Historic China, and Other Sketches Part 8

"In cases of injury from scalding, get a large oyster and put it in a basin with its mouth upwards somewhere quite away from anybody. Wait till its sh.e.l.l opens, and then shake in from a spoon a little Borneo camphor, mixed and rubbed into a powder with an equal portion of genuine musk. The oyster will then close its sh.e.l.l and its flesh will be melted into a liquid. Add a little more of the above ingredients, and with a fowl's feather brush it over the parts and round the wound, getting nearer and nearer every time till at last you brush it into the wound; the pain will thus gradually cease. A small oyster will do if a large one is not to be had. This is a first-rate prescription.

"Where a man has fallen into the water in winter, and has quite lost all consciousness from cold, if there is the least warmth about the chest, life may still be restored. Should the patient show the slightest inclination to laugh, stop up his nose and mouth at once, or he will soon be unable to leave off, and it will be impossible to save him. On no account bring a patient hastily to the fire, for the sight of fire will excite him to immoderate laughter, and his chance of life is gone.

"In cases of nightmare, do not at once bring a light, or going near call out loudly to the sleeper, but bite his heel or his big toe, and gently utter his name. Also spit on his face and give him ginger tea to drink; he will then come round. _Or_, Blow into the patient's ears through small tubes, pull out fourteen hairs from his head, make them into a twist and thrust into his nose. Also, give salt and water to drink. Where death has resulted from seeing goblins, take the heart of a leek and push it up the patient's nostrils--the left for a man, the right for a woman. Look along the inner edge of the upper lips for blisters like grains of Indian corn, and p.r.i.c.k them with a needle."

The work concludes with an antidote against a certain dangerous poison known as _Ku_, originally discovered by a Buddhist priest and successfully administered in a great number of cases. Its ingredients, which comprise two red centipedes--one live and one roasted--must be put into a mortar and pounded up together either on the 5th of the 5th moon, the 9th of the 9th moon, or the 8th of the 12th moon, in some place quite away from women, fowls, and dogs. Pills made from the paste produced are to be swallowed one by one without mastication. The preparation of this deadly _Ku_ poison is described in the last chapter but one of Section III. in the following words:--

"Take a quant.i.ty of insects of all kinds and throw them into a vessel of any kind; cover them up and let a year pa.s.s away before you look at them again. The insects will have killed and eaten each other until there is only one survivor, and this one is _Ku_."

In the next chapter we are informed that spinach eaten with tortoise is poison, as also is sh.e.l.l-fish eaten with venison; that death frequently results from drinking pond-water which has been poisoned by snakes, from drinking water which has been used for flowers, or tea which has stood uncovered through the night, from eating the flesh of a fowl which has swallowed a centipede, and wearing clothes which have been soaked with perspiration and dried in the sun. Finally,

"A case is recorded of a man who tied his victim's hands and feet, and forced into his mouth the head of a snake, applying fire at the same time to its tail. The snake jumped down the man's throat and pa.s.sed into his stomach, but at the inquest held over the body no traces of wounds were found to which death could be attributed.

Such a crime, however, may be detected by examination of the bones which, from the head downwards, will be found entirely of a bright red colour, caused by the dispersion of the blood; and moreover, the more the bones are sc.r.a.ped away, the brighter in colour do they become."

It is difficult to speak of such a book as "Instructions to Coroners"

with anything like becoming gravity, and yet it is one of the most widely-read and highly-esteemed works in China; so much so, that native scholars frequently throw it in the teeth of foreigners as one of their many repertories of real wonder-working science, equal to anything that comes from the West, if only foreigners would take the trouble to consult it. To satisfy our own curiosity on the subject we bought a copy and translated it from beginning to end; but our readers will perhaps be able to determine its scientific value from the few quotations given above, and agree with us that it would hardly be worth while to learn Chinese for the pleasure or profit to be derived from reading "Instructions to Coroners" in the original character.

CHRISTIANITY

The extraordinary feeling of hatred and contempt evinced by the Chinese nation for missionaries of every denomination who settle in their country, naturally suggests the question whether Christianity is likely to prove a boon to China, if, indeed, it ever succeeds in taking root at all. That under the form of Roman Catholicism, it once had a chance of becoming the religion of the Empire, and that that chance was recklessly sacrificed to bigotry and intolerance, is too well known to be repeated; but that such an opportunity will ever occur again is quite beyond the bounds, if not of possibility, at any rate of probability. Missionary prospects are anything but bright in China just now, in spite of rosily worded "reports," and annual statistics of persons baptized. A respectable Chinaman will tell you that only thieves and bad characters who have nothing to lose avail themselves of baptism, as a means of securing "long nights of indolence and ease" in the household of some enthusiastic missionary at from four to ten dollars a month. Educated men will not tolerate missionaries in their houses, as many have found to their cost; and the fact cannot be concealed that the foreign community in China suffers no small inconvenience and incurs considerable danger for a cause with which a large majority of its members has no sympathy whatever. It would, however, be invidious to dwell upon the cla.s.s of natives who allow themselves to be baptized and pretend to accept dogmas they most certainly do not understand, or on the mental and social calibre of numbers of those gentlemen who are sent out to convert them; we will confine ourselves merely to considering what practical benefits Christianity would be likely to confer upon the Chinese at large. And this we may fairly do, not being of those who hold that all will be d.a.m.ned but the sect of that particular church to which they themselves happen to belong; but believing that the Chinese have as good a chance as anybody else of whatever happiness may be in store for the virtuous, whether they become Christians or whether they do not.

In the course of eight years' residence in China, we have never met a drunken man in the streets. Opium-smokers we have seen in all stages of intoxication; but no drunken brawls, no bruised and bleeding wives.

Would Christianity raise the Chinese to the standard of European sobriety? Would it bring them to renounce opium, only to replace it with gin? Would it cause them to become more frugal, to live more economically than they do now on their bowl of rice and cabbage, moistened with a drink of tea, and perhaps supplemented with a few whiffs of the mildest possible tobacco? Would it cause them to be more industrious than--e.g., the wood-carvers of Ningpo who work daily from sunrise to dusk, with two short intervals for meals? Would it make them more filial?--justly renowned as they are for unremitting care of aged and infirm parents. More fraternal?--where every family is a small society, each member toiling for the common good, and being sure of food and shelter if thrown out of work or enfeebled by disease.

More law-abiding?--we appeal to any one who has lived in China, and mixed with the people. Would it make them more honest?--when many Europeans confess that for straightforward business they would sooner deal with Chinamen than with merchants of certain Christian nationalities we shall not take upon ourselves to name. Should we not run the risk of sowing seed for future and b.l.o.o.d.y religious wars on soil where none now rage? To teach them justice in the administration of law would be a glorious task indeed, but even that would have its dark side. Litigation would become the order of the day, and a rapacious cla.s.s would spring into existence where lawyers and barristers are now totally unknown. The striking phenomenon of extreme wealth side by side with extreme poverty, might be produced in a country where absolute dest.i.tution is at present remarkably rare, and no one need actually starve; and thus would be developed a fine field for the practice of that Christian charity which by demoralisation of the poorer cla.s.ses so skilfully defeats its own end. We should rejoice if anything could make Chinamen less cruel to dumb animals, desist from carrying ducks, geese, and pigs, hanging by their legs to a pole, feed their hungry dogs, and spare their worn-out beasts of burden. But pigeon-shooting is unknown, and gag-bearing reins have yet to be introduced into China; neither have we heard of a poor heathen Chinaman "skinning a sheep alive." (_Vide Daily Papers of July_ 12, 1875.)

Last of all, it must not be forgotten that China has already four great religions flouris.h.i.+ng in her midst. There is _Confucianism_, which, strictly speaking, is not a religion, but a system of self-culture with a view to the proper government of (1) one's own family and of (2) the State. It teaches man to be good, and to love virtue for its own sake, with no fear of punishment for failure, no hope of reward for success. Is it below Christianity in this?

_Buddhism_, _Taoism_, and _Mahomedanism_, share the patronage of the illiterate, and serve to satisfy the natural craving in uneducated man for something supernatural in which to believe and on which to rely.

The _literati_ are sheer materialists: they laugh at the absurdities of Buddhism, though they sometimes condescend to practise its rites.

They strongly object to the introduction of a new religion, and successfully oppose it by every means in their power. They urge, and with justice, that Confucius has laid down an admirable rule of life in harmony with their own customs, and that the conduct of those who approximate to this standard would compare not unfavourably with the practice, as distinguished from the profession, of any religion in the world.

ANTI-CHRISTIAN LYRICS

The following inflammatory placard, which was posted up last year at a place called Lung-p'ing, near the great tea mart of Hankow, will give a faint idea of native prejudice against the propagation of Christianity in China. The original was in verse, and evidently the work of a highly-educated man:--

Strange doctrines are speedily to be eradicated: The holy teaching of Confucius is now in the ascendant.

There is but one most sacred religion: There can be but one Mean.

By their great virtue Yao and Shun led the way, Alone able to expound the "fickle" and the "slight;"[*]

Confucius' teachings have not pa.s.sed away, Yet working wonders in secret[+] has long been in vogue.

Be earnest in practising the ordinary virtues: To extend filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, and considerateness, is to benefit one's-self.

Be careful in your speech, And marvels, feats of strength, sedition, and spirits,[:] will disappear from conversation.

I pray you do not listen to unsubstantiated words: Then who will dare to deceive the age with soft-sounding phrases.

Our religion is for all who choose to seek it; But we build no chapels to beguile the foolish.

Our true religion has existed from of old, up to the present day, undergoing no change.

Its true principles include in their application those of the middle and outside nations alike.

Great is the advantage to us!

Great is the good influence on this generation!

Of all religions the only true one, What false doctrine can compare with it?

The _stillness_ and _cleanliness_ of Buddhism, The _abstruseness_ and _hollow mockery_ of Taoism-- These are but side-doors compared with ours; Fit to be quitted, but not to be entered.

These are but by-paths compared with ours; Fit to be blocked up, but not to be used.

How then about this one, stranger than Buddhist or Taoist creed?

With its secret confusion of s.e.xes, unutterable!

More hurtful than all the dogmas of the other two; Spreading far and wide the unfathomable poison of its mysteries.

Herein you must carefully discriminate, And not receive it with belief and veneration.

Those who now embrace Christ Call him Lord of heaven and earth, Wors.h.i.+pping him with prayer, Deceiving and exciting the foolish, Dishonouring the holy teaching of Confucius.

I laugh at your hero of the cross, Who, though sacrificing his life, did not preserve his virtue complete.

Missions build chapels, But the desire to do good works is not natural to them.

The method of influencing the natures of women Is but a trick to further base ends.

They injure boys by magical arts, And commit many atrocious crimes.

They say their religion is the only true one, But their answers are full of prevarication.

They say their book is the Holy Book, But the Old and New Testaments are like the songs of Wei and Cheng.[!]

As to the people who are gradually being misled, I compa.s.sionate their ignorance; As to the educated who are thus deceived, I am wroth at their want of reflection.

For these men are not of us; We are like the horse and the cow;[@]

If you a.s.sociate with them, Who will expel these crocodiles and snakes?

This is a secret grievance of the State, A manifest injury to the people!

Truly it is the eye-sore of the age.

You quietly look on unconcerned!

I, musing over the present state of men's hearts, Desire to rectify them.

Alas! the ways of devils are full of guile!

But man's disposition is naturally pure.

How then can men willingly walk with devils?

You, like trees and plants, without understanding, Allow the Barbarians to throw into confusion the Flowery Land.

Is it that no holy and wise men have appeared?

Under the Chow dynasty, when the barbarians were at the height of their arrogance, The hand of Confucius and Mencius was laid upon them!

Under the T'ang when Buddhism was poisoning the age, Han and Hsi exterminated them.

Now these devils are working evil, Troubling the villages and market-places where they live.

Surely many heroes must come forward To crush them with the pen of Confucius.

Turn then and consider That were it not for my cla.s.s[#]

None would uphold the true religion.

I say unto you, And you should give heed unto me, Believe not the nonsense of Redemption, Believe not the trickery of the Resurrection.

Set yourselves to find out the true path, And learn to distinguish between man and devil.

Pa.s.s not with loitering step the unknown ford, Nor bow the knee before the vicious and the depraved.

Wait not for Heaven to exterminate them To find out that earth has a day for their destruction.

The shapeless, voiceless imp-- Why wors.h.i.+p him?

His supernatural, unprincipled nonsense Should surely be discarded.

Ye who think not so, When the devils are in your houses They will covet your homes, And they will take the fingers and arms of your strong ones To make claws and teeth for imps.

They excite people at first by specious talk, Not one jot of which is intelligible; Then they destroy your reason, Making you wander far from the truth.

You throw over ancestral wors.h.i.+p to enjoy none yourselves; Your wives and children suffer pollution, And you are pointed at with the finger.

Thus heedlessly you injure eternal principles, Embracing filth and treasuring corruption, To your endless shame And to your everlasting misfortune.

Finally, if in life your heads escape the axe, There will await you the excessive injury of the shroud.[$]

Judging by the crimes of your lives, Your corpses will be cast to scorpions and snakes.

The devils introduce this doctrine, Which grows like plants from seeds; Some one must arise to punish them, And destroy their religion root and branch.