Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/130

 their wives because they take concubines, one should rather say it is because the husband in China so truly loves his wife that he has the privilege and liberty of taking concubines without fear of his abusing that privilege and liberty. This liberty, this privilege is sometimes and even—when the sense of honour in the men in the nation is low as now in this anarchic China, often abused. But still I say the protection for the wife in China where the husband is allowed to take a concubine, is the love of her husband for her, the love of her husband, and, I must add here, his tact. [sic]—the perfect good taste in the real Chinese gentleman. I wonder if one man in a thousand among the ordinary Europeans and Americans, who can keep more than one woman in the same house without turning the house into a fighting cockpit or hell. In short, it is this tact,—the perfect good taste in the real Chinese gentleman which makes it possible for the wife in China not to feel hurt, when the husband takes and keeps a handmaid, a hand rack, an eye rack in the same house with her. But to sum up,—it is the Religion of selflessness, the absolute selflessness of the woman,—the gentlwomangentlewoman [sic] or lady and the love of the husband for his wife and his tact,—the perfect good taste of a real Chinese gentleman, which, as I said, makes concubinage in China, not only possible, but also not immoral. Confucius said, "The Law of the Gentleman takes its rise from the relation between the husband and the wife."