40.) Mr. Moule remarks, however, that P. Parrenin is
a little too absolute.
Certain trades do run in families, even of the free
classes of Chinese, not to mention the disfranchised boatmen, barbers,
chair-coolies, etc. But, except in the latter cases, there is no
compulsion, though the Sacred Edict goes to encourage the perpetuation of
the family calling.
NOTE 4. - This sheet of water is the celebrated SI-HU, or "Western Lake,"
the fame of which had reached Abulfeda, and which has raised the
enthusiasm even of modern travellers, such as Barrow and Van Braam. The
latter speaks of three islands (and this the Chinese maps confirm), on
each of which were several villas, and of causeways across the lake, paved
and bordered with trees, and provided with numerous bridges for the
passage of boats. Barrow gives a bright description of the lake, with its
thousands of gay, gilt, and painted pleasure boats, its margins studded
with light and fanciful buildings, its gardens of choice flowering shrubs,
its monuments, and beautiful variety of scenery. None surpasses that of
Martini, whom it is always pleasant to quote, but here he is too lengthy.
The most recent description that I have met with is that of Mr. C.
Gardner, and it is as enthusiastic as any. It concludes: "Even to us
foreigners ... the spot is one of peculiar attraction, but to the Chinese
it is as a paradise." The Emperor K'ien Lung had erected a palace on one
of the islands in the lake; it was ruined by the T'ai-P'ings. Many of the
constructions about the lake date from the flourishing days of the T'ang
Dynasty, the 7th and 8th centuries.
Polo's ascription of a circumference of 30 miles to the lake, corroborates
the supposition that in the compass of the city a confusion had been made
between miles and li, for Semedo gives the circuit of the lake really as
30 li. Probably the document to which Marco refers at the beginning of
the chapter was seen by him in a Persian translation, in which li had
been rendered by mil. A Persian work of the same age, quoted by
Quatremere (the Nuzhat al-Kultub, gives the circuit of the lake as six
parasangs, or some 24 miles, a statement which probably had a like origin).
Polo says the lake was within the city. This might be merely a loose way
of speaking, but it may on the other hand be a further indication of the
former existence of an extensive outer wall. The Persian author just
quoted also speaks of the lake as within the city. (Barrow's Autobiog.,
p. 104; V. Braam, II. 154; Gardner in Proc. of the R. Geog. Soc.,
vol. xiii. p. 178; Q. Rashid, p. lxxxviii.) Mr. Moule states that
popular oral tradition does enclose the lake within the walls, but he can
find no trace of this in the Topographies.
Elsewhere Mr. Moule says: "Of the luxury of the (Sung) period, and its
devotion to pleasure, evidence occurs everywhere. Hang-chow went at the
time by the nickname of the melting-pot for money. The use, at houses of
entertainment, of linen and silver plate appears somewhat out of keeping
in a Chinese picture. I cannot vouch for the linen, but here is the
plate.... 'The most famous Tea-houses of the day were the Pa-seen ("8
genii"), the "Pure Delight", the "Pearl", the "House of the Pwan Family,"
and the "Two and Two" and "Three and Three" houses (perhaps rather "Double
honours" and "Treble honours"). In these places they always set out
bouquets of fresh flowers, according to the season.... At the counter were
sold "Precious thunder Tea", Tea of fritters and onions, or else Pickle
broth; and in hot weather wine of snow bubbles and apricot blossom, or
other kinds of refrigerating liquor. Saucers, ladles, and bowls were all
of pure, silver!' (Si-Hu-Chi.)"
[Illustration: Plan of the Metropolitan City of Hangchow in the 13th
Century. (From the Notes of the Right Rev. G.E. Moule.)
1-17, Gates; 18, Ta-nuy, Central Palace; 19, Woo-Foo, The Five Courts;
20, T'ai Miao, The Imperial Temple; 21, Fung-hwang shan, Phoenix Hill;
22, Shih fuh she, Monastery of the Sacred Fruit; 25-30, Gates; 31,
T'ien tsung yen tsang T'ien tsung Salt Depot; 2, T'ien tsung tsew koo,
T'ien tsung Wine Store; 33, Chang she, The Chang Monastery; 34, Foo
che, Prefecture; Foo hio, Prefectural Confucian Temple.]
NOTE 5. - This is still the case: "The people of Hang-chow dress gaily, and
are remarkable among the Chinese for their dandyism. All, except the lowest
labourers and coolies, strutted about in dresses composed of silk, satin,
and crape.... 'Indeed' (said the Chinese servants) 'one can never tell a
rich man in Hang-chow, for it is just possible that all he possesses in the
world is on his back.'" (Fortune, II. 20.) "The silk manufactures of
Hang-chau are said to give employment to 60,000 persons within the city
walls, and Hu-chau, Kia-hing, and the surrounding villages, are reputed to
employ 100,000 more." (Ningpo Trade Report, January 1869, comm. by Mr. N.
B. Dennys.) The store-towers, as a precaution in case of fire, are still
common both in China and Japan.
NOTE 6. - Mr. Gardner found in this very city, in 1868, a large collection
of cottages covering several acres, which were "erected, after the taking
of the city from the rebels, by a Chinese charitable society for the
refuge of the blind, sick, and infirm." This asylum sheltered 200 blind
men with their families, amounting to 800 souls; basket-making and such
work was provided for them; there were also 1200 other inmates, aged and
infirm; and doctors were maintained to look after them. "None are allowed
to be absolutely idle, but all help towards their own sustenance." (Proc.
R.G.Soc. XIII. 176-177.) Mr. Moule, whilst abating somewhat from the
colouring of this description, admits the establishment to be a
considerable charitable effort.
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