Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/364

Rh since these are the chief duties of married women, adding in another letter that his son must not think that his wife is to be excused from practising these duties simply because she comes from a well-to-do family.

These conservative sentiments scarcely prepare us for his utter condemnation of the Chinese practice of permitting intermarriage between close relatives of different surnames, while strictly forbidding marriage with those of the same name however distant or doubtful the actual relationship. In opposition to a marriage of the sort between actual relatives he observes that children of sisters are quite as near of kin as those of brothers, and that China, in adhering to the rule that those of the same surname might not marry and disregarding true kinship otherwise, had lost touch with reality.

Among the primary duties laid down in Sing-kong's list, the ancestral sacrifices hold a high place. In this fact we see the key to the religious faith of both the grandfather and the grandson, and one of the chief articles in the creed of orthodox China. This was one of the central tenets in the religion handed down from remotest antiquity, not only in China but in other ancient countries as well. Among the shades where spirits dwell, none were of more interest, none to be reverenced with greater devotion, or, when necessary, placated with more fear, than those spirits of the departed ancestors who possessed so much power for good or ill. The sacrifice to these spirits was of prime importance in the family life. To Sing-kong they were practically all of religion. In a letter to his eldest son Tsêng discusses this sacrifice in connection with his grandfather's views. "Formerly," he says, "my grandfather, the honorable Sing-kong, was most insistent on the right methods of ordering the home