their ancestors’ souls to make the existing and all future generations of descendants, rich and prosperous.
In these rites there is some difference in the wording of the prayer, according as it is presented to remote ancestors or to lately deceased parents or friends; but the general import is the same.
SACRIFICES TO CONFUCIUS.
Further to illustrate the modes “in which the Chinese worship Confucius and the deceased,” we subjoin the following extracts, from the Indo-Chinese Gleaner:—
From the Shing-meaou-che, volume first, page second, it appears that there are, in China, more than one thousand, five hundred and sixty temples dedicated to Confucius. At the spring and autumnal sacrifices offered to him, it is calculated in the above-named work, that there are immolated (on the two occasions) annually, six bullocks, twenty-seven thousand pigs, five thousand eight hundred sheep, two thousand eight hundred deer, and twenty-seven thousand rabbits.
Thus, there are annually sacrificed to Confucius, in China, sixty-two thousand, six hundred and six victims; it is added, there are offered at the same time, twenty-seven thousand, six hundred pieces of silk. What becomes of these does not appear.
CHINESE WOMEN.
It has justly been remarked that a nation’s civilization may be estimated by the rank which females hold in society. If the civilization of China be judged of by this test, she is far from occupying that first place which she so strongly claims. Females have always been regarded with contempt by the Chinese. Their ancient sages seem to have considered them scarcely worthy of their attention. The sum of the duties they require of them is, to submit to the will of their masters. The lady, say they, who is to be betrothed to a husband, ought to follow blindly the wishes of her parents, yielding implicit obedience to their will. From the moment when she is joined in wedlock, she ceases to exist; her whole being is absorbed in that of her lord; she ought to know nothing but his will, and to deny herself in order to please him. Pan-hwny-pan, who is much admired as an historian, composed a book of instructions for her own sex, in which she treats of their proper station in society, the deportment they should exhibit, and the duties they ought to perform. She teaches them that they “hold the lowest rank among mankind, and that employments the least honourable, ought to be, and in fact are, their lot.” She inculcates entire submission to their husbands, and tells them in very plain terms that they ought to become abject slaves, in order to become good wives. We cannot expect that these doctrines, inculcated as they are, by a lady, who ought to advocate the cause of her sex, and by one held in so high repute as is Pan-hwny-pan, will be overlooked by the “lords of creation;” especially as they accord so perfectly with their domineering disposition, in China.
Confucius, the prince of letters, divorced his wife without assigning any cause for so doing; and his followers have invariably adopted similar arbitrary measures in their treatment of females. The price which is paid to the parents of the bride, constitutes her at once a saleable commodity, and causes her to be regarded as differing little from a mere slave. In the choice of a partner for life, she is entirely passive, is carried to the house of the bridegroom, and there disposed of, for life, by her parents.
The birth of a female is a matter of grief in China. The father and mother, who had already hoped in the unborn babe to embrace a son, feel disappointed at the sight of a daughter. Many vows and offerings are made before their idols in order to propitiate their favour, and secure the birth of a son. The mercy of the compassionate Kuan-yin, especially, is implored to obtain this precious gift; but after they have spent large sums of money in this pious work, the inexorable goddess fills the house with mourning at the birth of a daughter. “Anciently,” says Pan-hwny-pan, “the female infant was thrown upon some old rags, by the side of its mother’s bed, and for three days was scarcely spoken or thought of. At the end of that time it was carried to a temple by a father, accompanied by attendants with bricks and tiles in their hands. The bricks and tiles,” says Pan-hwny-pan, in her comment on these facts, “signify the contempt and suffering which are to be her companions and her portion—bricks are of no use except to form enclosures and to be trodden under foot; tiles are useless except when they are exposed to the injuries of the air.” The Sheking, one of the venerated books, says,
“——When a daughter is born,
She sleeps on the ground,
She is clothed with a wrapper:
She plays with a tile:
She is incapable either of evil or good.”
This last assertion is thus explained; “if she does ill she is not a woman—and if she does well she is not a woman; a slavish submission is her duty and her highest praise.” At the present day, as well as anciently, the female infant is not unfrequently an object of disgust to its parents, and of contempt to all the inmates of the family. As she grows up, her feet are so confined and cramped that they can never exceed the size of infancy. This process entirely incapacitates her from walking with ease or safety. Small feet, that badge of bondage which deprives the Chinese females of the power of locomotion, confines them to the inner apartments, except when poverty forces them to earn their livelihood abroad by labour, which is rendered exceedingly difficult and painful if accompanied by walking. Females of the higher class seldom leave the house, except in sedan-chairs. Their lives are but an honourable captivity. They have few or no real enjoyments—are exceedingly ignorant—very few of them being able to read. They live and die little more than ciphers in human society. Pale and emaciated, they spend the greatest part of their lives in embellishing their persons; while females of the poorer classes, whose feet are necessarily permitted to grow to the size which the God of nature designed, perform all the drudgery of husbandry and other kinds of work. These last are in general very industrious, and prove to be helpmates to their husbands. Being remarkable for their good, sound understanding, they manage their families with a care and prudence, and so far as industry and economy are concerned, they are exemplary mothers. Nothwithstanding the degradation in which they are held, they are generally far superior in intellect to the common cast of Asiatic women—are very ingenious in their needlework, &c. To be a good mother, in the estimation of this class of the Chinese, a woman must be a weaver. It is to be regretted, that they have very little regard for the cleanliness either of their persons or houses; their children crawl in the dirt, and the few articles of furniture in their dwellings are covered with filth.
Infanticide of females is not unknown among the Chinese. They are far from regarding this crime with the horror it deserves. “It is only a female,” is the answer generally given when they are reproved for it.
The account of the Charitable Institutions of Canton is brief. They are few in number, of small extent, and of recent origin:—
First: Yuh-ying-tang, or the “foundling hospital.” This institution was founded in 1698, and it was rebuilt and considerably enlarged in 1732. It stands without the walls of the city, on the east—has accommodations for two or three hundred children, and is maintained at an annual expense of two thousand, five hundred and twenty-two taels.
Second: Yang-tse-yuen.—This is a retreat for poor, aged and infirm, or blind people, who have no friends to support them. It stands near the foundling hospital, and like it, enjoys imperial patronage, receiving annually, five thousand, one hundred taels. Both this sum, and that for yuh-ying-tang, are received in part, or wholly, from duties, paid by those foreign ships which bring rice to Canton. Every such ship must pay the sum of six hundred and twenty taels, which, by imperial order, is appropriated to these two hospitals. The number of “rice-ships,” last year, was twenty-eight, yielding the sum of seventeen thousand, three hundred and sixty taels. The English, American, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese, are the only foreign vessels that bring rice to Canton.
Third:
