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HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE NAMES

Pronounce the Chinese names like Italian names, as a general principle, i.e., pronounce a, e, i, o, u as ah, ay, ee, o, oo. For instance, pronounce MULAN as "Milan," but with the MU----as in "Mussolini." Chinese names have no stress, but only tones, but those who must stress one of the syllables would do well to stress the last, as in "Milan." TAO is pronounced like "tah-ō" as a diphthong.

(Lifu) FU as in Corfu

(Sunya) UN as in brunette

(Lihua) UA as in Padua

(Ailien) AI as in Nikolai

(Paofen) AO as in Powell

(Mochow) OW as in Low

(Chen) EN as in Burnet

(Feng) ENG as in bungalow(nearly)

(San) AN as in Kahn

(Wang) A as in are

(Hsieh) IEH as in yea

The point to remember is that a name like SUN is pronounced like "soon," while a name like FENG is pronounced like "ferng," or nearly like "fung(-us)."

In addition, there are four sounds, for which only approximate equivalents will have to serve.

Pronounce SZE (Sze-an) as see

and TSE (Tse-an) as tsee

Pronounce IH (Shihcheng) as shee

Pronounce ERH (Huan-erh) as Huan-erl

Pronounce HS (Hsieh) as sh

SZE is the English sound "s" prolonged and vocalized, and TSE is the English sound "ts" prolonged and vocalized. IH is the English sound "sh" prolonged and vocalized. ERH at the end of names is always unaccented, so that HUAN-ERH can be read almost as one syllable, "Huan-erl," the ending resembling that of "Powell." HS resembles "ch" in German "ich." Pronounce HS as "sh," and disregard all "h's" at the end of syllables and one cannot go very far wrong.

In the spelling of Chinese names, all aspirate marks and diacritical marks have been omitted.

SOME CHINESE TERMS OF ADDRESS

As a result of the elaborate Chinese family system and of the fact

that so many relatives live together, a most complicated system of terms

of address has been evolved. Thus servants have to distinguish among the

wife and concubines of the older generations, the wives and concubines

of the younger generations, the young mistresses who are the daughters

in-law and the young mistresses who are the daughters of the family, etc.

Distinctions are made among elder aunts and younger aunts, and of these,

between those on the paternal and the maternal side, and of these again,

between the sisters and wives of uncles.

For the purposes of this book, a simpler system which obliterates

these distinctions is used, with sacrifices of the spirit of the family life. A

few, however, are retained, as follows:

TAITAI stands for the head mistress of the family.

NAINAI, or "young mistress" stands for any young married woman

in the family.

HSIAOCHIEH, or "young missie" stands for an unmarried daughter

of a higher-class family.

KUNIANG stands for an unmarried daughter of any class of family.

LAOYEH and SHAOYEH, or "old master" and "young master" can

generally stand for the father and sons, from the point of view of the

servants.

CHIEHCHIEH and MEIMEI stand for "elder sister" and "younger

sister." MEIMEI can be also used as "sweetheart."

BROTHER, SISTER, UNCLE and AUNT, can also be used as terms

of friendly address among non-relatives.

YATOU is a bondmaid, bought outright for life, or contracted for a

definite term of years.

SUFFIXES:

-MEI, term of endearment for a young girl.

-ERH corresponds to "-y" in "Johnny,""Jimmy."

-MA, ending for a woman servant.

-KO, ending for "elder brother."

1.

Book I

THE DAUGHTERS OF A TAOIST

Tao, the zenith is not high, nor the nadir low; no point in time is long ago,

nor by lapse of ages has it grown old.

From the essay on “The Master” by Chuangtse.

2.

CHAPTER I

IT WAS the morning of the twentieth of July, 1900. A party of mule

carts were lined up at the western entrance of Matajen Hutung, a street in

the East City of Peking, part of the mules and carts extending to the alley

running north and south along the pink walls of the Big Buddha Temple.

The cart drivers were early; they had come there at dawn, and there was

quite a hubbub in that early morning, as was always the case with these

noisy drivers.

3.Lota, an old man of about fifty and head servant of the family that

had engaged the carts for a long journey, was smoking a pipe and

watching the drivers feeding the mules; and the drivers were joking and

quarreling with each other. When they could not joke about each other’s

animals and the animals’ ancestors, they joked about themselves.

“In such times,” said one, “who can tell whether one comes back

dead or alive after this journey?”

“You are well paid for it, aren’t you?” said Lota. “You can buy a

farm with a hundred taels of silver. ”

4.“What is the use of silver when you are dead?” replied the driver.

“Those bullets from foreign rifles don’t recognize persons. Pengteng! It

goes through your brain-cap and you are already a corpse with a crooked

queue. Look at the belly of this mule! Can flesh stay bullets? But what

can you do? One has to earn a living. ”

“It’s difficult to say,” rejoined another. “Once the foreign soldiers

come into the city, Peking won’t be such a good place to live in, either.

For myself, I’m glad to get away. ”

5.The sun rose from the east and shone upon the entrance to the house,

making the leaves of the big colanut tree glisten with the dew. This was

the Yao house. It was not an imposing entrance—a small black door with

a red disc in the center. The colanut tree cast its shade over the entrance,

and a driver was sitting on a low stone tablet sunk into the ground. The

morning was delightful, and yet it promised to be a hot day with a clear

sky. A medium-sized earthen jar was standing near the tree, which

provided tea in hot summer days for thirsty wayfarers. But it was still

empty. Noticing the jar, a driver remarked, “Your master does good

deeds. ”

Lota replied there was no better man on earth than their master. He

pointed to a slip of red paper pasted near the doorpost, which the driver

could not read; but Lota explained to him that it said that medicinesagainst cholera, colic, and dysentery would be given free to anybody.

6.“That’s something important,” said the driver. “You’d better give us

some of that medicine for the journey. ”

“Why should you worry about medicine when you are traveling with

our master?” said Lota. “Isn’t it the same whether you carry it or our

master carries it?”

The drivers tried to pry out of Lota information about the family.

Lota merely told them that his master was an owner of medicine shops.

Soon the master appeared to see that all was in order. He was a man

of about forty, short, stumpy, with bushy eyebrows and pouches under the

eyes, and no beard, but a very healthy complexion. His hair was still

perfectly black. He walked with a young, steady gait, with slow but firm

steps. It was obviously the gait of a trained Chinese athlete, in which the

body preserved an absolute poise, ready for a surprise attack at any

unsuspected moment from the front, the side, or behind. One foot was

firmly planted on the ground, while the other leg was in a forward,

slightly bent and open, self-protective position, so that he could never be

thrown out of his balance. He greeted the drivers and, noticing the jar,

reminded Lota to keep it daily filled with tea as usual during his absence.

“You’re a good man,” chorused the drivers.

7.He went in, and soon appeared a beautiful young woman. She had

small feet and exquisite jet-black hair done in a loose coiffure, and wore

an old broad-sleeved pink jacket, trimmed around the collar and the

sleeve ends with a three-inch broad, very pale green satin. She talked

freely with the drivers and showed none of the shyness usual among

higher-class Chinese young women. She asked if all the mules had been

fed, and disappeared again.

“What luck your master has!” exclaimed one young driver. “A good

man always is rewarded with good luck. Such a young and pretty

concubine!”

8.“Rot your tongue!” said Lota. “Our master has no concubines. That

young woman is his adopted daughter and a widow. ”

The young driver slapped his own face in fun, and the others

laughed.

Soon another servant and a number of pretty maids, from twelve or

thirteen to eighteen in age, came out with bedding, packages, and little

pots. The drivers were rather dazzled, but dared not pass further

comments. A boy of thirteen followed, and Lota told the drivers it was the

young master.

After half an hour of this confusion, the departing family came out.

9.The beautiful young woman appeared again with two girls, both dressedvery simply in white cotton jackets, one with green, the other with violet

trousers. You can always tell a daughter of a well-to-do family from a

maidservant by her greater leisureliness and quietness of manner; and the

fact that the young woman was holding their hands showed the drivers

these two were the daughters of the family.

“Hsiaochieh, come into my cart,” said the young driver. “The other’s

mule is bad. ”

Mulan, the elder girl, thought and compared. The other cart had a

smaller mule, but his driver had a more jovial appearance. On the other

hand, this young driver had ugly sores on his head. Mulan chose by the

driver rather than the mule.

10.So important are little things in our life, perfectly meaningless in

themselves, but as we look back upon them in their chain of cause and

effect, we realize they are sometimes fraught with momentous

consequences. If the young driver had not had sores on his head, and

Mulan had not got into the other cart with the small and sickly-looking

mule, things would not have happened on this journey as they did, and the

course of Mulan’s whole life would have been altered.

11.In the midst of the hustle, Mulan heard her mother scolding

Silverscreen, a maid of sixteen in the other cart, for being over painted

and overdressed. Silverscreen was embarrassed before everybody; and

Bluehaze, the elder maid of nineteen, assisting the mother into her cart,

was silently smiling, being secretly glad that she had known better than to

overdress for this journey and had listened to the mistress’s instructions.

You could see at a glance that the mother was the ruler of the family.

She was a woman in the middle thirties, broad-shouldered, square

faced, and inclined to be stout; and she spoke in a clear, commanding

voice.

12.When everybody was well seated and ready to start, a little maid of

eleven, whose name was Frankincense, was seen crying at the door. She

was utterly miserable about being left behind to stay alone with Lota and

the other servants.

“Let her come along, “Mulan’s father said to his wife. “She can at

least help fill the tobacco for your water pipe.

So, at the last moment, Frankincense jumped into the maids’ cart.

Everybody seemed to have found a place. Mrs. Yao shouted to the maids

to let down the bamboo screen at the front of their covered cart, and not

to peep out too much.

13.There were five covered carts, with one pony among the mules. The

maternal uncle, Feng, and the young boy led the party, followed by the

mother, riding with the elder maid, Bluehaze, who was holding a babytwo years old. In the third cart were Mulan and her sister Mochow and the

adopted daughter, whose name was Coral. The three other maids,

Silverscreen, Brocade, fourteen, and little Frankincense, were in the next

cart. Mr. Yao, the father, sat alone and brought up the rear. His son Tijen

had avoided riding in the same cart with him, and had preferred the uncle.

A manservant, Lotung, who was the brother of Lota, sat on the

outside in Mr. Yao’s cart, one leg crossed on the shaft and one left

dangling.

To the people who had gathered to watch the departing family, Mrs.

Yao loudly announced that they were going for a few days to their

relatives in the Western Hills, although actually they were going south.

Whatever their destination, it was obvious to the passers-by that they

were fleeing from the oncoming allied European troops who were

marching upon Peking.

14.And so with a waddle-ho! And ta . . . tr! And cracking of whips, the

party started. The children were all excited, for it was their first trip to

their Hangchow home, about which they had heard their parents speak so

often.

Mulan greatly admired her father. He had refused to flee from

Peking until the evening of the eighteenth; and, now that they had decided

to seek safety in their home at Hangchow, he had made extremely cool

and unperturbed preparations for the departure. For Mr. Yao was a true

Taoist, and refused to be excited.

“Excitement is not good for the soul, “Mulan heard her father say.

Another argument of his was: When you yourself are right, nothing that

happens to you can ever be wrong. “In later life Mulan had many

occasions to think about this saying of her father’s, and it became a sort

of philosophy for her, from which she derived much of her good cheer

and courage. A world in which nothing that happens to you can ever be

wrong is a good, cheerful world, and one has courage to live and to

endure.

15.War clouds had been in the air since May. The allied foreign troops

had taken the fort at the seacoast, but the railway to Peking had been

destroyed by the Boxers, who had grown in power and popularity and

swarmed over the countryside.

The Empress Dowager had hesitated between avoiding a war with

the foreign powers and using the Boxers, a strange, unknown, frightening

force whose one object was to destroy the foreigners in China and who

claimed magical powers and magic protection against foreign bullets. The

Court issued orders one day for the arrest of the Boxer leaders, and the

next day appointed the pro-Boxer Prince Tuan as minister for foreignaffairs. Court intrigue played an important part in this reversal of the

decision to suppress the Boxers. The Empress Dowager had already

deprived her nephew the Emperor of his actual power, and was planning

to depose him. She favored Prince Tuan’s son, a worthless rascal, as

successor to the throne. Thinking that a foreign war would increase his

personal power and obtain the throne for his son, Prince Tuan encouraged

the Empress Dowager to believe that the Boxers’ magic actually made

them proof against foreign bullets. Besides, the Boxers had threatened to

capture “One Dragon and two Tigers” to sacrifice to heaven for betrayal

of their nation, the “Dragon” being the reformist Emperor whose

“hundred days of reform” two years earlier had shocked the conservative

mandarinate, and the “Tigers” being the elderly Prince Ching and Li

Hungchang, who had been in charge of the foreign policy.

The Boxers were actually within the capital. A lieutenant colonel

who had been sent out to fight them had been ambushed and killed, and

his soldiers had joined the Boxers. Highly popular and triumphant, the

Boxers had captured Peking, killing foreigners and Christian Chinese and

burning their churches. The diplomatic corps protested, but Kang Yi, sent

to “investigate” the Boxers, reported that they were “sent from Heaven to

drive Out the Oceanic People and wipe out China’s shame” and secretly

let tens of thousands of them into the capital.

16.Once inside, the Boxers, under the covert protection of the Empress

Dowager and Prince Tuan, terrorized the city. They roamed the streets,

hunting and killing “First Hairies” and “Second and Third Hairies. ” The

“First Hairies” were the foreigners; the “Second and Third Hairies” were

the. Christians, clerks in foreign firms, and any other English-speaking

Chinese. They went about burning churches and foreign houses,

destroying foreign mirrors, foreign umbrellas, foreign clocks, and foreign

paintings.

Mr. Yao, being a well-read man and in sympathy with the reformist

Emperor, thought the whole thing silly and dangerous child’s play, but

kept his convictions to himself. He had his own good reasons to be

“antiforeign” in a sense, and hated the church as a foreign religion

protected by a superior foreign power; but he was too intelligent to

approve of the Boxers, and was grateful that Lota and his brother Lotung

had kept away from the rabble.

17.There was fighting in the city. The German Minister had been fallen

upon and murdered by Manchu soldiers. The Legation Quarter was under

siege, and the Legation Guards bad been holding out for two months,

waiting for relief from Tientsin. Yung Lu, one of the most trusted men of

the Empress Dowager, who was put in command of the Imperial Guardsto attack the Legations, was not in favor of the attack and secretly gave

orders for their protection. But whole blocks of the city near the Legation

Quarter had been razed to the ground, and whole streets in the South City

burned down. The city was truly more in the hands of the Boxers than of

the Government. Even the water carriers and toilet cleaners were not

allowed to pursue their business unless they had red and yellow turbans

wound around their heads.

All through this period Mr. Yao had refused to consider moving. All