Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. II.pdf/55



THIS view, No. 47, is taken from the upper end of the foreign settlement, looking across the broad surface of the Min.

The picture is valuable, as it shows the plan of a Chinese house, general among the lower middle classes. The street entrance is unfortunately concealed by a wall cutting off the left corner of the foreground of the picture. The outer brick wall of the dwelling is raised to the height of the roof, and encloses a nearly quadrangular space, the front half of this being an open court, with apartments to the right and left, while to the rear, within the wall, is the dwelling where the members of the family reside. The outer doorway is the only opening by which access to this walled enclosure can be obtained. Light and air are admitted by the doors and windows that open into the court inside. Thus, when the outer entrance has been barred for the night, the family is completely secluded from the gaze of the world outside. Indeed, it is impossible at any time to see from the street what is going on within the court, even when the door is left open, for at three or four feet distance from the entrance a wooden screen intervenes. This screen is devised to guard against the importunity and annoyance of the spirits of the dead, which are supposed only to be capable of travelling in straight lines. To obtain the most perfect degree of privacy and seclusion is the primary object in the construction of all Chinese houses of any pretensions.

In many of the abodes of the poor this object is, from necessity, lost sight of, although, when it is attainable, they environ their humble dwellings with high fences of prickly bamboo or cactus. The best class of Chinese houses have a stone foundation and walls of brick, and the roofs are supported by crossbeams, which rest either on the walls themselves, or on wooden pillars whose tops are concealed beneath the broad eaves, and for this reason, as we may suppose, are devoid of capitals. The rafters consist of slender strips of wood, strong enough to sustain the weight of the red earthenware tiles above them. In some instances these rafters are hidden by a ceiling of coarse cloth stretched on frames and whitewashed. The interiors of the houses are highly ornamented with elaborately carved wooden partitions, and the walls are adorned with cleverly painted landscapes, groups of flowers, or fruit. Coloured tiles stamped with ornamental patterns run along the ridge of the roof; carved brackets support the eaves, while the water-pipes are of glazed earthenware, frequently so fashioned as to imitate the stems of the bamboo. In the centre of the court a deep-sunk well is usually to be found, and this is crowned with a single block of stone, pierced to admit a bucket. This stone is kept carefully covered; the door-posts and lintel of the outer entrance arc also of stone, and a space on the wall above the doorway has some mythological design modelled in relief, and skilfully painted.

I shall endeavour to show, in a subsequent part of the work, the important position which the geomancer occupies in China — how his functions are called into request, alike in the cutting of roads, the building of houses for the living, and digging graves for the dead.