Chinese Sketches

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."