5: Women and Children
<< 4: A.D. 220-1200 || 6: Literature and Education >>
The Chinese are very fond of animals, and especially of birds; and on
the whole they may be said to be kind to their animals, though cases
of ill-treatment occur. At the same time it must be carefully
remembered that such quantum of humanity as they may exhibit is
entirely of their own making; there is no law to act persuasively on
brutal natures, and there is no Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals to see that any such law is enforced. A very large number
of beautiful birds, mostly songless, are found in various parts of
China, and a great variety of fishes in the rivers and on the coast.
Wild animals are represented by the tiger (in both north and south),
the panther and the bear, and even the elephant and the rhinoceros may
be found in the extreme south-west. The wolf and the fox, the latter
dreaded as an uncanny beast, are very widely distributed.
Still less would there be any ground for establishing a Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the very name of which would
make an ordinary, unsophisticated Chinaman stare. Chinese parents are,
if anything, over-indulgent to their children. The father is, indeed,
popularly known as the "Severe One," and it is a Confucian tradition
that he should not spare the rod and so spoil the child, but he draws
the line at a poker; and although as a father he possesses the power
of life and death over his offspring, such punishments as are
inflicted are usually of the mildest description. The mother, the
"Gentle One," is, speaking broadly, a soft-hearted, sweet-natured
specimen of humanity; one of those women to whom hundreds of Europeans
owe deep debts of gratitude for the care and affection lavished upon
their alien children. In the absence of the Severe One, it falls to
her to chastise when necessary; and we even read of a son who wept,
not because his mother hurt him, but because, owing to her advanced
age, she was no longer able to hit him hard enough!
Among other atrocious libels which have fastened upon the fair fame of
the Chinese people, first and foremost stands the charge of female
infanticide, now happily, though still slowly, fading from the
calculations of those who seek the truth. Fifty years ago it was
generally believed that the Chinese hated their female children, and
got rid of them in early infancy by wholesale murder. It may be
admitted at once that boys are preferred to girls, inasmuch as they
carry on the family line, and see that the worship of ancestors is
regularly performed in due season. Also, because girls require
dowries, which they take away with them for the benefit of other
families than their own; hence the saying, "There is no thief like a
family of five daughters," and the term "lose-money goods," as
jestingly applied to girls, against which may be set another term, "a
thousand ounces of gold," which is commonly used of a daughter. Of
course it is the boy who is specially wanted in a family; and little
boys are often dressed as little girls, in order to deceive the angels
of disease and death, who, it is hoped, may thus pass them over as of
less account.
To return to the belief formerly held that female infanticide was
rampant all over China. The next step was for the honest observer to
admit that it was not known in his own particular district, but to
declare that it was largely practised elsewhere. This view, however,
lost its validity when residents "elsewhere" had to allow that no
traces of infanticide could be found in their neighbourhood; and so
on. Luckily, still greater comfort is to be found in the following
argument,—a rare example of proving a negative—from which it will be
readily seen that female infanticide on any abnormal scale is quite
beyond the bounds of the possible. Those who have even a bowing
acquaintance with Chinese social life will grant that every boy, at
about the age of eighteen, is provided by his parents with a wife.
They must also concede the notorious fact that many well-to-do Chinese
take one or more concubines. The Emperor, indeed, is allowed seventy;
but this number exists only on paper as a regulation maximum. Now, if
every Chinaman has one wife, and many have two, over and above the
host of girls said to be annually sacrificed as worthless babies, it
must follow that the proportion of girls born in China enormously
outnumbers the proportion of boys, whereas in the rest of the world
boys are well known to be always in the majority. After this, it is
perhaps superfluous to state that, apart from the natural love of the
parent, a girl is really, even at a very early age, a marketable
commodity. Girls are sometimes sold into other families to be brought
up as wives for the sons; more often, to be used as servants, under
what is of course a form of slavery, qualified by the important
condition, which can be enforced by law, that when of a marriageable
age, the girl's master shall find her a husband. Illegitimate
children, the source of so much baby-farming and infanticide
elsewhere, are practically unknown in China; and the same may be said
of divorce. A woman cannot legally divorce her husband. In rare cases
she will leave him, and return to her family, in spite of the fact
that he can legally insist upon her return; for she knows well that if
her case is good, the husband will not dare to risk the scandal of an
exposure, not to mention the almost certain vengeance of her affronted
kinsmen. It is also the fear of such vengeance that prevents mothers-
in-law from ill-treating the girls who pass into their new homes
rather as servants than daughters to the husband's mother. Every
woman, as indeed every man, has one final appeal by which to punish an
oppressor. She may commit suicide, there being no canon, legal or
moral, against self-slaughter; and in China, where, contrary to
widespread notions on the subject, human life is held in the highest
degree sacred, this course is sure to entail trouble and expense, and
possibly severe punishment, if the aggrieved parties are not promptly
conciliated by a heavy money payment.
A man may divorce his wife for one of the seven following reasons:—
Want of children, adultery, neglect of his parents, nagging, thieving
(i.e. supplying her own family with his goods, popularly known as
"leakage"), jealous temper and leprosy. To the above, the humanity of
the lawgiver has affixed three qualifying conditions. He may not put
her away on any of the above grounds if she has duly passed through
the period of mourning for his parents; if he has grown rich since
their marriage; if she has no longer any home to which she can return.
Altogether, the Chinese woman has by no means such a bad time as is
generally supposed to be the case. Even in the eye of the law, she has
this advantage over a man, that she cannot be imprisoned except for
high treason and adultery, and is to all intents and purposes exempt
from the punishment of the bamboo. Included in this exemption are the
aged and the young, the sick, the hungry and naked, and those who have
already suffered violence, as in a brawl. Further, in a well-known
handbook, magistrates are advised to postpone, in certain
circumstances, the infliction of corporal punishment; as for instance,
when either the prisoner or they themselves may be under the influence
of excitement, anger or drink.
The bamboo is the only instrument with which physical punishment may
legally be inflicted; and its infliction on a prisoner or recalcitrant
witness, in order to extort evidence, constitutes what has long been
dignified as "torture;" but even that is now, under a changing system,
about to disappear. This must not be taken to mean that torture, in
our sense of the term, has never been applied in China. The real facts
of the case are these. Torture, except as already described, being
constitutionally illegal, no magistrate would venture to resort to it
if there were any chance of his successful impeachment before the
higher authorities, upon which he would be cashiered and his official
career brought abruptly to an end. Torture, therefore, would have no
terrors for the ordinary citizen of good repute and with a backing of
substantial friends; but for the outcast, the rebel, the highway
robber (against whom every man's hand would be), the disreputable
native of a distant province, and also for the outer barbarian (e.g.
the captives at the Summer Palace in 1860), another tale must be told.
No consequences, except perhaps promotion, would follow from too
rigorous treatment in such cases as these.
Resort to the bamboo as a means of extorting the confession of a
prisoner is regarded by the people rather as the magistrate's
confession of his own incapacity. The education of the official, too
easily and too freely turned into ridicule, gives him an insight into
human nature which, coupled with a little experience, renders him
extremely formidable to the shifty criminal or the crafty litigant. As
a rule, he finds no need for the application of pain. There is a
quaint story illustrative of such judicial methods as would be sure to
meet with full approbation in China. A magistrate, who after several
hearings had failed to discover, among a gang accused of murder, what
was essential to the completion of the case, namely, the actual hand
which struck the fatal blow, notified the prisoners that he was about
to invoke the assistance of the spirits, with a view to elicit the
truth. Accordingly, he caused the accused men, dressed in the black
clothes of criminals, to be led into a large barn, and arranged around
it, face to the wall. Having then told them that an accusing angel
would shortly come among them, and mark the back of the guilty man, he
went outside and had the door shut, and the place darkened. After a
short interval, when the door was thrown open, and the men were
summoned to come forth, it was seen directly that one of the number
had a white mark on his back. This man, in order to make all secure,
had turned his back to the wall, not knowing, what the magistrate well
knew, that the wall had been newly white-washed.
As to the punishment of crime by flogging, a sentence of one or two
hundred—even more—blows would seem to be cruel and disgusting;
happily, it may be taken for granted that such ferocious sentences are
executed only in such cases as have been mentioned above. An acute
observer, for many years a member of the municipal police force in
Shanghai, whose duty it was to see that floggings were administered to
Chinese criminals, stated plainly in a public report that the bamboo
is not necessarily a severe ordeal, and that one hundred blows are at
times inflicted so lightly as to leave scarcely a mark behind, though
the recipient howls loudly all the time. Those criminals who have
money can always manage to square the gaoler; and the gaoler has
acquired a certain knack in laying on, the upshot being great cry and
little wool, very satisfactory to the culprit. Even were we to accept
the cruellest estimate in regard to punishment by the bamboo, it would
only go to show that humanitarian feelings in China are lagging
somewhat behind our own. In The Times of March 1, 1811, we read
that, for allowing French prisoners to escape from Dartmoor, three men
of the Nottingham militia were sentenced to receive 900 lashes each,
and that one of them actually received 450 lashes in the presence of
pickets from every regiment in the garrison. On New Year's Day, 1911,
a eunuch attempted to assassinate one of the Imperial Princes. For
this he was sentenced to be beaten to death, some such ferocious
punishment being necessary, in Chinese eyes, to vindicate the majesty
of the law. That end having been attained, the sentence was commuted
to eighty blows with the bamboo and deportation to northern Manchuria.
The Chinese woman often, in mature life, wields enormous influence
over the family, males included, and is a kind of private Empress
Dowager. A man knows, says the proverb, but a woman knows better. As a
widow in early life, her lot is not quite so pleasant. It is not
thought desirable for widows to remarry; but if she remains single,
she becomes "a rudderless boat;" round which gathers much calumny.
Many young women brave public opinion, and enter into second nuptials.
If they are bent upon remarrying, runs the saying, they can no more be
prevented than the sky can be prevented from raining.
The days of "golden lilies," as the artificially small feet of Chinese
women are called, are generally believed to date from the tenth
century A.D., though some writers have endeavoured to place the custom
many centuries earlier. It must always be carefully remembered that
Manchu women—the women of the dynasty which has ruled since 1644—do
not compress their feet. Consequently, the empresses of modern times
have feet of the natural size; neither is the practice in force among
the Hakkas, a race said to have migrated from the north of China to
the south in the thirteenth century; nor among the hill tribes; nor
among the boating population of Canton and elsewhere. Small feet are
thus in no way associated with aristocracy or gentleness of birth;
neither is there any foundation for the generally received opinion
that the Chinese lame their women in this way to keep them from
gadding about. Small-footed women may be seen carrying quite heavy
burdens, and even working in the fields; not to mention that many are
employed as nurses for small children. Another explanation is that
women with bound feet bear finer children and stronger; but the real
reason lies in another direction, quite beyond the scope of this book.
The question of charm may be taken into consideration, for any
Chinaman will bear witness to the seductive effect of a gaily-dressed
girl picking her way on tiny feet some three inches in length, her
swaying movements and delightful appearance of instability conveying a
general sense of delicate grace quite beyond expression in words.
The lady of the tenth century, to whom the origin of small feet is
ascribed, wished to make her own feet like two new moons; but whether
she actually bound them, as at the present day, is purely a matter of
conjecture. The modern style of binding inflicts great pain for a long
time upon the little girls who have to endure it. They become very shy
on the subject, and will on no account show their bare feet, though
Manchu women and others with full-sized feet frequently walk about
unshod, and the boat-girls at Canton and elsewhere never seem to wear
shoes or stockings at all.
The "pigtail," or long plait of hair worn by all Chinamen, for the
abolition of which many advanced reformers are now earnestly pleading,
is an institution of comparatively modern date. It was imposed by the
victorious Manchu-Tartars when they finally established their dynasty
in 1644, not so much as a badge of conquest, still less of servitude,
but as a means of obliterating, so far as possible, the most patent
distinction between the two races, and of unifying the appearance, if
not the aspirations, of the subjects of the Son of Heaven. This
obligation was for some time strenuously resisted by the natives of
Amoy, Swatow, and elsewhere in that neighbourhood. At length, when
compelled to yield, it is said that they sullenly wound their queues
round their heads and covered them with turbans, which are still worn
by natives of those parts.
The peculiar custom of shaving the head in front, and allowing the
hair to grow long behind, is said to have been adopted by the Manchus
out of affectionate gratitude to the horse, an animal which has played
an all-important part in the history and achievements of the race.
This view is greatly reinforced by the cut of the modern official
sleeves, which hang down, concealing the hands, and are shaped exactly
like a pair of horse's hoofs.
In many respects the Manchu conquerors left the Chinese to follow
their own customs. No attempt was made to coerce Chinese women, who
dress their hair in styles totally different from that of the Manchu
women; there are, too, some tolerated differences between the dress of
the Manchu and Chinese men, but these are such as readily escape
notice. Neither was any attempt made in the opening years of the
conquest to interfere with foot-binding by Chinese women; but in 1664
an edict was issued forbidding the practice. Readers may draw their
own conclusions, when it is added that four years after the edict was
withdrawn. Hopes are now widely and earnestly entertained that with
the dawn of the new era, this cruel custom will become a thing of the
past; it is, however, to be feared that those who have been urging on
this desirable reform may be, like all reformers, a little too
sanguine of immediate success, and that a comparatively long period
will have to go by before the last traces of foot-binding disappear
altogether. Meanwhile, it seems that the Government has taken the
important step of refusing admission to the public schools of all
girls whose feet are bound.
The disappearance of the queue is another thing altogether. It is not
a native Chinese institution; there would be no violation of any
cherished tradition of antiquity if it were once and for ever
discarded. On the contrary, if the Chinese do not intend to follow the
Japanese and take to foreign clothes, there might be a return to the
old style of doing the hair. The former dress of the Japanese was one
of the numerous items borrowed by them from China; it was indeed the
national dress of the Chinese for some three hundred years, between
A.D. 600-900. One little difficulty will vanish with the queue. A
Chinese coolie will tie his tail round his head when engaged on work
in which he requires to keep it out of the way, and the habit has
become of real importance with the use of modern machinery; but on the
arrival of his master, he should at once drop it, out of respect, a
piece of politeness not always exhibited in the presence of a foreign
employer. The agitation, now in progress, for the final abolition of
the queue may be due to one or all of the following reasons.
Intelligent Chinese may have come to realize that the fashion is
cumbrous and out of date. Sensitive Chinese may fear that it makes
them ridiculous in the eyes of foreigners. Political Chinese, who
would gladly see the re-establishment of a native dynasty, may look to
its disappearance as the first step towards throwing off the Manchu
yoke.
On the whole, the ruling Manchus have shown themselves very careful
not to wound the susceptibilities of their Chinese subjects. Besides
allowing the women to retain their own costume, and the dead, men and
women alike, to be buried in the costume of the previous dynasty, it
was agreed from the very first that no Chinese concubines should be
taken into the Palace. This last condition seems to be a concession
pure and simple to the conquered; there is little doubt, however, that
the wily Manchus were only too ready to exclude a very dangerous
possibility of political intrigue.
<< 4: A.D. 220-1200 || 6: Literature and Education >>
