30
SIR JOHN BOWRING
poor in their declining years. Age may also be pleaded in ex-tenuation of crime, and in mitigation of punishment. Imperial decrees sometimes order presents to be given to all indigent old people in the empire. I am not aware of any detailed statistics giving the number of such recipients since a return published in the time of Kanghi (1657). Kienlung (1785) directed that all those claimants whose age exceeded 60, should receive 5 bushels of rice and a piece of linen; those above 80, 10 bushels of rice and two pieces of linen; those above 90, 30 bushels of rice and two pieces of common silk; and those above 100, 50 bushels of rice, and two pieces, one of fine and one of common silk. He ordered all the elders to be enumerated who were at the head of five generations, of whom there were 192, and, "in gratitude to heaven," summoned 3,000 of the oldest men of the empire to receive Imperial presents, which consisted principally of em-broidered purses, and badges bearing the character # shau, meaning Longevity.
The Kanghi Tables, shewing the numbers who enjoyed the benefit of the Edict are these:
PROVINCES Above 70 Years Above 80 Years Above 90 Years Above 100 Years TOTALS Chihle 11,111 535 11 646 Leaoutung 244 88 5 337 Kansuh 41,991 9,043 250 51,284 Shantung 65,225 26,067 1,330 9 92,631 Honan 8,132 3,651 451 5 12,239 Keangnan 34,088 + 1,065 3 35,156 Chekeang 21,866 982 22,848 Shanse 13,382 11,582 317 25,281 Hookwang 37,354 25,544 2,850 65,752 Keangse 7,190 580 + 7,770 Kwangtung 17,369 9,415 591 27,375 Kwangse Fuhkeen 489 114 Szechuen 10,213 5,232 369 Kweichow 176 99 13 Yunnan 749 94 603 15,814 288 843 +++ TOTALS 184,086 169,850 9,996 21 373,935