The indicator., 1897-12-04
CHINA'S CONSERVATISM.
She ssAll Sticks to Her Ancient
Tradition.
ChAaess Cling ts Their s~perss1tss.s
Regarding Family Bones aas
Teach Parent WorsAip
with Iron Hand,

Many curious instances of the spread
Aof foreign customs and the absorption
of European ideas are found in the
English and vernacular newspapers of
China. Reforms are adopted very slow
ly in China. The law remains as it was
1000 years ago, and all the customs that
pertain to the worship of ancestors and
the upholding of paternal authority
cannot be altered by so much as hairs
breadth without provoking storm of
protest which not even the highest au-
hority could afford TO ignore.
A case illustrating the remarkable
hold that superstition has even on per-
sons of wealth and intelligence comes
from place south of Canton. 1t seems
that the persistent ill-fortune of re-
spectacle family of some wealth was
traced to the fact that they had select
ed an ''unpropitious" site for the burial
of the bones of the head of the house.
The Chinese custom is to exhume the
coffin after three years, and to wash
the bones and put them in a large jar.
This jar is then buried in shady place.
usually under tree, and over ii the
sons do ancestral worship that assures
the happiness of the departed. The
son Of this unfortunate family dug up
the two jars containing ancestral bones,
cleaned them carefully and then re-
buried them. But recently neighbor
by chance exhumed the jars while he
dug for something else. This was re-
garded as bad omen and the jars were
taken out and cleaned for another re-
moval.
The wiseacres of the town said that
several misfortunes which had befallen
the family were due to the unpropitious
site selected for these jars, and when
the European who records this incident
visited the village he found the relatives
and friends engaged in solemn discus
mon of the proper place to rebury the
bones. This family belonged to the
respectable, educated class, yet be-
Iieved in these gross superstitions a.
fully as any ignorant coolies.
Paternal authority is still supremei in
China, and when the old family law
comes into conflict with the state law
it is the state that must yield. An in
cident illustrating this comes from HUI
nan. A doctor named Liu was found
dead on the highway. All the evidences
Of a deliberate murder were present.
But while an inquest was being held the
dead mans father appeared and coolly
declared that he had slain his son be-
cause Of the young mans untilial con-
duct. 1t seems that the son had beaten
the father, as well as other members
of his family, and he had even chastised
several elderly men of his clan who had
gone to remonstrate with him. So the
father had killed him, as the law en-
powered him to do. The magistrate
referred the whole case to the board of
punishments, as he did not feel author
lied to condemn the father, especially
as the graybeards of the Liu clan testi-
fled that the son had received only his
due.
Another recent case of the punish
ment of rebcllious son was recorded
in the Peking Gazette. In this case
the empress dowager meted out the
penalty. The offender was Prince Tsai
Shu, the eldest son OF widow. He
showed open contempt for his mothers
wishes by feigning illness when her
birthday anniversary festivities oc-
Cured. To cap the climax of his Of
fenses, he failed also to return thanks
for the empress dowager's birthday
gifts to his mother. The matter was re-
ferred to the empress dowager, who
prescribed 80 blows with the rattan
and the perpetual imprisonment of the
undutiful son within the four walls of
an empty room" The emperor con-
firmed this edict, so the son will have
ample leisure to repent of his offense.
The Shantung Peninsula, or which
were the Notifications of Wei-hai-wei,
and which was overrun by the Japanese
in the late war, is the last place one
would look for evidences of foreign
improvements or inventions. Yet let
ter from Wei-hai-wei says that in the
interior of the province the bicycle
fever RACES among the wealthy natives
and no fewer than 200 American wheels
have been imported. With great in
genuity some native gunsmiths and
blacksmiths have turned out limitations
Of the foreign wheels, and these are
said to do good service. Instead OF the
pneumatic tires these Chinese wheels
have solid tires of plated hemp covered
with rawhide.-N. Y. Sun.