The Chinese are not a moral, though they are a ceremonial people. Their usual salutation when meeting is Haou-tsing-tsing ? Are you well ? Hail ! Hail ! Social conversation is replete with compliments, compelling even the most egotistic talker always to speak of himself as the little one,' the mean one,' the stupid one,' or the cheap one ; ' and allowing such a greeting as 'I congratulate you on having acquired wealth,' to be addressed to a passing beggar. They, like most of the natives of the East, waste much time before commencing the business for which they meet. The conversation must always begin on indifferent and mostly insignificant subjects, and at the end of the visit you explain in three words what really brings you there. The visitor rises, and says, I have been troublesome to you a very long time ; ' and doubtless, of all Chinese com pliments, this is the one that most frequently approaches the truth. They are not truthful. Sir John Bowling says (i. p. 105) his experience in China predisposes him to receive with doubt and distrust any statement of a nature when any, the smallest, interest would be possibly promoted by falsehood. They are largely given to the use of opium. Mr. Knowlton estimated that there are 2,351,115 confirmed opium-smokers, or one is every 170 of the population.
In ordinary quiet times they appear to maintain order as if by common consent, independent of all surveillance or interference on the part of the executive. But let them be brought into contact with bloodshed and rapine, or let them be roused by oppression or fanaticism, and all that is evil in their dispositions will at once assert itself, inciting them to the most fiendish and atrocious acts of which human nature has been found capable. Both kindliness and cruelty, gentleness and ferocity, have each its place in the Chinese character ; and the sway which either emotion has upon their minds, depends very ranch upon the associations by which they are for the moment surrounded. When in their own quiet homes, pursuing undisturbed the avocations to which they have been accustomed, there are no more harm less, well-intentioned, and orderly people.
They are good agriculturists, mechanics, labourers, and sailors ; and they possess all the intelligence, delicacy of touch, and unwearying patience which are necessary to render them first rate machinists and manufacturers. They are, moreover, docile,1313er, thrifty, industrious, self denying, enduring, and peace-loving to a degree. They emigrate to any climate, be it hot or frigid. All that is needed is teaching and guiding, combined with capital and enterprise, to vert them into the most efficient workmen to be found on the face of the earth.
On the pressure of want they readily part with their children, especially girls, and girls are often destroyed. On the other hand, asylums exist in
China for aged men and women, for the blind, and for lepers. The aged men are treated with great respect, and are allowed to have walking-sticks, which are not used by Chinese, long-stemmed pipes being employed. Monumental arches are raised to their honour.
Food.—The great staff of life in China is rice, which is either eaten dry, or mixed with water so as to resemble a soup. Out of rice they make their chief intoxicating liquor, which, when good, is something like strong whisky, both in its colour less appearance and its smoky flavour. Several vegetables are consumed, such as the sweet potato, Barbadoes millet, peas, beans, turnips, carrots, etc. Of their fruits, the orange, lichee, loquat, and mangoes are much in use. Their favourite animal food is pork, the taste for which is national. There is a maxim prevalent among them, that a scholar does not quit his hooks nor a poor man his pigs. The flesh of the bullock, sheep, deer, dog, cat, wild cat, rat, and horse is eaten, but compared with that of swine these are rarities. Fish are eaten in great abundance, either fresh, dried, or salted ; and they rear great quantities of ducks and various species of fowl for the table. The comprehensive principle on which Chinese diet is regulated, is to eat everything which can possibly give nourishment. Their notions as to dogs' and rats' flesh are quite fanciful. The luxuries consumed by the rich consist of the edible bird's nest, the beche de mer or sea-slug, shark fins, fish maws, cow sinews, points of stag antlers, buffalo hides, which afford the gelatinous food considered so restorative. Amongst their deli cacies also are dishes made of the larvie of the sphinx moth, and of a grub bred in the sugar cane. In China, the various modes of catching and rearing fish exhibit the contrivance and skill of the Chinese quite as much as their agricultural operations. According to the Repo sitory, at least one-tenth of the population derive their food from the water, and necessity leads them to invent and try many ingenious ways of securing the finny tribes. Besides fish, molluscs of every kind, crustacea of all kinds. A Chinese is prohibited by law from killing a cow. The punishment for slaughtering a draught cow or ox, for the first offence, is one hundred blows ; for a second offence, the same number, and exile for life from the province.
The amusements of the Chinese comprise theatrical representations, pyrotechnic displays, marionettes, peep-shows, conjurors, athletes, ventriloquists, regattas, cricket fighting, quail fighting ; and they are very fond of singing-birds.