Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-02-13
THECHINESEATHOME E
MANY OF THEIR CUSTOMS ARE THE.
 REVERSE OF OURS.


 How They Compare With the Japanese.
 What Constitutes an Education-No He
 reditary Aristocracy In China-The Peo-
 pie Vary In Different Sections.
 The samples we get of China in our country give us very inadequate ideas of the people. We have here to contem- plate civilization entirely unlike our own, but in itself much more complete than ours. In the presN- -te of tho Chi nese, all Europeans and Americans are parvenus. These people burned coal before the Christian era. They invent ed printing 1000 years before Guten- berg and Faust fiourished and they knew the usc of gunpowder when our forefathers were using bows and ar rows. In most things which appear on the surface they are our antipodes. They mount horse from tho right side instead of the left, read from left to right. say west south instead of south west their mariner s needle points to the south, the mon wear pCtticOats and tho women trousers, they shave the fronts Of their heads and not their faces. shake their own hands instead of each others as greeting, write their family names first and their given names aft erward, have their marginal notes at the top of their books, place a distin- guished guest on tho left and are care ful not to uncover in his presence, wear white for mourning, the men sew and the women work in the fields, and so on to the end of the chapter.
 We shall find in China tho origin of much that we have seen in Japan. The position of woman in the family and so- ciety is about the same, except that the Japanese women do not cramp their feet, and therefore can go about more freely. The domestic architecture is similar, so far as external construction goes, but the Chinese houses have no mats, and the people do not squat on the floor. Both wear loose, flowing robes, which the Chinese button, but the Japanese do not. In the cOnvCrSa- ton of the people the Chinese indulge in honoritics as much as tho Japanese. It is the correct thing to ask your friend to cOndesccnd to come from his elegant house Go your miserable hovel or to al low his distinguished cup of tea to de scend to your unworthy self. The Chi ncsc classics arc also the classics in Ja- pan, and the Chinese idcagraphs are used by JaDaNoso writers, Education is mainly etiquette. The Chinese have 5000 rules of behavior, which the edu- cated man must know. If man have bad manners, they say he is not edu- cated.
 The Chinese sages, like Confucius, Mcncius and others whoso works are classics, enunciated a high grade of ethics. Confucius stated the golden rule, though negatively, thus If there is anything 1 do not want done to me, 1 will not do it unto another.' His eth ical teachings tako rank with those of the Greek and Roman moralists and tho Hebrew prophets, but are without reference to Supreme Being who re- quircs us to keep his commandments. The family customs arc similar to the Japanese. Society iS patriarchal. The family, not the individual, is cOnsid cred. Marriages are arranged as in Ja- pan to pcrpctuatc the family, and go be- twecns are employed to settle the terms. Thcrc is only one wife, but concubines arc taken into the house at will. The wife finds life hurdcnsomc when she is the servant of the household, especially of her fathcr-in law and m0thcr-in-law, but when she becomes a mOthCr-in-laW she gets her own innings and makes it warm for hcl dauGhtrr-in-laW.
 The Chinese have as many grnutleN- ions as the Japanese and numerous grades of uhcisanccs to be employed aC- cording to circumstances. Three prostra tions, each with three knockings of the head against the floor, are supposed to be about the extreme exhibition of respect. The people vary good deal in the diff ferent sections. The south of China is mountainous. and tho people there are smaller, moro volatile and brighter than in the north, where the crowded dwollcrs on the plains and paddy fields are heavier, less cxcitable, not so quick to see or act. Thcro is no hereditary aristocracy in China. All the people