by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE WALLS AND TEMPLES OF PEKIN
The company had hardly expected that Captain Ringgold would go to thecapital, for it was off the course to Japan, which was the next countryto be visited; but their curiosity had been greatly excited, and he wasdisposed to gratify it.
"Pekin is not on navigable water, and we cannot go there in the ship,"said he. "We go to Tien-tsin, which is the seaport of Pekin, abouteighty miles distant from it. It is a treaty port, and is said to have apopulation of six hundred thousand; the number can doubtless beconsiderably discounted. The next thing is to get to Pekin; though wecan go most of the way by boat to Tung-chow, thirteen miles from thecapital. Some go all the way on horseback or by cart. We will decidethat question when we get to Tien-tsin."
"How long will it take us to go there?" asked Uncle Moses.
"About two days; we are off Woo-Sung now. We have the pilot on board,and we shall go to sea at once," replied the commander.
Nothing of especial interest occurred on the voyage; and before noon onthe second day out the two ships were off the mouth of the Pei-hoRiver, and a Chinese pilot was taken. As they went up the river they sawthe Taku forts, where the Celestial soldiers won their only victory overthe English, but were badly beaten the following year. On the risingtide the ships got up the river, and anchored off the town.
The place was like any other Chinese city, and was quite as dirty as thedirtiest of them. Two of the guides from Shang-hai, who were couriersfor travellers, had been brought, one in each ship; and both of themwere intelligent men. The Blanchita had been put into the water as soonas the anchors were buried in the mud; and the party went on shore inher, to the great disgust of the boat-people.
The American consul came on board with the Chinese officials; and thecommander took him into the cabin for a conference in regard to gettingto Pekin, while the tourists were on shore with the guides. Mr. Smithershad seen the steam-launch, and the question was whether the party couldgo up Pekin River in her. The consul could see no difficulty in the way,any more than there would be in the ships' barges. He thought he couldput them in the way of making the trip securely, and they went on shoretogether in the barge.
Mr. Smithers knew a couple of high officials who were going to thecapital the next day, and the commander was introduced to them. Theywere very polite, and both of them spoke English. One had been educatedat Yale College in New Haven. They were invited to go with the party toPekin in the Blanchita, and accepted. The arrangements were completedfor the trip. They went on board of the Guardian-Mother, and weretreated with the most distinguished consideration, shown over the ship,and invited to lunch.
When the launch came off with the party at noon, all the ladies andgentlemen were presented to them by the commander. The pacha, the rajah,and the princess were clothed in their elegant robes; and they evidentlymade a profound impression. The plan for the journey to the capital wasannounced to the passengers, and they could not help being delightedwith it. Mr. Sage had been directed to spread himself on the lunch, andhe did so. Monsieur Odervie even prepared a few Chinese dishes, the artof doing which he had learned from a native cook in Hong-Kong.
In the afternoon the party went on shore again, under the escort of Mr.Psi-ning and Mr. Ying-chau, visiting the temple in which the treatieshad been signed, and several others, and then walked through the streetof "Everlasting Prosperity," as the Chinese gentlemen explained it. Theprosperity seemed to consist mainly in the sale of eel-pies with bakedpotatoes, the former kept hot at a small charcoal fire. Live fish inshallow bowls with a little water in them were common, and cook-shopsfor more elaborate Chinese dishes were abundant.
Both the native gentlemen were mandarins of different orders, and theywere received with the most profound deference by the common people. Thetourists saw everything in the town that was worth seeing; and early inthe afternoon they returned to the Guardian-Mother, where the consul andthe native gentlemen were to dine. The latter were invited to sleep onboard in order to be in readiness for an early start the next day, andthey had ordered their baggage to be sent to the ship. Mr. Psi-ning saidhe had telegraphed to an official at Tung-chow to have conveyances readyfor the party at that place, which was as far as the boat could go,thirteen miles from Pekin.
Mr. Smithers was exceedingly kind, and did far more than could beexpected of a consul. The commander expressed his obligations to him inthe most earnest terms for all he had done, and especially forintroducing the distinguished Chinese gentlemen. The dinner was the mostelaborate the steward and the cook could provide, and it was one ofthose hilarious affairs which have several times been described duringthe voyage. In the evening there were Mrs. Belgrave's games, music, anddancing with the assistance of the Italian band, and finally the singingof the Gospel Hymns.
The Blanchita was prepared for her voyage as soon as she came off fromthe shore, coaled for the round trip, supplied with cooked provisions,though the galley was available, and with everything that couldpossibly be needed. She was put in about the same trim as when she wentup the rivers of Borneo. Felipe was to be the engineer, Pitts the cook,and four sailors were detailed for deck-hands. The excursion had beenarranged for five days; and the bags, valises, and other impedimenta ofthe voyagers, were on deck at an early hour. Breakfast was ready athalf-past six; and at half-past seven the Blanchita got under way with anative pilot for the river, who could speak pidgin English.
The party were in a frolicsome mood; and they went off singing a song,to the great astonishment of the native boat-people. Mr. Psi-ning joinedwith them; for he had learned the tunes in the United States, where hehad travelled extensively. Tien-tsin is the terminus of the Grand Canalin the north, and they passed through a small portion of it into theriver. The trip was through a low country. The road to the capital wasin sight, and they saw various vehicles moving upon it. The first thatattracted their attention was one of the barrows, with a native betweenthe handles, supporting them with a band over his shoulders. On one sideof the large wheel was a passenger; and behind him was a lofty sail,like those depending from the yards of a ship, but about three times ashigh in proportion to its width. It had five ribs of wood in it belowthe upper yard to keep it spread out. The boys thought the craft wouldbe inclined to heel over with all the cargo on the starboard side.
They saw a rickshaw rigged with a sail in this manner. A man on a farmwas working with an ordinary wheelbarrow sailing in this way. There wereno end of men riding ponies, or in the two-wheeled passenger-cartshaving a cover over them which extended out over the horse. Farther upthey observed a couple of coolies irrigating the land with a machinewhich had four paddles for moving the water, with four more each side ofthe stream, under a frame to which two men were holding on, and workingtreadmill fashion, with their feet on each of the four arms. Theynoticed mixed teams of horses and bullocks, such as one sees in Naples.The most curious was a mule-litter, which was simply a sedan between twoanimals.
Felipe drove the launch at a nine-knot speed, and at half-past three inthe afternoon the boat arrived at Tung-chow. Contrary to theirexpectation, the passengers had greatly enjoyed the trip; but it was outof their own hilarity rather than their surroundings. Pitts had arrangedthe lunch in a very tasty manner on the tables in what the boys hadcalled the fore and after cabins. They found all the variety of vehiclesthey had seen on the road, and in three hours they came to the greatgate of Pekin. They were conveyed to the small German hotel, which theymore than filled; and other lodgings were provided for some of thegentlemen, though the meals were to be taken at the public-house.
The Chinese gentlemen had to leave them to attend to their own affairs,but after dinner the professor told them something about Pekin: "Thecity is in about the same latitude as New York, and the climate is aboutthe same. It is situated on a sandy plain, and the suburbs arecomparatively few. The town consists of two cities, the Manchu and theChinese, separated by a wall; and the whole is surrounded by high walls,with towers and pagodas on them, a
s you have already seen. The Manchuwall is fifty feet high, sixty feet wide at the bottom, and forty at thetop. Without the cross-walls, there are twenty-one miles of outer wall,enclosing twenty-six square miles of ground.
"There are sixteen gates, each with a tower a hundred feet high on it.Your first impression must have been that Pekin is the greatest city inthe world. You came in by a street two hundred feet wide, with shops oneach side; but when you have seen more of it, you will find dilapidationand decay, and about the same filth you have observed in other Chinesecities. But it is one of the most ancient cities in the world, for thisor another city stood here twelve hundred years before Christ. Kublai, agrandson of Genghis Khan, the great conqueror of the Moguls, made Pekinthe capital of all China. When the Manchus came into power the city wasall ready for them, and for a time they kept it in repair; but for morethan a hundred years it has been going to ruin.
"The Manchu, or inner city, is divided into three parts, the largest ofwhich is the real city. In the middle of it are two walled enclosures,one within the other. The outer one seems to be the guardroom of theinner, to which entrance is forbidden to all foreigners, and even toManchus and Chinese not connected with the court. This last is calledthe Purple Forbidden City, two and a quarter miles around it, and is theactual imperial residence. It includes the palaces of the emperor andempress and other members of the family. It contains other palaces andhalls of reception.
"The 'Hall of Grand Harmony' is built on a terrace twenty feet high, andis of marble, one hundred and ten feet high. Its chief apartment is twohundred feet long by ninety wide, and contains a throne for the emperor,who holds his receptions here on New Year's Day, his birthday, and onother great occasions. The 'Palace of Heavenly Purity' is where themonarch meets his cabinet at dawn for business; and you see that he mustbe an early riser. Within these enclosures are temples, parks, anartificial lake a mile long, a great temple in which the imperial familyworship their ancestors, and many other grand palaces, temples, andstatues, which I have not time to mention.
"The outer, or Chinese, city, is thinly populated, and a considerableportion of it is under cultivation. The principal streets are over ahundred feet wide; but those at the sides of them, like Canton and othercities, are nothing but lanes. None of the streets are paved, and mudand dust reign supreme. As with other Eastern cities, the population ofPekin is exaggerated, being estimated by some as high as two millions;but Dr. Legge thought it was less than one million.
"The charge of infanticide seems not to be applicable to Pekin or thesurrounding country, and is said to be almost unknown there. A dead-cartpasses through the streets at early morning to pick up the bodies ofchildren dying from ordinary causes whose parents are too poor to burythem. There are foundling hospitals, to which the mothers prefer to taketheir female children rather than sacrifice them. In fact, infanticideis said to be known only in four or five provinces. I have nothing moreto say, and I leave you to see the rest for yourselves," said theprofessor, as he resumed his seat.
The next morning Mr. Psi-ning presented himself at the hotel, beforewhich were gathered vehicles enough to accommodate the entire party. Therickshaw had recently been introduced from Japan, and several of themwere included in the number; but the carts and the barrows weregenerally preferred. The company selected what they pleased. Mr.Psi-ning led the way through the principal street, and through some ofthe lanes; but the scenes in them were so much like what they had seenin three other cities that the novelty of them had worn off. Theresidences of the ambassadors of foreign countries were pointed out tothem, including that of the Hon. C. Denby, before which they halted;and the Chinese gentleman conducted them all into it, where they werepresented in due form to His Excellency, who received them verypleasantly.
They then went to the Temple of Heaven, which was quite a curiousbuilding, somewhat in pagoda style. It began on the ground at a roundstructure, with an overhanging roof. The second story was smaller, withthe same kind of a roof; and the third was the same, but with a roofcoming to a point, like a cone. It was almost a hundred feet high. Thetiles were of blue porcelain, in imitation of a clear sky.
In the afternoon the tourists were conveyed to the office of the Boardof Punishments, and Mr. Psi-ning explained the criminal processes andsentences. The latter are very severe, including torture, which makesone think that he is reading Foxe's "Book of Martyrs." The partydeclined to witness any of the punishments. Some culprits are treated totwenty or more blows with a bamboo. Men suspected are tortured to makethem confess. They are put in all sorts of painful positions.
Capital punishment is inflicted by placing the victim on his knees, withhis arms bound behind him, and his head is severed from his body by thestroke of a heavy knife or sword.
The next day the mandarin conducted the tourists to the gate of theForbidden City; for he had obtained a permit for the admission of thewhole of them in a body. The professor had described the principalstructures within the enclosure; and it would be only a repetition toreport what the mandarin said of them, though he added considerable towhat had come from the books. The third gateway was especially noted asone of the finest pieces of Chinese architecture the party had seen.
The "Abode of Heavenly Calmness" was the noblest, richest, and mostluxuriously furnished in the great palace; for it is the privateapartment of the emperor. The Great Union Saloon, where His ImperialMajesty receives the high-class mandarins, was elegant enough for anyroyal apartment.
The tourists walked about among the Chinese glories till they were tiredout. The two Cupids were completely "blown;" and when they found aplace, they seated themselves, and let the rest of the company finishthe survey of the Forbidden City. The palace of one prince of theimperial house was so large that three thousand men could be quarteredin the out-buildings, and doubtless as many more could be accommodatedin the main structure. The Cupids were picked up on the return; butthere was more to be seen, and they went to the beautiful temple of Fo,containing a gilded bronze statue of the god, sixty feet high, with onehundred arms, and Scott remarked that he was like a big man-of-war, wellarmed.
They came again to the Temple of Heaven; but the mandarin had notobtained a permit, which was exceedingly difficult to procure in recentyears. Mr. Psi-ning told them that the interior, in its chief hall,represented the heavens. It was a circular apartment surrounded bytwenty-two pillars, and everything was painted sky-blue. A portion ofthis temple is the "Penitential Retreat" of the emperor, where he keepsthree days of fasting, meditating over his own sins and those of thegovernment, previous to offering up his sacrifice. Connected with thetemple was a band of five hundred musicians, who reside there; but thecommander was thankful that the party were not compelled to listen totheir performance.
The tourists were very glad to get back to the hotel in the street ofthe legations, and they did not go out again that day. The question ofvisiting the Great Wall then came up for discussion. Brother Avoirdupoisand Brother Adipose Tissue declared in the beginning that they would notgo; and the mandarin laughed heartily when these names were applied tothem, and still more when they were called the Cupids.
"It is forty-five miles to the loop-wall which travellers generallyvisit from Pekin," said Mr. Psi-ning. "You would have to go inmule-litters, or on horseback, or by the carts you have used; and itwould take you a day to get there, and as long to return. Then it wouldbe only the loop-wall, and not the Great Wall, which cannot be reachedwithout going over a hundred miles. I can say for myself that I havenever been to either, just as I heard a man in Boston say that he hadlived there over sixty years, and had never been to Bunker HillMonument."
"The wall is an old story to you, I suppose," said the princess.
"You have seen the walls of Pekin, and they are a good specimen of theGreat Wall; at any rate, they satisfied me," replied the mandarin.
But the "Big Four" and Professor Giroud decided to visit the loop-wall,and the Chinese gentleman advised them to start immediately after lunch.One of the guides,
who had been there several times before, was toaccompany them, and was sure they could reach their destination bysunset; and they started as soon as they had lunched. Mr. Psi procuredfor them six fine horses and a mule-litter. The road was paved withsolid granite slabs, ten feet long, all the way.
The attentive mandarin kept the rest of the tourists very busy the nexttwo days; and they visited everything that was worth seeing in thecapital, and they dined with him one day in his palace. The party fromthe wall returned before night the next day, and said they had had agood time, though the wall did not amount to much more than that seen atPekin.
"I have a government mission in Tokyo next week, and I have to go toJapan," said Mr. Psi-ning, while they were dining together at the GermanHotel. "I shall probably meet you there."
"If you are going to Japan, permit me to offer you a stateroom on boardof the Guardian-Mother," interposed the commander eagerly. "You arepractically an American after a five years' residence in the UnitedStates, and are familiar with our way of living; though I will add thatMonsieur Odervie, our French cook, has learned to make a few Chinesedishes, and we will endeavor to make you comfortable."
"Your living will suit me perfectly, for I am used to it; and havingdined with you on board, I know that your bill of fare is better thanany hotel in the States. But when do you sail?"
"Whenever you are ready, my dear sir."
"I have to spend a day in Tien-tsin, and then I was to take a steamer toShang-hai, and thence a P. & O. to Yokohama."
"But that is out of the way; and we go direct to Yokohama, or we will gothere first if you honor us with your company," said the captain,glancing at General Noury.
"By all means!" exclaimed the pacha. "Mrs. Noury and myself will bedelighted to have you with us, Mr. Psi-ning."
"Then I shall be too happy to accept your cordial invitation," repliedthe mandarin. That matter was settled; and the new passenger went to hispalace to prepare for his journey, though he did not forget to send oneof his people to Tung-chow to arrange for the reception of the party thenext day.
The horses the young men rode, the mule-litters, wheelbarrows, andjinrikishas were at the door of the hotel early in the morning; and themandarin, with his valet, were on time. The company reached Tung-chowbefore noon; and a Chinese lunch was ready for them, ordered by the newpassenger. The Blanchita was all ready for them to step on board whenthey had partaken of roast goose, duck, and chicken at the inn. Thepassage down the river was a frolic all the way, and the guest told themmore about China than they had learned before in regard to matters notgenerally known.
Felipe hurried the steamer, and she was alongside the Guardian-Motherbefore five in the afternoon. Mr. Psi-ning had several pieces ofbaggage, including despatch-bags, which were placed in the fineststateroom on board. The commander had telegraphed for dinner at theusual hour. Mr. Smithers came on board before it was ready, and wasinvited to join the company. From him they learned that Mr. Psi-ning wasin the diplomatic service of the government, and that he would be ofgreat assistance to them in Japan.
The ships had to wait only one day for him; and on Wednesday, May 10, atsix in the morning, they sailed for Tokyo, though the commander'soriginal intention had been to go first to Nagasaki. The Blanche's partywent on board of the Guardian-Mother before she sailed, with the Italianband. They played to the great delight of the boatmen around the ship,as well as of those on board. The consul went to the mouth of the river,and took a tug home. It was a frolic all day and till midnight, when theBlanche's passengers returned to her.
It was a smooth sea all the four days of the voyage, even on the Pacificshores; and the Guardian-Mother's people spent the next day on board ofthe consort. On the third day there was a lecture on Japan in ConferenceHall, given by Mr. Psi-ning, who was as familiar with that country aswith China. But his discourse must be reported in another volume.
Those who are disposed to follow the tourists through Japan, and then ontheir long voyage of two thousand miles to Australia, New Zealand, andthe Sandwich Islands, will be enabled to do so in "PACIFIC SHORES; OR,ADVENTURES IN EASTERN SEAS."