[VOL III] SCENE IN THE SUBURBS OF TING-HAE

SCENE IN THE SUBURBS OF TING-HAE

Cover Image: Scene in the Suburbs of Ting-hae / DingHai ZhouShan ZheJiang China / Drawn by T. Allom Engraved by S.Fisher – ALAMY Image ID:2X55N80

*Dinghai, located on the main island of the Zhoushan Archipelago in Zhejiang, China, was originally an ancient fishing village known as Dingshan. However, during the late Tang and early Song dynasties, people began to settle here. Dingshan was eventually renamed Dinghai and developed into a significant center for commerce and a prominent port. During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Dinghai gradually emerged as an important hub for foreign trade. / From a Drawing in the possession of Sir Geo. Staunton, Bart.

“Here may be seen, in bloodless pomp array’d,
The pasteboard triumph and the cavalcade:
By sports like these are all their cares beguil’d
The sports of children satisfy the child.”

GOLDSMITH.

NO regular day of rest and thanksgiving being appointed by Chinese lawgivers, the people are more liable to transgress the limits of propriety in seizing on occasions for mirth and festivity. And it is from this cause especially, that they are found to convert very many of life’s usual occurrences, into pretexts for merry-meetings; but no rejoicing can be complete, unaccompanied by a systematic procession, in which each person is assigned an active part; jokes, in China, having no point unless they are practical. Ting-hae, a populous, ancient, and commercial city, abounds in characters ever ready to participate in some feat of activity, some public display, or some pseudo-religious ceremony; and the scenery of the locality, abounding in hill and dale, wood and water, wild and cultivated districts, traces of early occupation, monuments of illustrious persons, and lofty temples to the idols of the land, gives to each festal pomp a character eminently dramatic. At the great paloo, in the suburbs of Ting-hae, where a flat bridge spans a creek margined with sedge, and rushes, and flags, the landscape is peculiarly pleasing, and the spot is chosen as a theatre of mirth by parties from the city. An endless variety of festivals and processions gives occasion for numerous visits to these romantic passes, and the joyous dispositions of the Chinese render such pageants in the highest degree extravagant. Like the populace of ancient Athens, Rome, and Egypt, they connect the pretexts of their chiefest processions with notions of religion, or philosophy; but, when these are tolerably exhausted, innumerable others, of a confessedly profane description, are employed. Considering that all delights consist in material intercourse, the Chinaman concludes that his gods require offerings of food, displays of mirth, sounds of music, and everything that ministers to the pleasure of the senses; and under this belief it is that he suspends images across the street, decorates his house-front with lanterns, makes offerings of incense and fruits, and strikes his head with painful violence against the temple-floor.

Performers in a festivity are generally assembled in a booth or temporary erection; where viands of various kind, fruit, pastry, and other delicacies, are spread in profusion, while prayers are offered, bells sounded, and flutes blown, with a determination that measures the zeal of the performer. The gods frequently manifesting indifference to the banquet, the votaries proceed to divide the dainties, some demolishing their portions, while others cast theirs amongst the noisy and mirth-loving crowd. Sanctity would appear to form no share in the ceremony: merriment, pleasantry, fun, in its fullest sense, being the end and aim of every one’s exertions. A bonfire of paper, or of other easily-ignited matter, lighted without the building, is the signal for clearing the temple, and for forming into a procession in which each has some particular duty allotted to him. An advance-company furnished with gongs precede every show of this description, and make the very welkin ring with redoubled blows of their muffled plechtrvz. Next come the bannermen, bearing flags adorned with religious, military, or appropriate devices, followed by a multitude of flute-players and drummers : the principal part of the sport consisting in noise. Some treasure, some ark, some palpable object, must necessarily be carried in procession, to which, as to the chief character in a royal cortège, particular respect is paid, and each in turn is ambitious of succeeding to its support and carriage. Whatever be the character or object of such demonstrations, their arrangements undeviatingly resemble each other. Burnt-offerings—presents to be submitted in a hall of ancestors—a bride going to her new home—a corpse proceeding to its last one,—are each in turn the burdens of procession-men; and the feelings experienced upon those occasions are so much alike, that spectators are unable to conjecture their precise objects from the demeanour of the attendants. An English gentleman rose one morning in Macao, at an early hour, to bid farewell to an old friend who had resided in China for many years. On his way he encountered a procession, preceded by a band of music. He waited to watch their progress, and noticed that, by pressing among the curate of the procession, he might obtain a better view. But as soon as he raised the silk, he discovered that it was his old friend, whom the Chinese were thus honouring at his departure from their land for ever.