[VOL I] APARTMENT IN A MANDARIN’S HOUSE, NEAR NANKING

APARTMENT IN A MANDARIN’S HOUSE, NEAR NANKING

Cover Image: Chapel in the Great Temple, Macao / Macao China / Drawn by Unknown Engraved by M.J.Starling – ALAMY Image ID:2X3H90R

*This illustrates the households of China’s upper-class bureaucrats and their servants.

Cease, western islander, nor rudely call
Barbarian, yonder gentle family.
What boasts thy proud saloon, or board, or wall,
Which lacketh here – of true civility?
Hast thou outstript? Be modest. – Such as these
Were China’s sons, when ye were savages.

C. J. C.

THE interior of a Mandarin’s House affords a more satisfactory idea of the mode of living prevalent in the Chinese empire, than any other scene that could be selected from the drama of their history. Less partial to external decoration and magnificence in public architecture than the ancient Greeks and Romans, the internal arrangements of their dwellings appear to be precisely analogous; and, an examination of the exhumed houses of Pompeii, will abundantly demonstrate this remarkable and not uninteresting fact. That the Celestials did not import their notions of domestic architecture from Rome may be unhesitatingly admitted; whence it follows, that we have existing, in all its primitive truthfulness, the same description of dwelling, and probably nearly similar habits of life, which we regard with so much curiosity and wonder in the crumbling fragments of the buried city. In describing subsequent illustrations, more particularly representing the architectural design, the iconographic plan, and the various parts that compose a mandarin’s palace, the identity of Roman with Chinese domestic architecture shall be more fully detailed. One extract, however, from the description of a private house at Pompeii, may, with much propriety, be here introduced. “Those apartments that were devoted exclusively to private accommodation, included the dining and bedrooms, picture-gallery, library, baths, and portico, in which flowers and shrubs were ranged along. On the walls of the private rooms, various designs are painted; sometimes basso-relievos are the chief decoration, in which, however, a very morbid taste is generally exhibited; but the floors are inlaid with elaborate and often beautiful mosaic work; yet these costly ornaments can scarcely compensate for the absence of many domestic comforts which moderns enjoy. No glass, save in the villa of Diomedes, has been discovered at Pompeii; and no fire-places adorn their apartments, or contribute to their ventilation. The roof of the house was generally a terrace protected by a wall; and the women’s apartments looked towards the garden, a custom still observed in the East.”

In China, as in ancient Italy, the apartments appropriated exclusively to the accommodation of the family are numerous, but limited in dimensions—generally of a square form, situated in the most remote part of the house from the chief door of entrance, or rather front porch, and guarded most jealously from intrusion. The approaches to them from the state-rooms, from the great court, from the vestibule, are always long, narrow, dark, and intricate, found with difficulty by persons unacquainted with the establishment; and, although the material of which the whole edifice, with its corridors, wings, and pavilions is composed, is of the most fragile character, and the walls that enclose it easily scaled by those who were resolved upon plunder or admission; yet such is the force of prejudice, habit, and established confidence in the efficient administration of law, that these childish contrivances appear to afford ample imagined security.

The illustration represents a boudoir or inner room, where the mandarin, his lady, a nurse and child, are assembled, and paying the most deliberate attention to the character which an itinerant merchant is giving of his goods. In Persia, Hindoos, and other Oriental countries, where luxury is habitual, even the most wealthy recline on carpets spread on the floor, or on couches laid close to the wall all around the room; but in China, chairs, tables, and sofas, resembling those in universal use throughout Europe, are employed; nor has it been ascertained that any other Asiatics have adopted this article of furniture. The chair in which the matron is seated is supposed to be of bamboo, the seat, sides, and drapery of which are generally of silk, and richly embroidered by the ladies of the family. Beside her, in all the accustomed dignity of manner that characterizes his country and his rank, is the wealthy master of the house, who has just risen from his chair that stands nearest to the window, a more convenient position for the occupation of the disgusting amusement of smoking. But, however unfashionable and excluded from polite life this practice may be in England, its prevalence in China is so widely spread, as to render its introduction into the drawing-room perfectly allowable; and cuspadores are placed in every room, to save the floor from the consequences of those oral clearances that are necessary during indulgence. Although the lady is so intent upon purchasing, no devotion to fashion or alteration in the manner of dress actuates her; for, here fashion has not yet effected a conquest, the only variations that are made in female costume being those which change of seasons imperatively demand. The costume of a lady of rank generally consists of vests of taffeta under a silk netting, within doors, to which is added a long robe of embroidered satin as the external garment. Every shade of colour is chosen, according to the taste of the individual; and the decorations, as well as disposition of jewels and other ornaments, are dependent altogether upon fancy. Yet one system seems to prevail in society, so that the description of the costume of an individual will apply with truth to all. The utmost care is bestowed on ornamenting the head; the hair, after being smoothed with oil and closely twisted, is brought to the crown of the head, and there fastened with bodkins of gold or silver; across the forehead is a band or fillet, from which depends something in the manner of a Mary-Queen-of-Scots’ cap, a patch of velvet, decorated with a diamond or pearl, and artificial flowers are sometimes fancifully arranged on each side of the face. In full dress, during visits, or the reception of visitors, earrings are worn; and a string of perfumed beads suspended from the shoulder, also forms a portion of the full-dress ornaments. Cosmetics, or rather their use, are perfectly understood amongst ladies of rank, who endeavour to make their eyebrows appear long, narrow, black, and arched; they use both red and white paint profusely, and generally place a very decided red spot on the lower lip.

That the maid shall not be mistaken for the mistress by those whose intercourse with society may have been limited or profitless, she is obliged to wear on the wrist, as a badge of distinction, a tutenag or ring of brass; and her little charge, the hope of the family, is rendered ridiculous by two queues, which are encouraged to grow from each side of the head.

Amongst itinerant traders, the value of exactly balancing their loads is very fully appreciated; and it is often the case, that when the burden cannot be divided, a stone is placed in the empty pail, box, or basket. The pedlar has carried both his chests into the room, one of which he has opened, and is displaying its contents; the counterpoise stands immediately behind him, together with the bamboo rod, and cords, from which both are suspended. A servant approaches with tea, or some other refreshment, which he is about to present to the pedlar, unbounded hospitality being a leading feature in every true picture of Chinese life and habits.

Besides the gracefulness of the oval opening, encircled by a carved frame or cornice, it possesses an advantage that must not pass unnoticed—it is the only window of the apartment. Like the Romans, the Chinese do not employ glass in their windows; the former used a transparent stone called lapis specularis, capable of being split into thin panes, and which was introduced into the palaces of the most wealthy or luxurious only. What species of stone this was, we are left to conjecture; but, that stone suitable for such purposes is known and employed in the present age, those are familiar with who have seen the mica, (talc glimmer,) or Museocy glass, which the Russians first used in the windows of their men-of-war, because it withstood the shock of artillery better than the best glass was capable of doing. The same substitutes for glass, however, have been adopted by the Chinese; namely horn, pearl-shell, linen-cloth, silk-gauze, oiled-paper, to which they have added bamboo blinds.

On one side of the room, just behind the nurse and child, are cabinets, or chiffoniers, in English, “What-nots,” the shelves of which are occupied by dishes of fruits, little jars of perfumed woods, tapers, and other articles of luxury, recreation, or necessity. These stands may be formed either of Japan lacquered-ware, of bamboo varnished, or of hard wood, carved after the most complicated patterns, like the rich pillars that support the ceiling. On the left, and just beside the oval opening, is a splendid massive stand of hard wood, with a marble top, that forms the ground of a piece of shell-work, or rock-work, representing the villa of a prince or mandarin, in Tartary, or Keang-nan, or some other mountainous and romantic part of the empire. Jars constitute a favourite ornament in every house, and from their beauty and costliness are now duly admitted into all English drawing-rooms. The partiality for these beautiful objects of manufacture is traceable to the circumstance of their having first been placed in Buddhist and other temples, and thereby associated with the religion of the country.

No article of furniture, or object of manufacture, seems to have acquired greater popularity amongst the Chinese than the lantern; the bamboo would appear to be indispensable to their existence, the lantern to their happiness. No apartment is furnished without an assortment of these articles. A large, splendid, costly lantern, adorned with silk curtains and tassels of the richest quality and most gorgeous colours, hangs from the roof; while from other parts, as well as from branches that project from the wall, minor luminaries contribute their aid in discharging the twofold duty of ornaments by day, and fountains of light by night. In ability to illuminate, the lantern is very inferior either to the glittering old chandelier of England’s palmy days, or to the bright flame of the gas-lamp; and the smoke that escapes from it is more intolerable than the odour of the tobacco with which the whole mansion is infected at evening-time. Mr. Allom, whose knowledge of Chinese architecture is only exceeded by his ability in delineating it, has chosen to represent the floor of the “Apartment in a Mandarin’s House” as tiled; this is frequently the case, and it renders the apartment peculiarly brilliant; but bricks are also very extensively employed for flooring, over which bamboo mats are spread, to hide the deformity and to guard against cold.

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