The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-06-09
CHINESE URBANITY.
ciRcuMLocuTloN THEY DISPLAY IN
LETTER WHITING.

LETTER WHITING.
The Educated Chinaman Can Give the
| American Points on Politeness and. Re
anements in the Conduct of EpistolaEty
Corresp0ndence.a
! most of us to have met people who.
/ without the excuse of an unconscious
habit, have the knack of asserting un-
pleasant truths, and who value the un-
| gracious practice as sign of honesty
There are others, such as the Quakers of
! bygone days, who regard every express
sion which may not be in strict accord
ance with absolute truth as sin against
their consciences, To such people the
idea of subscribing themselves yours
truly" or of beginning a letter to a
casual acquaintance, Dear So and So, i"
is abhorrent. But public opinion has
been too strong for them, and we con-
tinue, and shall continue so long as So
ciety holds together, to address one an
other in terms of endearment and respect
which are not required to correspond
with our sentiments.
/ Orientals have surpassed MS in this re-
to which they are accustomed excels the
murky atmosphere of Europe. The de-
scnptions of ourselves and of our corre-
! spondents pale before the glowing ex-
pressions of objective admiration and
subjective self abasement which adorn
eastern epistles. We are content to con-
fine our wishes and compliments to the
present life; but such limit is far too
narrow for an Asiatic, who delights in
wishing that his friends may live for
ever and ever, and that the ancestors of
his enemies may be condemned to ever
lasting disgrace.
We are satisfied to speak of "I" and
''You," but an oriental loves to heap ad-
jectives of contempt upon himself and
of glorifcation upon his correspondents
ELEvATING AND DEMEANING SMILES
In all cases he avoids the use of the
personal pronouns. By system of cir
cumlocution necessitated by this omis-
sion, he describes himself as Your
younger brother" the character repre-
senting his expression being written
! small, and partly at the side of the col
umns of words, and he designates him
self and others conjointly as 1--WE ants !"
But the person he is addressing figures
as Your excellency," My benevolent
elder brother" or Your honor" liter
ally, You who are at the steps of the
council chamber" His own house is "a
mean dwelling" or, as the parts of the
character signify, "a stricken and broken
dwelling;" but he is unable to think of
his correspondents habitation as any
thing but IAN honorable" literally
''basket-of-pearlsp palace" In the same
spirit of self abaselnent he feels Obliged
to wind up bis, epistle with the phrase,
Your stupid younger brother, So-and-
So, bows his head to- the ground" The
character for stupid" is drawn for 'us
by two hieroglyphics, meaning .'mon-
! key hearted" To bow to his friends is
also pictorially expressed by colloca-
| ton of "a head" and turf" suggesting
/ the act of bowling the head to the earth
! If his correspondent proposes to 'call
upon him he hastens to assure him that
''at the appointed hour, with bowing
hands, he will await the time when his
excellency shall abase himself by driving
his chariot to his Office His friends
! letter is 1.-THE revelation of his hand -
and he takes pains to make him aware
that holding it with washed hands he
had chanted" its contents. -
On expressions of thanks particular
emphasis is laid by the Chinese, and
with true Oriental instinct, in their effort
after hyperbole, they are accustomed to
give physical Interpretation to their
mental feelings.
POWERFUL HYPERBoLR.
| For instance, a correspondent who
wishes to say that he is profoundly CRATE
full, writes, '+Y our kindness is very deeply
engraved and enveined in my heart" If
he hears of the illness of friend ..he
cannot help being hung up in suspense" +"
and the symbol he uses shows to the eyes
the heart of the writer tied up, while at
the same time he urges him ''to take care
of his person as a pearl" And on the
receipt of better news he breaks out,
How shall bear the joy and pleasurer'
Having finished expressing the object of
his letter, hS winds up by ''availing him
self of the Opportunity to wish his CORE
spondent all the blessings of the season,
and, if he is on the road to honor, call
the promotion he deserves
But, if not ferocious, sufficient lati-
tude still remains to a Chinaman for the
development of much plain speaking. It
is as possible to "slit the thin spun life
with stiletto as with a broadsword, and
in the most finished periods Chinaman
/ finds himself quite able to express either
whitening contempt or remorseless hate.
But he has other ways also of giving
Z vent to his i'll humors. The very pune
! tilious rules of letter writing enable him
/ to convey his dislike by omission as well
as by commission.
I Chinese is, it may be explained, writ
ten in, vertical columns, beginning on
the top right hand corner of the page.