The Accidental Ethnographer (4e)—A Yankee on the Yangtze V

One year ago on Round and Square (17 June 2011)—Hurtin' Country: Meetin' Hank (Williams)
Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "The Accidental Ethnographer." (Coming Soon)
Click below for other posts in from A Yankee on the Yangtze:

Yankee 1          Yankee 2          Yankee 3          Yankee 4          Yankee 5

[a] Yunnan RF

I gave a lecture at the Doylestown Historical Society on June 1st, as part of Doylestown, Pennsylvania's big bicentennial celebration. The subject was the American explorer and evangelist William Edgar Geil (1865-1925). This is part of a larger project that I am working on this summer in Doylestown with the help of Beloit College anthropology major Megan Nyquist '14. As I did a few weeks ago in preparation for another lecture (on another subject), I am posting some of Geil's own writings. This was enormously helpful to me the last time I tried it, and I think it is worth another try. I will, over the course of my summer research, post my lecture and some of the early results of the research Megan and I are doing. In the meantime, though, I want to start the "Accidental Ethnographer" series with William Geil's own words. I will post several readings from each of Geil's dozen books over the course of the summer months.

William Edgar Geil was a world famous figure in his day, and the reasons he has been lost to history (from his death until now) are as interesting as the underpinnings of his fame. Here is a very brief overview. In a day before anthropology or Chinese (or African or Micronesian) studies had a toehold in world universities, William Edgar Geil traveled the world, took extensive notes, returned to Doylestown, and wrote books. Depending on how you count them, he wrote almost a dozen—many of them thick and substantial in ways that a turn of the (last) century reader would understand, even if many people today would not. He traveled across central Africa in the first decade of the twentieth century, spent a year in Australia and New Guinea, and then found an abiding love for the study of China (which is where I "met" him, in a manner of speaking). He traveled the length of the Great Wall, journeyed the Yangzi River from Shanghai into southeast Asia, visited all of China's provincial capitals, and is the only Westerner to have written a book about his travels to all five sacred mountains of China.

[b] Cross-checked RF

He wrote about it all, and he took pictures. The former is not without problem; the latter is easily his legacy. It is all a fascinating picture of an American abroad in a peculiarly resonant time in American history—from the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 to the end of World War I. This series will grow as my research does, but let's get started with Geil's own words—a little from each of his published books.

 ***  ***

For this last excerpt from A Yankee on the Yangtze, I did a good deal of checking and cross-checking, wanting to get a "feel" from Geil's prose that we haven't fully encountered yet. Shooting a mad dog in Yanglin serves the purpose. Be prepared. We haven't seen the shootin' side of Geil yet, and it pops up (so to speak) in several places here. Be forewarned.

Here again, we encounter the challenge of understanding Geil's relationship to the Chinese language and the impression he gives to his readers of that grasp. The first part is unproblematic. Geil did not know Chinese before this trip, and relied on translators. There is no shame in that, and his ability with the language and cultural forms of China indisputably improved over the fifteen years between this trip and his final trip to China in 1919. Even then, though, he could not speak or read Chinese with anything approaching fluency. So why does he seem to (this is the reaction of most people who have read these materials) imply that he is guiding us through the various language issues in his narrative path? Why, for example, does he refer to etchings in the paneling of his hotel room and then "just" provide us with a translation? I raise the question as much for you as for me. It is something I have been thinking about for some time. Suffice it to say that he is grandstanding on others' skills. Is there more to it than that? I have some thoughts on the subject that I will be sharing in these Accidental Ethnographer posts in the coming months.

A Yankee on the Yangtze[1]
William Edgar Geil (1904)

[c] Vision RF

限有見所天觀井坐

If one looks at the heavens 
from the bottom of a well 
his vision will be limited. 

CHAPTER XIV.

HOW TO TRAVEL—WRITTEN AGREEMENTS—CHINESE COOLIES—ARCHERY TESTS—THE RULE OF VICEROY TS'EN—BLOOD AND IRON.

It was Saturday when I arrived at Yanglin, and we quietly sojourned the next day in the "Star of Happiness Inn," one of the best I have visited in the Province of Yunnan. The hostel and its landlord, Mr. Chang, have good reputations. In my room several enthusiastic guests had written up testimonials on the wooden walls. Here is a translation of two of them. 

     Among Yanglin inns the first is the "Star of Happiness."
     The landlord is benevolent and righteous, worth a thousand of gold.
     The two honourable cooks are kind indeeed,
     Never neglecting for a single half-hour to supply you with tea and water.

     The "Star of Happiness" Inn is the first in Yunnan.

     It is clean and quiet like the "Caves of Heaven."
     Tea, water, and all things are convenient.
     The landlord is more diligent than all Earth's worthies.

On entering the city, a vicious dog, probably mad, made at me. Fortunately a fine hammerless revolver was at my belt, and before the savage brute could do me damage, I sent a chunk of lead through his ugly brain. Mad dogs are quite numerous in this section, and cause the death of many people. The Chinese theory is that the bit of a mad dog breeds a small dog in the stomach of the victim, which barks and caused death. One mother, finding her boy bitten by a dog, gave him several Nux Vomica beans, which, instead of curing, killed the unfortunate lad immediately. Sometimes a dog bites the shadow of a person, and this is supposed by the superstitious Chinese to be more deadly in its effects than the actual bite.

[d] Walk RF

Two main roads to Yunnan City join in this town, one, the Mandarin's road from Kwei Chow Province, and the other from Szechuen, by which we came. Here also is the telegraph, and there is a Government Post Office in the city. Staying at the same inn were some of the retinue of four French officials who were ostensibly surveying for the railroad. Whatever their business may be called, there is not much the French do not know about Yunnan Province, and if war broke out between France and china they would not be caught napping.

By far the best means of travelling in China is to walk. But coolies the traveller must have, and it is therefore always best to get a written agreement as to time and price. In all my journey, and I had now come over two thousand miles, there had been no trouble with those I had employed. The contracts were brushed on red paper and the items inserted. The Chinaman will haggle over the making of an agreement, but once it is signed you may safely rely on him to keep his part if you show a disposition to do likewise. It may be difficult when on the road to modify a contract; everything should be carefully gone over at the very first.

Throughout these sixty days across the Land of Confucius, which I had come, not a parcel of mine had been lost, not a thing stolen, and that is remarkable because my bags contained cameras and additional lenses, and were carried by many different coolies over rough, slippery, and, at times, dangerous roads. The Chinese coolie is able to carry two-hundred pounds, but his usual load is about ninety pounds, and with it he will usually go fifteen or twenty miles a day; but my men were under special arrangements, and went nearly fifty miles in that time. They watched the things while eating, and guarded them under all circumstances. These same coolies might be open to temptation to take from another traveller, but they will protect their master and his property. 

Another pleasant feature of the journey is that at whatever hostel, in whatsoever sized city, village or hamlet, it is needed, boiling water can always be obtained. The Chinese wash in hot water and drink hot water. At the "Star of Happiness" a basin of boiling water was fetched me. I then took my short towel a la Chinois, dipped it into the water and washed with it instead of a sponge, letting the dampness dry. Maybe this practice of using hot water inside and outside has killed many a microbe that else would have made a pigtail into an ancestor earlier than was necessary. The meanest coolie will take his hot towelling twice a day and thus have a clean towel!

[e] Tapped RF

Then, too, good nature is everywhere. A Chinaman understands the comitas inter gentes; his smile is close to the surface and is easily tapped. Let a traveller be half decent and treat the Chinese of all classes with some regard to the golden rule, and he will find a kindly, pleasant people. The Chinaman is not as hilarious as the South Sea Islander, nor as shallow as a Shan, but he is jovial—not mirthful, so much as full of quiet, well-considered fun. He loves games of chance, not so much , perhaps, for the amusement they afford as for the opportunity they offer of getting something without the dreadful drudgery of daily toil.

It is said that animals recognize a master man, and are ready to obey him. This is certainly true of human beings. In America or China there must be a self-poise and dignity which compel respect. The Chinaman knows a fool when he sees one, even if he be covered with a white epidermis. I have learned that it pays to treat even a cannibal with politeness. The traveller in China everywhere should avoid billiousness, and appropriate much good nature to his own use.
                                               "He who surpasses or subdues mankind
                                                Must look down on the hate of those below."
On Sunday we ate the goose shot on Saturday. The inn cook made a splendid repast of the bird. The gravy was delicious. I also had forty cash (two cents of gold) of pickles, a small basin of cooked chicken (five cents gold), three sweet potatoes four pounds weight (nine cash a pound). The price in the inn or an "in and out" is seventy cash.

[f] Brisk RF

It is said of Captain Gill that he had (when a boy) arranged a mechanical contrivance to pull off his bedclothes at a very early hour, and was thus habitually at work long before breakfast. Like Captain Gill, travellers in China should be early risers. The next morning we broke the record, and began to move before midnight, but discovered our mistake ere any great harm was done. So, deciding the hour was too early, we slept again! However, we got up at two-thirty A.M. by our watches, which we afterwards found to be an hour fast by the arsenal whistle in Yunnan City. 

It was necessary for me to reach the city by a certain hour, and we first succeeded in getting King No. 3 out of bed, and sent him to rouse the inn cook, then turned out attention to the chairman of the coolies. These men were more difficult to deal with that the other lot, so I went out into the yard and publicly orated. It is astonishing what an effect Shakespeare has on uneducated Chinese coolies, a proof, if any were wanted, of the immense superiority of the English language over any other form of speech. But whistling Yankee Doodle was the climax. Talk about stirring the blood of patriotic Americans! It moves the very bones of those Celestials.
                                              "For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense."
After this performance the preparations for departure were carried briskly on. By three-thirty all loads were tied up and everybody was laughing and devouring Early Rice. Just before four the procession was marching up the hill leading out of Yanglin, lighted by the moon struggling against the depressing influence of dark clouds. Later on, drops of rain fell, and a torrent soon came down in blocks, acres, miles. A cottage by the roadside tempted shelter, but the inmates were slow to respond to the appeals of men, fearing robbers. The mention of robbers suggested possibilities. We got in at last, and sat down in a miserable room.

[g] Travel RF

Fortunately the rain soon ceased, and we were off again. The paved roadway was very difficult to travel in the uncertain light. At the end of eight li in the light of winter daybreak we passed the small village Little Shop, Sia Pu Tsz, and at thirty li stopped at Long Hill. The people were just getting up. Some were placing huge kettles outside their doors. These contained the fire as well as the water, burning wood being placed right in the center of the huge copper utensil. Smoke and flame came out at the top, and ashes at the bottom. Near by were tables consisting of long stone slabs. I had hot water to drink, and then turned beans and nuts from my pocket on to the table for the men to eat. There were a few cash mixed with the rest—which were eagerly seized and pocketed.

***  ***

On arriving at Yunnan a striking tower, beautifully proportioned, was one of the first objects we saw. Built at great expense and finished a year or two ago, it forms one of the finest sights around the city. It is dedicated to the god of Literature, and named Tsu K'uie Leu. E ascended the third and highest story and had a fine view of the south suburb of the city. It took a photograph looking west. Coming down, we passed through a tea shop on the ground floor, and went along the main street of the south suburb, and passed under a low archway a little more than six feet high. Above this archway is an Indian tumulus, built long ago when princes from Burma and Siam had more influence in Yunnan than they now have. At that time Yunnan was very closely connected with these countries. In the tumulus is said to be buried the skull of a man named Hua Hsiong. It is considered very unlucky to pass under the arch, as the influence of the skull is said to prevent the growth or shorten the height of a full-grown person. If my friends in America find that I have "gone down one," instead of up, they will now the reason. There is a way round on both sides of the arch, and this is used by nearly all the passers-by.[2]

Notes
[1] Even though it should not be necessary for me to point out that some of Geil's language from 108 years ago will jar...I will anyway. I am not one to take either interpretive extreme in these cases. Some consider any language we would not use today to be offensive. On the other extreme would be those who say "everyone talked that way back then." I disagree with both extremes—language changes, yet not everyone did talk "that way back then." I prefer to let all of us develop ever-deeper historical sophistication. History is complicated; Geil is complicated. Period.

[2] William Edgar Geil, A Yankee on the Yangtze (New York: A.C. Armstrong and Son, 1904), 202-210.

Bibliography

Geil, William Edgar. A Yankee on the Yangtze. New York: A.C. Armstrong and Son, 1904.

[h] Tiger Leaping new day RF