THE POPULATION OF CHINA
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no hereditary honours in China—except those which reckon upwards from the distinguished son to the father, the grandfather, and the whole line of ancestry, which may be ennobled by the literary or martial genius of a descendant—the distinctions of caste are unknown, and a successful student even of the lowest origin would be deemed a fit match for the most opulent and distinguished female in the community. The severe laws which prohibit marriages within certain degrees of affinity (they do not however interdict it with a deceased wife's sister) tend to make marriages more prolific and to produce a healthier race of children. So strong is the objection to the marriage of blood relations, that a man and woman of the same Sing or family name cannot lawfully wed.
Soldiers and sailors are in no respect prevented from marrying. I expect there is from the number of male emigrants the greater loss of men by the various accidents of life abstraction in many circumstances from intercourse with women, a great disproportion between the sexes, tending naturally enough to the lower appreciation of woman; but correct statistics are wanting in this, as indeed in every other part of the field of enquiry.
The proportion of unmarried to married people is (as would be deduced from the foregoing observation) exceedingly small. To promote marriages seems everybody's affair. Matches and betrothals naturally enough occupy the attention of the young, but not less that of the middle-aged and the old. A marriage is the great event in the life of man or woman, and in China is associated with more of preliminary negotiations—ceremonials at different steps of the negotiations—written correspondence, visitings, protocols, and conventions than in any other part of the world.
I am in hopes that we may be able to obtain the vital statistics of some given district, from which more accurate results might be deducted than are afforded by any existing data. I keep this object in view. I have the honour to be, sir, yours very faithfully.
JOHN BOWRING.