The Chinese Materia Medica (本草綱目), or Herbal, deals with 1,892 botanical and natural history species, and contains 8,160 prescriptions for medicinal use. It was the work of Lî Shízhēn (李時珍), who completed his task in 1578 after 26 years’ labour. There are also many other books on agriculture and botany, in which a wealth of detail and abundance of illustration have been recorded and transmitted from very ancient times.
Among the principle agricultural products of the country are rice, wheat, maize, gāolíang, millet, barley, oats, buckwheat, beans, peas, sesamum, rape, hemp, jute, ramie, taros, yams, sweet potatoes, marrows, and fruit of many kinds.
“The great defect in Chinese agriculture—ignorance of methods of improving the seed by selection and crossing—is a particularly serious drawback in the cultivation of rice.”3
“A Chinese family consisting of three generations could live comfortably on a piece of ground scarcely large enough to place the implements of many an American farm. There may or may not be a horse to help to till the ground; probably there will be a cow, a buffalo or a donkey. Human labour is the main source of energy, and the farmer, his wife and children all work unremittingly, bestowing individual attention to each root, almost to each stalk that grows. The ubiquitous pig, a great factor in Chinese agricultural economy, is often an inmate of house as well as of shed. . . . The water-wheel is used in farming for raising water from a running stream or pond to irrigate fields. It is made entirely of bamboo and wood, no metal being employed. It is supported by a framework of bamboo poles placed close to the bank on to which the water is to be raised. When this is taken from a stream the wheel is driven by the pressure of the water against flat pieces of wood attached to the periphery to which are also fastened bamboo tubes. These tubes fill with the water as they pass through it and as the revolution of the wheel carries them to the top they discharge into a trough from which the irrigating canals radiate. In places where the water is stationary the wheel is turned by men treading on it. Wheels of this kind are sometimes over 30 feet in diameter.”4
The Chinese symbol for “well”, jîng (井), is an agricultural key-word denoting fields anciently laid out along the lines of this character. Each jîng was divided into nine plots. To eight families were assigned the eight exterior plots, the one in the centre, containing a well with four roads leading to it, being reserved to be worked in common on behalf of the State. Thus China began with an equalized system of land tenure and taxation. The word for “earth” is denoted by the symbol (土), of which the upper line is the surface soil, and the lower the sub-soil or rocky substratum, while the central stroke represents the vegetation; the word “field” (田), unmistakably portrays the dykes of the rice or “paddy” fields; while the character for “man” or “male” is a combination of “power” and “field” (男), literally “labour in the fields”; the sign for “rice” (米) is a figure depicting four grains divided by the form +, expressing the separation by threshing. These derivations illustrate the vital importance of agriculture to the Chinese from time immemorial.
Alarm-staff
(警杖)
Sanskrit, Hikile or Khakhara. A staff with a leaf-like loop at the top, with jingling rings, carried by the mendicant monk to drown by its jingling all worldly sounds from the ears of the holder and to warn off small animals lest they be trod upon and killed. Buddha is said to have possessed a “pewter staff ” (錫杖), the shaft of which was made of sandalwood, and the head and rings of pewter. Sometimes a priest wears clogs with only one cross-piece instead of two to make the least possible sacrifice of creeping life.
The primary laws of Buddhism forbid the taking of animal life under any circumstances whatever. Were these laws rigidly observed, the lives of obnoxious insects, reptiles, etc., would be inviolate. They are, however, practically disregarded, except in relation to some of the larger animals, though birds are generally kindly treated by the Chinese, and considerable merit is believed to accrue to those who purchase fish, tortoises, etc., at religious festivals, and return them to their natural element.
Amber
(號拍)
Amber, which is a fossilized resin exuded in ages past by certain extinct species of pine-trees, is found in China in the Province of Yunnan, embedded in the earth. It was first mentioned in the first century A.D.
Ordinary amber is known to the Chinese by the name of 號拍 (hûpō) a term which is derived from 虎魄 (hûpō), meaning “the soul of a tiger,” the latter term originating in the old Chinese tradition that when a tiger dies its spirit enters into the ground and becomes transformed into a mineral. Hence this substance is popularly regarded as symbolic of courage, being supposed to be imbued with the qualities of that fierce animal. The variety known as “blood amber” (血拍) is chiefly used in Chinese medicine as an aphrodisiac, but here again its power is chiefly emblematic of its supposed origin.
The value of true amber depends upon the size, form, colour, and transparency of the product. There are numerous imitations made of sheep’s horn, copal, shellac, resin, celluloid and glass.
Amitabha
(阿彌陀佛)
Lit: Boundless Light. Amida Buddha. The abbreviated form of Namah Amitabha (南無阿彌陀佛), “Hear us, O Amida Buddha!” His image is often seen in the second court of the Buddhist monastery by the side of the figure of SHÂKYAMUNI BUDDHA (q. v.).
This popular Buddha came to the front early in the 5th century A.D. There are various traditions as to his origin. He is said by some to be an incarnation of the ninth son of the ancient Buddha Maha bhidjna bhibhu, by others the second son of a certain Indian of the lunar race, or again, the celestial reflex of SHÂKYAMUNI BUDDHA.
Amitabha is also known as the Impersonal Buddha. He is an object of popular devotion, and is believed to preside over the Paradise of the West, the Pure Land, into which the souls of the pious may be born, there to rest in bliss for a long age.
Amusements
(玩耍)
The principle amusements of the Chinese are of a very simple nature, and although football, tennis, and other athletic games are gradually becoming popular among the younger generation, the average individual does not usually indulge in sports which entail any considerable amount of physical exertion.
Young children may often be seen pitching coppers, fighting quails or crickets, or guessing the number of seeds in an orange.“Among their out-of-door amusements, a very common one is to play at shuttlecock with the feet. A circle of some half a dozen keep up in this manner the game between them with considerable dexterity, the thick soles of their shoes serving them in lieu of battledores, and the hand being allowed occasionally to assist.”5
There is scarcely any one vice to which the Chinese are so generally addicted as gambling; it prevails among rich and poor, young and old, and to the injury of all. There are various games of cards (紙牌); an ordinary pack of cards consists of 160, about 2 1/2 by 3/4 inches in size, with black backs; throwing dice (殺子), and playing dominoes (牙牌), are also extensively