Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. III.pdf/35



THE Ming Tombs at Nanking contain the remains of Hung-woo, the first emperor of the dynasty, as well as those of his grandson, who followed him on the throne. The tomb of Hung-woo, who died in 1398 after a reign of thirty-one years, stands on the western slope of the hills near the eastern wall of Nanking. A portion of this splendid mausoleum is shown in the distance on the right of No. 20, while the approach to the once imposing structure is guarded by stone statues of warriors in full panoply, and by a double row of colossal animals, also sculptured in stone These ancient examples of Chinese sculpture will, however, bear no comparison with the productions of cotemporary European art, yet there is a native ideal in the whole which shows itself most conspicuously in the calm, majestic repose and benign expression of the warriors, who seem pleased with the task imposed of guarding the ashes of the dead. The statues probably represent the life-guards who in those days waited upon the emperors. Their weapons and armour look heavy and cumbrous, although in active war they might have proved as formidable as any in use at that period in Europe. A poor native assured me in confidence that giants, tall as these statues, existed in those days. Be that as it may, Hung-woo must have had brave and disciplined soldiers to aid him in fighting his way to the throne, though the arms of the mailed guards where he sleeps offer a strange contrast to the weapons now manufactured at Nanking Arsenal close by.

NO. 21 shows a company of Chinese troops, a remnant of the "Ever-victorious" Anglo-Chinese force who have been trained to European discipline and drill. We miss the solid bearing and benign expression of the old stone warriors, but opium when the latter flourished was probably unknown. There are 150 of these foreign-drilled and foreign-equipped soldiers at Ningpo, under the command of two foreign officers, Colonel Cook and Major Watson. During the rebellion there was a regiment of them 1,000 strong, but now they are used as the Ningpo city guard. Of native officers there are to the Ningpo force a sergeantmajor, two corporals, two lance-corporals, one artillery sergeant, one corporal, and a lieutenant of infantry. The police of Nanking are also under four foreign inspectors.

Large bodies of foreign-drilled troops are stationed at Canton, Foochow, Shanghai, and other parts of the Empire, and these forces are supplied with modern rifles, guns, and ammunition. The pay of privates (and in Ningpo they are regularly paid), is, in the Ningpo force, six dollars a month, or about one shilling a day, including a summer and a winter suit of clothes. The summer suit is white with blue facings, and the winter dress dark blue with green facings, and a dark green turban.

One of the workshops in the Nanking Arsenal is shown in No. 22, where guns are turned, drilled, and rifled. A native workman may be seen at his post guiding a great foreign turning-lathe.

The departments most interesting to me were the one where rifle-caps were being punched and filled by machinery, and another where the guns were being cast with such solidity and perfection as to rival the finest work of the kind I have anywhere seen in Europe.