Myths and Legends of China | Page 5

Chinese have little left of the immigrant
stock. The oblique, almond-shaped eyes, with black iris and the orbits

far apart, have a vertical fold of skin over the inner canthus, concealing
a part of the iris, a peculiarity distinguishing the eastern races of Asia
from all other families of man. The stature and weight of brain are
generally below the average. The hair is black, coarse, and cylindrical;
the beard scanty or absent. The colour of the skin is darker in the south
than in the north.
Emotionally the Chinese are sober, industrious, of remarkable
endurance, grateful, courteous, and ceremonious, with a high sense of
mercantile honour, but timorous, cruel, unsympathetic, mendacious,
and libidinous.
Intellectually they were until recently, and to a large extent still are,
non-progressive, in bondage to uniformity and mechanism in culture,
imitative, unimaginative, torpid, indirect, suspicious, and superstitious.
The character is being modified by intercourse with other peoples of
the earth and by the strong force of physical, intellectual, and moral
education.
Marriage in Early Times
Certain parts of the marriage ceremonial of China as now existing
indicate that the original form of marriage was by capture--of which,
indeed, there is evidence in the classical Book of Odes. But a regular
form of marriage (in reality a contract of sale) is shown to have existed
in the earliest historical times. The form was not monogamous, though
it seems soon to have assumed that of a qualified monogamy consisting
of one wife and one or more concubines, the number of the latter being
as a rule limited only by the means of the husband. The higher the rank
the larger was the number of concubines and handmaids in addition to
the wife proper, the palaces of the kings and princes containing several
hundreds of them. This form it has retained to the present day, though
associations now exist for the abolition of concubinage. In early times,
as well as throughout the whole of Chinese history, concubinage was in
fact universal, and there is some evidence also of polyandry (which,
however, cannot have prevailed to any great extent). The age for
marriage was twenty for the man and fifteen for the girl, celibacy after
thirty and twenty respectively being officially discouraged. In the
province of Shantung it was usual for the wives to be older than their
husbands. The parents' consent to the betrothal was sought through the
intervention of a matchmaker, the proposal originating with the parents,

and the wishes of the future bride and bridegroom not being taken into
consideration. The conclusion of the marriage was the progress of the
bride from the house of her parents to that of the bridegroom, where
after various ceremonies she and he worshipped his ancestors together,
the worship amounting to little more than an announcement of the
union to the ancestral spirits. After a short sojourn with her husband the
bride revisited her parents, and the marriage was not considered as
finally consummated until after this visit had taken place.
The status of women was low, and the power of the husband great--so
great that he could kill his wife with impunity. Divorce was common,
and all in favour of the husband, who, while he could not be divorced
by her, could put his wife away for disobedience or even for
loquaciousness. A widower remarried immediately, but refusal to
remarry by a widow was esteemed an act of chastity. She often
mutilated herself or even committed suicide to prevent remarriage, and
was posthumously honoured for doing so. Being her husband's as much
in the Otherworld as in this, remarriage would partake of the character
of unchastity and insubordination; the argument, of course, not
applying to the case of the husband, who by remarriage simply adds
another member to his clan without infringing on anyone's rights.
Marriage in Monarchical and Republican Periods
The marital system of the early classical times, of which the above
were the essentials, changed but little during the long period of
monarchical rule lasting from 221 B.C. to A.D. 1912. The principal
object, as before, was to secure an heir to sacrifice to the spirits of
deceased progenitors. Marriage was not compulsory, but old bachelors
and old maids were very scarce. The concubines were subject to the
wife, who was considered to be the mother of their children as well as
her own. Her status, however, was not greatly superior. Implicit
obedience was exacted from her. She could not possess property, but
could not be hired out for prostitution. The latter vice was common, in
spite of the early age at which marriage took place and in spite of the
system of concubinage--which is after all but a legalized transfer of
prostitutional cohabitation to the domestic circle.
Since the establishment of the Republic in 1912 the 'landslide' in