expression from which it might be inferred that children are by no means considered an unmingled blessing. It is of no consequence,' says the proverb, that children are born late in one's life-what is to be feared is that fate should decree them a short life,' (t

KA #K). If one's destiny is to have sons, what signifies early or late, provided they do but live?' (2, 1 27 E, 只要活着).

Yet another proverb says; 'Sons should be born early-not late,' (#447, 7). This maxim like many other Chinese sayings, is the expression of pure selfishness. If sons are born early, they may be expected to grow to maturity and wait upon their parents for many years, while they are still alive. If otherwise, there is danger that the parents may die before their sons are of sufficient age to render much service, and thus the trouble expended upon the children will be wasted!

That a nation so firmly persuaded that everything in life is fated, should be strongly impressed with the influence of Fate on one's children, is a matter of course. Wealth and children have each a fixed fate,' (ƒƒ3). 'Wealth and children are alike subject to Fate,'(財帛兒女命相連).

'Riches, sons and daughters are fixed by Destiny,' (WAģ

), and this is indirectly assumed in such expressions as the following; 'His virtue has been cultivated to the extent of five sons and two daughters' (,). On the other hand, a vicious child, is a punishment, inflicted in the present life, (7 是个現世報).

The absolute necessity of having children in the family-one's

own, or adopted-is a postulate of Chinese social ethics, for otherwise there will be no one to keep up the sacrifices to ancestors. There are three things,' said Mencius, which are unfilial, and to have no posterity is the greatest of them,' (7,∞).

But in connection with this tenet, it is essential to take cognizance of the most prominent social fact in China, to wit, the 'struggle for existence.' The tremendous pressure of this mighty force is everywhere felt. 'A child but a foot long, requires three feet of cloth,' (一尺的孩,三尺布)

But a child, no matter what its linear measurement, requires, even in China, very much more than a yard of cloth. As a rule, the countless millions of this teeming Empire appear always to have spent the main part of the first three years of their lives in somebody's arms, for Confucius assigns this as the singular reason for observing a period of three year's mourning for parents. In China the phrase

'infaut in arms,' (✯ ✯ ✯ F) has an appalling significance, to which Occidental lands can probably furnish few parallels. During all the time that children are 'in arms,' the treadmill of absolutely necessary work is interrupted, and with this interruption, the small, but indispensable family income, diminishes or disappears. Thus it is easy to understand how 'A poor family rearing a child, is oppressed by poverty for three years,' (小戶人家飬个孩子, 受 三 年 窮).

It is due to this grinding experience, as well as to the terrible uncertainty how one's children will turn out '-by which is intended as much their external success in life, as their moral character, that they are so often described by the strange expression: Yüan chia (), 'foes,' or 'oppressors of the family.' 'Many sons and many daughters, many family foes; no sons and no daughters, a living Pu Sa’(多兒多女多寃家, 沒兒沒女活菩薩) (In place of the last three characters, Mr. Scarborough's book gives, No. 2170, a family of fairies).' If one is fated to have many children, he comforts himself with the aphoristic reflection; 'If there are many, we can manage to rake up a little more profit,' (ŢIUSEE, a proverb which encourages to try his luck again in gambling, trading, or any other doubtful venture. 'A son successfully reared is a real son, otherwise he is a trouble to the family,' (****7*

*). Expressions of this sort, are to be interpreted by the same kind of triangular exegesis of which a specimen has already been given, explaining the force of three characters all pronounced tu (5) as applied to women. Here, in like manner, we have three yuan characters; when the father is unkind and the son unfilial, this is the yuan () meaning wrong, and injustice; when the father and son are inharmonious, this is yuan (E), meaning resentment. But when the father is truly paternal, and the son really filial, this is yuan (#), fate. Ordinary language, however, takes very little notice of these subtleties. These painful uncertainties attendant on the wholesale rearing of children, give rise to the proverbial warnings against having too many of them, 'One son and one daughter, one flower

stalk; many sons and many daughters, many family-wrongs,' (H 女一枝花多兒多女多寃家).‘If you rear sons do not rear two-if you rear two you will be like Ling Kuan horses; if you

rear sons do not rear three-if you rear three, you will have no home at all,’(養兒別養雨,養兩靈官馬,養兒別養 三, 養 三 沒 ). This proverb is based upon the understanding that the final cause of children is to benefit the parents. When, for example, the mother has grown old, and is obliged to live with her children, if there are two she will be made to go from one to another, and have no rest. Ling Kuan () is said to be the title of a deified Chou

Dynasty officer named Wang, who was always on a detail to subjugate some kingdom in the extreme west, or to 'tranquilize' some region in the remote east. Thus his horses' hoofs never had any rest, (T ). A mother who lives with two sons, may expect a similar experience, but if she have three, 'It will be still worse, for then she will never be at home anywhere. In a word 'He who has many sons, will have many fears,' (US). So that, after all, on every ground, 'If one's sons are only dutiful, there is no need of wishing for many-one is better than ten,' (7 Я 3,

). The parental love for children, even at their worst, is indicated in the expression; 'Pleasure-going troubles,' ( 65 ). So also, 'children are visible joys,' (±aйK). Even a skillful housewife can not manage four children,' (7 ↑ 7). This saying is one of those touches of nature which show that the whole world is kin. What with cooking, mending, and the general management of domestic affairs, the most expert administrator, must soon reach the limit of her powers.

The relative advantages of sons and daughters are emphatically indicated in the saying; Eighteen Lohan-daughters, are not equal to a boy with a crooked foot,' (十八个羅漢女,赶不上个 ). By the expression Eighteen Lohan-daughters, is intended girls who in beauty &c., are as much models in their way as the eighteen Companions of Buddha' were in theirs. It is to be gathered from this that the best girls are not equal to the worst boys. Yet if boys are not to be had, still, girls are better than nothing! If one can not get any mercury, red earth becomes valuable,' (# 砂, 紅土子為 貴).

In the essentially selfish nature of the relations between Chinese parents and their children, is to be found an explanation of the otherwise inexplicable dislike of daughters. Men rear sons,' says one of their proverbs, to provide for old age; they plant trees, because they want the shade,'(養兒防老,種樹圖陰凉). But this holds true of sons only-not of daughters. By the time a girl would begin to repay the trouble expended in rearing her, she is betrothed, and becomes an additional burden. Her wedding is a drain on the family resources, for which there is no compensation. After her marriage she is the exclusive property of the husband's family, and as beyond control or her parents, as water which has burst its banks. (

). When she comes for more or less frequent visits to her own home, she is generally at work for herself or for her husband of for their children (none of whom are any part of her parents family) and when she returns to her mother-in-law, it must

be with a present from her own family. If her mother is old, helpless, and widowed, the daughter can not care for her. Wild grain does not go for grain taxes, a daughter does not support her mother.' #7 74*, B★7*W). Upon these terms, it is not, perhaps, surprising that when daughters are most enthusiastically welcomed at their birth, it is with the philosophic reflection; 'Girls too are necessary!'

Such being the Chinese social philosophy in reference to children, it is not surprising to hear that the duties of parents are exhausted when they have seen their offspring married. The obligation to achieve this, is recognized as being most imperative, and second to none other: To marry boys and wed girls, this is the great rite of chief importance; how can parents repudiate this debt?' (L, 大禮攸關, 父母焉能辭其責).

'Daughters must not be kept at home unmarried; if they are forcibly kept in this condition, it is sure to breed enmity,' (女大不可留,强留必定仇)

'When sons are paired, and daughters mated, the principal business of life is accomplished,’(兒成雙女成對,一生大事已完). This done, parents can then proceed to die without remorse!'

One of the very few current aphorisms which suggests any duties at all on the part of parents, towards children, bases the demand for kind treatment, on the fact that extreme severity will prevent the children from being filial-in which case, the parents may have all their trouble for nothing.

'If the father and mother are not lenient, it will be difficult to bring about a filial course on the part of children,' (#7E, #ƒ«*). The same reasoning is applied to the behavior of the Prince toward his people, and with a similar motive. If the Prince is not upright, the ministers are sure not to be loyal; if the father is not compassionate, the son is certain not to be filial,' (君不正臣必不忠,父不慈子定不孝).

Selfishness is therefore at the bottom of this virtue. Such being the inherent difficulties, only those can boast, who have achieved success: He who has no father and mother, can boast of his filial behavior; those who have no children boast of their neatness, (沒老子娘誇孝順沒兒女誇乾淨)

One may rear a son who is thievish, but not a son who is destitute of sense,' (7, 7). This signifies, not that it is better that a son should be a thief than to be stupid, but that a youth whose natural disposition would be likely to lead him into theft, may by good training become an excellent and prosperous man; whereas the youth who has no sense, will never under any circumstances, come to anything.

It is of course easy, to affirm, in the language of the opening sentence of the Trimetrical Classic, that all mankind at their origin

have a nature which is originally good,' (AZ, E✯ ✯), and that

The heart of a child is like the heart of Buddha,' (J、 51 # ŭ, 似佛心) ). And when the facts recorded by observation and experience cannot readily be harmonized with this generalization, it is equally easy to argue-as is often done when dissuading from punishing a child; When the tree has grown large, it will straighten itself,’(樹若大了,自然直),(or more briefly 樹大自直). In practice, however, the method of treating a child born obstreperous-in defiance of the Trimetrical Classic-is to let him alone, and hope for the best. To this effect is the following saying; 'A violent boy will turn out well; a turbulent girl is sure to be skillful,' (利害小兒是个好的,利害閨女是个巧的).

The course of things when any one really undertakes any discipline of children, is well expressed in the proverb; 'Domestic chickens only fly round and round-wild chickens fly into the skies,' (家鷄打的團團轉,野鶴打的滿天飛)i.e-ones own children can not get away-those of others run home.

The common view that every one else's children come to something with an implication that one's own do not, is conveyed in the saying; 'Everybody who rears children likes to have them succeed,' (**Я*, LE). i.e. other people's do so-mine do not, often said in mere politeness. The excessive and blind love (E) for children which can refuse them nothing, is satirized by impartial observers in the following saying; 'If he calls for a man's brains, then hold the man down, and knock out the brains!' (A #7, #E). Parents who are irrationally anxious about their children, and always guarding them with superabundant care, are ridiculed in the following saying; 'Hold him in your mouth, for fear he should melt,'(口裏含着,怕他化了).

It is a common jest on a rainy day, when one's ordinary occupation is interrupted; 'A cloudy day-leisure to beat the children,' (陰天打孩子,閑着的工夫).

The Chinese view of the parental relation is in some aspects a highly practical one, as the sayings already cited show. It is in this view that we are told that: 'A whole house-full of sons and daughters, is not after all equal even to a second wife,' (# ƒk, 70B). The children, that is to say, escape, and have other concernments elsewhere, while one's wife is always at hand.

The love of parents to children is alluded to in many sayings: "The tiger, though fierce, does not devour its cubs,' (#77).