Every Chinese House Is Built On
The Principles Of Geomancy, Which Do Not Admit Of Straight Lines, And
Were These To Be Disregarded The Astrologers And Soothsayers Under
Whose Auspices All Houses Are Erected, Predict Fearful Evils To The
Impious Builders.
There are few open spaces in Canton, and these are
decorated, not with statues, but with monumental arches of brick, red
sandstone, or gray granite, which are put up as memorials of virtuous
men and women, learned or aged men, and specially dutiful sons or
daughters.
Such memorials are erected by citizens, and, in some cases,
by Imperial sanction or decree.
The public buildings and temples, though they bear magnificent names,
are extremely ugly, and are the subjects of slow but manifest decay,
while the streets of shops exceed in picturesqueness everything I have
ever seen. Much of this is given by the perpendicular sign boards,
fixed or hanging, upon which are painted on an appropriate background
immense Chinese characters in gold, vermilion, or black. Two or three
of these belong to each shop, and set forth its name and the nature of
the goods which are to be purchased at it. The effect of these boards
as the sun's rays fall upon them here and there is fascinating. The
interiors of the shops are lofty, glass lamps hang from the ceilings
and large lanterns above every door, and both are painted in bright
colors, with the characters signifying happiness, or with birds,
butterflies, flowers, or landscapes. The shop wall which faces the door
invariably has upon it a gigantic fresco or portrait of the tutelary
god of the building, or a sheet of red paper on which the characters
forming his name are placed, or the character Shan, which implies all
gods, and these and the altars below are seen from the street. There is
a recess outside each shop, and at dusk the joss-sticks burning in
these fill the city with the fragrance of incense.
As there are streets of shops and trades, so there are streets of
dwelling-houses, but even the finest of these present a miserable
appearance to the passers-by, for all one can see is a lofty and
dimly-lighted stone vestibule, furnished with carved ebony chairs with
marble seats and backs, and not infrequently with gigantic coffins
placed on end, the gift of pious juniors to their seniors! A porter
stands in this vestibule ready to open the lofty triple gate which
admits to the courtyard of the interior. Many Chinese mansions contain
six or seven courtyards, each with its colonnade, drawing, dining, and
reception rooms, and at the back of all there is a flower garden
adorned with rockeries, fish-ponds, dwarf trees, and miniature pagodas
and bridges.
The streets in which the poor dwell are formed of low, small, dark, and
dirty houses, of two or three rooms each. The streets of dwellings are
as mean and ugly as those of shops are brilliant and picturesque.
This is a meagre outline of what may be called the anatomy of this
ancient city, which dates from the fourth century B.C., when it was
walled only by a stockade of bamboo and mud, but was known by the name
of "the martial city of the south," changed later into "the city of
rams." At this date it has probably greater importance than it ever
had, and no city but London impresses me so much with the idea of solid
wealth and increasing prosperity.
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