Volume 1

The Chinese Empire illustrated : being a series of views from original sketches, displaying the scenery, architecture, social habits etc. of that ancient and exclusive nation / by Thomas Allom ; with historical and descriptive letterpress by G.N. Wright. The work will also contain a succinct account of the history of China : a narrative of British connexion with that nation, the opium war of 1840, and full details of the causes and events of the present war.

  • Thomas Allom
Date:
[1858?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Chinese Empire illustrated : being a series of views from original sketches, displaying the scenery, architecture, social habits etc. of that ancient and exclusive nation / by Thomas Allom ; with historical and descriptive letterpress by G.N. Wright. The work will also contain a succinct account of the history of China : a narrative of British connexion with that nation, the opium war of 1840, and full details of the causes and events of the present war. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    on any other portion of the earth. The people have no feeling that they are immortal beings accountable to the Almighty for their actions; obedience to the edicts of the emperor is the first duty, and hence they would obey the orders of their government before the laws of God. From this has arisen those mean and disgusting traits in their character which have been observed by all w'ho have ever come in contact with them. In fact, in the sense of the term in which we understand it, virtue is unknown among the Chinese. Their chief characteristics are treachery and duplicity; the highest officers in the state receive bribes; their merchants watch every opportunity of overreaching or cheating those with whom they deal. Filial piety and family relationships, which in other countries form the strongest ties by which individuals are bound together, become in China a portion of state legislation and state superstition. The law gives the most arbitrary power, even to the extent of life and death, to the father of a family over his children; and as the state of domestic society prevailing there is ill calculated to promote the affection and kindness which children generally feel for their parents, a tyrant to command and slaves to obey is the description which would apply generally to the greater portion of families in the Celestial Empire. Children are frequently exposed and left to perish by their unnatural parents to save the expense of supporting them, and some even rear their female offspring to a certain age and then sell them for the worst of purposes. In fact, such is the state of moral degradation in which the Chinese population is sunk, that were it not for the peculiarities of its system of government and the thorough prostration of all the energies of the people by this cunningly devised system, excluding as much as possible all intercourse with other communities, there can be little doubt that China would, long ere this, have shared the fate of other Eastern nations. The prohibition of the Chinese from travelling in foreign lands, and thus preventing them from observing the greatly improved condition of the inhabitants of other countries, has proved the great conservative feature in the government of this extraordinary people. But even with all its precautions the rule of the present Tartar dynasty is held by a very uncertain tenure; the Meoaw-tu tribes in the south-west provinces of China, who are supposed to be the original inhabitants, have repeatedly risen in rebellion; secret societies exist throughout the country, and a most formidable insurrection has been raging in the heart of the empire for several years, and is still unquelled. An account of the civil war which is at present being carried on in China will be given in the course of this Work. The next point to which we would direct attention in this brief prefatory sketch, as explanatory of the anomalous character of the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, is their religion—which, such as it is, has also been taken possession of by the state for its own purposes. The form of religion which prevailed among the early inhabitants of China was a system of polytheism, which may be properly described as a collection of canonized fables. The sky, the earth, the air, and the sea, are each placed under the care of some particular deity. There are gods of the land and gods of the water; and as either or any of these deities are to be propitiated, or their favour to be obtained, sacrifices and rites are ])aid to them. When the harvest is over, for instance, the farmer presents certain offerings, which are a kind of first-fruits. The state religion is that taught by Confucius, and consists of a refined deism, with a great reverence for ancestors, and for the moral precepts of that philosopher; but, as the institution of a special priesthood for the performance of reh’^ious rites might form a distinct class between the people and