130 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4TM FEBRUARY, 1880.
This form of slavery is comparatively rare in the Canton Province where it occurs only in connection with very wealthy families, but is said to obtain to some extent among the so-called Tán-Ká or boat popu- lation of Canton, many of these families being in the relation of hereditary slaves to wealthy Cantonese clans under whose protection they live and to whom they pay portion of their carnings. There is however nothing in his outward appearance or condition to distinguish such a slave from a free person. Although I spent the greater portion of fifteen years in some inland districts of the Canton Province, I have never to my knowledge seen such an hereditary slave. I am told that generally only the nearest acquaintances know a slave to be such and that the only outward distinction of an here- ditary slave is the rule made by custom that on New Year's day, when even the poorest free man, who goes about barefoot all the year through, dons shoes and stockings, the slave has to wear wooden clogs. I am sure there is not one such hereditary slave in Hongkong. But suppose one came here and were told that he is entirely free on British soil, it would make no difference to him whatever. For he looks upon his master as a refuge to full back upon in case of sickness, and anyhow he treats his rela tion to his master as a family relation and views his adherence to it as a matter of honour.
Besides any such slave has always a chance of purchasing his freedom and if once affranchised his descendants in the third generation can compete for official honours. This system of slavery, whilst comparatively rare in the Canton Province, is more frequently practised in the Fohkien Province where by custom the third generation of an hereditary slave regains freedom. But the principal seat of this slavery is in the agrarian districts of Shantung and most especially in the Hwui-chau, Ning-kwoh and Ch'i-chou Prefectures of the Ngan-hwui Province. It is also said to exist to a large extent among the fisher- men of the Cheh-kiang Province. But in all these cases the slave is a member of the family to which he belongs, which is answerable for his life to the State, and the law permits all such slaves to redeem themselves by money payment, when the contract which restores liberty to the slave is to be stamped and recorded in Court.
Under these circumstances I have no hesitation in saying that it seems to me impossible to iden tify this curious mixture of contract service, family dependence and slavery, which characterizes the Chinese analogue of slavery, with that slavery which the history of European society evolved and to which our law books, Acts of Parliament and Orders in Council refer. To deal justly with the slavery of China we ought to invent a new name for it.
Domestic servitude occupies an entirely different position. Whilst the hereditary slave and his immediate descendants are excluded from all competition for official honours, domestic servitude does not imply such disability although the law treats the domestic servant during the term of his engage- ment as under the entire control-life of course excluded-of his master who is answerable for his misdemeanours and involved in his crime. In all arrangements, contracts or deeds regarding domestic servitude there are invariably the elements of a monetary transaction, just as in the case of deeds of adoption. The sale and especially the pledging of persons, whether adults or children, for purposes of domestic servitude is the ruling custom all over China. The law, although sanctioning the sale of children for purposes of adoption within each clan, and even from without, is here in advance of public opinion as it expressly allows, by an edict of Kien Lung (A.D. 1788), the sale of children only to extremely poor people in times of famine, but forbids even in that case re-sale of a child once bought. Practically however the indiscriminate sale of children for purposes of domestic servitude is not inter- fered with by the law at any time. On the contrary, the advance of law over custoin, here indicated, is but slight, when we consider that the law sanctions the custom of temporarily pledging one's wife, concubine or daughters to another family for purposes of domestic servitude. In the latest edition of the Penal Code I find, appended to the Section headed "pledging wives or daughters," the following note. "This prohibition refers only to pledging, in return for money received, one's wife or concubine to another man whose wife or concubine she is to be (till redeemed), but the practice, so extremely common at the present day, of poor people pledging, for money received, their wives or daughters to others for purposes of domestic servitude is not included under this prohibition." A male domestic may either him- self make the contract with his employer which binds him to the latter for a number of years, or the domestic may have been handed over by his parents to the master who pays the parents, may be, a sum, in advance, so to say, of the wages to be earned. The same is the case with grown up or elderly female domestics. But the largest majority of all female domestics in China are young girls of more or less tender age, most of whom enter upon their domestic servitude when four or five years old. The reason for this immense demand for young female domestics lies in the system of polygamy which obtains all over the empire and which has a religious basis. A son being required to continue the family sacrifices, any one whose first wife proves childless will consider it his religious duty either to adopt a son or to take a second or third or fourth wife until he procures a son. To die without a son is considered a heinous sin against one's ancestors. But in a family consisting of several wives there is no room for the sort of servant girl to which Western nations are accustomed. As eunuchs are forbidden to all families below the rank of a prince, the custom of purchasing young girls for the performance of the lighter domestic duties became the general practice of all well-to-do families since time immemorial. Such girls may either be pledged by their parents for a certain time or sold for good. When only pledged, the case is generally this. A family being in urgent distress and requiring immediately a certain sum of money, take one of their female children, say five years old, who has been sufficiently impressed with the misery at home, to a wealthy family
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