The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1893-03-25
POPULAR CHINESE EDUCATION.
Its Place Is Tmperfectly Supplied by Ira
ditiOn, Fable, Custom and the Ritual.

understand the word, an educated race.
This statement has been frequently
made by a number of authorities, but
it is lone the less Educa-
ton is worshipped in China but not
possessed. There are reasons for this
anomaly, and they are important
enough to be considered. In the first
place, there is no public-school system,
and the rates of tuition are moderately
high. Now what is the wage of the
worker? The common laborer receives
about five cents per day; the skilled
labOrer, ten cents; and when employed
in the artistic trades, twelve cents.
Obviously, under these conditions,
it is well-nigh impossible for the
father of a family to provide his
children with the most elementary
education, especially as reading and
writing in China are both means and
end. There are forty thousand char
acters in the language, and the present
method Of education is not conducive
to their speedy requirement. Even in
the schools of Chinatown, where every.
thing is relatively more practical, chill
dren who dare to put together in ra-
tiOnal connection the characters they
are being taught are subjected to tor
lures worthy of thelinQuisition of the
Scotch C~ovenanters. They are permit.
ted to ponder over the essence of the
character for dog and the character
for bite" but they are not allowed to
put them together until permitted by
the teacher. -Four or five years must
elapse before the student of C~onfucius
even begins to read. What chance,
then, is there for a child of a parent
who is making from FIVE to ten cents a
day?
The Chinese six companies frequent
ly have occasion to paste up notices on
the dead walls of chinatown. These
notices are intended to be read, and are
therefore couched in the simplest Ian
guage. 1t is a curious sight to watch
these worshippers of learning collected
about the bill boards. The writer has
counted as many as a hundred, who,
without uttering a word, nave patient
ly waited for hours, until the scholar
happens to arrive who shall read aloud
to them an announcement which, if
written in English, would be intelligi-
bic to a ten-year- old American child.
1t is pathetic that a people who literal.
ly worship education should be SO
wholly debarred from it.
A reverence for education is part of
their religion. One of the interesting
~persOnages of Chinatown is the itin.
Grant paper-scavenger employed by the
six companies to patrol the entire quar-
ter. 1t is his duty to pick up every
piece Of paper bearing a written char
acter. These pieces of paper are taken
to the jOss-house and burned according
to the rites.
Tradition, fable, custom, and the oft
repeated ritual imperfectIy supply the
place of a popular education. Indeed,
the poorest child is given what the Chi
nese believe to be a religious education.
The ceremony of ''going through the
door" is interesting in this connection, as
it illustrates the solar symbolism, which
is the essence of Chinese ritual. The
door" or ''sun-gate" is erected in the
middle of the room. On a table at the
side are heaped up seven piles of rice,
with a candle IN each pile, recalling
the modern birthday cake, with a can
die for each year of the child's life.
AAIS Il ID III GOACA Vi dOuuuduCC,
while the candles represent the seven
stars of the "Bushel," or Mother
Goddess. When all is prepared a Taou-
ist priest takes the young child in his
arms, and, followed by the father and
the rest OF the family, solemnly ''goes
through the door'-a movable wooden
frame placed first in the center of the
room, n afterwards at each of the
four points of the compass. This cere-
mony is repeated on each birthday
until the child arrives at the age of six
teen, and the memory of it hangs over
the Chinese man during all his life.
For on his fortieth birthday it is Gus
tomary to take a common bushel meas
ure, and to fill it with rice and such
toys or implements as are significant of
his capacity; the whole is s~urmounted
by a huge candle, indicating, perhaps,
that the seven gifts of the Seven
Starred Goddess" are fused into the in
dividuality Of one strong character.
At death there is that final passing
through the door" which leads to
another life. In former times this
was also acted out. This ceremony
strongly suggests the extinct arkite
ritual. The body of a deceased emper-
or or high official was borne through
the streets on a '~atafalque. Arriving
at the temple, the coffin was taken
through the entrance; but once within,
enough bricks were removed from the
side of the temple to permit the coffin
to pass out in an unusual manner. thus
symbolizing the resurrection of the
soul. At childhood, middle age and
death the thoughts of a Chinese man
are thus centered on his hope of immor-
tality.-Henry Burden Mcdowell, in
Harper's Magazine.