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6. CANALS. The Great Canal of China, like the Great Wall, is unrivaled in the world. It extends from Pekin to the Yangtse Kiang, 500 miles, and in connexion with the rivers affords an inland navigation of 1200 miles. The smaller canals are innumerable: they are generally without locks, and run in circuitous courses.

7. NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. China 'produces all the fruits common to the tropical and temperate countries. The camphor, tallow, and cinnamon trees are common in the fields and gardens. The most celebrated production is the tea plant which grows wild here, but is much improved by careful culture. It is a shrub 5 or 6 feet in height producing leaves of different flavor according to the soil.

8. MINERALS. China (if we are to believe some naturalists) produces all the metals and minerals that are known inthe world. White copper, called by the Chinese peton, is peculiar to that country; but we know of no extraor dinary quality which it possesses. Tutenag is another peculiar metal. Their gold mines, therefore, are partially and slightly worked; and the currency of that metal is supplied by the grains which the people find in the sand of rivers and mountains. The silver specie is furnished from the mines of Honan. Coal is abundant.

9. CITIES. Pekin, the, capital of the whole empire of China, and the ordinary residence of the emperor, is situated in a very fertile plain, twenty leagues distant from the great wall. It is of an oblong form, and is divided into two towns; that which contains the emperor's palace is called the Tartar city. The walls and gates are of the surprising height of fifty cubits, so that they hide the whole city, and are so broad, that sentinels are placed upon them on horseback; for there are slopes within the city of considerable length, by which horsemen may ascend the walls, and in several places there are houses built for the guards. The gates, which are nine in number, are not embellished with statues or other carving, all their beauty consisting in their prodigious height, which at a distance gives them a noble appearance. The arches of the gates are built of marble; and the rest of large bricks, cemented with excellent mortar. Most of the streets are built in a direct line; the largest are about 120 feet broad, and above two miles in length; but the houses are poorly built in front, and very low; most of them having only a ground floor, and few exceeding one story above it.

Of all the buildings in this great city, the most remarkable is the imperial palace; the grandeur of which does not consist so much in the nobleness and elegance of the architecture, as in the multitude of its buildings, courts, and gardens, all regularly disposed. The population of Pekin is supposed to be about two millions.

Nankin was the royal residence till the fifteenth century, but it is now a declining city, and a large space within its circuit is uninhabited. It is regularly built, and is a neat if not handsome town. Near the entrance are two temples, one of which is rendered interesting by the skilful execution of the figures of about twenty Chinese philosophers and saints, surrounding a great hall. The city has obtained celebrity by the porcelain tower, and by the manufacture of nankin.

Canton is the largest port in China, and the only port that has been much frequented by Europeans. The city wall is above five miles in circumference, with very pleasant walks around it. From the tops of some adjacent hills, on which forts are built, you have a fine prospect of the country. It is beautifully interspersed with mountains, little hills, and valleys, all green; and these are pleasantly diversified with small towns, villages, high towers, temples, the seats of mandarins and other great men, which are watered by delightful lakes, canals, and small branches from the river Ta; on which are numberless boats and junks, sailing different ways through the most fertile parts of the country. The city is entered by several iron gates, and within each

there is a guard house. The streets of Canton are very strait (though generally narrow,) and are paved with flag-stones. There are many pretty buildings in this city, great numbers of triumphal arches, and temples well stocked with images. The streets are so crowded, that it is difficult to walk in them. There are many private walks about the skirts of the town, where those of the better sort have their houses, which are very little frequented by Europeans, whose business lies chiefly in the trading part of the city, where there are only shops and warehouses. It is computed that there are in this city, and its suburbs, 1,100,000 persons, and there are often 5000 trading vessels lying before the city.

10. MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE. China is so happily situated, and produces such a variety of materials for manufactures, that it may be said to be the native land of industry; but it is an industry without taste or elegance, though carried on with great art and neatness. They make paper of the bark of bamboo and other trees, as well as of cotton, but not comparable, for records or printing, to the European. Their ink for the use of drawing is well known in England, and is said to be made of glue and lamp-black. The manufacture of that earthern-ware, generally known by the name of China, was long a secret in Europe; but it is now well known that the principal material is a prepared pulverised earth; and we may add, that several European nations far exceed the Chinese in manufacturing this commodity. The Chinese silks are generally plain or flowered gauze; and they are said to have been originally fabricated in that country, where the art of rearing the silkworm was first discovered. They manufacture silks likewise of a more durable kind; and their cotton and other cloths are famous for furnishing a light

warm wear.

11. INHABITANTS. The features of the Chinese indicate a Tartar origin, though the influence of climate has rendered them inferior to the Tartars in courage and strength. The complexion of the Chinese is an olive or dark brunette. The hair is black; the eyes are small and black, with the point next the nose inclining a little downwards. The forehead is wide, the cheek bones high, and the chin pointed. There are no ranks but those of office, or of the different grades of Mandarins. The descendants of Confucius and Mencius, however, have some hereditary privileges, chiefly honorary.

12. DRESS. The dress is long and loose. The chief garment is a robe reaching almost to the ground. Over the robe is worn a girdle of silk, from which are suspended a knife in a sheath, and the two sticks which are used instead of forks. The shirts are short and wide. The trowsers are wide, and in winter they are lined with fur. In warm seasons the neck is bare. The Chinese are by no means a cleanly people, either in person or dress. They seldom wash their garments, and they carry no pocket-handkerchiefs. The hair is shaven except a long tuft on the crown, which is plaited somewhat like a whip, and often extends below the waist. The covering for the head is generally a cap, of woven cane, shaped like an inverted cone. No person is fully dressed without a fan. The dress of females of the common ranks differs little from that described. The female dress seems to be prescribed by modesty itself. Their robes are long and closed at the top. An outward jacket is worn over them. Paints are universally used, though with little taste. The teeth are colored yellow or green. The nails of the higher classes are permitted to grow to several inches; and they are kept in bamboo sheaths. The shoes of a Chinese lady are about four inches in length, and two in breadth. In infancy the feet are so closely swathed, that they cease to grow. This deformity is considered as a beauty, and so far from being able to dance, it is with the utmost difficulty, a female thus mutilated can walk. Nothing shows the barbarism of the empire more than this practice. Children are not permitted to wear silks or furs, or to have the head covered, till a certain age, when they assume the dress of men.

13. LANGUAGE. The language is a string of monosyllables, and these ve not numerous, but their meaning is varied by different pronunciations. The the word tchu, spoken by lengthening the u, means master, when pronounce rapidly it signifies kitchen, and when spoken with a loud voice, and depressed toward the end, it signifies pillar. The language of the provinces varies, and even among natives of the same provinces signs are used to relieve the ambiguity of words. There are not more than 350 sounds in the language, that can be distinguished by the English alphabet, and the written language has 80,000 characters, representing objects or ideas. The vocal language being so deficient to the ear, it is common to prevent mistakes in talking, to make with the finger the sign of the character that one means to express by the word; for 229 different and discordant ideas are, on an average, to be expressed by one sound so similar, that the difference cannot be conveyed by our alphabet.

The Chinese characters seem devised as a communication between those who are deprived of speech; the sign is 'sometimes arbitrary, and st others it represents the object described. Thus a prison is represented by z square, denoting an inclosure; and the addition of a dot within it, represents a prisoner. The character that represents a tree, used twice, denotes a thicket, and thrice a forest. The character for time, repeated, means eternity. Some of the combinations of the characters to express other ideas, are ingenious. Thus the characters combined, of good and word, make praise. A bargain is denoted by a word and a nail, comfort is expressed by rice and mouth, and listening by door and ear. The compounds are various, and very many of them show the low estimation in which females are held in China. The character for viscious is composed of the sign for woman and fugitive. Subjection is denoted by the sign of a woman and a claw. To scold is expressed by the sign for two women. Levity is denoted by the character for a mas placed between two women. Anger is espressed by the characters for roman and sour wine. Some combinations however, are expressed in a more gallant spirit. A young unmarried damsel, is expressed by the characters which denote woman and bending down, like an ear of corn. Handsome, is denoted by the characters for a woman and sigh.

14. MANNER OF BUILDING. The architecture resembles that of no other nation. The houses appear fantastic, if compared with the orders that are established as standards in Europe. They are generally of wood, and mostly of but one story. They are small, and the partitions are slight, frequently only mats. The whole building is surrounded by a wall six or seven feet high. Each house contains a family of several generations.

15. Food and DRINK. China is in many parts so densely peopled, that nothing that will support life is thrown away and what is in England called vermin, as rats, mice, &c, are common articles of food. Puppies are constantly hawked about the streets, to be eaten. A favorite dish with the great is made of birds' nests of a particular kind, composed of glutinous substances. The common people fare hardly, and have often not enough of the usual articles of food, which are rice, vegetables, fish, poultry and pork. Among the Tartars, horse flesh is a favorite food. Tea is a universal beverage. A spirituous liquor is obtained from millet, and from rice.

16. DISEASES. The diseases are not peculiar ; China is generally salubrious. The medical science is in a low state; a vein is seldom opened, and bleeding is performed by scarifications, or small punctures.

17. TRAVELLING. The facilities of travelling are chiefly confined to the rivers and canals, and these are filled with every variety of craft. The inns are mean, and furnish little but shelter. A Canton paper advertises the Steamboat Kingfa, to leave next day. She carries cows, a surgeon, a band of music, and has rooms elegantly fitted up for cards and opium smoking.' 16. CHARACTER, MANNERS, &c. The Chinese are a most singular people,

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differing from those of any other country. When China was first explored by European travellers, it was believed to be a nation that had alone found out the true secret of government; where the virtues were developed by the operation of the laws. A greater familiarity with the Chinese has destroyed" the delusion, and their virtues are the last subject for which they can claim any praise. Few nations, it is now agreed, have so little honor, or feeling, or so much duplicity and mendacity. Their affected gravity is as far from wisdom, as their ceremonies are from politeness. The females, as in all unenlightened countries, have to suffer for the state of society; they pass a life of labor, or of seclusion, the slaves rather than the companion of man.

China is known to us principally from the missionaries, and the embassies. Wherever the European passes, by land or water, for the rivers have their thousands, he sees masses of people; but only of one sex, with good humor pervading the whole. He sees soldiers with paper helmets, quilted petticoats and fans he sees punishments inflicted in the streets, all the operations of trade carried on there, and signs over the shops affirming that they do not cheat here to do away the more probable supposition, that they do. The government of China is one of fear and it has produced the usual effects, duplicity and meanness. Prostration to authority is nowhere more humble than in China. Ceremony directs the life of a Chinese, and his most indifferent actions are moulded on it. Their very filial duty (which is prescribed to such an extent, that it destroys the principle,) is rather a political institution than a sentiment. It gives to the parents too much authority to leave space for affection. The parents have the right to destroy or mutilate their infant children, and thousands are exposed yearly to perish in the rivers. A son is a minor during the life of his father, and liable for all the paternal debts, but those contracted by gaming. The government sustains in the greatest rigor all this paternal authority; as the Emperor assumes that he is the general Father, that he may exact from all, more than the obedience that is paid to a father by the son. 19. AMUSEMENTS. There are many festivals, but games of chance are the common amusements. Cards and dice are always carried about. Quail fighting and locust fighting is common, and the Chinese are immoderately. fond of them. The fire works excel those of Europe. The chief festival is the feast of Lanthorns, when gorgeous lanthorns are everywhere displayed. 20. EDUCATION. This is in a certain extent very generally diffused, but the youth are educated in ceremonies, rather than in any useful knowledge, and a Chinese boy is as formal, stiff, and affected, as his grandfather.

21. ARTS. The Chinese have a great practical knowledge of many secrets in the arts, while they are ignorant in the sciences. It is not improbable, that at some remote period the sciences were better understood, and that the arts which have been preserved since then, originated in that period of greater intelligence. The invention of printing, and of gunpowder was known in China long before it was known in Europe, though all improvement stopped with the mere invention.

The literature of China is much encumbered by the difficulties of the language. High attainments are hardly possible though the works are innumerable, and knowledge is the general road to office. Poetry is a general study, and there are many tales, books of ceremonies, ethics, dramas, &c. The books most esteemed are attributed to Confucius. There is a Gazette published at Canton, and though there is no censorship, the penalties for publishing what is distasteful to the authorities are sufficiently severe to repress all liberty of the press.

22. RELIGION. The existing worship is a confused mixture of superstitions, for generally speaking all religions are tolerated, though the reigning Tartar family adhere principally to the religion of the Grand Lama. The religion of Fo is similar to some of the tenets of Buddhism, and Fo is the Buddha of the Hindoos. The number of temples is incalculable. There were many catholic

christians once in China, but they have been often persecuted, from an inde creet course in the missionaries; so that at present they are hardly tolerated. Marriage in China is hardly an affair of the affections. The husband does not see his future wife till she is brought to his house and then the Chinese laws of gallantry allow him to send her back, if on opening the palankeen he discovers her to be unattractive. Divorces may be had on grounds as slight as those of this rejection; and even excessive loquacity in the females is a legal cause. The funerals are conducted with pomp, and a ceremony tray Chinese. The coffins of the rich are costly and they are often provided for years before the decease, and a poor man has been known to sell himself to slavery that he might give his father a splendid burial. The festival in commemoration of the dead is held by members of the same family, the rich and the poor, at the expense of the former.

23. AGRICULTURE. Of all the arts, agriculture is the most practised and the highest honored in China. The industry and skill exercised in cultivation are unsurpassed in the world; irrigation is a general practice. Rice, wheat, tobacco, cotton, millet and maize are the staple articles. In ornamental gardening the Chinese also excel.

24. GOVERNMENT. This is said by the Chinese to be patriarchal and paternal: but it is a despotism. The Emperor's power has no limit. The officers of various grades are called Mandarins, by Europeans. There is no country, where the voice of suffering is less regarded by the rulers than in China: and every department of the government is corrupt and oppressive.

25. LAWS. The common punishment is the bastinado, which is inflicted by a lath of bamboo, and sometimes so severely that it occasions death. It is in constant activity and is inflicted for the smallest offence, when it is considered a paternal correction and the culprit thanks the judge for the care thus bestowed upon his morals. The kangue is a moveable pillory or frame weighing from 60 to 200 pounds and fastened about the neck, so that the culprit cannot feed himself. Other punishments are banishment, and dragging boats on the canals. Death is inflicted by strangulation, or beheading, and crimi nals are generally reserved for execution on a particular day in autumn. Torture is sometimes used to extort confession in charges of great crimes. A debtor's goods are sold to liquidate his debts, and if he has no goods he receives 30 blows for every month in which payment is delayed, so that he is often forced to sell himself as a slave to satisfy his creditor.

26. POPULATION. The population of China, according to an official enumeration made in 1790, was 143,000,000.

27. ANTIQUITIES. The great monument of Chinese labor is the Wall made to repress the incursions of the Tartars. It is 1500 miles in length and it had 3000 square towers. It is 25 feet in height and broad enough for six horsemen to ride abreast. It is chiefly built of brick, and passes over mountains, rivers, and valleys. It has stood above 2000 years.

28. HISTORY. The Chinese are a people of extravagant pretensions to antiquity, and their written records it is affirmed extend to a period anterior to Noah. China was conquered by the Tartars in 1260, but the people have preserved their national manners and character in a great measure unaltered through a long series of ages,

CHAPTER CXII-JAPAN.

THE Japan islands consist of three large and many smaller islands, laying between 41 and 429 N. latitude. The largest is called, by the Japanese,

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