of virtue, is invariably on account of wine: only that does it. And the cause of the ruin of small and large states [by princes] is also invariably on account of wine. Wan wang instructed the youth, the office-holders, and men of business, thus: 'Don't be constantly guzzling wine; let the occasion of a national drinking be when sacrifices are offered, and then use it mode. rately, so as not to become drunk.'"'*

The general and local festivals of the Chinese are numerous, but only a few of them are observed by entire cessation from labor. The first three days of the year, one or two in the spring to worship at the tombs, the two solstices, and the festival of dragon-boats, are common days of relaxation and merry-making, but only on the first named are shops shut and business suspended. Some persons have expressed their surprise that the unceas ing round of toil, which the Chinese laborer pursues, has not rendered him more degraded. It is usually said that a weekly rest is necessary for the continuance of the powers of body and mind in man in their full activity, and that decrepitude and insanity would oftener result were it not for this relaxation The arguments in favor of this observation seem to be deduced from undoubted facts in countries where its obligations are acknowledged, though where the vast majority cease from business and labor, it is not easy for a few to work all the time even if they wish, owing to the various ways in which their occupations are involved with those of others; yet, in China, people who apparently tax themselves uninterruptedly to the utmost stretch of body and mind, live in health to old age. A few facts of this sort incline one to suppose that the Sabbath was designed by its Lord as a day of rest from mental and physical labor, in order that mankind might have leisure for attending to the paramount duties of religion, and not alone as a day of invigorating rest, without which they could not live out all their days. Nothing like a seventh day of rest, or religious respect to that interval of time, is known among the Chinese, but they do not, as a people, exercise their minds to the intensity, or upon the high subjects common among Christian nations, and this perhaps is one reason why their yearly toil produces no disastrous effects. The countless blessings which flow from an observance of the fourth commandment can be better appreciated by seeing the wearied condition of * Chinese Repository, Vol. XV., page 433.

CUSTOMS FORETOKENING THE APPROACH OF NEWYEAR. 77

the society where it is not acknowledged, and whoever sees such a society can hardly fail to wish for its introduction.

The return of the year is an occasion of unbounded festivity and hilarity, as if the whole population threw off the old year with a shout, and clothed themselves in the new with their change of garments. The evidences of the approach of this chief festival appear some weeks previous. The principal streets are lined with tables, upon which articles of dress, furniture, and fancy are disposed for sale in the most attractive manner. Necessity compels many to dispose of rare articles or superfluous things at this season, and sometimes very curious articles, long laid up in families, can be procured at a cheap rate. It is customary for superiors to give their dependents and employées a present at this season, and for shopmen to send an acknowledgment of favors to their customers; one of the most common gifts among the lower classes is a pair of new shoes. Among the stands for presents are other tables, at which persons are seated, provided with pencils and gilt red paper of various sizes, on which they, write sentences appropriate to the season in various styles, to be pasted upon the doorposts and lintels of dwellings and shops,* or suspended from the halls. The shops also appear very brilliant with an array of these papers interspersed among the kin hwa, or golden flowers, which are sprigs of artificial leaves and flowers made of brass tinsel and fastened upon wires; the latter are made for an annual offering in temples, or before the household tablet. Small strips of red and gilt paper, some bearing the word fuh, or happiness, large and small red candles, gaily painted, and other things used in idolatry, are likewise sold in stalls and shops, and with the increased throng impart an unusually lively appearance to the streets. Another evident sign of the approaching change is the use of water upon the doors, shutters, and other woodwork of houses and shops, washing chairs, utensils, clothes, &c., as if cleanliness had not a little to do with joy, and a well-washed person and tenement were indispensable to the proper celebration of the festival. The small craft, tanka-boats, and lighters, are also beached and turned inside out for a scrubbing.

A still more praiseworthy custom attending and announcing * A like custom existed among the Hebrews, now continued in the modern mezuzaw. Deut. vi., 9. Jahn's Archæology.

8

this season is that of settling accounts and paying debts; and shopkeepers are very busy waiting upon their customers, and creditors on their debtors, to arrange these important matters. No debt is allowed to overpass newyear without a settlement or satisfactory arrangement, if it can be avoided; and those whose liabilities altogether exceed their means, are generally obliged to wind up their concerns, and give all their available property into the hands of their creditors. The consequences of this general payday are a high rate of money, great resort to the pawnbrokers, and low price of most kinds of produce and goods. Many good results flow from the practice, and the general experience of the difficulty and expense of resorting to legal proceedings to recover debts, induces all to observe and maintain it. De Guignes mentions one expedient to oblige a man to pay his debts at this season, which is, to carry off the door of his shop or house, for then his premises and person will be exposed to the entrance and anger of all the hungry and malicious demons prowling around the streets, and happiness no more revisit his abode; to avoid this he had better settle his accounts. It is a common practice among devout persons to settle with the gods, and during a few days before the newyear, the temples are unusually thronged by devotees, both male and female, rich and poor. Some persons fast and engage the priests to intercede for them that their sins may be pardoned, while they prostrate themselves before the images amidst the din of gongs, drums, and bells; and thus clear off the old score. On newyear's eve, the streets are full of people, all hurrying to and fro, to conclude the many matters which press upon them. Some are busy pasting the five papers upon their lintels, signifying their desire that the five blessings which constitute the sum of all human felicity, namely, longevity, riches, health, love of virtue, and a natural death, may be their favored portion. Such sentences as "May the five blessings descend upon this door," "May heaven confer happiness," " May rich customers ever enter this door," are placed above them; and the doorposts are adorned with others on plain, or sprinkled gilt red paper, making the entrance altogether look quite picturesque. In the hall are suspended scrolls more or less costly, containing antithetical sentences carefully chosen. A literary man would have, for instance, a distich like the following:

MODES OF ADORNING HOUSES AT NEWYEAR.

79

May I be so learned as to secrete in my mind three myriads of

volumes:

May I know the affairs of the world for six thousand years.

Other professions and tastes would exhibit sentences of a different character.

Boat-people are peculiarly liberal of their paper prayers, pasting them on every board and oar in the boat, and suspending them from the stern in scores, making the vessel flutter with gaiety. The farmers paste them upon their barns, trees, wattles, baskets, and implements, as if nothing was too insignificant for a blessing. The house is arranged in the most orderly manner, and purified with many religious ceremonies and lustrations, firing of crackers, &c., and as the necessary preparations occupy a considerable portion of the night, the streets are not quiet til nearly dawn. In addition to the bustle arising from business and religious observances, which marks this pas sage of time, the constant explosion of fire-crackers, and the clamor of gongs, make it still more noisy. Strings of these crackling fireworks are burned at the doorposts, before the outgoing and incoming of the year, designed to expel and deter evil spirits from the house; and the consumption is so great as to cover the streets with the fragments, and farmers come the week after and sweep up hundreds of bushels for manure.

The first day of the year may moreover be regarded as the birthday of the entire population, for the practice among the Hebrews of dating their ages from the beginning of the year, prevails also in China; so that a child born only a week before newyear, is considered as entering its second year on the first day of the first month. This does not, however, altogether supersede the observance of the real anniversary, and parents frequently make a gala day of the birthday of their young sons. Mr. Lowrie (Miss. Chronicle, 1846) describes the ceremonies observed by one father, who came to a temple in Ningpo to celebrate the sixth birthday of his son. "The little fellow was dressed in his best clothes, and his father had brought gilt paper, printed prayers, and a large number of bowls of meats, rice, vegetables, spirits, nuts, &c., as an offering to be spread out before the idols. The ceremonies were performed in the apartment of the Tau Mu, or Bushel Mother, who has special charge of

infants before and after birth. The old abbot was dressed in a scarlet robe, with a gilt image of a serpent fastened in his hair; one of the monks wore a purple, another a grey robe. A multitude of prayers, seemingly a round of repetitions, were read by the abbot, occasionally chanting a little, when the attendants joined in a chorus, and a deafening clamor of bells, cymbals, and wooden blocks, added force to their cry; genuflexions and prostrations were repeatedly made. One part of the ceremony was to pass a live cock through a barrel, which the assistants performed many times, shouting some strange words at each repetition; this act symbolized the dangers through which the child was to pass in his future life, and the priests had prayed that he might as safely come out of them all, as the cock had passed through the barrel. In conclusion, some of the prayers were burned and a libation poured out, and a grand symphony of bell, gong, drum, and block, closed the scene.

22

A great diversity of local usages are observed at this period in different parts of the country. In Amoy, the custom of "surrounding the furnace" is generally practised. The members of the family sit down to a substantial supper on newyear's eve, with a pan of charcoal under the table, as a supposed preservative against fires. After the supper is ended, the wooden lamp-stands are brought out and spread upon the pavement with a heap of gold and silver paper, and set on fire after all demons have been warned off by a volley of fire-crackers. The embers are then divided into twelve heaps, and their manner of going out carefully watched as a prognostic of the kind of weather to be expected the ensuing year. Many persons wash their bodies in warm water, made aromatic by the infusion of leaves, as a security against disease; this ceremony, and ornamenting the ancestral shrine, and garnishing the whole house with inscriptions, pictures, flowers, and fruit, in the gayest manner the means of the family will allow, occupy most of the night.

The stillness of the streets and closed shops on newyear's morning presents a striking contrast to the usual bustle and crowd, resembling the Christian Sabbath. The red papers on the doors are here and there interspersed with blue ones, announcing that during the past year death has come among the inmates of the house, a silent but expressive intimation to passers that some who