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Cangue

(棚)

From the Portuguese Canga —yoke. Also called the “wooden necktie” (木風領). The heavy square wooden collar worn by criminals for such offences as petty larceny, etc. It is taken off at night, but during the day the wearer must be fed by others, as he cannot reach his mouth.

The infliction of this instrument of punishment is not now stipulated in the Chinese penal code, but it is still employed to a certain extent in remote districts.

Canopy

(蓋)

One of the EIGHT TREASURES (q. v.) or auspicious signs on the sole of Buddha’s foot, sometimes symbolically representing the sacred LUNGS (q. v.) of that divinity. It is of similar import as the UMBRELLA (q. v.). According to some authorities it was originally a flag.

Carpets

(地楼)

The weaving of carpets and rugs is believed to have been introduced from Persia and India in ancient times.

As in the case of CHINAWARE (q. v.), a free use of symbolic devices is made for purposes of decoration. The DIAPER PATTERNS (q. v.) are employed as border designs, while numerous birds and animals, both natural and mythical, together with many conventional floral arrangements and religious emblems, which can be found treated in this volume, are commonly woven in coloured wools into the fabric of the Chinese floor coverings, which are composed of the wool of the sheep, goat, or camel and are usually reversible. A design or key-note is often repeated many times on the same carpet. “Recently foreign importers have supplied designs for some of the rugs shipped to them, and the Chinese weaver is very skilful in making exact copies of any designs furnished to him. In general, rugs with the native designs, especially the older ones, are far more beautiful and harmonious than the rugs made on foreign designs. In many cases, the designs furnished by the foreign importers are merely copies of old Chinese rugs found in private collections and museums. Modern Chinese designs are painted by native artists, who make this work a profession. They turn out from six to ten designs per month, in colour. These designs are turned over to another designer or copier, who makes an enlarged design in black on tissue paper. This large design is made in the actual size of the rug. The tissue paper drawing is then pasted on to the warp strings in the same position that the rug is to occupy, and the design is traced on to the strings as a guide to the weavers. A miniature design in black and white is supplied to the weavers, with notations indicating the colours which are to go on the various lines.”²⁶

The Chinese loom is of very simple construction, and the weaver sits before it on a long bench. His coloured balls of woollen yarn swing and bob merrily, keeping time to the movement of his nimble fingers as they tie the knots of wool into the warp, clip them off with a razor-edged knife, and pound them into place with an iron fork. The cotton warp is stretched on heavy beams, whose weight keeps it taut. Several weavers work on large carpets at the same time. The method of weaving is as follows: The woollen yarn is fastened to two threads of the warp either by a Senna knot, or a Giordes knot. After being securely fastened, the thread is cut to the depth of pile required. The longer the pile the softer is the carpet, and therefore the length varies between 3/8 to 5/8 of an inch. The closeness of the warp gives the number of threads to the square foot, which vary from 60 to 120, 90 being the usual number for the market.

The colouring of many of the antique varieties is impossible to reproduce at the present day. The blues have an unequalled depth and luminosity, the warm imperial yellows are of an unrivalled delicacy increasing with age, and the soft reds are unsurpassed by modern dyers.

In the weaving a heavy weft or cross-thread is used, sometimes four heavy strands after each transverse row of knots. The texture is coarser than that of Persian or Turkish carpets, but the pile is flatter or less perpendicular. Sometimes the pattern is accentuated by cutting away part of the pile, leaving the design standing in relief. The wool is generally yarn-dyed. Occasionally carpets are woven in two or three sections which are knitted together by the warp threads.

The old temple rugs are the most beautiful and valuable. The late J. P. Morgan is said to have paid as much as $25,000 for one specimen. In the temple rug illustrated above appear the imperial five-clawed Ming dragons contesting for the flaming jewel, which is one of the Buddhist emblems. At the lower end are the sacred mountains and the PLANT OF LONG LIFE (q. v.), beyond which are the waves of the sea, conventionally treated. Throughout the field are distributed cloud-forms, BATS (q. v.), and the EIGHT TREASURES (q. v.), of Buddhism, thus emphasizing the horror vacui of the primitive artist. At the top is a continuous festoon, made up of conventionalized buds and flowers of the sacred LOTUS (q. v.). The length is ten feet, width eight feet, and it contains forty-two hand-tied knots to the square inch.

Few genuine old rugs can now be obtained at any price, but the modern article is not to be despised, and Peiping, Tientsin and Soochow are the chief centres of production at the present time.

Castanets

(銀)

Two round brass plates struck together and used on the stage and in temples. The single brass oblong slab is called the “sounding plate” (響板), and is struck with a brass rod. The latter is used by pedlars and priests, and is the emblem of Cáo Guójiù (曹國舅), one of the EIGHT IMMORTALS (q. v.) of Taoism.

Cat

(猫)

It is curious that so common an animal as the cat was not selected for inclusion among the animals of the duodenary cycle (vide TWELVE TERRESTRIAL BRANCHES) and the twenty-eight constellations (vide STARS). It has therefore been suggested that the animal is not indigenous to China and did not abound in the country in former times. Cats are, however, referred to in the “Book of Odes” (詩經), a collection of lyrics in vogue among the people many centuries before the Christian era.

There are both domesticated and wild varieties, and their skins are used for clothing by the lower classes. They are fattened for food in some parts of China.

There are both domesticated and wild varieties, and their skins are used for clothing by the lower classes. They are fattened for food in some parts of China.

“The cat,” says one Chinese author, ‘is called the domestic fox; the name māo (猫), is given to it in imitation of its mewing, but the composition of this name is intended to express an animal which catches rats in grain. The cat is a small animal, and is everywhere domesticated; it catches rats; there are those of a white, black, piebald, and yellow colour; it has the body of a fox, and the face of a tiger, soft hair, and sharp teeth; the tail is long, and the loins short. Those which have yellow eyes, and the roof of the mouth marked with many rugae, are the best. Someone has said that the pupil of the cat’s eye marks the time; at midnight, noon, sunrise, and sunset, it is like a thread; at 4 o’clock and 10 o’clock, morning and evening, it is round like a full moon; while at 2 o’clock and 8 o’clock, morning and evening, it is elliptical like the kernel of a zâo (裹) or date. The end of the nose is always cold, but for one day during summer (the summer solstice, which falls about 21st June) it becomes warm; the cat naturally dreads cold, but not heat. It can mark on the ground and divine for its prey, and it eats what it catches according to the decades, in the same manner as the tiger does; and by these tests, both are known to belong to the same class.”²⁷

“Rats destroy silkworms, but cats keep the rats away; hence the superstition that cats are protectors of silkworms, the picture of a cat (麗猫, cánmāo, silkworm cat), stuck on a wall, being powerful enough to ward off harm from the worms. Cats are also credited with a general power to put evil spirits to flight perhaps because of their being able to see in the dark. It is said that in some parts worship is paid to the cat spirit.”²⁸

“The coming of a cat to a household is an omen of approaching poverty. The coming of a strange cat, and its staying in a house, are believed to foreshadow an unfavourable change in the pecuniary condition of the family. It is supposed that a cat can foresee where it will find plenty of rats and mice in consequence of approaching dilapidation of a house, following the ruin or poverty of its inhabitants.”²⁹ It is considered to be very unlucky when a cat is stolen from a house. A cat washing its face portends the arrival of a stranger. Dead cats are not buried but hung on trees.

Cedrela

(捲樹)

The xiāngchün (香捲), or Cedrela odorata, is mentioned by the philosopher Zhuāng Zî (莊) as being a long-lived tree, symbolical of the father of a family.

The wood resembles mahogany and is used in cabinet work. A decoction of the bark is employed as medicine for fever and dysentery. The leaves are eaten in the spring and the silkworm is also fed upon them; they are also used to make a lotion for baldness. The fruit of the tree is said to be astringent, and is employed in the treatment of affections of the eye. (Vide also HEMEROCALLIS).

Chain

(鐵練)

“Buddha formulated his view of life into a twelve-linked closed chain called ‘the Wheel of Life’ or of ‘Becoming’ (Bhavacakra), or the Causal Nexus (Pratitya Samutpãda); which he is represented, in the Vinaya scripture itself, to have thought out under the Tree of Wisdom.”³⁰ (Vide WHEEL OF THE LAW, BODHI TREE.) This chain, which is of iron, is one of the insignia of some of the Buddhist deities.

Charms

(符)

Charms carried on the person are made up of all kinds of materials, and worn on the shoulder, back or breast, to protect from disease, demons, and evil influence. The shāohuïtünfú (燒灰符), the swallow-ashes charm, consists of incantations against demons, written on yellow paper, which is burned, the ashes mixed with water and swallowed. Charms are used in almost every phase of life, for the protection of houses (五方鎮宅符), graves (五方奠墓符), for the collection of wealth (招財聚符), etc. The illuminate-demon mirror, zhàoyāojìng (照妖鏡), is worn by brides. Amulets, which are generally suspended from the neck by a cord to protect the wearer against evil spirits, sickness, accidents, etc., are found in great variety; stone, metal, paper, animal and vegetable substances, with or without characters or designs engraved or written thereon being but a few of the materials employed. Religious texts are used as charms or talismans. They are usually written or printed on narrow strips of red or yellow paper, and pasted on the lintels of doors, walls of rooms, etc. Some kinds are worn on the person, others made into pellets or reduced to ashes and swallowed as spiritual medicine. The larger variety of paper charms is often accompanied by curious pictures or symbolic illustrations.

A number of old brass or copper cash are sometimes strung together in the form of a sword, and kept straight by a piece of iron running up the middle. They are hung at the heads of beds so that the supposed presence of the monarchs, under whose reigns the cash were coined, may have the effect of keeping away ghosts and evil spirits. They are used chiefly in houses or rooms where persons have committed suicide or suffered a violent death. Sick persons use them, also, in order to hasten their recovery.

Another charm is the báijiāsuô (百家鎖), or “Hundred Family Lock.”To obtain this a man goes round among his friends, and having obtained from one hundred different persons three or four cash each, he himself adds whatever money is required, and has a lock made, which he hangs on his child’s neck, for the purpose of locking him, as it were, to life, and making the one hundred persons sureties for his attaining old age. A similar article is the jîngquānsuô (頸圏鎖), or the “Neck Ring Lock,” worn by grown females as well as by children for the same purpose as the preceding.

The gütōngjìng (古銅鏡), or the “Old Brass Mirror,” is supposed to possess the virtue of immediately healing any who have become mad by the sight of a spirit or demon, by their merely taking a glance at themselves in it. By the rich it is kept in their chief apartments, for the purpose of keeping away spirits.

The hûzhâo (虎爪), or the “Tiger’s Claw,” is a charm against sudden fright, and is said to infuse the wearer with the courage of the animal.

An amulet of peach-wood or peach-stones (桃符) is regarded as a powerful antidote against evil spirits. A string of carved peach-stones is often hung about the necks of children to prevent them from being stolen by demons for the purpose of burying them under the foundations of buildings or bridges to give solidarity to the structure.“A kind of padlock is made by cutting the kernels of the flat peach (幡桃). The mother fixes one of these padlocks on each of her child’s feet. . . . The common people believe that peach-stone padlocks confer longevity, bind children to life, and have a mysterious power for warding off evil influences.”³¹ In this connection it may be interesting to note that the peasant of Exmoor who is liable to fits of any kind wears suspended from his neck a little bag containing small pieces or twigs of the ash-tree, which is supposed to possess healing vitue. Many Chinese children wear a brass or silver padlock attached to the neck by a chain. This is to chain them to existence, and prevent them being ravished by death from their affectionate parents. These padlocks may be found in all silversmith’s shops and many street stalls, and vary in size and shape.

“A person goes round begging a bit of thread from door to door. With these various coloured threads, a kind of tassel is made, and hung on to the dress of the child. This tassel is called the Hundred Family Tassel (百家線).”³²

The good fortune of a child is said to be assured if he wears suspended from his neck a metal plate engraved with the eight characters of his horoscope (八字), or the animals representing the corresponding signs of the zodiac. The Twelve Branches of Earth (十二地支), in various combinations with the Ten Celestial Stems (十天干), provide terms for the sixty years of the Chinese cycle. When baby girls are discarded and exposed in the open, the eight characters of their horoscope are sometimes pinned to their garments, so that they may not be married to one whose horoscope does not agree with theirs.

An ear-ring (耳環) is sometimes attached to a child’s ear to delude the evil spirits—always on the look-out to injure male children—into the belief that the boy is really a girl. “Persons give to this ear-ring the form of a weight of a clock, as this represents, according to their idea, something heavy and hard to raise. The evil spirits would thus be unable to snatch from this world a beloved child, the weight attaching to the ground and riveting him to existence.”³³

The Heavenly Dog (天狗), otherwise called the Child-stealing Devil (生鬼), is said to be the soul of a young girl who has died unmarried, and hopes, by killing a child who will take her own place as a spirit, that she will gain the privilege of reincarnation as a mortal. It is therefore considered necessary to protect a newborn infant— similia similibus curantur —by means of the “hair of the dog,” or a Dog’s Hair Talisman (狗毛符), i. e., a lock of the child’s hair is mixed with a dog’s hair, rolled into a ball, and sewn on to his clothes, after which he may be taken out for an airing with impunity.