My Lady of the Chinese Courtyard — Part 2 Letters 18 - 20

Kwei-li.

18 Dear Mother, I must introduce thee to thy new daughter-in-law.

Yes, I can see thee start.

I will tell thee quickly.

Thy son hath not taken to himself another wife, but it is I, Kwei-li, who should be made known to thee anew.

Kwei-li, the wife of the Governor of Kiang-si, who has become so foreignised that the mother of her husband would never know her.

If things keep on the path they have gone for these last few moons, I fully expect thou wilt see me with that band of women who are making such a great outcry for their rights and freedom.

I cannot even explain them to thee, as thou wouldst not understand.

My last adventure in the ways or the modern woman is in relation to the courtship of my son.

Tang-si, my second son, is in love; and I, his mother, am aiding and abetting him, and allowing him to see his sweet-heart in the foreign way.

I know thou wilt blush when thou readest this; but I have been in the hands of the Gods and allowed not to speak of "custom," or propriety, and when I have tried to reason with my son and talk to him in regard to what is seemly, he laughs at me and calls me pet names, and rubs my hair the wrong way and says I am his little mother.

I knew that astounding fact long years ago, and still I say that is no reason why I should go against all customs and traditions of my race.

I told him I was taught that men and women should not sit together in the same room, nor keep their wearing apparel in the same place, nor even cleanse them in the same utensils.

They should not look upon each other, or hand a thing directly from man to woman hand.

I was taught that it was seemly and showed a maidenly reserve to observe a certain distance in my relations even with my husband or my brothers, but I have found that the influence of reason upon love is like that of a raindrop upon the ocean, "one little mark upon the water's face and then it disappears."

Now I will tell thee all about it.

Tang-si came to me one day, and after speaking of many things of no importance, he finally said, "Mother, wilt thou ask Kah-li, Wu Tai-tai's daughter, here to tea?"

I said, "Why, is she a friend of thy sister's?"

He said, while looking down upon the floor, "I do not know, but-- but-- she is a special friend of mine."

I

looked at him in amazement.

"Thou hast seen her?"

"Yes, many times.

I want thee to ask her to the house, where we may have a chance to talk."

I sat back in my chair and looked at him, and said within myself, "Was ever mother blessed with such children; what may I next expect?"

He gave me a quick look, and came over and took my hand in his, and said, "Now, Mother, do not get excited, and don't look as if the Heavens were going to fall.

I-- well-- thou makest it hard to tell thee, but I want to marry Kah-li, and I would like a chance of seeing her as the foreign men see their wives before they marry them."

I said, quite calmly for me, "Thou meanest thou art choosing thy wife instead of allowing thy father and mother to choose her?"

He said, "Why, yes; I have to live with her and I ought to choose her."

I

said nothing-- what is the use?

I have learned that my men-folk have strong minds, which they certainly must have inherited from thine honourable family.

I said that first I would speak to her mother, and if she approved of her daughter's seeing my son in this most unbecoming manner, I would do whatsoever he wished in the matter.

I

could not wait, but went at once to the house of Wu Tai-tai.

We discussed the matter over many cups of tea, and we saw that we are but clouds driven by the winds and we must obey.

She has been here for tea, and I am charmed with her.

She is as pretty as a jewel of pure jade; I do not blame my son.

She has laughter in her dancing eyes and seems as if she would sing her life away from year to year and see life always through the golden gleam of happy days.

She is respectful and modest, and now I feel she is one of the family and I ask her to join us in all our feastings.

She came to the feast when we burned the Kitchen God, and joined with us in prayers as he ascended to the great Spirit to tell him of our actions in the past year.

I am afraid our young people do not believe o'ermuch in this small God of the Household, who sits so quietly upon his shelf above the kitchen stove for twelve long months, watching all that goes on within the home, then gives his message for good or ill to Him above; but they are too respectful to say ought against it-- in my hearing.

They must respect the old Gods until they find something better to take their place.

I do not know but that my son is right in this question of his courtship.

It is pretty to see them as they wander through the gardens, while we mothers sit upon the balconies and gossip.

Their love seems to be as pure as spotless rice and "so long as colour is colour and life is life will the youth with his sublime folly wait for the meeting of his loved one."

What matter if the winter days will come to them or if "the snow is always sure to blot out the garden--" to-day is spring, and love is love and youth is happy.

Thy shameless daughter, Kwei-li.

19 My Dear Mother, Thy gifts which came by the hand of Tuang-fang are most welcome.

We have already drunk of the sun-dried tea, and it brings to thought the sight of the long, laden trays of the fragrant leaves as they lie in the sun on the mountain-side.

The rose wine we will use on occasions of special rejoicing; and I thank thee again for the garments which will bring comfort to so many in the coming days of cold.

I was glad to see Tuang-fang, and sorry to hear that he, with his brother, are going so far away from home in search of labour.

Is there not work enough for our men in the province without going to that land of heat and sickness?

Our people go far in their passion for labour; in search of it they cross land and sea.

They are the workers of the world, who sell their labour for a price; and it is only strong men with great self-dependence who are capable of taking a road that is likely never to join again those who speak their language and worship their Gods.

What is it that has given these men this marvellous adaptability to all conditions, however hard they may seem?

They can live and work in any climate, they are at home in the sandy wastes of our great deserts or in the swamps of the southern countries.

They bear the biting cold of northern lands as readily as they labour under the burning sun of Singapore and Java.

The more I come out from the courtyard and see our people, the more I admire them; I see the things that are so often lost sight of by those of other lands who seek to study them.

They are a philosophical race and bear the most dreadful losses and calamities with wonderful bravery.

Nothing daunts them.

Behold the family of Tuang-fang: they saw their home ruined at time of flood and began again on the morrow to build on the remaining foundations.

They saw their fields burned up by drouth, and took their winter clothing to the pawn-shop to get money to buy seed for the coming spring.

They did not complain so long as they could get sufficient food to feed their bodies and the coarse blue cloth with which to clothe them, and when these failed they sent their three strong sons, the best of the family, to the rubber plantations of the South.

[Illustration: Mylady27.

] We hear so much in the papers here of the "Yellow Peril."

If there is a Yellow Peril, it lies in the fact that our men are ready to labour unceasingly for a wage on which most Europeans would starve, and on that pittance they manage to save and become rich and prosperous.

They have gone into other lands wherever they have found an opening, and some of the southern countries, like Singapore and the Philippines, owe much of their commercial progress to our people.

They are honest and industrious, and until the foreigner began to feel the pinch of competition, until he found that he must work all day and not sleep the hours away if he would be in the race with the man from the Eastern land, he had nothing to say about the character of the man from China.

But so soon as he felt the pressure of want because of his sloth, he began to find that the "yellow man" was vicious, and soon his depravity became a by-word.

The Chinese were abused because of their virtues rather than their vices, for things for which all other nations are applauded-- love of work and economy.

It is the industry of our people that offends, because it competes with the half-done work of the white man, who dissipates his time and money.

The men from this land have learned their ways of work at home, where the struggle for existence is hard.

Sunrise sees the carpenter and the smith, the shoemaker and the beater of cotton at their labour, and the mid-night cry of the watchman often finds them patiently earning the rice for the morrow's meal.

And they have not learned to disobey when told to go to work.

There are no strikes as in the foreign countries.

Our workmen are obedient, although it is said that they lack in leadership, that nothing is originated within themselves; but they can be taught, and all who employ Chinese labour testify to their ability to follow a good master.

I think, from hearing the gossip from thy son's courtyard, that when China is again peaceful, there will be more chance for the men within her borders, who can then stay beside their fires and earn their food.

Our land is a land of fertile soil, of rich minerals, and great rivers.

It is said that there are millions and millions of acres on which food or other products can be grown, and that a great part of China may be made one vast garden.

The German scientist who is trying to get a coal mine concession from the government told my husband that there were tens of millions of tons of coal of the best quality in China, and that the single province of Shansi could supply the entire world for a thousand years.

No wonder the Germans are looking with longing eyes on China!

But we want these riches and this labour for our people.

If it is worth the time of men of other countries to come to this far-off land in search of what lies beneath our soil, it is worth our while to guard it and keep it for our own.

We hear news of battles and of secret plottings, and I am worried about my son, who is in Canton, the province that seems to be the centre of rebellion and the breeding-place of plots and treachery.

I

wonder what will be the outcome of it all; if after all this turmoil and bloodshed China will really become a different nation?

It is hard to change the habits of a nation, and I think that China will not be changed by this convulsion.

The real Chinese will be the same passive, quiet, slow-thinking and slow-moving toiler, not knowing or caring whether his country is a republic or whether he is ruled by the Son of Heaven.

He will be a stable, peaceable, law-abiding citizen or subject, with respect for his officials so long as they are not too oppressive; not asking whether the man who rules him is called a governor or a futai, so long as work is plentiful and rice is cheap.

These patient, plodding men of China have held together for countless thousands of years, and I am sure that their strength is derived from qualities capable of bearing great strain; and our government, even the government which we are trying so hard to overturn and mould on Western lines, must have suited the country and the people, because nothing ever persists generation after generation, century after century, without being suited to its environment and more or less adapted to the changes which time always brings.

Confucius said, "When I was on a mission to Ch'u State, I saw a litter of young pigs nestling close to their dead mother.

After a while they looked at her, then all left the dead body and went off.

For their mother did not look at them any more, nor did she seem any more to be of their kind.

What they loved was their mother: not the body which contained her, but that which made the body what it was."

That is the way with our country.

She may leave the dead forms of her old government, perhaps it will be her misfortune to leave her religion, but the spirit of her government and the spirit of her religion she will always love.

But I must not gossip more with thee over my dearly loved country and her people.

I know I talk to thee o'ermuch of politics and the greedy eyes of foreigners which are fixed upon our land, but one cannot live in Shanghai, even behind the women's archway, without hearing, night and day, the things that move this, our world, so strongly.

Even my small children play at war, shoot their rebels, build their fortresses and drive the foreigners from off their piles of sand.

I cry to thee, my Mother, because a heart must speak its bitterness, and here our lips are sealed to all.

I dare not even tell thy son, my husband, all that passes in my mind as I look from out my window at this fighting, struggling, maddened world that surges round me.

We are more than troubled about our son.

Thy daughter, Kwei-li.

20 My Dear Mother, I send to thee some silken wadding for the lining of thy coat, also a piece of sable to make a scarf for Su-su, and a box of clothing for her new-born son.

The children each have written her a letter, and the candles have been lighted before Kwan-yin, to show our joy.

We have a guest, old General Wang, who is on his way to visit with my father.

He is of the old, old China, and wags his head most dolefully over the troubles of his country, and says a republic never will succeed.

My husband was bewailing the fact of the empty strong-box, and Wang said, "Why don't you do what I did when I was in command of the troops?

When money was scarce, I simply stopped a dollar a month from each man's pay, and, lo, there was the money."

He was quite shameless in regard to the old-time "squeeze" and said it was necessary.

When he was general he received the salary of an ill-paid servant and was expected to keep up the state of a small king.

But there were many ways to fill the empty pockets.

When a high official was sent to inspect his troops, men were compelled to come from the fields, the coolies to lay down their burdens, the beggar to leave his begging-bowl, and all to stand straight as soldiers with guns within their hands.

But when the officer was gone each went his way with a small present in his hand and did not appear again until the frightened official was compelled to sweep the highways and byways to find men enough to agree with lists paid by the government.

But those times are past, and these old-time officials find it safer to retire to homes within their provinces.

He told us of Chung-tai, who was Taotai of our city at one time.

Dost thou remember him?

He made many millions in the exportation of rice at time of famine.

He was asked to go to Peking, and promised a high position.

He sent as answer the story of Chung Tzu the philosopher, who was fishing in the Piu when the Prince of Ch'u sent high officials to ask him to take charge of the State.

Chung went on fishing and without turning his head said: "I have heard that in Ch'u there is a sacred tortoise which has been dead now some three thousand years, and that the Prince keeps this tortoise carefully enclosed in a chest on the altar of the sacred temple.

Now would this tortoise rather be dead and have its remains venerated, or be alive and wagging its tail in the mud?"

"It would rather be alive and wagging its tail in the mud," said the officials.

"Begone" said Chung.

"The tortoise is a symbol of longevity and great wisdom.

It would not befit me to aspire to greater wisdom than the tortoise.

I, too, prefer the mud."

Chung spoke bravely in sending this reply to Peking; but no sooner was it sent than he gathered his family and his sycee and departed for Shanghai, where he feels more sure of the protection of the foreign settlements than he does of the kindly intentions of His Excellency Yuan toward his dollars.

The children have come home and are clamouring for their supper.

They are growing rougher and noisier each day, and, I fear, are spending far too many hours in the servants' courtyard, where they hear of things not seemly for young ears.

Canst thou send me Wong-si for a few months?

She might be able to keep some order in my household, although I doubt a person of a nature not divine being able to still the many tongues I have now about me.

We send thee love, and greetings to thy new-born great-grandson.