A RUSSIAN TOUR THROUGH CHINA.* THESE two volumes are sufficiently
interesting to make it a matter of regret that they did not see the light sooner, for the reader must bear in mind that they refer to a period of ten years ago, when China was still suffering from the effects of the great
Mahommedan rebellion in the North-West, and when the task of reconquering the Central Asian provinces had little more than commenced. As the translator does not give any details about the journey, it may be well to state in the beginning
that the travels of Colonel Sosnoffsky and his companions in the year 1874 were considered remarkable, that they formed the subject of a paper in the Geographical Society's Journal, although the details have been left for ultimate pub- lication by Mr. Piassetsky and Miss Jane Gordon Cumming. Those details come rather under the head of interesting travel, than under that of solid information as to the con- dition of China and her people. At the same time, the careful reader will not fail to gather much fresh information from it which far more pretentious works would fail to convey. Miss Gordon Cumming has doue her part in a singularly able manner, and Mr. Piassetsky should esteem himself fortunate in having found so competent a translator. The English narrative reads with remarkable ease, and a large number of engravings invest it with additional interest, and bring before the reader some of the least known and most interesting parts of China.
The interest of these volumes consists in those passages which throw a brighter light than can be found elsewhere on the ways and peculiarities of the Chinese people. These are not few in number, and it would be impossible to quote a tithe of those we have marked for quotation as containing some informa- tion that, after a tolerably extensive perusal of Chinese litera- ture, we had not come across in any other book of travels. But our notice of these volumes will mainly consist in directing
attention to those passages rather than to following the fortunes of the Russian travellers in their tour across Siberia to
Kiachta, and through the Mongol steppes to the Great Wall and Pekin. A great deal has been said about the impression produced on travellers' minds by the activity of Chinese communities, and by the energetic manner in which the people devote themselves to the cultivation of their small plots of ground, in face even of natural disadvantages. But seldom has this been brought more clearly before the reader than in the following passages, describing Mr. Piassetsky's first glimpse el China within the Great Wall:— " Of the ancient Great Wall, only a low rampart remains, with square towers diminishing towards the top. These towers are gener- ally placed on the summits of the mountains across which the Wall winds. I ascended one of them, the better to contemplate the view, but bad no one with whom to share all the admiration that I felt at this moment. It is quite impossible to describe all that the eye took in—mountains, valleys, gorges, grass-covered slopes, pastures., farms, lakes. The presence of man is to be felt ; not of the local village or town life, but the life of a great State. To the east, a superb valley dotted over with Chinese villages, surrounded with bushes and trees; farther off, on several levels, chains of mountains, the tops of which • Russian Travellers in .1kmgelia and China. By P. Piassetsky. Tranalated by Jane Gordon Cumming. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall (Limited). 1884
were on a level with my eyes. To the west, the ground undulates gradually towards the plain, beyond which are more mountains. On the south, magnificent pasture-land, intersected by the Great Wall with its ruined towers on our right, the Great Wall, cracked and destroyed by centuries, and covered with plants; on our left, a slope to- wards the plain, laid out in artificial terraces, with fields of millet, oats, potatoes, and hemp. As to the Chinese, they are to be seen everywhere, with long plaits and bareheaded, attired in a white shirt and blue trousers. The women are nearly naked, and only wear one petticoat and braces ; the children, whose heads are decked with flowers, are naked, or nearly so. What strikes one most is the sudden transition from the barren desert of yesterday to the fertile and populous country of to-day. It seems like a never-ending village of small houses, covered with verdure, gardens, and flowers, the whole ex- tremely tidy and pleasant to the eye. This, then, is that swarming human ant-hill, China."
In connection with that wide and interesting subject for speculation, the population of China, it may be pointed out that these remarks refer to the town of Kalgan, where merchants and travellers from Russia are allowed to pass through the Great Wall, and that they must be considered to refer to a comparatively thinly-peopled part. Mr. Piassetsky gives an exceedingly interesting description of his residence in Pekin, but we cannot believe that the following account is based on any substantial foundation :— " I constantly walked in the quarter in which the Embassies were established, and in which I was consequently more likely to meet Europeans. I must confess that I was disgusted with their behaviour, as well as astonished at the long-suffering of the Chinese, and could thoroughly understand their hatred and mistrust of us. In truth, the Europeans behave in a deplorable manner,—one yells and blusters in the streets without anyone discovering why ; another forces his way through the crowd by making play with his cane on the backs of the Chinese ; a third, still more energetic, slaps the people right and left ; others smash the locks of the temples and force an entrance, or throw down the statues in the palace, and so on and so forth."
We cannot contradict Mr. Piassetsky from our own personal knowledge, but it is hard to believe that these and similar out- rages were perpetrated by foreigners in Pekin ten years ago.
Mr. Piassetsky describes a more pleasant feature of life in the Chinese capital in "the music produced by the flight of pigeons, to the tails of which are fitted whistles made out of bamboo- bark." These whistles consist of little pipes, which are passed under a feather in the tail, and the resistance of the air pro- -daces the sound in the pipes. The origin of this practice is uncertain, but it seems to have been adopted with the view of frightening birds of prey. Our traveller asserts that the Chinese themselves now take great pleasure in hearing the harmless and not very melodious music thus easily produced.
The most interesting part of these volumes, of course, begins when Mr. Piassetsky and his chief, Colonel Sosnoffsky, of whom he is always complaining, leave Pekin and the beaten track of the Yangtse rotate behind, and launch themselves into the interior of China, where the great River Han supplies for trade and travel- lers facilities which ten years ago were little utilised. Taking boat at Hankow, the expedition sailed up the Han River, pass- ing by several large towns, and through much scenery that was both striking and beautiful, until they left the province of Hupeh behind and entered that of Shensi. During this river journey Mr. Piassetsky, who really seems to have been one of those admirable travellers with eyes and ears for everything, had ample opportunities of observing the habits of the people ; and it is pleasant to find him recording his firm disbelief in the tales as to the prevalence of infanticide. On this subject he writes, " I never came across one single body in the water. I never even heard such a thing alluded to, and yet I came in contact with many poor and necessitous families."
At Hanchongfou, a town in Shensi, the travellers left the river and their boats, having lost one a few days before when pass- ing through the Lountan Rapids. From Hanchong they travelled by land across the southern portion of Kansuh to Lauchow, on the Yellow River, where they first made the acquaintance of Tao Tsung Tang, then well advanced in his operations against the Mahonimedans. Hanchong is an important town enough, with some buildings of architectural pretensions, and a Roman Catholic mission under an Italian priest named Vidi. Mr. Pies- Beaky, like many other disinterested witnesses, is sceptical as to the progress or prospects of Christianity in China. But from Hanchong to Lanchow the evidences of the great rebellion which had desolated the land ten years before were only too apparent in abandoned towns and villages, and in a population reduced to the lowest straits of misery and distress. Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the whole work is that describing the expedition's residence at Lanchow or Lanchefoo, and the interviews with Tao, at that time not so well known as he has since become. It is unnecessary to give Mr. Piassetsky's descrip- tion of this magnate further than to say that it accords in the main with that supplied some years later by Lieutenant Kreitner, the companion of Count Szchenyi. Everything the present writer has to say on the subject furnishes fresh evidence as to the energy and self-confidence of this official, which is in striking contradistinction to the apathy and want of backbone distinguishing the greater number of the Chinese mandarinate. But his description of Lanchefoo is fresher, and claims quota- tion :—
" The days slipped by without any cares. Our apartments were delightfully clean. Dinner and supper were punctually served. We had a large staff at our disposal and plenty of leisure. Lanchow being a big town' it was somewhat difficult to find the way about. I had noted a pagoda situated on a hill whence a good bird's-eye view could be obtained. So, accompanied by Tanloe and a soldier as guide, I rode towards the northern gate, facing a bridge formed by twenty- four boats, and thrown across the Yellow River. Lanchow is situated on the right bank of the Hoangho, renowned for its inundations, and at this spot about a mile and a quarter wide. The distance from Lanchow to its mouth is 3,106 miles. Its waters are not yellow, as its name might lead one to suppose, but very muddy and clay- coloured, through the quantity of earth it carries away. It is easy to see the force of the stream by looking at the bridge, as it is not straight, but forms a zigzag in the shape of the letter s."
Mr. Piassetsky has many good stories to tell illustrating the natural kindliness and the strong sense of humour which so greatly characterise the Chinese people. No one can read the record of his journey through the wild region beyond Lanchefoo to Hami, and thence to the Russian frontier at Zaissan, without being struck by the excellent conduct of a people long exposed to the terrible ravages of civil war. Mr. Piassetsky proved him- self, no doubt, an exceptionally gifted traveller; but by his account at least, Colonel Sosnoffsky was one of those adamantine still- Mires who repel all advances, and make those subordinate to them miserable under an iron discipline. The conduct of the Chinese was exemplary ; and those who believe in Chinese treachery and hostility to foreigners should turn to these very interesting volumes to see the other side of the picture. Instead of referring to Mr. Piassetsky's later travels across Gobi, we will conclude our notice with this quotation, illustrating what has just been said of the Chinese. It is one of many selected almost at random :— " As we were going back, I noticed a door and window in a court- yard with a very original lattice. I had succeeded in getting a few similar ones, and when time failed me I rubbed black all over a sheet of paper and then applied it to the lattice, thus obtaining a faithful life-size copy. The Chinese paper being strong, although fine, was eminently suitable to this sort of drawing, and also to copying inscriptions on stones or walls. Not having any such paper about me, I begged a Chinese to go and fetch some for me, which he did with alacrity, and when I explained what I was going to do he ran and got me a stool that I might reach the window with greater facility. Some of them held it all the time for me, and when they inquired why I was doing this, I told them that the design was very beautiful, and that I desired to have a window like it in my own house. This pleased and flattered them greatly, and to enhance the merits of their town they told me the artist was a native cabinet-maker ; some of them even ran to fetch him. I complimented him on his work, but he was very modest about it. I then tore a sheet of paper out of my note-book, and, to leave him a remembrance, sketched my own likeness, and offered it for his acceptance. The onlookers recognised the drawing, and uttered exclamations of approval. The cabinet-maker ran off with it greatly delighted, accompanied by a crowd of admirers. I only mention this fact to prove how easy it is to disarm the distrust and hostility of a Chinese crowd."
Evidently to be a successful traveller in China one must not only have a good temper, but one must be, like Mr. Piassetsky, both a doctor and an artist.
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