Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-10-11
Queer Chinese Customs
In the Empires Early Days,

human virtues and wisdom, by which
they We're enabled to rescue the people
from their original barbarism and to
instruct them in the various arts of
civilized life. which were undoubtedly
acquired at a very early period and
promoted by the many rulers of the
country
silk-weaving and husbandry were
the earliest and most useful of these
arts. Both of them must Rave been
taught by necessity as soon as the ma
ton was established, as the people
were dependent for subsistence on the
cultivation of the land. and for cloth
ing on the chief natural resources Of
the country adapted for that purpose.
This was discovered in the forests,
which were abundant. The silkworm
was found in abundance on many spe-
cies of the forest trees. The merit of
teaching the people to weave silk into
garments and dye it of various colors
is ascribed to one of the earliest en-
presses-Si-ling. Shln-nung, the sec
ond ruler of the first dynasty, was
known as shin. the husbandman";
and even to this day the Chinese offer
up annual sacrifices and hold festival
in honor of the princess who first
wove silken garments, and the no less
praiseworty monarch who taught his
people to plough the earth
The Chinese impute to their ancient
emperors many inventions which must
have been made much farther West
and previous to their existence. The
inventions of the musical instrument,
and the arts of writing, working in
metals. and building bridges, which
they claim were made by Chinese,
could not have been made by them, as
these were known before the Chinese
rulers existed Shin-nung, however,
was the father of many inventions
Many of his inventions were along the
lllt Vi dSl lNulNlllN e ill1 SuNNNs'CA .
Hwant-ti, divided all the land into
groups of nine equal squares, the mid
die one being cultivated by the labor
ers of the other portions for the bene-
fit of the State. He (HwanttD really
did invent the compass, which, accord
ing to an old tradition, was invented
by the same Hwang-ti to guide him
through the forests when hunting
Gilbert, in his work on the magnet,
asserts that the knowledge of it was
brought to Europe about A. d. 1860,
by Marco Polo, Venetian traveller,
who visited China. This is not be-
leved to be true as it was used east
of the Red Sea before his (Marco Po-
lo) time.
Van and Shun were the last two en-
perors of the line of Fuhi. They are
reckoned among the sages of China,
and TO them are attributed most Of the
political institutions by which the
country is even now governed. Van
the Great was once one of the minis
ters Of Shun, and to reward him for
rendering the land fit for cultivation
by draining it, he set aside his own
son. Van was appointed Shun's sue
cessor, for the laws of China allow a
monarch to appoint his successor.
China once enjoyed fine commerce.
For a long series Of years, trade, even
with the foreign nations, appears to
have been remarkably free. The mar
kets of China were the resorts of for
eign merchants before the Romans
invaded Britain, and her ports wee
annually visited by great squadrons Of
commercial vessels from the Rel Sea
the Persian Gulf, Ceylon the Mala0ar
coast and the Coast of Coromande,.
The education of youth was cons'd-
cred of so much Importance that every
district was Obliged to maintain :
public school, where boys were sent a;
eight years of age to be instructed in
reading, writing arithmetic, and their
several duties to parents, teachers,
elders and magistrates, as we'll as 10
heir equals and interiors. They were
also taught to commit to memory 4
great number of wise maxims anC
moral sentences contained in the wrli-
'ngs of the ancient sages; and many
of their lessons were in verse, tha,
they might be the more readily learned