Eighteen centuries ago they had_discovered the secret and means of manufacturing paper. Before that invention, they used to inscribe written characters on strips of bamboo or sheets of metal, using a style, or iron pen, for the purpose of marking the characters. Before the art of paper making had arrived at perfection, the Chinese had adopted the practice of writing upon white silk, or cotton, with a bamboo pen ; this was found a more convenient method than writing either on strips of bamboo or sheets of metal, as the silk or linen could be folded into a small compass. Paper is manufactured from various materials, each pro vince or district having its own peculiar manu facture. In Foh-kien province it is made from young, soft bamboo ; in the province of Che kiang it is made from paddy straw ; in the pro vince of Kiang-nan it is made from the refuse silk, and this paper is very fine and delicate, being highly valued for writing complimentary inscrip tions upon. To size the paper and render it fit for ink, they make a glue, somewhat similar to isinglass, from fish-bones ; these they chop up very small, and soak the mass in water, which is continually renewed. When all oily impurity is extracted, they add a due proportion of alum which has been dissolved. Over the vessel in which this mixture is, a rod is laid ; a cleft stick is used for holding the sheet of paper during the process of dipping. As soon as the paper has been su ffici ently saturated, it is withdrawn by gently roll ing it round the stick which has been laid over the vessel ; the sheet of paper is afterwards hung to dry either near a furnace or iu the sun. Towards the close:of:the 19th century, they have thought of introducing railways, have worked their coal mines on the system followed in Europe ; have formed steam-mills for spinning and weaving cotton and wool, and have established steam navigation companies and steam war-ships.
The trade of India with China ranks next after that with the United Kingdom ; in the year 1878 the total value of the foreign trade of China was as follows :—Imports, 70,804,027 Haikwan taels, or, at 5s. £21,093,670 ; exports, 67,172,179 taels, or £20,011,711 ; tota1,137,976,206 taels, or £41,105,000. The customs revenue in 1878 increased to 12,483,988 taels. The total value of the trade of China with Great Britain and her possessions is set down at 64,943,997 taels or £19,347,899 imports, and 46,022,719 taels or £13,710,935 exports ; making together 110,966,716 taels or £33,058,834.
Domestic and Social Relations. — Polygamy exists, and any man may have his second, third, or inferior wives. Women, even as first wives, do not take a favourable position in their house holds, though as mothers their condition is im proved. Chinese differs from Mahomedan poly gamy in that a Mahomedan woman can legally hold property, is the owner of her own dower, and each wife has a separate establishment and a separate allowance for herself. In China, the extent to which wives are, by law and custom, in the power of their husbands, would produce deplorable effects, but for the almost unlimited power which law and opinion give mothers over their sons of every rank and age. So also the institution of polygamy is largely counterbalanced by the desire of all the men to marry early, in order to secure a progeny of sons as soon as possible. Polygamy is encouraged by the law which com pels gentlemen and tradesmen to give their slaves in marriage, and by the physiological views which compel a husband to abstain from cohabiting with his wife during pregnancy, and during all the time the child is at the breast, Wealthy Chinese are generally very careful to follow this custom. The dread of unhappiness caused by , polygamy has kept many Chinese girls from marrying, amid instances occur of suicide to avoid . it. The imperial household is probably unsurpassed in extent, there being married to the emperor, not only the chief wife, who is the empress, but also under-wives of first, second, and third classes, on all of whom unnumbered servants wait. The
imperial porcelain factories of Kin-tih-chin for warded to the palace for their use, in the year 1877, 11,838 articles, consisting of fish-bowls, flower-vases, and ornamental jars of the first quality, and inferior products in proportion.
In China, children are married according to seniority, as in Genesis xxix. 26, and Book of Tobit viii. 1. In China, parents choose wives for their sons, as was customary with the early Hebrews, as in Genesis xxi. 21, xxxviii. 6, Dent. xxii. 16, and as still prevails with most of the Eastern races. A Chinaman cannot take as a wife a woman who bears the same family or clan name as himself ; such a marriage is null. Neither can he marry his cousin on his mother's side, nor his step-daughter, nor his aunt, the sister of his mother. No lady can marry until she is fourteen years of age. Nap-pie is the presentation of silks in betrothal, as in Genesis xxiv. 22. The bride is seldom seen by the husband, until she leave the sedan chair in which she is conveyed, with her belongings, to his house. Mandarin ducks are introduced at marriages as patterns of connubial felicity. The last part of the ceremonial is for a female attendant to present to the bridegroom a small linen sheet, which he spreads on the nuptial couch, and on the following morning it is presented to his parents. In China, widow re-marriage is not respectable, and a girl whose betrothed dies is regarded as a widow.
Cosmetics are much used by Chinese ladies ; they are forbidden to be used by a bride on her marriage day, and are not used in mourning.
Playactors, policemen, boatmen, and slaves must marry into their own respective classes.
Matthew's Gospel, xxv., lanterns are much used.
In the little feet of the Chinese women, the four smaller toes appear grown into the foot, the great toe being left in its natural position. Tho fore part of the foot is so tightly bound with strong broad ligatures, that all the growth is forced into height instead of length and breadth, and forms a thick lump at the ankle ; the under part measures scarcely four inches long and an inch and a half wide. The foot is constantly bound up in white linen or silk, and strong broad ribbons, and stuck in a very high-heeled shoe. The crippled fair ones trip about with tolerable quickness ; to be sure, they waddle like geese, but they manage to get up and down stairs without the help of a stick. The feet of their women are naturally small, but at six or nine years of age they are trained into a deformity. Long bandages of cotton cloth an inch wide are folded round the foot, and brought in a figure of eight form from the heel across the instep and over the toes, then carried under the foot and round the heel, and so on, and drawn as tight as possible. After some years, if the bandage has been well applied, the pain subsides. The tarsus is bent on itself ; the back of the os calcis is brought to the ground. A large foot is a sure indication of humble birth. It is not, however, the Mark of aristocratic or wealthy station, but a Chinese as opposed to a Tartar practice, though indeed some Chinese races do not follow it. Infanti cide, of which the husbands are the only perpe trators, is not uncommon ; but female children only are murdered, and those immediately after their birth. This horrible crime meets with no punishment from the laws of the country ; a father being the sovereign lord of his children, he may extinguish life whenever he perceives, or pretends, that a prolongation of it would only aggravate the sufferings of his offspring. Professor Douglas is of opinion that it is only abject poverty which drives Chinese parents to the rough resource of infanticide, and that in prosperous districts such primitive method of providing for children is unknown. But the stone which stands near a pool outside the city of Fu-chu, bearing the inscription, Girls may not be drowned here,' proves that the inestimable blessing of possessing daughters is not yet appreciated as it should be by Chinese parents.