China: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 2/Appendix
Appendix
Appendix
Note 1.—A very different account has been given by some travellers, but it would appear that the prominence and frequency of burying-places in China have misled these observers into an exaggerated estimate of the space actually devoted to purposes of sepulture.
Note 2.—In Japan the extent of cultivated land does not exceed thirteen millions of acres, whereas the population is forty-two millions. Thus, even assuming that a moiety of the land produces two crops yearly—a liberal assumption—it would follow that the ratio is not more than one-half of an acre per head. Yet in Japan there are no evidences of the grinding poverty that force themselves upon the attention of every traveller in China.
Note 3.—Dr. Wells Williams thinks that the tendency to multiply is augmented by the custom of families remaining together through several generations for the sake of the social and local importance they acquire. Cases are on record of nine generations inhabiting one house, and of a family table at which seven hundred mouths were fed daily.
Note 4.—Not really "willow," but Pterecarpa stenoptera.
Note 5.—As an example of the roads within the province of Szchuan, the highway between Chunking and Chingtu (the capital of the province) may be instanced. This, the best, in fact the only dry, road in the province has a width of five feet and is paved with heavy stone slabs laid crosswise.
Note 6.—Similar divisions exist in Japan, namely, the ken, or prefecture; the fu, or urban prefecture, and the do, or circuit. But the fu does not include several ken, being in fact merely a metropolitan prefecture (Tōkyō, Kyōtō, or Ōsaka), neither does the do enter into the present administrative scheme, being merely a geographical term, as Hokkai-do (northern-sea circuit), Nakesan-do (mid-mountain circuit), etc.
Note 7.—The distinction between the chou and the hien need not be considered by foreign students desiring to form only a general idea of the Chinese system. Some writers, however, call the fu a town of the first order, the chou a town of the second order, and the hien a town of the third order; though, in fact, the word "town" does not properly describe any of these divisions, since each comprises not only a town but also the district surrounding it.
Note 8.—The term "Mandarin," commonly applied by foreigners to Chinese officials, is derived from the Portuguese word mandar, "to command," and is quite unknown to the Chinese language.
Note 9.—"The Middle Kingdom."
Note 10.—The term "tael" is derived from the Hindu "tota" through the Malayan "tahil." It signifies an ounce weight of pure silver, and is not a coin.
Note 11.—In the neighbouring Empire of Japan, where only 13 millions of acres are under cultivation, the land tax yields 40 million yen in round figures. At the same rate—which, so far from being onerous, is admittedly very light—the sum collected in China would be 1,200 million yen, or about 1,000 million taels.
Note 12.—Much of the information here given is abbreviated from a brochure by Mr. Consul-General Jamieson.
Note 13.—Mr. H. A. Giles says that it is derived from li, the thousandth part of a tael, which is nominally one cash, and kin (metal, here used for money). He adds: "A tax, originally of one cash per tael on all sales, voluntarily imposed on themselves by the people, among whom it was at first very popular, with a view of making up the deficiency in the land tax of China, caused by the Taeping and Nienfei troubles.
Note 14.—The Peking Gazette of January 18th, 1875, said: "Likin is in its nature an oppressive institution, only continued in force owing to the necessity of providing resources to meet the army expenditures in the northwest."
Note 15.—Mr. A. Michie in "The Englishman in China."
Note 16.—As the loans were contracted in gold (with one exception) and are redeemable in gold, they are here stated in sterling.
Note 17.—Hong means a "row" or "series." It alludes to the fact that a Chinese warehouse consists of a succession of rooms. Hence, as the original foreign factories at Canton were built in that style, the Chinese gave to each block the name hong, which ultimately came to be applied to mercantile houses of every kind.
Note 18.—They were known in China as T'iao-chin-chiao, or the "sect of persons that extract the sinew."
Note 19.—This is another evidence of the fact that the Jews in Europe were driven to adopt the trade of money-lenders, not of deliberate choice, but because all other means of earning a livelihood were denied to them.
Note 20.—Literally, "knocking the head." The salute before the Throne required three kneelings and nine knockings of the head.
Note 21.—This old story makes a striking preface to the Berlin incident of 1901, when the Kaiser sought to insist that the Chinese Ambassador of apology should "kowtow" before him. The Chinaman declined.
Note 22.—"Different" or "strange" is the exact significance of this ideograph which has roused so much wrath and produced so much misunderstanding. It has scarcely a profounder meaning than the English word "foreign," and is certainly not more offensive than "alien."
Note 23.—A corruption of the Portuguese boca tigre, which is a translation of the Chinese name ("Tiger's Gate"). The same place is often spoken of as the "Bogue."
Note 24.—Sir John Davis, "The Chinese."