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SOCIETY IN CHINA.

BY

ROBERT K. DOUGLAS,

KEEPER OF THE ORIENTAL BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
PROFESSOR of chinese aT KING'S COllege.

POPULAR EDITION.

LONDON:

A. D. INNES & CO.,

BEDFORD STREET.

1895.

KD 2531

HARVARD COLLEGE

Aug

4,1941

LIBRARY

Dr. John R.Oliver

CONTENTS.

THE EMPEROR AND THE COURT

The political constitution, 2. The constituent elements of Chinese

society, 3. The titles of the emperor, 3. The Temple of Heaven, 4.

The sacrifice to Shangti, the Supreme Ruler, 5. Superstitious proposal
by Tsêng Kwofan, 6. The worship of the emperor, 8. The emperor
as the living Buddha-His influence among the Mongolians and Tibetans,
"The solitary man," 10. The exterior and interior of the palace, II.

The affairs of the state settled in the early hours of the morning, 12.

The assumption of the imperial purple, 13. The choice of an empress, 14.

The imperial marriage, 16. The late emperor's valedictory address, 21.

His burial, 21. The grief of his heir, 23. The three names given to the
emperor, 23. The pomp and ceremony attending the burial of an
The usual character of Chinese emperors, 27. The

emperor's authority over the princes and nobles, 28. The hereditary

nobility, 29. The titles of the male representative of Confucius, 30; of

the representative of the last emperor of the late Ming dynasty, 31.

The appointment of mandarins, 32. The division of the empire into

eighteen provinces, 33. The provincial authorities, 33. Salaries of

the mandarins, 34. The rights of the people, 37. The civil mandarins,

39. Military mandarins, 39. The two imperial councils of state, 41.

Their duties, 42. The six Boards for the transaction of departmental

affairs, 44. Their duties, 44. The postal system of China, 49. The

letter shop, 50. The two kinds of Chinese stamps, 51. The Board of

Punishments, 53. The prison of the board, 54. The Tsungli Yamun, 57.

The Colonial office, 59. The office of censors, 60.

The enumeration of punishments, 64. Especial regulations for lightening

punishments, 66. The severity of punishment for offences committed in

or near the imperial palace, 67. Marriage, 69. Treason, 71. Lingchi,

or death by a slow and lingering process, 71. Attempt on the life of the

Emperor Kiak'ing, 72. Tortures, 73. The Chinese belief in magic, 75.

The extraction of false confessions by torture, 75. The guiding principle

in Chinese legislation, 78. The power of the heads of households, 78.

Murder of an unfilial son, 79. Attitude of husbands and masters towards

their wives and slaves, 81. Quarrelling and fighting, 81. Gambling and

betting, 82, 83.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAWS

The dishonesty of the mandarins, and their means of accumulating

wealth, 84. An honest mandarin, 87. His measures for punishing his

subordinates, 87. The story of Chang, Ch'ü, and others, 92. The story

of Ko and his wife, 96. Coroners' inquests, 99. The "Hsiyuanlu," 100.

Some of the absurdities of this book, 101. The terror inspired by the

officials of the Yamuns, 104. The difficulty of prosecuting appeals, 105.

Illegal taxation and extortion, 105. The want of barristers in China, 107.

VILLAGE COMMUNITIES......

The object of the community, 109. The divisions of a community, 109.

The Tipao and his duties, III. Criminal affairs settled by the village

communities, 113. The case of Pêng, 113. The heavy punishment

imposed for pilfering ears of corn, 114. The unwritten laws of the

village communities, 114. The possession of villages by single families,

115. The position of the clan elders, 115. The clan elders as fellow-

workers with the promoters of attacks upon Christians, 115. The

punishment of members suspected of having joined the foreign religion, 115.

THE LITERATI AND FARMERS

The Literati the first of the four classes of the population, 116. Their

graduation, 116. Their privileges, 116. The great number of unemployed

graduates, 116. The interference of the graduates in legal matters, 117.

Strange memorials presented by them, 117. Antagonism of the Literati

towards foreigners, 118. The persecution of the Literati, 119. The case

of Chow Han, 120. The farmers form the second class, 120. The

Emperor Shennung, the divine husbandman, 120. The unjust taxes on

farmers, 121. The absolute power of the Emperor, 122. The division

of the land, 122. The conditions on which the land-tax is levied ;

remittance under certain conditions, 123. Grain-tax, 124. Cultivation

of rice, 125. The agricultural calendar, 126. Books on agriculture, 127.

The silk industry, 127. The poppy, 129. Opium smoking, 129. The

edicts against the opium trade, 129. Opium smuggling, 130. Opium

used as currency, 132. Tea, 132. Where the best is grown, 133. The

competition between China and India in tea, 133. The cultivation of

the tea plant, 133. Tea-houses, 134. The exportation of tea, 135.

Brick-tea, 135.

MECHANICS AND MERCHANTS

The poverty and industry of mechanics, 137. Their tools, 137. The

smallness of their pay, 138. Their great skill, 138. Itinerant craftsmen,

"Those who think must govern those who toil," 139.

integrity of the merchants, 140. The antiquity of commerce, 141.

sayings of Confucius, 141. Guild halls, 142. The uses of guilds, 143.

Their revenue, 143. Trade guilds, 144. Their rules, 144. A strike of

carpenters, and the attack on the magistrate's yamun, 145. Brutal

punishment inflicted on a manufacturer, 145. Apprentices, 146. Barbers,

146. The influence of the trade unions, 147. Objection to machinery,

147. Disadvantages arising from the absence of an hereditary aristocracy,

Chinese doctors, 149. Drugs in common use, 150. Amputation never

resorted to, 150. A doctor's fee, 150. His visit to a patient, 151.

Medicines and tonics, 151. Acupuncture, 152. Small-pox, leprosy, and

other diseases, 153. Hydrophobia, and the cure for it, 155. Tumours,

155. Magical arts, the philosopher's stone, 157. Ginseng, 157. Legal

THE COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS

The stability of the empire, 160. The idiosyncrasies of the Chinese

race, 161. The subjects and books for the competitive examinations,

163. The commentators, 164. The superficial teaching for girls, 164.

The different stages of education, 165. Examinations for the first degree,

166. Triennial examinations, 166. The examiners, 167. The examina-

tion hall and the examination, 167. The conferring of the degree of

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