filial piety, which is so great a moral asset of the people, has its origin in ancestral worship. If the departed souls are not reverenced, it is believed that they will work evil upon their living kindred. “Filial piety,” said Confucius, “consists in obedience; in serving one’s parents when alive according to propriety; in burying them when dead according to propriety; and in sacrificing to them according to propriety.” The reviling of a person’s ancestors is regarded as the worst form of abusive language.
All Souls’ Day, or the Buddhist Festival of Departed Spirits, is called in Chinese Yú Lân Pén Huì (孟蘭盆會), Sanskrit, Ullambana, lit.: “the vessel to hold offerings.” It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 7th moon, chiefly for the purpose of saying masses for the solitary souls (孤魂), of those who died away from home, and have nobody to perpetuate their memories by ancestral worship. During the Festival of Tombs, qïngmíng (清明), at the end of the 2nd moon, occasion is also taken for the worship of departed spirits. This festival is also for the purpose of celebrating the spring, and was originally the time for the rekindling of the cooking fires, which were supposed to be put out for three days, when cold food (寒食), was eaten by all the people.
Ant
(媽議)
The composition of the written symbol for the ant denotes that it is the righteous (義), insect (虫), in reference to its orderly marching and subordination.
The internal arrangements of the chambered nest of earth, in which the ants maintain a perfect system of order, store their provisions, and nurture their young on the milk of the aphis, have been described by Chinese writers with considerable accuracy.
The white ant (白嬉), or termite, in its larval stage, commits great depredations upon the woodwork of buildings in South China. It is sometimes attacked and destroyed by a species of small black ant. A variety of pine-wood (眞杉木), is said to resist the ravages of white ants, and is therefore employed for the construction of the beams and joists of Chinese houses.
The ant is the emblem of virtue and patriotism, but at the same time it symbolises self-interest, and striving for filthy lucre, as evidenced in the metaphorical expression: “Ants cling to what is rank smelling” (羣織附獲), which has this significance. The Chinese people have been compared to ants, on account of the manner in which they overcome difficulties by dint of mere numbers; while they resemble these minute animals no less in their persevering and untiring industry.
Apple
(薩果)
The true apple, Malus sylvestris, is not cultivated in China; the varieties found are more akin to M. prunifolia, being handsome in appearance but of poor flavour.
The wild crab-apple M. baccata (山
Apple blossom is sometimes employed as a decorative motive, and is regarded as an emblem of feminine beauty. On account of the similarity in the sound of the Chinese word for “apple,” píng (藤), and “peace,” píng (平), the gift of a few apples suggests the idea of perpetual concord, and is equivalent to the greeting,“Peace be with you.”
Apricot
(杏)
Prunus armeniaca. Many varieties of apricot are grown in terraces on the hill-sides in North China. The edible kernels (杏核), take the place of almonds, which they resemble.
The fruit is an emblem of the fair sex, and the slanting eyes of Chinese beauties are often compared to the ovoid kernels.
The following lines are ascribed to Sòng Zîjïng (宋子京) A.D. 998–1061, President of the Board of Works and a celebrated author:
“The scholar has reaped the reward that is due,
And homeward returns on his wearying steed;
When the blossoming apricots come into view,
He urges his charger to bear him with speed.”
(一 色 杏 花 紅 十 里
Architecture
(建築)
“It is generally supposed that the remote ancestors of this nation, in their migration eastward, dwelt in tents: their circumstances would require such habitations; and when they became stationary, their wants would prompt them to seek some more substantial covering from the heat and the storm. But the tent was the only model before them; and that they imitated it, their houses and pagodas, built at the present day, afford abundant proof. The roof, concave on the upper side, and the verandah with its slender columns, show most distinctly the original features of the tent.”9
The fact that the Chinese roof is curved in its pitch, and also at the corners, is also explained by the Zhōu Lî (周禮), or “Ritual of the Zhōu Dynasty,” in the chapter on building rules, which states that the angle or pitch of the roof near the ridge should be greater than the pitch near the eaves, because the greater incline at the top enables the rain-water to flow with greater velocity, while the gentle upward slope at the bottom throws it out some distance from the wall of the house.
The first brick houses are said to have been built by the tyrant Emperor Jiè Kuí (架癸), 1818 B.C. The earliest type of brick used by the Chinese, and still used to a large extent in making houses throughout the country districts in the smaller towns, was moulded by hand between boards and sun-dried. The curved roof is constructed on wooden pillars, the spaces between which are filled in with stone or brickwork.
The original style of Chinese architecture is altogether different to that of the West. In building an ordinary house, the foundation is made by digging a shallow trench, wherein are placed a few rough-hewn stones, not laid as wedges, but filling in angles, and thus mutually supporting each other; four or more pillars of wood are then set upon, not into the mud of which the floor is to be made, standing each on a small slab of stone, thicker or thinner, if any dissimilarity in the length of the several pillars must be made up; four crossbeams make the framework on which the roof is to be laid, being of rafters and loose tiles; lastly rise walls of mud or bricks. The walls having little or no connection with the roof or the pillars, do not always follow the same line but may incline outward or inward. The roof, if a little top-heavy, as it generally is, gives a jaunty air to the pillars, and, to lend the additional support which seems so much needed, large sloping beams or buttresses are driven into the earth at each side of the house. The pillars, ceiling, and roof are then daubed with red paint, the walls plastered, and, if the purse and taste of the proprietor permit, gilded tablets inscribed with the old Chinese character, gay flowers, and grotesque monsters in paint or relief, cover the walls and cornices; altars and niches for idols being added if space will allow.
“Houses are frequently built against some hill, if there be any. Where wood is abundant, they are constructed of it, being supported by posts, between which is a kind of coarsely woven mat-work, covered with mud and
