Peeps Into China Part 6

"And they can never have an alphabet to learn," Sybil said, "when they first go to school, as there is not one."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER.]

"No; instead of letters and words, they have to learn, and master, characters. In some schools children learn names first; in others they have reading lessons, where all the sentences consist of three characters. As soon as possible they are set to learn the cla.s.sic on 'Filial Piety.'"

"Now, father, will you please describe a Chinese house to us?"

"Those of the richer cla.s.ses are surrounded by a high wall, and composed of a number of rooms, generally on one floor. In large cities some houses have another storey; but the Chinese think it 'unlucky' to live above ground."

"The Chinese seem to think everything either lucky or unlucky," Sybil said; "it does seem silly. I do not wonder that you always told me not to say that word. I don't think I shall ever want to say it again now; and I used to say it rather often, usen't I? But I did not mean to interrupt you, so please go on now."

"Some houses are very large, which they have to be, in order to accommodate several branches of the same family, who often live together in different parts of them.

"There are generally three doors of entrance to a house, of which the princ.i.p.al, in the centre, leads to the reception hall, into which visitors are shown. I have seen the walls of rooms hung with white silk or satin, on which sentences of good advice were written. All sorts of beautiful lanterns hang from the sitting-room ceilings, sometimes by silk cords. The furniture consists princ.i.p.ally of chairs, tables, pretty screens and cabinets, with many porcelain ornaments, and fans are very numerous in a Chinese household. Most houses have very beautiful gardens; even the poor try to have their houses surrounded by as much ground as possible. Many houses also have verandahs, where the Chinaman likes to smoke his evening pipe. Indeed, women, even ladies, smoke pipes in China. I have a picture of a verandah scene in the south of China."

"Are these people rich or poor?" Sybil asked.

"Certainly not rich, but also not very poor."

"You were saying the other day, father, that Chinese people smoke something else besides tobacco?" Leonard then asked.

"Opium."

"What is opium?"

"The juice of the poppy, which, after being made into a solid form, is boiled down with water."

"Why did you say that opium-smoking was so dreadful?"

"You shall hear all about it, and then judge for yourself. The opium-smoker, whilst engaged with his pipe, thinks of, and cares for, nothing else in the whole world besides, and generally lies down to give himself up to its more full enjoyment. Holding his pipe over the flame of a small oil-lamp beside him, he lights the opium, and then gently draws in the vapour which proceeds from it. Sometimes people smoke in their own houses, and sometimes they resort to horrid places regularly set apart for opium-smoking. In Hong-Kong, where we are going, there will be many an opium-smoker who will buy this drug in quant.i.ties when he cannot even afford to purchase clothing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FAMILY SCENE--AFTER DINNER]

"If a man make a practice of smoking opium at stated times, even should these times not be very frequent, he so acquires the habit of smoking, that if, when the pipe be due it is not forthcoming, he is quite unable to do his work, and wastes all his time thinking of and longing for his pipe. The habit is sometimes acquired in less than a fortnight.

Opium may first be taken in a small quant.i.ty to cure toothache; the small quant.i.ty leads to large quant.i.ties; the large quant.i.ties, or even small ones taken regularly, lead at last to the man becoming an habitual opium-smoker: and this means that the victim's health becomes injured, and that he is unfit for any work. If he then leave off his opium, he becomes ill, has dreadful pain, which sometimes lasts till he smokes again; he has no appet.i.te for food, cannot sleep at night, and looks haggard and miserable. Sometimes if opium cannot be procured by him he dies.

"And these men make themselves slaves for life to this horrid drug, knowing before they touch it what it will do for them.

"Opium-smoking makes rich men poor, honest men thieves, and poor people even sell their children to obtain the drug."

"And can't they be cured, father?" Sybil asked.

"Medical aid has been brought in to help them, but it generally fails; and every now and then we hear of an opium-smoker becoming a Christian and then overcoming the vice, but this is also very rare indeed. And what does this teach us, children?"

They thought. "Never to acquire bad habits, I suppose," said Sybil, "for fear they should grow upon us."

[Ill.u.s.tration: HABITUAL OPIUM-SMOKERS.]

"Yes; and because they do grow upon us. Everything to which we very much accustom ourselves grows into a habit; therefore it is so very important for both Chinese and English, for both grown-up and little people, to cultivate good habits. And more especially is this important in the case of young people, because so many of our habits, which remain with us and influence our whole after-life, are formed in our childish days."

"And do people really sell their children?"

"They do, indeed; and some children are so filial that they will even sell themselves for the good of their parents. There is very little that a Chinaman will not do for a parent. One of their superst.i.tions is that if a father or mother be ill, and the child should cut away some of its own flesh to mix in the parent's medicine, a cure would be effected; and children have been known to cut pieces, for this purpose, out of their own arms."

"What would happen," Sybil asked, "if a child were to do anything very dreadful to a parent in China?"

"If a son kill a parent, he is put to death, his house is torn down, his nearest neighbours are punished, and his schoolmaster is put to death; the magistrate of the district would also suffer, and the governor of the province would go down in rank."

"How unfair!" Leonard exclaimed, "when only one person did it."

"Why does all that happen?" Sybil asked.

"To show how great the man's sin is. The schoolmaster is punished because it is thought that he did not bring up his pupil properly. Of course, it is very unfair, but the Chinese are often very cruel in their chastisments, and many criminals prefer death to some of the other punishments. A great many also suffer capital punishment; sometimes as many as ten thousand people in a year."

"Then, when children do wrong, their parents and schoolmasters are blamed?"

"Very often their faults are attributed to their bringing-up."

"Oh! oughtn't we to be careful, then, Leonard? Fancy when we do wrong people blaming father or mother!"

Leonard was then very anxious to hear more about Chinese punishments, so his father told him an occurrence that he had once witnessed.

"A very usual way of punishing small offences," he began, "is by beating with a bamboo; and whenever a mandarin finds that any one, under his jurisdiction, has transgressed, he can use the bamboo. Parents use it on their children even when they are thirty years of age. The poor Chinese culprits used to be subject to very horrible tortures, such as having their fingers or ankles squeezed until they made confession; but I believe a good many of the worst tortures have now been done away with.

One in common use is the canque, which is a collar made of heavy wood, with a hole in the centre for the head to come through. It is fastened round the neck, and is worn from one to three months, preventing its prisoner from lying down day or night. The captive remains in the street instead of in prison, and is dependent upon his friends to feed him."

"What a shame!" Leonard said. "I'd like to be a magistrate in China, to put that sort of cruelty down."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A CHINESE COURT OF LAW.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHINESE PUNISHMENT.]

"But now I am coming to a trial that I witnessed myself. I remember, as I went into the Provincial Criminal Court, one day, seeing the judge sitting behind a large table, covered with a red cloth. Secretaries, interpreters, and turnkeys stood at each end of the table, only the judge having a right to sit down. Soon after I arrived the prisoner was led in by a chain who immediately threw himself down on the ground before the judge. The crime brought against him was robbing an official of high rank. It was thought that he could not have committed the robbery alone, and was asked how it was effected, and who were his accomplices. He would not say. Then he was beaten; but still this brought no answer. Both an arm and a leg were then put into a board, which made it almost impossible for him either to walk, or sit, or stand. His poor back must have ached terribly; and while one man dragged him along by a chain, another held a whip to urge him forward.

"And he had never committed the robbery after all, but gave himself up in place of his father, a man named w.a.n.g-Yangsui, who was really the culprit."

Tears were in Sybil's eyes as she listened.

[Ill.u.s.tration: POOR OLD w.a.n.g-YANGSUI IN THE CAGE.]

"And he suffered all that?" she said.

"Sons have been known to allow themselves to be transported to save their parents, and then only to have felt that they did their duty."

"And in this case was the real culprit ever found out?"

"Yes; the father, moved with compa.s.sion for his boy, gave himself up."

"And did they not let him off," Leonard asked, "as the son had suffered so much for him?"