《中國(guó)人的性格》第二十一章 缺乏同情

《中國(guó)人的性格》是美國(guó)傳教士阿瑟·史密斯（明恩溥）基于1872年赴華傳教期間的社會(huì)觀察撰寫的著作，首版英文名《Chinese Characteristics》于19世紀(jì)末問(wèn)世，。作者在華生活逾五十年，書中融合人類學(xué)視角與傳教士立場(chǎng)，記錄了晚清民眾的性格特征與文化形態(tài)。

全書以27個(gè)主題章節(jié)剖析中國(guó)人行為模式，包含“保全面子”“省吃儉用”等生活哲學(xué)，以及“漠視精確”“因循守舊”等社會(huì)現(xiàn)象。通過(guò)對(duì)比西方工業(yè)文明，著重探討東方特有的生存韌性，如環(huán)境適應(yīng)力與疼痛耐受性。書中案例多源自山東鄉(xiāng)村生活經(jīng)歷，涉及衣食住行、孝悌觀念等主題，部分結(jié)論因宗教立場(chǎng)存在視角爭(zhēng)議。該著作開(kāi)創(chuàng)西方研究中國(guó)國(guó)民性先河，被譯成多國(guó)文字，成為近代中西文化互鑒的重要文本。

第二十一章 缺乏同情

我們已經(jīng)考察了中國(guó)人的慈善活動(dòng)。仁慈是一種善良的天性，同情也建立在它的基礎(chǔ)上，我們姑且認(rèn)為中國(guó)人的確做了些慈善事業(yè)，下面所要闡明的是中國(guó)人明顯缺乏同情。

我們要時(shí)刻牢記，中國(guó)人口眾多，各地會(huì)定期發(fā)大水或鬧饑荒。很多國(guó)家的事實(shí)都表明，社會(huì)條件是控制人口增長(zhǎng)的重要因素，但在中國(guó)，似乎不怎么靈驗(yàn)。傳種接代是中國(guó)人的首要愿望。最窮的人家也要在兒子很小時(shí)就給他們?nèi)⑾眿D，隨后這些孩子又生出一大堆孩子，就好像他們生活有保障一樣。還由于一些其他原因，結(jié)果使得中國(guó)人的生活簡(jiǎn)直就是干活，吃飯，吃飯，干活，幾乎就像一個(gè)短工，這已經(jīng)難以避免。如果一個(gè)外國(guó)人不能馬上意識(shí)到，幾乎所有的中國(guó)人都缺錢，他就不可能長(zhǎng)期與中國(guó)人相處。事情一開(kāi)始做，他們就要錢，因?yàn)樗麄円粺o(wú)所有，給了錢，做事的人才有飯吃。即使是小康人家，急需用錢的時(shí)候，也很難籌集到起碼的數(shù)目。中國(guó)有個(gè)意味深長(zhǎng)的說(shuō)法，用以形容辦喪事、打官司時(shí)被迫借錢的窘狀：“過(guò)賤年”，就是說(shuō)好像一個(gè)饑餓的人，不顧一切地尋求幫助。除了境況較好的人家外，誰(shuí)都不可以指望能在孤立無(wú)援的情況下，獨(dú)立操辦這類事情。令人絕望的貧窮是帝國(guó)最突出的現(xiàn)實(shí)，它使得人與人之間明顯變得冷漠。在物質(zhì)困乏的壓力下，人們已形成一些固定的習(xí)慣，即使是直接的生活需求不再緊迫時(shí)，他們?nèi)员３制D苦的生活水平。中國(guó)的生活就像一個(gè)橢園，錢和糧是它的兩個(gè)圓心，一切社會(huì)生活都圍繞著它們旋轉(zhuǎn)。

帝國(guó)民眾的極度貧困、他們?yōu)樯钏瓒M(jìn)行的長(zhǎng)期艱苦的抗?fàn)帲约霸诟鞣N難以想像的條件下所遭受的令人同情的苦難，都是世人皆知的。中國(guó)人的慈善行為無(wú)論是出于何種動(dòng)機(jī)，也都只不過(guò)是想從令人絕望的痛苦中解脫出來(lái)，哪怕是千分之一那么一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)。這些苦難一直沉重地壓迫著他們，要是遇到災(zāi)荒年頭，還不知要糟多少倍呢！中國(guó)的有識(shí)之士應(yīng)該意識(shí)到他們那些緩和痛苦的辦法是徹底行不通的。無(wú)論是靠個(gè)人的慈悲，還是靠政府的干預(yù)，即使做得再好，也只能改善表面的癥狀，對(duì)于根除疾病完全無(wú)效。就像發(fā)冰塊給傷寒病人一樣——每個(gè)人就這么多，沒(méi)有醫(yī)院，沒(méi)有飲食，沒(méi)有藥物，沒(méi)有護(hù)理。因此，一點(diǎn)也不奇怪，中國(guó)人沒(méi)有變得更慈善，而是在全然缺乏制度、預(yù)見(jiàn)和管理的情況下，一直保持行善的習(xí)慣。我們都清楚，即使一個(gè)有教養(yǎng)的人，長(zhǎng)期面對(duì)既無(wú)法阻止又無(wú)力幫助解決的災(zāi)難，會(huì)產(chǎn)生什么樣的結(jié)果。現(xiàn)代的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)就是一個(gè)明證。第一次看見(jiàn)血，會(huì)精神緊張，產(chǎn)生難以消除的印象，但它很快就消失了，人也變得麻木了。對(duì)有經(jīng)驗(yàn)的人來(lái)說(shuō)，對(duì)血的恐懼一生只有一次。中國(guó)經(jīng)常發(fā)生戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)，人們對(duì)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的結(jié)果也早已習(xí)以為常。

對(duì)殘疾人的態(tài)度也能說(shuō)明中國(guó)人缺乏同情；中國(guó)人一般認(rèn)為，呆子、瞎子、尤其是獨(dú)眼龍、聾子、禿子、斗雞眼都應(yīng)該避而遠(yuǎn)之。似乎生理上有缺陷，道德上也一定有缺陷。據(jù)我們觀察，人們不會(huì)對(duì)這些人冷酷無(wú)情，但總是缺少同情。就像古猶太人認(rèn)為的，這些人肯定暗中犯了罪，因此才遭到這樣的懲罰。相反，西方人會(huì)對(duì)這種人產(chǎn)生發(fā)自內(nèi)心的同情。

一個(gè)不幸殘疾的人，無(wú)論是先天的還是后天的，不能忍耐嘲諷就不能活下去。對(duì)他最溫和的方式是描述他的缺陷，以引起眾人的注意，藥鋪的伙計(jì)會(huì)對(duì)一個(gè)病人說(shuō)：“麻子老兄，你是哪村的？”一個(gè)斜眼人聽(tīng)到“眼斜心歪”也不足為奇，假如是個(gè)禿子，就會(huì)聽(tīng)到：“十個(gè)禿子有九個(gè)是騙子，最后一個(gè)如不啞巴，也一樣。”這些不幸的人終生都必須逆來(lái)順受，只有當(dāng)他聽(tīng)到長(zhǎng)年不斷的嘲弄而不再溫怒時(shí)，才能夠安于生活。

對(duì)精神有問(wèn)題的人，中國(guó)人同樣坦率得過(guò)分。旁觀者會(huì)說(shuō)：“這孩子是個(gè)笨蛋！”可實(shí)際上，他也許并不笨。不斷地重復(fù)說(shuō)他不長(zhǎng)腦子，很容易摧殘他未發(fā)育完全的智力。以這種方式對(duì)待精神病患者或其他病人，也十分普遍。也許恰恰就是這種方式導(dǎo)致了疾病的產(chǎn)生，并使之更為嚴(yán)重。他們所有的毛病、生活的細(xì)節(jié)成了公眾的談資，而他們自己所能做的只是完全習(xí)慣于被稱為“瘋子”。“二百五”、“蠢貨”等等。

在一個(gè)重視生男孩的民族中，因沒(méi)有孩子而遭到譴責(zé)與嘲罵，一點(diǎn)兒也不奇怪。就像傳說(shuō)中先知撒母耳的母親，“為了激怒她，仇敵觸動(dòng)了她的痛處。”不管有意無(wú)意，一個(gè)母親悄悄地悶死了她的一個(gè)孩子，人們對(duì)此并不大驚小怪，那一定是個(gè)女孩。

婚禮中新娘的遭遇也是中國(guó)人缺乏同情的典型例證。新娘一般都很年幼，也很害羞膽怯，突然置身于那么多陌生人當(dāng)中，難免感到恐懼。盡管各地風(fēng)俗差別很大，但都任憑眾人盯著這些可憐的孩子，完全漠視她們此刻的心情。有的地方，人們可以隨意拉開(kāi)轎簾，盯著新娘看；還有的地方，新娘會(huì)成為尚未出嫁的姑娘們?nèi)?lè)的對(duì)象。她們站在新娘經(jīng)過(guò)的道旁，大把大把地向她頭上撒草籽或谷糠，新娘的頭發(fā)是費(fèi)了好長(zhǎng)時(shí)間，仔細(xì)油過(guò)的，那些東西會(huì)牢牢地粘在上面。在公婆門前，新娘一下轎子，就立刻成了人們品評(píng)的對(duì)象，仿佛一匹剛買來(lái)的馬，此時(shí)此刻，＊注：撒母耳，《圣經(jīng)》中希伯萊的士師與先知。新娘的心情當(dāng)然是不難想像的。

中國(guó)人一方面特別注意細(xì)節(jié)，另一方面又會(huì)做出對(duì)別人顯然不合時(shí)宜的事。我的一位中國(guó)朋友，就說(shuō)過(guò)一些失禮的話，可他一點(diǎn)兒都沒(méi)覺(jué)察到。他描述他第一次見(jiàn)到外國(guó)人時(shí)，說(shuō)他感到最驚奇的是他們臉上長(zhǎng)滿了胡子，像猴子一樣，然后他還再三保證說(shuō)：“我現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)非常習(xí)慣了。”老師則會(huì)當(dāng)著學(xué)生的面評(píng)價(jià)學(xué)生：靠門的那個(gè)最聰明，二十歲時(shí)一定會(huì)高中，而鄰桌的那兩個(gè)的確是他所見(jiàn)學(xué)生中最愚蠢的，這種評(píng)價(jià)會(huì)對(duì)學(xué)生產(chǎn)生何種影響，從來(lái)沒(méi)人想過(guò)。

中國(guó)人缺乏同情還表現(xiàn)在他們的大家庭生活方面。盡管各家情況不同，我們?nèi)匀豢梢暂p而易舉地發(fā)現(xiàn)，他們的家庭生活并不幸福。他們也不可能幸福，因?yàn)槿鄙俑星樯系慕Y(jié)合，而這一點(diǎn)在我們的現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中恰恰是至關(guān)重要的。中國(guó)人的家庭只是個(gè)人組成的團(tuán)體而已，他們持久穩(wěn)定地結(jié)合在一起，有共同的利益，也有不同的利益。這種家庭在我們看來(lái)根本不是家庭，因?yàn)榧彝コ蓡T之間沒(méi)有同情心。

在中國(guó)，女孩一出生，多多少少總不受歡迎。她們的遭遇中有大量有意義的事例，可以說(shuō)明中國(guó)人缺乏同情。

在中國(guó)，母親和女兒共同住在封閉狹窄的小院子里，難免會(huì)發(fā)生爭(zhēng)吵，由于平時(shí)很少受到約束，她們便往往惡語(yǔ)相加。中國(guó)俗話說(shuō)：“再罵總是親閨女。”對(duì)于想了解中國(guó)家庭的人，這句話確實(shí)很有意味。女兒一旦結(jié)婚，除血緣關(guān)系，就與娘家沒(méi)多少關(guān)系了，將她的名字從家譜中抹去，是出于一種根深蒂固的觀念：她不再是我們家的女兒了，而是別人的媳婦了。但人的天性又促使女兒隔三差五回娘家走親戚，這也是地方風(fēng)俗，某些地方，女兒經(jīng)常回娘家，而且住的時(shí)間很長(zhǎng)；而另外一些地方，女兒則應(yīng)盡量少回娘家，如果娘家人全死了，她就幾乎再也不回去了。不管這些風(fēng)俗有多少細(xì)微的差異，人們普遍認(rèn)為，媳婦是婆家人。女兒回娘家，嚴(yán)格說(shuō)來(lái)，是出于一種做活的考慮。她們常常帶上婆家的一大堆針線活，而娘家的人必須幫她做完，每次還要盡量帶上自己的孩子，這樣，既可以避免自己不在時(shí)沒(méi)人照看，最重要的是孩子能在姥姥家吃喝花銷。對(duì)于女兒較多的家庭，頻繁的造訪會(huì)令全家人感到很可怕，簡(jiǎn)直是一種嚴(yán)重的盤剝。因此，父親與兄弟常常阻擋女兒回來(lái)，母親卻暗中支持。但根據(jù)當(dāng)?shù)仫L(fēng)俗，如正月里的某些日子，尤其還有節(jié)日，女兒回娘家是不能限制的。

女兒回婆家時(shí)，就像諺語(yǔ)中講的賊，從未空手而歸。她應(yīng)給婆婆帶些禮物，一般是些吃的。假如忽略了這一點(diǎn)，或者沒(méi)能辦到，婆婆就會(huì)演戲似地發(fā)一通脾氣，女兒嫁到窮人家里，或者后來(lái)家道衰落了，假如她有一些結(jié)了婚的兄弟，她將會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，回娘家就仿佛醫(yī)生說(shuō)的，“處置不當(dāng)”。娘家的媳婦和已出嫁的女兒之間就會(huì)爆發(fā)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)，就像非利士人和以色列人一樣，都把家看成自己的領(lǐng)地，把對(duì)方看成入侵者。如果媳婦在家里足夠強(qiáng)大，她們就會(huì)像非利士人那樣，對(duì)不能統(tǒng)統(tǒng)消失或趕走的仇敵索取貢品。媳婦在整個(gè)家庭中的地位，嚴(yán)格地說(shuō)，形同奴仆。找仆人，當(dāng)然要找健壯的，發(fā)育良好的，而且還要懂得烹調(diào)、縫紉等生活技藝，不論當(dāng)?shù)厝巳绾沃\生，她們總比沒(méi)有力氣和辦事能力的孩子要強(qiáng)得多。因此，我們就明白了，為什么一個(gè)十歲左右瘦弱的男孩會(huì)要一個(gè)健壯豐滿。二十歲的姑娘作媳婦了。婚后很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間，姑娘還要盡心盡力照看生天花的小丈夫，天花是一種幼兒病。

中國(guó)媳婦的苦難簡(jiǎn)直罄竹難書。中國(guó)婦女一般結(jié)婚很早，她們一生中相當(dāng)一部分時(shí)間是受婆婆的絕對(duì)控制，由此，人們大概可以想像出媳婦在倍受虐待的家庭中，遭受了多么令人難以忍受的痛苦。做父母的，在女兒遭受虐待時(shí)。只能對(duì)她的婆家表示抗議，或在女兒受虐自殺后，索取高昂的送葬費(fèi)，除此之外，他們完全保護(hù)不了自己的女兒。如果丈夫嚴(yán)重傷害、甚至殺死了妻子，只要說(shuō)她對(duì)公婆“不孝”，就可以逍遙法外了，我們有必要重復(fù)一遍，年紀(jì)輕輕的媳婦自殺，在中國(guó)司空見(jiàn)慣，有些地方，各村都會(huì)接二連三發(fā)生這類事。一位母親曾責(zé)備已出嫁的女兒自殺未遂：“你有機(jī)會(huì)，怎么會(huì)死不成？”痛哉斯言！

在幾年前的北京《邸報(bào)》上，河南總督偶然披露了一種情況：不僅父母殺死孩子不需要負(fù)法律責(zé)任，而且作婆婆的殺死媳婦只需交一筆罰金就行了。在報(bào)告的案例中，有一位婦女用香柱燒她的童養(yǎng)媳，用燒紅的火鉗烙她的雙頰，最后又用滾燙的開(kāi)水把她烹死。這位總督的奏折里還提到了其他類似的例子，其可靠性是勿容置疑的。這類極端野蠻的行徑大概并不多，不過(guò)，殘酷的虐待導(dǎo)致自殺或企圖自殺卻是常見(jiàn)的。

中國(guó)有許多婦女嫁給人作妾，她們的生活也十分痛苦。她們生活的家庭，極少是幸福的，總是不斷發(fā)幸爭(zhēng)吵和公開(kāi)的打斗。一位在中國(guó)住了很久的外國(guó)人寫道：“我所居住的那個(gè)城市的長(zhǎng)官，是個(gè)大富翁、大學(xué)者，詩(shī)人，也很有才干，通曉經(jīng)典教義；但他任意欺騙、詛咒、搜刮和體罰百姓，以滿足自己罪惡的欲念。他的一個(gè)妾逃跑了，抓到后，被剝光了衣服倒吊在梁上，嚴(yán)刑拷打。”

在中國(guó)這樣的國(guó)家，窮人可不能生病。女人、孩子病了，男人根本不把它當(dāng)做一回事，任其發(fā)展，到最后常常都是病人膏盲，因?yàn)槟腥藳](méi)時(shí)間照料他們，有時(shí)是因?yàn)椤案恫黄疳t(yī)藥費(fèi)”。

我們前面討論的孝順觀念把年輕人看得無(wú)足輕重。他們的價(jià)值只在未來(lái)，而不是現(xiàn)是。西方的許多做法在中國(guó)常常是被反其道而行之。三個(gè)旅行者當(dāng)中，最年輕的要吃苦在前。最年輕的仆人也一律最辛苦。百姓的生活窮困難熬，孩子們經(jīng)常會(huì)因苛刻的壓制而離家出逃。在外頭，他們一般都能發(fā)現(xiàn)生存的希望，因?yàn)榭梢耘c別人合伙謀生。。出逃的原因多種多樣，但據(jù)觀察，最普遍是因?yàn)椴豢芭按Ｎ抑酪粋€(gè)男孩，最近斑疹傷寒初愈，很想吃東西——這種病人一般都是這樣。他覺(jué)得家里的粗糙的黑窩頭實(shí)在難以下咽，就跑到街上，非常奢侈地買了大約兩毛錢的點(diǎn)心吃了，但因此受到父親的嚴(yán)厲責(zé)罵，于是一氣之下，跑到東北去了，從此，杳無(wú)消息。

喬治·Ｄ·普林蒂斯說(shuō)，男人是支配者，女人只不過(guò)是“細(xì)枝末節(jié)”。這話用來(lái)形容妻子在中國(guó)家庭中的地位，非常恰當(dāng)。人們認(rèn)為，婚姻對(duì)女方家庭是為了不再撫養(yǎng)她，擺脫一個(gè)負(fù)擔(dān)，對(duì)男方家庭則是為了傳種接代。除非深究潛在的動(dòng)機(jī)，人們對(duì)此都是閉口不談。但是在中國(guó)，沒(méi)有誰(shuí)對(duì)此心里不清楚。

婚姻的這一目的，在較窮的階層表現(xiàn)得更突出。寡婦再嫁，人們會(huì)說(shuō)：“現(xiàn)在她不會(huì)餓死了。”俗話說(shuō)：再嫁再娶，為了肚皮；沒(méi)吃沒(méi)喝，拆灶散伙。災(zāi)荒年頭，丈夫拋棄妻兒，任其乞討或餓死，己是司空見(jiàn)慣，有很多家庭把兒媳婦趕回娘家，由娘家贍養(yǎng)，或最終餓死。他們說(shuō)：“你們的女兒，你們自己養(yǎng)活吧。”有時(shí)，發(fā)給哺育嬰兒和婦女的特殊救濟(jì)糧，會(huì)被男人吞吃，盡管這種事可能并不多，可總在發(fā)生。

僅僅通過(guò)災(zāi)荒年頭的現(xiàn)象評(píng)價(jià)一個(gè)民族，顯然有欠公允，然而，重要的是，特殊的歲月常常是檢驗(yàn)社會(huì)基本原則的試金石，和平時(shí)相比，可能會(huì)更準(zhǔn)確，更確實(shí)，在中國(guó)，賣妻賣兒，并不只發(fā)生在災(zāi)荒年頭。只不過(guò)，這時(shí)人似乎忘記是在從事人口交易。了解真情的人都知道，早幾年，很多災(zāi)區(qū)，買賣婦女兒童就像買賣牲口一樣公開(kāi)，唯一的區(qū)別就是前者不用趕到集市上去。1878年，大災(zāi)荒幾乎席卷了整個(gè)東三省，并向南蔓延，買賣婦女隨處可見(jiàn)，十分普遍。大量的婦女被運(yùn)往內(nèi)地。有的地方，運(yùn)輸都出現(xiàn)了困難，甚至連一輛馬車都雇不到。人販子千方百計(jì)轉(zhuǎn)運(yùn)剛買到的婦女，把年輕的從災(zāi)區(qū)或人口過(guò)剩的地方運(yùn)往因造反而人口減少、或多年娶妻困難的地區(qū)。令人感到悲哀的是，這一奇怪的交易對(duì)買賣雙方可能都是最好的出路。盡管賣方妻離子散，天各一方，但買者與賣者畢竟都能活下去。

我們說(shuō)過(guò)，中國(guó)人之所以對(duì)病人熟視無(wú)睹，是因?yàn)樗麄儭爸徊贿^(guò)是女人和孩子”。天花，在西方被當(dāng)成可怕的災(zāi)禍，可中國(guó)人對(duì)它一點(diǎn)兒也不重視——盡管在中國(guó)經(jīng)常有人染上這種病，而且?guī)缀鯚o(wú)人能逃，這也只因?yàn)楹μ旎ǖ闹饕呛⒆印Ｒ蚝@種病而雙目失明的人十分普遍。中國(guó)人對(duì)嬰兒生命價(jià)值的忽視程度，令西方人難以想像。他們強(qiáng)烈反對(duì)毀壞人的尸體，但對(duì)嬰兒的尸體經(jīng)常不加掩埋。嬰兒死了，人們都是說(shuō)：“扔掉”，用蘆席松松地卷了，拋到荒野里，不久就被野狗吃掉了。有的地方，還流行一種恐怖的習(xí)俗，把嬰兒塞進(jìn)亂墳崗的死人堆，以免“鬼魂”回家騷擾。

我們感到天花可怕，中國(guó)人卻不在乎。可他們對(duì)斑疹傷寒與傷寒的恐懼，如同我們見(jiàn)了猩紅熱一般。一個(gè)人離家在外，得了上述其中任一種病，都難以得到妥善的護(hù)理，甚至一點(diǎn)護(hù)理也得不到。向其他人請(qǐng)求幫助，得到的回答肯定是：“那病傳染。”盡管傷寒多少有些傳染，可在云南的一些山溝里，它可能是最令人膽寒的災(zāi)難。巴伯先生描述說(shuō)：“患者不久變得虛弱不堪，接著一連幾小時(shí)，渾身疼痛難忍；隨后神志不清，胡言亂語(yǔ)，患了這種病，十之八九，性命不保。”據(jù)當(dāng)?shù)厝苏f(shuō)：“病人房間的各個(gè)角落都被鬼占據(jù)了，桌子和床在里面四處移動(dòng)，發(fā)出聲音，清楚地回答人們的提問(wèn)。”可是，很少有人冒險(xiǎn)進(jìn)屋。傳教士向我證實(shí)，大多數(shù)情況下，由于害怕傳染，人們像對(duì)待麻瘋病人一樣將病人丟棄不問(wèn)。如果家里的老人患了這種病，最好的照顧就是把他挪進(jìn)一間孤零零的小屋子，放上一碗水，鎖上門。掛念他的親人每天兩次戰(zhàn)戰(zhàn)兢兢地從門縫往里看，用棍子捅捅病人，看他是不是還活著。中國(guó)人性情溫和，在這樣一個(gè)民族，每個(gè)家庭中肯定存在友愛(ài)行為，不過(guò)我們沒(méi)有發(fā)現(xiàn)而已。疾病與災(zāi)難尤其容易喚起人類天性中最美好的一面。在一家為中國(guó)人開(kāi)的西方醫(yī)院里，我們耳聞目睹了很多實(shí)例，不僅父母與子女，丈夫與妻子真誠(chéng)相愛(ài)，就連陌生人之間也彼此愛(ài)護(hù)。一位中國(guó)母親見(jiàn)到失去母親的嬰兒，很愿意用自己的乳汁喂養(yǎng)他，因?yàn)椴蝗绦目粗I死。

除非有特殊的原因，沒(méi)人愿意幫助別人，這是中國(guó)多重社會(huì)關(guān)系表現(xiàn)出來(lái)的一個(gè)特點(diǎn)。比如，一個(gè)聰慧的男孩，經(jīng)過(guò)考慮，想去讀書，即使他沒(méi)機(jī)會(huì)入學(xué)堂，這也非常合乎清理。可他周圍的很多讀書人，寧愿閑著無(wú)事，也不愿教他識(shí)字。他一流露出讀書的愿望，就會(huì)招來(lái)無(wú)窮的嘲諷，這些人曾經(jīng)年累月待在學(xué)堂里，他們似乎認(rèn)為：“這家伙憑什么走捷徑，我們費(fèi)了好多年時(shí)間辛辛苦苦學(xué)來(lái)的東西，怎么能教他，讓他很快學(xué)會(huì)呢？還是讓他和我們一樣請(qǐng)老師吧。”盡管個(gè)別人可以自學(xué)，但是很少有人能真正學(xué)到知識(shí)，哪怕是最基本的識(shí)字也不可能。

見(jiàn)人落水，竟袖手旁觀，所有在中國(guó)的西方人都對(duì)此大為震驚。幾年前，一艘外國(guó)汽輪在揚(yáng)子江上著火，岸上擠滿了觀望的中國(guó)人，但沒(méi)人營(yíng)救落水的乘客與船員。最后，那些拼命游到岸邊的人，很多都被搶劫一空，甚至身上的衣服也被剝?nèi)チ耍€有一些人被當(dāng)場(chǎng)殺死。不久前，英國(guó)也曾發(fā)生沉船事件，但沒(méi)有出現(xiàn)不營(yíng)救的現(xiàn)象，我們應(yīng)該將這些事比較來(lái)看。1892年秋天，英國(guó)一艘龐大的汽船在中國(guó)海岸擱淺，當(dāng)?shù)貪O民和政府官員都盡全力救助幸存者。不過(guò)，中國(guó)人對(duì)災(zāi)難麻木不仁，這是個(gè)普遍的事實(shí)，尤其離家在外，俗話說(shuō)：在家千日好，出門一時(shí)難。

在中國(guó)旅行，人們普遍發(fā)現(xiàn)，沿途的人對(duì)陌生人缺乏友善與幫助。夏天遇到暴雨，無(wú)法繼續(xù)旅行時(shí)，需要前進(jìn)的人會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，這時(shí)天公和人在合伙捉弄他。即使你走的路通向泥潭，也沒(méi)人會(huì)提醒你。你走入泥潭，與附近修路的人無(wú)關(guān)。我們說(shuō)過(guò)，中國(guó)人不重視公路建設(shè)。所有的路在任何時(shí)候都布滿了深坑，旅行者一旦陷進(jìn)去就難以自拔。這時(shí)，周圍立刻會(huì)聚滿看熱鬧的人，他們都像一句成語(yǔ)所說(shuō)的：“袖手旁觀”。直到答應(yīng)給錢，旁觀者中才會(huì)有一位站出來(lái)，幫你一把。不僅如此，當(dāng)?shù)氐木用襁€經(jīng)常故意在難走的地方挖一個(gè)深坑，這樣，陷進(jìn)去的旅客不得不花錢請(qǐng)他幫忙。在這種情況下，一個(gè)人若不了解道路情況，最好不要聽(tīng)當(dāng)?shù)厝说膭窀妫还苷罩蓖白撸灰荒芸隙ㄋ叩氖且粭l絕路，就比接受他們的“幫助”好得多。

可是，我們還聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)，一家外國(guó)人搬到中國(guó)內(nèi)地的一個(gè)城市，受到了人們的熱誠(chéng)歡迎，鄰居甚至主動(dòng)借家具給他們，直到他們把家具備齊。類似的事情無(wú)疑還有，不過(guò)，誰(shuí)都明白，這只是例外。人們一般除了對(duì)新搬來(lái)的人感到好奇外，更多的是表示冷漠，就好像肥鵝注定會(huì)招來(lái)貪婪與陰沉的敵意，最終被拔光羽毛。還沒(méi)聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)，外國(guó)人遇到天災(zāi)人禍，中國(guó)人自愿幫忙的先例，當(dāng)然，也可能出現(xiàn)過(guò)。我們只聽(tīng)說(shuō)，曾有一些海員嘗試從天津到煙臺(tái)、從廣州到汕頭作陸上旅游時(shí)，自始至終沒(méi)人給過(guò)他們一碗飯，或留住一宿。

在中國(guó)，將客死他鄉(xiāng)的人運(yùn)回家，途中住店非常困難，一般是住不成，我們?cè)?tīng)說(shuō)，一位死者的兄弟，因店主不讓住店，不得不在街頭過(guò)夜。請(qǐng)擺渡者將尸體運(yùn)過(guò)河，也會(huì)被狠狠地敲一筆。我們還曉得，有些人為免引起懷疑，就把尸體層層包裹，再外扎草席，使它看起來(lái)像一包貨物。據(jù)說(shuō)，前幾年的一個(gè)寒冬，山東維縣的一家店主因?yàn)榕聨讉€(gè)快要凍僵的旅客死在店里，拒絕他們住店。結(jié)果，這幾位旅客都凍死街頭。

中國(guó)人作惡犯罪，很少有人告發(fā)，部分原因是沒(méi)錢告狀，另外也不愿惹人注意，通奸案一般私下了結(jié)。插足者會(huì)遭到一大幫人的毒打，中國(guó)人相信“人多勢(shì)眾”。有時(shí)，這個(gè)人的腿會(huì)被打折，有時(shí)是胳膊，更多的情況是被用生石灰弄瞎雙眼。筆者知道幾個(gè)這方面的例子，這類事情一點(diǎn)兒也不罕見(jiàn)。有一位聰明的中國(guó)人，他不了解西方人的思想“方式，當(dāng)他聽(tīng)到外國(guó)人抗議這種極為殘酷的做法時(shí)，毫不掩飾他的驚訝，他說(shuō)，這種處理方法在中國(guó)已是“非常寬容”的了，就像他自己，僅僅殘廢而已，否則，早被殺死了。

“為什么老是到我家吃飯？”作嫂子的會(huì)對(duì)小叔子這樣說(shuō)，他已離家多年，在外頭干了見(jiàn)不得人的事，雙眼被人用生石灰弄瞎了，“這兒沒(méi)地方讓你住，硬的，有刀；軟的，有繩，你只配要這些！”這是那位無(wú)法醫(yī)治的盲人偶然告訴我的，如果有希望，他還想獲得一絲光明；若是沒(méi)希望，他暗示說(shuō)，無(wú)論“硬的”，還是“軟的”，都可以讓他解除痛苦。我們很少聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)，這類暴行的受害者告官成功過(guò)。對(duì)他們不利的證據(jù)已經(jīng)壓倒了一切，而且官員們十之八九認(rèn)為他們活該，罪有應(yīng)得，甚至還應(yīng)該加重懲罰。即便他打贏了官司，處境也不會(huì)有所改善，只會(huì)變得更糟。他的鄰居會(huì)更加憤怒，那時(shí)，他連命也難保了。

中國(guó)人把人視為神圣的，但生活中很少重視人的價(jià)值、人的尊嚴(yán)。在中國(guó)，偷盜是最易惹人憤怒的罪惡之一。因?yàn)槿丝诒姸啵医?jīng)常瀕臨無(wú)法生存的境地，偷盜就被視為對(duì)社會(huì)的嚴(yán)重威脅，其危害僅次于謀殺。在一次救災(zāi)中，一位分發(fā)救濟(jì)品的人，發(fā)現(xiàn)一位婦女像瘋狗一樣被鎖在石磨上，她是個(gè)盜竊狂，早已精神錯(cuò)亂。如果一個(gè)人被發(fā)現(xiàn)是小偷，或因某種原因而被公眾唾棄，他就可能在簡(jiǎn)單訊問(wèn)后被公眾處死，這和弗吉尼亞早些年治安維持會(huì)的做法沒(méi)什么兩樣。有時(shí)用刀子刺死，更多是活埋。有人形象地稱之為“吞金”，其實(shí)，這非常殘酷。筆者認(rèn)識(shí)四個(gè)人，曾差點(diǎn)被這樣處死。有兩例是已被捆上，有一例是坑已挖好，后來(lái)由于族人中一些長(zhǎng)者的干預(yù)，才沒(méi)有被活埋。另有一例，發(fā)生在筆者很熟悉的一個(gè)小村子里，一個(gè)年輕人偷東西，已經(jīng)不可救藥，人們也知道他神經(jīng)不正常。他本家的一些人和他母親“商量（！）”了一下，就在村口的小河上砸了個(gè)冰窟窿，把他捆緊，塞了進(jìn)去。

太平天國(guó)起義鬧得最兇的那段日子，到處都很緊張。一張生面孔，一旦有嫌疑，就會(huì)被抓起來(lái)，遭到嚴(yán)厲的盤查。若不能交待清楚，使抓他的人滿意，馬上就會(huì)遭殃。在離盤查點(diǎn)幾百碼遠(yuǎn)的地方，文告上寫著將近二十年前發(fā)生的兩件慘事。當(dāng)時(shí)，官吏們發(fā)現(xiàn)，他們自己幾乎無(wú)力執(zhí)法，就發(fā)布了一個(gè)半官方的告示，讓百姓捕捉所有的可疑人物。一次，村民們發(fā)現(xiàn)，一個(gè)人騎著馬向村子里走來(lái)，不像是本省的。盤問(wèn)中，那人怎么也說(shuō)不清自己的來(lái)歷，接著又發(fā)現(xiàn)他的包裹中塞滿了珠寶，這顯然是偷來(lái)的，村民們就把他捆起來(lái)，挖坑活埋了。這時(shí)，又看見(jiàn)一個(gè)人驚恐地從田野中跑過(guò)，有人猜測(cè)他可能是同伙，索性連他也一起埋了。有時(shí)，陌生人還被迫自己挖坑。在無(wú)法無(wú)天的時(shí)代，所有的人都會(huì)變得膽大妄為。一些老人回憶說(shuō)，那時(shí)候，像這類事數(shù)不勝數(shù)。1877年，爆發(fā)了一場(chǎng)不可思議的剪辮運(yùn)動(dòng)，當(dāng)時(shí)，大半個(gè)帝國(guó)都被白色恐怖所籠罩，許多有嫌疑的人都被活埋了。當(dāng)然，特殊情況下，任何民族都會(huì)產(chǎn)生這樣的恐怖時(shí)期，我們也不能太苛求中國(guó)人。

中國(guó)人缺乏同情，最突出的表現(xiàn)是殘酷。他們一般認(rèn)為中國(guó)的穆斯林比他們自己更殘酷。盡管可能真的如此，但了解中國(guó)人的人，肯定都認(rèn)為，對(duì)別人的痛苦漠然置之，世界上幾乎沒(méi)有任何文明國(guó)家能與中國(guó)相比。就拿孩子來(lái)說(shuō)，在家里，他們幾乎無(wú)拘無(wú)束；一旦開(kāi)始上學(xué)，這個(gè)充滿溫情的天國(guó)就消失了。《三字經(jīng)》是帝國(guó)最常用的啟蒙教材，這本書中有句話，叫做：“教不嚴(yán)，師之情。”老師的性情與學(xué)生的天資都會(huì)影響老師對(duì)學(xué)生的態(tài)度。不過(guò)一般來(lái)說(shuō)，都非常嚴(yán)厲。我們?cè)?jiàn)過(guò)一個(gè)剛被老師懲罰過(guò)的學(xué)生，那情形就像在街頭打了一架，頭破血流。老師讓他掌握寫應(yīng)試文章的秘訣，他沒(méi)做到。老師發(fā)火，學(xué)生挨罵，更是常事。另外，不幸受罰的孩子還會(huì)遭母親的毒打，一位平時(shí)拿孩子出氣的母親，遇到特別刺激時(shí)，更會(huì)殘酷地對(duì)待自己的孩子。

中國(guó)人缺乏同情還表現(xiàn)在他們的刑法制度中，根據(jù)帝國(guó)的法典，很難判斷哪些刑罰合法，哪些刑罰不合法，因?yàn)橛幸恍┎环戏顥l文的做法會(huì)得到社會(huì)習(xí)俗的認(rèn)可與支持，最能說(shuō)明這一點(diǎn)的是打板子的數(shù)目，它們常常高出法律規(guī)定數(shù)目十倍，有的多達(dá)百倍。這里，我們沒(méi)機(jī)會(huì)公正地評(píng)價(jià)中國(guó)人對(duì)囚犯慘無(wú)人道的嚴(yán)刑拷打。在像《中央王國(guó)》或者《胡克游記》這類有關(guān)于中國(guó)的優(yōu)秀著作中，這樣的事例不勝枚舉，《胡克游記》的作者提到，他曾親眼看見(jiàn)一批囚犯手被釘在囚車上，押往衙門，因?yàn)榻獠钔藥_鐐。囚犯沒(méi)有錢來(lái)打通關(guān)節(jié)，平時(shí)就會(huì)受到蓄意的殘酷折磨，中國(guó)人雖有“心腸”，卻肯定沒(méi)有“慈悲”，還有比這更有力的證據(jù)嗎？幾年前，上海的報(bào)紙報(bào)道了一個(gè)案子。兩個(gè)老囚犯向一個(gè)新囚犯索取“孝敬費(fèi)”，結(jié)果地方官員判他們重打兩、三千大板，又用鐵錘敲碎他們的腳踝骨。中國(guó)有諺語(yǔ)云：死不進(jìn)地獄，活不進(jìn)衙門。我們大概不會(huì)對(duì)此感到奇怪吧？＊

既然上文中，那些出人意料的結(jié)論是從表面上可靠的韓因章（HANYINZHANG）先生，一位在美國(guó)學(xué)習(xí)法律的中國(guó)留學(xué)生，他曾在一家重要的宗教雜志上發(fā)表過(guò)一篇論文，論述中國(guó)法治。前面在討論中國(guó)人“不緊不慢”時(shí)已經(jīng)引用過(guò)這篇文章。該文認(rèn)為中國(guó)人并不把自己的刑罰當(dāng)成殘酷的。可我們對(duì)此不敢茍同，不能忘了，他們是中國(guó)人，他們的法律、習(xí)俗也是中國(guó)人的。他們?cè)趥€(gè)人權(quán)利方面不進(jìn)行徹底改革，他們的刑罰也許永不會(huì)有任何實(shí)質(zhì)性的改善。在道德力量有條件充分發(fā)揮作用之前，一定不能放棄物質(zhì)力量。例證得出的。下面我們將引用1888年2月7日北京《邸報(bào)》譯文中的一段：

“據(jù)云南總督報(bào)告，該省的一些農(nóng)村，流行一種可怕的陋習(xí)：抓到偷糧食的人，要活活燒死。同時(shí)，還強(qiáng)迫他的親人書面表示同意這種做法，并要親自點(diǎn)火，以免日后歸罪于他人。有時(shí)，只不過(guò)折斷莊稼的一個(gè)枝莖。有的出于怨恨，僅憑莫須有的罪名，就把別人置于死地，乍一聽(tīng)，這種殘酷的做法實(shí)在令人難以置信。它也曾助長(zhǎng)了云南的叛亂。政府一直努力鏟除這一陋習(xí)，至今仍未成功。”

福州附近的一個(gè)地區(qū)，還有強(qiáng)迫寡婦自殺殉夫的惡習(xí)。幾年前，當(dāng)?shù)氐闹袊?guó)報(bào)紙?jiān)鬟^(guò)詳細(xì)的描述。鄉(xiāng)人先是逼迫寡婦自縊，然后焚燒尸體，并建造一座牌坊，以彰其節(jié)。政府不斷努力阻止這一殘酷的做法，除了個(gè)別地方一時(shí)奏效外，基本上徒勞無(wú)功。

中國(guó)需要的東西很多，政治家認(rèn)為需要海軍、陸軍和兵工廠，友邦人士認(rèn)為顯然需要貨幣、鐵路和科學(xué)指導(dǎo)，但若進(jìn)一步分析帝國(guó)的境況，難道她最深切的需要不是多一些人類的同情心嗎？她需要對(duì)孩子同情，盡管人類從前沒(méi)發(fā)現(xiàn)它，可十八世紀(jì)以來(lái)，它已成為人類最寶貴的財(cái)富。她需要對(duì)妻子和母親同情，這種同情十八世紀(jì)以來(lái)已經(jīng)獲得長(zhǎng)足發(fā)展，并深入人心。她需要把人當(dāng)做人來(lái)同情，懂得仁慈之情有如天國(guó)的甘霖，既降臨于祝福者，也降臨于被祝福者——只有它才使人類最接近于上帝，塞內(nèi)加稱這種神圣的情感為“智力的缺陷”，但基督教培育的仁慈之花，要一直等到開(kāi)滿全世界才會(huì)停止。

英文原版：

XXI.THE ABSENCE OFSYMPATHY

ATTENTION has been directed to that aspect of Chinese life which is represented by the term"benevolence,"the very first of the so-called Constant Virtues.Benevolence is well-wishing.Sympathy is fellow-feeling.Our present object, having premised that the Chinese do practise a certain amount of benevolence,is to illustrate the proposition that they are conspicuous for a deficiency of sympathy.

It must ever be borne in mind that the population of China is dense.The disasters of flood and famine are of periodical occurrence in almost all parts of the Empire.The Chinese desire for posterity is so overmastering a passion that circum- stances which ought to operate as an effectual check upon population,and which in many other countries would do so, appear to be in China relatively inefficient for that purpose. The very poorest people continue to marry their children at an early age,and these children bring up large families,just as if there were any provision for their maintenance.The result of these and other causes is that a large proportion of the population lives,in the most literal sense,from hand to mouth.This may be said to be the universal condition of day-labourers,and it is a condition from which there appears to be no possibility of escape.No foreigner can long deal with the ordinary Chinese whom he everywhere meets,without at once becoming aware of the fact that hardly any one has any ready money.The moment that anything whatever is to be done,the first demand is for cash,that those who are to do it may get something to eat,the presumption being that as yet they have had nothing.It is often very hard even for well-to-do people to raise the most moderate sums of money when it suddenly becomes necessary to do so.There is a most significant expression commonly employed on such oc- casions,which speaks of a man who is obliged to collect a sum with which to prosecute a lawsuit,to arrange for a funeral,and the like,as"putting through a famine,"that is,acting like a -,0 and the bearing of this fact upon the relations of the people to one another must be evident to the most careless observer. The result of the pressure for the means of subsistence,and of the habits which this pressure cultivates and fixes,even after the immediate demand is no longer urgent,is to bring life down to a hard materialistic basis,in which there are but two prominent facts.Money and food are twin foci of the Chinese ellipse,and it is about them as centres that the whole social life of the people revolves.

The deep poverty of the masses of the people of the Chinese Empire,and the terrible struggle constantly going on to secure even the barest subsistence,have familiarised them with the most pitiable exhibitions of suffering of every conceivable variety.Whatever might be the benevolent impulses of any Chinese,he is from the nature of the case wholly helples to relieve even a thousandth part of the misery which he sees about him all the time—misery multiplied many times in any year of special distress.A thoughtful Chinese must recognise the utter futility of the means which are employed to alleviate distress,whether by individual kindness or by government in- terference.All these methods,even when taken at their best, amount simply to a treatment of the symptoms,and do abso- lutely nothing towards removing disease.Their operation is akin to that of societies which should distribute smallpieces of ice among the victims of typhoid fever—so many ounces to each patient,with no hospitals,no dieting,no medicine,and no nursing.It is not,therefore,strange that the Chinese are not in practical ways more benevolent,but rather that,with the total lack of system,of prevision,and of supervision,be- nevolence continues at all.We are familiar with the phenom- enon of the effect,upon the most cultivated persons,of con- stant contact with misery which they have no power either to hinder or to help,for this is illustrated in every modern war. The first sight of blood causes a sinking of the epigastric nerves, and makes an indelible impression;but this soon wears away, and is succeeded by a comparative callousness,which, even to him who experiences it,is a perpetual surprise.In China there is always a social war,and every one is too accustomed to its sickening effects to give them more than a momentary attention.

One of the manifestations of Chinese lack of sympathy is their attitude towards those who are in any way physically de- formed.According to the popular belief,the lame,the blind, especially those who are blind of but one eye,the deaf,the bald,the cross-eyed,are all persons to be avoided.It appears to be the assumption that since the physical nature is defective, the moral nature must be so likewise. So far as our obser- vation extends,such persons are not treated with cruelty,but they excite very little of that sympathy which in Western lands is so freely and so spontaneously extended.They are looked upon as having been overtaken by a punishment for some secret sin,a theory exactly accordant with that of the ancient Jews.

The person who is so unfortunate as to be branded with some natural defect or some acquired blemish will not go long without being reminded of the fact.One of the mildest forms of this practice is that in which the peculiarity is employed as a description in such a way as to attract to it public attention. "Great elder brother with the pockmarks,"says an attendant in a dispensary to a patient,“from what village do you come?” It will not be singular if the man whose eyes are afflicted with strabismus hears an observation to the effect that“when the eyes look asquint,the heart is askew";or if the man who has no hair is reminded that“out of ten bald men,nine are de- ceitful,and the other would be so also,were he not dumb.” Such freaks of nature as albinos form an unceasing butt for a species of cheap wit,which appears never for an instant to be intermitted.The unfortunate possessor of peculiarities like this must resign himself (or herself)to a lifetime of this treat- ment,and happy will he be if his temperament admits of his listening to such talk in perpetual reiteration without becoming by turns furious and sullen.

The same excess of frankness is displayed towards those who exhibit any mental defects."This boy,"remarks a bystander, "is idiotic."The lad is probably not at all"idiotic,"but his undeveloped mind may easily become blighted by the con- stant repetition in his presence of the proposition that he has no mind at all.This is the universal method of treating all patients afficted with nervous diseases,or indeed with any other.A ll their peculiarities,the details of their behaviour, the method in which the disease is supposed to have originated, the symptoms which attend its exacerbations,are all public property,and are all detailed in the presence of the patient, who must be thoroughly accustomed to hearing himself de- scribed as“crazy,""half-witted,"“besotted in his intellect,” etc.,etc.

Among a people to whom the birth of male children is so vital a matter,it is not surprising that the fact of childlessness is a constant occasion of reproach and taunts,just as in the ancient days,when it was said of the mother of the prophet Samuel that“her adversary also provoked her sore,for to make her fret.”If it is supposed for any reason,or without reason,that a mother has quietly smothered one of her children, it will not be strange if the announcement of the same is pub- licly made to a stranger.

One of the most characteristic methods in which the Chinese lack of sympathy is manifested is in the treatment which brides receive on their wedding-day.They are often very young,are always timid,and are naturally terror-stricken at being sud- denly thrust among strangers. Customs vary widely,but there seems to be a general indifference to the feelings of the poor child thus exposed to the public gaze.In some places it is allowable for any one who chooses to turn back the curtains of the chair and stare at her.In other regions,the unmarried girls find it a source of keen enjoyment to post themselves at a convenient position as the bride passes,to throw upon her handfuls of hay-seed or chaff,which will obstinately adhere to her carefully oiled hair for a long time.Upon her emerg- ence from the chair at the house of her new parents,she is subjected to the same kind of criticism as a newly bought horse,with what feelings on her part it is not difficult to imagine.

Side by side with the punctilious ceremony which is so dear to the Chinese heart is the apparent inability to perceive that some things must be disagreeable to other persons,and should for that reason be avoided.A Chinese friend,who had not the smallest idea of saying what would be deficient in politeness,remarked to the writer that when he first saw foreigners it seemed most extraordinary that they should have beards that reached all round their faces just like those of monkeys, but he added,reassuringly,“I am quite used to it now!”The teacher who is asked in the presence of his pupils as to their capacity,replies before them all that the one nearest the door is much the brightest,and will be a graduate by the time he is twenty years of age,but the two at the next table are certainly the stupidest children he ever saw.That such observations have any reflex effect upon the pupils,never for a moment enters into the thought of any one.

The whole family life of the Chinese illustrates their lack of sympathy.While there are great differences in different households,and while from the nature of the case generalisa- tion is precarious,it is easy to see that most Chinese homes which are seen at all are by no means happy homes.It is impossible that they should be so,for they are deficient in that unity of feeling which to us seems so essential to real home life.A Chinese family is generally an association of individuals who are indissolubly tied together,having many of their interests the same,and many of them very different. The result is not our idea of a home,and it is not sympathy.

Daughters in China are from the beginning of their existence more or less unwelcome. This fact has a most important bearing on their whole subsequent career,and furnishes many significant illustrations of the absence of sympathy.

Mothers and daughters who pass their days in the nar- row confinement of a Chinese court under the conditions of Chinese life,are not likely to lack topics of disagreement,in which abusive language is indulged in with a freedom which the unconstraint of everyday life tends to promote.It is a popular saying,full of significance to those who know Chi- nese homes,that a mother cannot by reviling her own daughter make her cease to be her own daughter! When a daughter is once married she is regarded as having no more relations with her family than those which are inseparable from com- munity of origin.T here is a deep-seated reason for omitting daughters from all family registers.She is no longer our daughter,but the daughter-in-law of some one else.Human nature will assert itself in requiring visits to the mother’s home,at more or less frequent intervals,according to the local usage.I n some districts these visits are very numerous and very prolonged,while in others the custom seems to be to make them as few as possible,and liable to almost com- plete suspension for long periods in case of a death in the family.But whatever the details of usage,the principle holds good that the daughter-in-law belongs to the family of which she has become a part.When she goes to her mother's home, she goes on a strictly business basis.She takes with her it may be a quantity of sewing for her husband's family,which the wife's family must help her get through with. She is ac- companied on each of these visits by as many of her children as possible,both to have her take care of them and to have them out of the way when she is not at hand to look after them,and most especially to have them fed at the expense of the family of the maternal grandmother for as long a time as possible.In regions where visits of this sort are frequent,and where there are many daughters in a family,their constant raids on the old home are a source of perpetual terror to the whole family,and a serious tax on the common resources. For this reason these visits are often discouraged by the fathers and the brothers,while secretly favoured by the mothers. But as local custom fixes for them certain epochs, such as a definite date after the New-Year,special feast-days, etc.,the visits cannot be interdicted.

When the daughter-in-law returns to her mother-in-law,it is true of her,as the adage says of a thief,that she never comes back empty-handed.She must take a present of some sort for her mother-in-law,generally food.Neglect of this established rite,or inability to comply with it,will soon result in dramatic scenes.If the daughter is married into a family which is poor,or which has become so,and if she has brothers who are married,she will find that her visits to her mother are,in the language of the physicians,"contra-indicated."

There is war between the daughters-in-law of a family and the married sisters of the same family,like that between the Philistines and the children of Israel,each regarding the territory as peculiarly its own,and the other party as interlopers.If the daughters-in-law are strong enough to do so,they will, like the Philistines,levy a tax upon the enemy whom they cannot altogether exterminate or drive out.A daughter-in-law is regarded as a servant for the whole family,which is precisely her position,and in getting a servant it is obviously desirable to get one who is strong and well grown,and who has already been taught the domestic accomplishments of cooking,sewing,and whatever industries may be the means of livelihood in that particular region,rather than a child who has little strength or capacity.Thus we have known of a case where a buxom young woman of twenty was married to a slip of a boy literally only half her age,and in the early years of their wedded life she had the pleasure of nursing him through the smallpox,which is considered as a disease of infancy.

The woes of daughters-in-law in China should form the subject rather for a chapter than for a brief paragraph.When it is remembered that all Chinese women marry,and generally marry young,being for a considerable part of their lives under the absolute control of a mother-in-law,some faint conception may be gained of the intolerable miseries of those daughters-in-law who live in families where they are abused.Parents can do absolutely nothing to protect their married daughters,other than remonstrating with the families into which they have married,and exacting an expensive funeral if the daughters should be actually driven to suicide.If a husband should seriously injure or even kill his wife,he might escape all legal consequences by representing that she was “unfilial”to his parents.Suicides of young wives are,we must repeat,excessively frequent,and in some regions scarcely a group of villages can be found where they have not recently taken place.What can be more pitiful than a mother's reproaches to a married daughter who has attempted suicide and been rescued:“Why didn't you die when you had a chance?”

The Governor of Honan,in a memorial published in the Peking Gazette a few years ago,showed incidentally that while there is responsibility in the eye of the law for the murder of a child by a parent,this is rendered nugatory by the provision that even if a married woman should wilfully and maliciously murder her young daughter-in-law,the murderess may ransom herself by a money payment.The case reported was that in which a woman had burned the girl who was reared to become her son's wife with incense sticks,then roasted her cheeks with red-hot pincers,and finally boiled her to death with kettlefuls of scalding water.Other similar instances are referred to in the same memorial,the source of which places its authenticity beyond doubt.Such extreme barbarities are probably rare, but the cases of cruel treatment which are so aggravated as to lead to suicide,or to an attempt at suicide,are so frequent as to excite little more than passing comment.The writer is personally acquainted with many families in which these occurrences have taken place.

The lot of Chinese concubines is one of exceeding bitterness.The homes in which they are to be found—happily relatively few in number—are the scenes of incessant bickerings and open warfare."The magistrate of the city in which I live,"writes a resident of China of long experience,“was a wealthy man,a great scholar,a doctor of literature,an able administrator,well acquainted with the good teachings of the Classics;but he would lie and curse and rob,and torture people to any extent to gratify his evil passions. One of his concubines ran away;she was captured,brought back, stripped,hung up to a beam by her feet,and cruelly and severely beaten.”

In a country like China the poor have no time to be sick. Ailments of women and children are apt to be treated by the men of the family as of no consequence,and are constantly allowed to run into incurable maladies,because there was no time to attend to them,or because the man“could not afford it."

As we have noticed in speaking of filial piety,it is a constituent part of the theory that the younger are relatively of little account.They are valued principally for what they may become,and not for what they are. Thus the practice of most Western lands is in China reversed.The youngest of three travellers is proverbially made to take the brunt of all hardships.The youngest servant is uniformly the common drudge of the rest.In the grinding poverty of the mass of the people,it is not strange that the spirit even of a Chinese boy often rebels against the sharp limitations to which he finds himself pinned,and that he not infrequently runs away.The boy who has made up his mind to go will seldom fail to find some slight thread by which he may attach himself to some one else.The causes for this behaviour on the part of boys are various,but so far as we have observed,the harsh treatment of others is by far the most common.In a case of this sort,a boy recently recovered from a run of typhus fever, being possessed by the hearty appetite common to such patients, and finding the coarse black bread of the family fare hard eating,went to a local market and indulged in the luxury of expending cash to the value of about twenty cents.For this he was severely reproved by his father,upon which the lad ran away to Manchuria,an unfailing resort of lads all over the northeastern provinces,and was never heard of again.

It was a saying of George D.Prentice,that man was the principal object in creation,woman being merely“a side issue.” The phrase is a literal expression of the position of a wife in a Chinese family.The object had in view in matrimony by the family of the girl is to get rid of supporting her.The object on the part of the husband's family is to propagate that family. These objects are not in themselves open to criticism,except on the ground of a too complete occupation of the field of human motives. But in China no one indulges in any illusions on the subject.

That which is true of the marriages of those in the ordinary walks of life is pre-eminently true of the poorer classes.It is a common observation in regard to a widow who has remarried,that“now she will not starve.”It is a popular proverb that a second husband and a second wife are husband and wife only as long as there is anything to eat;when the food-supply fails each shifts for himself.In times of famine relief cases have often been observed where the husband simply abandons the wife and the children,leaving them to pick up a wretched subsistence or to starve.In many instances daughters-in-law were sent back to their mothers'family to be supported or starved as the event might be."She is your daughter,take care of her yourself.”In other cases where special food was given by distributers of famine relief to women who were nursing small infants,it was sometimes found that this allowance had been taken from the women and devoured by the men,although these instances were probably exceptional.

While it would be obviously unfair to judge a people only by the phenomena of such years as those of great famine,there is an important sense in which such occasions are a species of touchstone by which the underlying principles of social life may be ascertained with more accuracy and certainty than on ordinary occasions.The sale of wives and of children in China is a practice not confined to years of peculiar distress, but during those years it is carried on to an extent which throws all ordinary transactions of this nature into insignificance.It is perfectly well known to those acquainted with the facts,that during several recent years in many districts stricken with famine,the sale of women and children was conducted as openly as that of mules and donkeys,the only essential difference being that the former were not driven to market.During the great famine of 1878,which extended over nearly all parts of the three most northern provinces,as well as further south,so extensive a traffic sprung up in women and girls who were exported to the central provinces that in some places it was difficult to hire a cart,as they had all been engaged in the transportation of the newly purchased females to the regions where they were to be disposed of.In these cases young women were taken from a region where they were in a condition of starvation,and where the population was too redundant,to a region which had been depopulated by rebels, and where for many years wives had been hard to procure. It is one of the most melancholy features of this strange state of affairs,that the enforced sales of members of Chinese families to distant provinces was probably the best thing for all parties,and perhaps the only way in which the lives,both of those who were sold as well as the lives of those who sold them, could be preserved.

We have referred to the common neglect of sickness in the family because the victims are“only women and children.” Smallpox,which in Western lands we regard as a terrible scourge,is so constant a visitor in China that the people never expect to be free from its ravages. But it is not much thought of,because its victims are mainly children! It is exceedingly common to meet with persons who have lost the sight of both eyes in consequence of this disease.The comparative disregard of the value of infant life is displayed in ways which we should by no means have expected from the Chinese,who object so strongly to the mutilation of the human body.Young children are often either not buried at all,an ordinary expression for their death being the phrase"thrown out,"or if rolled in a mat,they are so loosely covered that they soon fall a prey to dogs.In some places the horrible custom prevails of crushing the body of a deceased infant into an indistinguishable mass,in order to prevent the“devil”which inhabited it from returning to vex the family!

While the Chinese are so indifferent to smallpox,our fear of which they fail to appreciate,they have a similar dread of typhus and typhoid fevers,which are regarded much as we regard the scarlet fever.It is very difficult to get proper attention,or any attention at all,if one happens to be taken with either of these diseases when away from home. To all appeals for help it is a conclusive reply,"That disease is contagious.”While this is true to some extent of many fevers,it is perhaps most conspicuous in a terrible scourge found in some of the valleys of Yunnan,and described by Mr.Baber:* "The sufferer is soon seized with extreme weakness,followed in a few hours by agonising aches in every part of the body; delirium shortly ensues,and in nine cases out of ten the result is fatal.”According to the native accounts:"All parts of the sick-room are occupied by devils;even the tables and mattresses writhe about and utter voices,and offer intelligible replies to all who question them. Few,however,venture into the chamber. The missionary assured me that the patient is, in most cases,deserted like a leper,for fear of contagion.If an elder member of the family is attacked,the best attention he receives is to be placed in a solitary room with a vessel of water by his side.The door is secured,and a pole laid near it,with which twice a day the anxious relatives,cautiously peering in,poke and prod the sick person to discover if he retains any symptoms of life.”

Among a people of so mild a disposition as the Chinese there must be a great deal of domestic kindness of which nothing is seen or heard.Sickness and trouble are peculiarly adapted to call out the best side of human nature,and in a foreign hospital for Chinese we have witnessed many instances of devotion not merely on the part of parents towards children, or children towards parents,but of wives towards husbands and also of husbands towards wives.The same thing is even more common among strangers towards one another. Many a Chinese mother nursing an infant will give of her overflowing abundance to a motherless child which else might starve

Unwillingness to give help to others,unless there is some special reason for doing so,is a trait that runs through Chinese social relations in multifold manifestations. It is a common and in many cases a perfectly valid excuse which is made when a bright boy is advised to try to learn to read a little,although he has no opportunity to go to school,that no one will tell him the characters,although there may be plenty of reading men within reach who have abundant leisure.The very mention of such an ambition is certain to excite unmeasured ridicule on the part of those who have had the longest experience of Chinese schools,as if they were saying:"By what right does this fellow think to take a short cut,and pick up in a few months what cost us years of toil,and then was forgotten in half the time which we took to get it?Let him hire a teacher for himself as we did.”It is very rare indeed to meet with a genuine case of one who has anything which can be called a knowledge of characters,even of the most elementary description,which he has“picked up”for himself,though such cases do occasionally occur.

The general omission to do anything for the relief of the drowning strikes every foreigner in China. A few years ago a foreign steamship was burned in the Yang-tze River,and the crowds of Chinese who gathered to witness the event did little or nothing to rescue the passengers and crew.As fast as they made their way to the shore many of them were robbed even of the clothing which they had on,and some were murdered outright.Yet it should be remarked in connection with such atrocities as this,that it is not so very long ago that wrecking was a profession in England.On the other hand,in the autumn of 1892 a large British steamer went ashore on the China coast,and both the local fishermen and the officials did everything in their power to rescue and relieve the survivors. It remains true,however,that there is in China a general callousness to the many cases of distress which are to be seen almost everywhere,especially along lines of travel.It is a common proverb that to be poor at home is not to be counted as poverty,but to be poor when on the high-road,away from home,will cost a man his life.

It is in travelling in China that the absence of helpful kindness on the part of the people towards strangers is perhaps most conspicuous.When the summer rains have made all land travel almost impossible,he whose circumstances make travel a necessity will find that“heaven,earth,and man”are a threefold harmony in combination against him.No one will inform him that the road which he has taken will presently end in a quagmire.If you choose to drive into a morass,it is no business of the contiguous tax-payers.We have spoken of the neglect of Chinese highways.When the traveller has been plunged into one of the sloughs with which all such roads at certain seasons abound,and finds it impossible to extricate himself,a great crowd of persons will rapidly gather from somewhere,"their hands in their sleeves,and idly gazing,"as the saying goes. It is not until a definite bargain has been made with them that any one of these bystanders, no matter how numerous,will lift a finger to help one in any particular. Not only so,but it is a constant practice on such occasions for the local rustics to dig deep pits in difficult places,with the express purpose of trapping the traveller,that he may be obliged to employ these same rustics to help the traveller out! When there is any doubt as to the road in such places,one might as well plunge forward,disregarding the cautions of those native to the spot,since one can never be sure that the directions given are not designed to hinder rather than help.

We have heard of one instance in which a foreign family, moving into an interior city of China,was welcomed with apparent cordiality by the people,the neighbours even volunteering to lend them articles for housekeeping until such time as they might be able to procure an outfit of their own.Other examples there doubtless are,but it is well known that these are wholly exceptional.By far the most usual reception is total indifference on the part of the people,except so far as curiosity is excited to see what the new-comers are like;a spirit of cupidity to make the most of the fat geese whom fate has sent thither to be plucked;and sullen hostility.In the case of foreigners who may have been reduced to distress, we have never heard of any assistance voluntarily given by Chinese,though of course there may have been such cases We have known of instances in which sailors have attempted the journey overland from Tientsin to Chefoo,and from Canton to Swatow,and during the whole time of their travel they were never once given a lodging or a mouthful of food.

It is often difficult,and frequently impossible,for those who are taking a dead body home to secure admission to an inn. We have known a case of this sort where the brother of the deceased was obliged to stand guard all night in the street,because the landlord would not allow the coffin to come within the gate. An extortionate price is exacted for ferrying a corpse over a river,and we have been cognisant of several instances in which a dead body has been doubled up into a parcel and tied with mat wrappings,to make it appear like merchandise,to avoid suspicion.It was reported during a recent severe winter in Shantung,that the keeper of an inn in the city of Wei Hsien refused to allow several travellers who were half dead with cold to enter his inn,lest they should die there,but turned them into the street,where they all froze to death!

There are some crimes committed in China for which the perpetrators are often not prosecuted before a magistrate, partly on account of the difficulty and expense of securing a conviction,and partly because of the shame of publicity. Many cases of adultery are thus dealt with by the law of private revenge.The offender is attacked by a large band of men,on the familiar Chinese principle that“where there are many persons,their prestige is great."Sometimes the man's legs are broken,sometimes his arms,and very often his eyes are destroyed by rubbing into them quicklime.The writer has known several instances of this sort,and they are certainly not uncommon.A very intelligent Chinese,himself not unfamiliar with Occidental ways of thought,upon hearing a foreigner remonstrate against this practice as a refinement of cruelty,expressed unfeigned surprise,and remarked that in China such a mode of dealing with a criminal is thought to be“extremely mild,”as he is thus merely maimed for life,when he really ought to be killed!

“What do you keep coming here to eat for?”said a sister-in-law to her husband's brother,who had been away for several years,and having got into trouble had had his eyes rubbed out with quicklime."We have no place for you.If you want something hard,here is a knife;and if you want something soft,there is a rope;so get along with you."This conversation was mentioned incidentally by an incurably blind man,as an explanation of his desire to get a little sight if that were possible,but if not,he intimated that either the“hard”or the“soft”could be made to adjust his difficulties.It is rare to hear of any instances in which the victim of such outrages succeeds in getting a complaint heard before a magistrate.The evidence against him would be overwhelming, and nine officials out of ten would probably consider that the man who had been thus dealt with deserved it all,and more. Even if the man were to win his case,he would be no better off than before,but rather the worse,as the irritation of his neighbours would only be increased,and his life would not be safe.

It must be understood that despite the sacredness of human life in China,there are circumstances in which it is worth very little.One of the crimes which are most exasperating to the Chinese is theft.In a crowded population always on the edge of ruin,this is regarded as a menace to society only less serious than murder.In a time of famine relief one of the distributers found an insane woman,who had become a kleptomaniac,chained to a huge mill-stone as if she were a mad dog.If a person becomes known as a thief or in other ways is a public nuisance,he is in danger of being made away with by a summary process,not differing essentially from the vigilance committees of the early days of California.Sometimes this is done by stabbing,but the method most frequently adopted is burying alive.Doubtless there are those who suppose this expression to be a mere figure of speech,as when (according to some)one is said“to swallow gold.” It is,on the contrary,a very serious reality.The writer is acquainted with four persons who were threatened with death in this form. In two instances they were bound as a preliminary,and in one case the pit was actually dug,and in all cases the burial was only prevented by the intervention of some older member of the attacking party.In another instance,occurring in a village where the writer is well acquainted,a young man who was known to be insane was an incorrigible thief.A party of the villagers belonging to his own family only“consulted”(!) with his mother,and as the result of their deliberations he was bound,a hole made in the ice covering the river flowing near the village,and the youth was dropped in

During the years in which the refluent waves of the great T'ai-p'ing rebellion overspread so large a part of China,the excitement was everywhere intense.At such times a stranger had but to be suspected to be seized,and subjected to a rigorous examination.If he could give no account of himself which was satisfactory to his captors,it went hard with him. Within a few hundred yards of the spot at which these lines are written two such tragedies occurred,little more than twenty years ago. The magistrates found themselves almost powerless to enforce the laws,and issued semi-official notifications to the people to seize all suspicious characters.The villagers saw a man coming on a horse,who looked as if he were a native of another province,and who failed to give adequate explanations of his antecedents.His bedding being found to be full of articles of jewellery,which he had evidently plundered from somewhere,the man was tied up,a pit was dug,and the victim tumbled into it. While this was going on another was seen racing across the fields in a terrified manner,and it needed but the suggestion of some bystander that he was probably an accomplice,to secure for the second victim the same fate as the first.In some cases the strangers were compelled to dig their own graves.Any native of the provinces of China principally affected by the lawlessness of those lawless times,old enough to recollect the circumstances, will testify that instances of this sort were too numerous to be remembered or counted.In the epoch of terror caused by a mysterious cutting off of cues,in the year 1877,an intense panic seemed to pervade a large part of the Empire,and there can be no doubt that many persons who were suspected were made away with in this manner.Such periods of panic,however,under certain conditions,are common to all races,and must not be laid to the charge of the Chinese as a unique phenomenon.

One of the most striking of all the many exhibitions of the Chinese lack of sympathy is to be found in their cruelty.It is popularly believed by the Chinese that the Mohammedans in China are more cruel than the Chinese themselves. However this may be,there can be no doubt in the mind of any one who knows the Chinese that they display an indifference to the sufferings of others which is probably not to be matched in any other civilised country.Though children at home are almost wholly ungoverned,yet the moment their career of education is begun the reign of mildness ceases.The"Trimetrical Classic,"the most general of the minor text-books of the Empire,contains a line to the effect that to teach without severity is a fault in a teacher.While this motto is very variously acted upon,according to the temperament of the pedagogue and the obtuseness of his pupils,great harshness is certainly common.We have seen a scholar fresh from a preceptor who was struggling to induct his pupils into the mysteries of examination essays,when the former presented the appearance of having been through a street fight,his head covered with wounds and streaming with blood.It is not rare that pupils are thrown into fits from the abuse which they receive from angry teachers.On the other hand,it is not unusual for mothers whose children are so unfortunate as to be subject to fits,to beat them in those paroxysms,as an expression of the extreme disgust which such inconvenient attacks excite. It is not difficult to perceive that mothers who can beat children because they fall into convulsions will treat any of their children with cruelty when irritated by special provocation.

Another example of“absence of sympathy”on the part of the Chinese is their system of punishments. It is not easy, from an examination of the legal code of the Empire, to ascertain what is and what is not in accordance with law,for custom seems to have sanctioned many deviations from the letter of the statutes.One of the most significant of these is the enormous number of blows with the bamboo which are constantly resorted to,often ten times the number named in the law,and sometimes one hundred times as many. We have no space even to mention the dreadful tortures which are inflicted upon Chinese prisoners in the name of justice. They may be found enumerated in any good work on China, such as“The Middle Kingdom,"or“Huc's Travels.”The latter author mentions seeing prisoners on the way to the yamen,with their hands nailed to the cart in which they were conveyed,because the constables had forgotten to bring fetters. Nothing so illustrates the proposition that though the Chinese have"bowels,"they certainly have no“mercies,"as the deliberate,routine cruelty with which all Chinese prisoners are treated who cannot pay for their exemption.A few years ago the press of Shanghai chronicled the infliction upon two old prisoners in the yamen of the District Magistrate of that city of a sentence for levying blackmail on a new prisoner. They received between two thousand and three thousand blows with the bamboo,and had their ankles broken with an iron hammer. Is it strange that the Chinese adage advises the dead to keep out of hell and the living to keep out of yamens? *

Since the preceding paragraphs were written an unexpected confirmation of some of the statements made has appeared from a most unimpeachable source.The following is an extract from a translation of the Peking Gazette of February 7, 1888:

"The Governor of Yunnan states that in some of the country districts of that province the villagers have a horrible custom of burning to death any man caught stealing corn or fruits in the fields.They at the same time compel the man's relations to sign a document,giving their consent to what is done,and then make them light the fire with their own hands, so as to deter them from lodging a complaint afterwards. Sometimes the horrible penalty is exacted for the breaking of a single branch or stalk,or even false accusations are made, and men put to death out of spite. This terrible practice, which seems incredible when heard,came into use during the time of the Yunnan rebellion;and the constant efforts of the authorities have not succeeded in extirpating it since.”

Native Chinese newspapers have within a few years contained detailed accounts of an enforced suttee practised in a district near Foochow.Widows are compelled to strangle themselves,and their bodies are then burned,after which ornamental portals are erected to their virtuous memory! Magistrates have in vain endeavoured to stop this cruel custom,but their success has been only local and temporary.

China has many needs,among which her leading statesmen place armies,navies,and arsenals.To her foreign well-wishers it is plain that she needs a currency,railways,and scientific instruction.But does not a deeper diagnosis of the conditions of the Empire indicate that one of her profoundest needs is more human sympathy?She needs to feel with childhood that sympathy which for eighteen centuries has been one of the choicest possessions of races and peoples which once knew it not.She needs to feel sympathy for wives and for mothers,a sympathy which eighteen centuries have done so much to develop and to deepen.She needs to feel sympathy for man as man,to learn that quality of mercy which droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,twice blest in blessing him that gives and him that takes—that divine compassion which Seneca declared to be“a vice of the mind,” but which the influence of Christianity has cultivated until it has become the fairest plant that ever bloomed upon the earth, the virtue in the exercise of which man most resembles God.