to put in the name and age of her cousin, who is plain
looking, to take her place on the wedding day, so that the unwel
come suitor is successfully married to another girl; you would
expect that to be the end of the matter, and that the author had
nothing for it but to bring in the right bridegroom, marry the hero
ine according to her heart's wish, and make them happy ever
afterwards. But the Celestial novelist is in no such straits, be
cause the villain of the piece, though a good deal disgusted at
being so tricked, need not in the least change his purpose. Hav
ing one wife, in a country where there are no laws against bigamy,
42 CHINESE FICTION.
does not preclude his having another, and thus his author is at full
liberty to conceive a whole series of ingenious schemes and to
amuse us with the story of their frustration.
Or again, where a young man is already engaged, and strangely
enough a young lady disguised as a youth proposes to him on her
own account, and he on his part is honest enough to tell her of his
engagement, you would think that enough to discourage the
maiden. By no means. She readily signifies her willingness to
accept the position of number two, and though we might think this
somewhat lowered her dignity, we see the disparity of ethical
standards when the author represents this as a supreme act of no
bleness. Chinese heroines, by the way, are fond of assuming the
masculine disguise.
We learn from these stories that the supreme height of ambi
tion is to become a Chuang Yuen, that is, the first on the list for
the Han Lin, which is the highest degree in the Government ex
aminations. There is only one every two years, so its possessor is
covered with unheard-of glory. He has plucked the red olive
spray and is the man the Emperor himself delighteth to honor.
He is courted, caressed, famous, wealth showers in on him, beauty
languishes at his feet, and he can have as many sweethearts as he
likes, and marry them all when he pleases.
This class of novels is very extensive, and ranges from beauti
ful stories, told with unaffected simplicity and grace down to shady
compositions which you can only compare with Boccaccio and
Smollett. It seems to be the general belief that Chinese novels are
peculiarly impure, that in fact they have no innocent novels.
Stent, in the preface to his dictionary, tells us that he wanted to
translate one, but found none that he thought readable in Eng
lish from the subject being utterly absurd, filthy, or childish, in
fact untranslatable. To this one is bound to say he had read little
or chosen badly or was a poor judge. Of the fourteen novels on
our list six are so entirely innocent that they might be translated
almost verbatim for a child to read, and not one of them is worse
than Fielding's Tom Jones, which Macaulay, who will hardly be ac
cused of low taste, declared to be the best novel in the English
language. There are bad novels in Chinese, which far be it for us
to defend, books to which we might well apply the saying of Car
lyle concerning a novel of Diderot's, if any mortal creature, even
a reviewer, be again compelled to glance into that book, let him
bathe himself in running water, put on a change of raiment, and be
unclean until the even. But, on the other hand, we cannot afford
CHINESE FICTION. 43
to give way to a squeamish affectation which would compel us to

close our Shakespeare.
It is a proof of the high degree of elaboration to which fiction
literature in China has been carried, that most of their novels are
thickly interspersed with poems of all orders of merit. No stronger
evidence could be afforded of the fact that, whatever they lack, it
is not literary finish. If anything, they have this in excess. These
poems are introduced in a variety of ways. The hero sends one in
a billet-doux to the heroine, or he overhears her singing one, or
perhaps a poetic contest is struck up, the fine on defeat being gen
erally the compulsory drinking of so many extra flagons of wine.
Wine-drinking and poetising almost invariably go together in Chi
nese novels, though whether they do so in real life we are unable
to say. Above all things, every man who sets up to be anything in
the way of a hero in Chinese fiction, must be prepared to extempo
rise by the ream in inimitable poetry.
Some attempt, however brief, to set forth the characteristics
of this poetry should be made.
The treatment is very conventional, partly because the Chi
nese poet has had before him no great variety of models and partly
because he is bound by mechanical fetters compared to which the
most difficult Western verse is licence itself. It is nothing to see
him make the same rhyme in from six to a dozen consecutive lines,
and the laws which govern metre are indefinitely more complicated
than our own. A favorite method is to rhyme the first, second,
and fourth lines, leaving the third without any rhyme at all. This
seems to have a peculiar charm for the native ear, though we have
never been able to appreciate it.
There is an exasperating tendency to repeat over and over .
again the same succession of images. Indeed we do not know what
the Chinese poet would do without his spring winds and
autumn moons or if forced to speak of ladies' eyes as anything
else than autumn waves, their hair as anything other than
raven-clouds or of their feet, crippled with bandaging to the be
witching measurement of two inches, as anything but golden
lilies; and the hairs of his pencil would stand awry with dismay
if you robbed him of his chrysanthemums and peonies, his cinna
mon, peach, and plum, his willows and poplars. Even these ca
lamities, however, are light compared with the wild despair which
would fill his soul and reduce his muse to dumbness if some barba
rian sportsman should recklessly shoot that darling phoenix, with
out which poetry could not be written, or exterminate his dragons,
44 CHINESE FICTION.
cranes, gibbons, his swallow, cuckoo, and oriole, and that ubiqui
tous pair of mandarin ducks which used to adorn the surface of
English cottage dinner plates.
The only vein of feeling which the Chinese poet seems to have
succeeded in giving adequate expression to is melancholy. We
have never seen in Chinese poetry a pure gush of fresh and genu
ine delight. When they try to express pleasure they aim to be
funny, and generally end in a clumsy and coarse burlesque. A
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Chinaman is coarse in his pleasures, and only sadness refines him.
Yet these poems often contain exquisitely beautiful and grace
fully simple language, while there is no speech in the world which
can approach Chinese for terseness of expression. It is not easy
to put into fourteen English syllables what the Chinese poet ex
presses readily in seven. The Dream of the Red Loft contains
about the best of these sentimental poems which we have seen.
Some of the dramatic novels especially are of surprising artis
tic merit. Our own particular favorite is the Guitar, which ought
CHINESE FICTION. 45
to be put into English. For simplicity, naturalness, and pathos, it

is exquisite. How Tsai Po Chieh's father would have him go to
the capital to get his degree, while his fond mother would keep
him at home, and the wife, just past the honeymoon, is divided be
tween love and duty, but consents for him to go. How he is away
long and there is no news, and famine comes, and they have noth
ing to eat, and the daughter goes sadly on distribution days to re
ceive the pittance which government is doling out to the famish
ing. How there is no grain in the granary and the little given to
her is stolen from her on her way home. How mother suspects her
of eating good food in secret and giving them bad, whereas she
has eaten her meals alone because she had nothing but chaff to eat
while they were complaining of better food. How father dies, then
mother, and she is alone and helpless, but cuts off her hair and
sells it on the street to buy a coffin, and scoops the grave with her
own hand, carries the earth to cover them in her apron, then, worn
out with hunger and exertion, she goes off to sleep. Then the
spirit of the mountain region comes to her in her dream, whispers
good cheer, and tells her heavenly guards attend her, and she is
bidden to take her guitar and beg her way to the capital, where
she shall find her husband. All the pathos of desertion is in it; it
is a thing woven out of tenderness and sorrow.
Meanwhile the other side of the picture is skilfully contrasted
with this. The husband, the Chuang Yuan of his year, fted,
feasted, courted, and a great general, Niu, will have him as hus
band to his only child. His refusal is set aside by the Emperor
himself, and against his will he is married to the matchless beauty;
but in the bridal chamber he is haunted by the thought of his ab
sent parents and wife. The motives of the actors are different
from those by which we should be swayed and the hero's course of
conduct different from that which a noble Englishman would pur
sue in a similar situation; but we must take the author's reading
of the customs and sentiments of his race, and then we shall see
that he has combined his scenes and characters with surpassing
skill.
We have attempted a rendering of a somewhat extended scene
with which we hope our readers will not be too impatient. The
portions we have put into blank verse to correspond with the orig
inal should rhyme, but the work of translation was too difficult,
and we have sacrificed everything in order to give, as literally as
might be, the matter, not the form, of the original. We must also
ask our readers to remember that this drama is operatic, which
46 CHINESE FICTION.
must account for the characters addressing the audience, when, as

we should think, they ought to be speaking to one another. Let
our readers bear in mind the position of the bridegroom in this
scene. He is remembering his first wife and duty while in the pres
ence of his second wife and pleasure.
An inner court. [Enter bridegroom.]
Bridegroom
The court with shade of locust trees is thick,
And odors of the lotus weight the screens.
How shall I pass this never-ending day?
By leaning idly on the balustrade,
Or spreading out my mat of Shiang make
And dreaming of the hills about my home
Till graceful bamboos flirting in my face,
Or else the wind shall startle me from sleep?
Those waving boughs seen on the water's face
Show like to golden palaces. The screens
Reflect the deep green shade of this lone place.
The day is long, with naught to do but sigh.
Though pleasant wine invites from fragrant flask,
I feel too idly sad to pour and drink,
But, ruminating with my bitter thoughts,
Remember how the year has passed away
And yet no tidings come of those I left.
Life is but such a year that hurries man
With swift exchange of cold and heat to age.
I'll tell my sorrows on my jewelled lute.
Ho, there, attendant! bring my lute and music book.
[Enter attendant.]
Attendant
A yellow scroll to while away the time
And a harp to play to the passing breeze.
Sir, here are your lute and your book.
Bridegroom
Call my two study pages.
[Enter two boys.]
Boys
From earliest childhood we've been trained
To keep the study meat;
A pleasant life indeed, say some;
We think it not so sweet.
For oh! 'tis weary waving fans
And burning incense still,
And by the flow'ry arbor sides
The fierce east wind is chill.
And then there's nothing else to do
But daily meals to keep;
And, after we can no more eat,
To go to bed and sleep.
CHINESE FICTION. 47
Bridegroom
The day is pleasant with its cool, fresh air;
I'm sitting here alone with naught to do;
I'll take my harp and practise at some tune
To chase away my melancholy thoughts.
You three employ yourselves: one take the fan,
And one burn sticks of incense in the court,
The third may put the books in order for me,
And none of you be idle at your task."
All
We understand sir! [Bridegroom plays.]
Bridegroom
That I may greet the strings auspiciously
I sit and face the perfumed south and play,
Yet conscious am I that, beneath my fingers,
The music has another meaning from of old.
For all the running streams and lofty hills
Before my eyes seem blown by evil winds:
So they showed gloomy when I left my home.
At every pause th' expression turns to grief,
The wail of widow'd swan or lone gibbon,
Or like the phoenix parted from his mate.
Ah me! why does the sound of death hang on the string ?
As 'twere a mantis killing cicadas.
In heaven's blue field the sun is clouded o'er,
So when King Wang turned to a cuckoo bird
Bright marriage omens turned to evil fate.
The sweet sounds that I look for fail me now,
They're broken strings that cannot be pieced out.
[To his attendants.]
The lady is about to come forth; you must all retire.
Attendants
We attend, sir! [Aside.] Just so, the fortunate have men to wait on
them; the unfortunate must wait on men." [Exeunt attendants.]
[Enter bride.]
Bride
The tenderest green shows in the tanks of flowers
Round which the fumigated air is playing,
And glimpses of the bridal chamber show,
With nursling swallows flying round its roof.
The flowered mats are spread and cool silk screens,
There's song from golden strings, the goblet's warm,
And happily the fierce heat cannot strike
Within this cool pavilion with its waters.
DIALOGUE.
Bride
So you are here, sir, practising on your lute?

Bridegroom
Yes, I had nothing to do, and I thought I would amuse myself in this way.
48 CHINESE FICTION.
Bride
I have heard before that you are a most skilful musician. But why come away
where the sounds of silk and bamboo spend themselves on vacancy, unheard by
other ears than your own I count this a lucky day on which I have heard you
practising. May I not make bold to ask that you will play me one more tune 2
Bridegroom
You would listen to the lute, lady? What tune would you like me to play you ?
What say you to the Pheasant's Morning Flight?"
Bride
No, do not play that. That is the song of one who was wifeless.
Bridegroom
Then what do you say to The Solitary Bird, the Widowed Swan 2"
Bride
What! Just when husband and wife have been newly married, you would
sing of loneliness and widowhood?
Bridegroom
Well, then, for want of anything else, I will play Prince Chao's Complaint.'.
Bride
Now, of all times, when we are at the height of married bliss, you would sing
of grief in a palace : Oh, sir, all the beauties of summer are around us. Play me
the tune The Wind Through the Pines.
Bridegroom
Very well. As it suits you. [He plays.]
Bride
Stop, stop ! You are mistaken. How is it that you play Thoughts of
Home?"
Bridegroom
Hold a moment I will play it again.
Bride
Oh dear! You are wrong again. Now you are playing The Crane's La
ment.
Bridegroom
Indeed I have again played wrongly.
Bride
Sir, how is it that you contrive to play wrong every time? It must be that
you are making fun of me on purpose.
Bridegroom
How should I have such an intention? It is this lute string that I cannot use.
Bride
Why cannot you use it?
Bridegroom
I have only accustomed myself to play with the old string. This is a new one
and I am not familiar with it.
Bride
What has become of the old string?
"---Bridegroom
The old string has been cast aside long since.
CHINESE FICTION. 49
Bride
Why did you cast it aside?
Bridegroom
For no other reason than that I had the new string and had to cast aside the
old one.
Bride
But now, why not reject the new string and use the old one *
Bridegroom
Lady, do you suppose I do not think of the old one * Only this new string I
cannot cast away.
Bride
Well, then, if you cannot cast away the new string, why think of the old one?
Ah yes, I have it. Your heart is elsewhere and therefore all this idle talk.
Bridegroom
Lady, the old chord is like to break,
And the new chord I cannot use:
'Tis hard the old chord again to take,
And as hard the new chord to lose.
I'll try once more,
I'll try once more,
And once more the notes I confuse.
Bride
Sir, your heart is changed.
Bridegroom
My heart has known no change,
But strangely this cool day,
As soon as one tune strikes your ear,
'Tis changed by the wind to a different lay.
It comes out all right after all; the suffering heroine finds her
way to the capital, the stern general relents and acknowledges her
claims, special honors are bestowed all round by the Emperor in
recognition of their several virtues, and the only drawback is that
the husband has two wives instead of one on his hands, which he
bears with equanimity.
Here is a rhyme we would like to give our readers from the
Western Room. The speaker sees in a cloudy but moonlit night the
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do anything but parody it in English:
50 CHINESE FICTION.
The clouds enshroud in gloom the eyes of space,

The moon in bursts her watery circle shows,
The wind sweeps up the broken blossoms red,
Which on the steps in fragrant heaps it throws:
Resentful I, with thousand cares oppressed,
And my sad heart is thronged with myriad woes.
Here is a Chinese love song, the Song of the Harp, which we

are told the player did not sing, but the harp seemed to say it,
being played so skilfully :
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She is a sweet girl, Come, harp, speak for me
See her and love; Tell all my heart,
One day without her When will she pledge me,
And mad you'll prove. Bid fear depart?
The phoenix soars far I must her worth tell,
Seeking his mate, Join hands for aye,
But my sweet fellow Be her companion
In vain I wait. Else pine away.
Or take this very melancholy one, expressive of the loneliness

after parting and offering a succession of graceful but gloomy
images. The translation attempts to reproduce a peculiar dupli
cated use of epithets which is most common in Chinese poetry:
Drooping, drooping, the green willow, half-screened by the wall from sight;
Lone, lone, the silent doorway, close-barred on clear autumn night;
Sharp, sharp, far-sundered tree-tops drop their leaves before the wind;
Far, far, and sad the moon peeps from the cloud's edge through the blind;
Grand, grand, the bamboo shadows, writhing, move like dragons, snakes;
Floats, floats, the empty vision of butterflies which chuang tzu" makes;
Clack, clack, the weaver-cricket beats incessant, wearisome;
Sad, sad, the measured echo of the wash-stone's dismal drum;
Dire, dire, the pain of parting, sadder than all these sad things;
Burns, burns, the impatient fever, as my happy dream takes wings;
Lone, lone, and cold I sigh; tears, tears, fall tenderly,
For my sweetheart, where is she *
But we must close these wanderings in the field of Chinese ro

nance. We will do so by asking the reader to join us in the con
clusion that our friend John Chinaman is a being not lacking in
imaginative faculty. One cannot help respecting a nation so rich
CHINESE FICTION. 5I
in literary treasures, cannot help feeling a likeness of nature which

it is well for us to feel, and, recognising how strangely similar in
the inmost essence of its life, one great nation is to another. The
conventional idea of the Chinaman which prevails in England is
that he is altogether a whimsical kind of being, not partaking of
the ordinary qualities of human nature, full of absurdities, para
doxes, and endless topsy-turvyisms of thought and action. It is
commonly supposed that he does almost everything in the opposite
way to ourselves, with the implicit assumption that ours is the
right way, and that he is a very funny fellow for doing things oth
erwise. In this is a double error, as it not only removes the Celes
tial from the category of rational beings and from the light of real
ity, but also places him in an entirely false light of spurious
romance of our own invention. Those of us who have been long
resident in Cathay, on the contrary, soon learn to strip off this
meretricious guise of romance and to see the Chinaman in a most
prosy, most commonplace, and most uninteresting light altogether.
But we are too apt to give him credit for being interested in little
else than cash and chow-chow; in spite of ourselves we can
not conceive him in an ideal aspect or credit him with any delicacy
of feeling or fineness of taste.
Yet these people also are richly endowed with that mysterious
creative power of imagination which gives to genius its light and to
love its glory. Across their hearts also have swept the rush of en
thusiasm for brave deeds and the sweetness of kind thoughts,
trembling tenderness, discursive fancy, soft breathings of pity, and
the rain of tears.
It has lifted them, as it has lifted us, above the dust, has made
them fellow-heritors of the gifts of time, and taught them to build
out of the rude and sordid conditions of their actual life an ideal
world, wide and spacious, and filled with forms of nobleness and
beauty.
Folk-Lore of the Columbian Exposition. 5I
RETROSPECT OF THE FOLK-LORE OF THE COLUM

BIAN EXPOSITION.1
THE Columbian Exposition at Chicago afforded the greatest op

portunity to the student and collector of folk-lore that has ever been
presented upon this continent. A special section of the Department
of Anthropology, under Professor Frederic W. Putnam, was assigned
to the subject, under the charge of the writer, in which was dis
played a collection of objects illustrative of folk-lore; while in
the library of the same department, in charge of Mr. C. Staniland
Wake, a large collection of folk-lore literature, including the current
journals, was placed at the disposal of the student. These special
collections, however, formed but a small part of the available ma
terial relating to folk-lore at the Fair. In almost every building on
the grounds collections of great significance might be discovered,
and people of many races were to be found, living more or less in
their native manner, in and about the confines of the Exposition.
As mentioned in a former article in this Journal, the objects in
the folk-lore section proper were practically limited to implements
used in games. In addition, however, several collections of interest
were shown in this section by private exhibitors. Mr. George F.
Kunz displayed under the name of the New York Branch of The
American Folk-Lore Society a collection of gems and minerals hav
ing a folk-lore significance which were of peculiar interest and value.
The Museum of Archaeology of the University of Pennsylvania ex
hibited a very complete series of objects illustrating the customs of
the Chinese laborers in the United States. In this connection was
shown a collection of Chinese folk-literature, comprising the novels
and story-books of southern China, together with the works on his
tory, medicine, arithmetic, and astrology that are in common use
among the Chinese laborers in this country. The Museum of the
University also contributed a collection of Oriental charms and amu
lets, and a series of Japanese toys, intended chiefly to illustrate the
value of toys as museum specimens.
Both Chinese and Japanese toys, as well as those of India, of all
countries, in fact, abound in representations of mythological per
sonages and animals, of implements used in religious and ceremonial
observances, and, not less interesting, domestic and agricultural
* This article was prepared with the intention of including it in the October
December number. Although the year of the Exposition has passed, neverthe
less, as no review of its folk-lore has been printed, it has been thought that many
visitors to the Fair would be glad to have in permanent form a description of its
anthropological riches in this department. ED.
|
52 Journal of American Pol-Lore.

utensils, which are often those of a past age. Thus among the In
dian toys sent from Lucknow by Sir Charles Todd Crosthwaite were
to be found a set of fourteen earthen utensils, representing the
dowry of a Mohammedan bride, and the palankeen in which she is
carried; a set of twenty-two earthen utensils used in a Hindoo house
hold; and a set of twenty-six articles used during the Diwali festi
val, as well as the pichkari (syringe) played during the Holi festival
or Hindoo saturnalia, with red fluids which are squirted at passers
by. Among the Japanese toys were models of dwelling-houses and
the house-boat; temples with their outlying buildings, both Shint
and Buddhistic; masks and Shint ceremonial objects, many of
which would be difficult to obtain, or exhibit in a museum except in
miniature.
Among the notable objects illustrating religious ceremonials in
this section was a Graeco-Buddhistic fragment from Takt-i-Bagh, near
Mardan, India, exhibited by H. C. Thompson, Esq., which formed
part of the frieze supporting steps leading up to a temple. This
precious object, approximately of the time of King Asoka, was
carved with the representation of a seated Buddha in the act of bap
tizing a neophyte. The figures with which he was surrounded dis
played a curious commingling of Greek and Indian types. Other
sculptured fragments from Ranighat included a mutilated statue of
an orator, which suggests the famous statue of Demosthenes at
Athens, and an archer with a quiver of arrows like those still used
by the wild tribes in Afghanistan.
The exhibit of the United States National Museum in the Gov
ernment Building contained many objects of folk-lore significance,
notably the collections illustrative of Mohammedan and Jewish cere
monials prepared by Dr. Cyrus Adler, which were remarkable for
their completeness and beauty of arrangement, and the scientific
manner in which they were labelled and classified. Here, too, was
to be seen, among other interesting groups of American Indians,
modelled and arranged under the direction of Professor William H.
Holmes and Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing, a case containing life
sized effigies of the participants in a Zui ceremonial. The details of
this group were represented with a fidelity which has never been
equalled, and its story, which will shortly be published by Mr. Cush
ing, can scarcely exceed in interest the beauty and charm of the
material presentation.
The exhibits of foreign governments at the Fair were chiefly de
voted to objects of art and industry, referring to the present and
future rather than to the past, and to the culture which is becoming
the common property of the world, rather than that which is dis
tinctive of their respective nationalities. To this, however, there
Polk-Lore of the Columbian Exposition. 53
were some exceptions. In the English section in the Manufactures

Building was a most important collection of ancient Irish jewelry
and objects of metal, comprising originals and reproductions. Spain
displayed in the Women's Building a series of life-sized models rep
resenting the costumes of Spanish peasant women of the different
provinces; Russia exhibited a collection illustrating the costumes
and domestic industries of Asiatic Russia; while Siam and Korea
contributed typical collections extending over the entire range of
native life and ceremonial.
The Korean collection was of the highest importance. Here were
shown the ceremonial costumes of the court and military officials,
the banners of the various military camps, the dresses of the kaisan
or singing girls, the native musical instruments, the instruments for
writing, and papers from the government examinations, native chairs
and conveyances, with jewelry and ceremonial ornaments of great
significance. One of the most remarkable of the official govern
ment exhibits was that of Ceylon, which was installed in a separate
building, and comprised not only a very complete display of objects
from Ceylon, but also a series of objects from the Maldives, which
had been especially collected for the Columbian Exposition. The
most complete exhibit from any country at the Fair was that sent
by H. H. the Sultan of Johore.
It appears from an examination of the official lists that the Sul
tan's orders to send representations of everything in his kingdom
were faithfully carried out. This, one of the smallest and least
known of all the many lands which participated, is entitled to the
highest praise; and the objects illustrative of folk-lore were of im
portance not only from their number and completeness, but from
the peculiarly composite character of the people represented. The
400,000 inhabitants of the kingdom consist of about 35,000 Malays
and about 250,000 Chinese from the southern provinces, with not a
few Javanese, Siamese, Tamils, Klings, Arabs, and Dyaks, as well as
the aboriginal Saki and Jacoons.
The influence of the Portuguese has been strongly felt here, and
yet so careful was the arrangement and cataloguing of the collec
tions that the various elements could be recognized and studied.
Models of native dwellings included the rude shelters of the Saki
and Jacoons. A Malay audience hall, mosque, and rajah's palace,
and even the palace kitchen, bath, and gateway, were adequately
represented. Models of every form of boat that is found in the ad
jacent waters were shown; the arms and utensils of the aboriginal
people and the Malays and Chinese; the primitive forge and black
smith's tools; the culinary utensils; and everything, in fact, that re
lated to the inner life of the people. The costumes embraced almost
54 journal of American Folk-Lore.
every kind of dress worn by the different classes, and even included
the robe, and adornments of the Sultan's company of Chinese actors,
with their properties, and specimens of bridal dress and other arti
cles relating to a Malay wedding. Through the intelligent direction
of Mr. Rounsevelle Wildman, the United States Commissioner for
Straits Settlements and Borneo, these objects have been distributed
through various museums in this country.
Among the buildings erected by foreign governments within the
grounds were several interesting specimens of national architecture.
The Norwegian house was designed after an old wooden church of
the twelfth century; and the Spanish building was a reproduction of
part of La Lonja, the Bourse at Valencia, dating from the fourteenth
century.
The German House or German Government Building, on the
lake shore, was designed by the Government Architect, Johannes
Radke, of Berlin. Its style was that of the early German Renais
sance of the fifteenth century, betokening the transition from the
pure Gothic, and leaning on such models as the tower of the Aschaf
fenburg Castle, a gable of Goslar, the City Hall of Rothenburg, etc.
The outer walls were covered with rich scrafito paintings by the Ger
man artist, Max Seliger. The coat-of-arms of the German States
decorated the space over the main entrance, above which is the im
perial eagle; to the right spreads the drastic German motto, in
ancient rhyme, which translated reads,
Fruitful and powerful, full of corn and wine, full of strength and iron,
Tuneful and thoughtful I will praise thee, Fatherland mine.
The chief points of attraction, however, for the student of folk

lore at the Exposition, were to be found in the Midway Plaisance.
Before touching upon these exhibits reference should be made to
the native peoples dwelling within the main inclosure of the Expo
sition. It was the intention of Professor Putnam to bring together
representatives of various American tribes, living in their native
houses upon the shores of the South Lagoon, adjacent to the An
thropological Building. Lack of adequate means prevented the
fulfilment of this plan in its entirety, but a number of aboriginal
American houses were built here, comprising a Penobscot village,
with numerous representatives of that tribe from Oldtown, Maine;
a number of Iroquois houses of bark, including the famous long
house, in which were domiciled members of the Tuscarora, Seneca,
and other tribes from northern New York; a Navajo hogan, in which
dwelt a native silversmith, a blanket-weaver, and other Navajo
people, who lived in their native fashion, pursuing their usual avoca
tions; and a North Pacific coast village, consisting of native houses
Folk-Lore of the Columbian Exposition. 55
from British Columbia, where a colony of Kwakiutl Indians resided

during the continuance of the Fair. Huge totem poles were erected
before these dwellings, and the great canoes which they commonly
use floated near by in the lagoon. These Indians were the object
of constant study by Dr. Franz Boas, the Chief Assistant in the
Department of Anthropology, who will doubtless soon publish the
results of his investigations. Here also was a thatched house of
Arawak Indians of British Guiana. An Eskimo village, inhabited
by natives of Labrador, was also included within the main inclosure.
The Midway Plaisance, in which were located the principal foreign
concessions, was a field for wide and important investigations. The
natives dwelling in the Plaisance included Turks, Arabs, Syrians,
Armenians, Egyptians, Kabyles, Soudanese, Chinese, Japanese, Ma
lays, Javanese, Hindoos, Parsees, Persians, Laplanders, Samoans,
Fijians, Hawaiians, together with representatives of several Ameri
can tribes, Sioux, Penobscots, Winnebagoes, and Navajos, as well
as some Pueblo Indians from Laguna.
The houses and shops of these people lined the sides of the Mid
way for the distance of a mile. The Turks, Arabs, Syrians, and
Egyptians were represented here by four principal settlements: A
Turkish village, comprising a bazaar, mosque, and theatre; an Arab
encampment, in which the ceremonies of the wedding, mock com
bats, and the jereed play were shown; a reproduction of a Damas
cus house, in which a variety of domestic customs were illustrated;
and the street in Cairo, a lively representation of an old thorough
fare in that city, with all the accompaniments of Oriental life. A
great variety of costumes were to be observed in the Turkish vil
lage, a Zebek, with his belt filled with weapons, and Albanians in
their picturesque dress; while many of the picturesque uniforms of
the Sultan's household were worn by the attendants on gala occa
sions. Mr. Talcott Williams has kindly furnished the following par
ticulars concerning the people themselves: In Cairo Street, aside
from the representatives from Egypt, all more or less sophisticated
by contact with Europeans, were two Soudanese families, one a fam
ily of the Bishareen Soudanese, living near Assouan on the Nile,
whose head was a dervish belonging to a local order, who practised
soothsaying with cowries. Their dance was a village wedding dance
of the customary type, but less developed in its music than most
Arab music. The other family were of strongly negro blood, living
at Zanzibar, speaking Arabic easily, but using Kiss-Suaheli. Their
dance consisted of a song to Abd-el-Kader El Jellaly, who for some
inscrutable reason is the familar patron saint of all North Africa,
though buried at Bagdad. The Arab Encampment had in it, with
an admixture of village Arabs, some Maronite Christians from Leb
anon, wandering Arabs from the Rooalla Aneyza, and other tribes
who wander southeast of Damascus along the Haj route, moving up
towards Aleppo in the summer. Their horses represented the Ma
neghi breed which is mentioned at length by Wilfred Scaven Blunt.
Their principal dance is the Dekka, a marriage dance. The people
in the Damascus Village were city folk, with one or two village
Arabs from near Homs.
The Algerian and Tunisian Village consisted of bazaars, theatre,
and caf. Native dances were performed in the theatre, in one of
which, the so-called torture dance, one of the men dancers ate
live scorpions and broken glass, grasped red-hot irons, and drew
needles through his flesh, while apparently under the influence of
some drug.
The so-called Dahomey Village consisted of thirty huts, inhabited
by sixty-nine men, women, and children from the French settlement
of Benin, on the West Coast of Africa, opposite Dahomey. The
neatly thatched and plastered huts were arranged in an open square,
in the centre of which was a pavilion in which native dances were
performed, the whole being inclosed by a high stockade. The plas
tered walls of the huts were scratched with rude ornamental devices
of men and animals, some of which were of a phallic character. A
museum contained an interesting ethnological collection (consisting
chiefly of objects made and used by the Fans), which was said to
have originally belonged to the inhabitants of the village. A native
gold-worker was to be seen here who made finger-rings ornamented
with the zodiacal signs, using native gold-dust mixed with powdered
gum, applied grain by grain to produce raised devices, which he
afterwards consolidated in his forge. The contract between the
manager and these people terminated during the continuance of
the Fair, and, upon a new arrangement being made, they offered a
bullock as a sacrifice, and erected a kind of altar of the horns and
refuse, upon which the blood was poured.
The Javanese Village was the largest of the Oriental settlements.
It was inhabited by about one hundred and twenty natives from a
plantation in the interior near Batavia. The daily life of the people
was to be seen here in its most minute details.
A marriage ceremony with its attendant festivities enlivened the
residence of these gentle folk, which was saddened, alas ! by the
deaths of several of their little company, who were buried according
to their native rites. A theatre was the principal attraction to sight
seers in this village, but the entire place was replete with interest.
Women were to be seen engaged in dyeing the cloth sarongs, the
universal article of native dress, drawing the intricate designs in wax
that were to appear upon the finished garment; boys practised at
target, shooting with bows and blow-guns; occasionally all the vil
lage would take to flying kites; good-nature and merriment con
stantly prevailed, and life seemed a perpetual holiday.
Six Malays were to be found in the Johore bungalow that faced
the Java settlement. Five of these men were retainers of H. H.
the Sultan, and the sixth a sailor from Borneo. They erected the
bungalow, which was originally constructed in the province of Muar,
the northernmost State of Johore, using their native tools. The
main structure is raised seven feet from the ground on posts of hard
Nebong palm, and the under space kept clean and open, as is the
custom, as a protection against tigers, snakes, and the white ant.
The thatch of which the roof was constructed is made from the spar
like leaves of the Attap palm, which are bent over and sewn with
rattan withes. In the upper room was to be found the bed and eat
ing-throne of a Malay rajah, and a loom upon which the women
weave the national article of dress, the sarong.
The South Sea Village consisted of a group of houses brought
from Samoa, Fiji, and Wallis Islands. The largest of them is said
to have belonged to King Mataafa, the deposed ruler of Samoa, who
occupied it for years. It is made of the wood of the bread-fruit
tree, and thatched with the leaves of the wild sugar-cane. The
native inhabitants consisted of one man from Fiji, twenty-four men
from Samoa and Wallis Island, five Samoan women, and one infant.
Native dances of the different islands were performed in the theatre.
The Chinese Theatre and Joss House was managed by Chinese
merchants from San Francisco and China, and presented many
interesting features of the life of the Chinese from the vicinity of
Canton. The lower room of the building was used as a bazaar,
above which was the so-called Joss House. A shrine to Kwan
Ti, the God of War, was erected here, with various sacrificial objects
and implements for divination. No actual religious ceremonies
were performed, it being stated that the picture of the idol had not
been consecrated; the ceremony of hoingn, or opening the eyes,
not having been performed. Facing the shrine was a kind of pan
theon, in which were puppets, made of tinsel and papier-mach,
representing the chief deities worshipped by the Chinese, but in
cluding as well representations of various nations known to the
Chinese, as the Hung m yan, or Englishman, etc. Around the
room were groups of similar images, representing the punishments
of the Buddhist hell, such as are to be seen in Chinese temples, and
scenes from popular historical dramas. A fortune-teller, who divined
by means of the Kw t'sim, or divining splints, plied his vocation
in the lower hall.
The German Village, which was also located upon the Midway,
contained practically the only general scientific collections of folk
58 Journal of American Folk-Lore.
lore interest outside of the Anthropological Building. It was to the
efforts of Dr. Ulrich Jahn, of Berlin, a pupil and friend of the learned
Dr. Virchow, that this ideal German Village owed its existence as
an accomplished fact. The plans of the buildings were designed by
Carl Hoffercker, architect to the German Imperial Commission at
the Fair, and the buildings themselves were constructed in Ger
many and set up at Frankfort-on-the-Main before being shipped to
Chicago. These buildings in themselves formed an exhibit of the
highest interest. Entering from the Plaisance, the visitor found
himself in the midst of quaint structures, on his left, the rich
and massive faade of a Hessian Town Hall, with its traditional
Bridal Stairs. Ascending this, several typically furnished peasant
rooms were to be seen with all their home-like attributes. Opposite
the Town Hall was a Black Forest peasant home, and the pointed
roof of a Westphalian house loomed high upon its low foundation.
Diagonally across from the Westphalian stood the Upper Bavarian
house of pronounced Highland type. Across a small stream of
water the house of the Spreewald was disclosed, with its small deep
set windows, its high thatched roof and gable, crowned with the
old Wendic symbol, the wolf's-head. The centre of the entire space
was occupied by a castle of the type of the early sixteenth century,
surmounted by turrets and spires, and surrounded by a moat sixteen
feet wide, with the additional protection of high palisades. Several
rooms of the castle were devoted to a folk-lore museum, in which
were to be seen many illustrations of peasant industries. The col
lection of headdresses was particularly interesting, as well as that
of the recently discovered masks used in the winter festivals of
South Germany. The striking feature of the exhibits in the castle
was the collection of knives, forks, and spoons, spurs, stirrups, and
bridles, and, most important of all, the arms of various periods, be
longing to Herr Richard Zschille, Town Councillor of Grossenhain,
Saxony. The collection of knives and forks is without equal in the
world. The arms were admirably arranged, showing the evolution
of the various weapons and of defensive armor. It is to be hoped
that this most important and highly scientific collection will remain
permanently in America.
There were three other special collections worthy of mention in
this connection: one of the shoes and foot-gear of all nations, in the
Shoe and Leather Building; of models of boats, carts, and other
vehicles, in the Transportation Building; and of musical instru
ments in the exhibit of the United States National Museum in the
Government Building. The foot-gear was not arranged according
to any particular system, so that the scientific value of the collection
was not readily apparent. The same criticism might be applied to
the exhibit in the Transportation Building. The musical instru
ments in the Government Building, however, brought together under

the personal direction of Dr. G. Brown Goode, the Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution in charge of the United States National
Museum, told a clear and instructive story, and displayed all the
nicety of arrangement that characterizes the work of that institution.
Folk-music received an unusual amount of attention at the Fair.
The subject was profitably discussed at the Folk-lore Congress, when
a concert of folk-music was given. Opportunities for the study of
folk-music were very numerous. Russian folk-music, with a repre
sentation of the peasant marriage ceremony, was admirably rendered
by the Lineff Russian Choir. The music and songs of many Oriental
nations could also be heard within the Exposition. The King of
Korea sent an orchestra, which, however, only played at the open
ing ceremonies and immediately returned home. The performances
in many of the so-called theatres consisted simply of music and
dancing; but there were two well-organized dramatic companies in
the Plaisance, the Chinese and Javanese theatres. The taste and
enterprise which characterized the management of the latter theatre
cannot be too highly praised. The Javanese dramas were a revela
tion in themselves, and the stage, with seats for the orchestra rising
in tiers in the background, and lined on either side with the puppets
that are said to have antedated the living actors, was quite enchant
ing. Here, too, might be seen the shadow figures that are said to
have preceded the puppets. What a curious bit of history these
actors might be made to disclose ! The Turkish Theatre also gave
performances of a dramatic character, but they consisted of repre
sentations of the domestic life of the Syrians and Arabs rather than
literary dramas. A company of Japanese dancing-girls, under native
management, also gave highly interesting and beautiful perform
ances without the Exposition.
It is a matter of the deepest regret that the many opportunities
at the Exposition for systematic study in folk-lore as well as other
branches of anthropology has passed away without more direct
and permanent contributions having been made to science. Apart
from the work done by Dr. Boas and the collection of games made
for the University of Pennsylvania, little attempt was made towards
collecting data from the people who had been brought together from
so many lands. A historiographer should be one of the first and
most important officials appointed for the next international exhibi
tion, whose duty shall be to record, not acres of floor space nor mil
lions of francs or dollars, but to keep an account of the physical
traits, the customs and legends, of the visitors from remote lands,
than which no more important and lasting result could be afforded
to the student of anthropological science.
Stewart Culin.
6O Journal of American Folk-Lore.
A REMARKABLE OATH.
IN a paper read at the last Annual Meeting, of which an abstract

is given below, Mr. J. M. Le Moine mentions a peculiar oath of
French Canadian voyageurs: Tors' mon me au bout d'un piquet,
Twist my soul round a fence rail. This singular attestation appears
to refer to a cruel punishment familiar in the Middle Age. In 123.I.,
the conquerors of Prussia, the Knights of the Teutonic order, are
recorded to have cruelly put to death a heathen who had made
them trouble; an incision was made about the navel, which was
attached to a tree, and the victim eviscerated by being led about it.
Thus, says the account, one who had killed many Christians was
himself cruelly destroyed; it is possible that the captive suffered the
same penalty which he had himself often inflicted. In 1238, Pope
Gregory IX, complains that the heathen Finns sacrificed some Chris
tians to demons, and compelled others to circle a tree until they had
lost their life (usque ad amissionem spiritus ; the soul might thus
be said to be twisted about a tree). The Pope who was so much
shocked over the iniquities of the heathen does not appear to have
considered the parallel proceedings of the Knights of Christ as
worthy of reprobation. A still more exact equivalent to the idea
implied in the modern oath is indicated by a chronicler, as custom
ary among Polish populations of the twelfth century; these are said
to have invented savage punishments for Christians; in some cases
they eviscerated their victims by leading them round a stake (his
viscera extorserint palo circumducentes). There can be little doubt
that the French attestation represents a survival in language of an
ancient custom ; it is also interesting as exhibiting the fundamental
correspondence of old French and German conceptions. W. Mann
hardt, from whom these comparisons are borrowed, and in whose
treatise will be found the proper references (Der Baumkultus, Ber
lin, 1875, I. 2831) considers that the penalty has a superstitious
root, being as he thinks originally applied to injurers of trees; on
the principle of lex talionis, he who barked a young tree, conceived
as animate and sacred, was made to supply a covering out of his own
life. At all events, this particular application of the punishment
was recognized in the laws of German peasants, and was promulgated
as an ordinance as late as 1720.
W. W. M.
Exhibit of Games in the Columbian Exposition. 205
EXHIBIT OF GAMES IN THE COLUMBIAN

EXPOSITION.
PRIMITIVE Religions, and Folk-lore, including Games, are the

subject of a special section in the Anthropological Building at the
Columbian Exposition. This section, which is known as the Sec
tion of Religions, Games, and Folk-lore, is located upon the main
floor, where the exhibit occupies a series of cases on the south
side and a line of flat cases which extend across the entire building.
Folk-lore is the name given to the material which has come down
to us in the sayings and customs of mankind. Its study, for which
no special name has been devised, is an important branch of the sci
ence of anthropology.
The chief object of the collection is to show things which illustrate
folk traditions and customs. The field being a vast one, the col
lection has been practically restricted to the subject of games.
The basis of the collection was formed in the Museum of Archaeology
of the University of Pennsylvania during the past two years. The
University's collection has been supplemented by exhibits from in
dividuals and the leading manufacturers of games in this country.
The objects are classified and arranged for comparative study,
games of the same general sort being placed together. They are
contained in twelve table cases running from the southernmost en
trance on the west side to the corresponding entrance on the east
side. Puzzles and the simple games of children commence the
Series.
CASE I.
PUZZLES, CHILDREN's GAMES, MANCAL.A.
The ingenious objects which we designate as puzzles are rep

resented by about one hundred and twenty-five specimens exhibited
by the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. They begin
with a collection of East Indian puzzles invented by Aziz Hussan
of Saharanpore, among which may be seen many types of puzzles
that are common in Europe and America. The Chinese puzzles of
wood, bone, and ivory follow them. Chinese puzzles, long a house
hold word, are very limited in number. Those which are made for
export are invariable in form, and consist of the familiar Ring
Puzzle, the Geometrical Puzzle, and the Dissected Cube.
Their Chinese names are all descriptive, and the Ring Puzzle,
which they call The Nine Interlinked Rings, was probably bor
rowed by Chinese from India. The number of types in the entire
series of puzzles is surprisingly small. The one that was revived
2O6 Journal of American Folk-Lore.
some years since under the name of the Fifteen Puzzle, and which
was described by an English writer some two hundred years ago,
has suggested a large group. Pigs in Clover, an American in
vention, is the most recent addition to the world's amusements of
this character, and its wide diffusion and popularity is shown here in
a great variety of specimens from different countries.
Some of the simpler amusements of children are suggested by the
objects on the north side of this case. Here are to be seen Mr.
William Wells Newell's Games and Songs of American Children,
and The Counting-out Rhymes of Children, by Dr. H. Carrington
Bolton, two books which may be regarded as classical in their par
ticular field. Mr. Pak Yong Kiu, of the Corean Commission to the
Columbian Exposition, has furnished the following interesting addi
tion to the collection of children's counting-out rhymes:
Hau alta Ku chi,
Tu al da Polta,
Som a chun Chong kun,
Na al da, Kotura,
Yuk nong, Biong.
The wide diffusion of the custom of using counting-out rhymes

among children, and the general resemblance they bear to each other,
present problems of curious interest.
Among the imitative games of children, there are few more in
teresting than the Toros or mock bull-fight of Spanish boys. A
wicker mask from Madrid, representing the bull's head, which is used
in this sport, is suspended beside this case, within which may be
seen the toy espadas or swords and the banderillios. Tops are shown
to be of great antiquity and of very general use over the earth.
Their age is illustrated by a wooden top from the Fayum, Egypt,
discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie at Kahan, belonging to 2800 B. c.
They were common among the American Indians, north and south.
A number of balls of baked clay and stone, which were whipped in
a game on the ice, represent the primitive tops of the Sioux, while a
more recent Sioux top of wood with a peg of brass shows foreign
influences. Among the Omahas tops were called Moo de de ska, a
name which Mr. Francis La Flesche says is not descriptive. The
explorations conducted for the Department by Mr. George A. Dor
sey in Peru have contributed several interesting specimens to this
collection. Two prehistoric tops from Ancon are identical in form
with the ancient Egyptian top, while another from an ancient grave
at Arica is distinguished by a spindle, not unlike the modern tops of
Japan. The use of pop-guns among the ancient Peruvians is also
shown by two beautifully carved specimens of wood contained in a
llama skin pouch, from an ancient grave in Caete valley. Pop
| guns were used by many if not all of the American Indian tribes.
Among the Omahas the children made them of willow branches, and
then, by partly stopping one end, would convert them into squirt
guns. The toy squirt-gun sold in the Chicago shops is here shown
beside the syringe from India used in the Hindu Holi Festival.
Jackstraws, which are known in England as Spillikins and in
France as Les jonchets, are next in order. The peculiar Chinese
name appended to the Chinese specimens, Eight Precious Things,
suggests the probability that China was the country from which we
, derived them.
The remainder of this case is devoted to the implements for a
game that holds an unique position among the world's games, and
for which no place could be found in the series that follow. It is
variously played with pebbles, shells, and seeds in holes dug in the
ground, or upon a board with cup-like depressions. The game ap
pears to be found wherever Arab influence has penetrated. It is
very generally played in Africa, in Asia Minor, and in India. Two
boards are exhibited, one brought from Jerusalem for the University
Museum by Mrs. John Harrison of Philadelphia, and another from
the Gaboon River in Africa. The Syrians in the Damascus house
in the Turkish village in the Midway Plaisance know it under the
name of Mancala, and it is a favorite game with the Chief of the
Dahomey village, who frequently plays it with his son before his hut
in the Plaisance. Among the so-called Dahomeyans this game is
called Madaji, the board adjito, and the seeds which they use, adji.
It is a game for two persons. As played in Syria, there are several
forms of the game. One is called la'b madjnuni, or the Crazy Game.
Ninety-eight cowrie shells are used, which are distributed unequally
in the fourteen holes in the board, which is placed transversely
between the two players. The first player takes all the pieces
from the hole at the right of his row and drops them, one at a time,
in the first hole on the opposite side, and so on, continuing around
the board until the last one is let fall. He thereupon takes all the
pieces from that hole and distributes them one by one as before,
until, arriving at the last piece, he takes all the pieces again in his
hands. This is continued until the last piece dropped either falls
into an empty hole or completes two or four in the hole in which it
falls. In the latter case the player takes the two or four for his own,
as well as the contents of the hole opposite, and should there be two
or four in the next hole or holes to the one at which he stopped, he
also takes them with those opposite. The players continue in turn,
and when the game is finished the one gaining the highest number
of cowries wins. If a player's last piece falls in an empty hole, his
turn is ended. Skill is of no avail in this form of the game, the
------

2O8 Journal of American Pol-Lore. s
result always being a mathematical certainty, accordingly as the

cowries are distributed at the beginning.
CASE II.
BALLS, QUOITS, MARBLES.
The antiquity of the ball as an implement of sport is attested by

the balls found associated with objects used in other games in old
Egypt, where it was known at least 4,700 years ago. Games of ball
are common among savage and barbarous people, and ball games of
Burma, Siam, India, and Japan, as well as those of the North Amer
ican Indians, are suggested in this case. With the ball games are
the sticks used in a widely diffused game which we commonly know
as Tip-cat. Tip-cat is played with a block of wood, about six
inches in length, which is struck with a small club or bat and
knocked into the air. The rules for playing are somewhat com
plicated, and as far as they have been compared, appear to be much
the same all over the earth. The oldest specimen is from Kahn,
Egypt, of 2800 B. C. Tip-cat is known by the Syrians in the Plais
ance, who have contributed the sticks they use in the game they
call Hab. In Persia it is called Guk tchub, frog-wood, a name
given to it, like our name cat, from the way the small stick
leaps into the air. In China the game is called Ta-pang, to knock
the stick, and the Chinese laborers in the United States call the
cat To tsa, or Little Peach. In Japan the game is called In
ten, the small stick ko, son, and the long one oya, parent. In
India the game is called Gutti danda, in Burma, Kyitha, and in
Russian Kosley, goat, a suggestive name like that of Persia and
our own name, cat.
The wicker baskets or cestas for the Spanish game of ball or
Pelota, now so popular in Spain, are next shown, with the flat bat
used by the Spaniards in ball games. A very ancient English bat
for trap ball appears with them, and these are followed by the im
plements used in the current American and English ball games
exhibited by Messrs. A. G. Spalding & Bros. of Chicago. Cricket,
Baseball, Football, Golf, Polo, La Crosse and Lawn Tennis, Racket
and Battledore and Shuttlecock, are displayed in order, and with the
last are exhibited the Zui Indian and the Japanese form of this
game and the Chinese shuttlecock, which is kicked with the toes.
The tossing games comprise Jackstones, Cup and Ball, Grace Hoops,
and Quoits, and ring games of various kinds, and include the iron
quoits Rayuelas, used in Spain. The stone quoit games of the
Zuis, and of the Tarahumara Indians are also exhibited. The North
American Indian forms of the Cup and Ball game comprise the
Ar-too-is, or match-making game of the Penobscots, exhibited by
Chief Joseph Nicolar of Oldtown Me., and the Sioux game played
with the phalangal bones of the deer. The comparatively new game
Tiddledy winks follows, leading up to a recent German game
called the Newest War Game, in which the men or winks are
played upon a board upon which are represented two opposing
fortresses. The games of tossing cowries and coins are next sug
gested, with the game played by Chinese children with olive seeds.
Many natural objects are exhibited that are used by children in
playing games resembling marbles, to which artificial objects they
appear to lead. In Burma the seeds of a large creeper, the Eutada
Pursoetha, are employed in a game called Gohunyin, one of the
commonest forms of gambling known in that country. In Asia
Minor, knuckle-bones of sheep, which are often weighted with lead,
are used in the same manner, and in Damascus and the cities in
connection with marbles. Marbles themselves, in the varieties
known to commerce, are next exhibited.
CASE III.
BOWLING, BILLIARDS, CURLING, AND SHUFFLE BOARD.

The objects used to illustrate the games of Bowling, Billiards, and
Shuffle Board were made for this exhibit by the Brunswick-Balke
Collender Company of Chicago, by whom they are displayed, and
comprise miniature tables for these games of remarkable accuracy
and beauty of finish. On the north side of the case may be seen
the implements used in the game of Croquet as it is played at the
present day. The first games of Croquet manufactured in the United
States were made from an English sample in 1863. The Chicago
Curling Club here displays a collection of representative objects, in
cluding three sets of Curling stones and the medals and trophies
belonging to the club and its members.
CASE IV.
MERRELLS, FOX AND GEESE, CHESS, AND DRAUGHTS.

An attempt has been made to bring together as large a number
as possible of the simple board games like Merrells and Fox and
Geese, with the hope that they would throw light upon that much
discussed question, the origin of the game of Chess. The Chinese,
Korean, Japanese, and Siamese, Malayan and Samoan forms of sev
eral such games are exhibited. It is curious to note that the pecul
iar board used in the Japanese Fox and Geese game, called uroku
Musashi, or Sixteen Soldiers, is the same as one from Peru for
a similar game. The inference is that they are both of Spanish in
troduction, which seems to be confirmed by the statement that the
Japanese game was first known in that country in the sixteenth cen
2 IO journal of American Folk-Lore.
tury. Merrells is displayed in a board made in the Damascus house
in the Plaisance, where the Syrians call it Edris, and in a diagram
obtained from Chinese laborers from Canton, who call it Sm i, or
the Three Game, as well as by European boards.
A Japanese board for that famous game which the Japanese call
Go and the Chinese Wei k'i, or the Game of Surrounding, fol
lows. This is the game which is often erroneously referred to as
chess, in China. The Japanese name of this board, Go-ban, has
furnished the name which we have applied to the simple game of
Go Bang, which we also got from Japan.
A board and men for a highly developed game, somewhat like
draughts, played by the Zui Indians of New Mexico, furnishes a
striking object for speculation and research. The board is a square
divided into 144 small equal squares, each of which is crossed by two
intersecting diagonal lines. The moves are made one square at a time
along those diagonal lines, the pieces being placed at the angles of
the squares. Two or four persons play. They each start with six
men, and their object is to get their men across to the other side
and occupy their opponent's places, capturing as many of his pieces
as possible by the way. A piece is taken by getting it between two
others, as in the modern Egyptian game of Seega, and the first piece
thus taken may be replaced by an extra piece belonging to the player
who makes the capture, which may move on the straight as well
as the diagonal lines and is called the Priest of the Bow. This
game, which was arranged and is exhibited by Mr. Frank Hamilton
Cushing, is called A-wi-thlk-na-kwe, which he translates as Stone
warriors. Mr. Edward Falkener, in his work entitled Games
Ancient and Oriental, which he lent for exhibition here, has pub
lished a restoration of the ancient Egyptian game of Senat from
fragments of Egyptian boards which have come down from 1600 B. c.
The game as thus restored is in some respects similar to the Zui
game, the men being taken as in Seega by getting them between two
others. The Zui game, however, may be regarded as in advance of
any other board game, even of our own civilization, until we come to
the true game of Chess. Chess stands alone among games. We do
not find the links that connect it with lower forms of board games,
and the Indian game from which our own is derived almost without
change is the source from which the many variants of the Chess
game doubtless originated. Several of these offspring of the Indian
Chess are shown in the north side of this case, including the chess
games of Burma, Siam, the Malay Peninsula, China, and Japan. A
Moorish board is exhibited with them, and European chessmen and
boards follow. A finely carved ivory chess set represents the pieces
that are made for export by the Chinese at Canton. Draughts, which
in the opinion of Mr. Edward B. Tylor may be regarded as a modern
and simplified form of Chess, now follow, and here are shown two
sets of interesting German draughtsmen of the eighteenth century.
CASE. V.
AMERICAN BOARD GAMES, GAMES OF LOTS, LOTTO, CHINESE

LOTTERIES.
The games played on boards, like Merrells and Draughts, manu

factured by Messrs. McLaughlin Brothers and E. J. Horsman of
New York, and the Milton Bradley Company of Springfield, Mass.,
are found in this case. Many of them appear to have been sug
gested by the Oriental games such as are shown in the preceding
collection.
These are followed by games of Lots, a class of games extremely
common among the North American Indians. The Haida and other
tribes of the northwest coast play with sticks which are painted
and carved. According to Dr. Franz Boas the sticks are thrown
down violently upon a hard piece of skin, and the object of the
game is to pick out the unmarked sticks, which alone count. The
designs on the sticks are of the greatest interest, and a set of plas
ter casts of a very finely carved set in the United States National
Museum at Washington, which are displayed through the courtesy
of Professor Otis T. Mason, exhibit these peculiarities. The wooden
discs from Puget Sound are concealed beneath a mat, and the
players endeavor to select a particular disc. Guessing games of
various kinds were very general among our Indians. The two
bones, one wrapped with thread, which were used by the Alaska
Indians in such a game, are exhibited with similar bones from the
Utes. They were held in the hands, the player guessing which
contained the marked one. The balls of buffalo hair with which the
Omahas play a similar game are also displayed, with the moccasins
in which the object was sometimes concealed. These games were
played with the accompaniment of songs. Miss Alice C. Fletcher
exhibits the music of two of these gambling songs used by the Oma
has, and in Dr. Washington Matthews Navajo Gambling Songs,
a copy of which may be seen in this case, the songs sung in the
game of Ksitce, played with eight moccasins, in one of which a
stone is concealed, are recorded. Among the Zuis and Mokis, cups
like dice cups were used to cover the ball. The Moki cups here
exhibited have been used in a sacred game and then sacrificed with
plume sticks, as is shown by the small holes with which they
are pierced.
Games can be made to throw much light upon the social and polit
ical institutions of many peoples. This fact is rendered conspicuous
2 I2 journal of American Folk-Lore.
in the implements for the Chinese lotteries which are shown in
this series. They comprise the paraphernalia of the Pk-kp-piu or
Game of the White Pigeon Ticket, the Tsz' fa, or Character
Flowering, and the Wei Sing or Game of Guessing Surnames.
In the first, the tickets are imprinted with the first eighty char
acters of the Tsin tsz' man, or Thousand Character Classic, one of
the elementary text-books of Chinese children. In the second, the
writer of the lottery assists his patrons in their effort to guess the
hidden character, by an original ode, in which it must be in some
way referred to.
The third is the game of guessing the name of the successful can
didate at the Governmental Literary Examinations. Upon them all
the peculiar literary traditions of the Chinese people have left their
imprint.
CASE VI.
KNUCKLE-BONES AND DICE, DOMINOES, EVOLUTION OF PLAYING CARDS,

CHINESE PLAYING CARDS, PARCHESI, PATOLI, AND KAB.
No method of appealing to chance is more common than that of
tossing some object in the air and deciding the result by its fall. A
coin is often used at the present day, and many natural and artificial
objects have found currency for this purpose. Nuts, cowrie shells,
and the knuckle-bones of animals have been used from the earliest
times, and the last, the knuckle-bones, have become the parent of
many of our modern games. The American Indians across the en
tire continent played a game with marked plum-stones and other
objects which had many points of resemblance with games played
by other people with dotted cubical dice. The specimens of such
games here exhibited comprise the game played with marked bone
discs in a wooden bowl by the Penobscot Indians of Oldtown, Me.,
contributed by Chief Joseph Nicolar; a set of marked plum-stones
and the basket and tallies used by the Sioux, and a similar set of
marked bone and wooden pieces, with the basket, from the Arapa
hoes. Among the Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States
blocks of wood are used in the same manner as dice, and among
the Arabs of northern Africa numerical values are attributed to
the throws made with four and six similar pieces of reed. In India,
cowries are used. Sortilege is also practised with the implements
that are used in games. In China, the cleft root stock of the bam
boo is commonly employed in fortune-telling, and the blocks, which
form part of the accessories of nearly all Chinese temples, may be
seen upon the altar of the Chinese God of War, commonly appealed
to by Chinese gamblers, erected in this Section. Knuckle-bones or
astragali present a most interesting subject for investigation. From
a prehistoric knuckle-bone of terra-cotta from Cuzco, Peru (No. 340),
Rxhibit of Games in the Columbian Exposition. 213
in the collection of Seor Montes in this building it appears that
they were used by the ancient Peruvians. The Peruvian Indians at
the present day use four knuckle-bones as dice in a game. It is
known in Kechua as tava, a word meaning four, which should not in
the opinion of Seor Montes be confounded with the Spanish word
for knuckle-bone, taba, from which he does not think it was derived.
Knuckle-bones were used in games in old Egypt, as was shown
by the ivory specimens found with other gaming implements in the
tomb of Queen Hatasu, B. c. 1600, and are constantly referred to by
the Greek and Latin authors. Numerical values were attributed to
each of the four throws, which among the Romans were designated
as Supinum, Pronum, Planum, and Tortuosum, and estimated as
three, five, one, and six. Among the Arabs, and at the present day
throughout western Asia, the four sides receive the names of ranks
of human society; thus among the Persians, according to Dr. Hyde,
they are called Dugd, thief, Dibban, peasant, Vesir, and Shah,
and so with the Turks, Syrians, Armenians, and other peoples. A
pair of natural bones from the right and left leg of the sheep are
commonly used, which among the Syrians of Damascus are desig
nated respectively as yisr and yemene, left and right. The transi
tion from these kabat, as the Arabs call them, from kab meaning
ankle or ankle-bone, to the cubical dotted dice was an easy
one. The same numerical values and social designations were
attributed to four sides of the cubical dice, as are given to the
knuckle-bones, and it is curious to note that the significant throws
with cubical dice in China are those that bear the numbers assigned
to the astragali throws. The modern East Indian dice which are
exhibited will be seen from the arrangement of the threes to
be made in pairs, like the natural astragali, and the pair receives in
India the name of kabatain, the dual of kab, the name which is also
applied to the pair of astragali. The Syrian dice used in Towla, or
backgammon, are marked in the same way, as well as the Japanese
dice used in the similar game of Sugoroku or double sixes. A
pair of ancient Roman dice which I purchased in Florence show
that the Romans practised the same arrangement, and are especially
significant. The invention of the cubical dotted die must have
occurred at a comparatively early time. The oldest die of which I
have any knowledge is displayed in this collection, a large pottery
die from the Greek colony of Naucratis, Egypt, belonging, according
to the discoverer, Mr. Flinders Petrie, to 600 B. C. The dice found
in Babylonia and Egypt appear to have been associated with foreign
influences.
Dice were carried over from India to China, where we find the
next stage in their development. Here the twenty-one possible
VOL, WI. - NO. 22. I5
2I4 journal of American Folk-Lore.
throws with two dice are each given a name, and in the case of the
double sixes, double aces, double fours, and three and ace, these
names are those of the triune powers of Heaven, Earth, and Man, and
the Harmony that unites them. This change in nomenclature, in
which the social terms of Shah, Vizier, etc., were replaced with cos
mical ones, is characteristic of the way in which China adapts and
absorbs foreign ideas. A game with two dice remains the principal
dice game in China at the present day. In it the twenty-one possible
throws are divided into two series, one consisting of the throws
#, 4, 4, #, #, #, 3, #, #, $, $, called man, civil, and the other, #, #,
#, #, #, #, 4, 3, 3, and }, designated as m), or military. In the
twelfth century, according to Chinese records, dotted tablets, i.e.,
dominoes, were invented. Chinese dominoes consist of 21 pieces
representing the 21 throws with two dice of which the 11 pieces of
the man series are usually duplicated to form a complete set, which
numbers 32 dominoes. In southern China, long wooden dominoes
are employed. When paper was used instead of wood we have the
playing card.
The subject of Chinese playing cards has been illustrated in an
admirable and exhaustive manner by W. H. Wilkinson, Esq., H. B.
M. Consul at Swatow, who has lent for exhibition a series of Chinese
cards, dice, and dominoes collected at no less than fourteen differ
ent cities in China, from Peking on the north,and Taiyuan, down
along the coast at Nanking, Shanghai, Ningpo, Wenchow, Fuchow,
Swatow, Canton, to Hongkong. Cards are also shown from vari.
ous places along the Yellow River, from Chung King eastward to
Nanking. The cards in this collection are arranged according to the
symbols or marks distinguishing them, which Mr. Wilkinson divides
into four classes, according as they are derived:
1. From the sapek or cash, and its multiples.
2. Through dominoes from dice.
3. From the Chinese Chess game.
4. From other sources.
A very complete account may be expected from Mr. Wilkinson,
who has displayed here what is doubtless the most perfect collection
of Chinese cards ever exhibited. The miscellaneous cards in this
collection are drawn from western China and bear some resemblance,
according to Mr. Wilkinson, to the Proverbs and Happy Fam
ilies of Europe and America. They include the cards based on a
writing lesson, cards based on numbers, and cards based on a lucky
formula.
Returning to the subject of dice, the special implements used in
dice divination in India are shown, as well as illustrations of the
methods employed in telling fortunes with dominoes in China and
Axhibit of Games in the Columbian Exposition. 215
Korea; these forming part of the material used in the investigation
of the origin of dominoes. Japanese and Siamese dice are also
exhibited with the East Indian and Chinese specimens, as well as
dice made in various parts of Europe, comprising a pair of iron dice
purchased at Perugia, which, although presumably modern, have the
dots arranged with the 65, 42, and 3-1 opposite, like those of old
Etruria, instead of the sums of the spots on opposite sides being
equal to seven, as is otherwise general. With the dice are the spin
ning dice of various countries, including the East Indian Chukree,
the Chinese Ch'e me, and the corresponding dice of Japan and Siam.
A variety of dominoes are also displayed, including those of Korea,
which are identical with those of China, and the Siamese dominoes,
which were also borrowed from the latter country.
The pair of knuckle-bones appear to be the parent of many of that
large class of games which Mr. Tylor describes as the backgammon
group. With reference to dice-backgammon the evidence in this
particular is very direct, but the similar games played with cowries
and wooden blocks, for which even a greater antiquity may be
claimed, there is a likelihood of independent origin. Several games
of the latter class from India, North America, and Egypt, types of
which have been referred to by Mr. Tylor, are exhibited in this col
lection. The first, Pachisi, is the most popular game in India. It
is played around a board, usually made of cloth, in the form of a
cross, according to the throws with cowries. Six or seven shells
are ordinarily used, and count according as the apertures fall. When
long dice of ivory are employed, the game is called Chausar. This
game was introduced from India into the United States, where it
was first published in 1860 under the name of Parchesi, and has
become very popular. Mr. Cushing has set up beside the Pachisi
a Zui game, which the Zuis call Ta sho li we, or wooden cane
cards, and which has many points of resemblance to the East
Indian game. The moves are made according to the throws with
wooden blocks three inches in length, painted red and black upon
their two faces, around a circle of forty stones which is broken at
the top and bottom, and the right and left, by four openings called
the Doorways of the four directions. This game embodies many
of the mythical conceptions of the Zuis. It is played by two or
four players, who use colored splints to mark their course around
the circle. These splints, which are placed at starting in the door
way to which they correspond, have the following symbolism: At
the top, Yellow, North, The Wind, Winter. At the left, Blue,
West, Water, Spring. At the bottom, Red, South, Fire, Summer.
At the right, White, East, Seed or Earth, Autumn. The colors of
the two wooden blocks symbolize the two conditions of man: Red,
Light or Wakefulness; Black, Darkness or Sleep. The throws with
the blocks, which are tossed, ends down, upon a disc of sandstone
placed in the middle of the circle, are as follows: 3 red count Io;
3 black count 5; 2 red and I black count 3; I red and 2 black count 1.
A count of three red gives another throw. When four play, the
North and West move around from right to left, and the South and .
East from left to right. When a player's move ends at a division of
the circle occupied by his adversaries' piece, he takes it up and sends
it back to the beginning. It is customary to make the circuit of the
stones either four or six times, beans or corn of the seven varieties
being used as counters. This game forms one of the seven sacred
games of the Zuis, and its antetype, Sho lt we, or Cane Cards,
is one of the four games that are sacrifices to the God of War and
Fate. The sacred form of the game is called Tein thla nah na td
sho lt we, or literally, Of all the regions wood cane cards, and the
blocks which are thrown in it bear complicated marks, consisting of
bands of color on one side. In the sacred game, the players are
chosen with great care with reference to their totem, and the region
to which it belongs. A much more complete account of this game
may be expected from Mr. Cushing himself, from the ample mate
rial which he has placed at my disposal. Side by side with Ta sho
ld we is the corresponding game as played by the Apache and Nava
jos, which has been set up by Antonio Apache. It lacks the color
symbolism, but the principle is identical. The Navajos call it Set
tilth, which Captain John G. Bourke, U. S. A., tells me should be
transliterated Tze-chis, or Zse tilth, and means literally, stone
stick. The circle of stones, he says, is called Tze nasti, Stone
circle.
Lieut. H. L. Scott, U.S.A., has contributed the implements for a
similar game of the Kiowas, which is known as the Awl Game.
It is called by the Kiowas Zohn ahl, that is, Zohn, creek, and ahl,
wood. A detailed account of it will appear elsewhere, furnished
to the writer by Lieutenant Scott, who states that the Comanches
have a similar game which they play with eight ahl sticks, which are
two feet or more long. -
These games are all similar to the Mexican Patoli, as described

by the early Spanish chroniclers. A picture of the latter game from
an early Hispano-American manuscript, reproduced from the origi
nal in Florence by its discoverer, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, is exhibited
in this connection. The method of play among the Aztecs is here
shown, and it is curious to note that they used a diagram or board
in the form of a cross, like that of the East Indian Pachisi. In
the Malayan archipelago, a stone is placed in the centre upon
which dice are thrown in games, as among the North American
Axhibit of Games in the Columbian Exposition. 217
Indians. Mr. Tylor has set forth the conclusions which may be
drawn from these resemblances, but the matter is still open for dis
cussion. Another game remains to be noticed, played with wooden
blocks as dice: the Arab game of Tab, in which men are moved on
a board according to the throws of four slips of palm. These slips,
about eight inches in length, are left with one face of the natural
color, and the other showing the whiter interior of the palm, these
sides being called black and white respectively. The throws count
as follows: 4 black, 6; 4 white, 4; 3 white, 3; 2 white, 2.;
I white, I.
The implements displayed for this game were made in the Cairo
street. No more curious ethnographical parallels are presented in
the Exposition than that of the Arabs in the Plaisance, and the
Navajos beside the South Lagoon, both playing these curiously simi
lar games.
CASE VII.
BACKGAMMON, SUGOROKU, AND THE GAME OF GOOSE, EAST INDIAN,

JAPANESE, AND SIAMESE CARDS.
According to Mr. Tylor, dice-backgammon makes its appearance
plainly in classic history. The game of twelve lines (duodecim
scripta) was played throughout the Roman Empire and passed on,
with little change, through mediaeval Europe, carrying its name of
tabulae, tables; its modern representatives being French Tric trac,
English Backgammon, etc. Among the ancient Greeks Kubeia, or
dice playing, is shown by various classical passages to be of the
nature of backgammon. The pearl-inlaid backgammon board here
shown is from Damascus, where the game is known as Towla,
tables. A Siamese board exhibited by the government of Siam,
with other games, through its royal commissioner Phra Surya, has
departed little from the ancient type. Backgammon is known in
China as Sheung Luk, double sixes, and in Japan by the corre
sponding name of Sugoroku. The popular games, both in China
and Japan, however, are not played with men upon a set board, but
resemble the games with many stations, which are common in
Europe and America.
The most notable of the Chinese games of this class is the one
which is called Shing kun to, or The Tables of the Promotion of
Officials, a game which has been known to scholars, through Dr.
Hyde's account, as The Game of the Promotion of Mandarins.
It is played by two or more persons upon a large paper diagram,
upon which are printed the titles of the different officials and digni
taries of the Chinese government. The moves are made according
to the throws with four cubical dice, and the players, whose posi
tions upon the diagram are indicated by notched or colored splints,
2 I8 journal of American Folk-Lore.
are advanced or set back, according to their throws. The paper
chart here exhibited was purchased in a Chinese shop in New York
city. It was printed in Canton, and bears an impression about
twenty-three inches square. This is divided into sixty-three com
partments, exclusive of the central one and the place for entering
at the lower right-hand corner. The latter contains the names of
thirteen different starting-points, from yan shang, or Honorary
Licentiate, down to t'ung shang, or student, between which are
included the positions of t'n man shang, astrologer, and 4 shang,
physician. These are entered at the commencement of the game
by the throws of three, four, five, six, three fours, three sixes,
three fives, three threes, three twos, and three ones; and
then in the same manner double fours, and so on down to double
ones.
The sixty-three compartments, representing as many classes of

officials or degrees of rank, comprise three hundred and ninety
seven separate titles, of which the highest, and the highest goal of
the game, is that of man fat tin ti hok se, or Grand Secretary.
This, however, under favorable conditions, can only be reached by
a player who starts from a favorable point, advancement in the game
being regulated by rules similar to those which actually regulate
promotion under government. Thus, a player whose fortune it is to
enter as physician or astrologer can only obtain promotion in the
line of his service, and must be content with a minor goal, as he is
ineligible to the high civil office of Grand Secretary.
The dice are thrown into a bowl placed in the centre of the sheet,
the players throwing in turn, and each continuing to throw until he
makes a cast of doublets or higher. It is noticeable that fours,
as in Dr. Hyde's account, constitute the highest throw. A pair of
fours, according to the rules, is to be reckoned as tak, virtue,
and leads to a higher place than those of the other numbers. Sixes
are next highest and are to be reckoned as ts'oi, genius; and in
the same manner, in descending degree, fives are to be reckoned
as kung, skill; threes as lung, forethought; twos as
yau, tractability; and ones, chong, stupidity. The game is
much complicated by being played for money or counters, which
is necessary under the rules. By this means advancement may be
purchased, degradation compounded for, and the winner of a high
position rewarded.
The main point of difference between the game as it exists to-day,
and as described by Dr. Hyde, is the number of dice employed, six
being the number mentioned by him. The enlarged form of the
diagram is of minor importance, as he himself says that the names
of officials written on the tablet are many or few, according to the
Rxhibit of Games in the Columbian Exposition. 219
pleasure of the players. With the game of Shing kun to may be
seen a copy of Dr. Hyde's treatise, De Ludis Orientalibis, contain
ing the reproduction of the chart of the game which he made in
London 200 years ago. The names of titles of the Ming dynasty
appear upon it, in curious contrast to those of the present Tartar
domination. The two hundredth anniversary of the date of the
imprimatur of this precious volume occurs on the 20th of Septem
ber of this very year.
There is a very great variety of games of this character in Japan,
new ones being published annually at the season of the New Year.
Illustrations of the more formal game played upon a board divided
into twelve parts are figured in the Chinese-Japanese cyclopaedias.
According to the Kum m dau e tai sei, the twelve compartments,
called in Japanese me, or eyes, symbolize the twelve months, and
the black and white stones with which the game is played, day and
night.
Italy contributes several forms of the dice game played upon a
board having many stations. The oldest specimen in the collec
tion, purchased in Parma, is a manuscript game bearing the title of
Oca Franchese. Others printed in Florence bear the printed labels
of Giuoco dell oca and Giuoco del Barone, while late examples more
fanciful, both in name and design, appear as Giuoco del Tramway
and La Battaglia del 48. A French game is shown under its proper
title as jeu de l'oie, beside which is placed a similar American game
published as the Game of Goose.
A number of packs of Oriental cards other than Chinese are con
tained in this case, among which are included several packs of East
Indian Hindu cards which they call Gungeefa. They are all circular,
varying in diameter in the different sets from 14 to 3% inches. One
pack from Lucknow comprises eight suits, each composed of twelve
cards, ten of which are numerals, from one to ten. The two
remaining cards are designated respectively as Badsha and Sawar.
No satisfactory explanation has yet been afforded as to their origin.
The Japanese call the cards which are now current in Japan by
the name of Karuta, a word evidently derived from the Portuguese
carta. Those commonly used by gamblers, a pack of which is ex
hibited by Mrs. J. K. Van Rensellaer, are called Hana Karuta, or
Flower cards, and comprise forty-eight pieces, a number, it will be
observed, identical with that of the present Spanish pack. They
bear pictures, chiefly flowers, emblematic of the twelve months, four
cards being placed under each. Their names are as follows: Matsu,
pine; Sakusa, cherries; Momidai, maple; Butan, wild
rose; Hagi, Lespedeza; Kiku, golden-colored daisy; Kiri,
Paulonia; Fudai, Wisteria; Soba, tiger lily; Ume, plum-tree;
Yama, mountain;" and Ame, rain.
22O journal of American Folk-Lore.
The Iroha, or Proverb cards, also consist of ninety-six cards, half
of which bear a picture and one of the forty-seven characters of the
Iroha, or Japanese syllabary. Each of the other cards is inscribed
with a proverb, the first word of which is written with one of the
characters. There are several methods of play, the commonest being
that of laying out all the picture cards face up. One of the older
players reads the proverbs in turn, while the others endeavor to select
the card from the table bearing the corresponding initial character.
The Uta Karuta, or Cards with songs, contain, according to Mr.
Karl Himly, the well-known one hundred songs (Hiyaku min issiu,
1235 A.D.), or the poems of the Old and New Collection (Ho kin
schiu, 905 A.D.). The picture cards have the pictures of the poet or
poetess, with the commencement of the poems. The rest is on the
corresponding cards. The game is the same as that played with
the Iroha Karuta.
CASE VIII.
AMERICAN BOARD GAMES PLAYED WITH DICE.
The first of American board games played with dice is said to

be the Mansion of Happiness. This game is said to have been
published in 1852, and copied from an English game. Thirty-three
specimens of similar games published in this country are exhibited.
They form a small part, however, of the entire number.
CASE IX.
TAROTS, TAROCCHINO, AND MINCHIATE. TYPES OF ITALIAN CARDS.

MANUFACTURE OF PLAYING CARDS.
The question of the origin of playing cards in Europe, whether

they were introduced from the East, or an independent invention in
France, Italy, or Germany, has been the object of much discussion.
It may be regarded as conclusively settled that playing cards were
invented in China in the twelfth century, and in view of the remark
able similarities between the card and card games of China and those
of Europe which have been brought to light by Mr. Wilkinson, it may
be profitable to suspend further consideration of the matter until the
results of his studies are made public. Italy appears to be the oldest
home of the playing card in Europe, and the earliest Italian packs
are said to be those which the Italians call Tarocchi. Several types
of these cards are found in Italy. According to Willshire these
games are known as the Tarots of Venice or Lombardy, the Taroc
chino of Bologna, and the Minchiate of Florence. The first of these,
the old Venetian Tarot, he regards as the parent of all. The se
quence consists of 78 cards, i. e., of 22 emblematic cards of Tarots
proper, and 56 numeral cards made up of 16 figures or court cards,
and 40 pip cards. The 22 Tarot cards bear emblematic designs
Pxhibit of Games in the Columbian Exposition. 221
which appear to be borrowed from a series of prints which are known
to collectors as the Tarocchi of Mantegna or the Carte di Baldini.
The emblematic cards in the Venetian series usually bear the follow
ing inscriptions: 1. La Bagattel. 2. La Papessa. 3. LImperatrice.
4. L'Imperatore. 5. Il Papa. 6. Gli Amanti. 7. Il Carro. 8. La
Guistizia. 9 LEremita, Io. Ruot della For 11. La Forza.
12. L'Appeso. 13. . I4. La Temperan. I 5. Il Diavolo.
16. La Torre. 17. Le Stelle. 18. La Luna. 19. Il Sole. 20. Il
Giudizio. 21. Il Mondo. 22. Il Matto.
No name is placed upon the 13th, which usually bears a skeleton
with a scythe, representing death.
The second game, the Tarocchino of Bologna, though a direct
descendant of the ancient Venetian tarots, is not so old as the third
game, or Minchiate of Florence. The chief characteristic of the
Tarocchino, its name a diminutive of tarocchi, is the suppression in
it of the 2, 3, 4, and 5 of each numeral suit, thus reducing the
numeral cards from 56 to 40. This modification of the tarot game
was invented in Bologna, early in the fifteenth century, by Francesco
Fibbia, Prince of Pisa, an exile in that city, dying there in 1419.
The third game is the Minchiate of Florence. It is more compli
cated than the Venetian game, twenty additional cards being added
to the emblematic series. A pack of modern Venetian tarot made
in Milan, which are remarkable for their beautifully engraved and
painted designs, a pack of modern Tarocchino from Bologna, and a
pack of seventeenth century Minchiate, are displayed in the south
side of this case. All of these cards are in current use in different
parts of Italy.
The suit marks of Italian cards consist of money, cups, swords,
and clubs, called danari, coppe, spade, and bastoni. The four court
cards of the numeral suits are known respectively as Re, King,
Regina or Reina, Queen, Cavallo, Knight, and Fante, Knave. The
regular cards, as opposed to those which include the emblematic
series, are distinguished by certain peculiarities in the designs of the
court cards in different parts of Italy. The distinctive cards of
Florence, Milan, and Naples are exhibited in this case, together with
several interesting packs upon which all the designs, except an indi
cation of the value at the top, have given place to texts designed to
afford instruction in history, geography, etc. A remarkable pack of
this character, exhibited by Dr. G. Brown Goode, of Washington, is in
manuscript and is intended to teach geography.
According to Chatto, on the earliest cards he had ever seen the
figures had been executed by means of stencils, this being the case
both in the cards of 1440 and those known as the Stukely cards.
There are exhibited in this case the stencils, brush, and unfinished
card sheets from a card maker in Florence, who still practises this
ancient method of manufacture. The cards on the south side of this
case, which in common with all others not specially mentioned are
exhibited by the University of Pennsylvania, represent the cards
made at the present day in no less than eighteen Italian cities by
some twenty-nine makers. They were collected for the University
Museum by Mr. Francis C. Macauley of Florence. The cards of
Florence, Bologna, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Ferrara, Padua, Tre
viso, Udine, Novara, Turin, Sesia, Bergamo, Brescia, Genoa, Perugia,
Naples, and Bari are included in the collection, in which an opportu
nity is afforded to observe the peculiarities of the cards of the dif
ferent Italian cities. A distinctive character of the marks of the
numeral suits of spade and bastoni is the mode in which they are
interlaced or connected together in place of standing separately or
apart. It is interesting to note that in the cards made in and for
southern Italy this peculiarity does not exist, they being almost
identical with the cards made in Spain.
The cards of Austria succeed those of Italy. The pack exhibited
from Trent is like those of Italy, but the distinctively German cards
predominate among those made in Vienna and the northern cities.
The suit marks of old German cards consist of hearts, bells, leaves,
and acorns, which they call respectively Hergen (roth), Schellen, Laub
(grn), and Eichlen. The court cards of the German pack are
usually three in number, the peculiarity of the true German pack
being that the queen is omitted and an upper valet or Obermann put
in her place. They consist of the Knig or King, the Obermann,
and the Untermann.
Tarocchi cards are found in Germany under the name of Taroks,
and a number of Tarok packs manufactured in Austria appear in
this collection. Special names appear on their labels, as Trieste
Tarok, Kaffee Tarok, etc., and the tarots proper bear a variety of
emblems and designs different from those of Italy. They are usually
numbered at top and bottom with Roman numerals from I. to XXI.
Willshire has pointed out that the Italians early suppressed the
emblematic cards in a game which was termed Trappola, in which
the true tarots were abolished, as likewise the three, four, five, and
six of each numeral suit. This game, he states, was still in vogue
in Silesia when Breitkopf wrote (1784). An interesting Austrian
pack of this character is shown under the name of Trappolier Spiel,
in which the shape as well as the suit marks of the Italian tarots
are displayed.
The German cards manufactured in Germany are prefaced by a
series of reprints of German cards of the last century exhibited by
Mr. Macauley. They were obtained by him through the courtesy of
the Bavarian National Museum in Munich, for which they were made
from the original blocks of the old Munich card makers that have
been conserved in the Museum.
CASE XI.
GERMAN CARDS (continuED), SWISS, DANISH, SWEDISH, AND RUSSIAN

CARDS. SPANISH, MEXICAN, AND APACHE CARDS.
The collection of cards made in Germany comprises 53 packs, con
sisting chiefly of the current cards manufactured by card makers in
Munich, Altenburg, Frankfort a. M., Berlin, Leipzig, and Breslau.
Among these is an extremely beautiful pack by B. Dondorf of Frank
fort, with pictures suggesting the four quarters of the globe, after
designs by Haussmann. Toy cards, patience cards, comic cards,
trick cards, and cards which are labelled Gaigel cards appear, as
well as cards made for special games, as the Hexen or witch packs.
Many of the cards manufactured in Germany are seen to bear the
French suit marks of Caeurs, Carreaux, Piques, and Trfles, or
hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs, instead of the old
German suit marks, and the court cards correspond at the same
time with those of France and England. There are a number of
packs with French suit marks, which bear pictures of Swiss scenery
and costumes. The cards made in Switzerland are from Schaff
hausen and Geneva, and comprise a variety of designs, including
those which are especially designated as Swiss cards, German cards,
and German Taroks. Belgium is represented by a German tarot
pack, and imitations of English cards made for Oriental markets.
Three packs of this character are shown, which were sent from
Johore, in the Malay Peninsula, with another pack from Beirut, in
Syria. The Russian cards in the collection, contributed by Madame
Semetchkin, the representative on the Russian Commission of the
Institutions of the Empress Marie, are similar to modern French
cards. The manufacture of playing cards in Russia is a monopoly
of the state, and the revenues accruing are devoted to the support
of the great charitable institution of which Madame Semetchkin is
the distinguished representative.
Tarots or Tarocchi cards are not used in Spain, nor are they
found among Spanish cards. The regulation Spanish pack now con
sists of 48 cards of four suits, called respectively Dineros, money,
Copas, cups, Bastos, clubs, and Espadas, swords. The
numerals run from one to nine, the ten being replaced with the
Caballo. The court cards comprise the Sota, or knave, the Caballo,
or knight, and the Rey, or king. Cards manufactured at Vi
toria, Burgos, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Cadiz, and Palamos are
displayed. Great antiquity has been claimed for cards in Spain, and
it has been urged that this is the country through which Europe
received cards from the East, but heretofore no Spanish cards of as
sured date earlier than 1600 have been known, and material evidence
has been lacking. There was exhibited at the Columbian Historical
Exposition in Madrid in 189293, a sheet of cards made in Mexico
in 1583, which has been preserved in the Archives of the Indies at
Seville, Spain, and which throw light upon the origin of Spanish
cards. A copy made in water-colors by an artist in Madrid is shown
in this collection. The original consists of an uncut sheet of about
11 by 17 inches, and bears on the back a pen and ink inscription
with the date 1583. The face displays an impression from a wooden
block of 24 cards each 2 by 3} inches. They are colored in red,
blue, and black, and represent the court cards and aces of the suits
of money, cups, clubs, and swords, and ten numeral or pip cards of
the suit of swords. There are but three court cards for each suit,
instead of four as in the present Spanish pack. The marks of the
numeral suit consist of crossed swords, instead of being arranged as
on the Spanish cards now current, and strongly point to the Italian
affinities of early Spanish cards.
Side by side with this early Mexican pack is a colored plate repre
senting leather cards made by the Indians of South America, and
an original pack of leather cards used by the Apaches. From the
arrangement of the swords on both of these sets, which were copied
from cards introduced by the Spaniards, it appears that they were
initiated from the present type of Spanish cards. Such is not the
case with the corresponding marks on a pack of native cards from
the Celebes, which are also exhibited. Their Spanish origin is
clearly indicated by their number, 48, and by the devices, which still
bear a faint resemblance to those of Europe. The clubs and swords
on both are represented by crossed lines which confirm the impres
sion created by the Mexican pack. The Japanese Hana Karuta,
or Flower Cards, are also shown here, as another pack of Oriental
cards derived from those of Spain or Portugal. Their number, 48,
and their name, karuta, from the Portuguese carta, clearly suggests
their origin.
CASE XII.
FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND AMERICAN PLAYING CARDS. FORTUNE-TELL

ING CARDS, DR. BUZBY, AUTHORS, AND MISCELLANEOUS CARD GAMES.
Tarocchi cards are called Tarots in France, and the French tarot
pack is similar to the Venetian. The earliest specimens of French
Tarots exhibited bear the name of Claude Burdel and the date 1751.
There is direct historic proof that France possessed cards at a very
early time in the accounts of the Treasurer of Charles VI., A. D. 1392.
The earliest pack of French cards in this collection is one of which I
have not been able to determine the date. It bears the name Pierre
Montalan on the Knave of Spades and Claude Valentin on the
Knave of Clubs. A variety of modern French packs are shown,
including those made with Spanish suit marks and special cards for
various games. The French suit marks reappear on English cards,
and according to Willshire it is most probable that cards made their
way into England through France. He states that the time is not
known, but that we are safe in believing that cards were not in use
in England until after the reign of Henry IV (1405), and that they
were certainly employed before 1463. The English cards here dis
played consist entirely of those of the present day, but this deficiency
in historical packs is compensated for in part by Lady Charlotte
Schreiber's folio volume on English and Scottish, Dutch and Flemish
cards which she has loaned for this collection. The great work, of
which this is but the first volume, contains fac-similes of the cards
in Lady Charlotte Schreiber's private collection, and reveals the
wealth of historical suggestions to be found upon playing cards, and
their value, as thus collected, to the antiquary and historian.
America early received playing cards from Spain, and Spanish
cards are still made and imported into Spanish American countries.
In the United States English cards were naturally adopted. No
very early packs are shown, but some interesting cards are found in
the North American series, including a variety of cards with patri
otic emblems of the time of the Rebellion, as well as caricature
cards of the recent political campaigns. The collection closes with
the souvenir packs of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago. Mrs.
J. K. Van Rensellaer's work, entitled The Devil's Picture Books,
a copy of which is exhibited, contains many interesting particulars
concerning cards and card playing in America. Several interest
ing card boxes are shown in this collection, with specimens of the
old-fashioned fish or card counters of mother-of-pearl, among
which are some that belonged to Robert Morris, the financier of
the Revolution. Treatises on American card games, exhibited by
Messrs. Dick & Fitzgerald, conclude the series of playing cards
proper.
Among the notions concerning the origin of cards in Europe is
one that they were first introduced by the gypsies, who used them in
fortune-telling. It appears that they were early used for divinatory
purposes in Europe, but according to Willshire their employment in
fortune-telling gradually declined among the upper classes until the
middle of the eighteenth century, though it was prevalent, no doubt,
among the lower grades of society frequenting fairs and the caravans
of mountebanks. About 1750 divination through cards again be
came popular in Paris, at least, for in 1751, 1752, and 1753 three
persons were publicly known as offering their services for this inten
tion. According to certain writers, the emblematic figures of the
tarot cards are of very remote origin, stretching back as far as the
ancient Egyptians, from whom they have descended to us as a book
or series of subjects of deep symbolic meaning. The discovery
and explication of the meaning of the tarots employed in modern
times was claimed by M. Count de Goebelin in 1781, who in his
Monde Primitif analys et compare avec le Monde Moderne, gave
a dissertation on the game of Tarots, in which he states that the
tarot pack is evidently based on the sacred Egyptian number seven,
and reviews the tarot emblems in detail.
The probable origin of the 21 tarot cards has already been sug
gested in connection with Chinese cards, and it is not surprising that
the astrological notions associated with Tarots should find parallels
in the speculations of the Kabbalists, who attached similar notions
to the dice throws as are now found associated with them in China,
from whence the 21 Tarot cards doubtless came to Europe. An ex
planation is therefore found for some of the resemblances upon
which M. de Goebelin lays such stress. His fancies, however, never
subjected to very severe examination or criticism, were seized upon
by a perruquier of Paris of the name of Alliette, who combined with
his ordinary occupation the practice of cartomancy. He read the
dissertation of Count de Goebelin, and, thereby enlightened, changed
the letters of his name and prophesied under the name of Ettillia.
His writings furnish the basis of most of the treatises now extant
upon the subject of fortune-telling with cards, and his name is found
associated with several of the modern French tarot packs published
especially for fortune-telling, in the present collection. During the
exciting periods of the first Consulship of Napoleon I., there lived,
according to Mr. Willshire, a well-known diviner named Madame
Lenormand, whose predictions gained great repute. Her name, with
that of Ettillia, appears on the French cards here exhibited, as well
as on those made in America. Several French and German fortune
telling packs of an amusing character are to be found in the present
collection, as well as others published in the United States, which
are designed solely for purposes of amusement.
The entire northern side of this case is devoted to the card games
other than regular playing cards, which owe their existence to the
prejudice against cards or to the demand for simple and instructive
amusements for children and young people. Mr. Milton Bradley has
contributed some interesting notes on the history of such games in
this country. In 1843 Miss Annie W. Abbott, a clergyman's daugh
ter of Beverly, Mass., offered to Mr. Ives, a publisher of Salem, Mass.,
a card game which she called Dr. Buzby. This game, which was
he first of its kind, was reluctantly published by Mr. Ives and met
ith an astonishing success, no less than 50,000 copies being sold in
the following year. It will be remembered by many of the parents
of the present day as among the earliest games ever learned and
possibly played upon the sly through fear of reprimand. A pack of
the original Dr. Buzby cards will be found at the beginning of this
collection. The game of Authors was originated by a young
man living in Salem, helped by some of his female acquaintances.
The method of play was copied from Dr. Buzby, but it contained
an element of instruction and profit not found in the older game. He
took it to a local publisher to see if he could have ten or a dozen
packs printed, as it was too much work for him to print them. Mr.
Smith, the publisher, saw the possibilities of the game and told him
if he would let him make them, he would supply his needs gratis, to
which he consented. This was in 1861, and the sale of this game has
since been wonderful. Many modifications and improvements of the
original game are shown in the collection.
Soon after the publication of Dr. Buzby, a teacher in a young
ladies' school in Salem devised a game of letters which has since be
come popular under the various names of Spelling Puzzle, Word
Making and Word Taking, War of Words, Anagrams, Logo
machy, Words and Sentences, etc. The publications of the
Milton Bradley Company, McLaughlin Bros., and E. I. Horsman are
here exhibited, and no less than 78 different card games are dis
played. They are classified in groups according to the methods of
play, which, in spite of the ingenuity displayed in the designs of the
cards, are relatively very limited in number, the ideas in the main
being derived from games already played with regular playing cards.
The collection has received many additions since its installation,
notably a very complete series of Zui games from Mr. Cushing,
and a series of Malayan and Chinese games from H. H. the Sultan
of Johore, through Mr. Rouncesvelle Wildman, as well as an ex
tremely important collection of East Indian games from the Pro
vincial Museum, Lucknow, and of Burmese games collected by
Mr. C. S. Bayne, Rangoon, both through the courtesy of the Honor
able Charles H. T. Crosthwaite.
Stewart Culin.
NOTES AND QUERIES.
FoLK-LORE AT THE CoLUMBIAN ExPosition. If the Anthropological

Building has been late in completion, the display is now most interesting.
The value and curiosity of the archaeological exhibits will first attract atten
tion; but those more closely connected with folk-lore are well worthy of
notice. An account is elsewhere printed of the cases devoted to the pre
sentation of objects used in games. A very curious and complete exhibi
tion of objects connected with Chinese worship in America is made by the
Archaeological Department of the University of Pennsylvania; and the
curator, Mr. Stewart Culin, shows in his own name an interesting gather
ing of books used by the same people in this country. The place which
toys may be made to take in museums illustrating folk-lore is well shown
by a collection of toys representing Chinese and Japanese musical instru
ments by the same exhibitors. Mr. G. F. Kunz of New York exhibits a
collection of precious stones, or valuable objects, employed as amulets, or
with superstitious purposes. The Australian display contains illustrations
of the Bora initiation ceremonies, and that of Africa representations of dis
guises employed in sacred rites not yet explained. As connected with
mythology, the totem poles and carvings of the Haida of British Columbia
will be observed. In the Government Building, Mr. Frank Hamilton
Cushing has constructed a model of a Zui priest engaged in the celebra
tion of the creation-myth. Outside of the exhibition buildings, the Midway
Plaisance offers a continued spectacle of various life. The Javanese
theatre is especially to be mentioned, as worthy of description and study.
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONGRESS.In the end, the plan of this Con
gress was so far altered that the arrangement in separate sections was
abandoned. The Congress devoted to Folk-lore but one afternoon, on
August 29, given to the Collection of Games in the Anthropological Build
ing, and one morning, August 31, when a certain number of papers were
presented. As these papers will hereafter appear in the proceedings of
the Congress, it will not be necessary here to give an account of them.
The attendance at the Congress, as at most of the scientific congresses,
was limited; but the occasion was found pleasant by those who took part.
Persons desirous to obtain the printed proceedings may send the subscrip
tion price ($5.oo) to Mr. C. Staniland Wake, Department of Ethnology,
Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Ill.
ALDEGONDA, THE FAIRY of Joy. AN ITALIAN TALE. In a well
written editorial, or leader-review, in the London Chronicle, of the book
entitled Rabbit the Voodoo, by Miss Mary Owen, the writer, in referring
to my introduction to the latter work, intimated that I could probably not
distinguish between what was American Indian and original Negro super
stition or tradition, because savage races have the same bases of custom
and belief. This view, like many others current among theorizing folk
lorists, is to a great extent deceptive. What were the absolute beginnings
. ..
-
CHINESE GAMES WITH DICE
BY STEWART CULIN.
READ BEFORE THE ORIENTAL CLUB of PHILADELPHIA.
MARCH I4, 1889.
PHILADELPHIA.
1889.
Franklix Phrxtino Co.
3.16-18 Minor St.
Philad'a.
This paper is intended as the first of a series on
Chinese games, to be continued by similar accounts of
dominoes, playing cards, and chess. The games
described in it, as in those intended to follow it, are
chiefly those of the Chinese laborers in America, a
limitation found as acceptable as it is necessary, since
even among these people who all come from a compar
atively small area, there exist variations in their
methods of gambling, as well as in the terminology of
their games. The latter is largely made up of slang
and colloquial words, and presents many difficulties.
The gamblers are usually the most ignorant class, and
those most familiar with the games are often least able
to furnish correct Chinese transcriptions of the terms
employed in them, and literal translations of these,
even when obtained, are misleading.
My thanks are due to Mr. C. H. Kajiwara, of Tokio,
for translations of the Japanese texts, and to Li ch'un
shn, Sin shang, of Hohshan, for valued information
about the Game of Promotion.
S. C.
127 South Front Street,

Philadelphia, U. S. A.
3
CHINESE GAMES WITH DICE.
(Read before The Oriental Club of Philadelphia, March 14, 1889.)
Chinese dice consist of small cubes of bone marked on each

side with incised spots from one to six in number, which are
arranged in the same manner as the spots on modern European
dice, as well as on those of Greece and Rome of classical antiquity;
the six and one, five 8 and two, and 'four and three, being
on opposite sides.
The four and the one spots on Chinese dice are painted red, and
the six, five, three' and 'two' are painted black. The one
is always much larger and more deeply incised than the other
spots, possibly to compensate for its opposite, the six.
The origin of the custom of painting the fours red is accounted
for, according to the Wa Aan san sai dzu et by the following
story: An emperor of the Ming dynasty (A. D. 13681643) played
at sugoroku with his queen. He was almost defeated by her, but
had one way of winning through the dice turning fours. He
cried and threw the dice and they came as he desired, whereupon
he was exceedingly glad and ordered that the fours thereafter be
painted red, in remembrance of his winning.
A similar story was related to me as a common tradition among
the Cantonese, by an intelligent Chinese who gave the Emperor's
* The common name for dice among the Cantonese is shik /sai, con
posed of shik colors, and tsai, a little thing, the smaller of two."
In Medhurst's Anglish and Chinese Dictionary, Shanghae, 1847, three
other names for dice are given : "att (s2', composed of t'aw, written
with a character compounded of the radicals, kwat bone, and shit, a
weapon, to strike, and the auxiliary tsz', shung luk, double sixes,'
from what is regarded as the highest throw with two dice, and luk
ch'ik, literally 'six carnation. The last name may be considered as a
compound of the terms for the most important throws : six and car
nation or red; the four, to which, as will be seen, an especial signifi
cance is attached, as well as the one, the lowest throw with a die,
being painted red. In Japanese dice are called sai, a word written with
a Chinese character meaning variegated.
+ Japanese Chinese Three Powers (Heaven, Earth, Man) picture
collection. Osaka, 1714. Vol. 17, fol. 4,
5
6
name as L Ling Wong," who reigned under the title of Chung

Tsung (A. D. 684, 701710). Mr. Herbert A. Giles tells me that
the story is mentioned by a Chinese author; but I am inclined to
regard the account as merely fanciful, and think it is probable that
the color of the fours' was derived, with the dice themselves, from
India.f
Several sizes of dice are used by the Chinese, varying from a cube
of two-tenths to one of seven-tenths of an inch. Different sizes are
employed in different game according to custom.
Dice are usually thrown by hand into a porcelain bowl, the
players throwing in turn from right to left, and accompanying
their efforts with cries of loi / come !
The Chinese laborers in the United States play several games
with dice, but they are not a popular mode of gambling, and are
generally neglected for fan tan, and Chinese dominoes.
SZ 'NG LUK.
The best known of these games is called s2' 'ng luk, four, five,
six, commonly contracted to sing luk, and is played with three
dice of the largest size. The throws in it in the order of their
rank are :
Three alike, from three sixes down, called wai.:
Four, five, six, called sing luk, or ch'in fa.
Two alike, the odd die counting, from six down to ace, the
last throw being called yat fat, ace negative.
One, two, three, called m lung, dancing dragon, or sh tsai,
little snake.'
The first player is determined, on throwing around, to be the
one who throws the highest number of red spots. The other
players lay their wagers, usually in sums divisible by three, before
them. The first player throws until he makes one of the above
mentioned casts. If he throws sing luk (four, five, six'); three
alike; or two alike, six high, each of the players at once pay
* Whence a vulgar name for dice among the Cantonese, hot lo, com
posed of hot, to call out loud, and l, for L Ling Wong.
+ I am informed that modern Indian dice are frequently marked with
black and red spots. In the Mhbharata (iv. 1.25) reference is made to
dice, dotted black and red. Prof. E. W. Hopkins, J. A. O. S., Vol.
I3, p. I23.
! II ai means to inclose, and is a term that is also employed in
Chinese games of chess and cards.
% Literally strung flowers.
7
him the full amount of their stakes; but if he throws mb lung or

yat fat, he pays them the full amount of their stakes. If he
throws two alike, five, four, three, or two high, the next
player on his left throws. If the latter makes a higher cast, the
first player must pay him, but if a lower cast, he must pay the
first player. The amounts thus paid are usually proportionate to
the difference between the throws with the odd die. If it is four
or three, the full amount; if two, two-thirds, or if one, one-third
of the stakes must be paid.
The third player throws in the same way, and the game is con
tinued until the first player is out-thrown.
KON MIN YEUNG.
Kon mn yung, pursuing sheep,' is played with six dice of
the largest size. It is a game played for small stakes, usually for
something to eat, and is seldom resorted to by professional gam
blers.
In it the player throws until he gets three alike, when the sum
of the spots on the other dice is counted.
The throws in the order of their rank are:
Six sixes, called t; mn yung, large sheep.
Six fives, fours, threes, twos, or ones, called mn yung
kung, rams.
Three alike and six, six, five, called mn yung n, the ewe.
Three alike, and the other throws than the above. These are
designated by the number representing the sum of the throws
with the three odd dice.
The throws, ti mn yung and mn yung kung, take all the
stakes. If min yung n, or any other cast of three alike, is made,
the next player throws until he gets three alike, when he pays if
his throw is lower, or is paid if it is higher, as in sing luk.
The throw of three fours' is called wong p'ang fai, concerning
the origin of which name the following story is related: A boy
and a girl were betrothed by their parents. The girl's father died,
and the family having been reduced to poverty, her brother sold
the girl to become a prostitute. This she resented, and anxious
to find her betrothed, whose face she well remembered, she caused
it to be advertised that she would yield herself to the man who
could throw three fours' with the dice. Many, attracted by her
beauty, tried and failed, until her husband, Wong p'ang-fiti, who
had obtained the rank of kai in, or senior wrangler at the pro
vincial examination, presented himself. For him she substituted
8
loaded dice, with which he threw three fours, whereupon she dis
closed herself, and they were happily united.
CHAKTIN KAU.
Chk t in kau, throwing heaven nine, is played with two dice.
In this game the twenty-one throws that can be made with two
dice receive different names, and are divided into two series or suits,
called man, civil,' and m), military.
The eleven man throws in the order of their rank are figured
on the right of Plate I. They are:
' Double six, called t'n, Heaven.
Double one, called t, Earth.
Double four, called yan, Man.
One, three, called wo, * Harmony.
Double five, called mi, plum flower. f
Double three, called chung sm, long threes.
Double two, called p in tang, bench.
Five, six, called f t'au, tiger's head.
Four, six, called hung t'au shap, red head ten.
One, six, called k) k.uk ts'at, long leg seven.
One, five, called hung ch'ui luk, red mallet six.
The ten m) throws in the order of their rank are figured on the
left of Plate I. They are:
Five, four, and six, three, called kau, mines.
Five, three, and six, two, called pit, eights.
Five, two, and four, three, called tsat, sevens.
Four, two, called luk, six.
Three, two, and four, one, called 'ng, fives.
One, two, called sm, three, or sm kai, three final.
The first player determined, the other players lay their wagers
on the table. The first player then throws and his cast determines
the suit, whether man or m), for that round. No other throws
count and the players throw again, if necessary, until they make
a cast of the suit led. If the first player throws the highest pair
of either series, that is the double six of the man, or one of the
mines' of the mb, each player at once pays him, but if he leads
* This throw is called by some ngo, a goose, a name, like those of

the throws that follow it in this series, evidently derived from a fancied
resemblance of the spots on the dice.
# The five spot is also called by the name of mume or plum (flower)"
in Japan.
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PLATE I.
II
the lowest of either suit, that is the five, one,' or one, two, he
pays them the amount of their stakes.
If he throws any other pair than the highest or the lowest of
either suit, the second player throws, and is paid his stakes, if he
throws higher by the first player, or pays him if he throws lower.
The game is continued until the first player is out-thrown, when
he is succeeded by the second player and the others lay their
wagers as before.
3. CHA.
13] Q #
Q || @ *
... Q
Q| Q @ | Q | Q).
Fig. 1.
Pt ch, handful of eight, is played with eight dice, preferably

of the smallest size. In this game, the banker is provided with a
diagram (Fig. I) numbered or dotted, like the six faces of a die,
upon which the players lay their stakes. It bears the legend pat
tung, unlike, which expresses the desire of the banker as to the
manner in which the dice shall fall. A player throws eight dice. If
at least three fall like the number bet on, the game keeper pays him
eight times, or if six or more are like the number bet on, sixteen
times the amount of his stakes. In any other event, the player loses.
A similarly marked tablet is used in playing with the ch' m or
teetotum. This implement is made with six dotted sides. The
players lay their stakes upon the numbers on the tablet, and win
four times the amount if the one played on turns uppermost, or
lose, if another number comes up. The ch m is said to sometimes
have its sides decorated with pictures of fish and animals instead
of numbers or spots, and the diagram, which is called the ch m
'i, or the tablet for the teetotum is then similarly inscribed.*
* In this connection reference might be made to a game called hung
I2
CHONG UN CHAU.
Chong in ch'au is a game played with tallies, ch'au, the highest
of which is called chong in, the name given the Optimus at the
examinations for the degree of Hanlin, whence I have styled it
The Game of the Chief of the Literati. Two or more persons
may play, using six dice and sixty-three bamboo tallies. The
latter receive the following names:
First. One piece about six inches in length, called chong in, the
First of the Hanlin doctors. This counts as thirty-two.
Second. Two shorter pieces called pong ngn, Second of the
Hanlin, and tm f, Third of the Hanlin. Each count as sixteen.
Third. Four shorter pieces called i in, the First of the tsun s2',
or Literary Graduates of the Third Degree. Each count as eight.
Fourth. Eight shorter pieces called tsun sa, Literary Graduates
of the Third Degree. Each count as four.
Fifth. Sixteen shorter pieces called kit yan, Graduates of the
Second Degree. Each count as two.
Sixth. Thirty-two shorter pieces called saw ts'oi, Graduates of
the First Degree. Each count as one.
The first, second, and third classes bear rude pictures and names,
but the others are distinguished only by their size.
Two or more persons can play. The players throw in turn from
right to left, and after throwing, each draws the tallies he is
entitled to according to the appended table. If the tally called for
by a throw has been drawn, its value may be made up from the
remaining ones; but the winner of the chong in must surrender it
without compensation if another player makes a higher throw than
that by which he won it. The one who counts highest becomes
the winner.
This game is said to be played by women and children, and is
not played by the Chinese laborers in the Eastern United States,
although they are generally acquainted with it.
hak, red and black, in which a large die marked on two opposite sides
with red, and on two opposite sides with black, is said to be used.
The manipulator grasps the die, by its unmarked sides, between
his thumb and forefinger, and covers it with a square box.
The players lay their stakes on either the red or the black, and
double their money if the color bet on is discovered, when the box is
lifted. Cheating is easy, and in consequence, the game is said to be
only patronized by children. I have not seen it played by the Chinese
in the United States, but is said by them to be generally known
throughout China.
I3
The throws in chong in ch'au in the order of their rank are:

Six 4s. Six 3's.
Six 6's. Six 2s.
Six 5s. Six Is.
These throws are called tsun shik, and take all the tallies.
Five 4s' and one 6, or one 5, or one 3, or one 2, or one I.

Five 6's and one 4, or one 5, or one 3, or one 2, or one I.
Five 5's and one 4, or one 6, or one 3, or one 2, or one I.
Five 3's and one 4, or one 6, or one 5, or one 2, or one I.'
Five 2s' and one 4, or one 6, or one 5, or one 3, or one I.
Five Is and one 4, or one 6, or one 5, or one 3, or one 2.
Four 4's and one 3 and one I.

Four 4's and two '2's.
Four 6's and one 4 and one 2.
Four 6's and two 3s.
Four 2s and two Is.
Four 4's and two 6's.

Four 4's and two 5's.
Four 4's and one 6 and one 3, or one 6 and one 2.
Four 4's and one 5 and one 3, or one 6 and one 2.
Four 4's and one 5 and one 2, or one 5 and one I.
Four 4's and two 3's, or one 3 and one 2.
Four 4's and one 2 and one I, or two Is.
Each of the above throws count as thirty-two, and take the

chong in.
Two 4's, two 5's, and two 6's.
Two I's, two '2's, and two 3s.
Three 4's and three 6's, or 5's, or 3's, or 2s. or Is.
Three 6's and three 5's, or 3's, or 2s, or I's,
Three 5's and three 3's, or 2s, or Is.
Three 3's and three 2s or Is.
A sequence from 1 to 6.
Each count as sixteen, and take either the pong ngn or 4m f.

Three fours, with any combination except those mentioned,
count as eight, and take one of the di n.
I4
Four sixes, four fives, four threes, four twos, or four

ones, with any combination of two dice, except those already
mentioned, count as four, and take one of the tsun s2'.
Two fours' count as two, and take one of the kit yan.
One four counts as one, and takes one of the sau ts'oi.
The Chinese game similar to backgammon, which that accom
plished scholar, Dr. Robert Hyde, described in his work on Oriental
games under the name of Chinensium Nerdiludium (The Nerd
Game of the Chinese')," is not played by the Chinese laborers in
America, nor do any I have met appear to be acquainted with it.
|[N
jjijff fif |
# *R"
fijiljjilji
if||f||][]ff
Fig. 2.
According to Dr. Hyde, it is called by Chinese, Coan K?, which

he translates as erectus ludus, or erectorum ludus, but which might
be rendered as the bottle game' or bottle chess, Coan (tsun)
meaning a vase or bottle, and Ki (k'i) being a generic term for
games played on lines as chess.
This game is played with dice and small upright pillars, from
which the name is derived. The board is divided into eight equal
parts by transverse lines, and the pieces, which are from two to
three inches high and number sixteen on each side, are arranged
upon it when the playing commences, as seen in the figure.
The pieces are moved line by line, according to the throws with
the dice, from the places on the left to the eighth place on the
right, and from thence ascending to the opposite side and back to
the starting place; the player who first gets all his pieces there
winning the game.
* De Ludis Orientalibis. Oxford, 1694, p. 65.
I5
Two dice are thrown, and the pieces, are moved to the places
which the number of the throw directs. One may move whatever
piece or pieces one chooses, according to the number, either pieces
which have been moved before or those which have not yet been
moved. If, instead of upright pieces, one plays with small flat
discs, which is also permitted, they may be placed side by side or
piled on top of each other, as seems most convenient.
A throw of two ones' causes a piece to be set aside and deliv
ered up as lost; or, if the game is played for money, it loses the
player the tenth part of his stakes. Whoever throws twos or
threes begins moving to the second or third lines, and so on. If
doublets are thrown, one may move to the place corresponding to
the half number of such doublets; and this may be done by moving
one piece once to such half number, or two pieces at the same
time to the place corresponding with such whole number, for in
this case either one piece or two pieces together may be moved.
If five' and six, which make eleven, are thrown, one may
move one piece to the fifth place and another to the eleventh; or
else move two pieces at the same time to the tenth line or place,
and then one of them to the next line, which is the eleventh. And
thus with respect to other throws: if single (as two' and four),
for the single numbers move as many places, but if joined (as
five and six), then otherwise, as already stated.
SUGOROKU.
#:
'S'S #
Fig. 3.
The game thus described by Dr. Hyde agrees in some respects

with the Japanese game of sugoroku, as illustrated in native ency
clopaedias. In Fig. 3, reproduced from the Kum m dzu e tai sei,
* Very complete collection of pictures to teach the unenlightened.

Kiyoto, 1789. Vol. 4, part 8, fol. 5.
I6
the board is represented as being divided into twelve parts by

longitudinal lines, which are broken in the middle by an open
space similar to the ho ki, or dividing river, of the Chinese
chess-board. According to the same work, the twelve compart
ments, called in Japanese, me, or eyes,' symbolize the twelve
months, and the black and white stones with which the game is
played, day and night.
The moves are made according to the throws with dice; the
name being derived from that of the highest throw, sugoroku
(Chinese, shung luk), or double sixes.
This game appears to be of great antiquity in Japan. The Wa
Kan san sai states that it is recorded in the Japanese Annals that
sugoroku was forbidden in the time of Jit Tenn (A. D. 687692),
and that it is probable that it was played in Japan before the game
of got was brought to that country. The same encyclopaedia, in
the careful manner usual in such works, makes a number of cita
tions from Chinese authors with reference to the origin of the
game. It says it is recorded in the Suh sz' ch', that Ts'ao Chih $
of Wei invented sugoroku, and used two dice for it, but at the end
of the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-913), the number of the dice was
increased to six.
It is written in the W tsh tsii that sugoroku is a game that
was originally played in H (Japanese, Ko), the country of the
Tartars. It relates that the king of H had a brother who was put
to death for a crime. While in prison he made the game of
sugoroku and sent it to his father, writing with it a few words in
order to make known how men are oppressed by others when they
are single and weak.
The Ngn lui yu states that sugoroku came from T'ien Chuh,
India.
The name of sugoroku is said to be applied at the present day in
Japan to various games played upon boards or diagrams, in which
* Sugoroku is also called rokusai, as will be seen from the names

appended to Fig. 3.
+ Chess; by which the game of three hundred and sixty men, half
black and half white, called by the Chinese wai k'i, is meant.
! I am unable to identify either this or the two following works
quoted in the Wa Kan san sai.
% Ts'ao Chih (A. D. 192232), was the third son of the great usurper
Ts'au Tsu, who overthrew the Han dynasty. He was distinguished
by precocious talent and poetical genius, and devoted himself wholly
to literary diversions. The Chinese Reader's Manual, No. 759.
17
the moves are made by throwing dice.* Of these there are many
kinds, among which the most popular is called d6 chiu, or travel
ling sugoroku. It is played upon a large sheet of paper, on which
are represented the various stopping places upon a journey; as,
for example, the fifty-three post stations between Tokio and Kiyoto;
and resembles the games of snake' and steeple-chase, familiar
to English and American children.f Such games are much played
* The name is also applied to at least one simple dice game in which no
board or diagram is used. Mr. Kajiwara informs me that in the
Province of Aomori, a common game with two dice is called ichi-san
sugoroku, so called from the name of the highest throw ichi san, one,
three.
Japanese dice at the present day have their six faces regularly
marked with black dots. Those used by gamblers are said to be larger
than the kind employed in popular amusements. The dice games are
said to vary in different parts of the Empire. Japanese sailors in New
York City play a game with two dice called ch han, even and odd.
They throw two dice under a cup. The even throws are called ch and
the odd, han. The players, two or more in number, bet on the even or
odd by calling out and laying their wagers before them while the cup
remains inverted over the dice. They use foreign playing cards cut
lengthwise in strips and tied in bundles of ten as counters, instead of
money; a custom that they say has its origin in the use of the narrow
Japanese playing cards at home for this purpose. The same game,
under the same name, called by the Chinese chung pten, is known to
the Cantonese laborers in the United States as a common game in
China.
+ Benjamin Smith Lyman, Esq., exhibited at the meeting a paper
diagram for a game of sugoroku, which was entitled, according to the
characters on the sheet, Hokkaidshin d ichi ran sugoroku, or A glance
at the Hokkaid new road sugoroku.
This game was published in 1873 on the occasion of the opening of a
new road through the southern part of the island of Yesso from
Hakodate to Sapporo, the capital.
The diagram consists of an impression in colors, 32% by 20 inches,
and is divided into 38 parts, exclusive of the goal and the starting
place. These contain pictures of the scenery at the different stations
on the road, each division having a tablet beside it on which the name
of the place is written, with the distance to the next stopping place.
The game is played with one die, the players throwing in turn, and ad
vancing from the lower right-hand corner to the goal at the centre. Each
spot of the throw counts as one station on the diagram. If a player's
move leaves him upon a division having the character tomare,
stopover ! he loses his next throw. When a player near the goal makes
a higher throw than is just necessary to take him into the central
I8
by the Japanese at the season of the New Year, when new ones are
usually published. This year (1889), Japanese newspapers report
that two new games of sugoroku found much favor in Tokio.
The same general name would be given by the Japanese to the

following Chinese game, which I have occasionally seen played by
the clerks in Chinese stores in our cities.
SHING KUN T'O.

Shing kn t'o, the table of the promotion of officials, is the
celebrated game which is best known through Dr. Hyde's account*
as The Game of the Promotion of Mandarins.
It is played by two or more persons upon a large paper diagram,
on which are printed the titles of the different officials and dig
nitaries of the Chinese government. The moves are made by
throwing dice, and the players, whose positions upon the diagram
are indicated by notched or colored splints, are advanced or set
back, according to their throws.f
The following story was related to me concerning the invention
of the game: The Emperor Kienlung (A. D. 17361796) was in
the habit of walking at nightfall among the houses occupied by
the candidates for the degree of Hanlin, who came up to Peking
for the triennial examination; and hearing, night after night, the
song of the dice issuing from one of them, he summoned the
offender before him to explain his conduct. In excuse, fearing
punishment, he told the Emperor that he had constructed a chart,
space, he is set back: if he has an excess of one to the fifth place from
the goal ; of two, to the fourth place, and so on.
* De Ludis Orientalibis, p. 70.
+ A similar but much simpler game, with the titles of Japanese in
stead of Chinese officials, is played in Japan under the name of kuwan
roku.
I9
on which were written the names of all the official positions in the
government, and that he and his friends threw dice, and according
to their throws traversed the board, and were thus impressed with
a knowledge of the various ranks and the steps leading to official
advancement. The Emperor commanded him to bring the chart
for his inspection. That night the unfortunate graduate, whose
excuse was a fiction created at the moment, sat until daybreak,
pencil in hand, and made a chart according to his story, which he
carried to the Emperor. That august prince professed to be much
pleased with the diligence of the scholar who improved his mind,
even while amusing himself, and dismissed him with many com
mendations.
This familiar sounding story cannot be accepted without ques
tion, especially since it will be seen that Dr. Hyde published his
account many years before the period mentioned; but my inform
ant, a clerk in a Chinese shop in Philadelphia, may not have stated
the date correctly.
The paper charts for the game may be purchased at the Chinese
stores in New York and San Francisco. The names of the different
offices are arranged upon them in rectangular divisions, alongside
of each of which is a tablet with the name of the board or class
under which those within it are included. They ascend from the
lowest to the highest in successive stages, arranged in order around
the chart from right to left, and from the outer division, which is
devoted to provincial officials, to the innermost, which has the
titles of the members of the metropolitan administration. The
centre is occupied with rules for playing. Four dice are thrown in
turn by each player, instead of six, as formerly recorded by Dr.
Hyde. Entrance is obtained by making a cast, either of four
alike, by which the player is at once advanced to an hereditary
rank; of three, four, five, six, called ch'in f, of three alike,
or two alike. All of these throws, in descending order, enable the
player to enter one of the positions from which advancement may
be obtained. Subsequent promotion depends upon the throws;
doublets enabling the player to move once; three alike, twice;
and four alike, three times. Double fours' count highest, double
sixes' next, and so on down to ones, through which the player
is set back. The appropriate move for each throw is indicated in
small characters beneath each of the titles on the chart.
A curious contrast is presented between the little sheet repro
duced by Dr. Hyde, upon which only the principal officials of the
Ming dynasty are represented, and that now current, whereon may
2O
be seen the innumerable ramifications of the Chinese civil service

under the present Tartar dominion. Nearly two centuries have
passed since the learned Doctor, aided, no doubt, by the one to
* Some additional particulars about this game may not be uninter
esting. The charts, such as I have seen used in the United States, are
printed in Canton and bear an impression about twenty-three inches
square. They are divided into sixty-three compartments, exclusive
of the central one and the place for entering at the lower right-hand
corner. The latter contains the names of thirteen different starting
points, from yan shang, or Honorary Licentiate, down to t'ung shang,
or student, between which are included the positions of t'n man
Shang, astrologer, and # shang, physician. These are entered at
the commencement of the game by the throws of three, four, five,
six, three fours, three sixes, three fives, three threes, three
twos, and three ones; and then in the same manner double fours,
and so on down to double ones.
The sixty-three compartments, representing as many classes of
officials or degrees of rank, comprise three hundred and ninety-seven
separate titles, of which the highest, and the highest goal of the game
is that of man f tin tt hok sz', or Grand Secretary. This, however,
under favorable conditions, can only be reached by a player who starts
from a favorable point, advancement in the game being regulated by
rules similar to those which actually regulate promotion under the
government. Thus, a player whose fortune it is to enter as physician
or astrologer can only obtain promotion in the line of his service, and
must be content with a minor goal, as he is ineligible to the high civil
office of Grand Secretary.
The dice are thrown into a bowl placed in the centre of the sheet,
makes a cast of doublets or higher. It is noticeable that fours, as in
Dr. Hyde's account, constitute the highest throw. A pair of fours,
according to the rules, is to be reckoned as tak, virtue, and leads to a
higher place than those of other numbers. Sixes are next highest,
and are to be reckoned as ts'oi, genius; and in the same manner, in
descending degree, fives are to be reckoned as kung, skill; threes
as lung, forethought; twos as yaw, tractability; and ones, chong,
stupidity.
The game is much complicated by being played for money or
counters, which is necessary under the rules. By this means advance
ment may be purchased, degradation compounded for, and the winner
of a high position rewarded.
The main point of difference between the game as it exists to-day,
and as described by Dr. Hyde, is in the number of dice employed. The
enlarged form of the diagram is of minor importance, as he himself
says that the names of officials written on the tablet are many or few,
according to the pleasure of the players.
2I
whom he refers as D. Shin Po-cung, amicus noster Chinensis, pub

lished the results of his studies in Chinese games, and the subject,
so far as it relates to dice, has remained almost unnoticed until the
present day. To you I leave it, whether as one worthy of renewed
observation and research, or best dismissed with the apt lines that
often too well express the objects of the scholar's zeal:
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them.
The I Hing or Patriotic Rising,
A SECRET SOCIETY AMONG THE CHINESE IN AMERICA.
BY STEWART CULIN.
(Read before The Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia,

November 3d, 1887.)
Many secret associations have existed among the Chinese people

and played an important part in the political history of China.
Directly traceable to the system of clans, they have assumed both a
political and religious character, and during the present dynasty have
been the means through which the popular spirit has asserted itself
against the domination of the Manchus, and been the source of con
stant and serious apprehension to the government. Twice during the
present century their efforts have culminated in open rebellions which
have only been subdued after protracted wars, accompanied with much
desolation and bloodshed.
The most powerful of the existing societies, with which many, if

not all, of the others are affiliated, is mentioned in Section CLXII of
the code of the present dynasty, for the purpose of interdicting it as
the Pih-lien kiao, or Water-lily Sect. Since then its name is said
to have been changed to the Tien-ti hwui, or San-hoh hwuii.e.,
Triad Society, though both names are said to existthe former in
the northern, and the latter in the maritime provinces and the Indian
Archipelago.
* S. Wells Williams, The Middle Kingdom, New York, 1883, Vol. I, p. 493.
I
2
According to Dr. Williams little news has transpired concerning

these seditious organizations in China since the suppression of the
Tai-ping rebellion in 1868.* I am credibly informed, by an
American who has recently travelled much in the interior as a photog
rapher and been brought intimately in contact with the people, that
the revolutionary society flourishes and its membership, constantly in
creasing, embraces all classes, from officers holding the highest posi
tions under the government down to the poorest peasants. The
utmost secrecy is observed, but its influence is felt in the councils of
the state, and it is even intimated that the settlement of the recent
war troubles with France was much complicated by the indifference.
or design of officials who were in sympathy with the movement.f
In the colonies which the thrift and enterprise of the Chinese of the
southern provinces have established in Siam, Malacca, Singapore, and the
Archipelago there is no occasion for secrecy or concealment. Their
oath-bound societies flourish unmolested, have their public meeting
places and processions, and virtually dominate and control the entire
Chinese population.
There exists an off-shoot of the great national society among the
Chinese in America. It is popularly known as the Z hing, or Patri
otic Rising, and embraces nearly two-thirds of all the Chinese in the
country.
It was instituted in San Francisco between 1850 and 1860, during
the time of the Tai-ping rebellion, when many of the emigrants
were refugees from the outbreak which then occurred in the southern
provinces. At present there are branches of the original society in .
most of the American cities in which there are Chinese colonies.
These are known by different names, but are united in policy and
object, and are in constant communication with each other.
The order in San Francisco and throughout the State of California
is called the Chi Kung Tong. It has a hall on Sacramento Street in
San Francisco. In addition to the principal assembly, there are said
to be several subsidary ones, known by different namessuch as the
Hip H 7'ong in San Francisco. To these lesser companies, which are
said to have for an object the protection of gambling-houses and the
care and surveillance of those unfortunate women who constitute the
greater part of the female emigrants from China, many offences
* S. Wells Williams, The Middle Kingdom, Vol. II, p.267.
t The Chinese here identify the Black Flags as members of the I hing and say that
their leader, Lau I, whose picture is sold in their shops, came originally from a place
called Pit Pi in Kwangsi, where the brotherhood is said to have a stronghold.
3
against the law are attributed. They are popularly regarded as bands
of outlaws ready and willing to commit any crime which the policy of
their leaders may dictate. In Chicago and St. Louis the society is
called the Hung Shun Z"ong. Here, too, numerous crimes are at
tributed to the emissaries of the dreaded / hing.
In New York city, the centre of a Chinese population numbering
between 5,000 and 6,ooo souls, the order is known as the Lin J Tong,
and has a hall at No. 18 Mott Street. Such halls serve as club-rooms
for members and are resorted to by visiting members from other cities,
lists being kept of the names of the brotherhood throughout the
country.
In Philadelphia the society flourishes, but as yet has no permanent
hall for its meetings. The company or guild calls itself the Hung Shun
7"ong, as in Chicago, and its assemblies for the admission of new
members, which occur at frequent intervals, are held in a room hired
for the occasion. Here the writer has had some opportunities for
studying the order, and the following account is based in part upon
personal observation.
Chinese society in Philadelphia appears to be sharply divided into
two classes: the / hing and those who do not belong to the order.
It should be observed that the Chinese in America come exclusively
from the province of Kwantung, seven or eight districts of which
furnish almost the entire number. Nnhi, Pw'any, and Shunteh,
called together the Sm Yap, or Three Towns (or districts), and
Sinhwui, Sinning, Kaiping, and Ngnping, known as the S2 Yup,
or Four Towns, the people from each of which show distinctive
peculiarities in speech and customs. Those of the Sm Yup, coming
from the immediate vicinity of Canton, are superior in education and
intelligence to the people of the S2 Yup, districts poorer and less
fertile than those nearer to the Provincial Capital. It is among the
latter class, who largely outnumber the others, that the order of the
A hing is recruited. A simple-minded people, usually from remote
agricultural districts, they have passed their early life in extreme
ignorance and poverty. When they come to America they are not
unwilling to join a powerful society of their countrymen, through
which they are promised protection against the oppression of their
own people and the terrors of a foreign land. Little thought
of sedition or opposition to Tartar dominion fills the mind of
the average emigrant; he is only anxious to obtain the small sum of
* The Philadelphia lodge has since taken the name of the San Z Z'ong, and has a
handsomely furnished hall in the second-story of a house on Race Street,
4
money regarded by him as a fortune, and return home to pass the

rest of his life peacefully with his children around him.
The Z hing professes to such new arrivals and to the world at large
to be a beneficial society. All members are brothers, relieving each
other in distress and aiding each other in business and every laudable
enterprise. If a member is ill, the society will help him; if travelling,
he has only to call upon his brother, who will entertain him free of
charge; if in trouble before the law, brother members must bear false
witness, if necessary, to clear him. Means of revenge, dear to the
Chinese heart for real or fancied injuries, may in some cases be not
the least of its attractions.
Sunday, a holiday with the Chinese in America, is selected as the day

for the assemblies of the brotherhood. None but members and candi
dates for admission are permitted to enter the meeting-room, where much
ceremony is observed. The chief or head man is said to sit behind a
table with a secretary who records his decrees, while ranged around
are his lieutenants and the officers of the fraternity. These formalities
are said to simulate those of a petty Chinese court of one of the earlier
dynasties. It is before this tribunal aggrieved members lay their
claims for redress. The constant quarrels arising over the gambling
tables, the family fights and feuds carried down for generations at
home are here revived, not always for peaceful settlement, it is to be
feared, but for revenge, sometimes even to the death. Those who
incur the displeasure of the order are often made to feel its power, and
there is reason to believe that cases have occurred where the fear of
the American law was not sufficient to deter the agents intrusted with
its supreme commands from even murdering their offending country
men. The initiation of new members is said to be conducted with
much solemnity. The candidates, dressed in long new cotton robes,
instead of the usual short Tartar tunic, are required to answer a series
of questions according to a prescribed ritual. Have you a father?
asks the catechist. No ! the novice must reply. Have you
sisters? No ' Brothers? Only my brothers the Patriots.
Every social relation must be forsworn and eternal fealty pledged
to the brotherhood before an altar on which is some burning
incense and a drawn sword, the latter indicative of the fate
awaiting him should he break his oaths. The new member now
receives a book, a bulky Chinese volume in which are contained in
structions for secretly making himself known to fellow-members and
a vocabulary of the secret language, by means of which he can carry
on conversations quite unintelligible to the outside Chinese world.
5
Immemorial custom among the Chinese has prescribed the exact

manner in which they perform almost every action of their lives, the
slightest variations from traditional usage, whether in eating, drinking,
smoking, or manner of wearing their dress would be noticeable, and
such slight variations are made to serve as fraternal signals among the
I hing. Lifting the cup with the thumb and two fingers, or shaking
it thrice over the bowl when drinking are among the many methods
employed. To advance one foot within the doorway of a house,
leaving the other without and place an umbrella on the sill is a signal
for assistance given by a fugitive from the officers of the law.
The secret language or slang is formed by substituting one Chinese
word or phrase for another in a manner laid down in the vocabulary.
The following words have been related to me by non-members of
the society, many of whom are more or less familiar from hearsay with
its history and ritual:
ang sha, to plough sand; for shik fan, to eat rice.

m kwa, hairy squash;
Pak kwa, white cucumber; ch'i yuk, pork.
tung kwa, pumpkin ; -
kam kwa, yellow pumpkin; shit chil, roasted pork.

chung fung, /n shii, sweet potatoes.
d wo, tsau, wine.
hung shun, yau, oil.
n, a slip of bamboo ; faii tsz', chopsticks.
/ing, tin, bowl.
zv /s2', melon seeds; pak ngan, silver money.
ch'in sam, pierced in middle; ts'n, cash.
tsau sha, crape; fail f, Sword.*
The book, which may not under any circumstances be shown to

outsiders, is sold to the new members for five dollars.
The initiation fee varies in amount according to the means of the
candidate, and is devoted to paying for the dinner that invariably
follows the ceremony. In Philadelphia it is usually about $20.
Besides this fee the members are usually assessed from $25 to $1oo in
the course of a year. Large sums of money are frequently collected
for the defense of members who have come within the province of
* These expressions closely agree with those given by Gustav Schlegel, 7%ian 7%
Hwui, the Hung-Zeague, or Heaven-Earth-League. A Secret Society with the Chinese .
in China and India. Batavia, 1866, p. 230,
6
the law while acting in behalf of the society, or for the prosecution
of outsiders who have offended it. Subscriptions are also made to
defray the funeral expenses of deceased brothers, and four times or
oftener during the year dinners are given by the society at one of the
Chinese restaurants at an expense of from two to five dollars for each
member. Money is raised as wanted and no considerable fund
appears to be retained in the treasury of the society. The ceremonials
and observances of the Z hing partake largely of a religious character,
but their exact significance, owing to the secrecy generally observed,
I have been unable to determine. Their feasts are usually held upon
the birthdays or holidays set apart to Kwan Ti, Kwanyin, and Om-to
Pat (Amitabha).
Romance and tradition inextricably interwoven dominate the minds
of the Chinese who emigrate to America. Tales of fairies, demons,
and genii, of priests, warriors, and necromancers drawn from the in
exhaustible stores of their popular literature, amuse their leisure hours
and somewhat lighten the burden of their heavy toil. It is from one
of these histories or romances recorded in a book called the Shwui hu
chuen that some of the Chinese here say that the plan of the present
society is derived.*
The Shwui h chuen purports to be an account of lives and
adventures of a band of IoS chivalrous robbers, who lived on a
mountain called Lung Shan, during the reign of the Emperor
Cheh Sung (A. D. 10861101). They were pledged to secrecy and
mutual support and drew to their ranks the outcast and disaffected
from all parts of the country. For many years they successfully re
sisted all attempts to subdue them, devoting their lives to succoring
the poor at the expense of the rich and oppressive officials
whom they plundered. The supernatural plays an important part
in the story. Witness the account of the origin of the band who
lived on Lung Shan : In the time of the Emperor Jin Sung
(A. D. 1023-1064), a terrible epidemic ravaged the empire. Every
effort to arrest its progress proved unavailing until at last the
Emperor was advised to send an envoy to ask the assistance of
the Grand Master of the sect of Tao, who lived on a mountain in
Kiangst called Zung Fi Shan. An imperial messenger was accord
ingly despatched who successfully fulfilled his mission. When about
* The Shwui hu Chuen, or The Story of the Banks of the River, was written
during the Yuen dynasty and is accounted as one of the ten masterpieces of Chinese
popular literature. A translation of the prologue, with a synopsis of the contents of
the first thirty-four chapters is given by M. Bazin in Le Siecle des Youen. Paris, 1850.
7
to return he observed a temple, the doors of which were securely

sealed. He requested that they should be opened, but the abbott
protested, and informed him that they must be always kept closed, as
many evil spirits, which had been subdued by one of the founders of
the order, were confined within the building. The officer, curious
and incredulous, insisted, and the priest reluctantly saw the doors
opened, when at once a blast of black vapor rushed out toward the
sky, and the imprisoned spirits, 108 in number, escaped. They be
came incarnate and animated the 108 robbers who figure in the
story.
Of the political significance of the / hing it is difficult to speak
with certainty. Opposition to the Manchus and the re-estab
lishment of the Chinese dynasty of the Mings form part of its
propaganda, but how far those political objects are lost sight of in
the mere local and personal advantages resulting from confedera
tion, as well as the relations of the / hing with the parent society
in China, is difficult to determine. There is little discussion of
Chinese politics among the people here, and few know or care
about anything that concerns their country beyond the village
in which they were born. Occasionally one hears revolutionary
talk, but the better class of immigrants, who regard the secret
order with hatred and contempt, express themselves well satisfied with
the present government, and deplore all attempts to revive here an
agitation from which many of them have suffered so bitterly in the
past. Continued residence in America, however, with increased
knowledge of its political institutions and the personal liberty and
freedom from official oppression enjoyed here are likely to influence
even their ideas in favor of a more popular form of government, and
the / hing, nursing the spirit of discontent, may some day play no
unimportant part in the revolution, political and social, which contact
with foreign civilization must inevitably bring about in China.
* I have since learned that a story is current among the Chinese here with reference
to the origin of the I hing similar to that related by Schlegel. Thian 7: Hwui, p. 7.
1 &
Chinese Secret Societies in the United States. 39
CHINESE SECRET SOCIETIES IN THE UNITED

STATES.1
IN a paper read before the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society

of Philadelphia in December, 1887, I gave some account of a secret
society, popularly known as the I hing, that exists among the Chi
nese laborers in the United States. Since that time I have had an
opportunity to visit a hall of this society in New York city, as well
as another meeting place that has been established in Philadelphia;
to attend the funerals of two members of the society, and to become
familiar with the workings of an independent local secret society,
the proceedings of which were exposed in the course of the trial of
some Chinese gamblers in that city. I have also had an opportunity
to examine most of the not very copious literature upon the subject
of Chinese secret societies, especially the work of Gustav Schlegel,
entitled Thian Ti Hwui. The Hung-League or Heaven-Earth
League. A Secret Society among the Chinese in China and
India. * This valuable book contains copious translations of the
records of that society concerning its history, government, affil
iation of new members, laws and statutes, and secret signs, made
from documents placed in Mr. Schlegel's hands by the government
of Netherlands-India. By means of it I have been able to identify
the secret society referred to in my former paper as a branch of the
Heaven-Earth-League or Triad Society. -
The designation f hing, or Patriotic Rise, is the watchword

originally taken by one of the chiefs of the Triad Society," and is
the name by which that society is officially designated upon its
diplomas. The name of the lodge in Philadelphia, Hung Shun
Tong, Hall of Obedience to Hung, is the same as that of the lodge
in Kwantung and Kwangsi, the second lodge of the Hung League."
The hall of the society in Philadelphia occupies two rooms on the
second floor of a house in the Chinese colony on Race Street, where
the name of the lodge, Hung Shun Tong, is displayed on a gilded
sign without the building. This lodge is incorporated under a char
ter obtained from the local courts, bearing date of July 7, 1888, as
The Roslyn Beneficial Association. Its rooms are handsomely
and expensively furnished in the same manner as the kung sh, or
Public Halls established by the Chinese merchants of New York
* Read at the Annual Meeting of the American Folk-Lore Society, November
28, 1889.
* Report of the Proceedings of the AVumismatic and Antiquarian Society of
Philadelphia for the Years 188789. Philadelphia, 1890.
8 Batavia, 1866. * Schlegel, p. 4.
* Schlegel, p. 32. 6 Ibid. p. 18.
4O Journal of American Folk-Lore.
and San Francisco. There is nothing to distinguish them as the
hall of the secret society, unless it may be the inscriptions on the
scrolls with which the walls are decorated. These scrolls are the red
paper hangings, such as it is customary for individuals to present to
tradesmen when they open a new shop, and to temples and lodge
rooms on festival occasions. They all bear the names of the donor.
The tenor of the inscriptions is in harmony with the professed ob
jects of the society.
The walls are also hung with handsomely carved and gilded wooden
tablets with felicitous inscriptions, the gifts of certain clans or store
companies, or of associated lodges in neighboring cities.
The names of the members of these lodges are written on a long
tablet suspended along one side of the room. Some idea of the
numerical strength of the order may be obtained from these lists of
names, which serve to assist in identifying visiting members from
other cities. A complete list of names of the members of the local
society, with the amounts of their subscriptions for the decoration of
the hall, is similarly arranged upon the opposite side of the room.
The principal object in the hall is the elaborately carved and gilded
shrine of the god Kwan, containing a picture of that idol, which
faces the north, and occupies the greater part of the inner room. It
differs in no observable way from the shrines which are always
erected by Chinese guilds in their meeting places.
There is an altar in front of the shrine, upon which are pewter
candlesticks, vases, and an incense burner, and the usual objects
which are associated with the god worshipped; on the right, a pack
age wrapped in red cloth, supposed to contain his official seal, and
on the left, a small stand of red silk flags inscribed with the charac
ter ling, meaning warrant, command. In the centre of the stand
is a miniature sword, made of wood. There are also the usual
implements for divination upon the altar, and a white china bowl"
inscribed Mo Tai tin, Temple of the God of War. The latter is
used as an incense burner.
A small shrine inscribed to the Chinese and Foreign Lord of the
Place, before which a lamp is kept burning, is contained in a closet
on the left of the principal shrine. There is a similar closet on the
opposite side, the door of which is rigorously kept closed. It con
tains a paper scroll, rudely painted with figures of several person
ages, presumably the founders or patron deities of the order. These
rooms are open to the public, but are never visited by Chinese who do
not belong to the order, among whom, generally, the society is exe
crated. The first meeting of the society in Philadelphia is recorded
as having taken place in September, 1882.
* Cf. Schlegel, p. 42.
* The Daily Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, September 16, 1882.
Chinese Secret Societies in the United States. 4I
The lodge rooms in New York city are now located on Pell Street,
and differ little from those in Philadelphia, except that they are
larger and more handsomely furnished. Here the society takes
the name of Ltin / Tong, or Hall of United Patriotism, and its
name, LUN-GEE-TONG, is written in Roman letters over the street
entrance, and above the door of entrance within the hall.
An elaborate shrine to the god Kwan, which faces the south, is
here, as in Philadelphia, the most conspicuous object within the
room. Beside it, on the left, is a small shrine for the tutelary spirit,
and adjoining this, a door with carefully screened glass windows
which gives entrance to the private shrine of the lodge. Two boards
bearing admonitory incriptions, with tigers' heads at the top, are sus
pended beside this door as a warning against unauthorized intrusion.
There are no unusual objects within the hall except a small wooden
tub resembling a half-bushel measure, which may be the bushel.
referred to by Schlegel as one of the instruments of the lodge. A
small iron safe is noticeable as being fastened with four locks, the
keys of which are said to be retained by as many officers of the
society.
The sister lodges in Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore are repre
sented by handsome votive tablets. They and the lodge in New
York city were all said to have been founded by the same person, an
elderly man who was in attendance.
The funerals of the members of the I hing, which I referred to as
having witnessed, were not distinguished by any unusual ceremonies.
At the first the only evidence of the participation of the secret
order was a label with the name of the lodge, Hung Shun T'ong,
pasted on the windows of several of the carriages. At the second,
bundles of cotton cloth of three colors, red, black, and white,
torn in strips of about an inch in width and two feet in length, were
carried by each person who attended the funeral, and were fastened
conspicuously on the handles of the carriage doors. The coffin was
covered with three cotton cloths placed one upon another, the lowest
one being white and the top one red. These colors, red, black, and
white, constitute the emblematic colors of the society, and are dis
played in the form of a flag over the building occupied by the lodge
in Philadelphia, on festival occasions.
In the month of October, 1888, a somewhat distinguished member
of the order, named Lee You Du, died, and was buried in New
York city. He was reported in the newspapers at the time to have
been a General of the Black Flags in China, but in reality was
only a poor clerk who had won the regard of the entire Chinese
community by the probity of his character. He had held office as
* Page 41.
one of the councillors of the I hing, and his funeral was made an
occasion for a great demonstration on the part of the society. As
far as I can learn from the newspapers of the time no unusual
insignia were displayed or ceremonies performed. The emblems of
the eight genii were carried in the funeral procession, and the par
ticipants wore mourning bands of black, white, and red cloth, which
were afterwards burned, as is the custom, with all the other funeral
trappings, at the grave.
An independent local secret society in Philadelphia is, or was,
known as the Hip Shin Tong, or Hall of United Virtues. It
appears from its rules, an original copy of which was presented in
evidence in the trial of some Chinese gamblers in a local court, to
have been merely an association for the purpose of blackmail. Such
societies are known as Highbinder societies in California. They
are frequently confounded with /hing, and thus may have been the
means of bringing the latter society into its present ill repute. The
plan of organization of the Hip Shin Tong may have been borrowed,
at least in part, from the I hing, as a receipt for money given a mem
ber of the local organization agreed in form and tenor with that of
a similar receipt figured by Schlegel. The membership of the Hip
Shin Tong was entirely recruited from the ranks of the I hing.
A large proportion of the members of the I hing attend Christian
Sunday-schools and profess to be Christians, and Christian and na
tive ceremonies are said to have been alternately performed at the
dedication of the society's lodge room in New York city in October,
1887.* I do not regard this apparent leaning towards Christianity
as due to any influence from within the order, but rather owing to
the fact that the / hing attracts the same classes that are most amen
able to foreign influences; that is, the ignorant and disaffected, who
are least restrained by conservative traditions, and are often desti
tute of those ideas of order and propriety which are always found
among the more highly educated.
The I hing society is said to claim to be affiliated with the Ma
sonic order, and in New York city a Masonic print representing the
two pillars surmounted with globes and resting on a tessellated pave
ment, with the square and compass, the eternally vigilant eye, and
in large red letters the words IN GOD we TRUST, hangs on the
wall of the lodge room. The society is usually described to for
eigners by those who speak English as the Chinese Freemasons,
and as such it has become generally known to the outside world. In
my opinion the Chinese have been misinformed with reference to
* The Sun, New York, October 28, 30, 1888.
* The Daily Evening Telegraph, June, 1889. * Page 53.
* The Daily Evening Telegraph, October 24, 1887.
Chinese Secret Societies in the United States. 43
the identity of the I hing with the Masonic order. It is a belief in

which they would receive much encouragement, as there is a popular
tradition that lodges of native Freemasons exist in China, which is
creditably received by members of the craft with whom I am ac
quainted.
Some thirty years ago a learned Mason from Zurich, Dr. Joseph
Schauberg, expressed it as his conviction that the Chinese league
was similar to freemasonry in its institutions." The subject is re
viewed at length by Schlegel, who shows no disposition to oppose
the opinion expressed by Dr. Schauberg. Mr. Herbert A. Giles
also discussed the subject from materials, he informed me, obtained
from Schlegel's book on the Hung-League, in a paper read before
the Ionic Lodge of Amoy. -
There is no question that many resemblances do exist in the

institutions of the two fraternities, but from my investigations in
another province of Chinese folk-lore, I am inclined to believe that
they are found in ideas which the Chinese borrowed from their
neighbors in Western Asia, and afterwards engrafted upon the
ritual of their national society.
Stewart Culin.
* Dr. Joseph Schauberg, Symbolik der Freimaurerei, Zurich, 1861.

* Freemasonry in China, Amoy, China, 1886.
Customs of the Chinese in America. 191
CUSTOM'S OF THE CHINESE IN AMERICA.
THE subject of this paper is the life of the people of the little
Chinese colonies that have recently been established in our cities,
with especial reference to the modifications in language, dress, diet,
religion, and traditions that have arisen among the Chinese in this
country. But first I would like to say a few words as to the meagre
ness of our printed data concerning the social life of the Chinese.
The opinions of their philosophers have been translated and dis
cussed by the scholars of every European clime. Their country has
been explored and the main features of its natural conformation
have been recorded. The ethnological characteristics of the people
themselves have been carefully noted, while those externals of their
civilization, such as laws and system of government and the forms of
ceremonial and religious usages, have been earnestly and success
fully studied. But concerning the life of the people, of the millions
who till the soil and ply the loom, of those humble craftsmen whose
peaceful invasion has alarmed the dwellers upon our coasts, and fur
nished new problems to our politicians and law-makers, we find
much less available information." Most observers have been content
to record only those features which appeared to them strange and
unusual, and where they have not been influenced by prejudices of
race and religion, and thereby led to dwell upon and exaggerate all
that is bad and disagreeable, and pass lightly over all that is good
and admirable in Chinese life and character, their results are usually
to O general to be accurate, and too superficial to convey a correct
impression of the genius of the people.
It is the especial province of the student of folk-lore to collect
and bring together these neglected elements in the history of
nations, and a fitting illustration of the value and importance of his
work is found in its application to the problems arising in the ques
tion of restricting Chinese immigration. What an interesting field
is here presented, especially as I feel assured there is more folk-lore
to be gleaned from any one of the sallow-faced Chinamen we see
shambling about our streets than could be collected among our
entire native population.
The popular notions about the Chinese, which may be considered
as part of our own folk-lore, would form an entertaining subject for
discussion. The Chinaman has become a well established character
* The Social Life of the Chinese, by Rev. Justus Doolittle, New York, 1867, is
a most valuable source of information, but it is based upon observations made at
Fuhchau, where the customs vary from those of Kwantung, whence all of our
immigrants come.
I92 Journal of American Folk-Lore.
in our popular literature; the professional humorist has paid his re
gards to him, and the playwright has made him figure as an amusing
personage in the drama, from the halls of vaudeville in the Bowery
to the theatre in Madison Square. In most cases the popular con
ception, with all its errors, has been perpetuated. Thus the well
known minstrel songs make the Americanized Chinaman talk, or
rather sing, in Pigeon-English, when, in point of fact, he is usually
altogether unfamiliar with that jargon, as most of the immigrants
come from districts remote from the cities where it serves as the
trade language in communications with foreigners.
A desire to learn the language of his adopted country seems to
be one of the highest ambitions of the Chinese immigrant, and his
English speech is often strongly marked with the local peculiarities
of the place where it was acquired. He realizes the intrinsic value
of such knowledge, for it may enable him to obtain a well-paid posi
tion as interpreter in some shop in Hong Kong or Canton, upon his
return to China, and so he studies his native text-books," attends
Sunday-schools, and tries to glean a word or two from every foreigner
with whom he comes in contact.
There are several local patois spoken by the immigrants. These
vary from the dialect of Canton city, sometimes in the sound of a
few words, and sometimes, in those from remote districts, in the
sound of almost every word in the language.
The people from each district have their peculiar local customs and
traditions. Men from the same village usually associate together,
and certain shops thus become the headquarters for people from
the same neighborhood. The little territory from which they all
come is in greater part known as the Sm Yup, or Three Towns,
and the Sz' Yup, or Four Towns. The Sz' Yup people, who are
in the majority, are not so well educated as those from the Sm
Yup, and seem much more susceptible to foreign influences. The
professed converts to Christianity are chiefly from among them, and
they comprise almost the entire membership of the secret society
that has for its object the overthrow of the present Chinese dynasty.
The influence of the clan is strongly felt among the Chinese in
this country. Those of the same family name are often able to trace
* These consist of Chinese and English vocabularies and phrase books. Those
in common use are printed from blocks with the English text cut in script, with
its sound represented by Chinese characters beneath. The valuable dictionary
of Kwong Ki Chiu, which is most highly esteemed, has not come into general
use here on account of its high price.
* These dialects are being made the subject of a series of studies by J. Dyer
Ball, Esq., of H. M. Civil Service, Hong Kong, who has just published an admi
rable monograph on the San W dialect in the China Review.
Customs of the Chinese in America. I93
their relationship, although it may be many times removed, and in

disputes they usually side together.
The differences in speech and traditions, and the influence of the
tribal sentiment, serve as elements of discord in the Chinese com
munities. They divide them into little cliques, that are constantly
quarrelling, as the disputes of each individual are apt to be taken up
by his relatives and compatriots. These quarrels give rise to end
less talk, and often so engage the communities that for the time
everything else is forgotten. They are usually only a war of words.
In fact, I know of an instance where a man was brought here from
a distant city, and all his expenses paid, simply to say bad things at
the other party in a trifling dispute. The Chinese here seldom, if
ever, come to blows. They are not given to crimes of violence, and
such assaults by Chinese as are reported in the daily press are usu
ally committed by professional criminals, who are held in detesta
tion by all the better class of the immigrants.
Home customs and traditions govern the life and regulate the
conduct of most of these people. They show a marked indifference
to our laws, much greater in fact than for their own code, which rests
for its enforcement upon the public sentiment of their little commu
nities. No organized form of self-government exists in any of the
Chinese colonies in our cities. In Philadelphia the merchants occa
sionally meet to discuss some question affecting the welfare of the
colony, and a bundle of slips of bamboo is kept for the purpose of call
ing such meetings together. The object for which the meeting is
called, with the time and place, is written upon the smooth side of the
tablets, one of which is sent to each shop, and serves as the creden
tial of its representative. These tablets are said to be used in voting.
In New York city the merchants support a guild hall, entitled the
Chung Wai Kung Sho, or Chinese Public Hall, which is in charge
of a person of approved character, who is elected to the office annu
ally. This custodian has been described in our newspapers as the
Mayor of Chinatown. He really has no executive powers, but
quarrels are laid before him for settlement, and he acts as peace
maker in the Chinese community. He receives a salary of $30 per
month and the profits on the incense and candles sold to worship
pers in the guild hall. The election for this office is held just before
the Chinese New Year, when the new manager is driven in a car
riage to each of the Chinese shops. His deputy precedes him on
foot, with a bundle of red paper visiting cards about a foot in length.
Two of these, one bearing the name and the other the official title
of the new manager, are handed to each storekeeper.
Complete autonomy exists in all the Chinese communities in the
* The Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, January 16, 1890.
VOL. III. - NO. IO. I3
I94 journal of American Folk-Lore,
East. The Six Companies exercise no authority whatever, and
there is little intercourse or sympathy with the consular and diplo
matic representatives of the Chinese government. No people of
greatly superior position or education, other than might be found in
any village, exist in these colonies. They are practical democra
cies, that make their own laws, regulate their own affairs, and resent
the interference of any outside power. They have no priests of any
religion. Many laundries and shops contain small shrines, often
with the picture of the God of War, before which incense and can
dles are burned, and large and expensive shrines to the same deity,
with implements for divination, are found in all their guild halls and
lodge rooms. No great importance is attached to the worship of
this god among the Chinese here. It is looked upon as a mere
matter of custom. Gamblers make offerings before him to secure
good luck, and he is appealed to by many at the season of the New
Year, in order that the will of Heaven may be learned when they
throw the divining blocks; while the presence of the shrine in the
halls of lodges and public guilds is regarded as giving dignity and
solemnity to their proceedings. Stories of the miraculous appear
ance and intervention of Kwan Ti, the God of War, and Kwan Yin,
the Goddess of Mercy, are told as having occurred among the Chi
nese in Havana, but nothing of the kind is reported here."
Much more serious consideration is paid to the spirits of the dead.
Notablets are erected here to ancestors, but in almost every shop a
small tablet of orange-colored paper is placed on the wall just above
the floor, inscribed, as is the custom in Hong Kong, to the Chi
nese and Foreign Lord of the Place. He is regarded as the ruler
of the ghosts, himself the ghost of the first person who died in the
house, and for his benefit a small pent-house is erected over the
tablet, and tea and rice often placed daily before it, that his good
favor may be secured and the other household ghosts kept in sub
jection. There are few among the immigrants so brave or philo
sophical as to be fearless of ghosts, and many stories are told among
them of midnight visitations, which they usually attribute to the
unlaid spirits of foreigners, the objects of their greatest dread and
detestation.
The popular feeling about the dead is shown by the custom of
putting dying people without the house in order that the place may
not be contaminated. Sick people are frequently removed to remote
places, where they cannot receive proper food and attention; but
this is done through ignorance and fear rather than from lack of
human feeling.
* The Religious Ceremonies of the Chinese in the Eastern Cities of the United
States. By Stewart Culin. Philadelphia, 1887, p. 5.
Foreign undertakers are always called upon to care for the dead.
Little if any attention is paid to the character of the site selected
for the grave or to the direction in which the body shall rest. At
the funerals brown Chinese sugar and a small coin, a cent or five
cent piece, is handed to each person present immediately after the
body is interred.
In one instance incense was burned in the doorway of the house
to which the mourners returned, and all were requested to pass
through the smoke, it was explained for the purpose of purifying
themselves. The graves are usually visited in the spring-time, dur
ing the third Chinese month, when dishes of roast pork and cooked
fowls are placed upon them, and incense and candles burned as an
offering to the spirits of the dead. About the middle of the seventh
Chinese month, which falls during our autumn, paper clothes, 4 chi,
are burned by many in their laundries and shops, a rite said to be
performed for the spirit world at large, both Chinese and foreign
ghosts being propitiated or honored."
Many of the most curious and interesting of folk-customs are
those connected with infancy and childhood, but the small number
of women and children and the seclusion in which the former are
kept serve to prevent extended observations being made among the
Chinese here. None of the usual rites are observed when Chinese
intermarry with foreigners, as such men usually live apart from their
countrymen, and adopt foreign customs. The children of native
mothers are the objects of the greatest attention, not only on the
part of their parents, but among the entire community. On the
thirtieth day after their birth, or usually, rather, upon the next near
est Sunday, the father gives a dinner to which he invites all his
acquaintances and friends. At such a dinner, which I attended, at
the conclusion of the feast the father brought the child into the
room in his arms. It was dressed in a red robe and wore a red
skull-cap, with a gold ornament, in the shape of the Genius of
Longevity, on the front. Every one immediately placed a red
paper package, containing several dollars in silver money, upon it, so
that its dress was quite covered, after which the father carried the
infant back to its mother, and the guests dispersed. It is not easy
to obtain much information from the Chinese men concerning the
games and sports of their childhood. They regard the subject as
too trivial for discussion, and always burst into loud laughter when
one, more good-natured than the rest, attempts to explain them.
The subject is a most interesting one, and the patient inquirer apt to
be well rewarded. The games of tossing cash, of which there are
several, appear to be the exact counterparts of the games that East
* The Religious Ceremonies of the Chinese, etc., p. 20.
196 %urnal of American Folk-Lore.
Indian children play with cowries. A game of shinny is known,
much resembling the one played in our own streets. Hide and
seek appears to be as generally known as it is popular, and here it
must be remarked that the immigrants constantly refer, when ques
tioned, to the differences that they say exist in the customs of dif
ferent villages. The children of each village, they inform me, have
their own ways for playing certain games, as well as their own verses
and counting-out rhymes. As an illustration of this I give three
versions of a counting-out rhyme that appears, in one form or an
other, to be generally known. The first was related to me by L
Ch'un Shn, of Hohshan.
'Tm tsz, nit nit
Ch'a fan lok tip
Yat yan, yat un
Ho hii nit.
The second was related to me by a physician from Sin'hwui,

named Wan Yuk.
Tm tsz' nit nit
Mi f lok tip
Kam ch f yung
Kam ch pi tp.
The third version was related by a man named Le Yam, from

another village in the same district.
Tm tsz' nit nit
Muifa lok tip
Kam chn ngan pn
Ngan shaus tsz'
Kam shing hau shau ni.
These rhymes appear to me to consist of words and phrases

strung together without connected meaning, and such, also, is the
opinion of Li Ch'un Shn, who has carefully compared them.
The games played on lines with counters, pawns, or chessmen,
which are known under the generic name of k'i, are very numerous,
and vary from the simple pong 'au i, or the mattock game, to
the classical wai k'i and the Chinese form of the Persian game of
chess, called tsung k'i, which is played with thirty-two men. The
last two are about the only games that are looked upon as dignified
and respectable. Tseung k'i is sometimes played by clerks and
elderly people in the shops, but gambling with dominoes, fan tain,
and a lottery, called pk hp pits, are the common diversions of most
of the immigrants. Gambling is carried on by well organized com
panies, and constitutes the principal occupation of the people who
compose the Chinese quarter of our Eastern cities. Exceptions, of
course, are found among the merchants and their employees, but
Customs of the Chinese in America. 197
many of them take shares in the gambling companies as the most
convenient and profitable investment. No foreign games are played
except cards, poker being a favorite amusement. I have never seen
Chinese cards played except at the season of the New Year.
The New Year and the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival are the only
native holidays generally celebrated by the Chinese in this country;
but other days, such as the birthdays of the gods and the days set
apart to the founders of their order, are observed by the organiza
tion called the 1 hing, the secret society to which I have already re
ferred. At the last Chinese New Year they displayed a large trian
gular banner over their headquarters on Race Street in Philadelphia.
This flag was red, with a jagged white border. In the centre was
a large symbol composed of the character f, tiger, and shatt,
longevity, which Gustav Schlegel, an authority on the subject,
describes as the secret character for age." Above this was in
scribed on the margin, chin tdi ting shau, which Schlegel states to
be a mutilation of the characters shun t'n hang to, Obey Heaven
and act righteously. On either side of the centre character, kam
ldu kit #, In the Golden Orchard we have pledged fraternity.
The banner agrees very closely with the one described by Schlegel
as the great flag of the city of Willows.
The dinner is the principal feature of all holiday observances, and
at such dinners every one eats to repletion. Two meals a day are
usually eaten, one in the morning and one at about four in the
afternoon. The food itself, the table service, and methods of cook
ing, are always exclusively Chinese. Beef is avoided and bread is
not eaten, rice taking its place as in China. Salt is now served on
the tables in some restaurants, but formerly the salt sh yau, or soy,
was expected to supply its place. Round cakes, containing a num
ber of kinds of fruit and nuts, are made and sold in the restaurants
and shops at the time of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.
On the 5th of the fifth Chinese month, dumplings called tsung
tss', are always served in the restaurants in commemoration of the
death of K'i Yan. Oranges are usually handed to guests at a
ceremonial dinner before beginning the feast. This is always done
at the supper on the night before the New Year. It is customary to
have a jar of sweetmeats, made of betel leaves and nuts preserved in
syrup, to offer New Year's callers. Recently I have noticed the
fresh leaves of the betel pepper, said to have been brought from the
Hawaiian Islands, offered with lime and the dried nut on these occa
sions. Betel (pan long) is given to enemies as a token of reconcili
ation.
* Thian Ti Hwui. The Hung League. Batavia, 1866, p. 36.
* /bid., p. 40.
* Neither milk nor butter have come into use among the Chinese here.
The Chinese in this country retain their native habits in the use
of alcoholic drinks. They are only taken at meals, and drunken
ness is very uncommon. At dinners the wine, or spirits, rather, is
served in large bowls, into which all dip their cups. In drinking, the
cup is raised to the person on the left, and then with a circular
sweep of the hand to the others around the table. The usual saluta
tion is yam tsau / yam tsau / drink | drink 1" to which the others
make the same reply. Libations are sometimes poured, the wine
being thrown backward toward the right.
Foreign whiskey and gin are occasionally used, on account of their
cheapness, but native rice spirits are much preferred. Of these
there are many kinds, differing in potency and flavor. Some that are
served on dinner tables are regarded as medicines, and taken at such
times as aids to digestion. The habit of taking medicine seems to
be as strong and deeply rooted as that of smoking tobacco or eating
rice. The Chinese here are constantly taking medicine, but the
aromatics and demulcents that compose the greater part of their
pharmacopoeia at the worst do them little harm. The folk-lorist
finds an interesting field in their practice, and especially in the
drugs they employ. Magical properties are attributed to some of
them. The bezoar stone and many other reminders of the mediaeval
pharmacist find place with tigers' bones and fossil crab shells in a
collection than which none more appropriate could be taken as a
beginning for a folk-lore museum. Every object would have its
story. The Chinese are unwilling to take our medicines, which
they pronounce too strong and powerful. They only call on foreign
physicians as a last resort. They will not go to hospitals if they can
help it, as there is a general belief among them that when a man
goes to the hospital he always dies. They say there is a devil there
that catches and kills people.
The uniformity that is characteristic of their native dress is pre
served in those articles of foreign attire which as a matter of con
venience they adopt here. Nearly all wear the broad-brimmed black
felt hat which we have come to look upon as their especial property,
yet it is borrowed, as is shown by its having no special name, being
simply known as a fain mo, or foreign hat. It is also customary to
make the foreign trousers, for which they abandon their own loose
lower garments, of blue or black broadcloth. It may be that they
thus perpetuate customs already fixed in the English settlement of
Hong Kong. Those that adopt foreign dress often abandon it dur
ing the very hot weather of summer, and the extreme cold of our
winter.
It is not customary to wear amulets or charms, except the jade
wristlet, which is regarded by some as giving strength to the arm.
One that has been recovered from a grave is most highly valued,
and thought to furnish protection to the wearer against evil spirits.
Light blue is regarded as the color of mourning, and the death of
a relative is marked by wearing blue stockings, or braiding a blue
string in the cue. The custom of shaving the head is continued,
and at the New Year almost every one appears clean shaven. The
Chinese barbers, who are always resorted to, shave the entire face,
including the inside of the ears. They use foreign razors. The
barber is an indispensable personage in every community, and often
a most interesting one. He usually visits his customers in their
laundries, but one in Philadelphia has a shop. He is reputed to be
the most skilful caligrapher in the colony. Almost every one pre
serves his cue, although a few have recently taken to wearing wigs
in order to hide it. The notion current among us that a Chinaman
who has lost his cue would be put to death should he return to
China is probably due to the fact that the cutting of the cue forms
part of the ritual of the rebel secret society in which membership is
punished with death by the government.
The Chinese here use their own calendar, and record all events as
occurring in the year of such an emperor, in such a month, such a
day, just as is the custom in China. They reckon time by the clock
in the foreign manner, as in China, where clocks are now generally
used.
They perform all arithmetical calculations by means of the aba
cus, which they are so accustomed to depend upon that they are
often unable to make the simplest calculation without it. A person
going to market, it is said, will either count upon his fingers or
arrange coppers in the form of the counting instrument.
The migratory instinct, which seems to be found almost exclu
sively among the southern Chinese, and which in part has led them
to seek their fortune in so many distant lands, does not desert them
here. They never seem to hesitate to abandon any place and go
where they can better themselves, no matter what the distance may
be. They are constantly travelling from city to city, making long
journeys to visit relatives and friends. They are probably by far
the most generous patrons of railways, in proportion to their num
ber, of any of our foreign population.
They make great use of both the post-office and the telegraph,
going with reluctance out of the lines of communication with their
kindred, and thus maintaining solidarity and concert of action.
Foreign inventions, and in fact our entire civilization, they look
upon as a matter of course, seldom expressing comment or surprise
to foreigners, and seldom rising, I fear, to a just appreciation of the
many benefits we imagine we would confer upon them. They appear
2OO journal of American Folk-Lore.
willing to borrow from us whatever they think will aid them in
securing material advancement, just as they have borrowed in the
past from all the nations of the East. From them they have ac
cepted traditions and religions as well as useful arts, but with all
their accretions they have remained an almost primitive people.
How long will they so continue in this restless Western world,
where change crowds change, and we, more conservative it may be
than the rest, must join in united effort to preserve the customs of
our very fathers from oblivion ?
Stewart Culin.
EAST INDIAN FORTUNE-TELLING WITH DICE.
There is a popular notion that the East, especially India and China,
is still the repository of many valuable arts and sciences that are un
known in Europe. Indeed, there is a widely-spread belief that if we
could but penetrate its mysteries, Asia would reveal to us rich treas
ures of knowledge, wherein we should find anticipated many of the
discoveries of modern science. -
It is hinted even by some of the more scholarly that traces of a secret

learning, embodying higher conceptions of the universe and its phe
nomena than those with which we are acquainted, are to be found in
the ancient philosophies and religions of the Orient, and stories are
frequently related of the apparently supernatural control which Indian
adepts obtain over the forces of nature by means of their extraordinary
and mysterious knowledge.
It is not for me to assert that Asia has not its lore, and lore, too, of
which we know absolutely nothing; for I am assured it has sciences
and philosophies and secret doctrines of which we do not even know
the names, and which, no doubt, will be lost and perish utterly, with
out attracting more than a passing glance from Western scholars. But
I am skeptical as to their value, save as illustrating the possible vaga
ries of the human mind, and regard the notions about the learning of
the East as a popular delusion, so far as that learning is supposed to
transcend the deductions of Western scholars. It is to a few pages,
however, from the occult lore of the East, of India, the treasure-house
of mystery, that I intend to turn, and present to you an account of
the methods of divination with dice as there existing at the present
day. Whatever may be its interest, and serious value I can hardly
claim for it, the subject has at least the advantage of novelty, for I
hazard little in saying that until the present moment its secrets have
never been revealed for criticism and discussion by Occidental scholars.
The custom of telling fortunes with dice is universal throughout
India, where it is regarded as a science under the name of ramala, and
is practiced as means of livelihood by a large number of persons who
are called ramali. The science, so-called, is popularly believed to be
2
of great antiquity, and is said to have been founded about 6,ooo years
ago by Garga, who wrote many treatises on jyotis, astronomy, as
well as on the subject of ramala. To him is attributed the authorship
of the work entitled Prasna-manorama, to which further reference will
be made.
The literature of rama/a is very extensive, and, according to
Swami Bhaskara Nand Saraswati, to whom I am indebted for the
information contained in this paper, amounts to over 2,000 works,
comprising over 100 different systems.
In early times, he says, ramala was not much resorted to, and its
great popularity dates from the Mohammedan conquest. It is now
current alike among Hindus and Mohammedans. The Hindus use
dice made of sandal-wood; the Mohammedans prefer those of metal,
combining silver, gold, zinc, iron, brass, copper, and mercury into an
alloy for the purpose. The Hindu fortune-tellers pray to iva and
the Mohammedans to Azrael. Among the Hindus, a person who tells
fortunes is called a jyotiei and among the Mohammedans a ramala.
The dice used in telling fortunes are called rama/a-psa, and differ
from the pasa or dice used in playing games, and also vary in shape and
. . marks, according to the system in which they are employed. In all of
the systems, so far as I have been able to ascertain, the general pro
cedure is much the same. The inquirer throws the die or dice once
or oftener, and the number representing the throw or the sum or mul
tiple of the throws is referred to a book, in which, under a correspond
ing number, an answer is found. These books were formerly treas
ured by the rama/#, who kept them to themselves. Within recent
years they have become accessible to every one through printed copies,
several of which, illustrating different ways of telling fortunes, were
placed in my hands by Mr. Nand. -
One of them is entitled Prasna-manorama and bears a Calcutta im

print of 1880. Its authorship is said to be disputed, some attributing
it to Garga, and others to Prcra, who also lived, according to
current Indian tradition, about six thousand years ago.
Before proceeding to describe the method of employing it, a few
words might be said as to the mode of procedure on visiting a fortune
teller. It is customary to go to him early in the morning. The
visitor having requested his services and put, we will say, four pice in
his book, the rama/ prays to iva, and entreats the god to come hear
and aid him with his power. The ramah then requests the inquirer to
name one of his hands gold, we will say, and the other, silver,
and throw the dice. He will thereupon endeavor to tell him which
3
he named gold, and which silver. Or he will ask him to think

of the name of a flower, as rose'' or lily, and in the same way,
ostensibly from the numbers thrown, informs him which particular
flower he thought of. The Swami asserts that the fortune-teller is
usually successful, and, in point of fact, he himself succeeded in ex
periments made with the writer. These preliminaries serve to impress
the inquirer, and inspire him with confidence. The dice used in con
nection with the Prasna-manorama are three in number, and consist
of square prisms of sandal-wood, about three inches in length, marked
with dots, from 3 to 6, on the sides. The rama/ gives them to the
inquirer, and enjoins him to pray seven times to iva, and throw the
Ps, which are rolled on the palm of the right hand outward from the
thrower. The ramall notes the sum of the faces of the three dice, and,
the operation being performed three times, and three numbers obtained,
he refers to the text under these numbers in his book, for an answer
to the question that was propounded. This question was not supposed
to have been known to the ramali, but the inquirer is expected to keep
it in mind when he throws the dice. This method my informant re
garded as superstitious, but the following one, in which the Prasna
manorama is also used, he considered more certain. Indeed, he
related that once, when expecting a letter, he went in a spirit of fun
to a rama/i, who told him his letter would arrive in three days, at 11
o'clock, and on the very day and hour, as predicted, he received the
letter. Giva is appealed to, and the three ps thrown, as before. The
ramali adds the numbers on the two dice farthest from the thrower,
and multiplies their sum by the one nearest the thrower. This is per
formed three times, and the book consulted each time, as before.
The sum of the three results is then taken and compared with the
corresponding numbers in the book. Thus, if the three throws are
6, 6, 4 ; 6, 5, 4, and 4, 6, 4, the calculation may be represented as
follows:
(6 + 6) 4 = 48
(6 +5) 4 = 44
(4 + 6) 4 = 4o
48 +44 + 40 = 132
and the significant numbers will be found in the columns on the right.
There is still another way of telling fortunes by means of the
Prasna-manorama. According to this method, the number 438,
which represents sums of the numerical values which the fortune-teller
attributed to certain letters of the Arabic alphabet, is multiplied by
4
the total of the first throw with three dice; the second throw sub
tracted from this result, and the remainder divided by the third throw.
The quotient will be the number under which the correct answer
should be found in the book, and the remainder will be a significant
number, and indicate a number of days, weeks, months, or years,
or whatever numerical term is expected in answer to the question. The
answers in the book are direct in their character, and are preceded by
a question which should be the one asked by the inquirer. Thus,
under 440 : You ask me how many days before you will make a
large sum of money. The dice answer that you will not make money
very soon. The answers do not always fit the question originally
propounded. According to the fortune-tellers, the questions asked by
the world are of three kinds, concerning:
dhti, meaning money.
jiva, meaning life.
milla, meaning land.
If the seeker into the future does not appear to be satisfied, the
ramali may verify his answer by adding the last remainder to the quo
tient and referring the sum to the book. If the answer given under
that number is of the same kind as that under the first one, the ramali
is assured that he has answered the question propounded. He may
still further confirm his reply by having the inquirer throw the dice
once more, and if the answer in the first part of the Prasma-mano
rama, corresponding with the throw, is of the same kind as the orig
inal answer, the latter must refer to the subject under consideration.
If it is of a different kind, the fortune-teller makes another effort.
Another treatise, entitled AVitidarpana, or the Mirror of Conduct,
is said to have been written by Sridhara, whose name means luck
carrier. It was translated into Hindustani from the Sanskrit about
twenty years ago. The copy shown to me was printed at Agra in
1881. One die is used with it, consisting of a square prism of red
sandal-wood marked on its sides with the Sanskrit numerals from 1 to
4. In using it the ramali prays to iva, and requests the inquirer to
throw the die three times and keep his question in mind.
The ramali writes down the number of each throw, putting the first
in the hundreds' place, the second in the tens' place, and the third in
the units' place, so that the three throws may be read as a number
composed of these elements. Thus, if the throws are 2, 1, 2, he reads
them as 212, and refers to the corresponding number in the book. In
this system affirmations are used, which are equivalent to questions,
5
and must be approved or negatived by the inquirer, such as You

have received a letter within three or four days? The person who
wrote the letter lives within Ioo miles? The ramali looks under the
number, as 212, and proceeds according to the book, which provides
for both affirmative and negative answers, until he has asked 12 ques
tions, when the 12th question or affirmation is regarded as an answer
to the question propounded.
There is yet another method in which an entirely different kind of
dice are used. It is set forth in a work entitled Parisapaksi, which is
said to have been written by Giva. The copy shown to me was in
Sanskrit, in three large octavo volumes, printed in Calcutta in 1883.
This book is divided into chapters, each treating of a different subject,
for which the method of procedure is described. Some of the subjects
of inquiry are as follows:
The number of years a person will live.
The age of a person.
The number of times ill.
The number of times in danger.

Whether a person has traveled.
The number of his brothers and sisters.
Whether his parents are living.
What he ate to-day.
What he did to-day. -
The name of the flower that is thought of, and so on.

The dice employed in this system are eight in number, and are
strung, so as to rotate easily, on two metal rods, four on each. The
rod passes through the centre of two unmarked sides, the other four
sides of each die being dotted from 2 to 4. The set here exhibited
are ivory, and were made for the writer in Lucknow. They agree in
arrangement and marks with two sets of metal dice, presumably Ori
ental, in the Sommerville Collection in the Museum of the University
of Pennsylvania. -
As an illustration of this system I shall give two examples of its

employment by Mr. Nand in answering questions propounded by the
writer. The first question was, How long shall I live? I threw
the dice, tossing them outward on the palm as before, and the sum
of their upturned faces was 25. He referred to the book and said:
When you were 12 years old you were in danger from water. H
was near your birthday, and two boys were with you. You were
swimming and your companions saved you. One of the boys lived
near to younext door to your home. The other boy lived farther
6
away. One of them was your schoolmate. The same boy gave you
a pearl knife.
At his request I threw the dice again. The result was 21. He
referred to his book, and said, Between your nineteenth and twen
tieth years you were sick for two weeksnot very sick.
I threw the dice again. Their sum was 23. He said, Between
your twenty-first and twenty-second year, one of your friends died.
At his request I again threw the dice. By this throw, he said, he
would eanswer my question. One of the sets came up 12, and the
other the same. Taking the sum of the two sets (12 + 12 = 24)
he asked my age, thirty-one years, which he added to the result
(24 + 31 = 55). He then asked me to think of a number, whatever
number I would, I suggested 3oo. He thereupon added 27 to the last
result (55 + 27 = 82) and divided 27 by 5, and subtracted the quotient
and remainder from the last addition (27 5 = 5, with 2 remain
ing; 82 5 = 77; 77 2 = 75). The result, 75, he declared to
be the number of the years of my life. He afterward informed me
that 27 was always added when the person was asked to think of a
number, no matter what their guess might be, unless they chose a
number less than 27, when that lesser number was substituted. The
number divided by 5 was in the same way always 27, unless the
person chose a number less than 27; 5, he explained, was used as a
divisor, from the five fingers of the hand.
To find the months, the quotient obtained by dividing the selected
number, that is, 27 or less, by 5, should be multiplied by the number
of months from the inquirer's last birthday. The result should be
divided by the face of the set of dice nearest to the thrower, and the
remainder plus the number of months from the last birthday, minus
the quotient obtained by dividing, will give the odd months of the
inquirer's life. The days are obtained by a similar process, but with
less precision, says my informant, than the months and years.
The process of telling the name of a flower that is thought of,
according to one of the methods laid down in the Parisapaksi, is
more intricate than the preceding. I shall merely describe the opera
7
tion of divining the first letter of the flower's name, when the fortune
teller is assisted by being told the number of letters in its name.
The two sets of dice are thrown three times. The sum of the first
throw, say 24, is taken, and that of the faces of the four dice nearest
the inquirer on the second throw, say 14, is subtracted from it
(24 14 = 10). The sum of the third throw, say 25, is added to the
last result (10 + 25 = 35), and that of the faces of the dice nearest the
inquirer on the second throw, 14, again subtracted (35 14 = 21).
The number of letters in the flower's name (in the experiment here
referred to, the rose) must be subtracted from the last remainder
(21 4 = 17), and the first figure of the first remainder, 1, added to
the result (17 - # 1 = 18). The number thus obtained will represent
the numerical place in the alphabet, numbered from A downward, of
the initial of the flower.
The dice last referred to are the kind that are now generally used
throughout India for telling fortunes.
SYRIAN GAMES WITH KNUCKLE BONES.
At the beginning of a series of objects in the University Museum,

designed to show the origin and development of the playing card, are
a pair of small bones, which are familiarly known to English-speaking
people as knuckle bones. Seldom, if ever, used in this country,
these bones, from the hind legs of sheep and certain other animals,
have been famous for their employment in games from the time of
classical antiquity. They are, in fact, the astragali of Greek and
Latin authors. The four positions in which it is possible for them to
fall were called by the latter supinum, pronum, planum, and tortuosum,
and corresponded with the throws of three, five, one, and six with
dice. Certain diceif not, indeed, the cubical dicewith which we
are familiar, derived their origin from these natural objects, which
were reproduced by the ancients in ivory, glass, and earthenware, in
bronze, as seen in a fine example in Mr. Sommerville's collection in the
Metropolitan Museum, New York, and even in precious metals, as
gold itself. English boys used them in their games 200 years ago,
according to that celebrated chronicler of games, Dr. Robert Hyde,
and knew the four positions as put in, blank, half, and
take all," a nomenclature that survives on a kind of tetotum, and
may exist among English children at the present day. Among the
Germans they are called bicke/bein, and in France they are popularly
used by the children as jackstones, under the name of ossc/cts, or
little bones.''
Among the Turks, Arabs, Persians, and Armenians the four posi
tions of the knuckle bones receive the names of as many classes of
human society; thus, among the Persians, according to Dr. Hyde,
they are called Duzd, thief; Dihban, peasant; Vezir and Shh.
It does not seem difficult to trace a connection between the throws
thus designated and the coat cards of our playing cards, or even with
the pieces in the game of chess, since chess is regarded by some to
have been played originally according to the throws with dice.
Indeed, it may be assumed that these natural astragali, or
knuckle bones, occupy a most important place in the early de- -
9
IO
velopment of many celebrated games. In view of this, and the

fact that the recorded information concerning their use, especially
in modern times, is not very satisfactory, it was with considerable
pleasure that the writer was able to take down from the lips of a young
Syrian, at present living in Philadelphia, the following account of
games with knuckle bones as played by him in his childhood in his
native city of Damascus:
It should be premised that the Arabic word ka'b (our word cube),
by which these bones are called in Syria, as well as in many parts
of the East, has the same meaning (the ankle, or the ankle bone),
as their Latin name, talus, and the Greek, astragalus. -
One of the commonest games among the Syrian boys is called khut.
A circle of one, two or three yards in diameter is drawn on the
ground, and the children each put in from one to five Ka'b, which
they range in a line across the middle of the ring. Then, standing
opposite to this line, and toeing the circle, they each toss a kab at
the row, and the one who comes nearest is entitled to play first. The
game consists in knocking the ka'b out of the ring with another
Ka'b, which is held between the thumb and forefinger and thrown
as hard as possible, with a kind of twist. The ka'b from the right
and left leg constitute a pair, called respectively visr, left, and
yemene, right, which are held somewhat differently in shooting.
The players shoot in turn, and each continues playing until he
fails to knock a ka'b out of the ring. After the first round they may
take any position they choose, always, however, toeing the circle.
The game continues until the last ka'b is knocked out, and is
played for keeps.
Boys take their ka'b to school as our boys do marbles, and often
carry them in pockets made for the purpose in their voluminous
trousers, or in a bag which they suspend from their neck. They
buy them at butcher shops, where they are sold at the rate of from
two to five for one cent. The new ones are the most valued, as
they are stronger and heavier, and better in consequence to shoot
with. When a ka'b gets old, a hole is frequently bored in it and
filled with lead, in order to give it weight. It is important that the
shooter should be large and heavy. The sheep in Syria are larger
than the sheep of this country, and the kab are also larger. The
bones from cows and camels are sometimes employed, but they are too
large to be used by little children, and it is considered unfair to play
with them. The boys regard certain shooters as lucky, and value
them highly in consequence. This one, they say, will take three
I I
at a throw. They call them by various names, such as lion,

ostrich, tiger, and a boy will often keep a favorite shooter for
a year or more. During recent years ka'b have fallen into disuse
among boys in cities like Damascus, having been supplanted by mar
bles, but they are still played by the country children.
Aillet wa-ka'b, marbles and ka'b, is also a popular game. The
players each put down the same number of kab, standing them on
their side, at a distance of one to two yards apart, along a straight line
at right angles to the base. They stand at the base and shoot in turn
with the marbles at the line of kab and endeavor to knock them over,
each taking the ones he overturns. If a player can hit another mar
ble, the latter becomes mat, dead (the same word, mate, that we
use in chess), and must give up all the ka'b he has taken to the one
who hit him. The players shoot with their thumbs, as is the custom
here, or else rest their left hand on a support, as a piece of broken pot
tery, and drive the marble from it by forcibly twitching it with the
first or second finger of their right hand.
Aish steh is a game of tossing ka'. In it the position called by
the ancients planum is called kish, while that called tortuosum is known
as stieh. Supinum and pronum are known respectively as gt, rob
ber, and chammr, ass. Each player puts the same number of
a'b into the game, and, the first player tosses them into the air. If
one or more of them falls ish he takes all that at the same time fall
stieh. If one or more of them fall gait, robber, he loses his turn,
and if he has won any ka'b he must put back as many as fell stieh
into the game; or, if one or more fall qt and one or more stieh, the
throw is called shisht, and he must put back all he has won.
Ya Masih is a kind of childish fortune-telling that recalls the rich
man, poor man, beggar man, thief, counted on the buttons of the
coat among children here, and is a favorite amusement at children's
entertainments. In it the four positions of the kab, are called Sultan
Vezir, Ashik, lover, and Chammir, donkey. The game is
commenced by asking: O, ka'b, what is so and so ? mentioning
the person by name. One ka'b is then thrown, and as it falls that per
son is declared to be a Sultan, Vezir, lover or donkey. Questions are
then asked, such as, Where does he sit? Where does he sleep? With
whom does he eat? With whom does he talk P and so on, which are
answered: With the Sultan, With the Vezir, etc., according to
the throws. The questions are concluded by asking: O, ka'b, what
will he become at last? This game is played by boys and girls, and
by grown persons as well.
I2
AMatslim is a game of forfeits. A number of players sit in a circle

and throw one ka in turn. The one who first makes the throw of
Aish becomes Sultan, and the one who next throws either kish or stieh
Vezir. The latter twists his handkerchief or arms himself with a ruler
to administer punishment. The other players then continue to throw

in turn, and if the ka'b falls on its side in the positions before de
scribed, as quit or chammair, the thrower cries out and matslimI
am aggrieved. The Vezir asks, Who injured you? The player
thereupon points out some one in the circle. The Sultan inquires of
the injured one, What shall we do with him ? and the injured one
tells the number of blows the Vezir shall inflict. Sometimes, instead
of being beaten, the person who is accused is required to pay a for
feit, as by being made to dance or bark as a dog, kiss the hands of all
present, or tell a story.
T | P - CAT S.
In a recent communication to the /ournal of American Fol-lore'

I described the familiar game of cat, or pussy, which is constantly
played by the boys in our streets, and I there referred to the convincing
proofs of its antiquity furnished by Mr. Flinders-Petrie. In his ex
cavations at Kahun, in the Fayoom, Egypt (cir. 25oo B. C.), he dis
covered a number of tip-cats, one of which, loaned to me by
Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson, curator of the Egyptian Section of the
Museum of the University, I have the pleasure to exhibit to you.
The material of this object appears to be red cedar, probably hardened
by the absorption of lime salts.
I have inquired about the existence of the game we call cat in
other countries, and am informed that in Hohshan, in the province
of Kwantung, China, it is played by children. The pointed object
used there is similar to the one used here, and is called /'0 fsz, or
little peach. It is struck with a stick, in the manner practised here.
For all that I know to the contrary, the game may be played by
Chinese children generally, and is not confined to Hohshan. In
Japan, on the contrary, according to a detailed account, for which I
am indebted to Mr. Motochica Tsuda, of Tokio, there is only one
place in that country where the game is played, that being in the
district near Kumamoto, a city in the southern island. The game is
there called in ten, and is played with a small stick, called ko, son,
and another stick, called oya, parent. The latter is usually a foot
or a foot and a half long, and is used to strike the ko.
Two boys play, one against the other, or one boy may play two or
more, or equal sides of two or more may be chosen. A small pit is
dug, and the ko placed on the edge, so that its end projects. One boy
then strikes the projecting end with the ova. His opponent throws it
'Vol. iv, p. 233.

* F. Porter Smith, M.D., in an article on Games of Chinese Children (The
Ahanix, No. 15, Sept., 1871) says: 7a-pang is a game of cat quite as dangerous
to the eyes of bystanders in Chinese streets as in those of small English towns. Ta
Aansto knock the stick.
I3
I4
from where it falls toward the little hole, and the batter then measures
the distance from the place it last fell into the hole. If the batter
after knocking the ko makes but one strike at it in the air, this dis
tance is measured with the oya. If he hits it twice while in the air, it
is measured first with the oya and then with the ko, and so on, alter
nately; and, if he hits it four times, the distance is measured exclu
sively with the ko. Each measurement with the oya or ko counts a
point to the batter's credit. If the ko falls a distance less than the
length of the oya from the hole, the batter goes out, and his opponent
takes his place, or if an opponent catches the ko while it is in the air,
the batter, and those on his side, if he has partners, lose all they have
already made, and one of the other side takes the oya. The number
chosen for the score is usually 1oo, which constitutes game.
It is Mr. Tsuda's opinion that, since the game is found in no
other part of the empire than Kumamoto, it is probably of Corean
origin. The place was the site of the castle of General Kato, who
took an important part in the campaign against Corea, 3oo years ago.
He ravaged the country so that traditions of his career still remain
there. Those who were only able to fight he killed. The weak and
infirm he turned loose to starve, but the skillful artisans he sent
prisoners to Japan, to Kumamoto. As a result, several of the Corean
arts survive there, such as the manufacture of porcelain and the Corean
am, vegetable honey. The game of in ten Mr. Tsuda regards as
probably introduced by these involuntary Corean immigrants.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM.
CHINESE GAMES WITH DICE AND DOMINOES.
BY
STEwART CULIN,
Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Palaeontology, University of Pennsylvania.
From the Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1893, pages 489-537,
with plates 1-12, and figures 1-33.
WASI I INGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1895.
i
CHINESE GAMES WITH DICE AND DOMINOES.
BY
STEWART CULIN,
Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Palaeontology,
University of Pennsylvania.
CHINESE GAMES WITH DICE AND DOMIN()ES.
By STEwART CULIN.
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, and these are of them.
This paper," of which a preliminary study was printed in 1889, is the

first of a series on Chinese games, to be continued by similar accounts
of playing cards and chess. It has been considerably extended, through
recent studies in connection especially with the collection gathered by
the author in the Anthropological Building in Chicago, and that in the
National Museum. #
The games described are chiefly those of the Chinese laborers in
America, a limitation found as acceptable as it is necessary, since even
among these people, who all came from a comparatively small area, there
exist variations in the methods of gambling, as well as in the termi
nology of their games. The latter is made up largely of slang and col
loquial words and presents many difficulties. The gamblers are usually
men of the most ignorant class, and those most familiar with the games
are often the least able to furnish correct Chinese transcriptions of the
terms employed in them, so that the task of interpretation would have
been extremely difficult but for the assistance received from Chinese
and Japanese scholars.'
* This paper has been prepared at the request of the authorities of the U.S. National
Museum, to illustrate a portion of its extensive collection of games.
f Chinese Games with Dice. By Stewart Culin.Read before The Oriental Club
of Philadelphia. | March 14, 1889. | Philadelphia. | 1889. 8. pp. 121.
# This collection, though the author modestly refrains from mentioning the fact,
owes much of its completeness to Mr. Culin's own generous contributions.
G. BROWN GOODE.
The Chinese words printed in italics are transliterated according to Dr. Williams'
Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Canton Dialect, Canton, 1856.
Dr. Hepburn's Japanese-English Dictionary has been followed for Japanese, and the
Korean words, in the absence of any native standard of orthography, and for the
purpose of convenient reference, have been made to accord with that admirable work,
the Dictionnaire Coren-Franais, Yokohama, 1880.
491
492 REPORT of NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893.
GAMES WITH DICE.
Chinese dice" are small cubes of bone marked on each side with
incised spots from 1 to 6 in number, (fig. 1) which are arranged in the
same manner as the spots on modern European dice, as well as those of
Greece and Rome of classical antiquity; t the six and one, five
and two, and four and three being on opposite sides.
The four and one spots on Chinese dice are painted red, and the
six, five, three, **
and two are painted

black. The one is
always much larger and
more deeply incised than
the other spots, possibly
* - to compensate for its
Fig. 1. opposite, the six.
("HiMESE DICE. - The origin of the cus
to m of painting the
fours red is accounted for, according to the Wa Kansan saidzu e,f
by the following story:
An emperor of the Ming dynasty (A. D. 13681643) played at sugoroku with his
queen. He was almost defeated by her, but had one way of winning through the
dice turning fours. He cried and threw the dice, and they came as he desired,
whereupon he was exceedingly glad, and ordered that the fours thereafter be
painted red, in remembrance of his winning.
A similar story was related to me as a common tradition among the
Cantonese, by an intelligent Chinese, who gave the emperor's name as
L Ling Wong, who reigned under the title of Chung Tsung (A. D.
* The common name for dice among the Cantonese is shik tsc', composed of shik,
colors, and tsz', seed, dice.
In Medhurst's English and Chinese Dictionary, Shanghai, 1847, three other names
for dice are given: tau tsz composed of t'au, written with a character compounded
of the radicals, kwat, bone, and shii, a weapon, to strike, and the auxiliary
tsz'; shung luk, double sixes, from what is regarded as the highest throw with 2
dice, and luk ch'ik, literally six carnation. The last name may be considered as
a compound of the terms for the most important throws: six and carnation or
red; the four, to which, as will be seen, an especial significance is attached, as
well as the one, the lowest throw with a die, being painted red. In Japanese dice
are called sai, a word written with a Chinese character, ts'oi, variegated, ..ucky.
tAbout the only dotted cubical dice which depart from this arrangement are those
of the ancient Etruscans, which are regarded as having the one and the three,
two and four, and five and six opposite, a system which does not appear,
according to the writer's observation, to have been constant.
: Japanese Chinese Three Powers (Heaven, Earth, Man) picture collection.
Osaka, 1714; vol. 17, fol. 4.
Whence a vulgar name for dice among the Cantonese, hot lo, composed of hot,
to call out loud, and l, for L Ling Tong.
Modern Indian dice are usually marked with black and red spots. In the Mhb
harata (iv. 1, 25) reference is made to dice, dotted black and red. (Prof. E. W.
Hopkins, J. A. O. S., vol. 13, p. 123.)
CHINESE GAMES WITH DICE AND DOMINOES. 493
684, 701710). Mr. Herbert A. Giles" tells me that this story is men.
tioned by a Chinese author, but I am inclined to regard the account as
fanciful, and think that it is probable that the color of the fours
was derived, with the dice themselves, from India.
Several sizes of dice are used by the Chinese, varying from a cube
of two-tenths to one of seven-tenths of an inch. Different sizes are
employed in different games, according to custom.
Dice are usually thrown by hand into a porcelain bowl, the players
throwing around in turn from right to left, and accompanying their
efforts with cries of loi come !
The Chinese laborers in the United States play several games with
dice, but they are not a popular mode of gambling, and are generally
neglected for fan tain, and Chinese dominoes.
SZ 'NG LUK.
The best known of these games is called scng luk, four, five, six,
commonly contracted to sing luk, and is played with 3 dice of the
largest size. The throws in it in the order of their rank are: Three
alike from three sixes down, called wai. Four, five, six, called
sing luk or chiin fa. Two alike, the odd die counting from six down
to ace, the last throw being called yat fat, ace negative. One,
two, three, called m lung, dancing dragon, or she tsai, little
Snake.
The first player is determined, on throwing around, to be the one
who throws the highest number of red spots. The other players lay
their wagers, usually in sums divisible by 3, before them. The first player
throws until he makes one of the above mentioned casts. If he throws
sing luk (four, five, six); 3 alike; or 2 alike, six high, each of the
players at once pay him the full amount of their stakes; but if he
throws mo lung or yat fat, he pays them the full amount of their
stakes. If he throws 2 alike, five, four, three, or two high,
the next player on his left throws. If the latter makes a higher
cast, the first player must pay him, but if a lower cast, he must pay
the first player. The amounts thus paid are usually proportionate
to the difference between the throws with the odd die. If it is 4
or 3, the full amount; if 2, two-thirds, or if 1, one-third of the stakes
must be paid.
The third player throws in the same way, and the game is continued
until the first player is out-thrown.
* Chinese dice are the exact counterpart of our own except that the ace and four
are colored red; the ace because the combination of black and white would be
unlucky and the four because this number once turned up in response to the call
of an Emperor of the T'ang dynasty, who particularly wanted a four to win him
the partie. (Strange stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. II, p. 145.)
f Wai means to inclose, and is a term that is also employed in Chinese games of
chess and cards.
! Literally, strung flowers.
494 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893.
KON MN YEUNG.
Kon min yeung, pursuing sheep, is played with 6 dice of the larg
est size. It is a game played for small stakes, usually for something
to eat, and is seldom resorted to by professional gamblers.
In it the player throws until he gets 3 alike, when the sum of the
spots on the other dice is counted.
The throws in the order of their rank are: Six sixes, called ti
mn yung, large sheep. Six fives, fours, threes, twos, or
ones, called min yung kung, rams. Three alike and six, six,
five, called min yeung ni, ewes. Three alike and the other throws
than the above. These are designated by the number representing the
sum of the throws with the 3 odd dice.
The throws, ti min yung and min yung kung, take all the stakes.
If m in yung n, or any other cast of 3 alike, is made, the next player
throws until he gets 3 alike, when he pays if his throw is lower, or is
paid if it is higher, as in sing luk.
The throw of 3 fours is called wong p'ang fui, concerning the
origin of which name the following story is related:
A boy and girl were betrothed by their parents. The girl's father died, and the
family having been reduced to poverty, her brother sold the girl to become a prosti
tute. This she resented, and anxious to find her betrothed, whose face she well
remembered, she caused it to be advertised that she would yield herself to the man
who could throw 3 fours with the dice. Many, attracted by her beauty, tried and
failed, until her husband, Wong p'ang-fi, who had obtained the rank of kai in, or
senior wrangler at the provincial examination, presented himself. For him she sub
stituted loaded dice, with which he threw 3 fours, whereupon she disclosed her
self, and they were happily united.
CHAK T'N KAU.
Chak t'in kau, throwing heaven and nine, is played with 2 dice. In
this game the 21 throws that can be made with 2 dice receive different
names, and are divided into two series, or suits, called man, civil,
and mo, military.
The 114man throws, in the order of their rank, are figured on the
right of Plate I. They are:
Double six, called t'in, heaven.
Double one, called ti, earth.
Double four, called yan, man.
One, three" called wo, harmony.
Double five, called miti, plum (flower). +
* This throw is called by some ngo, a goose, a name, like those of the throws
that follow it in this series, evidently derived from a fancied resemblance of the
spots on the dice.
*The 5 spot is also called by the name of mume or plum (flower), in Japan. In
Korea the same name, mai-hoa, plum flower, is given to the sequence five, one;
five, two; five, three; five, four; five, five; five, six in the game of
Ho-hpai, with dominoes.
REPORT of Museum, 1893.CULIN. PLATE [.
X.
*:##
.#
#,
J
A ve
CHINESE DICE.
*
Double three, called ch'ung sm, long threes.

Double two, called pan tang, bench.
Five, six, called fit t'au, tiger's head.
Four, six, called hung t'au shap, red head ten.
One, six, called kokuk ts'at, long leg seven.
One, five, called hung ch'ui luk, red mallet six.
The 10 m) throws in the order of their rank are figured on the left
of Plate I. They are:
Five, four, and six, three, called kau, nines.
Five, three, and six, two, called pat, eights.
Five, two, and four, three, called ts'at, sevens.
Four, two, called luk, six.
Three, two, and four, one, called 'ng, fives.
One, two, called sm, three, or sam kai, three final.
The first player determined, the other players lay their wagers on
the table. The first player then throws and his cast determines the
suit, whether man or mo, for that round. No other throws count and
T.
13] ...]:
Q Q
*
Q @
Fig. 2.
PATCHA BOARD: CHINA.
the players throw again, if necessary, until they make a cast of the
suit led. If the first player throws the highest pair of either series,
that is the double six of the man, or one of the nines of the mo,
each player at once pays him, but if he leads the lowest of either suit,
that is, the five, one, or one, two, he pays them the amount of
their Stakes.
If he throws any other pair than the highest or lowest of either suit
the second player throws, and is paid his stakes, if he throws higher,
by the first player, or pays him if he throws lower. The game is con
tinued until the first player is outthrown, when he is succeeded by the
second player, and the others lay their wagers as before.
PAT CHA.
Pt ch, grasping eight, is played with 8 dice, preferably of the

smallest size. In this game the banker is provided with a diagram
(fig. 2) numbered or dotted, like the 6 faces of a die, upon which the
players place their stakes. It bears the legend pat t'ung, unlike,
which expresses the desire of the banker as to the manner in which
the dice shall fall. A player throws 8 dice. If at least 3 fall like the
number bet on, the gamekeeper pays him 8 times, or if 6 or more are
like the number bet on, 16 times the amount of his
stakes. In any other event, the player loses. A
similarly marked tablet is used in playing with the
ch m, or teetotum (fig. 3). This implement is made
with 6 dotted sides. The players lay their stakes
upon the numbers on the tablet, and win 4 times
the amount of their stakes if the one played on turns
uppermost, or lose, if another number comes up.
The ch'm is said to have its sides decorated
sometimes with pictures of fish and animals instead
Fig. 3.
CHINESE TEETOTUM.
of numbers or spots, and the diagram, which is
called the ch'd m pi, or the tablet for the
"
of Pennsylvania.) teetotum, is then similarly inscribed (fig. 3).
CHONG UN CH'AU.
Chong in ch'au is a game played with tallies, ch'au, the highest of

which is called chong in, the name given the Optimus at the examina.
tions for the degree of Hanlin, whence I have styled it The Game of
the Chief of the Literati. (pl. 3.) Two or more persons may play, using
6 dice and 63 bamboo tallies. The latter receive the following names:
First. One piece about 6 inches in length, called chong in, the first
of the Hanlin doctors. This counts as 32.
Second. Two shorter pieces called pong ngn, second of the Hanlin,
t am f, third of the Hanlin. Each count as 16.
Third. Four shorter pieces called ti in, the First of the tsun sz', o
literary graduates of the third degree. Each count as 8. -
Fourth. Eight shorter pieces called tsun 2s', literary graduates of the
third degree. Each count as 4.
*A similar game from Manila, Philippine Islands, in the United States National
Museum (Plate 2), consists of a cardboard with 6 equal divisions, with numbers,
represented by disks of colored paper, from 1 to 6; a hexagon-shaped top with num
bers from 1 to 6, and a saucer in which to spin it. It is described by the collector,
Hon. Alex. R. Webb, United States Consul, under the name of prinola, as a popular
game in the market places with the native women. Bets are placed on the spots on
the board, the top is spun rapidly in the saucer, and the winners are paid double the
amount of their bets. Only one number can win, of course the one corresponding
to that which turns up when the top stops turning, and the chances are therefore
quite largely in favor of the dealer. The name is evidently the Portuguese pirinola,
but the game is probably of Chinese or Indian origin. In India a 6-sided teetotum,
chukree, identical with the Chinese, is used, and is turned like a top on a wooden or
china plate. The stakes are placed on a board with 6 partitions, and the game is
decided on the settling of the die with a particular number uppermost. The play
of this game is allowed only during the Diwali festival, when gambling is sanc
tioned as a religious observance. (Ms. catalogue of Indian games and toys pro
cured for the Chicago exhibition. Provincial Museum, Lucknow, India.)
Report of National Museum, 1893.culin. PLATE 2.
-- "
| Report of National Museum, 1893.Culin. PLATE 3.
TALLIES FOR "CHONG UN cRAU.

Cat. No. 153605, U.S. N. M. Kwangtung, China.
_r *
Fifth. Sixteen shorter pieces called kii yan, graduates of the second
degree. Each count as 2.
Sixth. Thirty-two shorter pieces called sau ts'oi, graduates of the
first degree. Each count as 1.
The first, second, and third classes bear rude pictures and names,
but the others are usually distinguished only by their size.
Two or more persons can play. The players throw in turn from right
to left, and after throwing each draws the tallies he is entitled to
according to the appended table. If the tally called for by a throw
has been drawn, its value may be made up from the remaining ones;
but the winner of the chong in must surrender it without compensation
if another player makes a higher throw than that by which he won it.
The one who counts highest becomes the winner.
The game is said to be played by women and children, and is not
played by the Chinese laborers in the eastern United States, although
they are generally acquainted with it.
A set of implements for this game from Johore in the collection of
His Highness the Sultan at the Columbian Exposition was similar
to that above described, and was evidently of Chinese workmanship.
It was catalogued under the name chong wan chiam (chong in ch'au),
the tallies being called buah-buah bertulis.
The throws in chong in ch'au, in the order of their rank, are:
6 fours. 6 fives. 6 twos.
6 sixes. 6 threes. 6 ones.
These throws are called ts'un shik, and take all the tallies:
5 fours and 1 six, or 1 five, or 1 three, or 1 two, or 1 one.
5 sixes and 1 four, or 1 five, or 1 three, or 1 two, or 1 one.
5 fives and 1 four, or 1 six, or 1 three, or 1 two, or 1 one.
5 threes and 1 four, or 1 six, or 1 five, or 1 two, or 1 one.
5 twos and 1 four, or 1 six, or 1 five, or 1 three, or 1 one.
5 ones and 1 four, or 1 six, or 1 five, or 1 three, or 1 two.
4 fours and 1 three" and 1 one.
4 fours and 1 twos.
4 sixes" and 1 four and 1 two.
4 sixes and 1 five" and 1 one.
4 sixes" and 2 threes.
4 fives and 1 four" and 1 one.
4 fives and 1 three" and 1 two.
4 threes and 1 two and 1 one.
4 twos" and 2 ones.
4 fours and 2 sixes.
4 fours and 1 six and 1 five.
4 fours and 2 fives.
4 fours and 1 six and 1 three, or 1 six and 1 two.
4 fours and 1 five and 1 three, or 1 six and 1 two.
4 fours and 1 five and 1 two, or 1 five and 1 one.
4 fours and 2 threes, or 1 three and 1 two.
4 fours and 1 two" and 1 one, or 2 ones.
Each of the above throws counts as thirty-two, and takes the chong in.
H. Mis. 184, pt. 232
2 fours, 2 fives, and 2 sixes.

2 ones, 2 twos, and 2 threes.
3 fours and 3 sixes, or fives, or threes, or twos, or ones.
3 sixes and 3 fives, or threes, or twos, or ones.
3 fives and 3 threes, or twos, or ones.
3 threes and 3 twos or ones.
A sequence from one" to six.
Each count as 16, and takes either the pong ngn or t'aim fa. Three
fours with any combination except those mentioned count as 8, and
take one of the tii in. Four sixes, 4 fives, 4 threes, 4 twos,
or 4 ones, with any combination of 2 dice except those already men
tioned count as 4, and take one of the tsun s2'. Two fours count as
2 and take one of the kii yan. One four counts as 1, and takes one
of the saw ts'oi.
|[N.
flijff fif
.# >
Fig. 4.
CHINESE BACKGAMMON.
(From De Ludis Orientalibus. 1694.)
The Chinese game similar to backgammon, which that accomplished

scholar, Dr. Thomas Hyde, described in his work on Oriental games
under the name of Chinensium Nerdiludium (The Nerd Game of the
Chinese)" is not played by the Chinese laborers in America, nor do
any I have met appear to be acquainted with it (fig. 4.)
According to Dr. Hyde, it is called by Chinese Qoan Ki, which he
translates as erectus ludus, or erectorum ludus, but which might be
rendered as the bottle game or bottle chess Qoan (tsun), meaning
a vase or bottle, and Ki (k'i) being a generic name for games played
with men as chess.
This game is played with dice and small upright pillars, from which the name is
derived. The board is divided into eight equal parts by transverse lines, and the
pieces, which are from 2 to 3 inches high and number 16 on each side, are arranged
upon it when the playing commences, as seen in the figure.
The pieces are moved line by line, according to the throws with the dice, from the
places on the left to the eighth place on the right, and from thence ascending to the
* De Ludis Orientalibus. Oxford, 1694, p. 65.
opposite side and back to the starting place, the player who first gets all his pieces
there winning the game.
Two dice are thrown, and the pices are moved to the places which the number of
the throws directs. One may move whatever piece or pieces one chooses, according
to the number, either pieces which have been moved before or those which have not
yet been moved. If, instead of upright pieces, one plays with small flat discs, which
is also permitted, they may be placed side by side or piled on top of each other, as
seems most convenient.
A throw of 2 ones causes a piece to be set aside and delivered up as lost, or, if
the game is played for money, it loses the player the tenth part of his stakes. Who
ever throws twos or threes begins moving to the second or third lines, and so
on. If doublets are thrown, one may move to the place corresponding to the half
number of such doublets; and this may be done by moving 1 piece once to such
half number, or 2 pieces at the same time to the place corresponding with such whole
number, for in this case either 1 or 2 pieces together may be moved. If five and
six, which make 11, are thrown, one may move 1 piece to the fifth place and
another to the eleventh, or else move 2 pieces at the same time to the tenth line
or place, and then 1 of them to the next line, which is the eleventh. And thus
with respect to other throws: If single (as two " and four), for the single num
bers move as many places, but if joined (as five" and six), then otherwise, as
already stated.
The game of backgammon, played upon a board of 24 stations simi
lar to the boards in common use in Spain at the present day, exists
along the entire eastern coast of Asia, from Korea to the Malay Penin
sula.
SSANG-RYOUK.
In Korea the game of backgammon is known as ssang-ryouk (Chinese

shung luk), double sixes. It is played with wooden pins or men
(fig. 5), called mal (Chinese ma), horses, upon a hollowed board, ssang
ryouk-hpan" according to the throws with two dice.
The throws receive the following names:
11, syo-syo (Chinese siu sitt), smallest.
12, toui-hko (Chinese shii pi), rat nose.
13, syo sam (Chinese sitt sm), small and three.
14, pik s (Chinese pak sz'), white and four.
15, pik i (Chinese pk ng), white and five.
16, pdik ryouk (Chinese pak luk), white and six.
22, tioun-a (Chinese tsun d), superior two.
* Hpan, the word used for board in ssang-ryouk, as well as Korean chess and other
Korean games, is written with the Chinese character meaning an order, rank,
which the Cantonese call kuk. The men are about 3% inches in height. Fifteen are
employed on each side, one set being painted red and the other left the natural color
of the wood. They are usually made of boxwood, but some softer wood is employed
for the cheaper sets.
Dice are called in Korean tiyou-s- (Chinese chii sha, vermillion, a '), and are
identical in every respect with those of China. The only other Korean games with
dice than ssang-ryonk with which I am acquainted are as follows: One which my
informant tells me has no particular name, but which might be called tjyou-sa-a-nol-ki
Three or four boys sit around, and one puts a peanut or pine nut on the floor and the
die is thrown, the nut going to the one throwing the highest. The other, consists
in the substitution of a cubical die for the four staves used in the prevailing Korean
game of nyout-nol-ki.
23, a sam (Chinese d sm), two and three.

24, a s (Chinese a sz'), two and four.
25, koan-a (Chinese kn d, sovereign two.
26, a ryouk (Chinese luk), two and six.
33, tiyang-sam (Chinese ch'ung sm), long three.
34, sam s (Chinese sm 82'), three and four.
35, sam o (Chinese sam 'ng), three and five.
36, sam ryouk (Chinese sam luk), three and six.
44, toun-hong (Chinese tsun hung), superior red.
45, s o (Chinese s2ng), four and five.
46, s ryouk (Chinese sz' luk), four and six.
55, tioun-o (Chinese tsun 'ng), superior five.
56, or youk (Chinese 'ng luk), five and six.
66, tioun-ryouk (Chinese tsun luk) superior six.
O O
O O
O O
O
O
O
O
O
O O
O O
Fig. 5. Fig. 6.
KOREAN PIECE FOR SSANG. RYOUK (BACKGAMMON) BOARD: KOREA.
BACKGAMMON.
A diagram of the board, set as at the commencement of the game,

is shown in fig. 6.
The board has mortised sides, which extend about 2 inches above the
surface. The divisions on either side, called pat (Chinese t in, fields),
are simply outlined in black. The larger ones in the middle are not
counted in moving, and are used to throw the dice in. The first player
is determined by the highest throw with 1 die. The pieces are moved
around according to the throws, as in the English game of backgam
mon; but it is customary to move 2 pieces when doublets are thrown,
and doublets do not entitle the player to another throw, nor to any
additional count than if the dice were dissimilar.
A player may take an opponent's piece, which must be again entered,
as in the English game. This is called tjap-ta, to catch. When a
player gets all his men around into his home place he bears them off
according to his subsequent throws. -
S.A.K.A.
In Siam the game of backgammon is known as saka, and is played

upon a board, represented in fig. 7, with 2 dice." Sixteen discs of ivory,
SAKA (hacKGAMMON) BOARD: SIAM.
like draftsmen, are used on each side, one set being white and the
other, red. The small compartments on either side of the board are
Fig. 8.
KRABok: CYLINDER FROM Which DICE ARE THROWN.
(Siamese Backgaminon.)
said to be intended for cowries (bia), which are used as counters. The
pieces are entered, according to the throws, in the right-hand side of
the board opposite the player, and are
moved around, as in our game, to the
side directly opposite, where they are
thrown off. A player does not take
his opponent's pieces. The dice are not
thrown directly with the hand, but are
loaded into a tube (krabok) of ivory,
about 3 inches in length (fig. 8), called
krabok saka, and shot obliquely through
another cylinder of ivory, 23 inches high
(fig. 9), called by the same name, placed
upon the board. These implements - -
correspond with the Roman fritillus Fig. 9.
or dicebox, and the pyrgus, the latter crustra ":" " ".
being defined as a little wooden tower , Siamese Backgaminon.)
on the side of a gaming board, hollow,

and having steps inside, through which the dice were thrown upon
the board.t
-
- - - - - - - -
-
* Dice are called in Siamese lok bat. They are identical with those of China.
t Andrews's Latin-English Lexicon.
TABAL.
A backgammon board from Johore, exhibited by His Highness the

Sultan in the collection of games at the Columbian Exposition under
the name of tabal, is represented in fig. 10. It is played with 2 dice,
dadu, those exhibited being marked in black and red, like those of
TABAL (BACKGAMMON) BOARD: JOHORE, MALAY PENINSULA.

(From specimen in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania.)
China. The name of the game, tabal, is doubtless from the Portuguese
tabola or Spanish tabla, and dadu from the Portuguese or Spanish dado,
a die.
SUGOROKU.
The game described by Dr. Hyde agrees in some respects with the
Japanese game of sugoroku, as illustrated in native encyclopedias.
In fig. 11, reproduced from the Kum mo dzu e tais ei," the board is
#:##
'S's
Fig. 11.
SUGOROKU BOARD: JAPAN.
represented as being divided into 12 parts by longitudinal lines, which

are broken in the middle by an open space similar to the ho kai, or
dividing river, of the Chinese chessboard. According to the same
work the 12 compartments, called in Japanese me, or eyes, symbolize
the 12 months, and the black and white stones, with which the game is
played, day and night.
* Very Complete Collection of Pictures to Teach the Unenlightened. Kiyoto,

1789, vol. 4, part 8, fol. 5.
CHINESE GAMEs witH DICE AND DoMINOEs. 503
The moves are made according to the throws of the dice, the name
being derived from that of the highest throw, sugoroku (Chinese, sheung
luk), or double sixes.
Sugoroku appears to be of great antiquity in Japan. The Wa Kan
san sai states that it is recorded in the Japanese Annals that sugoroku
was forbidden in the time of Jito Tenn (A. D. 687692), and that it is
probable that it was played in Japan before the game of got was brought
to that country. The same encyclopedia, in the careful manner usual
in such works, makes a number of citations from Chinese authors with
reference to the origin of the game. It says it is recorded in the Suh
sz ch'if that Ts'ao Chih $ of Wei invented sugoroku, and used 2 dice
for it, but at the end of the Tang dynasty (A. D. 618913), the number
of dice was increased to 6.
It is written in the W tsh tsii that sugoroku is a game that was
originally played in H (Japanese, Ko), the country of the Tartars. It
relates that the King of H had a brother who was put to death for a
crime. While in prison he made the game of sugoroku and sent it to
his father, writing with it a few words in order to make known how men
are oppressed by others when they are single and weak.
The Ngn lui yu states that sugoroku came from the T'ien Chuh,
India.
The name of sugoroku is applied at the present day in Japan to
various games played upon boards or diagrams, in which the moves
are made by throwing dice. Of these there are many kinds, among
* Sugoroku is also called rokusai, as will be seen from the names appended to fig, 11.
t Chess, by which the game of 360 men, half black and half white, called by the
Chinese wai k'i is meant.
! I am unable to identify either this or the two following works quoted in the
Wa Han san sai.
Ts'ao Chih (A. D. 192232) was the third son of the great usurper, Ts'au Ts'au,
who overthrew the Han dynasty. He was distinguished by precocious talent and
poetical genius, and devoted himself wholly to literary diversions. (The Chinese
Reader's Manual, No. 759.)
|The name is also applied to at least one simple dice game in which no board or
diagram is used. Mr. Kajiwara informs me that in the Province of Aomori, a com
mon game with 2 dice is called ichi-san sugoroku; so called from the name of the
highest throw, ichi san, one, three.
Japanese dice at the present day usually have their 6 faces marked with black
dots. Those used by gamblers are said to be larger than the kind employed in
popular amusements. The dice games are said to vary in different parts of the
Empire. Japanese sailors in New York City play a game with 2 dice called cho han,
even and odd. They throw 2 dice under a cup. The even throws are called cho
and the odd han. The players, two or more in number, bet on the even or odd by
calling out and laying their wagers before them while the cup remains inverted over
the dice. They use foreign playing cards cut lengthwise in strips and tied in bundles
of 10 as counters, instead of money; a custom that they say has its origin in the use
of the narrow Japanese playing cards, or bamboo tallies at home for this purpose.
The same game, under the same name, called by the Chinese chung pun, is known
to the Cantonese laborers in the United States as a common game in China.
which the most popular is called d chiu, or traveling sugoroku. It
is played upon a large sheet of paper, on which are represented the
various stopping places upon a journey; as, for example, the 53 post
stations between Tokio and Kiyoto, and resembles the games of snake
and steeplechase, familiar to
English and American children. *
Such games are much played by
the Japanese at the season of the
the New Year, when new ones are
usually published. In 1889, Japa
nese newspapers reported that two
new games of sugoroku found much
favor in Tokio.
The same general name would
JAPANESE. Children Pi.AYING SUGOROKU.
be given by the Japanese to the
following Chinese game, which I have occasionally seen played by
the clerks in Chinese stores in our cities.
SHING KUN T'O.
Shing kun to, the table of the promotion of the officials, is the
celebrated game which is best known through Dr. Hyde's account as
the game of the promotion of Mandarins.f
It is played by two or more persons upon a large paper diagram, on
which are printed the titles of the different officials and dignitaries of
the Chinese Government. The movements are made by throwing dice,
and the players, whose positions upon the diagram are indicated by
notched or colored splints, are advanced or set back, according to
their throws.;
The following story was related to me concerning the invention of
the game:
* A paper diagram for a game of sugoroku is entitled, according to the characters
on the sheet, Hokkaid shin d6 ichi ran sugoroku, or A glance at the Hkkaid new
road sugoroku. This game was published in 1873 on the occasion of the opening of
a new road through the southern part of the island of Yesso, from Hakodate to Sap
poro, the capital.
The diagram consists of an impression in colors, 323 by 20 inches, and is divided
into 38 parts, exclusive of the goal and starting place. These contain pictures of
the scenery at the diffierent stations on the road, each division having a tablet beside
it on which the name of the place is written, with the distance to the next stopping
place. The game is played with 1 die, the players throwing in turn, and advanc
ing from the lower right-hand corner to the goal at the center. Each spot of the
throw counts as one station on the diagram. If a player's move leaves him upon a
division having the character tomare, stop over, he loses his next throw. When
a player near the goal makes a higher throw than is just necessary to take him to
the central space, he is set back; if he has an excess of 1, to the fifth place from the
goal; 2, to the fourth place, and so on.
t De Ludis Orientalibus, p. 70.
t.A similar but much simpler game, with the titles of Japanese instead of Chinese
officials, is played in Japan under the name of kuwanroku.
CHINESE GAMES WITH DICE AND DOMINOES: 505
The Emperor Kienlung (A. D. 17361796) was in the habit of walking at nightfall
among the houses occupied by the candidates for the degree of Hanlin, who came
up to Peking for the triennial examination; and hearing, night after night, the song
of the dice issuing from one of them, he sum
moned the offender before him to explain his
conduct. In excuse, fearing punishment, he
told the Emperor that he had constructed a .
chart, on which were written the names of all *
the official positions in the Government, and that

he and his friends threw dice, and according to
their throws traversed the board, and were thus
impressed with a knowledge of the various i.
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ranks and steps leading to official advancement.
The Emperor commanded him to bring the chart
s* s: #
for his inspection. That night the unfortunate
graduate, whose excuse was a fiction created at
+ 5.#* ($! sy.# :
the moment, sat until daybreak, pencil in hand,
and made a chart according to his story, which
he carried to the Emperor. That august prince
professed to be much pleased with the diligence
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of the scholar who improved his mind, even
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while amusing himself, and dismissed him with > S 1-14 1--3 | |
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many commendations. '. .#######

This familiar sounding story can not E *s .#
be accepted without question, especially
since it will be seen that Dr. Hyde pub ##
lished his account many years before the
period mentioned; but my informant, a
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clerk in a Chinese shop in Philadelphia,
may not have stated the date correctly. *; : #::
E
The paper charts for the game may be
e
:
purchased at the Chinese stores in New
York and San Francisco. The names of
the different offices are arranged upon
them in rectangular divisions, alongside
of each of which is a tablet with the
name of the board or class under which
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ascend from the lowest to the highest #| S.S S. ...;
in successive stages, arranged in order N. :- ... *S
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around the chart from right to left, and * -
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from the outer division, which is devoted - - ,
to provincial officials, to the innermost, Fig. 13.

which has the titles of the members of F1RST PLACES FOR ENTERING IN THE GAME
OF PROMOTION OF MANDARINS.
the metropolitan administration. The (From De Ludis Orientalibus, 1691.)
center is occupied with rules for play
Ing. Four dice are thrown in turn by each player, instead of 6, as
formerly recorded by Dr. Hyde. Entrance is obtained by making a
cast, either of 4 alike, by which the player is at once advanced to an
hereditary rank; of three, four, five, six, called ch'in fa; of 3 alike
or 2 alike. All of these throws, in descending order, enable the player

to enter one of the positions from which advancement may be obtained.
Subsequent promotion depends upon the throws, doublets enabling the
player to move once; 3 alike, twice; and 4 alike, 3 times. Double fours
count highest, double sixes next, and so on down to ones, through
which the player is set back. The appropriate move for each throw is
indicated in small characters beneath each of the titles on the chart.
A curious contrast is presented between the little sheet reproduced
by Dr. Hyde (fig. 13), upon which only the principal officials of the
Ming dynasty are represented, and that now current, whereon may be
seen the innumerable ramifications of the Chinese civil service under
the present Tartar domination.
The charts such as I have seen used in the United States are printed
in Canton, and bear an impression about 23 inches square. They
are divided into 63 compartments, exclusive of the central one and
the place for entering at the lower right-hand corner. The latter
contains the names of 13 different starting places from yan shang, or
honorary licentiate, down to t'ung shang, or student, between
which are included the positions of t'in man shang, astrologer, and
i shang, physician. These are entered at the commencement of the
game by the throws of three, four, five, six, 3 fours, 3 sixes, 3
fives, 3 threes, 3 twos, and 3 ones; and then in the same
manner double fours, and so on down to double ones.
The 63 compartments, representing as many classes of officials or
degrees of rank, comprise 397 separate titles, of which the highest, and
the highest goal of the game, is that of man fa tin tai hok sz', or grand
secretary. This, however, under favorable conditions, can only be
reached by a player who starts from a favorable point, advancement
in the game being regulated by rules similar to those which actually
regulate promotion under the Government. Thus a player whose
fortune it is to enter as a physician or astrologer can only obtain pro
motion in the line of his service, and must be content with a minor
goal, as he is ineligible to the high civil office of grand secretary.
The dice are thrown into a bowl placed in the center of the sheet,
has made a cast of doublets or higher. It is noticeable that fours,
as in Dr. Hyde's account, constitute the highest throw. A pair of
fours, according to the rules, is to be reckoned as tak, virtue, and
leads to a higher place than those of other numbers. Sixes are
next highest, and are to be reckoned as ts'oi, genius; and in the
same manner, in descending degree, fives are to be reckoned as
kung, skill; threes as lung, forethought; twos as yau,
tractability; and ones, chong, stupidity.
The game is much complicated by being played for money or counters,
which is necessary under the rules. By this means advancement may
be purchased, degradation compounded for, and the winner of a high
position rewarded.
The main point of difference in the game as it exists to-day and as

described by Dr. Hyde is in the number of dice employed. The
enlarged form of the diagram is of minor importance, as he himself
says that the names of the officials written on the tablet are many or
few, according to the pleasure of the players.
The game of shing kn t'o and the Japanese game of many stations,
described under the name of sugoroku, I regard as having been derived
from the ancient Tartar game played with staves, which exists at the
Fig. 14.
P Tsz (ChINESE).
(Froin specimen in the Museum of the University of Peunsylvania.)
present day in Korea under the name of nyout-nol-ki. As to the back

gammon game, which I consider to be a development of the same game,
and which I have described as existing in Korea, China, Japan, Siam,
and the Malay Peninsula, I am uncertain whether it is indigenous, has
come over from India, or been acquired from the Portuguese or Span
iards in the fifteenth or sixteenth century.
P TSZ'.
The p tsz', or covered die, is not, properly, a die at all. It consists

of a small wooden cube (fig. 14 a), which is placed in a square recep
tacle in the top of a brass prism (fig. 14 c), over which a brass cover
(fig. 14b) fits very closely. A specimen exhibited by His Highness, the
Sultan of Johore in the section of games at the Columbian Exposition
consisted of a wooden cube about one-half an inch square, having one
half of each face painted red and one-half white. The prism in which
the cube fitted was slightly convex on the bottom, and, when placed
upon a smooth surface, could be twirled rapidly. The game is played
by placing the box containing the p in the center of a square crossed
by diagonal lines, which is drawn upon a mat. One of the four
divisions of the square is painted red. The players lay their bets upon
the other divisions, and the box is spun rapidly by the gamekeeper,
who repeats the operation until it comes to rest squarely with the cor
ners corresponding with the intersecting lines. The coveristhen lifted,
and those who have staked opposite the red side of the die win. The
banker wins when the red side comes opposite the side of the square
painted red." There is said to be a current notion, amounting to a
superstition among the Chinese in Johore, that if a player stops the
box as it is spinning the luck will surely go against him.
KONG POH.
Another specimen in the Sultan's collection, called at Johore, kong

poh (Chinese t'ung po), current treasure, furnishes an explanation of
the name p. It consists of a wooden die (fig. 15 a), with a face 13
inches square, and three-fourths inch thick, which fits into a brass box
with a broad base (fig. 15b). A wooden cover (fig. 15 c) fits over the
box. This die is not spun, but is concealed in a bag which accompanies
it, and there adjusted by the gamekeeper. The face of the wooden
die is carved with the characters t'ung po (fig. 15 d), on one side in the
ordinary, and on the reverse in seal characters, the character t'ung
being painted red, and po white. The inscription t'ung po, current
treasure, occurs on the face of all modern Chinese coins (fig. 15 d), and
the common name of the game is evidently derived from the character
p, which occurs on this block.
GAMES WITH DOMINOES.*
Chinese dominoes, commonly called kwat p'ai, bone tablets, con

sist of 32 rectangular pieces of wood, bone, or ivory, similar to those
used in Europe and America (pl. 4).
They differ, in the absence of the blank in the Chinese series (fig.
* The Manners and Customs of the Chinese of the Straits Settlements, Singapore,
1879, p. 63. The Chinese laborers in the United States are generally unfamiliar
with the game.
t Read in part before The Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia,
November 4, 1886.
#This is the common name among the Cantonese. Medhurst's English and Chinese
Dictionary, Shanghai, 1847, gives in addition two other namesng pai, ivory tab
lets, and tim tsz' p'ai, dotted tablets.
Report of National Museum, 1893. Culin. PLATE 4.
Cat. No. 168208, U.S. N. M. Kwangtung, China.

:
:
Fig. 15.
KONG POH: JOHORE, MALAY PENINSULA.
(From specimen in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania.)
51() REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893.
16), whicn commences with double one instead of double blank,

and contains 21 different pieces instead of 28 as in the European
game (fig. 17). Eleven of the 21 pieces are duplicated, making 32
pieces in a set.
The one and four marks and the alternate threes, which com
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Fig. 16.
CHINES E GAME OF DOMINOES.
prise the sixes, are usually painted red, while the other marks are
painted black or white, depending upon the material of the dominoes.
The dominoes in common use in the Province of Kwangtung and
among the Chinese in the United States are made of Chinese ebony
. T. T. T. T. T. [- - - - - - - - - - - -
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Fig. 17.
EUROPEAN GAME OF DOMINOES.
and are about 23 inches long, seven-eighths of an inch in width, and

three-eighths of an inch in thickness, with incised spots, which are
painted red and white. The ends of each piece are usually ornamented
with a single incised red spot, while the backs are sometimes uniformly
marked with three spots, one red between two white, arranged diagon
ally across (fig. 18).
Fig. 18
ChiNESE DOMINoFs: ProVINCE OF KWANGTUNG AND UNITED STATES.
The following Chinese games are those of the Chinese laborers in the
United States, among whom they are the commonest gambling imple
ments. They call each piece by name, and in certain games pair them
according to the arrangements shown in plate 5. The 11 pieces that
Report of National Museum, 1893. Culin, PLATE 5,
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METHoD of PAIRING CHINESE DOMINOES
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are duplicated are paired with their doubles, and form a series or
suite, to which they give the name of man, civil, while the remain
ing 10 pieces are paired with each other, in accordance with the sum
of their spots, and from a suite called mo, military.
The man pieces, in the order of their rank, are:
66, called tin, heaven.
11, called ti, earth.
44, called yan, man.
13, called wo, harmony.
55, called mui, plum (flower).
33, called ch'ung sm, long three.
22, called pain tang, bench.
56, called fit t'au, tiger's head.
46, called hung t'au shap, red head ten.
16, called kokuk ts'at, long leg seven.
15, called hung ch'ui luk, red mallet six.
The mo pieces are:
24 and 12, called chi tsiin, supreme.
63 and 45, called tsap kau, heterogeneous nines.
62 and 53, called tsap pat, heterogeneous eights.
43 and 52, called tsap ts'at, heterogeneous sevens.
14 and 23, called tsap 'ng luk heterogeneous sixes.
Both pieces in all the pairs are of equal value and rank in their suits
*- -
-- -
t
Fig. 19.
stAck of DoMiNOEs AT OPENING OF GAMES
in the order given, except those which compose the pair called chi tsiin,
which together form the highest pair, but separately are the lowest of
the mo series.
The arrangement of the dominoes called sheung tung, or stack, at
the opening of games, is shown in fig. 19.
TIU, U.
A simple game called tint ii, to angle, is played by 2 or 3 persons

with 2 sets of dominoes. The pieces are well mixed and piled face
down, side by side, in a stack 4 high. Four piles of 4 each are now
drawn from one end of the stack and placed face up on the table.
When 2 play, both players draw 3 piles (12 dominoes), or if 3 play, 2
piles (8 dominoes) from the same end of the stack. The players then
examine their pieces, and the first player endeavors to mate one of
his pieces with one having the same number of spots among those
turned up on the table. If successful, he places the mated pair, face

up, before him. In either case he draws the bottom piece of the pile
at the end of the stack from which the last piles were drawn and
endeavors to mate it with one of those on the table. If successful, he
takes the pair, but if not, he places the piece drawn among those on the
table. The second player then tries to mate one of his pieces, and
also draws one from the stack, and the game is continued in this man
ner until the stack is exhausted. A pair of double sixes in a
player's hand is at once laid out. If a player holds a piece in his hand,
identical with 2 pieces on the table, and the fourth piece of the same
kind has not been played, he may, at his turn, pile the 3 pieces that
are alike one upon the other, with the uppermost face up, at the oppo.
site end of the stack to that drawn from, and the player who first lays
out the fourth piece may take the 3 pieces. The 2 pieces composing
the chi tsiin mate with each other, and form an exception in this game
to the rule by which all pieces having the same number of spots mate
with each other without reference to their belonging either to the man
or mo series. When the last domino is drawn, the players examine
those they have taken. The pieces on which the spots number 8 or
more are called tai ii, large fish, and count 2 points for each spot.
The pieces below 8 are called sai ii, small fish, and count 1 point for
each red spot. If this latter sum is between 2 decades, the highest
decade is counted. The player counting the highest becomes the win
ner, and is paid by each of the players for each point he has in excess.
TSUNG SHAP.
Tsung shap, to dispute for tens, is played by 2 persons with 1 set

of dominoes. The pieces are piled face down, side by side, in a stack
4 pieces high, which the players divide between them, each player
taking 8 of the 16 piles. The first player draws the top piece from the
end pile towards the right of his pile, and lays it face up on the table.
The second player, in turn, draws a piece and lays it face up alongside
of the piece played by the first player. The players continue to draw
and place the pieces on the table in this manner either on the right or left
of the row thus formed. If a player lays down a piece which is a dupli
cate of one of the pieces at either end of the row, he takes both pieces,
called tti, a pair, and they count 10 for each spot on them at the end
of the game. Or, if a player lays down a piece on which the spots,
added to those on 2 pieces at one end of the row, or on the pieces at
each end, form a sum that is a multiple of 10, the player takes the 3
pieces, and they count 1 for each spot on them at the end of the game.
If there are but 2 pieces on the table, and a player takes them, he piles
them upon each other to mark the play, called tap ti, literally to tread
on earth, i.e. a sweep, which counts 40. The winner draws and lays
out another piece. Should he fail to take up a winning combination of
2 or 3 pieces, his opponent may take it, and follow by laying out a piece
and continuing the game. The game proceeds until one of the players
has laid out all of his pieces, when the one who counts highest
wins.
KAP TAI SHAP.
Kim tai shap, to grasp many tens; Chi tai shap, to grasp many
tens; K'ap tai shap, to complete many tens; is played by any number
of persons from 2 to 20 and upward, and is the favorite game with
dominoes in the Chinese gambling houses in the United States. In
many of these houses a large table covered with matting to deaden
the sound is kept apart for this game. As there played, many sets of
dominoes are used which are well mixed by the players and piled faces
down, side by side, in piles 5 pieces high in a long stack upon the table.
The croupier, or one of the players, shakes 4 dice under a cup, and
counts around to the right, commencing with the player on his right,
up to the number thrown. The one at whom he stops becomes the first
player. The top piece on the third pile from one end of the stack, with
each alternate piece on the top up to the number of persons playing,
less-one, is now removed and placed in a pile at the other end of the
stack. The first player takes 2 piles at the end and gets 10 pieces; the
second player on his right takes the 2 next piles and gets 9 pieces, and
so on, each player except the first getting 9 pieces.
In this game each piece in a set of dominoes may be mated with a
duplicate piece to form a pair called ngan, eye. The ngn or eyes
thus formed by the pieces on the left (pl. 6) are called in ngn or
weak eyes, while those formed by the pieces on the right are called
ngng ngan, or strong eyes. The object of the game is to get 10
pieces in each of which 2 are the same and form either an in or ngng
ngan, and the others form 4 pairs, in each of which the sum of the
spots is 10 or a multiple of 10, whence the name of the game. The
piece 24 is only counted as 3 in making up tens.
The players examine their pieces, and the first player if he has not
drawn a winning hand, discards a piece which he throws face up on
the table. The next player to the right may take this piece to complete
a winning hand, or in exchange for a piece from his hand, which he
places face up on the table. He also draws a piece from the bottom of
the exposed pile of the stack. If it does not complete a winning hand
he may either throw it face up on the table, or keep it and discard a
piece from his hand. The third player may now take one of the pieces
on the table and draw one from the bottom of the exposed pile. The
game proceeds in this way until one of the players gets 10 pieces, of
which 2 form a ngan, and the others pairs on which the sum of the
spots is 10 or a multiple of 10 and wins the game.
In gambling houses the stakes are placed in a box on the table at
H. Mis. 184, pt. 233
the commencement of each game, the players all contributing the sai
amount. Five per cent is at once taken from the box for the gambli...g
house, and the remainder goes to the successful player.
KAP SHAP.
K'ap shap, to complete tens; K'im shap, to grasp tens; Shap

tsai, little tens. Kap shap corresponds with the preceding game
and is the name given to it when played by 2 persons. One set of
dominoes are used and the pieces are arranged in a stack 4 high. The
first player takes 8 and the second 7 pieces. The object of the game
is to get 8 pieces, 2 of which form a ngan, or pair, and the others pairs
on which the sum of the spots is 10 or a multiple of 10. In this game,
as in k'ap t'ai shap, a winning hand is required to contain 1 ngan, or
eye. Slight variations from the manner here described occur in
playing these games. The first player is frequently determined by
drawing a domino and counting around, instead of by throwing dice.
NA* T'N KAU.
Nat t'n kau, literally turning heavens and nines, from the names of
the highest pieces of the 2 suits, is played by 2 persons. One set of
dominoes are used, which are piled face down in a stack 4 high. The
first player draws the top domino from the end of the stack toward his
right, and the second player the one beneath it. The second player
must draw a higher domino of the same suit, either man or mo, or the
first player takes both pieces and places them on the table before him,
with the face of the winning piece exposed on top. The winner con
tinues drawing first until the other player draws a higher piece, when
the latter takes both pieces and has the lead. The game is continued
in this way until the stack is exhausted. Each of the players then
counts the red spots on the exposed faces of the dominoes before him
and the one having the highest total becomes the winner, and is paid
for each red spot he has in excess by the loser.
TA T'N KAU.
T t'n kau, to play meavens and nines, called, like the preceding
game from the names of the highest pieces of the two suits, is the best
and most highly developed of the Chinese games with dominoes. It is
played by 4 persons with 1 set of dominoes. The 32 pieces are arranged
face down in a stack 4 high to form 8 piles of 4 pieces each. One
of the players throws 2 dice, and counts around to determine who shall
be the first player. He is called tso chong, builder of the barn, or
chong ka, and usually places some object on the table before him to
indicate his position. A disk of wood inscribed with the character
chong frequently accompanies sets of dominoes for this purpose. The
first player takes 2 piles of dominoes. If the dice fall near one end of
the stack of dominoes, the first player takes the 2 piles at that end,
Qeport of National Museum, 1893.-Culin. PLATE 6.
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METHOD of PAIRING CHINESE DOMINoES IN THE GAME OF KAP T'A SHAP.

CIHINESE GAMES WITH DICE AND DOMINOES. 515
the player on his right the next 2 piles; the third player to the right,
the next two, and the fourth player the remaining rows. But if the
dice fall near the middle of the stack, the first player takes the 2
middle rows; the player on his right the piles on the right and left of
the middle ones, the third player the piles outside of these, and the
fourth player the piles at the ends. The first player leads by placing
1, 2, 3, or 4 pieces face up on the table. One piece of either suit may
be thus led, and a higher piece of the same suit will be required to
take it; or a pair of either suit may be led, and a higher pair of the
same suit will be required to take it; or one or both pieces of the first,
second, third, or fourth pair of one suit (see pl. 5) may be led with
one or both pieces of the corresponding pair of the other suit, and 2
3, or 4 pieces of corresponding higher pairs will be required to take
them. That is, one or both of the 66 may be led with one or both of
the pair 63, 45, and the pair of 11 with one or both of the pair 62, 53,
and vice versa.
The other players follow from right to left, by playing as many pieces
as are led, putting them on top of those on the table if they are higher,
or beneath if they are lower than those already played. They are not
required to follow suit. The winner leads again, and the game is con
tinued until all the dominoes have been played. The player who takes
the last round wins the game. He becomes the tso chong for the next
game. It is required of the winner, however, to take at least 2 tricks,
so that if only 1 piece is led on the last round a player who has not
won a trick is not allowed to take the trick, and the game goes to the
next higher player. T tin kau is invariably played for money. A
trick counts 1 point, for which any sum may be agreed upon. At the
end of the game the players each pay the winner according to the
number of tricks they have taken. The holder of 4 or more tricks pays
nothing; of 2 tricks, for 2 points; of 1 trick, for 3 points, and a player
who does not take a trick for 5 points. The first player, or tso chong,
however, always pays twice the amount when he loses, and is paid
double when he wins, and so on throughout the game, paying and
receiving in every case twice as much as the other players. Should
the tso chong, through winning the iast round, hold his position over into
the next game, his gains and losses are then in the ratio of 3 to 1 to
those of the other players. In the third game they would be as 4 to 1,
and So on.
If any player except the first player wins a round with the pair 24
12, called chi tsiin, the first player must pay him 4 times, and the
other players twice the sum agreed upon for 1 point; but if the first
player takes a round with the chi tsiin, the other players must pay him
4 times the value of a point.
If any player except the first takes a round with 4 pieces of 2
corresponding pairs, the first player pays him 8 times and the other
players 4 times the value of a point, but if the first player takes the
round the other players pay him 8 times the value of a point.
If a player takes 2 rounds with the chi tsiin or 2 rounds with 2

corresponding pairs in 2 successive games, the amounts that must be
paid him by the other players are doubled, and if he takes 3 such rounds
in succession they are trebled. In gambling houses the winner of a
round with the chi tsiin must put the value of 1 point and the winner
with 2 corresponding pairs of 2 points in a box for the house. This
constitutes the only revenue derived by gambling houses from the game.
It is said that the custom of requiring the winner to take at least 2
RT]
#- #
Fig. 20.
ARRANGEMENT of DoMINOEs iN GAME OF Hoi T'P.
tricks is an innovation of the last hundred years. Formerly the person

taking the last trick became the winner, although it was the only trick
taken by him during the game.
HOI T'AP.
Hoi t'ap, to open the pagoda, is a game of solitaire played with

dominoes. One set of dominoes are placed face down and arranged in
the form of a pyramid, with 2 pieces at the apex and 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8,
in the successive rows beneath, as shown in the diagram on the left of
fig. 20.
The center domino, A, in the third row from the top, is then pushed
down, taking with it the small pyramid composed of the pieces B, C of
Report of National Museum, 1893.Culin.
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CoMB/NATIONs of DoMINOEs, signIFICANT IN FORTUNE TELLING.

.
:
the fourth row, D, E, F of the fifth row, and G, H, I, K of the sixth

row. The piece A is then placed transversely, face up, across the top
of the original pyramid, and the other pieces that were withdrawn
formed into a line, face up, at its base; the pairs G-H and I-K being
put at the ends, D and F within them, B, C next within and E in the
middle, as in the diagram on the right of fig. 20. The players then
proceed to mate the pieces that are face up, according to the arrangement
found on pl. 5. When no more pairs can be made with the exposed
pieces the outside piece on the right of the second row from the top
may be reversed. If it can not be paired it is left in its place, but if
mated the outside piece on the third row is liberated, and may be
reversed, and so on. When the right-hand side is blocked, the piece
on the left of the second row may be reversed, and the same plan followed
as before. When the piece A is mated the two pieces beneath it may
be reversed; and the removal of the two pieces at the ends of the lowest
row, as G. H., permits the pieces directly above them to be reversed.
The process is continued until the game is blocked, or the player has
mated all the pieces comprising the pyramid.
This game is said to be used in divination, the success or failure in
mating all the pieces being regarded as furnishing a clew to the deter
mination of the event under consideration.
FORTUNE TELLING WITH DOMINOES.
Dominoes are regularly used in fortune telling in China at the present

day, and their use for this purpose is generally known to the laborers
who come to America. I have before me a book entitled Ngai p'di shan
sh to chii ts'ung kai, a chart for finding out the numbers by divine
aid and with ivory dominoes, with an explanation and commentary.
This work was printed in Canton in 1865, the name of the author
being given as Ch'ing Ngok. The preface, which professes to explain
the attributes and astrological significance of the dominoes, is followed
by a series of diagrams illustrating different combinations formed with
dominoes taken three, or in one class, two at a time. Specimens of the
different classes are represented in pl. 7. -
The following names and numerical values are given to them:

pat t'ung, unlike, counts 6.
hop hau, ingeniously divided, counts 4.
'ng tsz', five spots, counts 5.
fan sheung, divided reciprocally, counts 3.
mdi kwan, cavalry, counts 3.
4 saim luk, two, three, six, counts 3.
i i sm, ace, two, three, counts 3.
tiii tsz', corresponding spots, counts 3.
ching fai, correctly satisfied, counts 1.
In telling fortunes an entire set of dominoes is placed face down upon
a table and well mixed. The dominoes are then all placed side by side
in a row and reversed. The manipulator selects from this row as many
combinations as possible, formed by adjacent pieces, according to the

diagrams, and adds together the numbers corresponding with them.
This sum is referred to the following table and result noted:
1 to 4 is to be esteemed hd ha, lowest. *
5 to 7 is to be esteemed chung hd., below the middle.

8 to 9 is to be esteemed chung p'ing, even middle.
10 to 11 is to be esteemed sheung sheung, highest.
The dominoes are then reversed again and mixed, and the preceding
operations twice repeated, and 3 sets of terms from the above series
obtained. Reference is then made to the text of the book. This con
sists of 125 pages, arranged in order under all the different combina
tions that may be formed with the 5 pairs of terms given above, taken
3 pairs at a time, commencing with shung shung, sheung shung, sheung
shung. An oracular verse, apparently of original composition, is found
on each page, referring to some well-known personage or incident, with a
short text to aid the diviner in applying the prognostication to the various
affairs of life. -
DOMINOES FROM FUHCHAU.
Before proceeding to discuss the origin and antiquity of the Chinese

game, an account will be given of dominoes used in other parts of China,
and among the people of the adjacent countries.
A set of dominoes from Fuhchau" in the Oriental Section of the
Museum of Archaeology and Palaeontology of the University of Pennsyl
vania is made of bamboo and numbers 32 pieces. They measure #}
by $3 by # inch, and have slightly curved faces that follow the natural
curve of the reed. The concave faces are marked with incised spots
that are painted red and green, and are arranged in the Chinese series
(fig. 17), green taking the place of black spots. These dominoes are
accompanied with 16 wooden disks resembling draughtsmen, an inch
in diameter, the faces of which are reproduced in plate 8. They
each bear a Chinese character referring to one of the 16 pairs formed
with the 32 dominoes. Four of these, t'n, ti, yan, and wo, are the same
* Received through the courtesy of J. P. Cowles, esq., U.S. vice-consul, Fuhchau.
t Prof. Rudolfo Lanciani, in the Athenaeum, January 7, 1888, gave an account of
the discovery of a tomb in Perugia twenty-one centuries old, in which an inveterate
gambler had been buried together with his gambling apparatus. Among other
remarkable sets were 16 tesserae, or labels, cut in bone, 4 inches long, with a word
engraved on one side and a number on the other. The importance of the discovery
is concentrated on the words and numbers engraved on the bone labels. The ancients
used to give a special name to a certain number, or addition of numbers, which they
obtained by throwing the dice. * * * As regards the newly discovered labels, it
appears that any number from 1 to 12 was considered a very bad throw, and conse
quently the corresponding words or names were very objectionable indeed (Macchus
Wappa, ect.). The 13 is neither good nor bad; hence its name, vix rides, you
hardly smile. The names corresponding to higher numbers are all of good omen,
such as benignus (25), amator (30), and felix (60), which seems to be the maximum of
the game discovered at Perugia. While the agreement of number of tablets in this
Etruscan series with those in the Chinese is probably a mere coincidence,it is curious to
note theoccurrence of such similar usages in ages and countries so widely separated.
Report of National Museum, 1893.Culin. PLATE 8.
(#)
: #
FACEs of WooDEN Discs Accompanying DoMINoEs. FROM. FuR&HRu:, ;

- - - - - -
-
From specimens in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania.

* - * *
*
-
as those used to designate the four highest pieces in the main series,
plate 5, but the remainder, in place of the vulgar names usually given
to the other pairs, have the characters shii, ngau, fit, td, lung, she, mi,
yung, hau, kai, hin, and chii, which represent the names rat, ox,
tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, goat, monkey,
cock, dog, and pig, the 12 animals of the duodenary cycle.* I
understand these discs are used in connection with a kind of lottery.
I am informed that bamboo dominoes, similar to the above, are used
at Shanghai, and at all the Chinese ports from Fuhchau northward.
There are several very interesting sets of Chinese dominoes from
Fuhchau in the museum of the Long Island Historical Society, Brooklyn,
N. Y. One of these sets (A) consists of 126 marked pieces and
2 blanks. They are made of bamboo, faced with bone or ivory, which
is attached to the wood with glue, or, in the case of one of the sets,
with small brass pins. The pieces measure about ; by 3 by # inch.
This set is composed: first, of 3 suits of 21 pieces marked with black
and red dots, each comprising the Chinese series without the dupli
cates; second, of 2 suits of 21 pieces, similarly marked with black and
red dots with the addition of ornamental devices of flowers in red and
green; third, of 1 suit of 21 pieces, each with double sets of dots, 1
set being placed at each end of the pieces, and between certain devices
in red and green, comprising the emblems of the Eight Genii, the
characters for sun and moon, a tiger, and various flowers.
A similar set was exhibited by W. H. Wilkinson, esq., Her British
Majesty's consul-general, Seoul, Korea, in his collection in the section of
games at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. They were from
Shanghai, and designated as Hua ho (fa ho) flower harmony. +
Another set (B) in the museum of the Long Island Historical Society
comprises 141 marked pieces and 2 blanks. They are made of bamboo
with a bone or ivory face, which is skillfully mortised to the wood, and
measure ; by by $ inch. This set is composed:
First, of 4 suits of 9 pieces each, marked in red, green, and blue,
with from 1 to 9 circles.
Second, of 4 suits of 9 pieces each, marked in red and green, with
from 1 to 9 narrow rectangles.
Third, of 4 suits of 9 pieces each, marked with the characters yat
man, one ten thousand, to kau main, or nine ten thousand. The
characters for one to nine are in blue, and that for man, ten thou
sand, is in red.
Fourth, of 4 pieces marked pak, north, in blue; of 4 pieces marked
nam, south, in blue; of 4 pieces marked tung, east, in blue; of 4
* Chinese Reader's Manual, part 2, No. 301.
tThe gift of the Hon. George Glover, formerly U. S. consul at Fuhchau. There
is a similar collection given by him in the American Museum of Natural History,
Central Park, New York.
!Cf. Descriptive Catalogne World's Columbian Exposition, Department M, revised
edition, p. 87.
pieces marked sai, west, in blue; of 4 pieces marked chung, middle,

in blue; 1 piece marked pak wong, northern ruler, in red and blue; 1
piece marked nam wong, southern ruler, in red and blue; 1 piece
marked tung wong, eastern ruler, in red and blue; 1 piece marked
sai wong, western ruler, in red and blue; 1 piece marked chung wong,
middle ruler, in red and blue; 1 piece marked t'in wong, heavenly
ruler, in red and blue; 1 piece marked ti wong, earthly ruler, in red
and blue; 1 piece marked yan wong, human ruler, in red and blue; 1
piece marked wo wong, harmony ruler, in red and blue; 1 piece marked
ch'un, spring, in red; 1 piece marked hd, summer, in red; 1 piece
marked ts'au, autumn, in red; 1 piece marked tung, winter.
Fifth, of 8 blank pieces. -
A set nearly identical with this was also exhibited by Mr. Wilkinson.
It lacked the pieces designated as rulers of the five directions, the
tn, ti, yan, and wo wong, and the 4 pieces with the names of the sea
sons. It had, however, 4 pieces bearing the character fat. This set
was from Ningpo, and was designated by Mr. Wilkinson as chung fa
(chung fat). The coloring, he states, whether in red, green, or
blue, is purely ornamental, and has nothing to do with the play of the
game."
Another set (C), from Fuhchau, in the museum of the Long Island
Historical Society, is made entirely of bamboo. This set is composed
of 32 pieces, measuring by # by inch. They are inscribed on one
face with the usual dots and the characters that represent the names
of the pieces of the Chinese-game of chess, tsung k'i.
These marks are arranged as follows:
66 66, kii, chariot, in red.
1-1 11, tsung, elephant, in green.
44 44, kii, chariot, in red.
13 13, sung, elephant, in red.
55 5-5, tsut, soldier, in red.
33 33, ping, soldier, in green.
22 22, sz', secretary, in green.
56 56, md, horse, in green.
46 46, md, horse, in red.
16 16, tsut, soldier, in red.
15 15, tsut, soldier, in red.
6345, 82', secretary, in red.
62 53, pdu, cannon, in red.
43 52, pdu, cannon, in green.
14, ping, soldier, in red.
23, tsut, soldier, in red.
24, tsung, general, in green.
12, shui, general, in red.
Mr. Himly t describes a set of Chinese bamboo dominoes, 32 in the
set, with the characters of the chessmen, which is identical with the
* Descriptive Catalogue, p. 87.
* Zeitschrift des deutscher Morgenlndischer Gesellschaft, Band 43, p. 453.
preceding, except for slight variations in the association of the names

of the chessmen on the dotted pieces. He offers it in explanation of
the number, 32, of the domino game, and says that it could only have
been made to save space while traveling. As in the preceding, the 32
dominoes do correspond, piece for piece, with the 32 men in the Chinese
game of chess. It is clear that the devices on some, at least, of the other
decorated dominoes were copied from playing cards, those on the set A
being identical in number as well as in devices with a set of the dotted
cards from Fuhchau in the same collection, while the set B has the
names of the familiar suit marks, ping, sok, and man, of the cards;
hence it is possible that the chess dominoes were imitated from the
corresponding chess cards, and that the true explanation of the
number of the domino pieces must be found elsewhere.
Mr. W. H. Wilkinson also exhibited at the Columbian Exposition a
set of dominoes from Wenchow, called hua tang chiu, flowery tang
"chiu. They consist of 5 suits of 21 pieces each and 17 extra pieces
(total, 122) and 4 blanks. The extra pieces are (1) 66 63, (2) 1113,
(3) 4-4 13, (4) 2444, (5) 33 5-6, (6) 1222, (7) 12 24, (8) 4-5 5-5,
(9), (10), (11) 3 pieces marked with the sequence 16that is, 14 26
35; 16 2534; 15 23 46, and 6 pieces bearing the characters
(a) wen, civilian; (b) wu, military; (c) tsung, universal; (d) t'ai,
highness; (e) ho, lily; (f) pei, heap up. The blanks are used
only to replace cards lost. The material was wood, stained black,
with incised spots, painted white and red. The coloring of the cards
is immaterial. They measured 1 by # by inch, and the inner face
was slightly concave, like the dominoes from Fuhchau, mentioned on
page 518."
CH'I P'I.
Another form of Chinese dominoes remains to be described which are
current at Tientsin. There are the ch'iwi p'ai, leaping dominoes, +
which consist of 32 slips of bamboo about 14 inches in length, with the
domino spots marked at one end, contained in a cylindrical bamboo box.
This game is carried on by cake, candy, and fruit sellers. The player
draws 3 of the bamboo slips, and if the 3 marks form what is described
under the following account of Korean dominoes, pages 523, 524, as yat
p'i, perfect tablets, the player wins; if not he loses.
KOREAN DOMINOES.
A set of Korean dominoes from Seoul (pl. 9) in the National

Museum is made of ivory and numbers 32 pieces. They measure # by
I' by # inches, and are marked with incised spots arranged according
to the Chinese system. The one and four spots are painted red
and all the others black, and the one spots are much larger than the
others and very deeply incised. -
* Cf. Descriptive Catalogue, p. 88.

+ There is a set from Fuhchau in the museum of the Long Island Historical Society.
The Koreans call dominoes kl-hpai (Chinese kwat pi), bone tab
lets. A more correct name is said to be ho-hpai, (Chinese U pi), bar
barian tablets. This latter name is also applied to a special game.
The 32 dominoes are paired as shown in pl. 6, those of which there are
two being mated with each other, and those of which there are but one
with reference to the sum of the spots, but not in the manner of the
Chinese series (Pl. 5).
The pieces receive the same names as those of the dice throws of
the Korean game Ssang-ryouk, backgammon, viz:
11, syo-syo (Chinese sit sitt), smallest.
12, toui-hko (Chinese shii pi), rat nose.
13, syo sam (Chinese sitt sm), small and three.
14, paik sa (Chinese pak sz'), white and four.
15, paik i (Chinese pak ng), white and five.
16, pik ryouk (Chinese pk luk), white and six.
22, toun-a (Chinese tsun d), superior two.
23, a sam (Chinese sam), two and three.
24, a s (Chinese a sz'), two and four.
25, koan-a (Chinese kun d), sovereign two.
26, a ryouk (Chinese luk), two and six.
33, tiyang-sam (Chinese ch'ung sam), long three.
34, sam s (Chinese sam sz'), three four.
35, sam o (Chinese sam 'ng), three and five.
36, sam ryouk (Chinese sam luk), three and six.
44, tioun-hong (Chinese tsun hung), superior red.
45, s o (Chinese s2ng), four and five.
46, s ryouk (Chinese s2' luk), four and six.
55, tioun o (Chinese tsun 'ng), superior five.
56, 0 ryouk (Chinese 'ng luk), five and six.
66, tioun-ryouk (Chinese tsun luk), superior six.
Dominoes are regarded as a vulgar game in Korea. They are used in
gambling houses and are not much played as a social game by the higher
classes.
HO-HPAI.
The commonest Korean game of dominoes is called Ho-hpai, i.e.,

Barbarian tablets. It is played by 3 or 4 persons. When 4 persons
play an entire set of dominoes are used. When 3 play the following
pieces are withdrawn: 66, 55, 44, and 33. The dominoes are turned
face down and shuffled. On commencing to play, the players all draw
1 piece to decide who shall play first. The one who gets the piece with
the highest number of spots becomes the Tiyang-ouen (Chinese, Chong
in)." The pieces are again shuffled and the Tiyang-ouen draws 7 pieces
and each of the other players 6. The Tiyang-ouen then whirls his 7
pieces about between his fingers in the right hand until 1 piece slips
out. This piece he turns face up. Should the piece turned up be either
54, 12, 14 or 23 he keeps the pieces he has drawn. If it should be
either 66, 55, 44, 33, 22, 11, 65, 64, 61, 51, or 31, that is to
* This title is that of the first of the literary graduates in Korea. The same name
is applied to the first of the Hanlin doctors in China.
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say one of the pieces of which there are duplicates, he hands his 6
pieces that are yet undisclosed to the player on his right who in turn
gives his pieces to the player next to him, and so on until the Tiyang
ouen receives those of the fourth player. If on the other hand, he
turns up either 63, 62, 53, 52, 43, or 42, he hands his 6 pieces to the
player on the left who in turn gives his pieces to his immediate neighbor
until the Tiyang-ouen receives those from the player on the right. The
seventh piece that was turned up is now turned down and mixed with
the remaining pieces, which are placed side by side in a line, and covered
with a slip of paper, or a strip of bamboo made for the purpose. If
the Tiyang-ouen keeps his pieces, he becomes the first player, but if he
exchanges them, the one on the right or left to whom he gave his pieces
becomes the first player. In this game certain combinations of 3 pieces
are called han-hpai (Chinese yat p' (ii), perfect tablets, and the object
of the game is to get 2 such combinations. The game is then spoken of
as hte-tjye-ta, broken. Ho-hpai is played for money and a certain
stake agreed upon, the player winning once, twice, thrice, four or five
times this amount for each player, according to the combination which
composes his winning hand. These combinations and the numbers they
count are as follows: -
(1) A sequence, as 13, 24, 56, called ssang-syo-han-hpai (Chinese,

shung tsii yat p'ii), counts 3 in combination with another ssang-syo, and
1, in combination with any other han-hpai. Assang-syo composed of 6
pieces, which pair according to the Korean system, is called ti-s-ttai
(Chinese, ti s2' tai), literally, corresponding four times, and counts
4, the name referring to the count.
(2) The sequence 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and the corresponding
sequences in which 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2 replace the ones in this example, are
called pou-tong (Chinese, pat t'ung), unlike, and count as follows:
11, 12, 13, 1-4, 15, 16 counts 3.
21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 counts 5.
31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 counts 3.
41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 counts 3.
51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56 counts 4.
61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66 counts 3.
(3) The sequence 12, 36, 45, 14, 26, 35, called hol-ssang-syo (Chi
nese, tuk sheung tsu), solitary double sequence, counts 5.
(4) Two doublets, and 1 piece upon which the sum of the spots, or 1
of the 2 sets of spots is equal to the single number of the doublets, as
14, 55, 55, or 42, 44, 44, called sok (Chinese, noi), inclosed,
counts 1, both when paired with another sok or any other han-hpai. A
han hpai composed of sixes is called ryouk-sok, of fives, o-sok; of fours,
hong-sok; of threes, sam-sok; of twos, a-sok, and of ones, paik-sok.
(5) Three pieces upon which the spots are equally divided between
2 numbers, as 44, 24, 22, called tai-sam-tong (Chinese, tui sm t'ung),
three alike, opposite, count 1.
(6) The combination 66, 55, 44, called ro-in (Chinese, l0 yan), old
man, counts 3 when combined with itself and 1 with any other han
hpai. The combination 33, 22, 11, called a-ki (Chinese, a chi),
child, counts 3 when combined with itself and 1 with any other
han-hpai.
(7) The combination 66, 33, 22, called ssang-pyen (Chinese, shung
pin), doublets, counts 3 when combined with itself and 1 with any
other han-hpai. The combinations 23, 31, 12, and 45, 56, 46,
called Yo-Soun, count 3 when combined with each other and 1 in com
bination with any other han-hpai.
As the sok are combinations which may be formed very easily, it is
sometimes agreed to play without them. If the first player has not
drawn a winning hand he puts down a piece from his hand at the end
that is nearest to him of the concealed row and takes up the piece at
the other end, at the same time sliding the row of pieces along, so that
the piece he puts down is concealed, and the piece he takes up is exposed.
If he then does not make a winning combination, the next player, if he
has not already a winning combination, puts down a piece and takes up
another as before, and this is continued until some one obtains a win
ning combination, and so wins the game. He then becomes the Tiyang
ouen in the next game.
TJAK-MA-TCHI-KI.
Tjak-ma-tchi-ki, pair making, is played by 2, 3, or 4 persons. The

pieces are reversed and shuffled and covered with paper. The first
player draws 6 and the other players each draw 5 dominoes. The first
player endeavors to play out a pair from those he has drawn, but if he
is unsuccessful he lays out 1 piece face up on the table. The second
player takes up the piece discarded if he can combine it with a domino
in his hand to form a pair. If not, he draws a piece from those left
under the paper, and discards a domino, which he lays out face up.
This process is continued around until 1 player gets 3 pairs in his hand,
and becomes the winner. When 2 or 3 play, the 66 can not be played
to complete the third pair, but when 4 play it may thus be played
and the winner must be paid alone by the player who discarded the
corresponding piece.
If the pair is completed by a piece drawn from the unused pile, all
the other players pay the winner, but if it is completed by a piece which
has been discarded, the player who discarded that piece alone pays the
winner. It is sometimes agreed that the third pair by which a player
wins must be completed with a piece drawn from the unused pile.
KKO-RI-POUT-TCHI-KI.
Kko-ri-pout-tchi-ki, tail joining, is played by 2, 3, or 4 persons; 3 or 4

usually play. The set of dominoes are reversed and shuffled and each
player draws 8 dominoes. When 3 play, the pieces 66, 55, 44, and
CHINESE GAMEs wiTH DICE AND DOMINOEs. 525
33 are first withdrawn. The game is begun by someone asking who

has the koan a ? The holder of this piece, the 52, lays down any
piece he may select from his hand, face up, at the same time crying out
a number on one side of it, which number must be paired. The next
player must mate the side designated with one of his pieces, but if
unable to do so, must lay a piece from his hand, face down on the table.
The game is continued around until all have been paired or all have
laid down their pieces. Then each counts the spots on the pieces they
have been compelled to lay down, which naturally have been selected
from those with the fewest spots in their hands, and the one who has the
highest number of spots pays the one who has the lowest number of
spots. When 4 play, all players who count more than 30 must pay.
KL-YE-SI.*
Kl-ye-si is played by two or more persons, not exceeding ten. The

set of dominoes is placed face down and shuffled, and part, if not all
of the set, are placed end to end in an irregular line. One of the
players acts as banker, Moul-tjyou (Chinese, Matchii things' ruler).
The other players each draw 1 piece in turn from the line. They exam
ine this piece and each put whatever stake they choose on the piece
drawn. The Moul-tjyou puts down the same amount, whatever it may
be, beside each player's stake and takes the next 2 pieces. If his pieces
are identical, a perfect pair, he at once wins all that has been staked.
Otherwise the other players draw in turn either 1 or 2 pieces from
the line. This done, they and the Moul-tiyou turn their pieces face up.
They all count the spots on their dominoes. The remainders, after deduc
ting the tens, count, and if the Moul-tjyou has an excess over that of
any player, he takes the stakes, but if a player has an excess over that
of the Moul-tjyou when the tens are deducted from the sum of the spots,
that player wins the amount of the stake he has staked.
This is a common game in gambling houses. It is customary to keep
a water jar there, in which the players voluntarily put a portion of
their stakes before the result is disclosed, or, if unmindful, at the sug
gestion of some one interested in the house.
RY ONG-HPAI.
Dominoes are used in Korea as in China in playing solitaire, which,

as in China, is a favorite kind of sortilage, not regarded seriously, but
often played at the beginning of the day, the player wishing for a happy
omen. The solitaire game described under the name of hoi t'ap,
page 516, is known under the name of Ryong-hpai (Chinese, lung p'di),
|| Dragon tablets, while another arrangement is shown in fig. 20.
"Kl-ye-si means kl (hpai) or domino ye-si, the latter being the name of a
game played with cards.
KE-POUK-HPAI.
In this system, called ke-pouk-hpai (Chinese, kwai p'di), Tortoise

tablets, the 32 dominoes are laid face down to form a representation
of a tortoise (fig. 21), with 2 pieces
at head and tail and 2 for legs at
each of the 4 corners. The pieces
at these extremities are turned
face up, followed by those marked
A, B, C, D, and mated according to
the Korean system, (pl. 9). The
player loses when he fails to mate
all the pieces.
sIN-syo-TYEN.
Sin-syo-tyen (Chinese, shan sho
chm), personally counting divi
nation, is a kind of fortune telling
practiced with dominoes. The in
quirer shuffles a set of dominoes
face down and arranges them side
by side in a line. He then turns
them face up, preserving the ar
Fig. 21. rangement, and selects as many of
ARRANGEMENT OF DOMINOEs iN KE-POUK-HPA1,
TORTOISE TABLETS: KOREA.
the combinations referred to on
pages 523,524, as can be formed by
contiguous pieces. The sum of the numbers there given, in connection
with the combinations thus formed is noted,
and the operation twice repeated. The three
results are added together, and if their sum
amounts to 32, the number of the domino pieces, T
the augury is very good; more or less being
estimated proportionally good or indifferent.
O-KOAN.
|
Another popular method of divination with
dominoes is called o-koan (Chinese, ng kwan),
|
5 gateways.
An entire set of 8 dominoes is reversed and
shuffled and 20 pieces are then arranged face
|
down in 5 rows of 4 pieces each (fig. 22). The
player then turns these pieces face up and com
mencing at the bottom row endeavors to form
combinations of 3 pieces each, han-hpai such as
Jill, Fig. 22.
have been described under ho-hpai In addi. ARRANGEMENT OF DOMINOES IN
GAME OF O-Koa N: KOREA.
tion to the han-hpai already enumerated, pages
52. 524, the following additional ones are permitted in o-koan: Three
pieces upon which 3 of the spots are alike and the sum of the other 3
spots is equal to 5, called sam-tong-tan-o-tyem (Chinese sam t'ung tanng

tim), three alike and only five spots, and 3 pieces upon which 3 of
the spots are alike and the sum of the other 3 spots is equal to or more
than 14, called sam-toug-sip-sa-tyem (Chinese stim t'ung shap 83' tim),
three alike and fourteen spots.
In forming these combinations, 3 contiguous pieces in a row may be
taken, or 1 or 2 pieces at one end of a row may be used in combination
with 2 pieces or 1 piece at the other end, the pieces thus taken being
always placed on the inner side. Thus the piece A may be mated with
C D to form a combination A CD, or B A may be mated with D to
form a combination A B D. The combinations thus formed are
removed and placed in a line face up above the 5 rows, the one found
nearest the bottom being placed to the left and successive ones to the
right of the line thus started. When no more combinations can be
discovered, 5 pieces are-drawn from the unused pile of 12 pieces which
have been left with their faces down, and one of them placed face down
to the right of each of the 5 rows. These 5 pieces are then turned face
up, and an attempt made to form combinations of threes with their
aid. The results are successively placed to the right of the line at
the top and this process is continued until the 12. extra pieces are
exhausted. When this happens, 5 pieces are withdrawn from the left
of the top line and added in succession to right of the 5 rows. If, by
chance, but 4 or a less number of rows remain, only a corresponding
number of pieces are drawn. This process is continued over and over
until all the pieces are combined in sets of threes in a long row at the
top, or the top row is exhausted and a block ensues, determining suc
cess or failure. The name of the game is said to have been taken from
a well-known episode in the life of Koan Ou" (Chinese, Kwn U), the
Kwan Yi (Kwan to D. A. D. 219. Designated Kwan Chwang Mia and deified
as Kwan Ti or Wu Ti, the God of War. A native of Kiai Chow, in Shan-si, who
rose to celebrity toward the close of the second century through his alliance with
Liu Pei and Chang Fei in the struggles which ushered in the period of the Three
Kingdoms. He is reputed to have been, in early life, a seller of bean-curd, but to
have subsequently applied himself to study until, in A. D. 184, he casually encoun
tered Liu Pei at a time when the latter was about to take up arms in defense of the
house of Han against the rebellion of the Yellow Turbans. He joined Liu Pei and
his confederate, Chang Fei, in a solemn oath, which was sworn in a peach-orchard
belonging to the latter, that they would fight henceforth side by side and live and die
together. The fidelity of Kwan Yii to his adopted leaders remained unshaken dur
ing a long series of years in spite of many trials; and similarly his attachment to
Chang Fei continued throughout his life. At an early period of his career he was
created a ting how (baron) by the regent Ts'ao Ts'ao, with the title of Hn shu
ting hau. * * * His martial powers shone conspicuously in many campaigns
which were waged by Liu Pei before his throne as sovereign of Shu became assured,
but he fell a victim at last to the superior force and strategy of Sun K'iian, who
took him prisoner and caused him to be beheaded. Long celebrated as one of the
most renowned among China's heroes, he was at length canonized by the superstitious
Hwei Tsung, of the Sung dynasty, early in the Twelfth century, with the title Chung
hwui Kung. In 1128 he received the still higher title of Chwang miti wu ngn
wng, and after many subsequent alterations and additions he was at length raised
in 1594 by Ming Wan Li to the rank of Ti, or God, since which date, and especially
since the accession of the Manchow dynasty, his worship as the God of War has been
firmly established. (Chinese Reader's Manual, No. 297.)
celebrated Chinese general, now universally worshiped in China as the

God of War, and one of the heroes of the famous historical romance,
the Sm Kwok chi, or Annals of Three States. In escaping from
Ts'ao Ts'ao," it is recorded that he killed six generals at five frontier
passes, 0-koan (Chinese 'ng kwan). The vicissitudes of his life at
this time are typified in the varying fortunes of the game, which at one
moment approaches a successful termination, only for the player to be
unexpectedly set back to overcome its obstacles anew. The conquest
of the five koan, which Koan Ou achieved, finds it analogue in the
5 rows of the dominoes which the player struggles to overcome. Many
educated people play this game every morning, and scholars who have
nothing to do play it all day long, finding intellectual pastime in its
elusive permutations.
BURMESE AND SHAN DOMINOES.
A set of Burmese dominoes in the National Museum are of teak

wood and measure 2 by 1 by # inches (pl. 10). The spots are marked
with incised circles. They number 24 pieces, marked as follows: 66,
11, 44, 13, 55, 33, and 22 duplicated, and one each of the following
pieces: 63, 45, 62, 53, 43, 52, 24, 14, 23, and 12, the last having
2 smaller spots adjoining the 1,
They are accompanied by a cubical die about three-fourths inch
square, with 2 opposite faces marked with 1 spot, 2 opposite faces
marked with 2 spots, and 2 opposite faces marked with 3 spots. This
is used to decide who shall play first.
A set of Burmese dominoes, from Rangoon, sent to the writer by the
Hon. Sir C. H. T. Crosthwaite, lieutenant-general Northwest Prov
inces, British India, are identical with the preceding, except that the
spots are marked with small brass disks.
A set of Burmese dominoes in the British Museum are made of black
horn, and number 32 pieces. They measure 13 inches in length by
three-fourths of an inch in width and have incised spots, which are
painted red and yellow and arranged according to the Chinese system.
The backs are uniformly marked with 1 and 3 spots composed of
concentric circles, and the ends each bear 1 spot similarly inscribed.
Another set of Burmese dominoes in the same collection are made of
black wood, with the spots painted red and white.
Dice are called anzamia (singular anc) in Burmese. The Burmese
dice in the museum of the University of Pennsylvania are small ivory
cubes, regularly marked and having the fours in red, and are identical
with the Chinese.
A set of Shan dominoes in the British Museum, presented by Maj.
E. B. Gladen, are identical in every respect with the horn dominoes
from Burma in the same museum.
* Ts'ao Ts'ao ID., A. D. 220. Chinese Reader's Manual, No. 768.

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SIAMESE DOMINoEs.
SIAMESE DOMINOES.
Dominoes are called in Siamese tau tem (Chinese td tim) arranging

or connecting spots. Two sets of dominoes exhibited by the Govern
ment of Siam in the Section of Games at the Columbian Exposition
consist of 24 thin rectangular tablets of ivory, one with face of # by
* , and the other 14' by # inches (pl. 11). 1 he ones and fours
are marked with red and the others with black spots, in the following
series: The pieces 66, 11, 44, 13, 55, 33, 22, 56, 46, 16, and 15
duplicated, and one of each of the pieces 63 and 62.
ESKIMO DOMINOES.
A set of Innuit dominoes in the U.S. National Museum, Washington,

(pl. 12), is described by Mr. Lucien Turner, who conducted the expe
dition for the Smithsonian Institution in 1884."
The Innuit, Mr. Turner says, who come from the western end of Hudson Strait,
the so-called Northerners, have a game which they play with sets of pieces of ivory
cut into irregular shapes, and marked on one face with spots arranged in different
patterns. The number of pieces in a set varies from 60 to 148. The name of a set
is A mazu a lat, and somewhat resembles our game of dominoes.
The game is played in the following manner: Two or more persons, according to
the number of pieces in the set, sit down and pile the pieces before them. One of
the players mixes the pieces together in plain view of the others. When this is
done he calls them to take the pieces. Each person endeavors to obtain a half or
third of the number, if there be two or three players. The one who mixed up the
pieces lays down a piece and calls his opponent to match it with a piece having a
similar design. If this can not be done by any of the players the first has to match
it, and the game continues until one of the players has exhausted all of the pieces
taken by him. The pieces are designated by pairs, having names such as ka miti tik
(sled), kaiak (canoe), kal sak (navel), a ma cut (many), a ta sik (1), m kok (2), ping
a sut (3), si ta miit (4), and t li mat (5). Each of the names above must be matched
with a piece of similar kind, although the other end of the piece may be of a differ
ent design. A kamutik may be matched with an amazut, if the latter has not a line
or bar cut across it; if it has a bar it must be matched with an amazut.
This game is known to the people of the Ungava district, but those only who
learn it from the Northerners are able to play it. The northern Eskimo stake the
last article they possess on the issue of the game. Their wives are disposed of tem
porarily, and often are totally relinquished to the victor. I have heard of wives so
disposed of often sit down and win themselves back to their former owners.
Dr. Franz Boas informs me that the Eskimo name for dominoes
means standing upright side by side.
MISCELLANEOUS GAMES.
Several fanciful games have come to my notice which have been

suggested by the European domino game. In the Section of Games in
the Department of Anthropology at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago,
1893, a modern French game was exhibited under the name of Le Magister
Dominoes Geographique, consisting of oblong pieces of cardboard, each
bearing on its face a portion of the map of the Valley of the Seine.
It was intended to be used for teaching geography. Another game,
* Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1889-'90, pp. 257258.
H. Mis. 184, pt. 234
entitled Evan's Baseball Dominoes, consisted of wooden domino

shaped blocks marked on one face at the ends with the names of the
scoring points in the American game of baseball.
INTRODUCTION OF DOMINOES INTO EUROPE.
From the foregoing accounts it will be seen how widely the peculiar
Chinese game of dominoes is distributed, from Korea to Burma and
Siam. Dr. Gustav Schlegel states that the European game of dominoes
is without doubt borrowed from the Chinese, only that in it the
philosophic-astronomic elements have been done away with and only
the arithmetical retained. I have been unable to discover the connect
ing links between the two games. The Levant may furnish a clew to
the relationship if any such now exists, but I am without information
on the subject.
The game seems to date from a recent period in Europe. According
to Brockhaus' Conversations-Lexicon, Art Domino, it was introduced
into Germany through France from Italy about the middle of the last
century. In England it appears from a writer in Notes and Queries"
to have been introduced by French prisoners about the close of the
last century.
INVENTION OF THE GAME.
According to a tradition current among the Chinese laborers in the

United States, dominoes were invented by Hung Ming,f a hero of that
popular romance, the Sm Kwok chi,j for the amusement of his soldiers to
keep them awake during the watches of the night in their camp before
the enemy. Others attribute them to the ingenuity of Kung t'ai Kung,'
and give a similar reason for their discovery. A Chinese physician,
the most scholarly of my informants among his class, insisted that they
were invented by Fn Lai, || whose picture, from a popular illustrated
edition of the Tung chau lit kwok," is reproduced in fig. 23. Little
importance need be attached to these stories, which are given as
illustrations of the conflicting statements made by the comparatively
uneducated Chinese regarding things which are a matter of record.
Dr. Gustav Schlegel," quoting from the Chisz yin kau (Chit s2 yn
ku),tt states that dominoes were invented in 1120 A.D. by a statesman
* January 23, 1869.
t Chu-ko Liang (Hung Ming), A. D. 18.1234. The great counselor of Liu Pei, who
owed to the sagacity and military skill of Chu-ko Liang his success in establishing
himself upon the throne. (The Chinese Reader's Manual, No. 88.)
! Wylie, A., Notes on Chinese Literature, Shanghai, 1867, p. 161.
Kiang Tsze-ya (Rung t'ai kung) is reported to have been a counselor of Si Peh,
twelfth century B.C. (The Chinese Reader's Manual, No. 257.)
| Fan Li (Fn Lai), minister of Kow Tsien, Prince of Yeh, whom he aided to
overthrow the rival kingdom of Wu, the final victory of which, after twenty years'
warfare, was achieved B. C. 473. (The Chinese Reader's Manual, No. 127.)
* Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 162. -
** Chinesische Bruch und Spiele in Europa, Breslau, 1869, p. 18.

t! Investigations on the traditions of all things.
-
who presented them to the Emperor Hwui-tsung, and that the game
with its explanation was locked in the imperial treasury and first came
into general use in the reign of Hwui-tsung's son, Kao-tsung (11271163
A.D.).
Mr. Karl Himly" cites Knghi's Dictionary as saying that according
to general tradition dominos were invented in the second year of
Siuen-ho (1120) and circulated abroad by imperial order at the time of
Kao-tsung.
Mr. Chatto + quotes the other great Chinese dictionary of the last
century, the Ching tsz' t'ung, on the authority of Mr. Samuel Birch, as
saying that the cards now known in China as Teen-tsze-pae (tim tsz'
p'i), or dotted cards, were invented in the reign of Siuen-ho, 1120,
and that they began to be common in the reign of Kao-tsung.
Mr. W. H. Wilkinson has recently shown f that in the citation made
by Chatto from the Ching tsz' tung, he
omits the concluding and most important
sentence: It does not follow that this class
of games originated in the period Hsan-ho,
and says that the passage, adduced again
and again by European writers to prove
that cards (dominoes) were first invented in
the reign of Siuen-ho, when carefully ex
amined, distinctly declares that such a con
clusion would be unsound.
It is perfectly clear, Mr. Wilkinson says, that
all that was done or asked for in 1120 was an imperial
decision as to which of several forms of T'ien-kiu
(Heavens and Nines) was to be considered orthodox.
The game and the cards must have been in existence
long before. The passage from the Cheng-tz-tung
runs thus: Also ya p'ai, now the instruments of a
game. A common legend states that in the second Fig. 23.
year of the Hsan-ho, in the Sung dynasty FAN LAI.
(1120 A. D.), a certain official memorialized the

throne, praying that the ya p'ai (ivory cards) might be fixed as a pack of 32,
comprising 127 pips (sic, it should be 227, but Chinese printers are careless), in order
to accord with the expanse of the stars and constellations. The combination,
Heaven, (66, 66) consisted of two pieces, containing 24 pips, figures of the 24
solar periods; earth (11, 11) also composed of two pieces, but contained 4 pips,
the four points of the compasseast, west, south and north; man (44, 44) two
pieces, containing 16 pips, the virtues of humanity, benevolence, propriety and wis
dom, fourfold; harmony (13, 13) two pieces of eight pips, figuring the breath
of Harmony which pervades the eight divisions of the year. The other combina
tions had each their names. There were four players having 8 cards apiece for their
hand, and the cards won or lost according as the number of the pips was less or
more, the winner being rewarded with counters. In the time of Kao-tsung
"Zeitschrift der deutscher Morgenlndischen Gesellschaft, Band 43, p. 451.

* Facts and Speculations on the History of Playing Cards. London, 1848, p. 55.
#The American Anthropologist, Jan., 1895, vol. viii., No. 1, p. 66.
(11271163) pattern packs were issued by imperial edict. They are now known
throughout the empire as ku pai, bone pai; but it does not follow that this class
of games, po-sai, ko-wu, and the rest originated in the reign Hsan-ho.
As the foregoing shows that the historical evidence 1s inconclusive
as to the actual invention of dominoes, and as the Chinese accounts of
the invention of other games are not particularly trustworthy, and
especially as the history of all games seems to be one of gradual evo.
lution, rather than direct invention, the following pages are devoted
Fig. 24.
PASE (DICE). SET OF THREE Fort CHAUSAR, I.UCKNOW, INDIA.
(From specimens in Museum of University of Pennsylvania.)
to an examination into the origin of the game from internal evidences

rather than an historical point of view.
DOMINOES A FORM OF DICE.
It is readily apparent that the 21 individual domino pieces represent

the possible throws with 2 dice, and that the domino pieces may be
regarded as conjoined dice. Of this the Korean dominoes furnish the
best material evidence. Consonant with many other Korean objects,
they are typical of an earlier age of Chinese culture than that now
existing in China.
Their material, color of spots, and the manner in which the one
spots are incised and made larger than the other spots, complete their
resemblance to 2 conjoined dice. If we accept this theory the bone
faced bamboo dominoes may be regarded as directly related to the pre
ceding, the wooden backs being substituted as a matter of economy,

Dominoes made entirely of wood would naturally follow, and the long
dominoes used in the south of China might be regarded as a later type.
Even they bear a suggestion of their origin in the spots with which
their ends and tops are decorated.
The names of the dominoes are the same as those of the corre
sponding throws with the 2 dice, and the pieces are divided, like the
dice-throws, into the series of man and
m, in which they rank in the same order
as the dice. The correspondence extends
to the game as well, the most character
istic domino game, td t'in kau, closely
resembling the most characteristic dice
game, chak t'in kau. Indeed, if dominoes
were invented
they doubtlessforhad
the their
purpose of a in
origin
-
game,
-
the- - Fig.
g 25.
- - - - * PASE (DICE), set of three For Chau.
game with 2 dice. This game with 2 SAR, LUCKNOW, INDIA.
dice, sheung luk, which, according to one "'"""

Chinese authority, is said to have come
from India, finds a parallel in an Indian dice game.
Several kinds of dice are employed in games in India. One (fig. 24)
called pase (plural of pasa) are used in the game called chausar, and
consist of rectangular bone or ivory prisms, marked on 4 sides with 1,
2, 5, and 6 spots. These dice are sometimes made shorter and pointed
at the ends (fig. 25). Their origin I assign to the staves referred to on
page 507. Another kind of Indian dice, called by the Arabic name of
k'ab, or kabat, from k'ab,
ankle, ankle bone, are
used in the game of k'aba
tain, 2 dice being thrown.
Either natural astragali,
consisting of the knuckle
bones of a goat, or dice
marked on 4 sides with
three, four, one, and
six spots, or cubical dice
Fig. 26.
regularly marked on the 6
SET OF LONG DICE: CELEBES. sides (fig. 27) are employed.
The four spots on these
dice are usually marked in red, and often both the three and
four are marked in this color." Thus cubical dice appear to be
* This account of k'ab was communicated to the writer by the Hon. Syad Moham
med Hadi, of Sultanpur, India. Two sets of ivory dice, received by the writer from
Lucknow, are cubical, and marked on their 6 sides with from 1 to 6 spots, in the sam
manner as our common dice. The fours alone are in red. -
directly connected with the knuckle bones. The Arabic name for the
knuckle bone and the die is the same, k'ab, and, like the knuckle
bones, which are commonly thrown in pairs, natural pairs from the
right and left leg being used, cubical dice are also thrown in pairs.
Carrying out the resemblance, cubical dice in India are sold in pairs,
and by varying the arrangement of the threes
and fours* are actually made in pairs, rights
and lefts, like the knuckle bones. If this is the
true history of the descent of the cubical dotted
Fig. 27. die, its evolution must have occurred at a very
"'''''''' early time, as the regularly marked stone die
":" from the Greek colony of Naucratis, Egypt
(fig. 28), assigned by the discoverer, Mr. Flinders
Petrie, to 600 B.C., bears witness.
Now, the 4 sides of the knuckle bone (talus) (fig. 30), which were
designated among the Romans as supinum, pronum, planum, and tor
tuosum, and correspond with the numbers three, four, one, and
six, receive in the Mohammedan East the names of ranks and con
ditions of men. The Persians, according to Dr. Hyde, t name them,
respectively, duzd, slave, dihban, peas.
ant, vezir, viceroy, and shah, or padi-shah,
king. Similar names are given by the same
author as applied to them by the Arabs, Turks,
and Armenians. From this it appears that the
names and rank given to the significant throws,
three, four, one, and six, with knuckle
bones and dice in Western Asia find their coun
terparts in the names and rank of the same
throws in China, the names of the classes of Fig. 28.
human society found among the Arabs being STONE DIE: NAUCRAtts,
replaced in China with the terms for the cosmic EGYPT.
powers: Heaven (six), Earth (one), "::"

and Man (four), and the Harmony
(three-one), that unites them. It will also be observed that the
use of 2 dice, which appears to follow that of the natural pair of
knuckle bones, and is displayed in the Indian k'abatain, and the
ancient and widely diffused game of backgammon, is paralleled by
the use of 2 dice in. China, where shung luk (Japanese, sugoroku)
* If a Chinese die be turned ace up and revolved toward the person holding it so
that the two, five, and six are disclosed in succession, it will be found that
the three is usually to the left and the four to the right, while the opposite is
more usually the case on European dice. In the Indian dice here referred to, this
arrangement is alternated, one having the three on the right and the other on
the left.
t De Ludis Orientalibus, p. 147.
is a common name for dice play. It has been observed that the
threes and fours are marked in red on Indian dice, while in
China the ones and fours are so marked. The Wak kan san
Fig. 29.
ANCIENT ROMAN DICE OF IVORY.
(From specimens in Museum of University of Pennsylvania.)
sai relates that in the game of Sugoroku the throws receive the fol
lowing names:
Chio ichi, double one. Shiu shi, vermilion four.

Chio ni, double two. Chio go, double five.
Shiu san, vermilion three. Chio roku, double six.
From this it would appear that the dice anciently used in Japan and
China had the three" and four" marked in red * like the Indian
Fig. 30.
The Fou"h sides OF A KNUCKLE BONE.
After Hyde.
k'abat, instead of the one and four, as is the present custom-an

additional argument in favor of the Indian origin of the Chinese dice.
Two questions remain to be answered:
A pair of miniature Japanese ivory dice, presented to the writer by Prof. Henry
H. Giglioli, of Florence, Italy, have the threes and fours marked in red.
Where and for what purpose were the dice-throws united in the
domino form, and why was the number of the domino pieces increased
from 21 to 32? Dominoes are unknown in India as a native game, but
as it seemed possible that they might have had their origin there for
use infortune telling, the writer made a careful examination of the prin
cipal East Indian systems of fortune telling with dice, but the results
did not throw any light upon the origin of
dominoes." The Thibetan astrologers, ac
cording to Schlagintweit, f use dice which
are either cubes like European ones, or
rectangular parallelopipedons, sometimes
comparatively very long; the latter, in con
Fig. 31.
ANCIENT GLASS ASTRAGALI: SYRIA. sequence of their form, having two sides
(From specimens in Museum of University of
Pennsylvania.)
blank. This description agrees with the
preceding Indian dice used in fortune tell
ing, which I regard as derived from the game with staves, but the
faces of a die (fig. 32), which Schlagintweit figures as used by the
Thibetans for astrological purposes, suggests a domino in the duplica
tion of its spots.}
The astrological associations of the domino game have not thrown
O O. O. O. O O e O O o
: O O e O O o
Fig. 32.
FACES OF TIBETAN DIE USED FOR ASTROLOGICAL PURPOSES.
From Schlagintweit.
light as yet upon the question of its origin. They have been referred
to in connection with the method of telling fortunes, and it has been
observed that the disks accompanying the bamboo dominoes from
Fuhchau bear the names of the cyclical animals. It will also be
noticed that the terms in and ngang, weak and strong, applied to
the pairs in the game of kap tai shap, p. 513, are the same as those used
to designate the broken and undivided lines in the Yik King, and that
* Report of the Proceedings of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Phila
delphia, 189091, p. 65.
+ Buddhism in Thibet, London, 1863, p. 315.
!Col. W. W. Rockhill informs me that he never saw dice used in Thibet except for
fortune telling. According to Col. Rockhill, the Thibetan name for dice is sho, and
a person who throws dice, mojyab ken. He tells me that he always saw four dice
used in Thibet and North China. These dice have no six. There is a picture of
the god Pal-dan-hlamo holding a bag of dominoes or dice in the superb Thibetan col
lection deposited by him in the U.S. National Museum.
the diagram (fig. 33)" which is given by Legget as the accepted form
of the Lok Shii, or Lo writing, which is referred to in the Yik King
as one of the sources of in
spiration for its broken and *
undivided lines, it is com- We
posed of light and dark cir- Wa/

cles similar to the domino
dots. Q
I may suggest, in conclu- e OOOOOOOOO
sion, that dominoes may
have been first used as coun
ters or tallies in a dice game
or in a method of fortune O O
telling with dice. They ex
isted in their present form in
China in the year 1120 A.D.,
according to the Chinese rec-
ords,with similar astrological
associations as at the pres-
ent day. They are clearly
descended from dice, and
O
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Q
O
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O O
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|
particularly from that game Q @ O Q
with two dice which appears Q
to have been introduced into Fig. 33.
Lok Shu, or Lo writing.
China from western Asia.
* This diagram coincides with the most remowned of the arithmetical squares
which are used as charms both by Hindus and Mohammedans in India. It is usually
written as below, an inversion of the Chinese arrangement.
6 1 8
7 5 3
2 9 4
This square appears in its numerical form on the Thibetan charts, reproduced by
Schlagintweit, where it is arranged in the Chinese order.
It is believed in India,said one of my Mohammedan informants, that to write this
charm will bring good look and money by honest means. The object for which it is
used is always written beneath it. He told me that his grandfather wrote it every
day after prayers and would place beneath it the words rick, bread, or chardj,
expenses. Such numbered diagrams are cut in squares, each containing a number.
These are made into pills with wheaten bread and thrown into a pond or river to be
eaten by fish.
Another Indian, a Hindu, says that this magic square is called in Hindustani
Pundra no yum tra, or the 15 yuntra.
It is written both with numerals and with dots. In the latter case the set of dots
from 1 to 9 frequently are made each of a different color and certain names are
given to them.
It is not improbable that this diagram was borrowed by the Chinese from India,
and that, too, at a much later period than is usually assigned to it by the Chinese.
The writer found a copy of itin Arabic numerals, among the written charms in a
soldier's kit captured in Tonquinin the Municipal Museum of the city of Havre.
The spots, like those on the dice, are doubtless survivals of a primitive system of
notation, like that which existed in Mexico at the time of the Conquest.
t Legge, Rev. Dr. James, The Y King, Oxford, 1882. Introduction, p. 18.
! Ibid., Appendix III, Sec. I, par. 73.
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Miscellaneous Works On China

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This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized

by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the

ALTHOUGH probably every one of the myriad writers on Japan

its imported rivals, iddhism and Confucianism, will best appear

The advent of Buddhism in the sixth century A. D. inaugurated

land. The latest view, that of Professor Chamberlain, is that geo

Exterior, next his younger sister the Deity Oh-Awful-Lady (or

makes his chief empress. The mythical element now decreases,

liament of Religions (pp. 13703), where almost every sentence

Lord-in-the-Very-Centre-of-Heaven, the Divine-Producer.

The ideal scheme of the series is apparent. The native cos

name, function in mythic story, and cult combine to demonstrate

process of identification is so natural that its ground may be

If Amaterasu occupies the first place in the Shinto pantheon,

i.e., the steel sword is forged in the fire. When he began to

appears.) Throughout his course he carries on amours, marrying

Notice here the absence of Susano and Okuninushi with his

of Izumi. Thus Shinto well illustrates that law of increasing

kami, superiors, or, as the word is usually translated into Eng

corruptions, but meanwhile they mostly continue to carry the

lowed by many portents. Apotheosized as Tenjin Sama, Heaven

stand respectively first and second in point of sacredness and pop

the tamaya, spirit-house, which is to be kept in the home for

Japanese Funeral Rites, by Mr. A. H. Fay of the British Lega

V. Phallicism in the Kojiki -

II. Creed of Phallicism - - -

III. Place of Phallicism in the Evolution of Religion 30

IV. Does Phallicism belong to Shinto? - 32

Respectfully dedicated as an expression of highest esteem to

This thesis is meant for a study in Shinto, while a work com

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON PHALLICISM IN JAPAN.

On this topic no book of course is to be expected, but there

The authorities referred to in this work are Transactions of

Though the range of this article is limited to Japan, the gen

Saussaye's classic of course mentions phallicism in its historic

A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, by R. P. Knight, to

fice for acquaintance with the author's views I cannot confirm.

Rivers of Life. Forlong. 1883. The experience of this

I met the above works, among others, in the British Museum,

1) Of Shinto Cultus Implements. The only museums outside

Phallicism forms an integral part of nature worship, and as

Amaterasu, the Heaven-Shiner, regent of the Shinto pantheon,

Ditto at Otamura, Inabagori, Shimosa.

Last on this sheet of Hiratas is a natural phallos and kteis

Last in this strange story come two groups, each of four

1. Natural water-worn phallos of stone with a nodule forming

5. Phallos cut from volcanic stone, well executed and new,

6. Phallos of baked clay, blackened by age. Realistic,

14. A Priapus, phallos enormous and colored bright red.

18. Natural water-worn kteis, being a flat piece of slate with

21. Cowry shell, Latin Cypraea porcel/ana, Japanese Taka

22. Bamboo grass rings interlinked to symbolize coition, but

Of all cultus implements paper charms are by far the most

30. Charm bearing the inscription Honorable-God-offering,'

II. CREED OF PHALLICISM.

To every cult belongs a creed, implied or expressed, written

A quite unequivocal case is that of the interlinked rings of

One commentary on such a creed is obvious and unavoidable

III. PLACE OF PHALLICISM IN THE EVOLUTION OF

First, there is no need to search for any simpler or more obvi

in a very striking way Nature the instructor of primeval man

IV. DOES PHALLICISM BELONG TO SHINTO P

Since phallicism has shrines, festivals, priests and amulets