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SECRET SOCIETIES THE TAIPINGS. 159
betrothed remind her that submission is for the wife the virtue of virtues.
Whatever be the husband's conduct, she must needs submit and obey in silence.
She may appeal neither to parents nor magistrate, and may at most suspend in the
temple a paper image of her lord, and ask the " Goddess of Mercy " to change his
heart. Panhwei-pan, the most illustrious of learned Chinese women, who flourished
in the first century of the new era, has laid down all the duty of woman in the
classic memoir of the " Seven Articles." She tells us that the old custom was at
the birth of a daughter to offer to the father bricks and tiles, " bricks because we
tread them under foot, tiles because they are exposed to the inclemency of the
weather." "The wife must be a mere shadow, a simple echo." When her
husband selects one or more concubines, generally from amongst his slaves, she is
bound to welcome and live in peace with them. The husband alone has the right
of divorce, and without arbitration he may dismiss his wife, even though her only
fault be bodily ailments or a love of gossip. But when she displeases him he
usually prefers to get rid of her by sale, entering
purchaser, which is regarded as a purely personal
into a formal contract with the
matter. Nor has the self-
immolation of the widow on her husband's grave entirely disappeared, the usual
methods being by drowning, hanging, or poisoning themselves, never by fire, as in
India. Their resolution is announced beforehand, when relatives, friends, and the
curious assemble from all parts to encourage and applaud. When the Anglo-
French army entered the province of Pechili in 1860, thousands of women
committed suicide to avoid falling into the hands of strangers. Thus the wife is
taught to consider that she has no existence apart from her husband, and for
whatever liberty she may enjoy she is indebted to the general mildness of the
national character. Virtuous maidens and widows are also honoured after death
with numerous triumphal arches outside the large cities.
Like all other social acts, marriage is accompanied by endless ceremonies, the
symbolism of which is little understood. "Heaven itself," says the Shuking,
"has made the distinction of ceremonies, which are for us immutable laws." The
/i, or "ceremonial," however, comprises manners and etiquette, as well as every-
thing that distinguishes cultured from barbarous peoples. Whoever respects
tradition finds his line of conduct already laid down for him in every civil or
religious ceremony, in his visits, receptions,
the prescribed number of salutations and knee-bendmgs ;
and other social duties. He knows
calculates to a nicety the
length of his stride, his " bowing and scraping," the pitch of his voice, the extent
of his smile. In his tender years the greatest delight of Confucius, the typical
Chinaman, was to salute his playfellows with all the ceremony of his elders,
inviting them to be seated, yielding them the first place, imitating the rites
associated with ancestral
" "
worship. All virtues have their source in etiquette is
a sentiment attributed to him. ,
SECRET SOCIETIES THE TAIPINGS.
Nevertheless the numerous revolutions which have shaken the Chinese social
system to its foundations show that, beneath all this formal parade, the pulse of the