RESPECT FOR THE WRITTEN CHARACTER

One of the most curious and harmless customs of the Chinese is that of carefully burning every scrap of paper inscribed with the cherished characters which, as far as calligraphy goes, justly take precedence of those of any other language on the globe.Not content with mere reduction by fire, a conscientious Chinaman will collect the ashes thus produced, and sealing them up in some earthen vessel, will bury them deep in the earth or sink them to the bottom of a river.Then only does he consider that he has fully discharged his duty towards paper which has by mere accident become as sacred in the eyes of all good men as the most precious relic of any martyred saint in the estimation of a Catholic priest.Rich men are constantly in the habit of paying chiffoniers to collect such remnants of written paper as they may find lying about the streets, and in all Chinese towns there are receptacles at the most frequented points where the results of their labours may be burned.The above facts are pretty generally known to foreigners in China and elsewhere, but we do not think that native ideas on the subject have ever been brought forward otherwise than indirectly.

We therefore give the translation of a short essay published in 1870 by an enthusiastic scholar, and distributed gratis among his erring countrymen:—

"From of old down to the present time our sages have devoted

themselves to the written character—that fairest jewel in heaven

above or earth beneath. Those, therefore, who are stimulated by a

thirst for fame, strive to attain their end by the excellency of

their compositions; others, attracted by desire for wealth, pursue

their object with the help of day-book and ledgers. In both cases

men would be helpless without a knowledge of the art of writing.

How, indeed, could despatches be composed, agreements drawn up,

letters exchanged, and genealogies recorded, but for the

assistance of the written character? By what means would a man

chronicle the glory of his ancestors, indite the marriage deed, or

comfort anxious parents when exiled to a distant land? In what way

could he secure property to his sons and grandchildren, borrow or

lend money, enter into partnership, or divide a patrimony, but

with the testimony of written documents? The very labourer in the

fields, tenant of a few acres, must have his rights guaranteed in

black and white; and household servants require more than verbal

assurance that their wages will not fail to be paid. The

prescription of the physician, about to call back some suffering

patient from the gates of death, is taken down with pen and ink;

and the prognostication of the soothsayer, warning men of evil or

predicting good fortune, exemplifies in another direction the use

of the written character. In a word, the art of writing enriches

and ennobles man, hands him over to life or death, confers upon

him honours and distinctions, or covers him with abuse and shame.

"Of late, however, our schools have turned out an arrogant and

ignorant lot—boys who venture to use old books for wrapping

parcels or papering windows, for boiling water, or wiping the

table; boys, I say, who scribble over their books, who write

characters on wall or door, who chew up the drafts of their poems,

or throw them away on the ground. Let all such be severely

punished by their masters that they may be saved, while there is

yet time, from the wrath of an avenging Heaven. Some men use old

pawn-tickets for wrapping up things—it may be a cabbage or a

pound of bean-curd. Others use lottery-tickets of various

descriptions for wrapping up a picked vegetable or a slice of

pork, with no thought of the crime they are committing as long as

there is a cash to be made or saved. So also there are those who

exchange their old books for pumeloes or ground-nuts, to be

defiled with the filth of the waste-paper basket, and passed from

hand to hand like the cheques of the barbarian. Alas, too, for

women when they go to fairs, for children who are sent to market!

They cannot read one single character: they know not the priceless

value of written paper. They drop the wrapping of a parcel in the

mire for every passer-by to tread under foot. Their crime,

however, will be laid at the door of those who erred in the first

instance (i.e., those who sold their old books to the

shopkeepers). For they hoped to squeeze some profit, infinitesimal

indeed, out of tattered or incomplete volumes; forgetting in their

greed that they were dishonouring the sages, and laying up for

themselves certain calamity. Why then sacrifice so much for such

trifling gain? How much better a due observance of time-honoured

custom, ensuring as it would a flow of prosperity continuous and

everlasting as the waves of the sea! O ye merchants and

shopkeepers, know that in heaven as on earth written words are

esteemed precious as the jade, and whatever is marked therewith

must not be cast aside like stones and tiles. For happiness,

wealth, honours, distinctions, and old age, may be one and all

secured by a proper respect for written paper."