takeing Sustenance upon the death of my Relations and you who are Grandson to a Saint on whom all the World casts their Eyes to see â—ow you will imitate him you have satisfied your self with three days Abstinence Confucius answered him The Ceremonies have been regulated by the Ancients to restrain the indiscreet and stir up the backward It is our duty to be obedient to the Laws if we would not go astray It is in this golden mean that Wisdom and the wise Man reside that you may never stray out of it Remember that Vertue is not an excess and that Perfection hath its limits Maxim III. A Man ought to change often if he would be constant in Wisdom A Person of Quality said one day to Confucius Your Grandfather was never wanting in any duty of Civility in respect of great Persons nevertheless his Doctrine tho' holy never obtain'd or got footing How do you imagine then that yours should be followed seeing you have a Magisterial Gravity that repulses Men and proceeds sometimes to haughtiness This is not the way to be welcome at Princes Courts Every Age hath its ways answered Confucius in my Grandfather's time Princes and Officers were polisht they delighted in order every one kept his Station to insinuate a Man's self in their Affections it behoved a Man to be polisht and regular like them At this day Men value nothing but Courage and Haughtiness wherewith Princes endeavour to inspire their Officers a Man ought to change with the World that he may be in a capacity to win it A wise man would cease so to be should he always act as the wise men of former times acted Maxim IV. The Grandees of a Kingdom are not always the great Men of the State Confucius coming to the Court of one of the Kings of China was very well received This Prince allowed him an Apartment in his Palace and came to visit him there himself At the end of the Visit he said to him You come not for nothing into my State probably you have a design to do me some good My Lord replyed Confucius I am but an unprofitable Man yet I avow if your Majesty will but follow my Counsel you will not be the worse for it My intent is to present to you wise Men to occupy the principle places of your State Withal my heart says the Prince Who are they My Lord Li-in the Son of a Husband-man is a Man on whom you may rely The King burst out a laughing How says he an Husband-man I have not Employments enough for the Lords of my Court and would you have me take a Labourer into my Service The Philosopher without being moved replyed Vertue is of all Trades and Conditions although it is more commonly annext to a mean Condition We have two Kingdomes in the Empire that have been founded by two Labourers What Inconvenience is there tho' a Man of that Character govern yours Believe me Sir the Court hath hitherto supply'd you with a good Company of evil Ministers Suffer a Country Village to present you with a wise Man You want Employments you say to place all the Lords that encompass you If Vertue alone were rewarded you would find in your Court more places than Officers nay and perhaps would be fain to call for Labourers to supply them When the Body of the Nobility does not furnish the State with great Men the great Men that may be found amongst the People must be chosen and of them must be composed the Body of the Nobility Maxim V. A small Fault often denotes great qualities He one day advised the King of Oâ—â—i to set a certain Officer of Reputation at the Head of his Army but the King excused himself for not doing it because that being formerly a Mandarin he took a couple of Eggs from a Country Fellow A Man who hath abused his Authority says he deserves not any longer to command These Sentiments of Equity replyed Confucius are very laudable in a King but perhaps the Mandarins Moderation that stole but two Eggs is no less to be admired Such a small fault in the whole Life of a Man denotes in him great qualities In a word a prudent Prince makes use of his Subjects in the Government as a Carpenter uses Timber in his Works he does not reject one good Beam because there is a flaw in it provided it be strong enough to support a whole Edifice I would not advise your Majesty for the loss of a couple of Eggs to turn off a Captain who may conquer you two Realms Maxim VI. The Prince is void of Counsel who hath too much Wit and when â—e delivers his Opinion the first The same King one day held a Counsel in presence of Confucius where he spoke of some Affairs with so much vehemence of Spirit that his Ministers applauded him and forthwith allowed him to be in the right and comply'd with him without more ado At the close this King said to Confucius What 's your Iudgment of the course we have taken in our last Deliberation Sir says the Philosopher I do not perceive that they have yet deliberated you spoke with a great deal of Wit your Ministers very attentive to please you have faithfully repeated the Discourse they have told your Opinion and not their own and when you adjourned the Assembly I still expected the beginning of the Counsel Some days after the same King asked him his Advice concerning the present Government He answered him No body speaks ill of it That is my desire says the King And that Sir is what you ought not to desire reply'd Confucius A sick Person forsaken whom they flatter that he is well is not far from death a Man is bound to discover to the Prince the defects of the Mind with the same liberty Men discover to him the maladies of the Body Maxim VII The wise Man goes forward apace because the right way is always the shortest on the contrary the crafty Politician arrives later at his end because he walks in By-ways and crooked Paths The King of Ouei confessed to Confucius That there was nothing so fine as Wisdom but the difficulty of acquiring it discouraged the most Courageous and diverted the best disposed Minds As for my part added he I have used endeavours but all in vain I am resolved to torment my self no longer about it and a small parcel of Policy will supply the defect of that Wisdom that is necessary to good Governing Sir answered Confucius 't is true Wisdom is seated on a lofty Place but the Road to it is not so impracticable as People imagine it grows plainer and plainer according as you go on and once got at it one cannot go back without running great danger to fall down the Precipice in such a sort that a wise Man cannot cease being so without doing violence to himself in some respect But do you think that a Prince hath no trouble when he marches in the indirect
same Notions and be there all imaginable care used in instructing and forming Strangers they are at most but adopted Sons who never have that implicit Obedience and tender Affection which Children by Nature bear to their own Parents So that should Foreigners be better qualified than Natives which you can never make the Chinese believe they would fancy it for the good of their Country to prefer Natives to them and it is little less than a Miracle in favour of Christianity that a few Missionaries have been suffered to settle there This last piece of Policy is extremely good when those of a false Religion are kept out which teaches Rebellion and Disturbance itself being the Product of Caballing and Riot but the Case is otherwise in Christianity whose Humility Sweetness and Obedience to Authority produces nought but Peace Unity and Charity among all People This is what the Chinese begin to be convinced of having had tryal of it for an whole Age together Happy were it if they would embrace it as a Constitution equally necessary for the Salvation of their Souls as conducive to the Peace and Good of their State Their sixth Maxim is that Nobility is never Hereditary neither is there any distinction between the Qualities of People saving what the Offices which they Execute makes so that excepting the Family of Confucius the whole Kingdom is divided into Magistâ—acy and Commonalty There are no Lands but what are held by Socage-Tenure not even those Lands which are destined for the Bonzes or which belong to the Temples of the Idols So that their Gods as well as Men are subjected to the State and are obliged by Taxes and Contributions to acknowledge the Emperors Supremacy When a Vice Roy or Governour of a Province is dead his Children as well as others have their Fortunes to make and if they inherit not their Fathers Virtue and Ingenuity his name which they bear be it never so famous gives them no quality at all The Advantages which the State makes of this Maxim are first Trading is in a more flourishing condition which the laziness of the Nobility is the likeliest means to ruin Secondly the Emperors Revenues are encreased by itâ— because no Estates are Tax-free In Towns which pay Poll-Mony no Person is exempt Thirdly by this means Families are hindred from ingratiating themselves with the Populace and so kept from establishing themselves so far in the Peoples favour that it would be a difficulty to the Prince himself to keep them within bounds Lastly its aâ—received Opinion among the Chinese that if an Emperor would be obeyed he must lay his commands upon Subjects and not upon so many little Kings Their seventh Principle of Policy is to keep up in Peace as well as War great Armies as well to maintain a Credit and Respect from the Neighbours as to stifle or rather prevent any Disturbance or insurrection which may happen at Home Heretofore a million of Soldiers were set to Guard their great Wall A less number also than that to Garrison their Frontiers and great Towns would have been too little Now they think it enough to keep Garrisons in their most important Towns Besides these standing Forces there are fifteen or twenty thousand Men in each Province under the command of private Officers they have also Soldiers to keep their Islands especially Haynan and Formosa The Horse Guards of Pekin are above an hundred and sixty thousand So that I believe in the greatest and securest Peace the Emperor has in Pay and at Muster no less than fifty hundred thousand effective Men all armed according to the Custom of the Country with Scimeters and Darts They have but a very small Infantry and of those which they have there are no Pikemen and very few Musketeers Their Soldiers are very graceful and pretty well Disciplined for the Tartars have almost degenerated into Chinese and the Chinese continue as they always were Soft Effeminateâ— Enemies of Labour better at making an handsome Figure at Muster or in a March than at behaving themselves gallantly in an Action The Tartars begin with heat and briskness and if they can make their Enemies give ground in the beginning then they can make their advantage of it otherwise they are unable to continue an Attack a good while or to bear up long against one especially if made in order and with vigour The Emperor whom I have had the honour to speak with who says nothing but what is proper as he does nothing but what is great gave this short Character of them they are good Soldiers when opposed to bad ones but bad when opposed to good ones The eighth Maxim is concerning their Rewards and Punishments Great Men who have faithfully served their Country never lose their Reward and because be a Prince never so Opulent he can never have enough to reward all his Subjects this defect is made up by Marks and Titles of Honour which are very acceptable to the Subjects and no charge to the Prince These Titles of Honour are what they call the several Orders of Mandarins They say such an one is a Mandarin of the first Rank or the Emperor has placed such an one in the first Class of the Mandarins of the second Rank and in like manner of others This Dignity which is merely honorary makes them take place in Assemblies Visits and Councels but is no profit to them To make these Rewards of greater extent which the People chuse much sooner than Pensions they are sometimes bestowed even upon the dead who are oftimes made Mandarins after their Funerals who therefore fill sometimes the greatest Places of Honour amongst the Nobility when the Emperor can't bestow upon them the meanest Place among the living They have oftentimes at the Publick or the Princes Charge lofty Monuments raised for them and that Court which looks after the Publick Expences judges what recompense shall be paid to their desert These Rewards are oftimes accompanied with Elogies in their praise made by the Emperor himself which makes them and their Family famous to all Posterity But the highest Honour is to make them Saints to build them Temples and offer them Sacrifices as to the Gods of the Country By this means Paganism has been mightily supported by the Emperors adoring themselves the Work of their own Hands and paying Worship and Honour to them who when alive would have been glad to be Prostrate at their now Worshippers feet They Reward also in private Men those vertuous Actions which bring no publick Advantage to the State We read in History that Temples have been raised to the memory of some Maids who all their lives kept their Chastity inviolable And I my self have seen in several of their Towns Trophies with honorable Inscriptions raised up for Inhabitants of mean rank and degree to publish to all the World their Virtue and Merit If the Chinese are very liberal in their Rewards they are as severe in their Punishments even of the
CAM-HY Emperor of China the Eastern Tartary Aged 41 years Drawn when he was but 32. London Printed for Benj Tooke and Sam Buckley in Fleetstreet MEMOIRS AND OBSERVATIONS Topographical Physical Mathematical Mechanical Natural Civil and Ecclesiastical Made in a late JOURNEY Through the EMPIRE of CHINA And Published in several Letters Particularly upon the Chinese Pottery and Varnishing the Silk and other Manufactures the Pearl Fishing the History of Plants and Animals Description of their Cities and Publick Works Number of People their Language Manners and Commerce their Habits Oeconomy and Government The Philosophy of Confucius The State of Christianity with many other Curious and Useful Remarks By LOVIS LE COMPTE Jesuit Confessor to the Dutchess of Burgundy one of the Royal Mathematicians and lately Missionary into the Eastern Countries Translated from the Paris Edition and illustrated with Figures London Printed for Benj. Tooke at the Middle Temple Gate and Sam. Buckley at the Dolphin over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1697. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE English Translation Directed in A LETTER to Sir G. M. Baronet and W. M. Esquire Members of Parliament AMONG the various Productions of the Press none seem in your Clear Judgments more delightful and instructive then the Relations of Voyages and Travels I mean those written by Men of Capacity and Sincerity which lye in a small Compass for most Books are either Romances Novels or Hypotheses Panegyricks Satyrs or Burlesques the one too commonly taken for Truths as the others for Heroicks which come forth either to ease an Hypocondriack Spleen or else to flatter Ambitious Powers to raise Private Fortunes or favour Particular Factions Those venemous Sorts of Vermine that infest Humane Societies and spread such Poysons as feâ— Aâ—tidotes can reach unless fetch'd from abroad which sometimes raise the Pulâ—e and give the Blood a more generous Tincture the World like a Machine being best understood and manag'd by taking it to pieces viewing and comparing the several Parts together from whence just Impressions may be taken with the greatest and most perfect Idea's so the Greek Master painted his Vlysses The Knowledge of Forreign Countries seems to be the Noblest School for the enlarging and cultivating the Mind of Youth who being generally confin'd by Education and Customs at Home which few ever live to Surmount and Conquer to a narrow Sphere of Thought are for the most part puff'd up and choak'd for want of a free Air and a large Prospect hence it is that so many become unfit for Publick Business and Action or even common Conversation falling into Disorders upon little Contradictions and Starting at every Thing that lyes out of their way Imperitum est Animal Homo si circumscribatur Natalis Soli sui Fine says Seneca Such a One the Great Homer drew his Telemachus The Globe is compar'd to a true Glass in which may be seen the different Faces of Nature with the several Arts and Mysteries of Governments Every Climate affords new Scenes wherein a Man may learn that the Harmony of the Universe consists in a wonderful Variety which as the Emperor of Siam once repartee'd upon the Jesuits seems to have been set out by the most glorious Creator and Governour of all Things for his own immortal Praise Therefore t is in vain for the Collegium de propagandâ Fide and the Roman Catholick Courts to labour on Earth or expect from Heaven a general Uniformity in the Religion and Manners of Mankind no more then in other Customs Diets Habits and Commodities However their Missionaries ought not to be discourag'd in their Undertakings for the Improvements of Geography Natural and Civil History Commerce c. bring Honour and Profit sufficient to reward their Pains in case their Adventures upon Religion turn to no Account The same Immense Power always has and ever will be worship'd in different Forms under various Figures and Idea's It seems to be a General Error amongst us that many wise Nations adore meer Stocks and Stones without any respect to the Supream Divinity Of all the Kingdoms of the Earth China is the most celebrated for Politeness and Civility for Grandeur and Magnificence for Arts and Inventions which the Romish Priests are so sensible of that they pass there under the Characters of Physicians Painters Merchants Astrologers Mechanicians c. and are receiv'd as such in the Courts of Asia which are too sine to suffer openly the propagation of a strange Religion as some of the most pious Missionaries over-heated with the Naked Truth often find to their own Destruction especially when the Brachmans the Talapoins and the Bonzes begin to grow Zealous of their Masquerades and to see thro' their Disguises But you may perhaps demand because you do not use to take Things upon meer Recommendations without further Enquiry and Examination why the Booksellers should venture to print in English these Memoirs of China seeing we have already so many Relations of that Country To which they give this Answer viz. That most of our Accounts of China are either fabulous or Copies and not comparable to this Original of theirs Besides that vast Empire is so Fertile and Wonderful in all respects that it will always furnish fresh Materials for Discoveries let the Travellers be never so sagacious and industrious few of whom will be found to deserve such a Character unless Those lately sent at the French King's Expence with a Stock of excellent Instruments and with a sufficient Fund for making useful Observations amongst these our Author was one of the Chief and therefore the Reader may expect more from him then what is already Extant in the printed Works of his Predecessors Marco Paulo Nicolo di Conti Galeotto Perera Gaspar de Cruz Ferdinand Mendez Pinto Gonzalez de Mendoza Anthony de Andrada Manuell de Faria Sousa Pedro Cubero Sebastian and some others of the Moresco Vein run Whip and Spur into Knight Errantry so familiar and even congenial to the Italian but much more to the Spanish and Portuguese Writers that a thousand Don Quixots with all Cervante's Satyr will never be able to reform them yet a Critical Reader may glean many pretty things from Them The Accounts of some Learned Jesuits whose Order hath seen more of China then all the rest of the Europeans seem to be more judicious and authentick especially if we indulge them a little in the Story of their Religion Among these we ought to mention with respect the Ingenious Fathers Ricci Trigault Semedo Martini Rhodes Boym Grueber Adam Schall whose Letters are very considerable Father Greslon Father Rougemont with many other Missionaries of the Church of Rome from whom Kircher took all his Materials and Monsieur Thevenot in that part of his Collections relating to China has only abridg'd some of their Diaries and Journals The Relation that Linschoten gives of China is not equal to the other Parts of Asia which he himself saw the same may be said of Mandelslo The
to West is little less so that on the whole China which is almost of a Circular Figure is very near Fourteen hundred Leagues in Circuit This Account My Lord I can warrant to be just and grounded on very exact Remarks You see My Lord that I have left out the Islands Formosa Haynan and others of less Note which of themselves would make a very great Kingdom as also all the Province Leauton because it is without the Wall As for the Corea Tunquin and Siam they depend indeed on China so far as that they pay a Tribute to that Crown and that their Kings at their admission are Confirmed by its Emperor but they are separate Kingdoms and differ much from that of China which whether in respect of the Product and Fertility of its Soil or the Beauty and Number of its Cities the Wit Politeness Religion or Manners of its Inhabitants is quite another thing The Chineze know it and are so proud of it that they call all the rest Barbarous Nations taking great care in their Marriages not to match with them or any of the other Indians and fearing nothing more then that their mean Blood should run in a Noble Chineze's Veins I also omitted a great part of Tartary which belongs to this State to the great increase of its Power for the Tartars are Valiant and withal Men of Sence and besides tho' Tartary be full of Woods and Sandy Desarts yet it is not wholly unfruitful those sine Furs of which they rob their Zibelines Foxes and Tigers a great diversity of Simples useful in Physick and the fine Horses which come from thence are Commodities China could not be without Yet tho' they reap so great a Profit by it it cannot be imagined what a Vexation it is to them to be so strictly united and mixt with that Nation and one must be well acquainted with the Excess of their Vanity and of the Conceit they have of their Grandeur to know how grievously the Tartarian Conquest has humbled them I question not My Lord but you have heard of it but perhaps have not had the leisure of inquiring into Particulars and therefore a short Account of that great Revolution may not be unwelcome One of the Petty Kings of the Eastern Tartary for there are not afew whose Subjects called Mouantchéou had settled a Trade near the Long Wall having complained at Pekin of some Knaveries committed by the Chinâ—se Merchants and having received no Satisfaction resolved to right himself and entered the Province of Leauton with a numerous Army The Emperor presently sent some part of his Forces to oppose him and the War continued some time with equal advantage But one LI a Chineze took that Opportunity to hatch a Rebellion in the Provinces which were most remote from Court Great numbers of Malecontents flocked about him who having made themselves Masters of the greatest Cities like a Torrent overflowed the whole Country driving all down before them The Sacred Majesty of their Emperor could not save Pekin from their Fury the Rebel who knew the best Forces were drawn out of it marched directly to attack it There was indeed a Garrison of Seventy thousand Men but most gain'd upon by the practises of Li's Emissaries so that while some with a pretended Zeal perswaded the Prince to remain in his Palace others open'd the City Gates to the Traitor who solemnized his Entry by a Cruel Slaughter The unfortunate Monarch finding himself betrayed would have marched out against him with Six hundred Guards who still remained with him but at the mentioning of this Heroick Proposal their Hearts failed 'em and they ungenerously abandoned him Then knowing no greater Evil then that of falling quick into the Hands of his Enemies he retired into a Garden with an only Daughter he had and having wrote with his Blood these words on the bordure of his Vest My Subjects have basely forsaken me spend thy Rage on my Body but spare my People He first stabb'd the Princess whose Tears must needs have rent a Heart of Flint and then hang'd himself on a Tree more Unjust to his Daughter and Cruel to Himself then could have been the most barbarous Foe The Emperor being dead all bowed to the Usurper except Ousanguey whom the late Prince had intrusted with the Command of the Forces he had sent against the Tartars who never would acknowledge him and chose rather to pull down his Tyranny then ignobly to accept of a share in it The new Monarch having in vain besâ—eged him in the Province Leauton to engage him to Surrender himself shewed him his Father loaded with Irons protesting he would put him to Death in his sight if he did not immediately submit But that generous Lord more Faithful to the Memory of his deceased Prince then tender of his Father's Life suffered the Duty of a Subject to prevail over of that of a Son and seeing that Blood spilt of which his once was Part resolved to dye or revenge at once his Fathers and his Emperor's Death He made his Peace with the Tartar who having joyn'd him no sooner enabled him to Cope with his Enemy but he marched against him But the Tyrant whose Cowardize was even greater then his Cruelty durst not appear against those two Armies He fled to Pekin where having burned the Palace and all that had not perished at his first Entry he retired into the Province of Chensi loaded with the Spoil of the Empire and the Curse of all He was pursued but in vain for he met with so private a Retirement that all the Art of Man could never find him out In the mean while the Tartars entered Pekin and so imposed upon the poor Chineze that of themselves they begged their new Guests to take care of their distressed State The others too Cunning not to improve so favourable a Hint whether by Force or Policy are since grown absolute Masters of it And here it is hard to determine which is most to be wondred at the Courage and Conduct of that Nation which gave them Success in so Noble an Enterprize or the Supineness or ill Management of the Chineze who thus basely submitted to a People so inconsiderable for their Number that they would have been ashamed not long before to own them for their Subjects So true it is we ought not to look on any thing as beneath us since all Temporal Grandeur is subject to Change and that nothing is Constant in this World but Inconstancy The Tartarian King Tsouté had not the leisure to enjoy his Conquest scarce had he taken Possession but he died leaving the Administration of the Government and Care of his Son who was then but Six years old to his Brother This Brother of his named AMAVAN conquered all the Provinces which had not yet submitted a Prince deservedly admired not only for his Valour and Conduct ever attended with Success but also for his Fidelity and Moderation For the young Prince being come
Cloud of it which gets into the Houses and makes its way into the closest Closets so that take what care you will your Goods should ever be full of it They strive to allay it by a continual besprinkling the Streets with Water but there is still so much lefâ— as is very offensive both as to Cleanliness and Health Of all the Building this mighty City consists in the only remarkable one is the Imperial Palace which I have already described to your Highness I shall only add to give you a more exact Notion of it that it not only includes the Emperor's House and Gardens but also a little Town inhabited by the Officers at Court and a great number of Artificers who are employed and kept by the Emperorâ— for none but the Eunuchs lye in the inner Palace The outward Town is defended by a very good Wall without and divided from the Emperor's House by one of less strength All the Houses are very low and ill contrived far worse than those in the Tartars City so that the Quality of its Inhabitants and the Conveniency of being near the Court are the only things that it is commendable for The inner Palace is made up of Nine vast Courts built in one Line in length for I comprehend not those on the Wings where are the Kitchin Stables and other Offices The Arches thro' which you go from one to another are of Marble and over each there stands a large square Building of a Gothick Architecture the Timber of whose Roof becomes an odd kind of Ornament for the Rafters being left of a length sufficient to come out beyond the Wall have other shorter pieces of Wood put upon them which forms a kind of Cornish that at a distance looks very fine The sides of each Court are closed by lesser Apartments or Galleries but when you come to the Emperor's Lodgings there indeed the Portico's supported by stately Pillars the white Marble-steps by which you ascend to the inward Halls the gilt Rooâ—s the Carved-work Varnish Gilding and Painting they are adorned with the Floors made of Marble or Porcelain but chiefly the great number of different Pieces of Artichecture which they consist of dazle the Beholders Eye and truly look great becoming the Majesty of so great a Monarch But still the imperfect Notion the Chinese have of all kind of Arts is betrayed by the unpardonable Faults they are guilty of The Apartments are ill contrived the Ornaments irregular and the former wants that Connexion which makes the Beauty and Conveniency of our Palaces In a word there is as it were an unshapenness in the whole which renders it very unpleasing to Foreigners and must needs offend any one that has the least Notion of true Architecture Some Relations however cry it up as Arts Master-piece The reason is because the Missionaries who wrote them had never seen any thing beyond it or that long use has accustomed them to it for it is observable that let us measure a thing never so Time will at length make it supportable Our Fancy habituates it self to any sight and therefore an European that has spent Twenty or Thirty years in China can seldom give so good an account of it as he that makes no stay there As the true Accent of a Language is often lost among those who pronounce it ill so the Sharpness of a Man's Judgment is blunted by conversing with those who have none The Guards placed in the Gates and Avenues of the Palace have no other Arms but their Cimeters and are not so numerous as I had at first imagined but there is a multitude of Lordâ— and Mandarines constantly attending at the usual time of Audience Formerly the whole Palace was inhabited with Eunuchs whose Power and Insolence was grown to such a pitch that they were become an insupportable Grievance to the Princes of the Empire but the last Emperors of China especially those descended from Tartary have so humbled them that they make at present no Figure at all The youngest serve as Pages the other are put to the vilest Employments their Task being to sweep the Rooms and keep them clean and for the least Fault they are severely punished by their Overseers who are very strict The number of the Emperor's Wives or Concubines is not easily known it being very great and never fixed They never were seen by any one but himself and scarce durst a Man inquire about them They are all Maidens of Quality which the Mandarines or Governors of the Provinces choose and as soon as they are entered the Palace they have no farther Correspondency with their Friends no not with their very Fathers This forced and perpetual Solitude for most of them are never taken Notice of by the Emperor the Intreagues they set on work to get into his Favour and the Jealousie they have of one another which wracks them with Suspicions Envy and Hate makes the most part of them very miserable Among those who are so happy as to gain their Prince's approbation Three are chosen which bear the Title of Queens These are in a far higher Degree of Honour than the rest having each their Lodgings their Court their Ladies of Honour and other Female Attendants Nothing is wanting that can contribute to their Diversion Their Furniture Cloaths Attendance is all Rich and Magnificent It is true all their Happiness consists in pleasing their Lord for no Business of any Consequence comes to their Knowledge and as they do not assist the State with their Counsels so they do not disturb it with their Ambition The Chinese differ very much from us in that Point They say Heaven has indued Women with Good Nature Modesty and Innocence that they might look after their Families and take care of their Childrens Education but that Men are born with strength of Body and Mind with Wit and Generosity to Govern and Rule the World They are astonished when we tell them that with us the Scepter often falls into a Princesses Hands and often say by way of Jest That Europe is the Ladies Kingdom This My Lord is all that can be said in General of the Emperor of China's Palace so much boasted of by Historians because perhaps in all Pekin they met not with any worth their notice For indeed all besides are so mean that it would be if I may say it a debasing of our Terms to give the Name of Palace to their Grandees Houses They are but one Story high as are all the rest tho' I confess the great number of Lodgings for themselves and their Servants does make some amends for their want of Beauty and Magnificence Not but that the Chinese are as much as any Nation in love with looking great and spending high but the Custom of the Country and the Danger of being taken notice of is a Curb to their Inclinations While I was at Pekin one of the Chief Mandarines I think he was a Prince had built him a House something
Beard under their lower Jaw flaming Eyes long sharp Teeth their Mouth open and breathing a whole Stream of Flame Four Lions of the same Metal stand under the End of the aforesaid Beams whose Heads are raised higher or lower by Screws fastned with them The Circles are divided both in their Exteriour and Interiour Surface by Crossâ—lines into 360 Degrees each and each Degree into 60 Minutes and the latter into portions of 10 Seconds each by small Pins II. SPHAERA EQUINOXIALIS of six Foot Diameter This Sphere is supported by a Dragon who bears it on his back bowed and whose four Claws seize the four Ends of its Pedestal which as the former is formed of two Brazen Beams Cross-wise whose Ends are also born by four small Lions which serve to set it right The Design is noble and well performed III. HORISON AZIMUTHALE six Feet in Diameter This Instrument useful for the taking of Azimuths is composed of a large Circle horisontally placed The double Alhidada which serves it for a Diameter runs over all the Limb and carries round along with it an upright Triangle the upper Angle of which is fastned to a Beam raised perpendicular from the Center of the said Horison Four folded Dragons bow their Heads under the inferiour Limb of that Circle to make it fast and two others wound round two small Columns mount on either side Cemicircularwise as high as the said Beam to which they are fastned to keep the Triangle steady IV. A large QUADRANT whose Radius is six Foot The Limb is divided into Portions of 10 Seconds each the Lead which shews its Vertical Situation weighs a Pound and hangs from the Center by a very fine Brass-wyre The Alhidada moves easily round the Limb. A Dragon folded in several Rings and wrapt up in Clouds seizes on all parts the several Plates of the Instrument to fasten them least they should start out of their due Position The whole Body of the Quadrant hangs in the Air and a fixed Axis runs thro' its Center round which the Quadrant turns towards the Parts of the Heavens which the Mathematician chooses to observe And least its weight should cause it to shiver and lose its Vertical Position a Beam is raised on each side secured at the bottom by a Dragon and fastned to the middle Beam or Axis by Clouds which seem to come out of the Air. The whole Work is solid and well contrived V. A SEXTANT whose Radius is about eight Feet This represents the sixth Part of a great Circle born by a Beam the Basis of which is Concave made fast with Dragons and crossed in the middle by a Brazen Pillar on one end of which is an Engine the help of whose Wheels serves to facilitate the Motion of that Instrument On this Engine rests the middle of a small Brazen Beam which represents a Radius of the Sextant and is fastned to it It s upper part is terminated by a big Cilinder which is the Center round which the Alhidada turns and the lower is extended above two Feet beyond the Limb that it may be grasped by the Pully which serves to raise it These large and heavy Machines are of greater Ornament than use VI. A CELESTIAL GLOBE of six Feet Diameter This in my opinion is the fairest and best fashioned of all the Instruments The Globe it self is Brazen exactly round and smooth The Stars well made and in their true places and all the Circles of a proportionable breadth and thickness It is besides so well hung that the least touch moves it and tho' it is above Two thousand weight the least Child may elevate it to any Degree On its large Concave Basis rest in an opposite Station four Dragons whose Hair standing up an end support a noble Horison commendable by its Breadth its several Ornaments and the Delicacy and Niceness of the Work The Meridian in which the Pole is fixed rests upon Clouds that issue out of the Basis and slides easily between them its motion being facilitated by some hidden Wheels and moves with it the whole Globe to give it the required Elevation Besides which the Horison Dragons and two Brazen Beams which lye cross in the Center of the Basis's Concavity are all moved at pleasure without stirring the Basis which still remains fixed this facilitates the due placing of the Hoâ—ison whether in respect of the Natural Horison or in respect of the Globe I wondred how Men who live Six thousand Leagues from us could go through such a piece of Work and I must own that if all the Circles which are divided had been corrected by some of our Workmen nothing could be more perfect in that kind These Machines being most of them above 10 feet from the Ground have for the Astronomers greater conveniency Marble Steps round them cut Amphitheater-wise How inviting soever these new Instruments may seem the Chinese could never have been perswaded to make use of them and leave their old ones without an especial Order from the Emperor to that effect They are more fond of the most defective Piece of Antiquity then of the perfectest Novelty differing much in that from us who are in love with nothing but what is new Indeed we are all to blame for Time can add to or detract nothing from the real worth of things But if we do not take great care of our selves Fancy Custom and Prejudice will prevail over our Understanding which only perceiving the Difference of things is only able to judge of it If this Failing of the Chinese extended but to their Temporal Concerns the Mischief perhaps would not be great but it unhappily reaches â—o the Point of Religion and whereas in Europe it seems that a Doctrine tho' never so absurd has a Title to our Belief when recommended by Novelty in China it is quite contrary â—or they think it a sufficient reason to reject the Christian Faith because in respect of their Monarchy it is not old enough As tho' Time and Ignorance were to be preâ—erred to Truth or that long standing could render Superstition lawful or reasonable The Fondness â—or Antiquity and for the Observance of ancient Customs is perhaps what keeps the Chinese so close to their Astronomical Observations for it has ever been their continual Practise but it is a shame that they have during so long a time made no greater Improvements One would think that having watched the Motions of the Stars above 4000 years they should be perfectly acquainted with them yet when our Missionaries entered that Country they found them to be so unskilful herein that with all their care they never could arrive to the Composing of an Exact Calendar and their Tables of Eclipses were so uncorrect that scarce could they foretel about what time that of the Sun should happen As for those two Points they are now at rest for those Fathers have settled the Calendar and that which is given out in the beginning of each year notes with
in use which has put us upon inventing new ways of defending our Cities as there were new ones contrived of attacking them I confess My Lord that running over all those Cities which their Inhabitants esteem the strongest in the World I have often with no little pleasure reflected on the facility with which Lewis the Great would subdue those Provinces if Nature had made us a little nearer Neighbours to China he whom the stoutest Places in Europe can at best withstand but during a few days God has by an equal and just Distribution given the Chinese but Ordinary Commanders because no Extraordinary Actions could be performed there but to vanquish such Enemies as ours so great a Hero was wholly necessary It must however be granted that in the way of Fortification the Chinese have outdone all the Ancients in the prodigious Work that defends part of their Country 'T is that which we call the Great Wall and with themselves stile Van li Cham Chim The Wall 10000 Stadium's long which reaches from the Eastern Ocean to the Province of Chansi Not that its length is so great as they speak it but if you reckon all its windings it will really appear to be no less than 500 Leagues You must not conceive it as a plain Wall for it is fortified with Towers much like the City Walls I have mentioned and in the places where the Passes might be more easily forced they have raised two or three Bulworks one behind another which may give themselves a mutual Defence whose enormous Thickness and the Forts which Command all the Avenues being all guarded by great numbers of Forces protect the Chinese from all Attempts on that side China being divided from Tartary by a Chain of Mountains the Wall has been carried on over the highest Hills and is now tall and then low as the Ground allowed for you must not think as some have imagined that the Top of it is level throughout and that from the bottom of the deepest Vales it could have been raised to be as high as the tallest Mountains So when they say that it is of a wonderful height we must understand it of the Spot of Ground it is built on for of it self it is rather lower than those of their Cities and but four or at most five feet in thickness It is almost all built with Brick bound with such strong Mortar that not only it has lasted these several Ages but is scarce the worse It is above 1800 years since Emperor Chihohamti raised it to prevent the Insurrections of the Neighbouring Tartars This was at once one of the greatest and maddest Undertakings that I ever heard of for tho' indeed it was a prudent Caution of the Chinese thus to guard the easiest Avenues how ridiculous was it of them to carry their Wall to the top of some Precipices which the Birds can scarce reach with their Flight and on which it is impossible the Tartarian Horse should ascend And if they could fancy that an Army could have clambered up thither how could they believe that so thin and low a Wall as they have made it in such places could be of any Defence As for my part I admire how the Materials have been conveyed and made use of there and indeed it was not done without a vast Charge and the loss of more Men then would have perished by the greatest Fury of their Enemies It is said that during the Reigns of the Chinese Emperors this Wall was guarded by a Million of Soldiers but now that part of Tartary belongs to China they are content with manning well the worst situated but best fortified Parts of it Among the other Fortresses of the Kingdom there are above a Thousand of the first rate the rest are less remarkable and indeed scarce deserve that Name yet all are very well garrisoned and by that one may judge what vast Armies are constantly kept on foot However that is not the Chinese's chiefest boast for if they are considered but as to the Military part they will raise our wonder but who can enough admire the Numbers Greatness Beauty and Government of their Trading Towns They are generally divided into three Classes of the first there are above 160 of the second 270 and of the third near 1200 besides near 300 walled Cities more which they leave out as not worth observing tho' they are almost all well inhabited and traded The greater and lesser Villages are numberless especially those of the Southern Provinces In the Province of Chanâ—i and Chenâ—i they are for the most part surrounded with Walls and good Ditches with Iron Gates which the Country People shut at Night and guard in the Day-time to protect themselves from Thieves as also from the Soldiers who as they pass by which they continually do would in spight of their Officers insult them The largeness of these Cities is not less amazing then their number Pekin which I have already had the honour to mention to your Highness is not to be compared to Nankin or as it is now called Kiamnin a Town formerly enclosed within three Walls the outermost of which was 16 long Leagues round Some Works of it are still to be seen which one would rather think to be the Bounds of a Province then a City When the Emperors kept their Court there its Inhabitants were no doubt numberless It s Situation Haven Plenty the Fertility of the Neighbouring Lands and the Canals made near it for the Improvement of Trade could not but make it a fine City It has since lost much of its former Splendour however if you include those who live in its Suburbs and on the Canals it is still more populous than Pekin and tho' the unarable Hills the ploughed Lands Gardens and vast empty Places which are within its Walls render it really less then it seems what is inhabited does still make a prodigious big City The Streets are moderately broad but very well paved The Houses low but cleanly and the Shops very rich being filled with Stuffs Silks and other costly Wares In a word it is as the Center of the Empire where you may find all the Curiosities which are produced in it There the most famous Doctors and the Mandarins who are out of Business usually settle themselves having the conveniency of several Libraries filled with choice of good Books their Printing is fairer their Artificers are better Workmen the Tongue more polite and the Accent smother than any where else and truly no other City were more proper for the Emperor's Seat were it not for the State 's advantage that he should reside near the Frontiers It is also famous for several other Reasons First Because of the River Kiam on which it is situated which is the Largest Deepest and most Navigable in the whole Empire being in that part of it which bathes the City near half a League broad Secondly The Royal Observatory on the Top of a Mountain where stood formerly a
they discharge themselves into some Lake or great Pond out of which all the adjacent Country is watered So that these clear and plentiful Streams embellished by so many fine Bridges bounded by such neat and convenient Banks equally distributed into such vast Plains covered with a numberless multitude of Boats and Barges and crowned if I may use the Expression with a prodigious number of Towns and Cities whose Ditches it fills and whose Streets it forms does at once make that Country the most Fruitful and the most Beautiful in the World Surprised and as it were astonished at so Noble a Sight I have sometimes bore a secret Envy to China in Europe's behalf which must own that it can boast nothing in that kind to be compared to the former What would it be then if that Art which in the wildest and most unlikely Places has raised magnificent Palaces Gardens and Groves had been employed in that rich Land to which Nature has been lavish of her most precious Gifts The Chinese say their Country was formerly totally overflowed and that by main Labour they drained the Water by cutting it a way thro' these useful Canals If this be true I cannot enough admirâ— at once the Boldness and Industry of their Workmen who have thus made great Artificial Rivers and of a kind of a Sea as it were created the most Fertile Plains in the World It will scarce be believed that Men so ignorant in the Principles of Physicks and the Art of Levelling could bring such a Work as that to Perfection yet it is certain that these Canals are natural For they are usually strait the Distribution is equal and orderly there are Flood-gates made for the Rivers to let in their Water at and others to let it out when they are too full so that it cannot be doubted but that the Chinese are only beholding to their own Industry for that great Conveniency Among all those Canals in the Southern Provinces one above the rest is called the Great Canal because it goes thro' the whole Country from Canton which lyes Southwards to Pekin situated in the most Northerly parts of the Empire You must only travel a short days Journey by Land to cross the Hill Moilin that does on one side bound the Province of Kiamsi From this Mountain issue two Rivers one runs Southwards to the Sea and the other Northwards as far as the River of Nankin whence by the yellow River and several Canals you may proceed by Waâ—er to the very Mountains of Tartary But by reason in this huge Extent of Ground of above four hundred Leagues in length the Earth is not Level or hath not a Descent proportionable to the Emanation of the Waters it was necessary to set a great number of Sluices awork They call them so in the Relations notwithstanding they be much different from ours They are Water-falls and as it were certain Torrents that are precipitated from one Canal into another more or less rapid according to the difference of their Level Now to cause the Barks to ascend they make use of a great Company of Men who are maintained for that purpose near the Sluice After they have drawn Cables to the right and left to lay hold of the Bark in such a manner that it cannot escape from them they have several Capstans by the help of which they raise it by little and little by the main force of their Arms till such time as it be in the upper Canal in a Condition to continue its Voyage whither it is bound This same Labour is tedious toilsome and exceeding dangerous They would be wonderfully surprised should they behold with what easiness one Man alone who opens and shuts the Gates of our Sluices makes the longest and heaviest laden Barks securely to ascend and descend I have observed in some Places in China where the Waters of two Canals or Channels have no Communication together yet for all that they make the Boats to pass from the one to the other notwithstanding the Level may be different above fifteen Foot And this is the way they go to work At the end of the Canal they have built a double Glacis or sloping Bank of Free-stone which uniting at the Point extends it self on both sides up to the Surface of the Water When the Bark is in the lower Channel they hoist it up by the help of several Capstanes to the plane of the first Glacis so far till being raised to the Point it falls back again by its own weight along the second Glacis into the Water of the upper Channel where it skuds away during a pretty while like an Arrow out of a Bow and they make it descend after the same manner proportionably I cannot imagine how these Barks being commonly very long and heavy Laden escape being split in the middle when they are poised in the Air upon this Acute Angle for considering that length the Lever must needs make a strange effect upon it yet do I not hear of any ill Accident happen thereupon I have past a pretty many times that way and all the Caution they take when they have a mind to go ashoar is to tye ones self fast to some Cable for fear of being tost from Prow to Poop We meet with no such Sluices in the Grand Canal because the Emperor's Barks that are as large as our Frigots could not be raised by force of Arm nay and would infallibly be split in the Fall all the difficulty consists in ascending back again upon these Torrents of which I have spoken yet this is what they perform successively tho' not without some Trouble and Expence The Canal to sail upon was necessary for the Transportation of Grain and Stuffs which they fetch from the Southern Provinces to Pekin There are if we may give Credit to the Chineses a Thousand Barks from Eighty to an Hundred Tun that make a Voyage once a year all of them Freighted for the Emperor without counting those of particular Persons whose number is infinite When these prodigious Fleets set out one would think they carry the Tribute of all the Kingdoms of the East and that one of these Voyages alone was capable of supplying all Tartary where-withal to Subsist for several years yet for all that Pekin alone hath the benefit of it and it would be as good as nothing did not the Province contribute besides to the Maintenance of the Inhabitants of that vast City The Chineses are not only content to make Channels for the Convenience of Travellers but they do also dig many others to catch the Rain-water wherewith they water the Fields in time of Drought more especially in the Northern Provinces During the whole Summer you may see your Country People busied in raising this Water into abundance of small Ditches which they contrive across the Fields In other places they contrive great Reservatories of Tuâ—f whose Bottom is raised above the Level of the Ground about it to serve
making themselves fine thinking they may be seen in the day time altho' perhaps they are not by any one but their own Domesticks Their Head-dress which usually consists of several Locks buckled up interlaced with Flowers of Gold and Silver is somewhat odd But I neither can nor will My Lord give you a particular Description of it because I know you do not expect it from me However I am perswaded if People should see the Model of them in France they would go near to be tempted to quit that extravagant Company of Ornaments they use to dress their Heads a-la-mode de Chineses The Ladies wear as Men do a long Sattin or Cloath of Gold Vest red blue or green according to their particular Phansie the elder sort habit themselves in black or purple they wear besides that a kind of Surtout the Sleeves whereof extream wide trail upon the Ground when they have no occasion to hold them up But that which distinguisheth them from all the Women in the World and does in a manner make a particular Species of them is the littleness of their Feet and here lyes the more essential point of their Beauty That is miraculous and cannot be comprehended this Affectation proceeds sometimes even to that Excess that would pass for Folly did not an extravagant and ancient Custom which in the business of the Mode evermore prevails over the most natural Idea's oblige them to follow the Streams and comply with the Custom of the Country So soon as ever the Girls are born the Nurses take care to tye their Feet extream hard for fear of growing Nature that seems to be disposed for this Torment does more easily buckle to it than one could imagine nay one does not perceive that their Health is impaired thereby Their Shoes of Sattin embroidered with Gold Silver and Silk are extraordinary neat and tho' they be very little yet do they study to let them be seen as they walk for walk they do which one would not be apt to believe and would walk all day long by their good will if they had liberty to go abroad Some have been perswaded that it was an Invention of the ancient Chineses who to bring Women under a necessity of keeping within Doors brought little Feet in fashion I have more than once inquired about it of the Chinese themselves that never heard nothing of it These are idle Tales says one of them smiling our Fore-fathers knew Women but too well as we do to believe that in retrenching half of their Feet they could be deprived of the power of walking and of longing to see the World If People would have given themselves the trouble to have consulted the Relations concerning the Countenance and Physiognomy of the China Women it would not have been so easie a matter to impose upon the easiness of the Ladies of Paris who entertain'd a poor French Woman the last year giving her all manner of Relief because she said she was an Outlandish Woman and of one of the best Families in China This Accident surprised all Curious Persons and the Marquis de Croisi intimated to me that I would do him a kindness in examining the truth of the story Charity added he is no less acceptable to God altho ' it be misplaced upon Objects that deserve it not If the Business were only a bare Mistake in Matter of Alms one might without any Scruple of Conscience leave those in an Errour whom one deceives under a false pretence of Necessity But this Maid saith she was an Heathen she is exhorted long since to be Converted she conceives already or at least makes as if she did conceive our Mysteries in fine she desires to embrace our Religion and they are just upon the point to baptize her If she be a Chinese well and good and we have cause to admire Divine Providence from bringing this Soul from so remote a Place to be admitted into the Bosom of the Church but if she be a French Woman who probably hath been baptized from her Infancy this Abuse of the Sacrament that she 's a going to receive a second time is a Sacriledge deserving the severest Punishment of which Sacriledge those that assist her become Guilty themselves I was already much prepossessed with an ill Opinion of this pretended Chinese but besides the order of the Marquis de Croissi I thought it would be good to sift out the Business to the bottom to undeceive those that were any ways concern'd therein When she understood that I would come and see her she was not a little perplext He is not a China Father says she but one of the Indian Missionaries whom the Revolution of Siam hath made to come back Nay they had much ado to find her when I appeared they sought for her all up and down a good while and at length unkennell'd her and perswaded her to make Appearance So soon as I saw her I had no need of Examination the Features of her Face her Gate her Feet her whole Behaviour betray'd her She feigned in speaking French that she did not well understand the Language but besides the placing of the words which she endeavoured not to pronounce articulately was altogether natural which is scarce ever got by Strangers she did also pronounce with a great deal of firmness several Letters not in use with the Chineses which it is impossible for them to express After the first Discourses I demanded of what Province and what Family of China she was and by what strange Adventure she was at such a great Distance from her Country I am of Pekin it self says she the Metropolis of the Empire born in the Emperor's Palace brought up at Court and Daughter to Prince Coronne That is to say who does dispose Sovereignly every thing more a Master and more powerful than the Emperor himself whose Pleasures are never interrupted by the Cares of Publick Affairs who being little concerned at the good or bad Condition of the Empire confines all his Ambition to the rendering himself happy and to lead an easie and pleasant Life I embarked with my Mother who had a design to pass into Japan there to treat of a Marriage for me In the Passage our Vessel was attacked by an Holland Pirate that took it and blew it up and brought me away Prisoner However the barbarous Pirate took such care of me as was capable to sweeten my Captivity if the loss of my Mother had not reduced me to a Disconsolate Condition for she died before mine Eyes and the Representation of so fatal an Accident that lay night and day heavy upon my Spirit would scarce permit me to reflect upon the many kind Offices he did me Nevertheless my Condition was not so deplorable as I imagined the victorious Hollander was at length overcome by a French Privateer I was a second time a Captive and treated by the new Captain with so much harshness that I was at that very moment apprehensive that my
Grief might increase and that the excess of Miseries that one endure in this World is never so great but one may become still more miserable This Voyage was to me the longest most dangerous and accompanied with sorrow and bitterness At length we came ashoar at a place I know not they brought me out of the Ship and after they had dragged me through several Provinces they barbarously forsook me and I found my self destitute comfortless and without any support in the middle of this great City which I hear called Paris 'T is true Heaven hath not quite forsaken me the word Pekin the only word by which I can make known my Country and to that purpose did I so often repeat it hath brought me out of Misery Some Ladies at the hearing of this word were moved with Compassion took me into their House and have ever since treated me with so much Charity that I do not know if I ought to complain of Fate that hath conducted me into so good hands She had indeed some cause to be well pleased with her Lot much better in effect than she could naturally expect They treated her as a Maid of some Noble Family nay it was an Hundred pound to a penny but they had given her the quality of Princess Couronné a Name much better known in France than China where this Dignity is still in fieri They told me moreover that divers Persons were impatient to do her a kindness and that Monsieur N. one of our most famous Writers had already Composed three extraordinary eloquent Letters in her Name one for the Emperor another for Prince Couronné and the third for some other Prince of her Family He hath without doubt what he deserved from the Persons that ingaged him in it yet I do not believe that China will ever thank him for it For my part My Lord I do confess that the bare recital of this Adventure appear'd to me somewhat fabulous and carries with it such a Romantick Air that is capable of undeceiving those whom an excess of Charity had not quite blinded Prince Couronné is a Chimera that hath not the least appearance of Truth in it The Birth of a Maid in a Palace where there is none but Eunuchs is still more hard to be beleived The Hollanders are not at War with the Chineses and it is not their best way to fall out with them by Assaulting their Ships The Chinese Dames that scarce ever stir out of their Houses do not care for undertaking long Voyages at Sea And the Match they were going to mannage is no more likely than that of a Princess of France that some body might feign to Embark at Brest to Sail into the Indies to espouse some Mandarin of Siam Besides We know all the Vessels that we have taken from the Hollanders as well as those that are arrived in France from the Indies we know the Captains of them we know their Prizes their Engagements their Adventures and yet we hear not one word of what our Chinese relates Now if she be so unfortunate as to be found in the Streets of Paris miserable forlorn and unknown she ought not so much to lay the fault upon our French People as upon her ill Fortune that took no care to place her better in this World But to Convince all those who were present at our Interview I put divers questions to her about the principle Cities in China I examined her concerning the Money their Writing the Characters and Language of the Country She told me she had often travelled from Pekin to Nankin in less then Three days notwithstanding it is above Three hundred Leagues from one to another that they used Gold Money altho' Gold is not currant through all the Empire but as precious Stones are in Europe that the Silver Coin was stamp as ours is round flat bearing the Emperors Arms with divers Figures according to the Custom of Eastern Nations notwithstanding the Silver hath no regular Figure they cast it into Ingots they reduce it to what form they please without Arms Order or Ornament they clip into great Pieces as occasion serves and it is only by weight not by the Emperor's Mark that they know its value I writ down some Chinese Characters for she had boasted that she could read a Pèrson of her quality durst not say the contrary but the Misfortune was she mistook her self and took the Paper at the wrong end boldly reading the Letters turn'd upside down as if they had been right upon the whole that which she pronounced had no manner of relation to the genuine Sense of the Writing At last I spoke Chinese to her and for fear least she might avoid the difficulty I acquainted her that I spake the Mandarin Language so currant throughout the Empire which they constantly use at the Court She was so impudent as to frame ex tempore a wild ridiculous Gibberish but so little understood that it was evident she had not time enough to make it hang well together so that not being able to understand what I said to her I should have been sore put to it to explain what she meant if indeed she did mean any thing After this Trial and Examination she might blush for shame and ingeniously confess the Imposture but she still keeps up her Conversation without being concerned and with such an Air of Confidence that would make any one judge that this China Romance was not the first Story she had made I thought My Lord that you would be very glad to be acquainted with this besides that it may afford you some pleasure it will also serve to let you understand that the Mind Countenance and Behaviour of the Chinese Women have no Affinity with those of the Europeans and that a French Woman must needs be brazen-fac'd when under the borrowed Name of a Chinese she pretends to impose upon Persons who have as long as I have done seen both Nations After this little Digression you may be willing I should take up my former Discourse again The Mens Habits as every where else are there much different from the Womens they shave their Head all over except behind where they let grow as much Hair as is needful to make a long Tress They do not use a Hat as we do but wear continually a Bonnet or a Cap which Civility forbids pâ—tting off This Bonnet differs according to the different Seasons of the year That which they use in Summer is in form of a Cone that is to say round and wide below but short and strait above where it terminates in a meer Point It is lined within with a pretty Sattin and the top covered with a very fine Mat very much esteemed in the Country Besides that they add thereto a great slake of red Silk that falls round about it and reaches to the Edges so that when they walk this Silk flows irregularly on all sides and the continual Motion of the
I say they have put on their back one of these furr'd Gowns with long Hair they differ but a little from Bears or from the Animal of whom they borrowed the Skin altho' in this Condition they think themselves to be very gentile and to make a graceful Figure Of all the Furrings the most common are Lambskins They are white downy and very warm but burthensome and at first of a strong smell in a manner like those greezy Gloves that smell in a manner like those greezy Gloves that smell of Oil I wonder they bring not up the Mode in France those who delight in slender fine Shapes would not submit to it yet otherwise there is nothing more gentile nor more convenient for Winter Upon the whole if great Caution be not used all these Furs are easily spoiled especially in hot and moist Countries Worms breed in them and the Hair falls off To prevent them the Chineses so soon as ever the Summer approaches expose them to the Air for some days when it is fair and dry Weather then they beat them with Sticks or shake them often to get out the Dust and when they have enclosed them in huge earthen Pots into which they throw Corns of Pepper and other bitter Drugs they stop it up very close and there let them lye till the beginning of Winter Besides their usual Garments there are yet two sorts that deserve to be known They put on one to defend them from the Rain for the Chineses who delight in Travelling spare for no cost to travel commodiously they are made of a course Taffaty crusted over with a condensed Oil which is in lieu of Wax which being once well dried makes the Stuff green transparent and extraordinary gentile They make Bonnets of it Vests and Surtouts that resist the Rain for some time but it gets through at last unless the Garment be a choice one and carefully prepared The Boots are of Leather but so little that the Stockings are spoiled at the Knee except one be a Horseback like the Tartars with their Legs doubled up and their Stirrups extream short The Mourning Habit hath also something odd in it The Bonnet Vests Surtout Stockings and Boots are made of white Linnen and from the Prince to the most inferiour Handicrafts-man none dare wear any of another colour In close Mourning the Bonnet seems phantastick and very difficult to be represented it is of a red and very clear Canvas Cloath not much unlike the Canvas we use for packing up Commodities The Vest is kept close with a Girdle of Canvas the Chineses in this posture do at the beginning affect a careless Behaviour and Grief and Sorrow seems painted all over the outward Man but all being nothing but Ceremony and Affectation with them they easily put on their own Face again they can Laugh and Cry both with a wind for I have seen some Laugh immediately after they had shed abundance of Tears over the Tomb of their Fathers Perhaps My Lord you may have the Curiosity to know after what manner the Missionaries who labour about the Conversion of the Infidels are habited the Laws that suffer no Foreign Mode to take place determined the first Jesuits to take the Garb of the Bonzes at the beginning But this Garb though grave and modest enough was so cried down by the ignorance and irregular Life of those wicked Priests that that alone was sufficient to deprive us of the Company and Correspondence of honest People In effect nothing was so diametrically opposite to Religion so that after a long deliberation they thought it more adviseable to take the Students Habit which together with the quality of European Doctor did capacitate us to speak to the People with some Authority and to be heard by the Mandarins with some respect From that very time we had free Access every where and God did so far vouchsafe a Blessing to the Labours of our first Missionaries that the Gospel in a short time was propagated with considerable Success But in the late Revolution of the Empire these Fathers as well as the Chineses were forced to go in the Tartarian Fashion after the manner as I told you In the Visits made to the Mandarins upon the account of Religion we could not dispense from wearing a Vest and Surtout of common Silk but in the House we are clothed in Serge or painted Linnen So that My Lord preserving as much as lyes in us the Spirit of Poverty suitable to our Condition we endeavour to become all things to all Men after the Apostles example that we may the more easily win over some to Iesus Christ being perswaded that as to a Missionary the Garment Diet Manner of Living and exterior Customs ought all to be referred to the great Design he proposes to himself to Convert the whole Earth A Man must be a Barbarian with Barbarians Polite with Men of Parts Austere and Rigid to Excess among the Indian Penetents handsomly Drest in China and half Naked in the Wilderness of Medura to the end that the Gospel always uniform always unalterable in it self may the more easily insinuate it self into the Minds of Men whom an holy Compliance and Conformity to Customs regulated by Christian Prudence have already prepossest in favour to us I am with the most profound Respect My Lord Your most humble and most obedient Servant â— J. LETTER VI. To the Dutchess of Bouillon Of the Oeconomy and Magnificence of the Chineses MADAM THE Zeal that your Grace hath shewn to be fully informed of the present State of the Missions in China hath been an infinite Satisfaction to me But I confess I was a little surprised that amongst so many curious things to be met with in this new World you have in a manner wholly insisted upon that which relates to the Neatness and Magnificence of the Chineses I know very well that it is the usual Subject of Discourse among the Ladies and I could have almost expected no more from any other But for you Madam when I had the honour to see you I had prepared my self for Subjects of a quite different nature I made account you would discourse with me concerning the Ingenuity Sciences and Politeness of this People And whereas Travellers do usually affect to prefer what they have seen amongst Foreigners to that which is found in their Native Soil I pleased my self that I could sincerely and safely tell you that the French Ladies I mean those who like you have raised themselves above those Toyish Cares that do in a manner totally possess the fair Sex have more Wit Capacity and a more raised Genius even in the solid and substantial Sciences than all the great Doctors of that Empire for as for Politeness I can scarce believe Madam that you can doubt of it and it is not necessary to be Mistress of as much of it as you are to deface and eclipse the most Polite Courts of the East But since either
and are not willing to take any pains for that which will not enrich them But should a private Man employ them who would not spare for Cost and Charges we should have at this day as curious Pieces of Workmanship as those of the ancient Chineses The China Ware that is brought to us from Fokien does not deserve the name of it it is black course and is not so good as our Fayance That which is most lookt upon is that which is made in the Province of Quamsi the Clay is found in one place and the Water in another because it is clearer and cleaner perhaps also this Water they make use of before any other is impregnated with some particular Salts proper to purifie and refine the Clay or by the more strictly uniting the parts as it happens in Lime which is good for nothing if it be not slaked in some certain Waters whereas others make it more compact strong and adhering In brief it is a mistake to think that there is requisite one or two hundred years to the preparing the Matter for the Porcelain and that its Composition is so very difficult if that were so it would be neither so common nor so cheap It is a Clay stiffer than ordinary Clays or rather a kind of soft white Stone that is found in the Quarries of that Province After having washt the pieces of it and separated the heterogenious Earth that may chance to be mixt with it they bray it small till it be reduc'd to a subtil Powder How fine soever it may appear yet they continue pounding it for a long time altho' by the touch no difference is to be perceived yet they are perswaded that it is indeed made much more subtil that the insensible Parts are less mixt and that the Work thereby comes to be whiter and more transparent Of this subtil Powder they make a Paste which they kneed and beat a long while likewise that it may become softer and that the Water may be the more perfectly incorporated therewith When the Earth is well elaborated they endeavour the figuring of it It is not likely that they use Moulds as they do in some other sorts of Potteries but it is more probable that they fashion them upon the Wheel like us So soon as their Work pleases them they expose it to the Sun Morning and Evening but they retire it when the Sun waxes too hot for fear of warping it So the Vases dry by degrees and they apply the painting at their leisure when they judge the ground proper for to receive it but because neither the Vases nor the Colours have sufficient lustre they make a very fine Broth or Ly of the Matter of the same Porcelain wherewith they pass several strokes upon the Work that gives them a particular whiteness and lustre This is what I call the Vernish of the Porcelain They assured me in the Kingdom of Siam that they mixt with it some common Vernish with the Composition made of the white of an Egg and shining Bones of Fish but this is but a phansie and the Workmen of Fokien who work just as those of Quamsi don't do otherwise After all these Preparations they put the Vases in the Furnace wherein they kindle a gentle and constant uniform Fire that bakes them without breaking and for fear least the exterior Air should do them damage they do not draw them out till a long while after when they have acquired their due consistance and after they have been let cool at leisure This is all Madam I have to say as to the Mystery of Porcelain that they have so long sought after in Europe Providence and the Prosperity of Religion that obliged me to run over the greatest part of China did not carry me into the Province of Quamsi where the Metal is found whereof they make it so that I do not sufficiently know it as to mine own particular for to be able to describe the nature and particular qualities thereof perhaps it is not much different from some soft Stones that are found in several Provinces of France And if so be the Ingenious would please to make some Experiments and operate diligently by making use of several sorts of Waters after the above-mentioned manner it might not be impossible to succeed Besides these Vernisht Cabinets and Vessels of Porcelain the Chineses adorn likewise their Apartments with Pictures They do not excel in this Art because they are not curious in perspective notwithstanding they diligently apply themselves thereto they take delight in it and there are a great Company of Painters in the Country some paint the Cieling representing upon the Chamber-walls an order of Architecture without Symetry by Bands or Fillets continued all along around at the top and bottom of the Wall and above the Capital of the Colomn which contains only single Colomns placed at an equal distance without any other Ornament of Architecture Others only whiten the Chamber or glew Paper upon it They hang the Pictures of their Ancestors up and down with some Maps and Pieces of white Sattin on which is painted Flowers Fowls Mountains and Palaces upon some others they write in Capital Letters Sentences of Morality that explain the Maxims and Rules of perfect Government Some Chairs vernisht Tables some Cabinets Flower-Pots Lanthorns of Silk all this well ordered and placed in due proportion makes a pretty handsome Apartment Altho' you do not enter the Bed-chamber yet are their Beds very fine in Summer they have Taffaty Curtains powdered with Flowers Trees and Birds in Gold and Silk embroidery This sort of Work that comes from the Province of Nankin are in request and as to point of Moveables I have seen nothing in all China more magnificent Others have Curtains of the finest Gaze that is not a sufficient Baracado against the Air but close enough to defend them against Flies and Gnats that are intollerable in the Night In Winter they make use of course Sattin stitched with Dragons and other Figures according as every ones Capricio leads them The Counterpain is in a manner the same They do not use Feather Beds but their Cotton Quilts are very thick their Bedstead ordinarily is of Joyners work beautified with Figures I have seen some very fine and exquisite By all that I have said you may judge Madam that these People have shut themselves up within the Bounds of Necessity and Profit without being over solicitous about Magnificence which is very regular tho' but very indifferent in their Houses They likewise seem more negligent as to their Gardens they have in that respect Conceptions much different from ours and setting aside places designed for the Sepulchre of their Ancestors which they leave untilled they would think themselves out of their Wits to put the Ground to no other use than to make Alleys and Walks to cultivate Flowers and plant Groves of unprofitable Trees The benefit of the Commonweal commands that all should be sowed and
Sacred Vessels of the Duty of Children to their Parents and Wives to their Husbands Rules of real Friendship Civilities at Feasts of Hospitality Musick War of Funeral Honours and of a thousand other things that regard Society These five Books are very ancient and all the others that have any Authority in the Empire are nothing but Copies or Interpretations of them Amongst abundance of Authors who have taken pains about these so famous Originals none is so conspicuous and eminent as Confucius they have a great esteem especially of that which he compiled in four Books upon the ancient Laws which are lookt upon as the Rule of Perfect Government There he treats of the grand Aâ—t of Reigning of Mediocrity Vertues and Viccs of the Nature of Things and of common Duties This last Tome notwithstanding is not so much the Work of Confucius as of Mencius his Disciple of a Life less regular than that of his Master but of a Stile more eloquent and pleasant Besides these Nine Books there be some others much in vogue as the Universal History of the Empire the truth of which is no less confirmed in China than it is in our most noted Histories in Europe The Books that treat of the Education of Children of Obedience of Loyalty are ascribed to Confucius Some of them may be met with that Discourse of Medicine Agriculture Plants of the Military Art of Arts Liberal and Mechanick of particular Histories Astronomy Phylosophy and a great many other Parts of Mathematicks In short they have their Romances Comedies and what I place in the same rank a plain abundance of Treaties composed by the Bonze's concerning the Worship of the Deities of the Country which they alter diminish and increase according as they find it necessary to inveigle the People and swell their Revenues Of all these Books they have compiled numerous Libraries some whereof were composed of above Forty thousand Volumes but all these brave Works that Antiquity took so much pains to bring forth which private Persons had amassed with so vast Expences were well-nigh all destroy'd by the Tyrannical order of one Emperor Three hundred years or thereabouts after the Death of Confucius that is to say Two hundred years before the Birth of our Saviour Christ the Emperor Chihoamti illustrious by his Valour and Military Science of which he was Master beyond all his Predecessors and still more conspicuous by the prodigious Wall he caused to be built to secure his Territories from the Irruptions of the Tartars resolved to extirpate all Sciences and not satisfied with putting a great number of Doctoâ—s to death he ordered his Subjects upon pain of death to set fire on all the Books in the Empire except those that treated of Agriculture Medicine and Sorcery This Conslagration the most remarkable that ever the Republick of Letters suffered was like to have utterly ruined the Empire and would have made in time of the most polite and accomplisht State the most barbarous and ignorant Kingdom in the World if after the Tyrant's death the Love of Sciences that began to Revive in all Men's Breasts had not in some measure repaired this loss The old Men who according to custom had during their youth learnt almost all these Books by heart received order to write them faithfully over They found some of them in the Tombs that the most zealous had concealed to which they gave a Resurrection by publishing them in another Edition Some of them they fetched from the Graves and Holes of Walls that indeed suffered great Damage by Moisture and Worms however in a Condition to serve their turns that laboured after their Restoration what was defaced in these latter being pretty intire in some others All this Care did not hinder the new Edition to be defective there remains in some places Lacuna's and there hath been inserted into others some Pieces by the by that were not in the Originals The Chineses themselves take notice of these Faults and of some others of less moment but they are so Superstitious in pâ—eserving what was handed down to them from Antiquity that they even pay Reverence to its Faults I should not My Lord afford you a Light diffusive enough into the Chinese Literature should I not speak more particularly of Confucius who makes the principle Ornament of it He is the most pure Source of their Doctrine he is their Philosopher their Lawgâ—ver their Oracle and albeit he was never King one may nevertheless avouch that during his Life he hath governed a great part of China and that he hath had since his death a greater share then any one in the Administration of the Affairs of State by the Maxims that he hath promulgated and the fair Examples that he hath exhibited so that he is still the Model of all honest Men His Life hath been writ by several Persons I shall report what they commonly say of it Confucius whom the Chineses name Coum-tse was born in the Province of Chauton the Thirty seventh year of the Reign of the Emperor Kim Four hundred fourscore and three years before the Incarnation of our Saviour the Death of his Father that preceded his Birth made them call him Tcesse which signifies Child of Sorrow he derived his Pedigree from Tiny Twenty seventh Emperor of the Second Race How illustrious soever this Family might be by a long Series of Kings it became much more so by the Life of this great Man He eclipsed all his Ancestors but he gave his Posterity a lustre that still continues after more than Two thousand years China acknowledges no true Nobility but in this Family equally respected by Sovereigns who have derived from thence as from the Source the Laws of Perfect Government and beloved by the People to whose Happiness he hath so successfully contributed Confucius did not proceed by the ordinary degrees of Childhood he seem'd Rational a great deal sooner than other Men for he took delight in nothing that other Children are fond of Playing going abroad Amusements proper to his Age did not at all concern him he had a grave a serious Deportment that gained him respect and was at that very time a Presage of what one day he was like to be But that which distinguisheth him the most was his Exemplary and Unbiassed Piety He honoured his Relations he endeavoured in all things to imitate his Grandfather who lived in China all that time and whose Memory was precious for his Sanctity And it was observable that he never eat any thing but he prostrated himself upon the Ground and offered it to the Supream Lord of Heaven Being yet a Child he heard his Grandfather fetch a deep Sigh he came-up to him and when he had saluted him bowing several times to the very ground May I be so bold says he without losing the respect I owe you to ask you the occasion of your Grief Perhaps you are afraid that your Posterity may neglect the Care of Vertue and may dishonour you
these Testimonies we have but that in this respect they have something extraordinary nay and even wonderful However a Man should always mistrust them and one cannot be too much upon his guard against them because they make use of all means imaginable to get themselves secretly instructed concerning the Patient's Condition before they visit them Nay they are so cunning to get themselves Reputation as to feign a kind of Distemper which sometimes they themselves procure afterward A Person told me that sending for a Physician and a Chyrurgeon to cure him of a Wound one of them told him That the Malady was occasioned by a small Worm that was insinuated into the Flesh which would infallibly produce a Gangreen if by some Remedy or other it were not fetch'd out That he was the only Man in all the Country that had this Arcanum and would put it in practice for his sake provided be would not grudge him a considerable Sum of Money The sick Person promised him he would not and paid him part of it before-hand But this cheating Sophister after divers unprofitable Medicines entangled at last a little Worm in his Plaister which he pull'd out an hour after in triumph as if it came out of the very Wound His Companion that gain'd nothing by the management of this Business afterward detected it but it was too late and the Chyrurgeon comforted up himself more easily for the loss of his Reputation than the sick Person for the loss of his Money However the Case may stand as to the Capacity of the Chinese Physicians yet certain it is that they Predict the Distemper easier than they Cure it and Men dye in their hands as they do elsewhere They prepare their own Remedies that ordinarily consist of Pills thereafter as they are prepared they are either Sudorifick purge the Blood and Humours fortifie the Stomach suppress Vapours or are Restringent dispose to Evacuation but seldom work by Stool They do not let Blood nor know the Clyster but since they have had Correspondence with the Physicians of Macao They do not disapprove the Remedy but name it The Remedy of the Barbarians They apply Cupping-Glasses not only upon the Scapulae but also upon the Belly to asswage the pain of the Colick They are in a manner all perswaded that the majority of Diseases are caused by malignant and corrupted Wind that have slipt into the Muscles and do ill affect all the Parts of the Body The most sure means to dissipate them is to apply in different places red hot Needles or Buttons of Fire This is their ordinary Remedy One day a Chinese said to me seeming to be surprised at it alluding to Phlebotomy They treat you in Europe with the Sword but here they martyr us by fire this Mode will probably never alter because Physicians feel not the Mischief they do us and are no worse paid for tormenting of us than for curing us I cannot tell whether or no they might have learnt this violent Remedy of the Indians or whether the Indians themselves might not have received it from the Chinese Physicians but they pretend in the Indies that Fire cures all Diseases This Perswasion they persisting in makes every day a great many miserable Persons whom they Cauterize upon the slightest inconvenience Yet there be some Maladies that are not curable but by that means The People of the Country but especially the Slaves are much troubled with a violent Coliâ—k which the Portuguezé call Mordetchin occasioned by the indigestion of the Stomach and accompanied for the most part with continual Vomitings the Gripes it produceth are cruel and the Grief and Angish often deprives them of their Wits This Grief is infallibly mortal if they dot not remedy it after the following manner They lightly apply an Iron-peal red hot to the Soles of the Feet if the Patient shews no signs of feeling they pass no farther and he is cured if he be insensible of this first Operation they lay it on harder and still continue to press the Peal burning unmercifully to the very Bone without desisting till the Patient complain which puts an end to the Malady and Remedy But if the Fire how violent soever makes not it self be felt they despair of healing and in a short time the Patient dies Amongst all the China Remedies there are none so much esteemed as Cordials they are provided with all sorts of them and very natural ones for they consist for the most part of Herbs Leaves and Roots Their Simples are numerous and if the People of the Country may be believed they have all of them Sovereign and Experienced Virtues I brought along with me hither near Four hundred designed in their natural Colours and Figure according to those the Emperor caused to be painted for his Closet Father â—isdâ—lou one of the six Jesuits his Majesty sent thither Anno 1685 is very intent upon the Translation of the Chinese Herbal wherein are all the Vertues and Qualities of all those Plants explained This Father who hath accomplisht himself in the Knowledge of Books will thereto add particular Reflexions of his own and I make no question but what he supplys us with thereupon will enrich our Botany and satisfie the Ingenious and Curious Amongst these Simples there are two that I may speak of before hand The first is the Leaf of Thee as they call it in China they are much divided in their Opinions touching the Properties they ascribe to it Some do maintain that it hath admirable ones others that it is but a phancy and meer whim of the Europeans that are always doters on Novelties and put a value upon that which they do not understand In that as in all other things where Men do not agree I believe there is a medium to be taken In China they are subject neither to Gout Sciatica nor Stone and many imagine that Thee preserves against all these Distempers The Tartars that feed upon raw Flesh fall sick and suffer continual Indigestions so soon as ever they give over drinking of it and that they may have plenty of it they bargain to furnish the Emperor with almost all the Horses that serve to remount his Cavalry when any one is troubled with a Vertigo that over-charges the Brain he finds himself extreamly relieved so soon as he accustoms himself to Thee In France there are abundance of People that find it good for the Gravel Crudities Head-aches and there are who pretend to have been cured of the Gout by it almost miraculously so quick and sensible has been its effect All this proves that Thee is no Chimera and Conceit Nay some after drinking of it sleep the better which argues that it is not proper to suppress Fumes Some there be who never take it after Meals without experiencing mischievous Effects their Digestion is interrupted and disturbed and they find along time after Crudities and a troublesome Repletion Others find no benefit by it neither in Gout nor
indeed admirable for its antiquity for the wisdom of its Maxims for the plainness and uniformity of its Laws for that exemplary Virtue which it has produced in a long Succession of Emperors for that regularity and order which it has kept the People in in despight of Civil or Foreign Wars which notwithstanding like the rest of the things of this world is subject to a great many inconveniences to Rebellions which have depopulated whole Provinces to the injustice of some Princes who have abused their power to the Avarice of Mandarins who have often oppressed the People to Invasions from abroad and Treachery from home to such a number of Changes as would have unhinged the very Government and Laws if a more Politick People than are the Tartars were near enough the Empire to introduce their own method of Government It would my Lord be a piece of flattery to my self to imagine that I have by this tedious account added any thing to that immense store of Knowledge which you have drawn from the best Springs of Antiquity from the Conversation of the most ingenious of the Moderns from the management of the most momentous Affairs or which is a greater Fountain of Understanding from your own natural Wit and Ingenuity which has made you if I may use the Expression a Native of all Countries and a Philosopher of all Ages But I am sure you will be glad to see that the truest Maxims of good Policy are not altogether strangers in the East and that if China do not form so great Ministers as you are it forms great enough to understand Your worth and to follow your steps and improve themselves from the Copy you set them if they could but know you I am in the most profound manner My Lord Your Eminence's most obedient and most humble Servantâ— L. J. To my Lord Cardinal de Bouïllon Concerning the Antient and Modern Religion of China My Lord I Do not at all wonder that your Highness is pleased to hear Relations of China It belongs only to great Princes to be thoroughly acquainted with all that concerns the several Kingdoms of the World and to make a true judgment of the Power and Grandeur of Empires God who has sent such Men into the World to Govern it has given them a more than ordinary ability and knowledge to perform it So that my Lord if I take upon me the liberty to acquaint your Lordship with what repeated Voyages for the space of several years have given me oportunity to know in this affair it is not so much to instruct you in it as to beg your Highnesses judgment of it I may say this still with more truth when I have the honour to write to you of Religion This is more particularly your concern and I may say that if your Quality your Ingenuity and your incomparable Learning have made you above all Men our Judge your Eminent Dignity in the Church obliges us in Sacred concerns to hear and consult your Highness as our Oracle 'T is on this prospect my Lord that I now present to you these Memoirs with some Reflections which the Customs of the Chinese and the reading of their Books have suggested to me concerning their Religion being of this mind that after so many different Opinions and long Disputes which have for a whole Age divided the most learned Missionaries there is no better way of coming to decision than to obtain your Highnesses judgment therein Religion has always had a great share in establishing the greatest Kingdoms which could never support themselves were not the Peoples Minds and Hearts tied together by the outward woâ—ship of some Deity for People are naturally Superstitious and rather follow the guidance of Faith than Reason It was therefore for this reason that the antient Law-givers always made use of the knowledge of the true God or of the false Maxims of Idolatry to bring the barbarous Nations under the Yoak of their Government China happier in its Foundation than any other Nation under the Sun drew in the chief of the holy Maxims of their antient Religion from the Fountain Head The Children of Noah who were scattered all over the Eastern parts of Asia and in all probability founded this Empire being themselves in the time of the Deluge witnesses of the Omnipotence of their Creator transmitted the Knowledge of him and instilled the fear of him into all their descendants the footsteps which we find in their Histories will not let us doubt the truth of this Fobi the first Emperor of China carefully bred up seven sorts of Creatures which he used to Sacrifice to the Supreme Spirit of Heaven and Earth For this reason some called him Paobi that is oblation a name which the greatest Saints of the Old or New Testament would have been proud to have and which was reserved for him alone who made himself an Oblation both for Saints and Sinners Hoamti the third Emperor built a Temple to the Sovereign Lord of Heaven and altho' Iudea had the honour of Consecrating to him one more rich and magnificent hallowed even by the presence of our Creator and the prayers of our Redeemer it is no small glory to China to have sacrificed to their Creator in the most antient Temple of the World Tçouen hio the fifth Emperor thought afterwards that one place was too narrow to contain the Services paid to the Lord of the Universe He therefore instituted Priests or Ecclesiastical Mandarins in several Provinces to preside over the Sacrifices He gave them strict command to observe that Divine Service was performed with all humility and respect and that all the Religious Ceremonies were strictly observed Tiho his Successor took as much care of Religion as he had done Histories relate that the Empress his Wife being barren begged Children of God during theSacrifice with such fervour and earnestness that she conceived in few days and sometime after was brought to bed of a Son who was famous for that forty Emperors successively reigned of his Family Yao and Chan the two Princes who succeeded him are so famous for their Piety and for the Wisdom of their Governments that it is very likely that Religion was still more flourishing during their Reigns It is also very probable that the three succeeding Families did preserve the knowledge of God for about two thousand years during the Reign of fourscore Emperors since the learnedest among the Chinese maintain that before the Superstitions introduced with the God To into China there were no Idols or Statues seen there This is certain that during all that space of time the observation of the Emperor Yao's Maximes was recommended to the Princes of which the most essential and principal was concerning the Worship of the Sovereign Lord of the World and altho' some Emperors have been so wicked as to reject them so far as even to threaten Heaven itself and foolishly challenge it to fight they have been nevertheless looked upon as
Hell but entitles us to the enjoyment of a place in Paradise O how happy will it be for you to go to Heaven eternally to live in the presence of God! I do not said the sick Man understand what you mean nor perhaps have I explained my meaning clearly to you you know Father I have lived a long time upon the Emperors bounty The Bonzes who are perfectly well acquainted with all the transactions of the other World assure me that I shall be obliged after my death by way of recompense for my Pension to serve him and that my soul will infallibly go into one of his Post Horses to carry Dispatches from Court thro' all the Province They have therefore been advising me to mind my duty in that new state not to stumble nor kick nor bite nor otherwise hurt any one Run well and eat little and be patient say they and you may move the Gods to compassion who often of a good Beast make at length a person of Quality or a considerable Mandarin I protest Father the very thoughts of it makes me quake it never comes into my mind but I tremble yet I dream of it every night and sometimes methinks in my sleep I am already in the Harness ready to run at the first jerk of the Postilion Then I wake in a great sweat and half mad scarcely knowing whither I am a Man or a Horse But alass What will be my sorrow when this will be no more a dream but a reality This therefore Father is the course I took They tell me that those of your Religion are not subject to those changes that Men are always Men and are in the other World of the same kind as they are here I beg of you therefore to receive me among you I know your Religion is hard to observe yet if it had ten times more difficulties I am ready to embrace it and whatsoever trouble it put me to I had rather be a Christian than be turned into a Beast This discourse and the condition the Man was in wrought me into compassion and afterwards considering with my self that God makes use of Ignorance and Folly to bring Men to the knowledge of the Truth I took an occasion from thence to undeceive him of his mistakes and to lead him into the way of Salvation I instructed him a great while at last he believed and I had the comfort to see him dye not only with a clearer and better understanding of things but farther with all the marks of a good Christian. In process of time the Superstitions of the People grew so numberless that I do not believe any Nation under the Sun is so full of whimsies as China The Mandarins aro obliged to condemn all these Sects as Hereticks as indeed they do in their Books but yet springing themselves mostly from idolatrous Families and having been instructed by the Bonzes they in their practise follow the example of the common People Two of these Bonzes seeing one day in a rich Farmers Yard two or three large Ducks fell on their Faces before the Door and sigh'd and wept grievously The good woman seeing them out of her Chamber window came down to see what was the occasion of their Tears We know said they that the souls of our Fathers are transmigrated into those Creatures and the fear we are in lest you should kill them will without doubt go near to kill us It is true said the Woman we did intend to sell them but since they are your Fathers I promise you we will keep them This answer was not for the Bonzes purpose But continued they perhaps your Husband will not be so charitable and then if any accident should happen to them you may be sure it will kill us At last after a long discourse the good Woman was so far moved with their pretended grief that she gave them the Ducks to look after for some time to comfort them They took them with a great deal of respect prostrating themselves twenty times to them but that very evening they made an Entertainment of them for some of their company and fattened themselves with them A Prince of the Blood lost a young Man for whom he had a particular love a few years after he spoke of it with a great deal of warmth and concern to the Bonzes who said to him My Lord do not trouble your self any more your loss may be repair'd he whom you grieve for is in Tartary and his soul is passed into a young Man's body but there must be a great deal of mony to find where he is and you must give good Presents to the Priests of that Country This news pleased the Prince mightily so that he gave them what they desired and a few months after they got a Boy any where and gave him to the Prince instead of the Boy who was dead Thus it is that the whole Country from the Peasant to the Prince are bubbled by these Ministers of Iniquity If they can't thus trick People out of their mony they try to get it out of them by doing acts of Pennance publickly which the People esteem them mightily for and shew them a great deal of pity and compassion I have seen them dragging after them a long Chain of Iron as thick as ones Arm about thirty foot long fastened to the Neck or Legs Thus it is say they at every Door as they pass that we expiate your Faults sure this deserves some small Alms. Others in publick places knock their Pates with all their force with large Bricks till they are almost cover'd with blood They have several other penitâ—ntial Actions but what I was most surprised at was this One day I met in the middle of a Town a young Bonze of a good Mien a genteel and modest look such as might easily move any ones Compassion and Charity He stood upright in a sort of a Sedan very close shut the inside of which was like a Harrow full of Nails very thick with their points sticking out towards the Man in the Chair so that he could not bend either one way or t'other without wounding himself Two Fellows were hired to carry him from House to House where he beg'd the People to have compassion on him He told them he was shut up in that Chair for the good of their Souls and was resolved never to go out from thence till they had bought all the Nails of which there were above two thousand at the rate of six pence apiece of which Nails the very smallest he said would derive incomparable blessings on them and their Families If you buy any of them you will do an action of Heroick vertue and your Alms are not bestowed on the Bonzes to whom you may take other opportunities of bestowing your Charity but to the God Fo in whose honour we are going to build a Temple In the mean while I happened to pass thro' the Street the Bonze seeing me came and
Judgment that Nature on the one hand and the Malice of the People of the Family on the other were the Cause of these several Actions made use of all their Medicines to Cure them The Bonzes on the contrary assured them that the Devil was the Author of the Mischief and demanded unreasonable Alms to stop it's Course So that the good People abused on every hand had thrown away all their Estate in Four Years time upon the Covetousness of these Impostors without finding any Benefit However seeing the Distemper afforded them some Intervals they sought up and down in the Cities thereabouts for new Remedies for their Griefs One Day this Idolater going for this purpose to the chief City he found a Christian upon the Road to whom he told his Condition and how miserably he was handled no Question saith the Christian but it 's the Devil that torments you but you well deserve it Why do you serve so bad a Master we fear no such thing because we acknowledge one God whom the Devils adore yea they tremble before his Image and the Cross only that we wear about us hinders him from coming near us If you will accept of a Picture of JESUS CHRIST and you and all your Family will Honour it it will not be long before you see the Effects of it However it is soon tried it shall cost you nothing and you may judge by that that I have no other aim but your Benefit The Idolater consented to it and hanging the holy Image in the most honorable Place of the House he prostrated himself before it with profound Respect and begged every day Morning and Evening of our Saviour that he would vouchsafe to heal his Body and enlighten his Mind His Mother and Daughter followed his Example and from that very Moment the Demons abandoned the Place of which JESUS CHRIST had taken possession These good People growing stronger and stronger in Faith as the evil Spirit gave ground began at last to think of being Converted in good earnest They came to enquire for me at Signanfou the usual Place of my Residence and demanded Baptism of me they had already got themselves Instructed they had moreover got all the Prayers by heart that we teach the late Catechumens But their Distemper making a great Noise in the Country I was willing every Body should be Witnesses of this Conversion and so went to the Village my self hoping this Miracle might settle Christianity therein upon a solid Basis. Just upon my appearing all the Inhabitants followed me to the Place where the Image was still hanging then I begun to tell them that they were not to question the Verity of our Religion God having himself spoken by a manifest Miracle but that I had caused them to assemble to Instruct and Baptize them For in a Word what do you desire more to be convinced of the Weakness of your Gods and the Power of our God the Demon laughs at you so long as you oppose him with nothing but Idols but he is not able to hold it out against the Image only of the Christian's God Do you imagin to escape this God after Death whose Power Hell owns and whose Justice it experiences every Moment The multitude interrupted me by a Thousand ridiculous Objections which I easily answered at last some body told me that the Devil had no hand in the Malady in Question that how extraordinary soever it appeared might proceed from several natural Causes that is said I the most rational Thing you can say but yet does no way extenuate the greatness of the Miracles Let the Malady come from the Devil or from Nature I will not examin that but it is certain at least that the Cure comes from God whose Image this man hath worshipped and there is no less Power requisite to cure natural Distempers than to drive out evil Spirits This Reason should have made an equal Impression on all Minds but Grace that acted differently in the hearts gave place in some to voluntary Obdurateness whilst it triumph'd over the Obstinacy of others Twenty five Persons at last gave Glory to God who alone worketh great Marvels Qui facit Mirabilia magna solus and were shortly after Baptized These Hauntings and Infestations of Demons are very ordinary in China amongst the Idolaters and it looks as if God permitted it so to be to oblige them to have Recourse to him Sometime after this Accident that I but just now Related a Maid just upon her Marriage was attacked with a Complication of several Diseases which the Physicians knew not what to say to and which the Chinese are wont to ascribe to the Demons Her Mother persuaded her to turn Christian and he that was to marry her promised to build a Church to the God of the Christians in case Baptism gave her any Relief As soon as ever this Maid had taken this Course she found herself not only Relieved but perfectly Cured But her Husband was so far from following her Example that he misused her several times for having obliged him to renounce his Faith for the Bonzes perswaded him that this Sickness was but a piece of Artifice in his Mother in Law and this Fancy alone put him into such a fit of Melancholy that he was insupportable to the whole Family but especially to his Wife who from that very instant became an object of his Aversion It was in vain to represent to him his own Mistake and the Malice of the Bonzes for he always protested that if she would not take up her old Religion again he would lead her an ill Life all her Days God to undeceive him suffered the Demon to torment his Wife as before so she relapst into her former Convulsions She was more especially scared at the sight of a great Company of Specters that let her not have an hours rest Thus tost up and down abandoned to her Husband's Inhumanity that beat her Cruelly she in all appearance led a very uncomfortable Life Yet remaining unmovable in her Faith God always upheld her and temper'd and allay'd by the inward sweetness of his Grace the bitterness of these Afflictions he comforted her likewise by sensible Visitations by his Word and by the unspeakable Cogitations that he from time to time infused into her Soul Insomuch that this Condition that gain'd her the Compassion of all that knew her was to her a fore-taste of Paradise She exprest her self much what to this purpose to her Mother in Law who related it to me with Tears in her Eyes for her Husband could not endure that I should see her At first I gave little Credit to this Discourse yet at length I was apt to believe there was something Supernatural in it for one Day coming to a City distant from the chief City where I sojourn'd about Threescore Miles there I found this good Woman with a great Company of Christians of the Neighbour-Towns which she had taken Care to get together being
the different Figures of Mars Mercury and Venus which appeared to us sometimes round sometimes gibbose sometimes dicotomised and ever and anon in fashion of a Bow or Sickle and the truth is when Venus approaches the Sun and when she is besides in her Perigaeon she appears in the Telescope so little different from the New Moon that it is very easie for one to commit a mistake I do remember that causing a Chinese to observe it in this posture who had but little skill in Astronomical Secrets he did no longer doubt but presently gave his assent and making him at the same take notice of the Moon at a place in the Heavens not far remote He cried out for joy and told me then that he now comprehended that which had always perplext him I did not know says he seriously how the Moon could change Faces so often and appear sometimes in the wax and sometimes in the wane but now I perceive it is a Redy composed of several parts which sometimes is taken in pieces and then join'd together again after some certain times for to day at least I see one half of it on one side and one half on the other The Knowledge also that we have acquired by Telescopes concerning the number of the Stars is likewise more curious That large Fascia that embraces almost the whole Heaven which they commonly call for whiteness the Milky-way is a congeries of an infinite number of Minute Stars each one of which in particular hath not strength enough to affect our eyes no more can the Nebulosae whose dim and confused Light is like to a little Cloud or head of a Comet yet it is a compound of several Stars so they reckon thirty six of them in that of Praesepe cancri twenty one in that of Orion forty in the Pleiades twelve in the single Star that makes the middle of the Sword of Orion five hundred in the extent of two degrees of the same Constellation and two thousand five hundred in the whole Sign which hath given occasion to some to imagin that the number of them is infinite At least it is true that the prodigeous bigness of each Star which according to some differ but little from the Sun that is to say whose Globe is perhaps a thousand times bigger than that of the Earth which nevertheless appears but as a Point in the Heavens ought to convince us of the vast extent of this Universe and of the infinite Power of its Author I cannot Sir finish this Discourse before I have spoken of some Observations we have made of the Satellites These are so many little Planets that belong to the train of bigger ones which were detected in our Age they continually turn about Saturn Iupiter and Mars c. some nearer and some farther off from the center of their motion they sculk sometimes behind their Body sometimes again they are plunged into their Shadow from whence they come out more splendid nay it even happens that when they are between the Sun and their Planet they Eclipse one part of it I have sometimes beheld with a great deal of delight a black Point that run upon the discus of Iupiter which one would have taken for a blemish yet in effect was nothing else but the shadow of one of these Satellites that caused an Eclipse upon its Globe as the Moon does upon the Earth when by her Interposition she deprives it of the Sun 's light We do not know for what particular use Nature hath designed these Satellites in the Heavens but that which we Astronomers make use of them is very useful for the perfection of Geography and since M. Cassini hath communicated his Tables to the Observators one may easily and in a very small time determine the Longitude of the principal Cities of the World Insomuch that if the irregular Motion of Shps would permit us to make use of the Telescopes at Sea the Science of Navigation would be perfect enough to make long Voyages with a great deal of safety We have observed the immersions and emersions of the Satellites Iovis at Siam Louveau Pontichery at the Cape of Good Hope and in several Cities of China but the observations made at Nimpo and Chambay that are the most Eastern Cities have reduc'd the great Continent to its true limits by cutting off above five hundred Leagues from the Country that never subsisted but in the imagination of the antient Geographers Since Sir I speak of what respects the perfection of Geography I shall tell you moreover that we have taken some pains to determine the Latitude of Coasts Ports and the most considerable Cities of the East by two other methods First By a great number of Observations about Meridian Altitudes of the Sun and Stars Secondly By divers Maps and Sea Charts that our Voyages have given us occasion to invent or perfect I have a Ruttiér or Directory for finding out the Course of a Vessel from Nimpo to Pekin and from Pekin to Ham-cheou where we have omitted nothing that may any way contribute to the perfect knowing of the Country so that the particularities of it is in my Opinion too large nay and even too troublesome to those who in these sorts of Relations do rather seek after delight than profit I have also by me the Course of the Rivers that lead from Nankin to Canton it is the Work of two or three months and a tedious one too I 'll assure you when one would do things to purpose the Map is eighteen Foot long and each minute takes up above four Lines or the third part of Inch so that all the By ways the breadth of the River the smallest Islands and least Cities are there exactly and acurately set down We had always the Sea Compass in our hand and we always took care to observe ever and anon upon the Road the Meridian Altitude of every particular Star to correct our estimate and determine more exactly the Latitude of the principal Cities of the Country Whereupon Sir I cannot forbear making some reflections in this place which may one day be useful perhaps for the resolving a material Problem in Physicks Men are not yet sure whether all Seas in the World be upon the level one with another The generous Principles of sound Phylosophy will have it that all Liquor of the same Kind that Communicate own with another do spread uniformly whether by their own weight or by the pression of the Air and at last take the same Surface Most of the Experiments are in this Point pretty congruous to Reason yet some later Reflections have started a doubt whether or no the Sea had not really some inclination and were not more elevated in some certain places than in others What I have remarked touching this last Map I but now mentioned seems to back this last Opinion For in the Provinces of Canton and Kiansi is to be seen a Mountain out of which issues two
inclosed within a Rhind divided into three Segments which open when it is ripe and discover three white Kernels of the bigness of a small Nuâ— All the Branches are very thick of it and this mixture of white and red makes at a distance the finest Prospect in the World the Fields where these Trees are planted which they usually are in a direct Line and Checker-wise shewing afar off like a vast Parterre of Flower-Pots But the wonder is that this Kernel has all the qualities of Tallow its Odour Colour and Consistency and they also make Candles of it mixing only a little Oyl when they melt it to make the Stuff more pliant If they knew how to purifie it as we do our Tallow here I doubt not but their Candles might be as good as ours but they make them very awkwardly so that their Smell is much stronger their Smoak thicker and their Light dimmer than ours It is true the Fault does not a little lye in the Wiek for instead of Cotton tho' they are well stocked with that Commodity they use a small stick of a dry light Wood wrapt round with the inner part of a Rush which is very porous and thereby â—itted for the Filtration of the small Particles of that greasie Matter by which the Flame is preserved This wooden Wiek besides that it does not burn so clear as Cotton increases the Smoak and causes an offensive Smell Among the Trees peculiar to the Country I am speaking of I must not omit those which bear Pepper not like that which we make use of in Europe but another sort of Seeds indued with the same qualities They grow on a Tree like those who bear our Walnuts about as big as a Pea and of a greyish Colour with little red streaks When they are ripe they open of themselves and discover a little Stone as black as Jet casting so strong a smell very offensive to the Head for which reason they gather them by inteâ—vals not being able to remain on the Tree any considerable time Having exposed these Grains to the Sun they cast away the Stone which is too hot aâ—â— strong and only use the rest which tho' not quite so agreeable as our Pepper is however of good use in Sauces I shall add My Lord that you may better judge of the Feâ—tility of that vast Empire that there is no place in the World like it for the abundance of Roots and Pulse it is almost the only Food of the Inhabitants who omit nothing to have them good It would be too tedious to give you a List of all those different Herbs for besides those we have here their Ground brings forth several others unknown to us on which they set a greater value Their Care and Dexterity herein is beyond all our Gardners performances and if our Parterre excels theirs they exceed us in their Kitchin Garden Tho' this Subject common in it self and not worth your notice yields no great Rarity I cannot forbear speaking of a kind of Onions which I have seen they do not seed like ours but towards the latter end of the Season their Leaves bear some small Filaments in the midst of which is a white Onion like that in the Ground This does in time produce its Leaves and those a like Head and so on which grow less and shorter as they are farther from the Ground the Dimensions are so just and the Proportions so exact that one would think them Artificially done and it seems as if nature were minded to shew us that even Sporting it can exceed the Skill of the nicest Artist If what has been written of what they call Petsi were true it would be a great wonder It is a kind of Lenufar that grows under Water whose Root is fastned to a white Matter covered with a red Skin that divides it self into several Heads which when fresh taste like a small Nut. I have been assured that it has this Property that it softens Brass and as it were renders it eatable if a piece of the Metal be put into the Mouth with one of this Plant. This seemed the stranger to me because the Juice which issues from it is very mild and cooling and not endued with any of those Corrosive qualities which seem necessary to work such an Effect As soon as we were arrived at Hamt chéou where this Petsi is much eaten we had the Curiosity to enquire into the truth of it and to that purpose took a piece of their Money which was made of a very brittle sort of Molten Brass and wrapt it up in a slice of this Root One of us who had stronger Teeth than the rest broke it into several pieces which the others loath to strain their Jaws had not been able to do But these broken pieces were as hard as ever which made us think that the Root had indeed no other Virtue then that by being wrapt up round the Brass it saved his Teeth which a piece of Leather might have done as well We often repeated the Experiment at Kiahin but with no better success so true it is that these mighty Wonders should be heard twice before they are once believed Tho' China were not of it self so fruitful a Country as I have represented it the Canals which are cut thro' it were alone sufficient to make it so But besides their great usefulness in that and the way of Trade they add also much Beauty to it They are generally of a clear deep and running Water that glides so softly that it can scarce be perceived There is one usually in every Province which is to it instead of a Road and runs between two Banks built up with flat course Marble Stones bound together by others which are let into them in the same manner as we use to fasten our strong wooden Boxes at the Corners So little Care was taken during the Wars to preserve Works of Publick Use that this tho' one of the Noblest in the Empire was spoiled in several places which is a great pity for they are of no little use both to keep in the Waters of these Canals and for those to walk on who drag the Boats along Besides these Cawseys they have the conveniency of a great many Bridges for the Communication of the opposite Shoars some are of three some five and some seven Arches the middlemost being always extraordinaâ—y high that the Boats may go through without putting down their Masts These Arches are built with large pieces of Stone or Marble and very well fâ—amed the Supporters well fitted and the Piles so small that one would think them at a distance to hang in the Air. These are frequently met with not being far asunder and the Canal being strait as they usually are it makes a Prospective at once stately and agreeable This great Canal runs out into smaller ones on either side which are again subdivided into small Rivâ—lets that end at some great Town or Village Sometimes