History of slavery in China

Slavery in China has taken various forms throughout history. Never as pronounced as the American or Arab models, Chinese slavery still often viewed its objects as "half-man, half-thing" (半人, 半物). Slavery was repeatedly abolished as a legally-recognized institution, including in a 1909 law fully enacted in 1910, although the practice continued until at least 1949.

Shang Dynasty

Slavery was established in China by at least the Shang dynasty, at which point it has been estimated that about 5 percent of the population was enslaved.

Qin Dynasty

Men sentenced to castration were turned into eunuch slaves of the Qin dynasty state to do forced labor, for projects like the Terracotta Army. The Qin government confiscated the property and enslaved the families of those who received castration as a punishment for rape.

Slaves were deprived of their rights and connections to their families.

Han Dynasty

One of Emperor Gao's first acts was to manumit agricultural workers enslaved during the Warring States period, although domestic servants retained their status.

Men punished with castration during the Han dynasty were also used as slave labor.

Deriving from earlier Legalist laws, the Han dynasty set in place rules that the property of and families of criminals doing three years of hard labor or sentenced to castration were to have their families seized and kept as property by the government.

Xin Dynasty

As part of his land reform laws, Wang Mang either abolished all slavery or trade in slaves. The swift collapse of his dynasty led to the restoration of both.

Three Kingdoms

During the Three Kingdoms period, a number of statuses intermediate between freedom and slavery developed, but none of them is thought to have exceeded 1 percent of the population.

Tang Dynasty

A contract from the Tang dynasty that records the purchase of a 15 year-old slave for six bolts of plain silk and five Chinese coins.

Tang Law held that free people could not be enslaved, slaves who were sold had to be previously held as slaves in order to be legally sold. A large amount of slave trading took place on Silk Road markets during this time, several examples show Sogdian slave girls being sold by Sogdian merchants to Chinese.

Chinese law segregated slaves and freemen into different classes, slaves were classified as criminals. Only criminals and foreigners were allowed to be enslaved in China. Miscegenation between foreign slaves and Chinese women was banned.

Military expeditions in Korea, Mongolia, Central Asia, and India by Tang armies captured foreigners as slaves. After executing the men, Tang dynasty armies enslaved captive women and livestock to either go to the imperial court or allied tribes.

Persians were kidnapped by pirates and kept in captivity on Wan-an, Hainan island, before being sold. Samanids in Transoxania sold Turks to the Chinese.

Free Chinese could not be legally sold as a slave unless they willingly sold themselves. If they did not sell themselves, the person who sold them would be executed. However, all other peoples were subject to enslavement without their permission. Southern aboriginals constituted the largest number of slaves. Other peoples sold as slaves to Chinese included Turks, Persians, and Korean women, who were sought after by the wealthy. China suffered from shortages of women for marriage, which led to Korean women being sold in Chinese slave markets to compensate for this. The Chinese demand for young Korean slave girls as concubines created a lucrative market for pirates on the seas surrounding Korea, where they were sold in Shandong, China. The Chinese Governor of Shandong banned the trade in 692.

A massive market in the trade of southern aboriginal slave girls also existed, Chinese officials attempted to ban it and denounced it, to no effect, as it continued. Indian, Malay, and Black African slaves were also sold to the Chinese. Their skin was noted to be dark, their hair wavy or curly.

Tang law considered slaves to be chattel without the same rights as people. Free women could not marry male slaves.

Song Dynasty

The Song's warfare against northern and western neighbors produced many captives on both sides, but reforms were introduced to ease the transition from bondage to freedom.

Yuan Dynasty

The Mongol Yuan dynasty implemented a great expansion of slavery in China and restored harsher terms of service. However, because the Chinese were more integrated into the culture, such "slaves" often proved so invaluable they came to possess a great deal of power themselves, including slaves of their own. During insurrections and slave revolts, such disloyalty often led to their property being targeted first, even before the Mongols' themselves.

Ming Dynasty

Upon his defeat of the Yuan dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor officially killed all slaves within China, although the practice continued.

The Javans sent 30000 black slaves as tribute to the Ming Dynasty in 1381.

When the Ming dynasty crushed the Miao Rebellions (Ming Dynasty) in 1460, they castrated 1,565 Miao boys, which resulted in the deaths of 329 of them, they were then turned into eunuch slaves. This event occurred during the rule of the Zhengtong Emperor (Yingcong or Ying Tsung). Since 329 of the boys died, even more were needed to be castrated.

The 1630s saw numerous slave revolts, prompting laws limiting the number of slaves per household.

Qing Dynasty

The Qing dynasty initially oversaw an expansion in slavery and states of bondage like the booi aha. However, within China proper they gradually introduced reforms turning slaves and serfs into peasants. The Kangxi Emperor freed all the Manchu's hereditary slaves in 1685, and the Yongzheng Emperor aimed to emancipate others during the 1720s.

The end of slavery elsewhere following the British emancipation led to increasing demands for cheap Chinese laborers, known as "coolies". Mistreatment ranged from the near-slave conditions maintained by some crimps and traders in the mid-1800s in Hawaii and Cuba to the relatively dangerous tasks given to the Chinese during the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s.

Taiping

Among his other reforms, Hong Xiuquan abolished slavery and prostitution in the territory under his control in the 1850s and '60s.

Xinjiang

Main article: History of Xinjiang

Torghut Mongols, Han Chinese, and Hui Chinese Muslims were the main victims of slave trading in Xinjiang.

Free Chinese, such as Han Chinese and Hui Chinese Muslims (tungans) were all categorized as merchants regardless of profession. The other portion of the Chinese population were military soldiers or Han Chinese or Hui enslaved to Turkestani begs.

A Manchu historian Ji Dachen claimed that the Qing dynasty sent slaves to Turpan to build the karez for the Lukchun King and that the slaves mixed with the Uyghurs of Turpan, calling them a "mixed breed".

Slave raiders from Khoqand did not distinguish between Hui Muslim and Han Chinese, enslaving any Chinese they could in Xinjiang.

Turkic Muslim slaves

Turkic Muslims were also enslaved to begs after wars with Khwajas and Khoqand.

Mongol slaves

The Qing dynasty procured 420 women and girl slaves, all of them Mongol to service Oirat Mongol bannermen stationed in Xinjiang in 1764.

Many Torghut Mongols boys and girls were sold to Central Asian markets or on the local Xinjiang market to native Turkestanis. Officials in Xinjiang engaged in this illegal trade, which was banned by the government.

Hui Chinese Muslim slaves

Chinese Muslim (Tungans) Sufis who were charged by the Qing dynasty government with practicing xiejiao (heterodox religion), were punished by exile to Xinjiang and being sold as slaves to other Muslims, such as the Sufi begs.

Other slaves

Under the "fundamental laws" of China, one section is titled "Wizards, Witches, and all Superstitions, prohibited." The Jiaqing Emperor in 1814 A.D. added a sixth clause in this section with reference to Christianity. It was modified in 1821 and printed in 1826 by the Daoguang Emperor. It sentenced Europeans to death for spreading Christianity among Han Chinese and Manchus (tartars). Christians who would not repent their conversion were sent to Muslim cities in Xinjiang, to be given as slaves to Muslim leaders and beys.

The clause stated: "People of the Western Ocean, [Europeans or Portuguese,] should they propagate in the country the religion of heaven's Lord, [name given to Christianity by the Romanists,] or clandestinely print books, or collect congregations to be preached to, and thereby deceive many people, or should any Tartars or Chinese, in their turn, propagate the doctrines and clandestinely give names, (as in baptism,) inflaming and misleading many, if proved by authentic testimony, the head or leader shall be sentenced to immediate death by strangulations : he who propagates the religion, inflaming and deceiving the people, if the number be not large, and no names be given, shall be sentenced to strangulation after a period of imprisonment. Those who are merely hearers or followers of the doctrine, if they will not repent and recant, shall be transported to the Mohammedan cities (in Turkistan) and given to be slaves to the beys and other powerful Mohammedans who are able to coerce them. . . . All civil and military officers who may fail to detect Europeans clandestinely residing in the country within their jurisdiction, and propagating their religion, thereby deceiving the multitude, shall be delivered over to the Supreme Board and be subjected to a court of inquiry."

Intermarriage Between Slaves

While free Chinese merchants generally did not engage in relationships with East Turkestani women, some of the Chinese male slaves belonging to begs, along with Green Standard soldiers, engaged in affairs with the East Turkestani women. Some Muslim owners had children with Chinese women slaves.

After being freed, many slaves such as Gilgitis in Xinjiang cities like Tashkurgan, Yarkand, and Karghallik, stayed rather than return Hunza in Gilgit. Most of these slaves were women who married local slave and non slave men and had children with them. Sometimes the women were married to their masters, other slaves, or free men who were not their masters. There were ten slave men to slave women married couples, and 15 master slave women couples, with several other non master free men married to slave women. Both slave and free Turki and Chinese men fathered children with Hunza slave women. A free man, Khas Muhammad, was married with 2 children to a woman slave named Daulat, aged 24. A Gilgiti slave woman aged 26, Makhmal, was married to a Chinese slave man, Allah Vardi and had 3 children with him. The Hunzas are Ismaili Muslims

Miscellaneous

The Hunzas were tributaries and allies to China, acknowledging China as suzerain. When the Hunzas raided the Kirghiz, they sold Kirghiz slaves to Chinese.

Badakhshi merchants sold attractive Chitral girls in Yarkand, China, for 20-25 pounds sterling, and this trade was facillated by Chinese officials. Others from Kunjoot, Gilgit, and Kafiristan were also enslaved and sold in Yarkand. The girls were sold by their parents.

The Qianlong Emperor had banned slavery in Xinjiang in 1778 or 1779, but it continued along with the administration of the Begs. Most foreign slaves in Xinjiang were Shia Mountain Tajiks.

The Tajiks of Xinjiang practiced slavery, selling some of their own as a punishment. Submissive slaves were given wives and settled with the Tajiks. They were considered property and could be sold anytime. Their slaves came from numerous sources, enslaving Sunni captives such as Kirghiz in retaliation for Kirghiz slave raids, or from Kunjud, Gilgit, Chitral. The Tajiks also sold some slaves to Bukhara. The Sunnis called them Rafidites and did not consider them Muslim.

Shia Muslims were sold as slaves in Khotan. The Muslims in Xinjiang ignored Islamic rules, selling and buying Muslims as slaves. Due to the enslavement of Indian subjects to the British crown from Kashmir being sold in the Xinjiang slave markets, Sir George Macartney was sent to free them, in the process, he freed 2,000. In 1897, Slavery was abolished in Xinjiang. Macartney bought many slaves and freed them, not only Indians, but others as well. Several Xinjiang officials were then prompted to take actions freeing more slaves after Macartney's visit.

Slavery as punishment

Slavery and castration were used as punishments against rebels.

Ma Jincheng (1864–1890), the grandson of Ma Hualong, was sentenced to castration and slavery in Kaifeng since Ma Hualong participated in the Dungan revolt (1862–1877) against the Qing dynasty.

Yaqub Beg's son and grandsons were castrated by the Chinese in 1879 and turned into eunuchs to work in the Imperial Palace.

People's Republic

The 2007 Chinese slave scandal involved over 500 workers in brickyards in Shanxi and Henan . Slavery in brickyards had first been reported in 1998.

Assesment of Harshness of Slavery in China

ACCORDING to the oldest Chinese definitions, slaves were originally either criminals or captives; or, according to one good authority, criminals, and therefore official captives. In B.C. 202 the Emperor ordered that all persons who (during the great revolution) had sold themselves into slavery to escape starvation should be emancipated. A sort of free serfage, with liberty to emigrate from the Imperial to the vassal estates, and with liability to serve the public by a fixed amount of labour in each case, seems to have been in vogue between 3000 and 2000 years back. It was not until the rise of the true Imperial system 2000 years ago that free men drifted into a state of serfdom; and during the great wars with the Hiung-nu {i.e. the ancestors of the Turks), when the treasuries were depleted, inducements were offered to the people to contribute slaves, instead of money, for frontier defence. In B.C. 160 all Government slaves were emancipated; but in B.C. 144 mention is still made of 30,000 slaves in charge of the 300,000 horses in the breeding-grounds of the north. On the other hand, in B.C. 140 the families of captives taken during a recent rebellion were sent back to their homes when peace was declared. It appears from casual statements in history that private families at this time owned hundreds, and even thousands, of slaves, often employed in crafts and industries. In B.C. 13 a decree inveighed against luxury and excessive showiness in the numbers of slaves employed by the rich. About A.D. 1 the Emperor had to limit the number of slaves which a great dignitary might own. A few years later, the founder of the Second Han dynasty, by special edict, freed many private slaves, and declared that every girl sold as a wife should be free. He totally prohibited the killing or branding of slaves, who were, however, still unable to employ the produce of their labour to purchase freedom withal. Male and female slaves made under new laws during the Wang Mang usurpation were emancipated. Owners who branded slaves were punished, and, besides, such branded slaves were emancipated. Slaves taken captive during the south-western wars of 30-38 were sent back to their homes.

The Chinese Wei dynasty which succeeded the Second Han prohibited the sale in the market of Government slaves who were worn out, or over seventy years of age: they were emancipated, and, if indigent, fed by the magistrates. In 303 the Tsin dynasty which succeeded the Wei on one occasion impounded the slaves of princes and dukes in order to secure corn-grinders for the troops. In 459 the Sung dynasty gave all the girls captured at a besieged town to the soldiers. The Tartar dynasties of the fourth to sixth centuries, which ruled in the north whilst the Sung and other houses reigned at Nanking, had all their agricultural work done by slaves; eight were allowed to each married pair, and four to each bachelor; ten oxen counted as eight slaves, and lands were divided into ox-lands and slave-lands. But even these Tartars possessed bowels of compassion, for in 485 a decree ordered that "free beggars," as other persons who from hunger had sold themselves into slavery, should be sent home; and, even if the slave women married in their masters' families, they should be free to elect to go home. In 493 the same Tartar Wei dynasty prohibited marriages between serfs and free men ; but serfs possessing education were allowed to enter the public service. In 494, after a war with the southern dynasty of Chinese Ts'i, all captives taken in battle were sent back to the south. In 497 criminals sentenced to banishment were allowed to join the ranks as " forlorn hopes," in order by a display of bravery to fairly recover their freedom. In 545 the Tartar Ts'i dynasty provided their male captives of war with " honest widows."

In 518 the southern dynasty of Liang emancipated all male slaves over sixty and all females over fifty. In 543, during palace commotions, thirty rich families were ordered to supply one slave each to the Emperor. In 549 a number of northern captives, with their wives and families, were again sent back. In 555, during a period of anarchy, many thousands of honest peasants were driven in to one of the contested capitals as slaves. In 565 the Ch'en dynasty, which succeeded the Liang house in the south, sent back to their homes all the northern captives taken in war.

Thus it will be seen that during the contests between Chinese and Tartar, both sides were merciful. Towards the end of the eighth century, when a Chinese dynasty once more occupied the sole throne, the Emperor, whose policy it was to discourage enormous private estates, put a stop to the annual supplies of male and female slaves sent as tribute or tax from the provinces; his motive was also sympathy with human suffering. Notwithstanding this, the slave market remained open to private individuals, and free men were bought and sold as slaves all over the Empire, and, indeed, had been so without break for at least a thousand years. Then came another period of Tartar domination. During the Ming dynasty, which succeeded the Mongols, the custom of accumulating large numbers of slaves in private families once more received an impetus, and it became the fashion for rich persons to vie with each other in showing off their smart human cattle. The Manchu dynasty imposed limitations upon this, and subjected the purchase of men and women to the control of the law. The bondage and serfage which already formed part of the private Manchu military system developed, in unison with the Chinese slave trade, into a kind of patron and client relationship, and the early Emperors found it necessary to issue frequent edicts upon the subject. Manchu clients showed a tendency to ignore the Chinese territorial rulers, and to take refuge under the arm of their patrons. Chinese slaves, and even rich merchants and free men, observing the advantages of having a private protector, were often only too willing to give or sell themselves into a condition of serfage or slavery; so that for some time clients, serfs, and slaves seem to have been more or less confused together. But the Manchu codified statutes have always made a distinction between master and slave in the eyes of the law, for offences by persons in bondage are visited by a penalty one degree heavier than if committed by a free person. The law does not prevent all parents from selling their children, but at the same time it distinguishes between selling a free man, a freed man, and a person born in slavery; it also takes cognizance of the purpose for which the person is sold, and extends a certain amount of protection by providing a punishment for masters who beat their slaves to death. In the year 1731 the Emperor Yung-cheng explicitly recognized, without, however, approving, the right of poor persons to sell their offspring. The Emperor K'ien-lung was even more explicit in 1788. In 1726 it was found that Chinese slaves were beginning to grow too impudent, and the Emperor K'ang-hi expressly ordained that their owners should be placed on the same footing with regard to compulsory powers as that existing under the Manchu system between lord and bondsman. The inquiry instituted at this time led to the discovery of various obscure serfage customs in different parts of the Empire, and steps were taken to assimilate these customary serfs to free Chinese.

To go back once more to ancient times, and trace the origin and progress of slavery in China:—it seems that private persons were served by personal contract, and were at first not allowed to possess slaves. The offspring of public slaves recruited the lictor or police class, whilst the females washed clothes and hulled the rice; even the servi poenae, or public slaves, might not be either persons over seventy years of age, or children. This was the general rule, and evidently refers to the Wei decree of 246 cited above; but the vassal or feudal States all had their local laws and customs, under which the dependent classes may have suffered in a way unrecorded by Imperial history. The old feudal system was broken up 2100 years ago by the celebrated "First Emperor," whose house, like the family of nominal kings or emperors he broke up, also came from the semi-barbarous western frontiers. Even under the rule of this dynasty, the sons of convict slaves were declared free. It was in B.C. 204, after the devastating wars which succeeded the death of this great innovator and his feeble successor, that the founder of the true Chinese Imperial system, as it still exists (with modifications in detail), explicitly allowed destitute persons to relieve their misery by selling their children. As we have seen, in B.C. 202 a change was made. But, as a rule, the stock of slaves was recruited from the criminal classes, or from prisoners of war. For instance, in B.C. 154, seven provinces or feudal sub-kingdoms revolted, and their whole populations were condemned to be slaves of the State; though the next Emperor, as already mentioned, pardoned them in B.C. 140, and deprived private owners of the right of killing their slaves without good reason. Fifty years later an Emperor, in setting free more slaves, expressly declared that the magistrates had no power to interfere with private slaves. The Imperial farms and parks employed as many as a quarter of a million of slaves, and these State slaves are mentioned again in the first and sixth centuries of our era During the first century, revolted provinces whose populations had again incurred the penalty of slavery were enfranchised in order that they might till waste lands.

From the second to the fourth centuries of our era it became a custom for cultivators to place themselves under powerful personages for the sake of protection, like the adscriptitii of Rome; the lord was assessed for them by the polL The dynasty which reigned during the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries freed large numbers of Government slaves, and distributed them over the western and central provinces; but private families at that time still continued to own considerable bodies of cultivators. A slave who should accuse his master of a crime was at once executed, and his evidence was ignored. Emancipation by Imperial authority against the will of ithe private owner ceases to be heard of. But masters could, by mere note of hand, set free their slaves, who, in any case, received liberty on attaining the age of seventy. In 821 and 823 there were decrees forbidding the purchase of Corean slaves captured by pirates, and those already in China were sent back. From the tenth century until the close of the Sung dynasty and the accession of the Mongols, private owners' rights remained much as before, but Government slavery seems to have drifted back to its original condition; we find transported criminals, but no mention of Government slaves or farm serfs. It was the policy of the Sung dynasty to reduce the number of slaves in the households of the rich. The personal property of Mongols is occasionally stated to have included captives spared in war, and the Mongol Emperors in several instances enfranchised literary men. Droves of prisoners of war were sent to the capital of the purely Chinese dynasty which succeeded the Mongols, and their offspring became slaves in perpetuity. By degrees these slaves passed from hand to hand by deed of sale, upon which a tax was levied; and, in order to put a stop to the practice of kidnapping, a law was passed making it illegal to treat free men as prisoners of war. From ancient times till now there have also been personal slaves or serfs given away as part of the dowry of princesses. Maidens of this class are mentioned in the oldest Chinese books, and onwards, throughout the wars, treaties, and intermarriages with foreign ruling families, right up to the time of the Manchu conquest . Slaves were obliged, however, to intermarry amongst themselves, and, though the males of free families were allowed to marry female slaves if they really wished, as a general rule the Ming statutes forbade such unions, and certainly those between free females and male slaves. A slave's peculium or private property belonged to his master in law, but public opinion was against arbitrary confiscation, and rich slaves were usually able to make independent use of their wealth by purchasing emancipation from their owners.

Under the Manchus the old idea of Government slavery has almost disappeared, at least in name; but in effect the punishment of banishment, when coupled with the obligation to work under Government officers, is practically the same. In the case of the traitors, the families are reduced to slavery and "given to the Manchu soldiery." The eunuch class is partly recruited from the young sons of arch-traitors, as, for instance, the sons of Yakub Beg. During the early wars of the reigning dynasty, frequent mention is made of captives of war. At first each Manchu soldier seems to have had his share of human plunder; but as the new family gradually settled down upon the throne, the subject race regained its self-respect, and wriggled out of its inferior position. Now such prisoners of war are rarely met with except on the frontiers of Tibet. Criminals are sometimes sent to " Mussulmans on the frontier capable of keeping a hold on them." As already stated, many Chinese give up their liberty for protection; but already, in 1645, we find the first Emperor ordaining that "Chinese were not to be terrorized into becoming slaves ;" and, as to criminals, a tendency showed itself to free the innocent families from taint, except in cases of treason and violent robbery. In 1652 the profession of "slave-trader" was made illegal, as it was found that, not only free Chinese, but even Manchu women were being kidnapped. And so on until at last it was necessary to put a stop altogether to the Chinese practice of becoming a client attached as a kind of serf to the Manchu banners. In 1651 regulations were made providing that prisoners of war owned by the Manchus should be allowed to visit their friends occasionally, and, generally, a tendency was shown to soften the lot of both Manchu and Chinese bondsmen. In 1727 the to-min or "idle people " of Cheh Kiang province (a Ningpo name still existing), the yoh-hu or " music people " of Shan Si province, the si-min or "small people " of Kiang Su province, and the tan-ka or "egg-people" of Canton (to this day the boat population there), were all freed from their social disabilities, and allowed to count as free men. So far as my own observations go, after residing for a quarter of a century in half the provinces of China, north, south, east, and west, I should be inclined to describe slavery in China as totally invisible to the naked eye ; personal liberty is absolute where feebleness or ignorance do not expose the subject to the rapacity of mandarins, relatives, or speculators. Even savages and foreigners are welcomed as equals, so long as they conform unreservedly to Chinese custom. On the other hand, the oldfashioned social disabilities of policemen, barbers, and playactors still exist in the eyes of the law, though any idea of caste is totally absent therefrom, and "unofficially" these individuals are as good as any other free men.

Having now taken a cursory view of Chinese slavery from its historical aspect, let us see what it is in practice. Though the penal code forbids and annuls the sale into slavery of free persons, even by a husband, father, or grandfather, yet the number of free persons who are sold or sell themselves to escape starvation and misery is considerable. It is nominally a punishable offence to keep a free man or lost child as a slave; also for parents to sell their children without the consent of the latter, or to drown their girls; but in practice the law is in both cases ignored, and scarcely ever enforced ; d fortiori the minor offence of selling children, even with their consent. Indeed, sales of girls for secondary wives is of daily occurrence, and, as we have seen, the Emperors Yung-cheng and K'ien-lung explicitly recognized the right of parents to sell children in times of famine, whilst the missionaries unanimously bear witness to the fact that the public sale of children in the streets—for instance, of Tientsin—was frequently witnessed during recent times of dearth. But slave markets and public sales are unknown in a general way. Occasionally old parents sell their children in order to purchase coffins for themselves. Only a few years ago a governor and a censor were both punished by the Emperor, not for purchasing concubines, but for " purchasing them in the wrong province," i.e. where they were employed officially. The slave is the absolute property of, and may be sold at any age by, the owner. The deed of sale much resembles that used in transferring houses. It begins with a declaration of reasons; states (in the case of parents) that the family council does not object, and that no member desires to adopt the subject; engages a middleman and witnesses; covenants for title (i.e. that the man or woman is not already in pawn); and undertakes not to make trouble or to repent in future. Occasionally there is a stipulation that no inquiry will be made if the master kills the slave in the course of merited chastisement. This is, of course, in order to avoid running against the law prohibiting the deliberate maiming or slaying of slaves; and it must be remembered, in explanation of the fact that some laws are in practice ignored, that no crime except treason is, as a rule, taken notice of by Chinese authority unless the families interested apply by petition. Thus, the slave's family may, unless they sign their rights away, ledge a complaint; but a slave cannot sue or accuse his master—indeed, it is punishable to do so.

Anciently, a slave always took his master's family name, and, to a certain extent, this rule still prevails; but, at least in some parts of China, modern slaves continue to use their own. If the master does not object, the slave may marry, whether it be a female slave of the same master, or a slave purchased by the master for the purpose. Custom varies as to whether the master or the slave's father manages the marriage; it depends in practice on who provides the money. It is punishable in the master or others to obtain a free wife for the slave by representing him as free; and the slave is punishable if he marries a free girl: moreover, the marriage is void. The slave wife marries on foot, and receives no musical escort, sedan-chair, or other confarreatio honours. Slaves are subject to the same prohibitions as free men as to incestuous marriages, and they have the same ancestral duties to perform. A female slave who has a child by her master becomes ipso facto a wife of the subordinate class; in fact, most secondary wives in China are purchased, and therefore, unless originally purchased in order to be a wife, they are slaves. Even Europeans purchase and occasionally formally marry them, but of course at once grant them their liberty, as no European Government recognizes any right in slave property. In China it is not at all unusual for officials to buy a secondary wife of immoral antecedents, the first wife usually remaining at home; for a civil official cannot serve in his own province. The husband is responsible for such a woman's debts, and if he cannot or will not pay, the law will decree that he must sell her in satisfaction. In China it is always possible for an erring woman to regain her position as an "honest female."

The slave's wife cannot be separated from him, whether he remains with or is sold by his master; but the offspring, if fed at the owner's expense, belong to the master and his heirs, and may be sold or separated without consulting the slave parents. Play-actors and unfortunates are recruited from this class, as free persons may not be sold to such uses; this last ordinance dates from Kublai Khan, and seems to have continued through the Ming dynasty. The slave father may sell his own offspring if he feeds them. If the master or any free man misconducts himself with the slave's wife, he is punishable in a less degree than if both parties were free, or both slaves; on the other hand, a slave misconducting himself with a free woman is (apart from any punishment, even death, the master may choose to inflict, which, if in anger, is usually not visited with punishment) one degree more liable than a free man before the law; but the law itself visits with death or banishment, according to relationship, offences with the master's female relatives. Even a free man may be killed with impunity if taken in the act of adultery, and if the woman is killed at the same time; the idea being that, unless both are killed, there is suspicion of collusion. The law does not protect unmarried female slaves by placing any limit of age upon a master's inclinations, but the girl's consent is required.

As a rule, full-grown male slaves are rare, and in any case only owned by Government officers, nobles, or opulent landowners, who buy them when boys. Male slaves are both younger and fewer now than they ever were before in China, nor is there any external mark by which they may be distinguished. There is no such a thing in China as driving slaves as they used to do in America; the work is usually light field or household labour, personal attendance, or assistance in performing the master's ancestral duties. Fuh Kien merchants, engaged in the Tonquin or Siamese trade, buy boys to breed up as "sons," as they do not like to send their own children away so far. I have met many such in Burma. Most slaves are females, and, if sold as secondary wives, or if, being handmaids, they give birth to children belonging to their master, are practically free so long as they behave themselves decently. An inferior wife-mother, though dependent on the first wife, is entitled to good treatment so long as she remains a widow; and she can always defend the rights of her own children, though such children in law belong to the first wife. In any case she ranks, from the first, above a mere handmaid or female slave, though she is married without much more formality; the husband can only dismiss her for certain specified reasons, though in practice inferior wives are often bandied about and sold. It is only the rich who can afford inferior wives; among the poor the only wife is, or may be, bandied about in the same way, especially if she consents. The secondary wife is liable to one degree less penalty than the first wife for a number of classified offences; but both of them are completely under the husband's thumb; may not complain of castigation unless it is very serious; may not separate from him unless he consents; and the secondary wife is also often a mere slave of the first. In Canton, at least, even a slave girl who remains unmarried with her widowed mistress until the latter's death inherits part of the property; if she marries, the mistress must provide the trousseau. So far as my observations and inquiries go, their "Mormon " system works peaceably in the majority of cases. Kidnapping is very common in China, especially in times of trouble; or girls are beguiled from their parents by dealers on the pretext of finding work or husbands for them. The worst fate often awaits these children, but many such are comfortably brought up and educated at Macao by " mothers," who either sell them or let their services out on hire. These girls have much liberty, and frequently develop high friendship for their fellows, and even for their "mother," who allows them to purchase liberty by instalments on easy terms. A very large number of them are united in marriage, sometimes of a formal, oftener of a less formal type, to Europeans and Americans, especially those of the seafaring classes. About twelve years ago the Governor of Formosa reported that seventy per cent . of the Chinese girls there were bought from and sold to each other by the mothers, each one of whom was thus technically free of the crime of devoting her own offspring to an immoral life. The Viceroy of Sz Ch'wan also officially reported to the Emperor a few years ago the wholesale export of girls from his province to Shanghai and the coast. His statements were confirmed by the Governor of Hu P£h province.

I have often cross-examined Chinese slaves of both sexes; the following typical case will illustrate the quality of modern Chinese slavery:—

"I belonged to an old and well-to-do family of cultivators on the coast. During the rebellion of 1854 the Taipings came, and we all took to the mountains. My mother was so exhausted that she died, and I was sold by some one to a man for two dollars; he took me somewhere in a boat, and another man sold me to 'mother' for twenty dollars. I lived twelve years at Macao, and my ' mother' owned two junks; her son wanted to have me as a secondary wife, but I preferred to live in a foreign house. I have never heard anything since of my family or native village, and have long since forgotten the local dialect. The man who took me on hire failed some months afterwards, but my 'mother' allowed me to select a second husband for myself; he was also on the hire system, but I managed to save enough to buy my ' mother' out for three hundred dollars, and now I have had an offer of real marriage from an English engineer."

In the province of Kiang Si the old custom of wifepawning still exists, although a thousand years have elapsed since it was prohibited by law. A few years ago a case was recorded where a wife was pawned for the winter for thirty dollars, then redeemed, then sold for a hundred dollars, half payable down and half after the hundredth day; the woman, however, hanged herself after her impecunious husband had secured the first fifty dollars.

In spite of the apparently helpless inferiority of the theoretical female position in China, in practice they are as free in the majority of cases as men, i.e. within the precincts of four walls; indeed, the influence of women, especially of mothers, is very great, and they often "rule the roast." The average Chinese man is not jealous, nor is he tyrannical; it is ancient custom which confines woman to seclusion, or, if she cannot afford seclusion, to reserve. Cases of gross cruelty are rare.

To be sold as a son or a wife is not at all the same thing as to be sold as a slave, although the immediate disabilities are much the same. The one rather resembles the mancipium, the other the servilus of the Romans. The difference is that the blood is not corrupted, and the offspring are not disqualified from entering the public civil service. An adult son may be sold in adoption without his consent, but if he already holds an official position, it would be difficult to force him to submit against his will; in this case the wife goes with the son, but the children of the adopted son remain with the grandfather. An adult, or, in fact, a youth of any age, thus sold in adoption cannot be re-sold like a slave, and money is only nominally exchanged in order to outwardly comply with the legal form of coemptio. As usually only childless persons adopt, the adopted has an excellent chance of inheriting the whole estate; in any case he takes share and share with the real son. Sometimes if sons turn up, he "reverts to his family" and takes back his own name. In short, sale for adoptive purposes has nothing to do with slavery, except that a son and a slave are, vis d vis of the patria potestas, much the same thing.

Torturing, overworking, beating, branding, and starving slaves are acts not unseldom heard of; but they are exceptional, and not more frequent than maltreating children, hired servants, or daughters-in-law; they form no part of the regular stock-in-trade of slave life, and, when they occur, can easily be hushed up with money payments, money for a coffin, pork feasts of apology, etc.; that is, always providing public feeling or influential family or clan hostility is not roused. All Chinese dread the howls of old women, and, unless a cruel master compensates a slave for cruelty, the slave's mother will probably make such a noise that life will become intolerable. Over and over again the British Consulate at Shanghai has found old women more formidable to deal with than the mandarins, in cases where compensation is refused and expected; for instance, when a steamer runs down a junk, when an only son is condemned to death, when disputed land is adjudged to a foreigner. In fact, the patria potestas in China may be described as "tyranny, tempered by suicide and old women." Besides, the law will not, as a rule, render any assistance to a master whose slaves run away. Moreover, there are certain spiritual penalties registered in Heaven by law against masters who ill-treat, starve, neglect in sickness, or decline to provide wives for male slaves; even for obstinately refusing to sell them their liberty. A master is expected either to find husbands for female slaves, or to take them himself as secondary wives. A master may often escape the consequences of killing a slave by hastening at once to inform a magistrate of the reasons; but in such cases the family of the slave receive their liberty: the penalties also vary according to whether the slave belongs to the accused, to a relative, or to a stranger. The best proof that Chinese slavery is of a mild character is that, during their whole history, there has never been a revolt of slaves, and in the Chinese mind there is always a lurking fatalistic feeling that the wheel of fortune may make slaves of the richest individual, coupled also with a strong Buddhist antipathy to taking human life, or creating physical misery in living creatures of any kind. There may be traces of race hatred, but there is absolutely no class hatred in China; even though slaves, barbers, policemen, and actors are historically and traditionally "foul" for three generations, recent "special judgments" or obiter dicta of the Emperors have so whittled the strict law away that it is doubtful if any cases other than gross cases, or cases supported by strong influence, would be officially noticed. In any event, the disability is only that these unclean persons may not compete at the examinations.

The slave is commonly made to impress the lines of his hand in pigment upon the deed which transfers his person. There can then be no possible doubt of his identity, as no two skin-marks are alike. The loss of this document deprives the owner of his claim upon the slave;

"China, past and present" (1903) by Edward Harper

See also

• Booi Aha

References

•  This article incorporates text from Life among the Chinese: with characteristic sketches and incidents of missionary operations and prospects in China, by Robert Samuel Maclay, a publication from 1861, now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from The Imperial and asiatic quarterly review and oriental and colonial record, by Oriental Institute (Woking, England), East India Association (London, England), a publication from 1892, now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from Innermost Asia: travel & sport in the Pamirs, by Ralph Patteson Cobbold, a publication from 1900, now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from The journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 40, by Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain), a publication from 1870, now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from Central Asia: from the Aryan to the Cossack, by James Hutton, a publication from 1875, now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from Report of a mission to Yarkund in 1873, under command of Sir T. D. Forsyth: with historical and geographical information regarding the possessions of the ameer of Yarkund, by Sir Thomas Douglas Forsyth, a publication from 1875, now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from In Tibet and Chinese Turkestan: being the record of three years' exploration, by Henry Hugh Peter Deasy, a publication from 1901, now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from The marches of Hindustan: the record of a journey in Thibet, Trans-Himalayan India, Chinese Turkestan, Russian Turkestan and Persia, by David Fraser, a publication from 1907, now in the public domain in the United States.