Note 24 — THE INSURRECTION IN CHINA.[23]

Painted upon the bucklers of the Chinese soldiers are all manner of ferocious animals;—the tiger is the one most frequently seen, hence the surname. On behalf of his Celestial friend, and in extenuation of this ridiculous custom, Dr Yvan maintains that, in many of our European military equipments, the same intention of terrifying by a fierce aspect is manifest—as, for instance, in the bear-skin caps of grenadiers, hussars, &c. The Spaniards, who bear little love to any foreigners, and who are particularly given to laughing at their Portuguese neighbours, assert that there was formerly in use, in the Portuguese army, the word of command, “Rosto feroz a o enimigo!”—Ferocious face to the enemy!—upon receiving which, the soldiers looked excessively savage, showed their teeth, and made a threatening gesture. This must have been a base imitation of the Chinese. To this day the tigers, who are often faint-hearted enough, go into action making horrible grimaces. Dr Yvan gives a very curious account of the Chinese army, in which sound of gong is used instead of word of command, and the officers are stationed behind their men to prevent their running away—an exercise to which they are extremely addicted. Silence in the ranks is far from being enjoined; on the contrary, when approaching an enemy, the tigers and other wild beasts roar in character—their sweet voices, with a gong accompaniment, combining in a discord that is truly infernal. There exists a Chinese treatise on the art of war, in twenty-four volumes, entitled Ou-Pi-Tche. Its perusal is not allowed to civil mandarins below the third rank, or to military mandarins below the fourth, nor, of course, to persons of inferior degree. It is not admitted in China that a private person, a literary man, a merchant, an agriculturist, can have any good motive in studying such a work. Booksellers are permitted to keep but one copy at a time, and are compelled to register the names of purchasers. “Before beginning the war with the Celestial Empire,” Dr Yvan says, “the English procured several copies of this treatise. One day, at Canton, an American merchant mentioned this fact to a mandarin of very high rank. The mandarin struck the palm of his left hand with his fan: ‘I no longer wonder,’ he cried, ‘that the red-haired barbarians vanquished us!’”—L’Insurrection en Chine, chap. ix. pp. 119–124.