Travelers from history and their famous sea voyages

titleNOTE 4
/titlecategory1/categoryNOTE 4.–Several of the customs of Tangut mentioned in this chapter are
essentially Chinese, and are perhaps introduced here because it was on
entering Tangut that the traveller first came in contact with Chinese
peculiarities. This is true of the manner of forming coffins, and keeping
them with the body in the house, serving food before the coffin whilst it
is so kept, the burning of paper and papier-mach?figures of slaves,
horses, etc., at the tomb. Chinese settlers were very numerous at Shachau
and the neighbouring Kwachau, even in the 10th century. (_Ritter_, II.
213.) [Keeping a body unburied for a considerable time is called _khng
koan_, to conceal or store away a coffin, or _thng koan_, to detain a
coffin. It is, of course, a matter of necessity in such cases to have the
cracks and fissures, and especially the seam where the case and the lid
join, hermetically caulked. This is done by means of a mixture of chunam
and oil. The seams, sometimes even the whole coffin, are pasted over with
linen, and finally everything is varnished black, or, in case of a
mandarin of rank, red. In process of time, the varnishing is repeated as
many times as the family think desirable or necessary. And in order to
protect the coffin still better against dust and moisture, it is generally
covered with sheets of oiled paper, over which comes a white pall. (_De
Groot_, I. 106.)–H. C.] Even as regards the South of China many of the
circumstances mentioned here are strictly applicable, as may be seen in
_Doolittles Social Life of the Chinese_. (See, for example, p. 135; also
_Astley_, IV. 93-95, or Marsdens quotations from _Duhalde_.) The custom
of burning the dead has been for several centuries disused in China, but
we shall see hereafter that Polo represents it as general in his time. On
the custom of burning gilt paper in the form of gold coin, as well as of
paper clothing, paper houses, furniture, slaves, etc., see also
_Medhurst_, p. 213, and _Kidd_, 177-178. No one who has read Pre Huc will
forget his ludicrous account of the Lamas charitable distribution of
paper horses for the good of disabled travellers. The manufacture of mock
money is a large business in Chinese cities. In Fuchau there are more than
thirty large establishments where it is kept for sale. (_Doolittle_, 541.)
[The Chinese believe that sheets of paper, partly tinned over on one side,
are, according to the prevailing conviction, turned by the process of
fire into real silver currency available in the world of darkness, and
sent there through the smoke to the soul; they are called _gn-tso_,
silver paper. Most families prefer to previously fold every sheet in the
shape of a hollow ingot, a silver ingot, _gn-kh_ as they call it. This
requires a great amount of labour and time, but increases the value of the
treasure immensely. (_De Groot_, I. 25.) Presenting paper money when
paying a visit of condolence is a custom firmly established, and
accordingly complied with by everybody with great strictness…. The paper
is designed for the equipment of the coffin, and, accordingly, always
denoted by the term _koan-tha?tso_, coffin paper. But as the
receptacle of the dead is, of course, not spacious enough to hold the
whole mass offered by so many friends, it is regularly burned by lots by
the side of the corpse, the ashes being carefully collected to be
afterwards wrapped in paper and placed in the coffin, or at the side of
the coffin, in the tomb. (_De Groot_, I. 31-32.)–H. C.] There can be
little doubt that these latter customs are symbols of the ancient
sacrifices of human beings and valuable property on such occasions; so
Manetho states that the Egyptians in days of yore used human sacrifices,
but a certain King Amosis abolished them and substituted images of wax.
Even when the present Manchu Dynasty first occupied the throne of China,
they still retained the practice of human sacrifice. At the death of
Kanghis mother, however, in 1718, when four young girls offered
themselves for sacrifice on the tomb of their mistress, the emperor would
not allow it, and prohibited for the future the sacrifice of life or the
destruction of valuables on such occasions. (_Deguignes, Voy._ I. 304.)
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