to the young King's Palace to pay their Homage to him in the same manner as they do to the King at Pe kim onely with this difference that they give the Emperour the Title of Van sui or ten thousand years but to these Princes they give no more than the Title of Cien sui or a thousand years The seventh or fourth Oriental Palace is call'd Yuen hoen iten or the Palace of the Royal Nuptials When the King or the Heir of the Crown are pleas'd to marry the Tribunal of Ceremonies makes choice of the most beautifull and most accomplish'd Virgins that are to be found whether they be the Daughters of great Lords or but of mean descent they value not To this purpose the Tribunal employs Women that are well in years and of good Reputation who make choice of twenty which they deem the most accomplish'd The Tribunal being inform'd of this choice order the young Virgins to be carry'd in close Sedans to the Palace where for some days they are examin'd by the Queen Mother or if there be no such Person living by the principal Lady Lady of the Court who visits them and orders them to run on purpose to find out whether they have any ill smell or defect about them After several Trials she makes choice of one whom she sends to the King or Prince with a great deal of Ceremonie accompany'd with Feasts and Banquets distribution of Favours and a general pardon for all Criminals of the Empire unless Rebels and Robbers upon the High-way After this she is crown'd with a splendid Pomp and at the same time she has bestow'd upon her many Titles and large Revenues As for the nineteen Virgins to whom Fortune was not so favourable the King marrys them to the Sons of great Lords of which if there be not anow to serve them all he sends the remainder back to their Parents with dowries sufficient to marry them advantageously This was the Custom of the Kings of China But at present the Tartar Emperours make choice of the Daughters of some great Lords who are not of the Blood-Royal or of the Daughters of some one of the Kings of the Western Tartars for their Wives and Queens The eighth or fourth occidental Palace is call'd Tzu nen cum or the Palace of Piety and serves for the Residence of the Queen Mother and her Damsels and Ladies of Honour The ninth or fifth oriental Palace is call'd chum cui cum or the Palace of Beauty and the tenth or fifteenth on the West side is call'd Ki fiam cum or the happy Palace These two Palaces are appointed for the Daughters and Sisters of the King before they are marry'd For which purpose during the Reigns of the Chinese Kings the Tribunal of Ceremonies pickt out certain young Gentlemen handsome and ingenious and fourteen or fifteen years old Out of which the King chose one for his Daughter or his Sister to whom he gave a vast Dowry in Lands and Jewels These were call'd â—…u mâ—… or the Emperour's Kindred by his Wives They could not be 〈◊〉 However they became very powerfull and were great Oppressours of the People Befâ—… theâ—… had any Children they were oblig'd every 〈◊〉 and Evening to fall upon them Knees 〈◊〉 â—…heir Wives and knock their Heads thrâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…gainst the Ground But so soon as they 〈◊〉 Children they were no longer engag'd to that Ceremony At present the Tartar King marrys his Sisters and his Daughters to the Sons of great Lords who are not of the Blood Royal or with the Sons of the petty Kings of the Western Tartars The ' leventh or sixth Palace to the East is call'd Y hao tien or the Palace of due Title and the twelfth or sixth Palace to the West is call'd Siam nim cum or the Palace of Felicity The thirteenth or seventh Eastern Palace is call'd Gin xeu cum or the Palace of long Life and the fourteenth or seventh Western Palace is call'd Kien nim cum or the Palace of Celestial Repose All which four Palaces were the Habitations of the second and third Queen and the Concubines and several other Ladies belonging to the deceas'd King whom the King never sees nor ever enters into their Palaces such is their respect and veneration for their Predecessours The fifteenth or eighth Palace to the East is call'd Kiao ta tien or the Palace of great Friendship The sixteenth or eighth to the West is call'd Quen nim cum or the Palace of the place of Repose to either of which the King retires when he has a mind to be private with his Queen The seventeenth or ninth to the East is call'd Chim chien cum or the Palace which receives Heaven and the eighteenth which is opposite to it â—… quen cum or the Palace of the elevated Earth These two Palaces serve for the King's divertisement with his other two Queens to the first of which he goes with his second and to the second with the third of his Wives The nineteenth or tenth to the East is call'd Hum te tien or the Palace of abundant Vertue The twentieth or tenth to the West is call'd Kiu en sin tien or the Palace that envelops the heart In these two Palaces are kept the King's Jewels and Rarities of an inestimable Value And sometimes he goes himself to visit his Treasure which perhaps is the largest and the richest in the World in regard that for four thousand twenty five years the Chinese Kings have been always adding to it without taking any thing out of it For though the Reigning Families have so often alter'd yet none of them ever touch'd this Treasure nor those of which we shall give an accompt hereafter because of the rigorous Punishments which the new Kings would have inflicted upon those that should have attempted such a Sacriledge and all their Family Now though the Names of all these Palaces seem very mean and ordinary in our Language certain it is however that in the Chinese Language they are very significative and mysterious as being invented on purpose by their Men of Learning conformable to their Structure their Situation and their Use. Notes upon the nineteenth Chapter THESE Palaces are large and magnificent and seated in the spaces between the twenty Apartment s of the Emperour's Palace and the two Walls of the Inner Inclosure which are describ'd by our Authour in this nineteenth Chapter I. The first Palace call'd Ven hoa tien or the Palace of flourishing Learning Hither the King retires when he has a mind to discourse with his Men of Learning or to consult about his most important Affairs or to keep the Fasts most usually observ'd in China It is plac'd on the East side of the sixth Apartment call'd the supream Imperial Hall. II. The second Palace over against the foregoing to the West of the sixth Apartment call'd Vu im tien or the Palace of the Council of War. III. The third Palace or second on the East side as you
have they any Right of succession to the Crown though they should have several heirs males which custom is also observ'd among the people For in China to marry a Daughter is to exclude her for ever from her Fathers Family and graft her into the Family of her Husband whose Sir Name she assumes at the same time instead of her own Thence it comes to pass that the Chineses when they would say that a Maid is ally'd to the Family of her Husband never make use of the word Kin to goe but of the word Quei to return asmuch as to say she is not gon but is return'd to her Family Thus they explain themselves also when they speak of the dead for they do not say such a one is dead but such a one is returned to the earth By the same reason when a Grandfather speaks of the Children of his Son he calls them barely Sun Su my Grand Children but when he speaks of his Daughters Children he calls them Vai Sun Su my Grand Children without for they look upon them to be of the Son in Laws Family The second sort of the King's Kindred by the Female side are the Fathers Brothers Uncles and other Kindred of the Queen the King's Sons in Law their Fathers Brothers Uncles and other Kindred Out of these two sorts the King makes choice of some of the most considerable to compose this Tribunal and to act the same things as the Officers of the Tribunal of the Royal Bloud They differ onely in this that the latter are of none of the nine Orders the former are Mandarins of the first and second Order Though they esteem much more honourable the Titles of Hoam Cin and Fu Ma or the King's Kindred than that of Mandarin though of the first order But this second sort of Kindred was also extirpated by the Tartars with the preceding Family Thus far concerning the Tribunals of the Mandarins and of the Government of the Court. We are now to give a short accompt of the Tribunals of the Provinces Notes upon the fourteenth Chapter He causeth a choice to be made at Pe Kim of several young Gentlemen c. Here we are to observe that in this place the Author onely speaks of what was practis'd in the time of the Chinese Emperours for the Tartar Emperours have alter'd this Custome and never marry their Daughters but to Kings Princes or Great Lords as our Author himself acknowledges a little lower CHAP. XV. TO every one of the fifteen Provinces there belongs a supream Tribunal which has the oversight of all the rest The President bears the Titles of Tu Tam Kiun Muen Tu Yuen Siun Fu with several other names which all signifie no more than Governour of a Province or Viceroy with us These Presidents are of the first second or third order according as the King is pleas'd to regulate them when he sends them into the Provinces They are intrusted with the whole Government as well in times of Peace as in War and with the command of the People and Souldiers as well in civil as criminal matters They give notice to the King and the six superiour Tribunals of all matters of importance On the other side all the Kings orders and dispatches with those of the Superiour Tribunals are directed to this Tribunal and all the Mandarins of the Province are bound to repair to this Tribunal in all affairs of moment There are other Viceroys that govern two three or four Provinces and are call'd Tsum To as Leam Quam Tsum To or Viceroy of the Provinces of Quam Tum and Quam Si. Quam Tum signifies the Province extended toward the East and Quam si the Province extended toward the West There are other such like Viceroys in China as in the Provinces bordering upon Tartary and other places of importance And besides the Viceroy there is in every Province a Visiter call'd Ngan Tai or Ngan Yuen of which we have spoken formerly Lastly there is a third considerable Officer call'd Tsum pim who commands all the Forces of the Province and is of the first Order of Mandarins These three supream Presidents of the Tribunals of the Provinces have under them several inferiour Mandarins who assist them in the dispatch of business and though these three Tribunals general have their Palaces in the Capital City nevertheless they are not always resident there but keep their Circuits from place to place as business requires But for the particular Tribunals of the Capital Cities they are these that follow Every Capital City has two Tribunals in which properly consists the whole Government of the Province the one for Civil the other for criminal affairs The first is call'd Pu chim su the President of which is a Mandarin of the first degree of the second Order The Palace belonging to this Tribunal like those at the Court contains on both sides two other Tribunals which are not inferiour but Assistants to the first Tribunal That on the left hand is the most considerable and is call'd Tsan chim having two Presidents both of the second degree of the third Order The other on the right hand is call'd Tsan y the Presidents of which are both equal and of the second degree of the fourth Order To all these three Tribunals belong a great number of inferiour Mandarins call'd Xeu lien quen whose business it is to decide all Civil matters and to pay and receive all the Revenues of the Province The Criminal Tribunal is call'd Nghan cha su and the President who is of the third Order has no Assessors but two Classes of Mandarins under him Those of the first Classis who are call'd To su are of the fourth Order They of the second Classis who are call'd Cien su are of the fifth Order and the Mandarins of these two Classes are call'd Tao li or Tao tusâ—… These Tao li are the Visiters of all the Quarters of the Province in which they have their Tribunals Some of them take care of the Post Horses the Royal Inns and the King's Barks so far as their Jurisdiction reaches and are call'd Ye chuen tao Others that are call'd Pim pi tao are intrusted to inspect the several Troops and Companies of the Province others to drain the Lands and level the Highways who are call'd Tun tien tao This Tribunal has power to punish Criminals by banishment as also by confiscation of Goods and loâ—…s of Life And if there be no Visiter in the Province it has an eye over all the other Mandarins and gives notice to the King of what passes in the Province when business requires their information In a word these two Tribunals do the Office of the six supream Tribunals of the Court and are as it were their Substitutes Every Province is divided into Districts and to every District belongs a Mandarin call'd Tao â—…i who is as it were a Visiter or Inspeâ—…er into the manners and behaviour of the Officers within his
might be the first King of China in the regard that if we set aside the Fables which the Chineses have added and of which the Greeks and Romans are no less guilty when they speak of their first Founders the Sequel of their Story and the successive Train of their Kings seems to have much of Truth For according to the Computation of their Histories and Chronologies we clearly find that the first King of China began to reign about two hundred years after the Universal deluge according to the Version of the seventy Interpreters In which time the Descendants of Noah might well spread themselves to the farther end of Asia seeing that within the same space they expanded themselves over all the Western Parts of Asia into Africa and a good part of Europe The third Opinion asserts that the first King of China was Yao who according to their Chronology began to reign four thousand and twenty five years ago Their Histories relate that in his time there were both Mathematicians and Astrologers that he caus'd great Ditches and Chanels to be made for the draining away of the Waters of the Grand Deluge that till then cover'd the Valleys and the Champaign Grounds This King was a Prince illustrious for his Vertues and his Transcendent parts and is still honour'd as one of the wi sest and most vertuous Princes of China this Opi nion passes for currant and unquestionable among the Chineses And all the Fathers that have had the greatest Knowledge and Insight into their Books and Histories hold this latter Opinion for certain and the second for probable And because that according to the Version of the Holy Scripture call'd the Vulgar it would of necessity follow that Fohi and Yao must have been born and reign'd before the Deluge therefore we are forc'd in this Countrey to follow the Version of the Seventy Which being granted the History of this Empire seems very probable well trac'd and conformable not only to the Egyptian Assyrian Greek and Roman Histories but which is yet far more surprising to the Chronology of Sacred Scripture According to the second Opinion then which is most probable from King Tohi who began to reign about two hundred years after the Deluge to the Emperour Cam Hi who reign'd in the year 1668. There have been two hundred thirty six Kings divided into twenty two sidifferent Families who have govern'd this Empire for the space of four thousand five hundred thirty four years Which Families endur'd for a longer or lesser time according as they govern'd well or ill and till another revolting put the King to death routed out all the Princes of his Family and all the Nobility which he had rais'd and made himself Master of the Empire At the beginning these Rebels were either Petty Kings or Great Lords But afterwards they happen'd to be Men of low Birth and mean Condition The first King of the preceding Family was a Person of very obscure Parentage whose Name was Chum He was a long time a Servant among the Priests of the Idols after which he betook himself to be a Robber upon the High-way Afterwards being banish'd he put himself at the head of certain Free booters and after a great deal of prosperous Success made himself Master of the Empire At his Coronation he call'd himself Hum Vu or the Valiant and Warlike but then the Learned Flatterers advanc'd his Titles and call'd him Tai Mim which signifies a Reign of great Luster His Posterity reign'd in China two hundred seventy six Years and till the Year 1643 that the Tartars made themselves Masters of the Empire and destroy'd the Royal Family All those that revolt pretend that it is by the decree of Heaven that sent them to ease the People opprest by the Tyranny of their Governours And this Opinion or rather Vision finds so much credit in the Priests of the Chineses and is so deeply rooted in their minds as if it were one of the greatest Truths in the World insomuch that there is hardly one among them that does not hope to be an Emperour at one time or other And this is the reason of those frequent Revolts which we find in this Empire to day in one Province to morrow in another nay many times onely in one City or in one Town Many times you shall see a miserable Wretch advanc'd to be a King sometimes by a Troop of fifty Bandity sometimes by a hundred or two hundred Peasants but more frequently by a certain Sect of Idolaters who make a Profession of creating new Kings and establishing a new Government in the Empire 'T is a wonderfull thing to see the Comedies or rather Tragedies which are acted every day upon the Theatre of this Empire For he that but to day was but an ignominious Robber and under that Notion both dreaded and hated let him but shift his Habit and take upon him the Crown the Robes and Ornaments of a King and the same Man to morrow shall be belov'd and respected by all the World and though he is known to be of vile and abject Birth they shall presently call him the Son of Heaven and Lord of the Universe For that the Chineses as we have said call their Kingdom Tien Hia that is to say all that which is under the Heaven or Su hai Chinun that is to say all that is between the four Seas Titles conformable to their Pride and their Ignorance and to their scorn of Strangers So that it is the same thing among them to call a Man Master of all that is under the Heaven or between the four Seas as to call him King of China The Chineses give their Emperour several losty and magnificent Titles For example they call him Tien Hu Son of Heaven Xim Tien Hu Holy Son of Heaven Hoam Ti August and Great Emperour Xim Xoam Holy Emperour Hoam Xam August Sovereign Xim Kium Holy Prince Xim Xam Holy Sovereignty Que Chu Lord of the Kingdom Chao Tim Palace Royal Van Sui ten thousand years with several other Titles full of Grandeur and Majesty which I omit for fear of being tedious So that 't is the same thing to say Son of Heaven or ten thousand Years or Palace Royal as to say King or Emperour Yet notwithstanding all these idle flatteries this Prince is far from being so vain as the King of Monomotopa who believes it to be in his Power to command the Sun the Moon and Stars or so ambitiously Politick as the King of Siam who knowing by experience that the great River that crosses his Countrey overflows its banks every year at a certain Season and that it returns again by degrees within a certain time marches forth in great pomp out of his Palace to command the Waters to retire and fall down into the Sea. For though the Chineses give these great Titles to their King and though he suffers them yet neither he nor they at least the learned and more prudent sort are so