Chinese Customs And Beliefs

A CniNAMAN will learn to make himself understood in ahnost any Kuropean tongue in less than onc-thi'rd the time it requires the average European or American to make liiinsclí understood in Chinean. A Chinese coolie servant will learn to speak " pigeon English" before his English or American master can ask for a glass of water in the native dialoet. Thoy readily acquire a , smattering of our language, but it is with the greatest difficulty that w learn anythmg of theirs. íhis dispar ity in the relative use of the two idiom has produoed many eurious anomalies Even in the open ports, trade is sti carried on by means of middlemen o agents, These middlemen are callei compradors, a term borrowed from th Portuguese. lf a foreign merehan wishes to buy tea or silk or poroelai [ or other native product he must do s through the comprador. If he wishes to sell any given article of foreign manufacture he must reach the customer through the same channel. The comprador employs all the servants about the house; he íixes their salaries and ia responsible for their honesty. He even keeps the bank account and superintends the shipping. Practically. though a mere servant, he is the head of tiie house. He is invariably a clear-headed shrewd fellow, who watches his master's interests (and his own) with careful eye. His own interests, one may be wcll assured, never suffer for want of attentiou. He has certain legitímate squeezes," gocalled in local parlance. onnearly everything bought and sold. He has a commissioíi on the servants he employs, on the provisiohs he buys, and on the other general expenses of the house. You can therefore see at a glance his great vantage-ground ín transactions with native merchants. A thousand chests of tea or as manv packages of silk of crates of porcelaiñ could pay him ever so small a " squeeze" and the aggregate would be considerable. In this way, by strict attention to business and those frugal habits for which he is famous, he can manage to save five thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars a year out of a salary of one thousand dollars. Nobody seems to care if he does. Nobody could help it if he did care. 'John Comprador" is a necessity. He is the oíd man of the sea wbom foreign merchants can not shake off. Let 113 suppose, for instance, that a memher of an old-establis!ud American or Lnglish hong has aoquired a sufficient fcnowledge of the lauguage to converse with the natives 011 ordinary business topics; or, what is always more probable, that in every Chinese hong there is one member of the fírm who can speak English. It occurs to the foreign merchant that his business is too much in the hands of natives. He dismisses the comprador, and goes in person to a native merchant and asks for tea samples. He is shown thern, and Uien asks the price of a thousand chests. "Not have got," is the reply; "no can catchee." The hierchant gocs to another and another, with the same result. Notrqne has a uound of tea to sen mm. The guikl Bas oroerea it, and until the foreigner deals through a comprador he can do nothing in tea or silk or porcelain or wax or other Chinese product. Let hini snnd his comprador and he g-ets the market quotati'ons at once. So it is with all that foreigner buy or sell; so it is with all dealings between foreign and native mercliants. These Chinese guilds and trade combinations surpass any of European of American origin. ïhose of Holland and Finland iñ the sixteenth century were trivial afl'airs compared with these. They are the most comprehensivo and eft'ective in their oporations of all 1 have ever seen or heard of in any part of the world. Thus it is that eveft commerce, the grcat missionary of civil ization, has failed to break down the banier between the Celestials and the "oiitside barbarians." ïiie Chinese are a people to themselves- self-sufiicient, bigoted, supercilious, jealous- and seem likely so to remain for some time to come. A merchant maj' '"" ■" ■!-- '- - - one or iheir treaty ports. and still know very Iittli? of the country. A "bookmaker," as Wendell Phillips would say, miglit visit these ports a dozen times, and yet know almost nothing of the interior oí the empire, or ot the social and domestic habits of its people. No people, it lias been said, has ever been found which did not profess some kind of religión. The most savage and the most cultirated níe alike found aoaro.hing out the same essentinl faeU eonneeted with their origiu and destiny. ïhe Chinese have their deities also; but it would be more difficult than most people imagine to say in just wliat their religión consistí. ïhe teaohings of Confucius form the basis of their National jurisprudeuce; but it can hardly be called a religión, since it doei not incúlcate the worship oí any God. Their Taouist íaith ís essentially an undeveloped species of rationalism. Buddhism is evideutly the religión of the masses in the interior provinces; but the generally low eharacter of its priesthood, and the düapidated condition of íts temples, tell an fërêrice"oftïité"ê'duc'ate5 añcTTñiTucntial masses. The Mohammedans are niuoh less numerous in this section of the Empire, but possibly a more intelligent and better class of men The mandarín, or governing class, cspecially those in actual eoimnissiou, are Confueians, of coime. Iu a qualifled sense, most Chinamen are Spiritualists. A belief in the supematural is entertained by al) cla-ses, from the coolie to the District Magistrate. A few evenings since I obseived that the Yangtze Uiver was lighted up for miles by mcans of small iloating tapera, and was informed that it wasfor the benefit of those who had been drowned; Ïhe water wasinhabiteil by myriads of unfortunate spirits unI able to escape, and these lights were for their especial benefit. In the dry, hot rnonth of July last, a local Magistrate, high in authority, remarked that eiieh weather, though by no means unusual, would probably not long continue, as they had begun to pray for rain; that is, " to chin chin Joss " for a chango of temperatura. Most persons who have traveled in in China or know anything of the country are aware of the importance attached by the natives to the doctrine of Fung-Shui, or the spiritual influence of wind and water. In traversing this portion of the Empire, one sees pagodas, octagonal in shape and of enormous height, and on inquify as to their origin and title, is told that the first is unknown, and that the second has reference to Fung-Shui. To the inquiry, " What is Fung-Sluii?" no very clear or satisfactory ansvver is likely to be given, possibly from the fact that most Chinese themselves appear to have rather hazy notious on the subject. The term, I v literaíly translaled, Ís " wind" (anü) "water;" but as an expression conveying an idea from the mind of one person to that of another, it seems to have lost entirely its literal signiíication, and is expressive only of an abstract idea. There is something about this so-called scij ence- for it is practicad in China as a seienue - nearly related to geomancy; but ncither geomancy nor terrestrial magnetiam (it I may coin a term) will quite convey the idea intended by the term Fung-Shui. lts real basis seems to be about this: Heaven and earth are Jiaqi BAüij 'sauunoo paziiAo woiu ui U9A8 'ajdood :}sopi -mqs-SHnj jpja pinoM uBureujqo b }ki(a' jo noijTí.i}sn[it ub si 'i uiüjaua oj ajns'83[d ï% si ij uv.i jaq;o aoua.iaja.id ijang joj uosiiaa jfuis jo ssausnopsíioo aq jnoqitAv 'ámqj jo 'uosaad 'uoijisod 'A3{B0[ ua.3 ■B joj aAq samiauios suosjod qoiqAi aouajajajd nqx -Aonian sr jfyuioiA 9qt ui v 'aoaaq ígaouan;ui quu'lg }o uoijisuBJi aqj jdtujaitn o% pasod -dns oq .{bot 'jCbaibj b '9[daais v 'asnoq {Vi V "saouongui injajKq gonpm o pasoddne o.iv h.m jqloiBjs .10 sjoop'ais -oddo A[joBxa oax sjoatqo snonoidsnoo amos jo uinipsui aqj 'qnojqi 'astuto [Bjn)t!madns amos mo.ij Suisub uaijo 2{ínii ni jo poo3 '5]on[ si pooqjoqq3iaa aBipsuiiui aqj 'ajojajaqj 'puB 'as'ioi -joj u jo uoSB.ip b aiquiasaj oj paioaBj si 'oomisui joj 'ijiq b jo 9tujno aqx aojjts Bnt-rea aq jo uopBuuojuoo aqj uo spnadap na;jo joabj A'juaABaq eauaq puo 'jaqjo qou jo sivdj)ano Fung-Shuis; theysmile atthem, but act as tliough they believed in them, provided no expenditure of money is thereby called for. Some of the Chinese servants smile at theirs, but always attend to them even at the cost of money. lnstances have come within tnv knowledge of judicial deeisions havïng been rendered by Chinese magistratcs so aa not to conflict with the popular belief in Fung-Shui. It is, in fact, a part of the unwritten law of the Empire, and cannot be very well disregarded hy the