Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. III.pdf/9



THEH-KIANG is the smallest among the eighteen provinces of China, but for all that it has a history of considerable importance, its products are numerous and valuable, and its commerce great. Hangchow-fu, the capita], lias long been renowned for its magnificence. The great Venetian traveller pronounced it an Eastern paradise; but, in common with most places of note in China, it has experienced many vicissitudes of fortune, there have been seasons of trial and suffering when its ancient glory was like to depart from the city, and the culminating catastrophe overtook the place in 1861, when the Taiping rebels overthrew it. On that occasion the leader of the "great peace" sent his army to besiege the city and to lay it waste, a task which was most effectually carried out by the motley followers of the " Tien Wang," or " Heavenly King," as he styled himself. Famine, with a train of horrors such as recall the history of the siege of Jerusalem, was followed by the fall of the town, and then the populace were unsparingly slaughtered, and the palaces were destroyed. But there is something to be told of Cheh-kiang of deeper interest even than this, for in that province, at a spot called Huang-ke, Yu, the famous founder of the first dynasty of China, is reported to have met his end. If the records of the " Shoo King " are to be credited, Yu was one of the greatest men that ever lived. When he entered upon his labours the Empire had been desolated by a great flood, and he is said to have shown an engineering capacity almost superhuman by deepening the rivers, draining the land, and conducting the streams into their original channels. Yu flourished perhaps something more than a century subsequent to the period of the Noachian deluge the flood which Yu successfully dealt with may probably have been caused by a change in the course of the Great Yellow River similar to what occurred for the ninth time (according to Chinese accounts) between the years 1851 and 1853. At any rate, the overflow of the river during Yu's time is referred to in the "Shoo Kinc."

The province of Cheh-kiang is rich and productive, and in its mountain regions presents some of the most charming scenery which China has anywhere to show.

Ningpo, the port now thrown open to foreign trade, was one of the first places to which the Portuguese resorted after their expulsion from the south. At that spot they established themselves on the river Yang in 1522, and there, according to Chinese records, owing to their barbarous conduct, some twenty years later met with a fearful retribution at the hands of the Chinese. Their settlement was then destroyed, their ships were burned, and 800 of their detested race were slain.

Ningpo stands on the left bank of the Yang, about twelve miles inland. On the 3rd April, 1872, I crossed over to the place from Shanghai in the steamer " Chusan." It was daybreak when I entered the river, and the somewhat harsh outlines of the islands and the Chinhai promontory were mellowed in the morning light, while a multitude of fishing boats with their sails spread to catch the gentle breeze contributed to enliven the scene. Fukien timber junks, laden till they looked like floating wood yards, were labouring on their voyage up the stream. One feature full of novelty to the foreign visitor is the endless succession of ice houses lining the bank at short intervals, and stored with ice for use in the exportation of fresh fish during summer.

MONG the chief attractions of the town of Ningpo, is the Tien-how-kung, or " Queen of Heaven" Temple, the meeting house of the Fukien Guild. I have chosen this edifice as the frontispiece of this volume partly because it affords one of the finest examples of temple architecture in the Empire, and partly because the subject of Chinese guilds and trades unions is exceedingly important in connection with the social economy of the people.

The student of architecture will find the picture worthy of the closest scrutiny, for even the minutest details among the ornaments of the building are full of deep significance in reference to native art and the Buddhist or Hindoo mythology.