of a play. It is reckoned that several hundred companies find employment in Peking; and along the rivers and canals numerous strolling companies live in barges. A troop usually consists of eight or ten persons, mostly slaves of the manager, who accordingly occupy a very mean place in public estimation. To purchase a free child for the purpose of educating him as an actor, is punished by a hundred strokes of the bamboo; and no free female is allowed to marry into that class. To this contempt for the performers, as well as to the low standard of the drama among the Chinese, who seem to view it merely as the amusement of an idle hour, may be ascribed the depressed state in which it continues to exist. The dramatic poet has liberty and employment, but he has not honor, which seems equally necessary for the production of anything great in the arts. Scenery and stage effect, which indeed the places of performance would render very dif ficult to produce, are never attempted. A theatre can at any time be erected in two hours: a platform of boards is elevated six or seven feet from the ground on posts of bamboo; three sides are hung with curtains of cotton cloth, while the front is left open to the audience. Occasionally, as in the following engraving, a more permanent and substantial structure is occupied for the purpose.

Under these humiliating circumstances, there do not seem to have arisen any great names, to which the Chinese people can refer with pride as national dramatists. Numerous pieces have, however, been produced, particularly under the dynasty of the Tang. A collection has been formed amounting to one hundred and ninety-nine volumes, from which are selected a hundred plays, supposed to comprehend the flower of this class

of productions. Of these, only five have been translated, namely, two tragedies, "the Orphan of Tchao," by Father Premare, and "The Sorrows of Han," by Mr. Davis; and three comedies, "The Heir in his Old Age," by the latter gentleman, "The Circle of Chalk," by M. Stanislas-Julien, and "The Intrigues of a Waiting-Maid," by M. Bazin. This, no doubt, is but a small portion of so great a mass; yet, as it consists of favorite productions, chosen by judicious translators, the Chinese drama will not probably have cause to complain of being judged according to such specimens.

On perusing even the best of these compositions, we at once discover that the dialogue is nearly as rude and inartificial as the scenery. Instead of allowing characters and events to be developed in the progress of the piece, each performer, on his first entry, addresses the audience, and informs them who and what he is, what remarkable deeds he has performed, and what are his present views and intentions. On these occasions he speaks completely in the style of a third person, stating, without veil or palliation, the most. enormons crimes, either committed or contemplated. The unities, which have been considered so essential to classic drama, are completely trampled under foot; and even the license as to time and place, to which Shakspere has accustomed an English audience, is far exceeded. The Orphan of Tchao is born in the first act, and before the end of the drama figures as a grown man. In the Circle of Chalk, a young lady in one scene receives and accepts proposals of marriage; in the next, she appears with a daughter aged five years. The tragedies labor under a much more serious defect, in the absence of impassioned and poetic dialogue. The performer, in the most critical and trying moments, makes no attempt to express his sorrows in corresponding language. Action alone is employ, which affords a genuine, indeed, though not very dramatic indication of the depth of his feelings. The hero, in the most tragic scene, strangles himself, or stabs his enemy, with the same coolness as if he had been sitting down to table. This defect may probably be connected with the national character; with that stately reserve maintained, especially by public men, studious of decorum, and continually under the eye of jealous superiors. This seems the more probable, since, in private life and to intimate friends, they sometimes give utterance to their emotions with considerable warmth. These dramas, however, can not be read without some interest. The incidents are affecting, the situations striking; there is a continued movement and action; one impressive scene closely follows another, without those long speeches and languid intervals, which can scarcely be avoided by writers who must fill up a drama expected to occupy a certain portion of time and space.

The Orphan of Tchao includes a plot of so much interest, that it was adopted by Voltaire as the basis of a successful tragedy. A tyrannical minister, abusing the favor of his sovereign, satiates his vengeance on a hated rival, whom he not only puts to death, but extirpates his family, to the number of three hundred. An infant boy, however, is rescued, and reared by

the family physician as his own son, in which character the youth becomes a favorite of the murderer. On his reaching the age of twenty, the supposed father discloses the secret of his birth to the youth, who then becomes an instrument in avenging the wrongs of his house.

The comic dramas have the same structure, and nearly the same defects with the tragic. They do not display those varieties and nice shades of character, nor those sallies of humor, which enlighten the American; but they are, nevertheless, diversified with striking incidents, and exhibit a genuine picture of Chinese life. They are, in fact, novels in a dramatic. form, and the observations on the former species of composition will apply to them. The incident with which the Circle of Chalk terminates has a striking similarity to that of the "Judgment of Solomon." A circle of chalk is formed round the child, of which the two female claimants are desired to take hold, and each draw it toward herself; and she who succeeds in wresting it from the other is to be adjudged the mother. The real parent proves her claim to that character by refusing to subject the infant to so dangerous a predicament. The coincidence is probably accidental, and the description in the sacred volume is much happier and more effective.

CHAPTER XVIII.

nates.

THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA.

THE Chinese are divided into three religious sects, who are followers of the tenets inculcated by Confucius, Laou-Keun or Taou, and Fo or Budha. The Confucian is the religion of the state, although the emperor builds and endows temples belonging to the other sects. The system of Confucius may be more properly termed a system of morality than a religion, as it is intended to inculcate the duties of men toward each other, rather than those which they owe to a superior being. The Confucians believe in one supreme Deity, but they have no regular priesthood; their religious rites consisting solely of sacrifices made in the temples on stated occasions, when the emperor officiates as high-priest, and the chief mandarins as his subordiThe heavens, earth, sun, and moon, are worshipped: when the heavens are worshipped, the emperor is clad in silken robes of azure-blue; when the earth, his robes are saffron-colored; the sun is worshipped in crimson robes, and the moon in robes of a cream-white hue. The sacrifices are offered at fixed periods: that to heaven is made on the day of the winter-solstice; that to earth, on the day of the summer-solstice; the others being made according to the inclination or pleasure of the emperor. The victims sacrificed are cows, pigs, bullocks, and sheep: these are cut up and cooked, being afterward placed upon altars dedicated to heaven and earth; the form of the altar dedicated to the former is round-to the latter, square. Before taking part in any of these sacrificial rites, the following regulations are enforced a rigid fast must be maintained for three entire days, neither listening to music, conversing with wives or concubines, or mourning for the dead during that period. The mode of worship consists in numerous prostrations before the altar, kotouing, or knocking the head nine times against the ground; but when the emperor personally officiates, the kotouing is not performed by him, bowing to the altar being substituted for the prostrations. Once in the course of the twelve months, the empress, princesses, and imperial handmaids, or concubines, are allowed to take part in the minor sacrifices.

If the various rites and ceremonies prescribed by Confucius are not followed by the officers of state, a fine is inflicted; but if any priests of Taou or Budha should attempt to imitate the ceremonies of the state religion, it is deemed profanation, and they are punished most severely; if any unauthorized or common person should attempt to hold communication with the gods, or make known their desires or wants to their gods, after the man

ner adopted or used by the emperor, for the first offence they receive sixtyfive blows with a bamboo on the soles of the feet; if the offence is repeated, then they suffer death by strangulation. The objects worshipped by the followers of Confucius are numerous; but the following are the principal persons and things to which sacrifices are offered, and these sacrifices are divided into several classes, such as the chief sacrifices, the medium sacrifices, sacrifices for the multitude, sacrifices in times of drought, sickness, and war, &c. The Lord of heaven; Confucius, the founder of the sect; the ancient patron of the silk-manufacture; the first patron of agriculture; the ancient patron of medicine; the spirits of scholars and statesmen; the gods of the earth and its produce; the gods of heaven, earth, and the passing year; the god of a thoroughfare through which an army must pass; the queen-goddess of heaven and earth;-the heavens, or the imperial concave expanse; the earth; the principal temple of ancestors; the sun, the moon, and the stars; the four elements; the five principal mountains of China; the four seas, the highest hills, the largest rivers; military-flags, banners, and trophies: these are the chief objects of worship.

Two thousand and nearly four hundred years have elapsed since the death of Confucius; yet his name continues to be held in as much veneration as ever throughout the Chinese empire; and although he did not pretend to divine inspiration like Mohammed, or profess to be endowed with more than human attributes, he is worshipped as a superior being, and many temples are dedicated to him in all the provinces of China.

The sect of the Budhists is supposed to have been founded about four hundred and fifty years before the birth of Confucius, by an Indian sage of royal birth, who is said to have devoted his whole life to the instruction and moral improvement of the people and the reformation of their religion,