[21] This story is related in that ancient book of marvels the Shan Hai Ching ("Hill and Sea Classic"). The princess is there said to have been the daughter of the mythical Emperor Shên-nung (twenty-eighth century B.C.). As a ching wei, the princess is said to have had a white bill and red claws and to have been in appearance something like a crow.
[22] See Legge's Chinese Classics, vol. iii. pt. 1. pp. 18 and 102–3.
[23] Ten was a sort of mystic number with the ancient Chinese. Lao Tzŭ, the "Old Philosopher," for instance, is supposed to have had ten lines on each hand and ten toes on each foot.
[24] These superstitions, which are treated seriously in the Shan Hai Ching, are referred to in the Lun Hêng of Wang Ch'ung, a writer of the first century A.D. Wang Ch'ung decided that the ten suns could not have been real suns, for if they had been in a Hot Water Abyss they would have been extinguished, because water puts out fire; and if they had climbed a tree their heat would have scorched the branches! (See Forke's transl. of Lun Hêng, Luzac & Co: 1907, pp. 271 seq.)
[25] See Legge's Chinese Classics, vol. iii. pt. 1. pp. 18–23.
[26] Ibid., vol. iii. pt. 1. pp. 162 seq.
[27] The Shan Hai Ching mentions an island in the Wên-têng district, off the south-east coast, called Su-mên-tao, which still bears that name; and describes it as jih yüeh so ch'u—"the place where the sun and moon rise." This part of the ocean, though not the island itself, is visible from the sandy strip mentioned in the text.
[28] See the T'ai Ping Huan Yü Chi (chüan 20).
[29] The offensive appellation is preserved to this day in the name of a small island 120 li south-west of the Shantung Promontory, known as Dwarfs' Island. The term is still frequently used by the people, and it often occurred in formal petitions addressed to my own Court until I expressly forbade, under penalty, its further use.
[30] T'ai P'ing Huan Yü Chi, 174th chüan, pp. 3 seq.
[32] For notices concerning the ch'ien-hu and pai-hu of the tribes of far-western China at the present day, see the author's From Peking to Mandalay (John Murray: 1908), pp. 172, 176, 190, 425–7, 429.
[37] This is a village in British territory near Ai-shan Miao, a temple described on pp. 385–6.
[38] See p. 1.
CHAPTER IV
CHINESE CHRONICLES AND LOCAL CELEBRITIES
Since February 1895 Weihaiwei has never been out of the hands of a foreign Power. At the conclusion of the war the place was retained in the hands of the Japanese as security for the due fulfilment of the conditions of peace. Then followed the concerted action of the three States of Germany, Russia and France to rob Japan of some of the fruits of her victory. The moving spirit in this coalition was Russia, who ousted Japan from Port Arthur and took possession of it herself. As a result of this manœuvre Great Britain demanded that Weihaiwei should be "leased" to her "for as long a period as Port Arthur remains in the occupation of Russia." It may be noted that the original "lease" of Port Arthur by China to Russia was for twenty-five years, which period will not elapse till 1923. Another almost simultaneous attack on Chinese integrity was made by Germany, whose long-sought opportunity of establishing herself on the coast of China was thrust in her way by the murder of two of her missionaries in Shantung. (Is it to be wondered at that the Chinese have at times regarded European missionaries as the forerunners of foreign armies and warships, in spite of the missionary's assertion that he is the apostle of universal love and has come to preach the Golden Rule?)
The Chinese in Shantung have a strange tale to tell of the murder of those German missionaries. They say the outrage had its origin in the kidnapping of a woman by an employee in a certain Chinese yamên. She had influential connexions, who promptly demanded her restitution. The kidnapper had the ear of the magistrate, who, turning a deaf ear to his petitioners, or professing to know nothing about the matter, took no action. The woman's relations then devoted their energy to bringing ruin upon the magistrate; and after long consultations decided that the surest and quickest method of doing so would be by killing the two local missionaries. This, they knew, would infallibly be followed by a demand from the foreign Government concerned for the magistrate's degradation and punishment. They had no grudge whatever against the missionaries, and merely regarded their slaughter as a simple means to a much-desired end. They carried out their plan with complete success, and the magistrate's ruin was the immediate result; but a further consequence, unforeseen by the murderers, was that "His Majesty the Emperor of China, being desirous of promoting an increase of German power and influence in the Far East," leased to His Majesty the German Emperor the territory of Kiaochou. Needless to say, an increase of the power and influence of any great European Power in the eastern hemisphere was, very naturally, the last thing to be desired by the Chinese Emperor and his people. It seems a pity that modern civilised States have not yet devised some means of putting an end to the ignoble warfare that is continually waged by the language of diplomacy against the language of simple truth.
The reader may be interested in some illustrations of the manner in which the Chinese official chronicler arranges, in chronological order, his statements of conspicuous local events. The following lists of occurrences with their dates (which are merely selections from the available material) are translated direct from the Chinese Annals of Weihaiwei, Wên-têng, Jung-ch'êng, and Ning-hai. A few of the meteorological and astronomical details are of some interest, if their meaning is not always obvious. With regard to the comets,