George Henty - With the Allies to Pekin - A Tale of the Relief of the Legations

“Is your Chinaman going back with you?”

“Yes; I should be awfully sorry to leave him behind. He has been with me as long as I can remember. My uncle only brought him over here in order that I might keep up my Chinese. I am sure that he would go through fire and water for me. It is a good thing to have a man like that, for, putting aside the fact that I like him tremendously, I would trust myself anywhere with him, for he is very strong, and, as he showed when he attacked those two fellows who upset the boat soon after I came here, there is no doubt that he is plucky. I expect he will be very glad to be home again. He has got accustomed to European clothes now, but I have no doubt that he would prefer his own; and then, of course, his family are there, and in China family ties are very strong. Families always stick together, even to distant relations. My uncle says that the population should be counted by families and not by individuals. Of course I did not think of such matters before I came away, but he says that it is like the old Scotch clans: the State deals with the families and not with the different members of it. If a man commits a crime and gets away, the family are held responsible for it, and one of them has to suffer penalties and pays either a large money fine or is executed.”

“That would be very rough on a family that happens to have one scamp among the sons.”

“Yes, I suppose so; but it helps to keep them all straight. A fellow who committed a crime, for which his father or any of his near relations had to suffer, would be considered not only as a disgrace to the family but as a man altogether accursed and beyond the pall of pity whatever fate might befall him. My uncle says crime is very rare in China, and that this is very largely due to the family ties.”

“But there are pirates on the coast and, as I hear, robbers on many of the rivers?”

“Yes; uncle says these men are fellows who have left their native villages and have banded together, so that if they are caught it is never known to what families they belong. They are beheaded, and there is an end of them, and their family never know anything about their case. The Chinese are a very peaceable lot, except that they sometimes get tremendously stirred up, as in the case of the Taiping insurrection. The people hear stories that the foreigners are trying to upset their religion or to take some of the land. Hideous stories go about that they have killed and eaten children or sacrificed them in some terrible way. Then they seem to go mad; they throw down their hoes and take up swords and muskets, if they have them, and blindly fall upon the whites.”

“They call us the foreign devils, donʼt they?”

“No, that is a mistake; the real meaning of the words is ʻocean devils,ʼ which answers to our word ʻpirates.ʼ Europeans were called so because the Chinese coasts were ravaged, sacked, and burnt by adventurers who first sailed into the Chinese seas, and the name has been applied to the whites ever since. It is the same way with the name of their country. By a misunderstanding, when we first had diplomatic relations with them the word ʻCelestialʼ was applied to their empire, and people ever since have believed that that is what they call the country. The word ʻCelestialʼ is applied only to the emperor, who is viewed almost as a god, but they would never dream of applying it to the country. Because the document said ʻthe Celestial Emperor,ʼ it was supposed that the kingdom over which he reigned was called the ʻCelestial Kingdom.ʼ On the contrary, they call it the ʻTerrestrial Kingdom,ʼ believing, as they did before they had anything to do with foreigners, that it was, in fact, the only kingdom existing on earth worthy of the name.”

“And can you write Chinese as well as you can talk it, Bateman?”

“I can write the ordinary Chinese, but not the language of the literati class; that is entirely different, and the ordinary Chinaman has no more knowledge of it than I have. I believe that it contains twenty thousand different characters, and it is very doubtful if even the most learned Chinaman understands them all. Even the popular language is scarcely understood in all parts of China. The dialects differ as much as some of the English dialects, and the native of the Northern Provinces has the greatest difficulty in conversing with a man from the South.”

“There is the bell ringing, and I must run round to the boarding–house to get my books.”

Rex was extremely sorry when the last day of the term arrived and he had to say good–bye to his friends. Ah Lo, on the other hand, when he met him at the station, was in the highest spirits. He was delighted that he was henceforth always to be with his young master, and, though this was a minor consideration to him, he rejoiced at the thought that he was soon to return to his native land.

“This is a good country,” he said, speaking in his own language, “much better than I had thought, and if all my family were not in China I should not mind living here all my life. They will be glad to see me too. Except that I have not been with them for so long, I have been a dutiful son, and have always sent half of my pay to my parents. They are well content with me. Fortunately I am the youngest of five sons. If I had been at home I should have had to stay at home to help my parents; but my brothers are all married and live in the village, so they can look after them and help them in their labours. As I left so young they do not miss me, and the money I have saved has helped to keep them in comfort. They have indeed received much more than they would have done had I stayed at home and worked for them, for my wages have been as much as my four brothers could earn together. I have only sent from here the same as I did when I was at Tientsin, although I have been paid higher, but then I shall have much to spend before we start, in buying presents for them and all my relatives. Besides, I have saved half of my earnings, for I have had no occasion to spend money here, and with my former savings added to this I shall be the richest man in the village. If I were to go back I could live comfortably all my life, but I should never want to do that, master, as long as you will keep me with you.”

“That will be as long as we both live, Ah Lo; but I think that when you get back you ought to take a wife.”

“I shall think about it,” the Chinaman said, “but I shall think many times before I do it. When a man is married he is no longer master of his own house. The wife is always good and obedient until she has a son; after that she takes much upon herself. If one were to get the right woman it would be very good, but it is not in China as it is here, where you see a great deal of a woman before you marry. In China I should have to say to one of the old women who act as intermediaries, ʼI desire a wife,ʼ Then she goes about and brings me a list of several marriageable girls. She praises them all up, and says that they are beautiful and mild–tempered, and at last I choose one on her report; and it is not until after one is married that one can find out whether the report is true or not. Altogether the risk is great. I am happy and contented now; it would be folly for me to risk so much with so small an advantage. Suppose I had married before I came over here, my wife would have had to stay with my parents, and she might not have been happy there. I could not have brought her over here, for if I had done so everything would have been strange to her; the people would have pointed at her in the street, the boys would have called after her, and she would have been miserable.”

“I am sorry that you are going back, Rex,” his uncle said to him, when all the preparations for the voyage had been completed, and he was to embark on the following day. “I should have liked to keep you here, but naturally your mother and father want you back, and it is certainly best for you that you should, at any rate for some years, be over there to learn the business thoroughly, so that when your father retires you can succeed him, and in time perhaps come back to take charge here, if you can find among the clerks one sufficiently capable to represent us out there. But I shall miss you, lad, sorely. I have always looked forward to your being home for the holidays, and I had great interest in your life and doings at school. Still, I knew, of course, that that could not last for ever. In a small way it will be a wrench losing Ah Lo; I shall find a difficulty in getting anyone to fill his place. A more attentive or obliging fellow I have never come across. It will be a satisfaction to me to know that he is with you, for should any troubles arise, which I regard as quite possible, you will find him invaluable.