Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/438

 426 CHINESE LITERATURE

there are to be found announcements of new and startling remedies for various diseases or of infallible pills for the cure of depraved opium-smokers, long lists of the names of subscribers to some coming festival or to the pious restoration of a local temple, sermons without end directed against the abuse of written paper, and now and then against female infanticide, or Cumming-like warnings of an approaching millennium, at which the wicked will receive the reward of their crimes according to the horrible arrangements of the Buddhist-Taoist pur- gatory. Occasionally an objectionable person will be advised through an anonymous placard to desist from a course which is pointed out as offensive, and simi- larly, but more rarely, the action of an official will be sometimes severely criticised or condemned. Official proclamations on public business can hardly be classed as wall literature, except perhaps when, as is not un- common, they are written in doggerel verse, with a view to appealing more directly to the illiterate reader. The following proclamation establishing a registry office for boats at Tientsin will give an idea of these queer docu- ments, the only parallel to which in the West might be found in the famous lines issued by the Board of Trade for the use of sea-captains :

" Green to green, and red to red, Perfect safety, go ahead" 6r*c.

The object of this registry office was ostensibly to save the poor boatman from being unfairly dealt with xvhen impressed at nominal wages for Government ser- vice, but really to enable the officials to know exactly where to lay their hands on boats when required:

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