A Journey Through the Chinese Empire (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IIL Tching-tou-fou, the Capital of the Province of Sse-tchonen?Numerous Visits of Mandarins?Constitutive Principle of the Chinese Government?The Emperor?Curious Organization of Chinese Nobility? Central Administration of Pekin?The six Sovereign Courts?Imperial Academy?Moniteur of Pekin?Provincial Gazettes?Administration of the Provinces?Rapacity of the Mandarins?Venality of Justice?Family of a Magistrate?His two Sons?Their Tutor?Primary Instruction very widely diffused in China?Chinese Urbanity? System of Instruction?Elementary Books?The four Classical Books ?The five Sacred Books?Arrangements for our Departure?Last Visit to the Viceroy. Tching-tou-fou, the capital of the province of Sse- tehoucn, is one of the finest towns in the Empire. It is situated in the middle of an admirably fertile plain, watered by beautiful streams, and bounded toward the horizon by hills of graceful and varied forms. The principal streets are of a good width, paved entirely with large flagstones, and so clean that you can scarcely, as you pass through them, believe yourself to be in a Chinese town. The shops with their long and brilliant signs, the exquisite order with which the merchandise displayed in them is arranged, the great number and beauty of the tribunals, pagodas, and of what we must call literary institutions, all contribute to make of Tching-tou-fou a town in some measure exceptional; or at least this is the impression we retained concerning it, when subsequently we had visited the most renowned cities of the other provinces. Our host the magistrate informed us that the present capital of Sse-tchoucn was quite a modern town, the oldone having been reduced to ashes by a terrible conflagration, and he related to us on this occasion an anecdote or a fable, that ve repea...