Tiumen

“ The peasantry, male and female, are, with few exceptions, hideous.
It says little, however, for the intelligence or civilization of the population of both Tomsk and Irkoutsk, that we were unable to procure a single French or German book at either city. We had not had a single book of any kind to read since leaving Pekin, and were naturally anxious to get something to lighten the tedious and weary hours that lay between us and Tiumen, but, search as we might, could discover no French or German, to say nothing of English, work of any kind. ”

“ Beside the house the brawling Taipo river sweeps down from the hills, where they said there was still much gold, could it but be found. Taipo was the embodiment of peace—a place to slumber in, for since the railway was made, fewer and fewer seem to care to spend their time as we were doing: the towns are the attraction for the country dwellers. We left it to its sleep, feeling host, servitor, and inn would soon all be at rest.
As evening drew on we entered a country which has been utterly changed by gold mining. Hills have been torn down, valleys have been made ”

“ Never does he appear again either in imperial or Taiping literature. But another name meets us in imperial sources, and very recently in a book purporting to come from a rebel writer. [5] Every Chinese account speaks of six instead of five minor wangs in the Taiping state as it was first constituted. The additional one is called T'ienteh-wang. But, even more significant, in the earlier days of the rebellion almost all the proclamations which were translated and published by foreigners place the title T'ienteh in the position usually occupied by the emperor's name in imperial mandates. ”

“ By advancing at once they could avoid any danger from General Hsiang Yung, the imperial commissioner, who, after a short delay at Wuchang, where he arranged the affairs of that place, had set out to follow the rebels, only to be held up by a lack of boats at Kiukiang. Could they only secure themselves along the Yellow River, the Taipings would be in a favorable position to attack the eapital. ”

“ If he became an emperor at Changsha and yet continued to retain his title of wang, what was the significance of the ceremony? Without dogmatising from the slender clues we have, does it not seem probable that whereas Hung had been one of two sovereigns, and that by now the fate of T'ienteh had become known to them, the ceremony at Changsha was the advancing of the Taiping-wang or T'ienwang to the position of sole monarch. [21] Certainly all the documents that reached the hands of foreigners in the early course of the rebellion are dated in the reign of T'ienteh. ”

“ At last we neared some foothills which we crossed by a baby pass, and from the farther side looked off against the distant Tateyama range. Descending again, another stretch of plain brought us to Toyama, the old feudal capital of the province. It is still a bustling town, and does a brisk business, I was told, in patent medicine, which is hawked over Japan generally and cures everything. But the former splendor of the place has left it forever. ”

“ Whether they were simply terrified at the gradual closing in of the imperial army or were urged to mutiny by men who desired to gain the leadership does not appear from the records.
The great deliverance that came inspired confidence throughout the entire army. No longer did they disobey their leaders or fear the imperialists. In the city of Yungan, while the imperialists slowly gathered their forces for the siege, the Taipings organised their kingdom. The provisional government instituted at Kint'ien gave place to the more permanent organisation ”

“ Thus far we have seen the Taipings, in their progress from Kwangsi to Nanking, move like a gala procession, welcomed in spite of their bizarre religious ideas as deliverers from Manchu bondage. The moment they should cross the river and plunge into the northern provinces it would be quite otherwise. They would be strangers in the enemy's country. Few would be their recruits; more stubborn would be the resistance from government and populace. ”

“ Those who have been attacking Tientsin are still in that neighbourhood, but you may come across other parties marching down to join them. They are terrible people. If anyone refuses to give them all that they ask for, they will kill everyone in the house and burn it afterwards. They make most of the young men go with them to fight the whites in Tientsin. It is a terrible time. I can remember the Taiping rebellion, and this seems to me to be quite as bad. They all say that the Empress is in their favour, but I cannot believe it. They tell terrible tales about the missionaries ”

“ The Taiping rebels were in Kiu-kiang in 1853, and their progress left behind it a ruined and depopulated city. It was not until the port was opened to foreign trade (in 1861) , and the presence of a small foreign community had inspired feelings of confidence and security, that the natives flocked back to rebuild the town. It is walled round, and adjoins the lower extremity of the foreign quarter ”

“ If Taiping sources do not throw any more light on these difficulties we may examine other sources. The chief imperialist accounts of the rebellion trace the rise of the movement to a revolutionary brotherhood started at Kout'ushan by a certain Chu Kiu-t'ao. Into this brotherhood Hung and Fêng both entered later. But afterwards they realised that their magical arts were insufficient and thereupon all went to Kwangsi, where they founded the order of God-worshippers, in the Kweip'ing district. ”

“ Since early seventeenth century the Chinese people began to step up the development of Taiwan. Their numbers topped one hundred thousand at the end of the century. By 1893 (19th year of the reign of Qing Emperor Guangxu) their population exceeded 2.54 million people in 507,000 or more households. That was a 25-fold increase in 200 years. They brought in a more advanced mode of production and settled the whole length and breadth of Taiwan. Thanks to the determined efforts and hard toil of the pioneers, the development of the island as a whole greatly accelerated. ”

“ Taipeng is a thriving, increasing place, of over six thousand inhabitants, solely Chinese, with the exception of a small Kling population, which keeps small shops, lends money, drives gharries and bullock-carts, and washes clothes. ”

“ The inhabitants of Western Toumet, as may well be imagined, have completely lost the stamp of their original Mongol character; they have all become, more or less, Chinese; many of them do not even know a word of the Mongol language. Some, indeed, do not scruple to express contempt for their brothers of the desert, who refuse to subject their prairies to the ploughshare ”

“ The traveler who lets his friends rush him about the foreign concession of Tientsin by trolley or automobile will get an impression of a comfortable Western community in an Oriental land, but he will carry off very little idea of the real China, or even of the real Tientsin, which 106is a swarming Chinese city, none the less so for having had its wall reduced to a street of boulevard width as a punishment for the Boxer uprising. ”

“ The waters have ever receded, and Dai Nippon still stands.”
“The tide of tojin trade has never receded from wherever it has flowed. Tojin power is far beyond the knowledge of Your Highness. Do not judge by the Dutch. They are now a very little people in the tojin world. In the august name of Minamoto Iyeyasu and in the name of Anjin Sama, his counsellor, I ask Minamoto Iyeyoshi to receive and ponder on the memorial of Yoritomo Sama.” ”

“ On account of its flat surroundings, Tientsin is the least picturesque city of China. There is a recreation ground, Victoria Gardens, native gardens, a race course around a graveyard, a jockey club, much society, naval and military life, theatricals, and facilities for the many athletic, swimming, boating and skating clubs. Except in summer the climate is charmingly dry; the wind and sand storms are greatly feared, however. The loess dust is as penetrating as the alkali dust of Arizona. ”

“ Finding at Tumen a very comfortable covered sledge for sale at the post-station, we immediately purchased it, as well as a smaller one for the accommodation of Mr. Schwartz and the baggage. The posting from Tumen westward is better organised than in Eastern Siberia. It is managed, not by government, but by a private company. No scarcity of horses is ever complained of in the company's line; for government takes care that the work is well done. ”

“ Work well with me to hold the headwaters of our rivers; let no stranger come in to snatch them from our people.”
Temudjin commanded to say to a slave named Togrul: “I have called thee my brother for the following reason: On a time Tumbinai and his brother Charaha had a slave known as Okda. This slave had a son Subaigai and he a son Kirsan Kokocho, and he a son Aiga Huantohar, this last man begat thee. Why dost thou flatter Wang Khan and adhere to him? Altan and Huchar would never let other men rule over my flock. Thou art my slave by inheritance, hence I address thee as brother.” ”

“ But Hohodemi's curiosity was too strong for him. He peeped in, and behold! his wife had become changed into a wani (sea-monster or dragon) , eight fathoms long. Deeply indignant at the disgrace put upon her, Toyo-tama-hime abandoned her new-born child to the care of her sister, and barring behind her the sea-path in such a way that from that day to this all communication between the realms of land and sea has been cut off, returned hastily to her father's palace.
The child thus born was the father of Jimmu Tenno, the first human sovereign of Japan. ”

“ A wide expanse unfolds on every side, with only the heavens above. One can make out Tzinan, and faintly the Hoang Ho, then a lake of considerable size, and the railway stretching like a hair on the glass into infinity in either direction—a brown world rolling away in a myriad of peaks and knobs and salients of what looks like a boiling landscape suddenly struck solid. I have nowhere been able to find why Tai-shan is a sacred mountain, but it was already so twenty-five hundred years before the Christian era began ”

“ Ti-en has given to the world no malady without its cure; he has placed the water-lily by the side of the pimento—the wood to make the sluice beside the torrent of Kiang-ho. It is for man to discover the remedy. Ti-en knows always what he does—and we—we do what we know not!
My mind is now calm; my heart is light, as is every thing which is empty. I shall now go and take my leave of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and endeavor to correct the errors in diplomacy I have made, since I have been possessed by the foot of Mademoiselle Alexandrine de Saint Phar! ”

“ When Subotai’s fury had calmed somewhat Cheng ho shang, who was also in the city, came out of his hiding and asked to be taken to the chief of the Mongols. “If I had perished in the rush of defeat,” said he to Tului, “some men might declare me a traitor; now all will see how I die, and must know that I am honest.” He would not submit, though the Mongols tried long to induce him to do so. To make the man kneel they chopped both his feet off, and split his mouth to the ears to force silence ”

“ As he was intimate with the prince of that province, he was speedily admitted to an interview, and stated the object of his visit, saying, “I require two of your swiftest steeds, in order to cross the sea to Barzakh: if you do me this favor, you will have a claim to my services for life.” On hearing his request, the prince gave him his choice of all his winged horses; and the prince of Tuman having selected the two he considered best, returned to his companion. ”

“ In Tali there are four chief officials: the Prefect or Fu Magistrate, the Hsien or City Magistrate, the Intendant or Taotai, and the Titai. The yamen of the Taotai is a humble residence for so important an official; but the yamen of the Titai, between the South Gate and the Five Glory Tower, is one of the finest in the province. The Titai is not only the chief military commander of the province of Yunnan, but he is a very much married man. An Imperialist, he has yet obeyed the Mohammedan injunction and taken to himself four wives in order to be sure of obtaining one good one. ”

“ It was observed the cocoa-palms were suffering, for the plucking of green nuts impoverishes and at last endangers the tree. Now Kooamua could tapu the reef, which was public property, but he could not tapu other people’s palms; and the expedient adopted was interesting. He tapu’d his own trees, and his example was imitated over all Hatiheu and Anaho. I fear Taipi might have tapu’d all that he possessed and found none to follow him. So much for the esteem in which the dignity of an appointed chief is held by others; a single circumstance will show what he thinks of it himself. ”

“ This was the prince of the island of Tūmān, who had fallen desperately in love with the daughter of the king of Barzakh. He had sought for that solitary spot to give way to his sorrow and anguish. The voice of his lamentation reached the ear of Hatim, who said to his guides, “My dear friends, there is some one near us who feels the pangs of sorrow; let us see what is the cause of his grief.” He started from his couch, and following the direction of the sound came to the enamoured prince. ”