Show wiam WOW t fortha oa paper FELLOW JACKETS AND PEACOCK FEATHERS copyrighted by frauk frank G carpenter 1895 I 1 HUNG CHANG has been given back his yellow jacket and his three eyed pea cock feather the emperor has called aux him to Pe peking leing and he should by this time i be on his way to japan and to aid in the settlement of the war his career aib y C cacy shows the ups and downs ol of chinese officials and a look at it will give some idea of the queer ranks and orders of nobility with which the empire of china is honeycombed honeyc omed li hung chang is a self make man his father was a poor scholar in the province of 0 angui and he had bad to scratch around and skimp himself in order to pay for lis education li passed the examinations ot of his bis own province and those of the district in which he was located and when he was still in his teens he went to peking and wrote his essays in the trig big examination balls there seventeen 1 thousand other students of all ages F from rom eighteen to eighty were being ex if at the same time and li came cam e out the highest this gave him his C start and he was put on the staff of one r of the generals who were acting against ea the rebels in the famous rebel lion this war occurred in china about the time franklin pierce was president it cost the country of lives live r and it was largely through li that it was 5 put down li hung chang is a diplo mat mar as well as a statesman and he f worked his way up from one position to H another until he got to be commander i in n chief he took chinese gordon into his confidence and made him one of the generals gordon drilled the chinese tf according to foreign tactics and together they vanquished the rebels the result was that li became the greatest man in china he was given one big office after another until he became only e t second to the emperor this is the 1 position he occupies today he is superintendent erin ot of northern trade and controls the commercial matters of all north china numbering more than ow of people he is the governor gener general 11 of the province of chili abili and is practically thi the secretary of the state we he has for years years been the chief medium of communication between the chinese and foreign nations and he is the most progressive chinaman in the empire it was he who introduced the telegraph into china and the wires that ran into his palace at connect him with every court of europe and with every part of the united states he is said to be a very rich man and his income ranges between and ro oooo per V year no one knows how much he has made outside of his bis office I 1 heard it H said in that he was worth so 50 i and on the other hand his friends claim that he is not worth more than or whatever behas he has must come from his own idea of his share of the receipts for the L chinese government pays small salaries and expects the officials to steal the balance PEACOCK FEATHERS IN CHINA li has risen in rank as well as in in power he is now an earl and when I 1 saw him last summer at a banquet in liis his palace his head was decorated with a cap out ot of the back ot of which stuck his three eyed peacock feather this last is even a greater distinction than the yellow jacket it is one of the greatest things an emperor can giveand give and is usually coni conferred erred only on princes and nobles ot of the highest degree the feather was about two feet long and was fastened to a big cap with a turn up brim by a great button which rested on the center of the crown of the hat and which was also a mark of high rank the feather s tuck stuck out behind the hat and quivered as ais li hung chang put his yellow fists together and bowed low in saluting his guests there were other peacock feathers upon some of the chinese high officials among the guests but li hung chang was the only one who had a three eyed peacock feather the double eyed peacock feather is a much lower honor and the single eyed peacock feather is worn by many ordinary officials and it is possible to buy the ri right ht to use it even lower than this is bat what is known as the blue plume or the crow feather this is conferred as a reward for services upon officials below the sixth degree of rank and is worn by the imperial guards YELLOW JACKET As to the yellow jacket this is only to be used when the man who hiis has it is in personal attendance upon the emperor in the field or upon journeys it is a sort of a riding cape and it has been awarded to two europeans European sone one of whom was general gordon and the other a frenchman named giquel who established the arsenal at foo chow li hung chang has been getting all sorts of presents irom from ane emperor right along I 1 have before me the lists of the gifts which he received on his seven bieth birthday this was about five years ago and all the officials gave him presents he had bad cartloads cart loads of silk a ton or so of gilt scrolls and jewelry and other stuff valued at a million of dollar dolla rw both the emperor and empress dowager sent him valuable presents the emperor game him sixteen piece of costly satin one dragon robe an image of buddha and a lot of autograph proverbs signifying good wishes and good luck the empress also wrote him a lot of autographs and gave him a statue of buddha she donated him twelve pieces of satin and a robe which was made of the throat skins of sables which are in china considered the most valuable of all furs and can only be worn by the spon special cial permission of f the throne at another time the emperor gave li hung chang and he has already received more honors than any other chinaman who has not noble blood in his veins THE NOBILITY OF CHINA few people have any idea of the nobility of china the country is divided up among the officials ane and it is generally supposed that offices are only given on account of literary merit the truth is that the best places are given out through influence and every chinese state is surrounded by intriguers intrigue rs there is no court in the world a ou which there is so much plotting as aliw that of peking and there is none which has so many nobles and officials of different rank the emperor is of course at the top he is the son of heaven and is supposed to hold communion with the gods all of his bis relatives are nobles and the imperial clan has a courton court of his own which holds secret meetings and regulates matters concerning the family there is a genealogical record kept in peking and at mukden and this contains a record of all the branches of the emperors emperor s family each of its members has an allowance from the government but they have not a great deal of power the emperor is supposed to be supreme and he can appoint his own successors choosing which of his children shall succeed him he is supposed to make this selection in secret and the announcement of his choice is not made until his death the present emperor has a number of relatives who are known as princes and among these are prince ching who is is now at the head of the bureau ot of foreign affairs lairs af and who is said to be somewhat progressive in his tendencies these princes have their own rank and there are twelve dif different lerent orders of nobility among the members of 0 the imperial household the highest princes get about thirty thousand dollars a year and they each have a retinue of three hundred and sixty servants and an allowance of rations so that it costs the government about abod seventy five thousand dollars a year apiece for fok them the highest highe st p princes raices are the brothers or sons ot of th the e emperor next to them are his maje cousins who get about forty five thousand dollars la a year and the other relatives get less until the lowest of the imperial nobility are paid about four dollars a month and rations in addition to these there are dukes counts barons and marquises which ranks are conferred by the emperor and not a few of which are sold the danchus or tartars have a nobility and the different ranks ate ae conferred upon the chinese as well as the tartars Tar tars the empress must be a pure tartar and all the ladies of the imperial harem are of manchu blood it is not necessary that they be of royal blood and a pretty tartar girl even though her tather father be a plowman plow mao has a chance of getting into the palace the mother of the emperor bieh fung was a keeper of a fruit store she was very beautiful and one day the prime minister saw her and took her into the palace she was taken up by the emperor and made his favorite concubine and in due time became the mother ot of the succeeding emperor SOME QUEER PRINCES some of the members of the emperors family are very poor I 1 was told of a number ot of princes who live in peking and who are chronically hard up I 1 heard of others who delight in in going about through the city in disguise and ana who do all sorts ot of curious things the emperors father is now dead he wasa great noble and when he was alive he was a man of considerable influence the empress dowager has more power than any other person in in the country she educated the emperor and she winds him about her finger he has not yet been able to cut loose from her apron strings and she governs him also through his bis wives she picked out the women who compose his imperial harem and she has the whole court under her ber long nailed thumb she is a stron strong friend of li hung chanas Ch angs and through through her influence that li is sent to japan she also governs the eunuchs ot of the clace palace of whom there are supposed sed to b be three thousand and she is in in tact fact the power behind the throne of t the he chinese government I 1 HOW THE NOBLES DRESS every one has heard of the chinese buttons and how they indicate rank A great many manly people however have no idea what the official button is all have buttons about as big as a hickory nut on the tops of their skull caps and in the case of the common people these buttons are made out of blue or red silk thread and when a man goes e s nto into i mourning they are white silk rhe the a average common cap is of the finest black satin and it surprised me to find that the shapes of these caps change from year to year and that last years block is not the proper shape for this year the chinese are as particular about the cut of their clothes as we are they have their lav favorite fashionable colors and there are just as many dudes ana and dandies in peking and canton as there are in new york and washington the official button is about three times as large as the ordinary silk button it is about as big as the largest bucke buckeye e and its color and material indicate ake the rank ot of the wearer it stands straight upon the crown of the cap and it some times fastens on the peacock feather thle the highest button is of dark red coral members of the second class of nobility nobil ny wear a coral ball of light red the third class have a button ol of light blue and the fourth of dark blue A noble or official of the fifth dais alais wears a ball of crystal and a mandarin of the sixth class hasa has a little round ball made of mother of pearl on the top of his cap below these come the mandarins of the seventh and nd eighth eight h classes who wear big marbles of go gold 1 d and members of the ninth class who have their hats decorated with silver balls these official caps or hats fit close to the head and have brims which are turned up all around and extend as high up as the top ot of the cap the caps are of black beaver and they are usually y covered with a red silk tassel which begins at the button and runs out to the edges of the top the laws provide as to the kind ot of a hat an official must wear and his dress is regulated by the statutes the sleeves of all officials must be very long and come down over the hands and whenever the nobles and officials call on the emperor they must not have their sleeves rolled up the idea is that no man can fight well with his arms enveloped in bags and a would be assassin when he is compelled to come in upon his knees and have his sleeves extending for a foot beyond his hands would require some time to prepare for action DRAGON GOWNS the laws provide that certain colors shall not be worn by common people and only the highest nobles and the emperor can wear dresses embroidered with the five clawed dragon A great many of the officials have their gowns embroidered with dragons and you can tell the rank of a man by the number ot gold dragons he has on his gown but these dragons must be four clawed dragons 1 afons and not five the laws regulate the te length of the gowns they state stale i bow the sleeves must be cut and the number of buttons that an official must use on his underclothes their cuffs must be cut in the shape of a horses hoof and the man who understands the chinese can tell just how high an off official iclal is and what he is by his clothes every high noble and many of the officials as well wears a square of embroidery on his breast and his back this is made of gol iolj i or silver thread and a stork embroidered broi dered on a mans breast shows that he is of the first rank while it i the bird be a pheasant its wearer must be of the second rank for the other ranks there are peacocks wild geese and quail each of these squares is about the size of a ladys pocket handkerchief and the work is beautifully done the military officers have their breasts embroidered the same way but they use beasts instead of birds and lions tigers and dragons take the places of the quails and the storks UMBRELLAS ON THE BATTLE FIELD one of the funniest things in the eyes of the foreigners during this war lias fias been the fact that the chinese generals carried umbrellas and fans when they went into battle this is als also 0 a ua matter atter of law each officer has haa his own rank and this is indicated by the number of umbrellas and banners which are carried in front of him when he goes out to ride even the smallest mandarins whom I 1 saw going through a chinese city had one or more dirty red umbrellas carried on a high pole in front of them while a Fals tafts army of servants car ried red banners upon which were the chinese characters indicating their titles an officer of the first rank has the right to two fans and every great man as he goes through the country has men in front of him who beat gongs to warn the common people to get out of the way I 1 1 I hese umbrellas and banners are always in red the fans are of the same color and officials have carried fans in china from the remotest antiquity ty it is impossible to enumerate the little things which indicate official rank in china everything has to be just so and the foreigner who tries to go about in style is sure to make mistakes for instance when I 1 went to call upon the viceroy li hung chang I 1 had to go in a sedan chair covered with blue cloth while the american consul went in one ot of green green is the official color and 1 I as a private citizen could not use it these chairs are swung between poles and are carried by i men you can tell the rank of the man in the chair by the he brass tips at the ends of the poles those of high nobles have dragon heads and below these come heads of lions while common citizens must have the ends of the poles perfectly plain the winter dress of these officials is different from their sum mer dress and one of the of the hunan province whom I 1 sawhan saw had on an official coat lined with fur while his official boots were of black broadcloth with soles of white wood fully two inches thick I 1 met a noble at and took a photograph of him he had on a black fur cap with a pea cock feather sticking out of its back his blue silk jacket was fastened with buttons of gold and his long gown was of light yellow satin he took me through his establishment which was made up of a number of houses surrounding courts |