章节正文
I still argued that by our method we could become better
acquainted with the young lady.
"Yes," he said, "that is true; but doesn't it make you awfully
mad if you ask a lady to marry you and she refuses?" and it must
be confessed that this was a difficult question to answer without
compromising one's self.
The rigour of the old regime was apparently modified by giving
the young lady a chance to refuse. About ten days before the
marriage, two ladies are selected by the mother of the young man
to carry a peculiarornament made of ebony and jade, or jade
alone, or red lacquer, to the home of the prospective bride. This
ornament is called the ju yi, which means "According to my
wishes." If the lady receives it into her own hands it signifies
her willingness to become his bride; if she rejects it, the
negotiations are at an end, though I have never heard of a girl
who refused the ju yi.[3]
[3] The remainder of the chapter is from Mrs. Headland's
note-book.
Very erroneous ideas of the life and occupations of the Chinese
ladies of the noble and official classes are held by those not
conversant with their home life. The Chinese woman is commonly
regarded as little better than a secluded slave, who whiles away
the tedious hours at an embroidery frame, where with her needle
she works those delicate and intricate pieces of embroidery for
which she is famous throughout the world. In reality, a Chinese
lady has little time to give to such work. Her life is full of
the most exacting social duties. Few American ladies in the whirl
of society in Washington or New York have more social functions
to attend or duties to perform. I have often been present in the
evening when the head eunuch brought to the ruling lady of the
home (and the head of the home in China is the woman, not the
man) an ebony tablet on which was written in red ink the list of
social functions the ladies were to attend the following day.
She would select from the list such as she and her unmarried
daughters could attend,--the daughters always going with their
mother and not with their sisters-in-law,--then she would
apportion the other engagements to her daughters-in-law, who
would attend them in her stead.
The Chinese lady in Peking sleeps upon a brick bed, one half of
the room being built up a foot and a half above the floor, with
flues running through it; and in the winter a fire is built under
the bed, so that, instead of having one hot brick in her bed, she
has a hundred. She rises about eight. She has a large number of
women servants, a few slave girls, and if she belongs to the
family of a prince, she has several eunuchs, these latter to do
the heavy work about the household. Each servant has her own
special duties, and resents being asked to perform those of
another. When my lady awakes a servant brings her a cup of hot
tea and a cake made of wheat or rice flour. After eating this a
slave girl presents her with a tiny pipe with a long stem from
which she takes a few whiffs. Two servants then appear with a
large polished brass basin of very hot water, towels, soaps,
preparations of honey to be used on her face and hands while they
are still warm and moist from the bathing. After the bath they
remove the things and disappear, and two other women take their
places, with a tray on which are combs, brushes, hair-pomades,
and the framework and accessories needed for combing her hair.
Then begins a long and tedious operation that may continue for
two hours. Finally the hair is ready for the ornaments, jewels
and flowers which are brought by another servant on a large tray.
The mistress selects the ones she wishes, placing them in her
hair with her own hands.
Some of these flowers are exquisite. The Chinese are expert at
making artificial flowers which are true to nature in every
detail. Often above the flower a beautiful butterfly is poised on
a delicate spring, and looks so natural that it is easy to be
deceived into believing it to be alive. When the jasmine is in
bloom beautiful creations are made of these tiny flowers by means
of standards from which protrude fine wires on which the flowers
are strung in the shape of butterflies or other symbols, and the
flowers massed in this way make a very effectiveornament. With
the exception of the jasmine the flowers used in the hair are all
artificial, though natural flowers are worn in season--roses in
summer, orchids in late summer, and chrysanthemums in autumn.
The prevailing idea with the Chinese ladies is that the foreign
woman does not comb her hair. I have often heard my friends
apologizing to ladies whom they have brought to see me for the
first time, and on whom they wanted me to make a good impression,
by saying:
"You must not mind her hair; she is really so busy she has no
time to comb it. All her time is spent in acts of benevolence."
At the first audience when the Empress Dowager received the
foreign ladies, she presented each of them with two boxes of
combs, one ivory inlaid with gold, the other ordinary hard wood,
and the set was complete even to the fine comb. One cannot but
wonder if Her Majesty had not heard of the untidy locks of the
foreign woman, which she attributed to a lack of proper combs.
After the hair has been properly combed and ornamented, cosmetics
of white and carmine are brought for the face and neck. The
Manchu lady uses these in great profusion, her Chinese sister
more sparingly. No Chinese lady, unless a widow or a woman past
sixty, is supposed to appear in the presence of her family
without a full coating of powder and paint. A lady one day
complained to me of difficulty in lifting her eyelids, and
consulted me as to the reason.
"Perhaps," said I, "they are partially paralyzed by the lead in
your cosmetics. Wash off the paint and see if the nerves do not
recover their tone."
"But," said she, "I would not dare appear in the presence of my
husband or family without paint and powder; it would not be
respectable."
The final touch to the face is the deep carmine spot on the lower
lip.
The robing then begins. And what beautiful robes they are! the
softest silks, over which are worn in summer the most delicate of
embroidered grenadines, or in winter, rich satins lined with
costly furs, each season calling for a certain number and kind.
She then decorates herself with her jewels,--earrings,
bracelets, beads, rings, charms, embroidered bags holding the
betel-nut, and the tiny mirror in its embroidered case with silk
tassels. When these are hung on the buttons of her dress her
outfit is complete, and she arises from her couch a wonderful
creation, from her glossy head, with every hair in place, to the
toe of her tiny embroidered slipper. But it has taken the time of
a half-dozen servants for three hours to get these results.
To one accustomed to the Chinese or Manchu mode of dress, she
appears very beautiful. The rich array of colours, the
embroidered gowns, and the bright head-dress, make a striking
picture. Often as the ladies of a home or palace came out on the
veranda to greet me, or bid me adieu, I have been impressed with
their wonderful beauty, to which our own dull colours, and cloth
goods, suffer greatly in comparison, and I could not blame these
good ladies for looking upon our toilets with more or less
disdain.
It is now after eleven o'clock and her breakfast is ready to be
served in another room. Word that the leading lady of the
household is about to appear is sent to the other apartments.
Hurried finishing touches are given to toilets, for all
daughters, daughters-in-law and grandchildren must be ready to
receive her in the outer room when she appears leaning on the
arms of two eunuchs if she is a princess, or on two stout serving
women if a Chinese.
According to her rank, each one in turn takes a step towards her
and gives a low courtesy in which the left knee touches the
floor. Even the children go through this same formality. All are
gaily dressed, with hair bedecked and faces painted like her own.
She inclines her head but slightly. These are the members of her
household over whom she has sway--her little realm. While her
mother-in-law lived she was under the same rigorous rule.
In China where there are so many women in the home it is
necessary to have a head--one who without dispute rules with
autocratic sway. This is the mother-in-law. When she dies the
first wife takes her place as head of the family. A concubine may
be the favourite of the husband. He may give her fine apartments
to live in, many servants to wait on her, and every luxury he can
afford; but there his power ends. The first wife is head of the
household, is legally mother of all the children born to any or
all of the concubines her husband possesses. The children all
call her mother, and the inferior wives recognize her as their
mistress. She and her daughters, and daughters-in-law, attend
social functions, receive friends, extend hospitality; but the
concubines have no place in this, unless by her permission. When
the time comes for selecting wives for her sons, it is the first
wife who does it, although she may be childless herself. It is to
her the brides of these sons are brought, and to her all
deference is due. In rare cases, where the concubine has had the
good fortune to supply the heir to the throne or to a princely
family, she is raised to the position of empress or princess. But
this is seldom done, and is usually remembered against the woman.
She is never received with the same feeling as if she had been
first wife.
One day I was asked to go to a palace to see a concubine who was
ill. In such cases I always went directly to the Princess, and
she took me to see the sick one. As we entered the room there was
a nurse standing with a child in her arms, and the Princess
called my attention to a blemish on its face.
"Can it be removed?" she asked.
I looked at it and, seeing that it would require but a minor
operation, told her it could.
While attending to the patient, the nurse, fearing that the child
would be hurt, left the room and another entered with another
child.
"Now," said the Princess when we had finished with the patient,
"we will attend to the child." And she called the woman to her.
"But," said the woman, "this is not the child."
"There," said the Princess, "you see I do not know my own
children."
But I left our friend receiving the morning salutations of her
household. These over, she dismisses them to their own
apartments, where each mother sits down with her own children to
her morning meal, waited on by her own servants. If there are
still unmarried daughters, they remain with their mother; if
none, she eats alone.
Since Peking is in the same latitude as Philadelphia my lady has
the same kinds of fruit--apples, peaches, pears, apricots, the
most delicious grapes, and persimmons as large as the biggest
tomato you ever saw; indeed, the Chinese call the tomato the
western red persimmon. She has mutton from the Mongolian sheep
(the finest I have ever eaten), beef, pork or lamb; chicken,
goose or duck; hare, pheasant or deer, or fish of whatever kind
she may choose. Of course these are all prepared after the
Chinese style, and be it said to the credit of their cooks that
our children are always ready to leave our own table to partake
of Chinese food.
After her meal she lingers for a few minutes over her cup of tea
and her pipe. In the meantime her cart or sedan chair is
prepared. Her outriders are ready with their horses; the eunuchs,
women and slave girls who are to attend her, don their proper
clothing and prepare the changes of raiment needed for the
various functions of the day. One takes a basin and towels,
another powder and rouge-boxes, another the pipe and embroidered
acquainted with the young lady.
"Yes," he said, "that is true; but doesn't it make you awfully
mad if you ask a lady to marry you and she refuses?" and it must
be confessed that this was a difficult question to answer without
compromising one's self.
The rigour of the old regime was apparently modified by giving
the young lady a chance to refuse. About ten days before the
marriage, two ladies are selected by the mother of the young man
to carry a peculiarornament made of ebony and jade, or jade
alone, or red lacquer, to the home of the prospective bride. This
ornament is called the ju yi, which means "According to my
wishes." If the lady receives it into her own hands it signifies
her willingness to become his bride; if she rejects it, the
negotiations are at an end, though I have never heard of a girl
who refused the ju yi.[3]
[3] The remainder of the chapter is from Mrs. Headland's
note-book.
Very erroneous ideas of the life and occupations of the Chinese
ladies of the noble and official classes are held by those not
conversant with their home life. The Chinese woman is commonly
regarded as little better than a secluded slave, who whiles away
the tedious hours at an embroidery frame, where with her needle
she works those delicate and intricate pieces of embroidery for
which she is famous throughout the world. In reality, a Chinese
lady has little time to give to such work. Her life is full of
the most exacting social duties. Few American ladies in the whirl
of society in Washington or New York have more social functions
to attend or duties to perform. I have often been present in the
evening when the head eunuch brought to the ruling lady of the
home (and the head of the home in China is the woman, not the
man) an ebony tablet on which was written in red ink the list of
social functions the ladies were to attend the following day.
She would select from the list such as she and her unmarried
daughters could attend,--the daughters always going with their
mother and not with their sisters-in-law,--then she would
apportion the other engagements to her daughters-in-law, who
would attend them in her stead.
The Chinese lady in Peking sleeps upon a brick bed, one half of
the room being built up a foot and a half above the floor, with
flues running through it; and in the winter a fire is built under
the bed, so that, instead of having one hot brick in her bed, she
has a hundred. She rises about eight. She has a large number of
women servants, a few slave girls, and if she belongs to the
family of a prince, she has several eunuchs, these latter to do
the heavy work about the household. Each servant has her own
special duties, and resents being asked to perform those of
another. When my lady awakes a servant brings her a cup of hot
tea and a cake made of wheat or rice flour. After eating this a
slave girl presents her with a tiny pipe with a long stem from
which she takes a few whiffs. Two servants then appear with a
large polished brass basin of very hot water, towels, soaps,
preparations of honey to be used on her face and hands while they
are still warm and moist from the bathing. After the bath they
remove the things and disappear, and two other women take their
places, with a tray on which are combs, brushes, hair-pomades,
and the framework and accessories needed for combing her hair.
Then begins a long and tedious operation that may continue for
two hours. Finally the hair is ready for the ornaments, jewels
and flowers which are brought by another servant on a large tray.
The mistress selects the ones she wishes, placing them in her
hair with her own hands.
Some of these flowers are exquisite. The Chinese are expert at
making artificial flowers which are true to nature in every
detail. Often above the flower a beautiful butterfly is poised on
a delicate spring, and looks so natural that it is easy to be
deceived into believing it to be alive. When the jasmine is in
bloom beautiful creations are made of these tiny flowers by means
of standards from which protrude fine wires on which the flowers
are strung in the shape of butterflies or other symbols, and the
flowers massed in this way make a very effectiveornament. With
the exception of the jasmine the flowers used in the hair are all
artificial, though natural flowers are worn in season--roses in
summer, orchids in late summer, and chrysanthemums in autumn.
The prevailing idea with the Chinese ladies is that the foreign
woman does not comb her hair. I have often heard my friends
apologizing to ladies whom they have brought to see me for the
first time, and on whom they wanted me to make a good impression,
by saying:
"You must not mind her hair; she is really so busy she has no
time to comb it. All her time is spent in acts of benevolence."
At the first audience when the Empress Dowager received the
foreign ladies, she presented each of them with two boxes of
combs, one ivory inlaid with gold, the other ordinary hard wood,
and the set was complete even to the fine comb. One cannot but
wonder if Her Majesty had not heard of the untidy locks of the
foreign woman, which she attributed to a lack of proper combs.
After the hair has been properly combed and ornamented, cosmetics
of white and carmine are brought for the face and neck. The
Manchu lady uses these in great profusion, her Chinese sister
more sparingly. No Chinese lady, unless a widow or a woman past
sixty, is supposed to appear in the presence of her family
without a full coating of powder and paint. A lady one day
complained to me of difficulty in lifting her eyelids, and
consulted me as to the reason.
"Perhaps," said I, "they are partially paralyzed by the lead in
your cosmetics. Wash off the paint and see if the nerves do not
recover their tone."
"But," said she, "I would not dare appear in the presence of my
husband or family without paint and powder; it would not be
respectable."
The final touch to the face is the deep carmine spot on the lower
lip.
The robing then begins. And what beautiful robes they are! the
softest silks, over which are worn in summer the most delicate of
embroidered grenadines, or in winter, rich satins lined with
costly furs, each season calling for a certain number and kind.
She then decorates herself with her jewels,--earrings,
bracelets, beads, rings, charms, embroidered bags holding the
betel-nut, and the tiny mirror in its embroidered case with silk
tassels. When these are hung on the buttons of her dress her
outfit is complete, and she arises from her couch a wonderful
creation, from her glossy head, with every hair in place, to the
toe of her tiny embroidered slipper. But it has taken the time of
a half-dozen servants for three hours to get these results.
To one accustomed to the Chinese or Manchu mode of dress, she
appears very beautiful. The rich array of colours, the
embroidered gowns, and the bright head-dress, make a striking
picture. Often as the ladies of a home or palace came out on the
veranda to greet me, or bid me adieu, I have been impressed with
their wonderful beauty, to which our own dull colours, and cloth
goods, suffer greatly in comparison, and I could not blame these
good ladies for looking upon our toilets with more or less
disdain.
It is now after eleven o'clock and her breakfast is ready to be
served in another room. Word that the leading lady of the
household is about to appear is sent to the other apartments.
Hurried finishing touches are given to toilets, for all
daughters, daughters-in-law and grandchildren must be ready to
receive her in the outer room when she appears leaning on the
arms of two eunuchs if she is a princess, or on two stout serving
women if a Chinese.
According to her rank, each one in turn takes a step towards her
and gives a low courtesy in which the left knee touches the
floor. Even the children go through this same formality. All are
gaily dressed, with hair bedecked and faces painted like her own.
She inclines her head but slightly. These are the members of her
household over whom she has sway--her little realm. While her
mother-in-law lived she was under the same rigorous rule.
In China where there are so many women in the home it is
necessary to have a head--one who without dispute rules with
autocratic sway. This is the mother-in-law. When she dies the
first wife takes her place as head of the family. A concubine may
be the favourite of the husband. He may give her fine apartments
to live in, many servants to wait on her, and every luxury he can
afford; but there his power ends. The first wife is head of the
household, is legally mother of all the children born to any or
all of the concubines her husband possesses. The children all
call her mother, and the inferior wives recognize her as their
mistress. She and her daughters, and daughters-in-law, attend
social functions, receive friends, extend hospitality; but the
concubines have no place in this, unless by her permission. When
the time comes for selecting wives for her sons, it is the first
wife who does it, although she may be childless herself. It is to
her the brides of these sons are brought, and to her all
deference is due. In rare cases, where the concubine has had the
good fortune to supply the heir to the throne or to a princely
family, she is raised to the position of empress or princess. But
this is seldom done, and is usually remembered against the woman.
She is never received with the same feeling as if she had been
first wife.
One day I was asked to go to a palace to see a concubine who was
ill. In such cases I always went directly to the Princess, and
she took me to see the sick one. As we entered the room there was
a nurse standing with a child in her arms, and the Princess
called my attention to a blemish on its face.
"Can it be removed?" she asked.
I looked at it and, seeing that it would require but a minor
operation, told her it could.
While attending to the patient, the nurse, fearing that the child
would be hurt, left the room and another entered with another
child.
"Now," said the Princess when we had finished with the patient,
"we will attend to the child." And she called the woman to her.
"But," said the woman, "this is not the child."
"There," said the Princess, "you see I do not know my own
children."
But I left our friend receiving the morning salutations of her
household. These over, she dismisses them to their own
apartments, where each mother sits down with her own children to
her morning meal, waited on by her own servants. If there are
still unmarried daughters, they remain with their mother; if
none, she eats alone.
Since Peking is in the same latitude as Philadelphia my lady has
the same kinds of fruit--apples, peaches, pears, apricots, the
most delicious grapes, and persimmons as large as the biggest
tomato you ever saw; indeed, the Chinese call the tomato the
western red persimmon. She has mutton from the Mongolian sheep
(the finest I have ever eaten), beef, pork or lamb; chicken,
goose or duck; hare, pheasant or deer, or fish of whatever kind
she may choose. Of course these are all prepared after the
Chinese style, and be it said to the credit of their cooks that
our children are always ready to leave our own table to partake
of Chinese food.
After her meal she lingers for a few minutes over her cup of tea
and her pipe. In the meantime her cart or sedan chair is
prepared. Her outriders are ready with their horses; the eunuchs,
women and slave girls who are to attend her, don their proper
clothing and prepare the changes of raiment needed for the
various functions of the day. One takes a basin and towels,
another powder and rouge-boxes, another the pipe and embroidered
- peculiar [pi´kju:liə]
a.特有的；奇异的 (初中英语单词) - ornament [´ɔ:nəmənt] n.装饰(物) vt.装饰 (初中英语单词)
- delicate [´delikət] a.精美的；微妙的 (初中英语单词)
- reality [ri´æliti] n.现实(性)；真实；逼真 (初中英语单词)
- running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- prince [´prins] n.王子；亲王；君主 (初中英语单词)
- mistress [´mistris] n.女主人；情妇；女能手 (初中英语单词)
- expert [´ekspə:t] n.&a.专家；内行 (初中英语单词)
- artificial [,ɑ:ti´fiʃəl] a.人工的；模拟的 (初中英语单词)
- butterfly [´bʌtəflai] n.蝴蝶；蝶式 (初中英语单词)
- effective [i´fektiv] a.有效的；有力的 (初中英语单词)
- exception [ik´sepʃən] n.例外；反对，异议 (初中英语单词)
- audience [´ɔ:diəns] n.听众；观众；接见 (初中英语单词)
- majesty [´mædʒisti] n.壮丽；崇高；尊严 (初中英语单词)
- properly [´prɔpəli] ad.适当地；严格地 (初中英语单词)
- supposed [sə´pəuzd] a.想象的；假定的 (初中英语单词)
- slipper [´slipə] n.拖鞋 (初中英语单词)
- comparison [kəm´pærisən] n.比较；对照；比喻 (初中英语单词)
- princess [,prin´ses] n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人 (初中英语单词)
- slightly [´slaitli] ad.轻微地；细长的 (初中英语单词)
- dispute [di´spju:t] v.&n.争论，辩论；争吵 (初中英语单词)
- luxury [´lʌkʃəri] n.奢侈(品)；享受 (初中英语单词)
- permission [pə´miʃən] n.允许；同意；许可 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- delicious [di´liʃəs] a.美味的，可口的 (初中英语单词)
- whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
- meantime [´mi:ntaim] n.&ad.其间；同时 (初中英语单词)
- regime [rei´ʒi:m] n.政体；社会制度 (高中英语单词)
- apparently [ə´pærəntli] ad.显然，表面上地 (高中英语单词)
- remainder [ri´meində] n.剩余物；残余部分 (高中英语单词)
- tablet [´tæblit] n.碑；牌；匾额 (高中英语单词)
- exquisite [ik´skwizit] a.精巧的；敏锐的 (高中英语单词)
- courtesy [´kə:tisi] n.礼貌；殷勤；好意 (高中英语单词)
- inferior [in´fiəriə] n.下级的 n.下级；晚辈 (高中英语单词)
- hospitality [,hɔspi´tæliti] n.好客，殷勤 (高中英语单词)
- throne [θrəun] n.宝座；王位 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- latitude [´lætitju:d] n.纬度；地区 (高中英语单词)
- tomato [tə´mɑ:təu] n.西红柿，蕃茄 (高中英语单词)
- mutton [´mʌtn] n.羊肉 (高中英语单词)
- prospective [prə´spektiv] a.预期的；未来的 (英语四级单词)
- tedious [´ti:diəs] a.冗长的；乏味的 (英语四级单词)
- embroidery [im´brɔidəri] n.刺绣(品) (英语四级单词)
- intricate [´intrikit] a.错综复杂的；难懂的 (英语四级单词)
- empress [´empris] n.女皇；皇后 (英语四级单词)
- partially [´pɑ:ʃəli] ad.部分地；局部地 (英语四级单词)
- formality [fɔ:´mæliti] n.形式；礼仪；拘谨 (英语四级单词)
- unmarried [,ʌn´mærid] a.未婚的，独身的 (英语四级单词)
- raiment [´reimənt] n.衣饰 (英语四级单词)
- willingness [´wiliŋnis] n.情愿，乐意，自愿 (英语六级单词)
- erroneous [i´rəuniəs] a.错误的 (英语六级单词)
- exacting [ig´zæktiŋ] a.苛求的；严格的 (英语六级单词)
- eunuch [´ju:nək] n.太监 (英语六级单词)
- framework [´freimwə:k] n.骨架；计划；机构 (英语六级单词)
- protrude [prə´tru:d] v.(使)伸出；推出 (英语六级单词)
- prevailing [pri´veiliŋ] a.占优势的；主要的 (英语六级单词)
- calling [´kɔ:liŋ] n.点名；职业；欲望 (英语六级单词)
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
- glossy [´glɔsi] a.光滑的，有光泽的 (英语六级单词)
- legally [´li:gəli] ad.合法地 (英语六级单词)
- blemish [´blemiʃ] n.缺点；污点 vt.沾污 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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