Life in China - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857 edition. Excerpt: ... inflicted on retacking it. After this first trial of an adventurer's nerves, I left my lodging in company with my fellow-travellers, passed the porter's lodge at the east gate unobserved, walked through part of the suburbs under a bright moonlight, and, on reaching the eastern angle of the city wall, dropped into my boat to rest for the night. At five o'clock next morning, we took the rising tide to enter the Tszeke river, running up to the north-west. We soon found ourselves in company with a large fleet of small boats, all ascending the stream with fair wind and tide. At one time I counted forty-seven of these native boats, most of them, as our own, called pih-kwan barges, manned by three men at least, and laden with cargo or passengers for Hangchow, the capital of the province (127 miles distant from Ningpo), or for the intermediate towns Tszeke, Yuyaou, and Shaouhing. During this day's route, the first place of note was Kaoukiaou, a bridge five miles out of Ningpo, chiefly memorable for a repulse the Tartar hordes met with in A.d. 1130, from a band of native villagers headed by a hero of the name of Changtsiun. In the middle of the sixteenth century the Japanese appeared off this place, and committed great ravages in the vicinity.. A fine breeze brought us abreast of the Ta-ying-shan, a hill beautifully ornamented by nature with large 'shady trees, and decorated by art with family temples on its summit, family tombs on its slopes, and family residences at its base. Even here, "many a tale traditionary and many a legend peoples the dark woods." In olden times, amid the deep recesses of a retreat so peculiarly adapted to abstruse meditation, there resided a rustic poet and philosopher, Dr. Siay, "who, being likewise far-famed for his skill in...