CHIEF OF CHINA'S BEGGARS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9024, 3 September 1907, Page 2

CHIEF OF CHINA'S BEGGARS

AN UNCROWNED KING. POWER OF LIFE OR DEATH. In China beggars at once attract a stranger's attention. Around every corner, around canals and creeks, in market places, at the city gates, both outside and inside, and especially in the temple yards,. there are beggars here, beggars there and beggars everywhere, and a more pitiable sight one cannot meet. Many of them, are crippled or afflicted with leprosy, and all are dressed literally in rags. I made a trip in a houseboat to Soochow, moving through the numerous canals in the city and stopping when I wished to take a view. I landed by a clean, fresh-painted, large yamen, spotlessly white, with blue black tiles on the roof, and placed my camera against the wall to photograph a big pagoda on the other side of the canal, writes Carl Book in the " Gentleman's Magazine." •The usual Chinese crowd soon came around me, and not a few beggars. I masked an intelligent young Chinaman through my interpreter who lived in this fine big mansion, bo unusually well kept for a Chinese house? I was not a "little astonished when I was told the beggar chief of Soochow. This led me to make inquiry about the system of begging in China.,' which is wonderfully well organised under a scheme that works admirably, and is, of course, very ancient, like all other in,stitutions in the Middle- Kingdom. The chief has a fine residence, concubines by the half dozen and very fine cloth, ing, and he is seen in the best of society — but only where he is not known. As a mark of his dignity he moves about with a long stick, which, is allowed him by the city authorities. He also has the power of life and death over his beggarly subjects, and punishes all offences committed by them. The baggar chief is a regular attendant at the marriage ceremonies and funeral processions 1 of private families in order to get his pay for keeping away his hungry crowd of beggary, who otherwise would hinder the festival in a disagreeable, noisy way. I was told that the beggar chief of Soochow has an income of about 15,000d0l a year. The billet of the one in Shanghai city is worth about 5000dol. Most storekeepers have an agreement with the beggar chief to keep his " staff " away. They pay about Idol a year each, and in return for this trifling amount the chief gives a printed receipt to the storekeeper, which the latter pastes on his door, to the effect that he has paid his tax and is exempt from the demands of beggars. There are different kinds of beggars. Imperial beggars, or Lao yen ting (the words mean " old man's button") have probably no parallel in . tie world, as some of them are descendants of the ancient Ming dynasty, or distantly rela LeS to the present reigning Imperial house. They are scattered all over the country, are said to number upwards of 10,000, and are specially numerous in Pekin. Imperial beggars are easily recognised because they are allowed to wear garments of the Imperial yellow of different shades. Characters are painted in. black on the back and front of their robes to denote their profession They wear either a.< straw hat or a velvet cap ornamented with a brass button. When first I saw them I took them to be old degraded officials, for there are hundreds of them in Soochow. They carry a wooden bell in their hands to announce their arrival. As a rule they are over ,. sixty years of age and have no family to support them, and they are all allowed to beg for more money than the ordinary craft and are furnished with a license from the Magistrate. They are, of course, too aris- [ tocratic to be under the rule of the t ordinary beggar chief. In Nankin there is quite a select company of them, the order having been instituted aa far back as the Ming dynasty. Hung Wu, the founder of tlio Ming dynasty, was once a beggar himself. The rise from beggar to Emperor probably beats the record of any dynasty in Europe. In pious remembrance of his former profession Hung Wu instituted this order. At present they live in certain caves or recesses that are made in the city wall. The largest of these recesses is 40ft long by 20ft wide; the inmates are very comfortably lodged and are decently dressed., but they are addicted to opium smoking. , Besides seeking alms these Imperial beggars go about the country and obtain a livelihood by swearing false oaths in court. Their oaths are considered as binding and sacred, so they • are often much sougiit after, because for a few t&els one can get such a beggar to swear an oath which always decides the case. The Maspstrates are liable to pay the Imperial beggars every year,\ but it is said they often forget to do so, as they know well that these beggars are not in want.