Xiamen's Beauty in 1860

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University

In 1860, Miss Jane Edkin letters home went on at such great length about the beauties of Amoy (now called Xiamen) that she was accused of mixing religion and nature! I think you'll enjoy her descriptions.

TO HER BROTHER SIMON.
From AMOY, 20th April 1860.
HERE we are at Amoy. A passage of ten days in the "Palmerston" brought us, if not rapidly, at least safely.

I think I feel better for it already, though the heat is very great. We anchored outside, on a beautiful moonlight evening. The scenery all round was enchanting. Noble hills of rocky brown overhung the entrance, crowned by pagodas, etc. Rocky islands, the abode of wild fowl, encircled us. The sun poured his last mellow rays o'er the delightful scene as we entered, and my heart bounded with joy at the sight. Stretching on each side, peak above peak, and peak beyond that, were high rocky hills. The sunlight gave a golden tinge to their brown grassy covering, and a warmer tint to their rocky sides. At their foot a beautiful sandy beach, smooth and glittering, extended for some distance. It was a most charming scene, and one that filled the heart. I cried with joy almost to see home hills again, for so they seemed to me.

The noise of the dropping anchor, and the hearty song of the men, did not interrupt me as my thoughts went home to dearly loved Scotland. It was especially pleasant to come up on deck after tea in the soft moonlight, when all was still, save the silent tread of the watch whenever the helm was deserted, and the white sails furled, and gaze up through the tall masts and rigging to the fair heaven so beautifully blue and sparkling. The dark hills on each side, and the soft gurgle of the waters as they gently passed by, added to the impressiveness of the scene. Mr. Edkins and I sat a long time delighting in it, and felt its strangeness and beauty heightened still more as the lightning's vivid flash frequently lighted up the dark hills for a moment.

Next morning early, Mr. Edkins called me to look at the opening bay as we entered it. I was busy packing, so I had only glimpses here and there, but these were striking. High rocks, of all sorts and sizes, line one side of the bay, many of them grown over with moss. Some of them have long weird-like inscriptions, and some seemed tottering, ready to fall.

Nestling under them was the little town of Amoy, before which we cast anchor about nine A.M. We proceeded direct to the Rev. John Stronach's, where we are now staying….

…after dinner, we had a boat-excursion, in company with Mr. J. Stronach, his sister, and young Miss Stronach.

This recalled the olden time in Stromness harbour. "We rowed and talked agreeably, though my enthusiasm about the hills…Through many an opening in the rocky hills we saw temples hid among trees, looking so picturesque, built out on jutting rocks. I wish I had my young strength again, to climb at will those mountain rocks and wild romantic paths, all in a state of nature, untouched by the rude hand, shall I call it, of cultivation…

In the afternoon, Jessie, her father, Mr. Edkins, and I, went over to Kolangsu, a lovely island about half a mile's run across. We landed, climbed the beach, and reached abroad graveled walk arched with trees, then we entered a garden where roses, mignonette, and many other exquisite flowers, bloomed beautifully. The rocks were on either side like a wall to it, but their bare exterior was clothed with honeysuckle and green creepers. From that we passed into another, and then, by some steps, reached a little hill. By a path that wound round it we gained the top of one height, from which we had an interesting view of Amoy. Her navy of junks, her small fishing-boats, all lay close together in a sheltered corner, while the English ships lay outside. The houses are poor, both those of the merchants and missionaries, in comparison with those at Shanghai; but from Kolangsu all looked pretty. We descended, and by paddy-fields of fresh green we reached another hill, which we slowly climbed, and the view to the other side of the island was most captivating. The broad sea, broken here and there by islets, and bounded by magnificent hills, all bursting as it did on us without expecting it, had a powerful effect. I forgot my weariness, and gazed long on this noble prospect. Hills and sea give a higher idea of the beauty of nature than any artificial cultivation, however rich. "The everlasting hills," and the ever-changing sea," are to me the noblest works o nature. But the beauties round our feet were not to be overlooked.

A broad, wide-spreading banian tree, with its thick foliage, stood proudly queen of the scene; while a lovely tangled path, damp and cool, led us on where we wished to go,—to the resting-place of the dead. In a beautiful nook, under the sheltering wing of the dark rocks, and on a pleasant acclivity, lay the graves of those missionaries who had lived and died for Christ…

3. TO HER MOTHER-IK LAW. from AMOY, 18th May 1860.
It is nearly three weeks since we came to Amoy. We have been much benefited by its health-giving sea breezes. The scenery around greatly interests me. What with its rocks, mountains, beautiful islands, and blue sea sparkling, dashing, and foaming in all its fresh beauty around the town, I am exceedingly taken with it. … We have Chinese chapels. It was a sweet Sabbath morning when I first went to ours. For a considerable time before going, I had been seated in a low chair in our room, with a book before me; my head and heart were somehow not with it, but were drinking in the attractive beauties of the scene that presented itself from the wide open window. High, noble craggy hills, with mossy brown, still retained the warm glow of the soft embrace of the morning. A misty beauty hung around, though the sky was blue and unclouded. The little islands rejoiced in the fair morning, and the very sea murmured a lullaby of peace. Oh, the peaceful Sabbath morn.

How the heart rises and glows with love and joy, especially when all nature calls upon you to rejoice. Would that the pleasurable feeling that steals over the heart at such times could be retained.

My husband has taken part repeatedly in the work of the Mission, but being here for the benefit of our health, we have kept moving about, sight-seeing, rowing in small boats, picnicking, calling, etc. He has had great enjoyment in wandering among the old temples, deciphering the more than half-worn characters on many an aged rock, etc.

…This is a bright sunshiny morning after the rain, and everything looks fresh and lovely. I don't know how it is, but a familiar sound keeps ringing in my ears, it seems so applicable this bright May morning— "
Birds are singing,
Bells are ringing,
May is bringing
Gifts to man."
With best love to yourself, Ebenezer, Kate, and John, your very affectionate JEANIE.

4. TO MISS EDKINS, SHANGHAI, June 1860.
I HAVE been greatly remiss in writing, but when I plead sickness for excuse, you will, I know, forgive me freely. Yet sickness won't do for a full apology, as I have only been on the sick list for a week or so, but then an endless succession of changes and visitors these several weeks past has put all idea of quiet letter- writing enjoyment out of the question. I had a letter nearly finished for you when we were at Amoy, but it is now of such an old date, that I won't send it, although I shall give you some of the particulars in this…

…First of all, we enjoyed Amoy, and the scenery, and the mission work unspeakably. It is, to my taste, a delightful place, being perfectly surrounded with what I call Scotland's heathery hills. Oh, the flood of beauty tinting those hills when the sun slowly sinks to rest,—when lingeringly it leaves them, and casts its glowing mantle tenderly o'er their rugged rocky sides, softening them to melting beauty.

We spent one lovely afternoon over at Kolangsu, a small island near Amoy, where, from an eminence, we had a most interesting view of the town, its complete little harbour, navy of junks, etc.; and where, from another, we had a view of a broad expanse of water, intersected by sweet islets, calm and unruffled, dashing softly on the sandy beach, while the background of mountains was truly majestic, raising as they did their rugged tops to the fair sky, and winning the soft shadows from the untroubled clouds of blue that ever and again passed swiftly over them. …

By the way, your brother says I blend the beauties of nature almost into religion in my description in some letters. I doubt if he is right in saying this. Don't you think, if gazing on beautiful scenery stirs the soul, and raises it to admiration, it must naturally rise to nature's God before the full idea of grandeur and glory settles on the soul?
But I fear I am now mystifying both you and myself….

5. TO HER MOTHER. June 1860.
WE are safely back again from Amoy, by way of Hong Kong, after enjoying our trip exceedingly, and being much benefited by it.

Source: Edkins, Jane Rowbotham Stobb,s Chinese Scenes and People: With Notices of Christian Missions and Missionary Life in a Series of Letters from Various Parts of China, James Nisbit and Company, London, 1863
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A 19th Century Master of Guanxi

Bill Brown .... Xiamen University

Adapted from John MacGowan Sidelights on Chinese Life, 1907 p. 119-122

A man, for example, comes in to see you. He is common looking, with a face hardened and battered by toil. His clothes, which are shabby and well worn, consist of the ordinary blue cotton cloth that in its dull and dingy colour helps to give a mean and uninteresting look to the wearer. If the nation would but depart from the eternal tradition that has come steadily down the ages in regard to its clothing and would take some hints from nature, whose varied moods make her look so charming, how different would these unaesthetic people appear from what they do now! … you ask him with as much politeness as your poor opinion of him will permit you, what he wants with you.

In a hesitating, nervous kind of way, he informs you that he has ventured to come and ask a favour of you. It is a very important one, he says, and as he knows no one that is so kind as you are or who has so much influence as you have, he has taken the liberty to address himself to you and he hopes that you will not refuse his request.

You find as he tells his story that he wants you to use your good offices to get his son into employment in a responsible firm in the town. You are startled, for you do not know any one in the said firm, and moreover you have no knowledge of the young man either as to his character or abilities. You try and impress upon the father that it is impossible for you to help him in the matter, because you really have no influence with any one responsible in the house of business to which he refers, and that therefore he had better apply to some one else who has the ability to help him.

The man in a weak kind of way appears to agree with you, expresses his appreciation of your kindness in so pleasantly listening to him, and bids you good-bye, and any one not acquainted with the Chinese character would certainly come to the conclusion that the whole incident was at an end and nothing more would be heard of it.

Tomorrow morning you are engaged, say, in writing when the same man is ushered into your room by your "boy," and he in a timid, hesitating way expresses a wish to say a few words to you. In his hand he carries a fowl, with its legs tied and its head hanging down, and as this is the usual way in which such animals are carried in China, it seems to recognize the universal custom and to utter no protest against the indignity to which it is exposed.

Without referring to it, he lays it down in a corner of the room, and proceeds to make his request for his son in precisely the same language that he had done the previous day. Your statement then that you had no influence in the firm mentioned was considered by him to be a pleasant and refined way of showing your displeasure that a present had not been made you, and so to-day he is atoning for this by bringing you the fowl that lies fluttering on the ground.

You try and make him understand that you really cannot help him, that you would do so if you could, and you insist upon his taking away his present, as you absolutely refuse to accept it. He agrees with all you say, expresses his admiration at your disinterested and generous conduct, is quite sure that you cannot help him, and finally leaves you holding the fowl which you have forced upon him in his hand, and declaring that he is afraid you are angry with him since you refuse his gift, which he declares he knows is too small to be accepted by a person of your position and character. You happen to go out half-an-hour after and you see the identical fowl lying in the yard struggling to get free, and with a look of pain and misery in consequence of its legs having been tied so tight and because of the cramped position in which it has been compelled to lie so long.

You call the "boy" and you ask him why the man has not taken the fowl away, as you had positively refused to accept it. "Oh! it would never do," he replies with an anxious look that pushes its way through its permanent sphinx-like veneer, "for the man to take back the trifling present that he has made you. He would have lost 'face,’ for people would say that you were angry with him for making you such an insignificant gift that you could not possibly receive it."

Next morning the man once more appears, but this time accompanied by a person well known to you. After a few complimentary remarks, the newcomer introduces the man, and begs of you to use your influence to get his son the employment about which he has already spoken to you. You state the case fully to him and explain that it is quite a mistake to imagine that you can assist him in the way he wishes. Both men listen with the most wrapt attention to what you say, and by smiles and vigorous nods of the head seem to believe in every word you speak. By and by they leave, and you feel convinced that the incident is at an end, and that you will hear nothing more of it.

In the afternoon of the same day, the man turns up once more, with a smiling countenance and a look of supreme satisfaction upon it. He holds a letter in his hand which he delivers to you with the air of a man who is delivering a pleasant ultimatum that will settle the whole question in a manner satisfactory to all. It is from an Englishman who has been approached on the subject, and he asks me to do what I can to get the old fellow's son into a firm where he has been told I have some influence.

You are getting annoyed by this time, not simply because all your protestations have not been believed, but because you see that the dogged persistence that lies rooted in the Chinese character will not allow the matter to drop until you have either given him a piece of your mind, more forcible than polite, or taken some plan to carry out his wishes. After a few minutes' consideration, you remember that an acquaintance of your own has business relationships with the firm in question, so you at once write a note to him and request him as a great favour to exert himself to introduce the son of the bearer to the manager of a certain business house with which he is intimately concerned. Having sealed it up, you hand it over to the man, and direct him to take it to your friend, who may possibly be able to assist him in procuring the employment he wishes for his son.

The very next day, he once more appears, but this time with two fowls, a small basket of oranges and a tiny box of tea, and also with the most profuse thanks for getting his son that situation. You tell him that you have had nothing to do with that, and that if he is inclined to make presents, he had better take them to the friend who has really engineered the business. If the Chinese could only see the humour there is in a wink, there is no doubt but that he would express his feelings by one just now, but as he has never been taught the subtle part that the eye can take in conveying a joke, he simply smiles prodigiously, clasps his own hands instead of yours and leaves you with a profusion of the most elegant and polite phrases, such as the great Sage of China penned more than two thousand years ago for the guidance of people in contingencies such as this.

It must be perfectly understood that the man never believed from the very first that you could not have got that situation for his son, if you had been so disposed, and the fact that you procured it for him at last proved that. Your writing the letter and sending it to a friend were but little subtle by-plays to save your "face." Acting like that is something inexpressibly dear to the Chinese, who are always posing before each other, and exhausting their histrionic powers to produce certain effects that shall redound to their credit. The one thing that was really to be admired in this Chinaman was the tenacity of purpose that caused him never to falter until he had gained the object that he had in his mind.

This distinguishing virtue in the Chinaman has unquestionably been a very large factor in the building up of their Empire, and yet on the other hand it is just as true that it has been one of the most powerful forces in preventing its progress and development.

The very persistence of character that made the Yellow race build the Great Wall of China and extend their conquests from their original home on the banks of the Yellow River, until the whole of the vast extent of territory embraced within the eighteen provinces has been subdued by them, has made them cling to old traditions and customs with a tenacity that has stayed the progress of new ideas, and has prevented them from adopting new methods that would have benefited both the people and the Empire.



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A "Sick Man of Asia" Speaks His Mind in England

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University

Lu, C.C., of Ningpo, China “China and England: a Lecture Delivered at Sheffield University,” Sheffield Independent Press, Sheffield, U.K., 1904

Short bio: Studied in Japan and England. Mother, with Mrs. Archibald Little, organized the Anti-Foot-Binding Society in Shanghai and Ningpo. Father, formerly the general officer of a steamer, was then the general manager of China’s greatest colliery.

Seldom if ever have I enjoyed such pleasure as I feel at being privileged to speak, imperfect as it may be, on my native country before such an audience. But being a world-despised Chinaman, I could not help feeling when I cast my eyes upon myself how unworthy I am for such a great honour. Nevertheless I am unwilling not to make use of this great chance and say something which I hope may lead us to understand each other more and better.

Since I came to this country, I have found that most of the people here in England have a very poor idea of the Chinese, in other words, you think we are barbarians or uncivilized people. China has been dubbed "The sick man of the Far East," "The Sleeping Lion," "The Tottery Empire," and other names more or less picturesque and complimentary have been bestowed upon her.

With some people, it is the conviction that China has only a historical interest, that her glory is of the past that the leopard may change its spots, but China remains for ever in her ruts ; the same yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow. But while this gloomy picture of the state of affairs might have been partly true of China in the time past, it is no longer true now. The sick man is rapidly convalescent, the sleeping lion is awake, and the hoary and tottery empire has had new blood injected into her system. China is moving and she is moving with a rapidity difficult for one who has not personally witnessed the wonderful changes to understand and realise.

Repeated defeats at the hands of the foreign Powers soon convinced our people of the futility of matching bows and arrows against modern guns and explosives, whilst our wooden junks went down before the onslaught of armoured cruisers and battleships like wheat before the scythe….

In passing, I may say that all the books written by the foreign authors on China as she is are mostly out of date, with the exception of a very few published in recent years. These books have only a historical value now, and can no longer be regarded as guides or indexes of the situation in the Far East. The changes that have taken place are kaleidoscopic in rapidity and mysterious in character, so that even a native of the land, unless he is a keen observer, gets bewildered and is left behind in the swiftly moving onward progress of my country.

Lu, C.C., of Ningpo, China “China and England: a Lecture Delivered at Sheffield University,” Sheffield Independent Press, Sheffield, U.K., 1904

As you know, not many years ago, your Indian traders sent opium to our country. We observed that the use of the drug was destroying the health and morals of our people, and therefore we prohibited it. But to please your traders your Government made our action an excuse for war. Was this calculated to impress us with a sense of the justice and fair play of the British Nation? We submitted because we had to, we were not a military Power. "The Chinese believe in right," said Sir Robert Hart honestly, “so firmly that they scorn to think it requires to be supported or enforced by might." Yes, it is we, who do not accept it, that practise the Gospel of Peace; it is you who accept it who trample it under foot. And, irony of ironies, it is the nation of Christendom who have to come to us to teach us by sword and fire that right in this world is powerless unless it be supported by might! You have posed as civilized people dealing with barbarians, and this has been your conduct. First you compelled us to receive your missionaries, and when they provoked our people by their ignorant zeal to rise against them you made this an excuse for new depredations, till we not unnaturally have come to believe that the Cross is the pioneer of the sword, and that the only use you have for your religion is as a weapon of war. O, my dear brethren! let me cry out and tell you! "Christianity is a doctrine which is not only for you to believe, to listen to, to read on Sunday in church, but to act according to it at any time and everywhere!"

Listen to my uncle, Dr. Suvong's words. He wrote me and said:"My dear nephew The first thing for a man is to be good, the second is to do good, and then the good God in heaven will reward here and hereafter." These words which I have heard from the East are the true doctrine of Christ, and though we do not preach it, yet we perform it as our duty.

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Chinese Children in Old Amoy

Bill Brown .... Xiamen University

From John Macgowan, Sidelights on Chinese Life, 1907 p. 44, 50
THERE is no nation that is fonder of children than the Chinese. They have a perfect passion for them, and it is very rarely that a family can be found without one or more of them in it. If there are none born into it, arrangements are made to supply that deficiency by buying some for the Chinese seem to have a perfect dread of a childless home. If a man has the means, he will buy several sons, who are treated as though they were his own, and, when they grow up, they will inherit his property, and have all the privileges that are given to those that were born in the family….

The early years of a child seem on the whole to be happy ones. In the swarms of children that one sees almost anywhere, one gets the impression that on the whole they thoroughly enjoy themselves. They run about and romp and dance and gambol very much as a similar number of English children would do on the village green, or in the streets and lanes of a home city.

The Chinese are far from being a gloomy race of people. Their hearts are full of fun and vigorous life, and this is seen in the sturdy urchins that race about with each other and that fill the air with their merry sounds of childish laughter.

With very young children this is all the more remarkable since so little is provided for their amusement. Such things as pictures or story-books or toys in the large and profuse sense with which our nurseries are supplied in England, do not exist in this land. Childhood is left very much to its own resources to find out the means of passing the time pleasantly. It is pathetic to watch how, with the fewest and simplest materials, the little ones will pass the day, with apparently perfect contentment. The method most popular, because it involves no expense, is the making of mud pies, and the building of miniature houses with broken pieces of tiles that can be picked up from the streets.

EDUCATION
Macgowan, Sidelights on Chinese Life, 1907, pp. 56, 57

At about eight preparations are made for the lad to go to school. Terms are made with the school-master of the nearest school, a certain number of books splashed and dotted over with mysterious-looking hieroglyphics are bought, and one morning at early dawn, just as the pale grey light begins to colour the landscape, the little fellow finds his way along the silent road to the school-house. Here for six or seven years he will spend the best part of his days in the study of books that contain the ideals of the nation.

They are the driest of dry books, and were really written for scholarly men, and for men of thought, whose thinking powers were considerably developed. There is not a single story in their pages. No child or woman's voice is heard from beginning to end, and no laughter, and no sob of pain, or any touch of the finer qualities of the human heart.

The boy begins at eight not with "Jack and Jill," or the “House that Jack built," or with any nursery rhyme that would appeal to a child's imagination, but with the solemn statements on high ethical questions that some of the greatest thinkers and teachers of China have produced. Some idea of the style of the books that these little urchins have to grind at, may be gathered from the fact that the first book that is put into the hands of that eight-year-old scholar is called The Three Words Classic, from the fact that each sentence is made up of three words rhythmically set. It is about as crabbed and as profound a piece of writing as exists in the whole language. Its first sentence makes a dogmatic statement which has not been generally accepted in China, viz. "Man by nature is originally good." Just imagine a boy of ten, accustomed till to-day to run as wild as a climbing plant, that creeps up trees, or over ruined walls, or down the side of a precipice, brought face to face with a statement like this, instead of the conventional one, " My dog," or "'His cat," that confronts the English lad as he first enters the domain of learning.

Try and conceive the wear and tear upon a child's spirit in having for years to shout and scream out at the top of his voice, as Chinese scholars do, such profound teaching as the above, and you will then have caught a glimpse of the steep and precipitous way along which these eight-year scholars have to travel in their pursuit after knowledge. A more dreary system of education, where imagination and humour, and poetry and romance, and all the finer emotions of the soul are rigorously excluded, it would be impossible to conceive than that which every Chinese scholar has to go through in every school throughout the Empire to-day.
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U.S. Consul in Amoy, Edward Bedloe, on Cemeteries

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University

Ancient Amoy Cemeteries
Bedloe, Edward, M.D., U.S. Consul, reporting in “Weekly Abstract of Sanitary Reports,” Supervising Surgeon-General M.H,S., Government Printing Office, Washington, 1893

January 1, 1881 Public health reports (1881(, v, 2, 1887; U.S. Consul Edward Bedloe, M.D., reported,

The city [Amoy] is built on the edge of a mountainous island and is exceedingly old. Inscriptions on ancient tombs run back as far as the beginning of the Christian era, and coins found in accidentally discovered graves date to dynasties from 500 to 1000 B.C.

During all this period the hillsides of the city have been used as burying grounds. As the population increases, the houses encroached upon the cemetery land until finally the two became hopelessly intermixed.

The United States consulate is regarded as a very superior locality, but it is surrounded by over a hundred tombs. A score of the large blocks of granite used in and about it are old tombstones. On the hill immediately behind the residence of F. Malcampo, esq., the graves touch one another at every point and form a solid white surface of rock, brick, porcelain, and cement, covering more than a million square feet. Near the lam-paw-do Joss-house [Nanputuo Temple] 30,000 bodies are said to have been buried vertically to save space. They lie or stand in a plot of land of as many square feet. Amoy proper and its suburbs have a living population of about one million, and a dead one of four and a half times as many.

The city is a relic of the past. It is walled the same as it was in the time of Confucius.

Note: Amoy wasn’t walled until 2000 years after Confucius' death. And I doubt Amoy has any graves that old. But other than that.... Bedloe had some fascinating points.


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