<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></SPAN>CHAPTER XI</h2>
<p class="smaller">The Great Wall—Its failure as a defence—Forced labour—Mode
of construction—Shih-Hwang-Ti orders all books to
be burnt—Mandarins flung into the flames—The <i>Shu-King</i> is
saved—How the sacred books came to be written—The
sedan-chair and its uses—Modern hotels at Pekin—Examination
of students for degrees—Cells in which they are confined—Kublai
Khan conquers China—Makes Pekin his
capital—Introduces paper currency—The Great Canal—Address
to the three Philosophers—Marco Polo's visit to
Pekin—His description of the Emperor—Kublai Khan's wife—Foundation
of the Academy of Pekin—Hin-Heng and
his acquirements—Death of Kublai Khan—Inferiority of his
successors—Shun-Ti the last Mongol Emperor—Pekin in the
time of the Mongols—When seen by Lord Macartney—The
city as it is now.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is a relief to turn from the terrible events
which have given to Tien-tsin such a sinister
notoriety to visit from it the celebrated Great
Wall of China, the western termination of which is
at no great distance from the town on the north.
Begun by the Emperor Shih-Hwang-Ti, in <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> 214,
as a protection against the invasions of the Tartars,
it was completed in the marvellously short time of
five years, that energetic monarch sparing neither
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</SPAN></span>
expense nor trouble, and ruthlessly sacrificing the
lives of thousands of his subjects in his determination
to keep out the hated barbarians. That he
was not successful, but that his rampart in due
time served his enemies better than it had done
himself, is one of those ironies of fate with which the
student of history is familiar. Tartars, Mongols,
and Manchus have in their turn reigned over
China from the sacred city, within the very defences
supposed to be impregnable; the mighty wall
remaining a standing proof, not of the wisdom, but
of the short-sightedness of its builder.</p>
<div class="fig_center" style="width: 412px;"><SPAN name="Fig_46"></SPAN><br/>
<ANTIMG src="images/fig46.png" width-obs="412" height-obs="256" alt="" />
<div class="fig_caption">FIG. 46.—THE GREAT WALL.<br/>
(<i>Univers Pittoresque.</i>)</div>
</div>
<div class="sidenote">THE GREAT WALL</div>
<p>To secure a sufficient number of men to work at
his wall, Shih-Hwang-Ti issued an edict ordering
every third labourer throughout the whole of the
Empire to labour at it, and the unfortunate men
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</SPAN></span>
thus selected were forced to work like slaves, with no
wages but a scanty supply of food, their places when
they fell down dead being quickly taken by other
victims. The wall, when completed at the cost of
so great an expenditure of human life, was fifteen
hundred miles long; its breadth at the bottom was
nearly twenty-five feet, and at the top fifteen feet,
whilst it varied in height from fifteen to thirty feet.
The materials employed would, it is said, be enough
to build a wall six feet high and two feet thick to
go twice round the world. Six horsemen could ride
abreast upon it, and it was fortified by very strong
towers, placed at regular intervals of about one
hundred yards, that is to say, within two arrow-shots
of each other, so that any one attempting
to scale it would be covered from one tower or
another by the guards stationed in them. The
construction of the wall was very strong, the outside
being formed of stone and brickwork, whilst
the inside was filled up with earth. The wall
started from the sea-shore at the Shan-Hai Pass, in
N. Lat. 40° and E. Long. 119° 50′, and ran over
mountains, through valleys, and across rivers by
means of arches, which are still marvels of engineering
skill, to the most western province of Kan-su,
where it ends at the Khiya Pass. Whilst only
insignificant relics now remain of the immense
Roman walls which once intersected England and
France, this vast monument of an ambitious ruler
still stands, ranking as one of the wonders of the
world, an incidental proof that at the time of
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</SPAN></span>
its erection, two thousand years ago, China must
have already been a great and civilized Empire.
There is no doubt that Shih-Hwang-Ti did succeed
in centralizing authority, and absorbing the power
of the numerous military chiefs who before his time
reigned in the various small kingdoms, making up
what is now the Celestial Empire.</p>
<div class="sidenote">BURNING OF MSS.</div>
<p>Unfortunately, however, the monarch aimed rather at his own
aggrandizement than at the good of his people, and
his vainglorious desire to be looked upon as the
founder of the Chinese monarchy led him to issue
that celebrated edict, ordering all books and writings
referring to his predecessors to be burnt,
which inflicted an incalculable loss on future
students of history. Those who endeavoured to
evade this sweeping decree were to be punished by
death, and according to some accounts, hundreds of
literati were burnt on piles of the MSS. they had
tried to save. In spite of all precautions, however,
some few copies of the works of Confucius and
other great writers were successfully hidden and
brought out again on the death of the tyrant.</p>
<p>On this interesting subject Father Gaubil, in his
valuable work on Chinese Chronology, says: "One
thing is certain ... the books containing the
geographical surveys and the departmental records
were not burnt ... though the minister Lis-sse,
like the Emperor himself, wished the people to
remain ignorant, and know nothing about how the
country was governed by the earlier kings, or to
hear of the great and virtuous men of the past, or
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</SPAN></span>
of the precepts left behind by them." It was this
same minister, the Father tells us, who introduced
the salutary reform of the use of one character only
throughout the Empire, whereas before his time
several different kinds of letters were employed in
writing. This alphabet was known as the <i>li-chu</i>,
and is supposed to be identical with that of the
present day.</p>
<div class="fig_center" style="width: 327px;"><SPAN name="Fig_47"></SPAN><br/>
<ANTIMG src="images/fig47.png" width-obs="327" height-obs="481" alt="" />
<div class="fig_caption">FIG. 47.—BURNING OF MANDARINS AND HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS,
BY ORDER OF SHIH-KWANG-TI. (<i>Univers Pittoresque.</i>)</div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>It was indeed fortunate that so many important
manuscripts were saved from the general holocaust
the sacrilegious Emperor had ordered, for had
the <i>Shu-King</i> been destroyed, it would have been
difficult to give any real account of the China of
the past. This most celebrated and authentic of
ancient books is supposed to have been begun about
the year 2266 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>, in the reign of the great Yao,
brother of that King Ti-Ko, who introduced the
polygamy still practised in China. This book, or
rather collection of books, is to the Celestials what
the Bible is to the Jews, the Koran to the Mahomedans,
the Law-Book of Manu to the Hindus,
and the Gospel to Christians. It is the very fountain-head
of Chinese law, and not to be acquainted
with its contents is to be unworthy of holding any
place of trust in the Empire. Its authenticity is
absolutely established, for it is well known that
ever since the year 2637 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> there has been a
historic Tribunal in Pekin, whose members are
chosen from amongst the most distinguished literati
of the whole Empire. Once appointed, these
scholars can never be removed from office, and it is
their duty to register daily everything of importance
that occurs in any town, including meteorological
and other natural phenomena, as well as
what may be called purely historical events, such
as the revolts, sieges, fires, and other misfortunes
to which humanity is subject.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="sidenote">THE SHU-KING</div>
<p>Father Amiot, a very cultivated and intelligent
French missionary, says on the subject of the sacred
books of the <i>Shu-King</i>: "The Chinese annals are
superior to the historical documents of every other
nation, because there is less fabulous matter in
them, and because they are more ancient ... and
more full of information of every kind ... They
are worthy of our fullest confidence, because the
epochs to which they refer are determined by
astronomical observations, and the accounts of the
events of all kinds which occur in those epochs
can be mutually checked, and are found, when
compared, to prove the good faith of the writers
who have transmitted them to us."</p>
<p>They are indeed simply invaluable to the student,
forming as they do absolutely trustworthy guides
to their researches into the early history of China,
carrying it back for long centuries, or rather
sexagenaries, for, as already remarked, the Chinese
chronology reckons by sixties, not hundreds of
years. One incidental proof of their veracity is
the fact that their writers, when not fully informed,
have left gaps in their narratives instead of filling
them up as so many chroniclers would have done
with imaginary matter.</p>
<p>They are moreover works of literature rather
than mere dry historical documents, and there is
no series of books in the whole world on which so
many able men have been employed as on the
sacred records of the Chinese nation.</p>
<p>What tales the literati might have told in those
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</SPAN></span>
old days of their adventures on their way to the
capital to take up their work as chroniclers! Even
when I made the journey from Tien-tsin to Pekin,
before the opening of the railway, I had variety
enough, travelling now by boat, now in a palanquin,
now in a sedan-chair, and sometimes on horseback,
and things must have been far worse in those early
days of the beginning of history. One shudders
to think of what our own diplomatic agents must
have gone through when, after much difficulty, they
did at last obtain the coveted honour of representing
the Western powers in the chief city of the
Celestial Empire. They must have suffered horribly,
the more that their presence was thoroughly
unwelcome, and it was the delight of every petty
official to throw obstacles in their way. The old
literati, on the other hand, were treated with the
greatest respect, and except when they happened
to make some mistake in their astronomical calculations,
when their heads paid the forfeit, they lived
in considerable luxury.</p>
<p>Pekin, though still not exactly the place
Europeans would choose to live in, is now comparatively
civilized, and in the spacious rooms of
the European ambassadors the foreign residents
dine, sup, and dance very much as they would in
the capitals of their own countries. Thanks to
the seclusion of the sedan-chairs, even ladies can
go about without attracting notice, or having to
pick their way through the ill-smelling rubbish
which still encumbers the streets. No traveller
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</SPAN></span>
in China with the slightest self-respect goes on
foot, and any foreigner who attempts walking lays
himself open to every insult. "A chair," says a
writer who knows China well, "is far more effective
than a passport," and the ambassadors and ambassadresses,
the secretaries of legation, the consuls
and their wives, employ large numbers of coolies
to carry them to and fro. There is something
truly wonderful in the way in which a mere
handful of Europeans live their own lives, following
their own customs, in the midst of a population
of three hundred thousand Tartars, Mongols, and
Manchus, not to speak of the four hundred thousand
Chinese citizens, and the hundred thousand soldiers
forming the garrison.</p>
<div class="sidenote">THE PEKIN MARKETS</div>
<p>Pekin now actually boasts of two bakers who
make bread of fine American flour, and are largely
patronized by the foreign residents; and in the
markets, the native cooks who cater for the
Embassies, find plenty of variety for the tables of
their employers at a very reasonable price, including
two kinds of pheasant, the grey and the red-legged
partridge. Wild geese and wild duck, the
hare, the boar, the antelope and the roebuck are
also all plentiful, and mutton can be had as tender
as that of Wales, Normandy, or the Ardennes.</p>
<p>Not so very long ago, visitors to Pekin had to
go to wretched inns where they were far from
welcome, or to ask hospitality from the foreign
residents, but now there are two hotels where
travellers are as well treated as in the West. One,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</SPAN></span>
called the Hôtel Français, is kept by a jovial
Chinaman, who was at one time cook to an English
diplomatist; the other, called the German Hotel,
is managed by a burly native of Frankfort, who
reminds me of nothing so much as of a Heidelberg
tun. In these two inns the rooms are big, with
wide chimneys and good windows, so that really it
is possible to be quite comfortable in them, even
in winter, if one can avoid the streets, with their
deep mud or dust, as the case may be.</p>
<div class="fig_center" style="width: 401px;"><SPAN name="Fig_48"></SPAN><br/>
<ANTIMG src="images/fig48.png" width-obs="401" height-obs="247" alt="" />
<div class="fig_caption">FIG. 48.—A STREET IN PEKIN.</div>
</div>
<p>It is to Pekin that thousands of students who
have already won the second degree of rank, as
literati, flock to compete for the distinction known
as the Tsen-Sze, which corresponds to some extent
with that of a doctor of law in England. The
scholar who comes out first in the examinations is
considered for the current year the most learned
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</SPAN></span>
man in all the eighteen provinces of China, and is
privileged to choose a post in the very highest
department of the Government.</p>
<div class="sidenote">CHINESE EXAMINATIONS</div>
<p>Out of the nine or ten hundred candidates who
are examined by the doctors of the Han-Lin College,
three hundred are selected, and again tested in the
presence of the Emperor. Then ten of these three
hundred are picked out to compete once more for
the coveted first grade, to win which is the
ambition of every literary man in China, for it is
equally open to all, though achieved by but few.
The ten who are considered worthy are subjected
to a very severe final test by a jury selected by the
Emperor himself. Their replies to the examination
questions are written out, richly bound, and placed
before the so-called Son of Heaven, who reads all
the manuscripts, and points out the three he
considers the best. The authors of these three are
raised to first rank, and are <i>féted</i> throughout the
capital for three days, marching round it, accompanied
by processions bearing flags, beating drums,
etc. Of the rest of the three hundred, some become
professors at the Han-Lin College, whilst others
receive appointments in various parts of the
country.</p>
<p>The hall in which the examinations take place
has attached to it a number of very small cells, not
more than six feet long by three wide and five
high—an incidental proof of the average stature
of the Chinese—in one of which each candidate is
shut up alone, so that the judges maybe quite sure
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</SPAN></span>
his work is all his own. The aspirant to literary
honour is even searched to see that he has no
books or papers hidden in his robes. He is then
supplied with writing materials, and his replies to
the questions put to him are not signed, so there
is no fear of partiality on the part of the judges.
The only furniture of the examination cell is a
plank placed across it
about fifteen inches
above the ground to
serve as a seat, and a
little tablet fixed to the
wall to be used as a
desk. There is sometimes
such a run upon
the cells that a student
has to wait for days
before he can secure
one. Amongst the cells
named after the "Red
Dragon," the little room
is still shown in which
the fourth Emperor of the present dynasty worked
at certain of the usual examination papers with a
view to shedding lustre on the literary life. He had
the courage and perseverance to remain shut up in
complete seclusion for nine days; but he evidently
found the task he had set himself very arduous,
for, since his experiment, students have been allowed
to come out of their cells every three days to
breathe the outer air and stretch their limbs.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="fig_center" style="width: 212px;"><SPAN name="Fig_49"></SPAN><br/>
<ANTIMG src="images/fig49.png" width-obs="212" height-obs="289" alt="" />
<div class="fig_caption">FIG. 49.—NIGHT-WATCHMEN IN PEKIN.</div>
</div>
<div class="sidenote">KUBLAI KHAN</div>
<p>The two most interesting facts connected with
the history of Pekin are that it is one of the most
ancient cities of the world, occupying the site of
the capital of the old province of Yen, which is
known to have been in existence 1200 years before
the Christian era, and that it was made the seat
of government by Kublai Khan, the first Mongol
Emperor of China, grandson of the mighty conqueror
Genghis Khan. This Kublai Khan, though
a conqueror and of foreign race, so won the affections
of the Chinese that he was justly called the
Father of his people, and during his reign the
country enjoyed a prosperity never since equalled.
The native rulers who had preceded the Mongols
had been mere phantom sovereigns, the puppets
of their eunuchs and the women of their harems,
altogether oblivious of the great example set them
by the early monarchs of China.</p>
<p>The warlike and highly civilized Mongols had
long since conquered all the districts north and
west of the great wall of China, and for years had
cast longing eyes at the fertile regions on the other
side of that artificial barrier, and when Kublai
Khan came to the throne, a mere child; the last
survivor of the Soong line was Emperor of China.
In this fact the Mongol ruler saw his opportunity,
and is said to have sent the following message to
the young prince: "Your family owes its rise to
the minority of the last Emperor of the preceding
dynasty, it is therefore just that you, a child, the
last remnant of the line of Soong, should give place
to another family."</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>Whether this Mongol expression of the time-honoured
doctrine that might makes right ever
reached the ears of the infant prince or not, the
approach of the great Khan warriors so terrified
the Court, that the Emperor and the ministers took
refuge with him on the vessels in the harbour of
Canton. There they were followed by the Tartar
war-ships, and the terror they inspired was such
that the fugitives all flung themselves into the
sea, one of the chief grandees being the first to
jump overboard with the young Emperor in his
arms. More than one hundred soldiers and sailors
are supposed to have perished on this fatal day,
either from poison, by drowning, or at the hands
of the enemy.</p>
<p>This terrible event took place in <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1280 or
1281, when Kublai Khan became sovereign of the
whole of China, and fixed his capital at what is
now Pekin, but was then called Khan-balegh,
or the capital of the Khan. He surrounded his
palace with a wall six leagues in circumference,
pierced by twelve gateways; the roofs of his
residence were very lofty and spacious, richly
decorated with gold and silver, and with paintings
representing birds, horses, dragons, and other
quaint symbolic animals. The roof of the palace
was gilded, and six thousand warriors could take
shelter in it at one time.</p>
<p>Kublai Khan, who was as wise in statecraft as
in battle, took care not to interfere with the institutions
of his new subjects; all the officials who
submitted to him were allowed to retain their
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</SPAN></span>
posts, and the Chinese themselves were exempted
from military service. This of course concentrated
all the power in the hands of the Mongols, and did
more than anything else could have done to consolidate
the new dynasty, though the Celestials
themselves do not seem to have realized its full
significance. The new Emperor was visited at his
Court of Khan-balegh, or Cambalu, by Marco Polo,
that most venturesome traveller and astute observer,
whose account of his sojourn with the great
Mongol conqueror gives so vivid a picture of life
in China in the thirteenth century. Hospitably
received by the Khan, the Venetian dwelt much
in his book on the magnificence of his court, and
makes the sage and humorous remark: "Kublai,
who was the first to invent paper-money made
from the inner bark of the mulberry-tree, had
discovered the true philosopher's stone, for he could
create wealth at his own desire."</p>
<div class="sidenote">THE GREAT CANAL</div>
<p>A far greater boon than the introduction of paper
currency was the making of the great canal, which
rivals the celebrated wall in the skill of its construction,
and has been of far more lasting value
to the people of China than that monument of the
energy and presumption of Shih-Hwang-Ti. One
hundred and seventy thousand men were employed
in this useful enterprise, which was not completed
until after the death of its promoter. The wonderful
waterway, before it fell into disrepair, extended
from the capital to Hang-Chan in the province
of Che-kiang, and was more than three hundred
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</SPAN></span>
miles long. Marco Polo said of it: "He (Kublai
Khan) has caused a water communication to be
made in the shape of a wide and deep channel
dug between stream and stream, between lake and
lake, forming as
it were a great
river on which
large vessels can ply."</p>
<div class="fig_left" style="width: 275px;"><SPAN name="Fig_50"></SPAN><br/>
<ANTIMG src="images/fig50.png" width-obs="275" height-obs="352" alt="" />
<div class="fig_caption">FIG. 50.—A CHINESE GENERAL IN HIS WAR-CHARIOT.<br/>
(<i>Univers Pittoresque.</i>)</div>
</div>
<div class="sidenote">SAYINGS OF KUBLAI KHAN</div>
<p>Various sayings of the wise
thinker and practical
worker, at
the head of the
newly conquered
country, have
come down to
us. Amongst these may be
quoted as specially significant,
the address made
by the Emperor to three great philosophers whom
he had summoned to his presence to aid him in
the difficult task of government, in preventing the
exodus of the inhabitants from the towns, and the
desertion of the country by the cultivators. "You
must help me," he said, "to make your fellow-countrymen
listen to reason; they look upon us
now as if we were bears or tigers; they are afraid
of us when we only wish to do them good. My
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</SPAN></span>
one desire is to make them happy under my rule,
and they will believe it if you tell them so. You,
Yao-Theu," he added, "I make general inspector
of the agricultural districts; travel about in them,
and manage to get them restored to their former
owners and cultivated as before; I give you full
authority to bring this about."</p>
<p>"As for you, Hin-Heng and Teo-mo, I place the
people under your protection; watch over the
health and tranquillity of the artisans and workmen,
so that they labour as of yore, and that they look
forward to enjoying the fruits of their industry in
peace. Moreover, I give you full powers to re-open
schools wherever they used to be, or to build new
ones if you think it desirable; in a word, do all
that you think will promote the good of the public—I
approve in advance of everything you may
decide on."</p>
<p>Long before the time of Richelieu, Kublai Khan
formed an academy, to which flocked scholars and
men of letters of every nationality. From India,
from Persia, and from beyond the Oxus they came,
as well as from the different countries of Europe,
attracted by the fame of the learning in the
Chinese capital. Marco Polo, who for three years
was governor of one of the southern provinces of
China, became a member of this academy, and
Hin-Heng, one of the philosophers alluded to
above, also belonged to it, excelling all his <i>confrères</i>
in the variety of his acquirements. Speaking of
him. Father Amiot says: "There was no science he
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</SPAN></span>
had not studied, and he succeeded in them all ...
he gave his attention to chronology, to history, and
to music. He was a geometrician and astronomer,
and he was one of the savants who worked at the
reform of the Chinese almanac ... he was well
versed in the ancient history of his nation, he
knew the laws and
customs of his native
land, and explained
them so clearly that
Kublai Khan entrusted to him the
drawing up of the
code for his dynasty.
To all this knowledge
he added that of the
Mongol language, in
which he composed
several excellent
works, not to speak
of the translations he
made of the best
Chinese books....
He also made commentaries on the <i>Shu-King</i>, or
sacred books."</p>
<div class="fig_left" style="width: 248px;"><SPAN name="Fig_51"></SPAN><br/>
<ANTIMG src="images/fig51.png" width-obs="248" height-obs="328" alt="" />
<div class="fig_caption">FIG. 51.—PORCELAIN TOWER AT NANKING.</div>
</div>
<p>Very vivid is the light thrown by these quotations
on the civilization of the capital of China
under the Mongol ruler, and, thanks once more to
Marco Polo, we are able to form a very accurate
idea of the personal appearance of Kublai Khan.
"The great Lord of lords," the celebrated traveller
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</SPAN></span>
tells us, "is of a good stature, neither little nor
big, but of medium height ... his limbs are well
formed ... his face is white, with cheeks like a
rose; his nose is well shaped and prominent." The
chronicler further tells us that Kublai Khan had
four wives, whom he treated exactly alike, and
that his eldest, no matter by which mother, would
succeed him when he died. According to other
authorities, one wife alone enjoyed the title of
Empress, and she had three hundred female slaves
to attend upon her.</p>
<div class="sidenote">A DEGENERATE EMPEROR</div>
<p>The founder alike of the Mongol, or, as it is
sometimes called, the Yuan dynasty, and of Pekin,
lived to the advanced age of eighty-three, and was
succeeded by his grandson Timur; but able as
that prince was, he was by no means equal to his
predecessor. Later members of the Tartar race,
who occupied the Chinese throne, did not follow
the example of the old Manchu rulers, so that the
wonderfully-organized government of Kublai Khan
gradually fell to pieces, and at the end of seventy-three
years yet another new dynasty supplanted
that which had appeared so firmly established. No
one can wonder at this who reads the stories told
of Shun-Ti, the ninth and last Mongol sovereign,
who, called to the supreme power at the early age
of thirteen, amused himself by watching the dancing
of sixteen young girls, called the sixteen
spirits, and wasted time and treasure in endeavouring
to pry into the future, with the aid of
soothsayers, whilst he neglected every duty he
owed to God and to his subjects.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>Marco Polo left a glowing description of the
Imperial Palace at Kambala, or Pekin, where, he
tells us, "twice five miles of fertile ground, with
walls and towers, were girdled round," and as late
as 1793, when Lord Macartney visited the city, he
found that it was still very much what it had been
in the thirteenth century. On the change of
dynasty, after the expulsion of Shun-Ti, the capital
was transferred to Nanking, but in 1421 Pekin
was restored to its old dignity, and its walls were
still further extended. In the following centuries
its fortunes fluctuated greatly, and it was not until
1860, when it was taken by the Anglo-French
forces, that it began to assume anything of its
present appearance. The central or inner city,
known as the Manchu, is divided into three parts:
the Purple Forbidden Town containing the imperial
residences; the Imperial or August City, with the
great temples, where the imperial family worship
their ancestors; and the general city, beyond which
again is the so-called Chinese town, consisting of
a net-work of lanes and alleys, with two wide
thoroughfares intersecting each other at right
angles.</p>
<div class="sidenote">A REPRESENTATIVE CAPITAL</div>
<p>The foreign legations are all grouped together
in the south-eastern corner of the August City,
and consist of Chinese palaces transformed into a
semblance of European houses. The French Legation
is the largest, though perhaps not the most
comfortable, and is situated in the centre of a very
fine park. After describing the imperial palaces,
the temples and pagodas of Pekin, and remarking
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</SPAN></span>
on the great uniformity of their style of architecture,
a modern writer, who knows the city well,
says: "The chief ornaments of the streets are the
fronts of the shops; large panels of carved wood,
sometimes gilded, frame the façades, the carvings
representing dragons, phœnixes, etc., the effect
being very decorative ... on the other hand, the
private houses, with their lofty walls and numerous
entrance courts, do nothing to contribute to the
beauty of the street." The modern Chinese are
ardent lovers of their homes, and the humblest
artisan lives alone, with his family, in the strictest
seclusion. "There is nothing," adds this true
observer, "to distinguish any one house from
another, and it is the same with the theatres and
opium dens; uniformity is the guiding principle in
everything, and even the priests of the various
missions have adopted the Chinese customs and
mode of plaiting the hair." The town of Pekin is,
in fact, unique in the power it seems to have of
making all who reside in it conform to one style.
It perfectly represents the country of which it is
the capital, with its intense hostility to innovation,
holding itself aloof from every other nation, ignoring
the very existence of the West for more than
twenty-five centuries, and only waking up to its
existence to despise it as the home of outer barbarians.
But of late years there has been change
in the very air even of Pekin; the opening of the
railway from it to Tien-tsin, two years ago, was
indeed a significant sign of the times, and the next
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</SPAN></span>
decade will doubtless witness the breaking down
of convention even in that stronghold of conservatism,
the Purple Forbidden City. Already
Tartar carts, Chinese chaises, blue and green sedan-chairs,
strings of camels, condemned prisoners
wearing the fatal cangue, Buddhist priests chanting
litanies, and even eunuchs of the Emperor himself,
in their black and yellow uniforms, are jostled by
riders on horseback or by carriages, but little
different from those in use in Paris and London.
The West has introduced the thin edge of the
wedge of its civilization into the inner citadel,
the time-honoured watchword of "China for the
Chinese" has lost its conjuring power, and the
attempt of the Empress Dowager to revive it can
but end in disaster for her and those she rules in
such an arbitrary and old-fashioned style.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</SPAN></span></p>
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