The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chinese Sketches, by Herbert A. Giles

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Title: Chinese Sketches

Author: Herbert A. Giles

Release Date: March 28, 2006 [EBook #2133]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINESE SKETCHES ***

Produced by John Bickers; Dagny

CHINESE SKETCHES

by Herbert A. Giles

"The institutions of a despised people cannot be judged with fairness."

Spencer's Sociology: The Bias of Patriotism.

DEDICATION

To Warren William de la Rue,
"As a mark of friendship."

PREFACE

The following _Sketches_ owe their existence chiefly to frequent
peregrinations in Chinese cities, with pencil and note-book in hand.
Some of them were written for my friend Mr. F. H. Balfour of Shanghai,
and by him published in the columns of the _Celestial Empire_. These
have been revised and partly re-written; others appear now for the
first time.

It seems to be generally believed that the Chinese, as a nation, are
an immoral, degraded race; that they are utterly dishonest, cruel, and
in every way depraved; that opium, a more terrible scourge than gin,
is now working frightful ravages in their midst; and that only the
forcible diffusion of Christianity can save the Empire from speedy and
overwhelming ruin. An experience of eight years has taught me that,
with all their faults, the Chinese are a hardworking, sober, and happy
people, occupying an intermediate place between the wealth and
culture, the vice and misery of the West.

H. A. G.

Sutton, Surrey, 1st November 1875.

CHINESE SKETCHES

THE DEATH OF AN EMPEROR

His Imperial Majesty, Tsai-Shun, deputed by Heaven to reign over all
within the four seas, expired on the evening of Tuesday the 13th
January 1875, aged eighteen years and nine months. He was erroneously
known to foreigners as the Emperor T'ung Chih; but T'ung Chih was
merely the style of his reign, adopted in order that the people should
not profane by vulgar utterance a name they are not even permitted to
write.[*] Until the new monarch, the late Emperor's cousin, had been
duly installed, no word of what had taken place was breathed beyond
th