topics: |  china | history

Excerpts

 No towers otherwise pierced the horizon, for out of respect for the
 emperor, and for the feng shui, the spirits of wind and water, nothing
 was built higher than his dwelling place.  - p.2

 Men picked lice out of their hair, and even 'the highest officers
 of state made no hesitation of calling their attendants in public to
 seek in their necks for those troublesome animals, which, when caught,
 they very composedly put between their teeth'.
	- p.3, quote from Sir John Barrow, Travels in China, 1804

Classical Chinese pornography: Positions

Doubtless, Hsien-feng [Emperor] knew from an early age the elegant and
classical pornography and all its hundreds of picturesque variations:
'The Dragon Turns' (missionary position); 'The White Tiger Leaps' (woman
taken from behind); 'The Fish Interlock their scales' (woman on top);
'The Fish Eye to Eye' (lying alongside each other); 'Approaching the
fragrant Banboo; (both standing); 'The Jade Girl Playing the Flute'
(fellatio); 'Twin Dragons Teasing the Phoenix' (one woman taken by two
men simultaneously); 'The Rabbit Nibbles the Hair', 'The Cicada Clings',
'The monkey wrestles', 'The Seagull Hovers', 'The Butterflies
Somersault', 'The Blue Phoenixes Dance in Pairs', 'The rooster Descends
on the Ring', were different positions and caresses all prescribed and
copiously commentated. - p.29

the Ch'ien Lung Emperor's haughty rejection of the first British Embassy
of 1793 under Lord Macartney, when the Son of Heaven had declared:
'There are well-established regulations governing tributary envoys from
the outer states to Peking... As a matter of fact, the virtue and
prestige of the Celestial  dynasty having spread far and wide, the kings
of the myriad nations come by land and sea with all sorts of precious
things. Consequently there is nothing we lack... '
	- p.31, quote Jonathan Spence, 1969 "Tsao Yin and the K'ang Hsi..."

But the next day the British were placated [the French had been looting
the day before], for 'the General now made no objection to looting.'
Anything that could not be taken away was wilfully destroyed; even the
British chaplain, Rev. McGhee, ... enjoyed himself hugely, and
reported: '"What is this?" said S, "Gold is it not?" taking up with
some little difficulty a deity about two feet high. ... "if it is not
gold, let us smash him and see." and down went the divinity, but no
sign of a smash in him. "I'm sure it's gold" said S. "Bring it home
then," said I, laughing.'
	- the ransack of the Yuan Ming Yuan, the 'Round Bright Garden'
		Eden in the Imperial City p.29

Eunuchs

[Of Eunuchs] The castrations were carried out near the gate of the
Imperial City.  The operation cost six taels - a derisory sum. The
surgeon asked parents, if the victim were still a child, if they
consented; if he were grown up, they would ask him if he were certain,
just before the descent of the knife or the scissors. For three days
afterwards, the patient could not drink, but if on the third day he
was able to pass water, all was well. ... The casualty rate was three
or four percent; retention and incontinence were likely to arise, and
an eunuch suffered from evil-smelling discharges all his life. ... A
common saying was 'he stinks like a eunuch, you get wind of him at
five hundred yards.' - p.21

Even the tea trade, which China had virtually monopolized in 1867, had
literally been stolen by British-run India.  In 1848, the East-India
Company, frustrated by a stubbornly unco-operative China, had hired a
famous plant-hunter, Robert Fortune, to steal the tea plant and bring it
to the West. Although not indigenous to India, tea grew there
splendidly, and by 1905, China supplied only twenty-nine percent of the
world's consumption. - p.126

The chinese date someone a year old from the date of his birth... Also,
the Chinese reckon age not from the birthday itself, but from New Year's
Day.  - p.230-31