E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (http://archive.org)
Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 39486-h.htm or 39486-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39486/39486-h/39486-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/39486/39486-h.zip)
Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/sidelightsonchin00macgrich
Being the History of the Empire as compiled by the Chinese Historians
Enlarged and brought up to date. Royal 8vo, half calf. £1 1s. net. To be obtained of
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & Co., Limited, Dryden House, 43 Gerrard Street, London, W.
[Illustration: GOLDEN ISLAND (ON THE YANG-TSE).]
London Missionary Society Author of "The Imperial History of China," "A Dictionary of Amoy Colloquial," "Pictures of Southern China," etc.
With Twelve Illustrations in Colour by Montague Smyth and Thirty-Four Other Illustrations
London Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Limited Dryden House, 43 Gerrard Street, W. 1907
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited Bread Street Hill, E.C., and Bungay, Suffolk
VI. THE ADAPTABILITY AND TENACITY OF PURPOSE OF THE CHINESE 112
XI. A CHAPTER ON SOME OF THE MORE SHADY PROFESSIONS IN CHINESE LIFE 224
XII. SCHOOLS, SCHOOL-MASTERS, AND SCHOOL-BOOKS 249
GOLDEN ISLAND (ON THE YANG-TSE) _Frontispiece_
AN IMPERIAL CONFUCIAN TEMPLE _To face p._ 65
CHINESE EATING RICE AND DRINKING SAMSHU (WHISKY) " " 9
WOMEN CARRYING BABIES ON THEIR BACKS " " 24
LITTLE URCHINS " " } } 46 LITTLE LADS " " }
A PASSENGER BOAT " " } }126 A BOAT CARRYING SEDAN CHAIR " " }
A PEDDLER " " } }296 A SHOEMAKER AT WORK ON THE STREET " " }
The Chinaman a puzzle--Oblique methods--Instances given--Mind turbid--Shrewd--A bundle of contradictions--No love of truth in the abstract--Hypnotizing power of the Chinese, in business, in foreign official life--Full of human nature--Inability to be thorough.
The Chinaman's mind is a profound and inexplicable puzzle that many have vainly endeavoured to solve. He is a mystery not simply to the foreigner, who has been trained to more open methods of thought, but also to his own countrymen, who are frequently heard to express their astonishment at some exhibition of character, that has never occurred to them during the whole of their oblique life. A Chinese cook who was living in an English family, and who found life so intolerable through some petty devices and schemes of his fellow-servants that he was compelled to resign his situation, was so taken aback at the ingenuity and skill of the manoeuvres that had been employed to oust him from his employment that, with flashing eyes and a face flushed with excitement, he said, "I know the Englishman well, I can accurately gauge his mind, and I can tell exactly how he will usually act; but my own countrymen are a mystery to me that I do not profess to be able to comprehend."