A CHINESE NOTEBOOK.* IN Intimate China Mrs. Little has made

no attempt to deal with her vast and intricate subject scientifically or exhaustively. She has contented herself with a series of discursive notes on all she has seen and thought. Intimate China suffers, in fact, a good deal from discon- nectedness. The reader has an uneasy feeling as if the com- ponent parts of a dinner were being served up to him, instead of a well-cooked repast with the different ingredients combined and flavoured into a perfect whole. Of course, on the other side it may be said that what the book loses in cohesion it gains in freshness ; and it certainly produces a great effect of spontaneity, and of not being "touched up" for the benefit of the public. Still, one cannot quite help feeling, on reading the last of the six hundred and fifteen pages, that one has not carried away quite so valuable an impression as one might have done had the book been better arranged. To deal first with the outside of things, perhaps the most striking new impression given is of the extreme beauty both of Chinese architecture and of Chinese scenery. The beauty of the former appears to lie greatly in the wonderfully graceful curves of the roofs. Mrs. Little tells us that "a European house now usually gives me the same effect as a face would divested of eye-lashes." The excellent photographs liberally scattered through the book afford visible testimony to the beauty of the sweep of a Chinese roof, and the charming grotesqueness of the dragon who is so often employed as a " gargoyle " to give a finishing touch to the curve. As to the beauty of the scenery, Mrs. Little describes with great enthusiasm the gorges of the Yangtse, with their precipices 2,000 ft. high, "sometimes dolomitic white lime-

stone sometimes weathered a rich yellow-brown." Though the Yangtse Valley precipices are comparatively well known, the mouth of the true gardener will water in a most unexpected way at the accounts of the luxuriant vegeta- tion and of the millions of beautiful wild flowers to be found on the banks of the river. "Fancy blue larkspurs and yellow jasmine, and glorious coloured oleanders and begonias, virgin Mkt; and yet taller white lilies, and gardenias and sunflowers, all growing wild, and most luxuriantly. I was quite excited when I first saw waxen-leaved begonias cuddling into the crevices of a rock by the wayside; and exclaimed aloud when a turn of the path revealed a whole bank of sunflowers, golden in the sun. These, too, are only the flowers I can name. There are numbers more, and so fragrant." No wonder "the highest authority in Kew Gardens" told Mrs. Little that "in no part of the world was there a more • Intimate China. By Mrs. Archibald Little. London: Hutchinson and Co.

abundant and varied flora than in the Tchang Gorges." After this it is disappointing to be told that this is not the reason China is called flowery, "the Chinese word translated ' flowery ' meaning also varicoloured."

But the real interest of China does not lie in outside matters. It lies in the ancient dead-alive civilisation which reached its apogee at about the same date as that which the British schoolboy selects as the starting-point of all the English history about which he need trouble his head, it has not much deteriorated since those days, but certainly it has advanced very little. Mrs. Little gives us a Chinese drinking song of the date B.C. 500, which quite takes one's breath away by the modernity of its sentiments ADIEU TO THE OLD YEAR.

The voice of the cricket is heard in the hall ; The leaves of the forest are withered and sere; My spirits they droop at those chirruping notes So thoughtlessly sounding the knell of the year.

Yet why should we sigh at the change of a date, When life's flowing on in a full steady tide Come, let us be merry with those that we love ; For pleasure in measure there's no one to chide."

A. more striking song of the same kind (too long for quota- tion) was produced about A.D. 720. Perhaps, therefore, when we find that a literature has been active for twelve centuries we have no right to feel aggrieved at being told that China produces nothing of the kind now. One of the most interesting things in the book is the account of the Chinese trial of advanced Socialism made in the days when England was recovering from the effects of the Norman conquest

The Chinese, it seems, experimented in socialism eight cen- turies ago. The Emperor Chin-tsung II., at a very early age, and led thereto by Wu-gan-chi, the compiler of a vast encyclo- pedia, conceived the idea that 'the State should take the entire management of commerce, industry, and agriculture into its own hands, with the view of succouring the working classes and pre- venting their being ground to the dust by the rich.' To quote again from W. D. Babington's Fallacies of Race Theories : The poor were to be exempt from taxation, land was to be assigned to them, and seedcorn provided. Every one was to have a suffi- ciency ; there were to be no poor and no over-rich. The literati in vain resisted the innovations, the fallacy of which they demon- strated from their standpoint. The specious arguments of the would-be reformer convinced the young Emperor and gained the favour of the people. Wu-gan-chi triumphed. The vast province of Shensi was chosen as the theatre for the display of the great social experiment that was to regenerate mankind. The result was failure, complete and disastrous. The people, neither driven by want nor incited by the hope of gain ceased to labour ; and the province was soon in a fair way to become a. desert.' Mencius. Confucius' greatest follower, taught that 'the people are the most important element in the country, and the ruler is the least.' Mencius openly said that if a ruler did not rule for his people's good it was a duty to resist his authority and depose him."

It is a relief from the contemplation of the dead carcase of Chinese civilisation to turn to the things which China can still produce, and amusing to find that even in China silks are brought out every year in "patterns for the new

season." Mrs. Little gives a wonderful account of Chinese embroidery :—

"The best has always been done by ladies, working at home, and putting all the fancy of a lifetime into a portiere, or bed- hanging. One of the most fairylike pieces of embroidery I have ever seen was mosquito-curtains worked all over with clusters of wistaria for either the Emperor or Empress, and somehow or other bought, before being used, out of the Imperial Palace by a European collector. The rich yet delicate work upon the very fine silky material made these mosquito-curtains a thing to haunt the dreams of all one's after-life. Whilst, however, the handi- work of the Chinese appears to me unsurpassed, and their colour arrangements in old days, before the introduction from Europe of aniline dyes, are much more agreeable to me than those of Japan, there seems to be nothing to satisfy the soul in Chinese artistic work, which gratifies the senses, but appeals to none of the higher part of man. I should, however, say quite the same of that of Japan, which got all its art originally from Chins, and has never, I think, quite arrived at the ancient dignity of Chinese art, although at the present day Japan's artistic work is certainly far more graceful and pleasing."

There is little space left in which to speak of the interesting accounts Mrs. Little affords us of Chinese family life, but one quotation must be given which seems to contain the pith of

the whole matter :—

" In family life Chinese solidarity has its inconveniences, but it altogether prevents that painful spectacle to which people seem to have hardened their hearts in England, of sending their aged relatives to the workhouse instead of carefully tending them at home as the Chinese do, or of one brother or sister surrounded by every luxury, another haunted by the horror of creditors and with barely the necessaries of life. If you are to help your brother, you must, of course, claim a certain amount of authority over his way of life. In China the father does so ; and when he dies, the elder brother pees after and orders his younger brother about; and the younger brother, as a rule, submits. In each of those large and beautiful homesteads in which Chinese live in the country, adding only an additional graceful roof-curve, another court-yard, as more sons bring home more young women to be wives in name, but in reality to be the servants-of-all-work of their mothers, and the mothers of their children—in each of these harmonious agglomerations of courtyards, it is the eldest man who directs the family councils. Thus, when a man dies, the deciding voice is for his eldest brother, not for his eldest son ; than which probably no custom could tend more to conservatism, for there never comes a time when the voice of youth makes itself heard with authority."

The reader must be warned on no account to miss the chapter headed "A Father's Advice to his Son." The son was the late Marquis Tseng. Nothing can exceed the quality of the advice given by the father, Tseng Km) Fan, and these letters seem to show that the mind of the cultivated Chinese and of the educated European are not really so far apart :—

"These three admonitions, then, you are to keep constantly in mind—namely, early rising, perseverance, and decorum. Thus you will preserve the traditions of the family, establish your own character, and that of your household. Lack of perseverance is my crowning defect, as levity is yours. By diligence in the cor- rection of these blemishes, we shall sustain the habits and tradi tions of our ancestors, cover up my past deficiencies, and com- plete your own character, which is my highest desire for you. By thus setting an example before your younger brother, you will do more to bring good fortune to the family than in any other way."

Might not this almost be headed (but for matters of minor detail) "Any Father to Any Son" ? The following passage, as Mrs. Little justly says, might be from a busy London lawyer writing to his son on study :—

" The present will be a good time for you to read extensively in miscellaneous literature, and add to your general information on all subjects. It is most difficult in this busy and confused world to get time for quiet study and meditation. When the opportunity is given you, you should by no means allow it to pass unheeded. On the 16th of next month I expect to start from Nanking on a tour of inspection up and down the river, and may not return till the end of the month. It will give me the greatest pleasure to hear of your perseverance in study, and I trust you will continuously put forth your powers in the line of intellectual advancement."

No one, again, should miss the chapters on "Affairs of State," with the curious account of the Empress-Dowager and of the unfortunate youth who lives his life shut up under the yellow roofs of his palace in the Forbidden City. The strenuous efforts of the Empress-Dowager to allow no whisper of need for change and reform to reach the young Emperor, the coming of Kang Yt Wei, the stirring of ideas of reform in the Emperor's mind, the Empress's coup d'état, and the practical deposition of the Emperor all form so intensely interesting a story, that any sidelights thrown on the actors are welcome. And Mrs. Little has many such sidelights to throw. Perhaps we cannot better end this notice of an interesting if discursive book than by a final quotation. Mrs. Little, after describing bow advanced is the civilisation and government of China in theory, ends her chapter with

these words :—

"The system of education, the crippling of the women by foot- binding, and consequent enfeebling of the race, together with the subsequent resort to opium-smoking, are the three apparent evil influences that spoil what otherwise seems so ideal a system of civilisation. Possibly we should add to this, that the system of Confucius—China's great teacher—is merely a system of ethics, and that thus for generations the cultured portion of the nation has tried to do without a religion, although falling back upon Taoism and Buddhism to meet the needs of the human heart. That any civilisation should have lasted so long without a living religion is surprising. But Buddhism has evidently had an enor- mous influence upon China, though its temples are crumbling now, its priests rarely knowing even its first elements. The good that it could do for China it has done. And now another influence is needed."