The Civilization of China | Page 6

ceremonies connected with
marriage vary in different provinces; but there is a certain ceremony,
equivalent in one sense to signing the register, which is almost essential
to every marriage contract. Bride and bridegroom must kneel down and
call God to witness; they also pledge each other in wine from two cups
joined together by a red string. Red is the colour for joy, as white is the
colour for mourning. Chinese note-paper is always ruled with red lines
or stamped with a red picture. One Chinese official who gave a
dinner-party in foreign style, even went so far as to paste a piece of red
paper on to each dinner-napkin, in order to counteract the unpropitious

influence of white.
Reference has been made above to journeys performed by boat. In
addition to the Yangtsze and the Yellow River or Hoang ho
(pronounced /Hwong haw/), two of the most important rivers in the
world, China is covered with a network of minor streams, which in
southern China form the chief lines of transport. The Yangtsze is
nothing more than a huge navigable river, crossing China Proper from
west to east. The Yellow River, which, with the exception of a great
loop to the north, runs on nearly parallel lines of latitude, has long been
known as "China's Sorrow," and has been responsible for enormous
loss of life and property. Its current is so swift that ordinary navigation
is impossible, and to cross it in boats is an undertaking of considerable
difficulty and danger. It is so called from the yellowness of its water,
caused by the vast quantity of mud which is swept down by its rapid
current to the sea; hence, the common saying, "When the Yellow River
runs clear," as an equivalent of the Greek Kalends. The huge
embankments, built to confine it to a given course, are continually
being forced by any unusual press of extra water, with enormous
damage to property and great loss of life, and from time to time this
river has been known to change its route altogether, suddenly diverging,
almost at a right angle. Up to the year 1851 the mouth of the river was
to the south of the Shantung promontory, about lat. 34 N.; then, with
hardly any warning, it began to flow to the north-east, finding an outlet
to the north of the Shantung promontory, about lat. 38 N.
A certain number of connecting links have been formed between the
chief lines of water communication, in the shape of artificial cuttings;
but there is nothing worthy the name of canal except the rightly named
Grand Canal, called by the Chinese the "river of locks," or alternatively
the "transport river," because once used to convey rice from the south
to Peking. This gigantic work, designed and executed in the thirteenth
century by the Emperor Kublai Khan, extended to about six hundred
and fifty miles in length, and completed an almost unbroken water
communication between Peking and Canton. As a wonderful
engineering feat it is indeed more than matched by the famous Great
Wall, which dates back to a couple of hundred years before Christ, and

which has been glorified as the last trace of man's handiwork on the
globe to fade from the view of an imaginary person receding into space.
Recent exploration shows that this wall is about eighteen hundred miles
in length, stretching from a point on the seashore somewhat east of
Peking, to the northern frontier of Tibet. Roughly speaking, it is
twenty-two feet in height by twenty feet in breadth; at intervals of a
hundred yards are towers forty feet high, the whole being built
originally of brick, of which in some parts but mere traces now remain.
Nor is this the only great wall; ruins of other walls on a considerable
scale have lately been brought to light, the object of all being one and
the same--to keep back the marauding Tartars.
Over the length and breadth of their boundless empire, with all its
varying climates and inhabitants, the Chinese people are free to travel,
for business or pleasure, at their own sweet will, and to take up their
abode at any spot without let or hindrance. No passports are required;
neither is any ordinary citizen obliged to possess other papers of
identification. Chinese inns are not exposed to the annoyance of
domicilary visits with reference to their clients for the time being; and
so long as the latter pay their way, and refrain from molesting others,
they will usually be free from molestation themselves. The Chinese,
however, are not fond of travelling; they love their homes too well, and
they further dread the inconveniences and dangers attached to travel in
many other parts of the world. Boatmen, carters, and innkeepers have
all of them bad reputations for