The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-02-06

loyal subjects to plat the hair at the back
OF the mead, and shave the front part, after
the custom of Manchuria. The queue at
once ana forever became the differentiating
marx OF allegiance to the Manchu dynasty,
ana all who retained the Meng couture
were regarded as disloyal.
AT nrst the order exasperat ed the
Ohinese, who looked upon it as badge of
Illumination, and it was nearly hundred
years before the custom was generally
ADOPTED Kang Hi, the second sovereign
VI the present dynasty, found~it necessary
10 olIer rewards and immunities to the
natives OF outlying districts that had re-
FUSED to submit to the new order.
w men 1t became manifest that there was
no possibility of a restoration of the Meng
monarchy, when it was seen that queue
Tess persons never had any show in a court
OF justice or any chance of success in the
literary examinations, the people yielded.
Ever since then man with unbraided hair
mas been looked upon as rebel and liable
TO arrest and decapitation. At the present
DAY IN China every China man not in open
rebelllon wears a queue. What was once
degradation is now a mark of respectable
lty. With the exception of priests,
Cnlnaman without a queue would be held
up to universal execration.
THAT the queue is the badge of allegiance
to the Emperor of China is evident from
the fact that the first act of the rebels in
the late Tai Ping rebellion was to unplait
the hair and wear it in Meng dynasty
fashion. The local Chez Kung Tong in
Spofford alley, the so-called Free Masons,
Is rebel secret society and on being ini-
tlated into its secret rites the neophyte al
ways unplaits his queue while reciting the
oaths renouncing allegiance to the Tartar
sovereign.
Il have never urged Chinaman resid-
ing in this country to shave off his queue
Tor this reason. Our laws do not permit
MS naturalization and to urge him to re-
move his queue would be to denationaIize
him and leave him practically without
country.
Some Chinese while residing here have
found 1t more convenient to dress their
mar IN our style, but before returning to
CHINA they have always been careful to
/ grow the hair long enough to enable them
TO attach false queue, and they have as
sured me that to go about the streets of
CHINA without queue would subject them
! to imprisonment
You ask if my view is corroborated
! by any other missionaries? Yes; by
Williams in mis- Middle Kingdom by
Doolittle in bis Social Life OF the Chi
nese.' by every missionary In China and
by every authority on Chinese customs"
Have you ever heard that the queue
has any religious significance?
Never! 1t is not the mark of initiation
into some religious order or caste. 1t is
not analogous to the sacred cord of the
Brahmans. That this is not so is apparent
when it is considered that all the images
| OF their gods are without queues, and so
are their priests. The Buddhist priests,
like the Buddhisatvas they worship, are
shaver and shorn, and the Taoist priests
wear their long hair, twisted around a
wooden comb at the back of the head"
The Rev. Mr.. Condit, superintendent of
the Presbyterian Chinese Mission, who
lived in China six years and travelled
through the country considerably, who
speaks the language and is well versed in
its literature, holds the same view as to
the significance of the queue.
at is unquestionably mark OF polit-
ical allegiance" said he, Though would
not like to say that all Cinnamon who
wear the queue wear it for this reason.
1 think, rather, that many of them cling
| to the queue merely as a custom"
However, those who agitate the matter
now, declare that a man who seeks to cast
his ballot in America should at least be
willing to iorego a custom that smacks
strongly, to say the least, of imperial
sovereignty.