Cleveland High School - Beacon Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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matron of a prosperous family empties the vase. Whoever has the most in their laps will have the most wealth and happiness. On the fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth day after the wedding the bride goes to her father's house and worships the gods. In the first month after the marriage the bride goes every morning and salutes her parents-in-law with a ching An, a bow, which means greeting of peace. She also salutes them before each meal. After the first month it is her duty, as the newest bride in the family, to wait on her senior's guest. If the mother-in-law is harsh and tyranni- cal she can make the bride's life miserable, for the daughter-in-law should be submissive to her regardless of treatment. BERVERLY BRIGGS -- T6'l WL Czina mam Go west, thou adventurous heart, west to the land Where the dawn comes up like thunder to herald another day. Brook the wide ocean deep on wings that shine silver in the sky. Descend to the good black earth that appears to turn green when the seedlings raise their leaves to the sky. Come to the land of wisdom and partake of its simple grace. There see a people of simple taste who never seem to hurry. Heal the land of its scarring wounds of war, comfort children born in poverty, and lift a nation from its helpless disgrace. Then come all you who are brave and gather round Homer Lea's grave 3 thus he will know that his race has come to finish the work he had begun. Then go to the land to work and play, thus spoil the Japanese conqueror's plan to live in feudal splendor plundering the weakened sur- rounding lands. Let those who rant and rave about the grave white man's burden, let them speak to a stone-deaf ear for they themselves are to propriety slaves. Then settle on the land and converse with the people as man to man. Remember, your goal is first to make friends and establish a mutual trusty for that is the way to peace on earth, to men of good-will. Above all, you must belong to the landg for, as everyone knows, the seed of' democ- racy is always planted in a soil of friendship with a spade of trust. BILL CREASON - Term Five. QQMWQWWSW 24

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own bedroom, in her new home: she then takes it out and puts it on the K'ang. This is done to secure peace, Ping being the first of two char- acters meaning apple, and also the first of two characters meaning peace. When the bride arrives at the groom's house, a string of firecrackers are set off to scare the evil spirits. The chair is carried through the court yard, over a hs'p'em or fire basin containing glowing charcoal. After the chair arrives in the public room, the groom shoots three pointless arrows under the chair to scare the evil spirits away. The chair, from which the carrying rods have been removed, is placed in the middle room, and set down by the bride's bedroom door. Two matrons assist the bride to get out. As she alights she steps on a horse's saddle inside the door of her room, under which two apples have been placed. The apples are put into one of her hands and a gilded vase in the other. The bride and groom, and the two attendants go before a white paper tablet, representing heaven and earth, to worship. She is then led to her bedroom, and set on her K'ang or bed, and the groom sits down too, at the more honorable place at the left, and she at the right. The groom uncovers her face by lifting the red kerchief that has covered her face till now. A gilded pot of wine and two cups are then brought in. A little wine is poured in each one, and one is given to the bride and one to the groom. The groom takes a sip, gives it to one of the attendants, who pours a little in the cup of the bride, and a little from her cup into his. Then they sip from the mixed wine. This is called I wan youam, viz., to make a perfect circle. After the ceremony, a brass basin is brought in and placed upside down on the K'ang near them. Underneath this are put the two apples and a small box, the characters for this being Ping ho, meaning harmony Before the bride left her own home, thirty-two meat dumplings Cchu po pol were prepared. These are taken to the bride's new home and cooked for the groom and bride. These are placed on the upturned basin, instead of a table. Thus the first meal is eaten in harmony. The bride may not get down from the K'ang until the members of her own family come. Before seeing the guests the newlyweds go before the household gods, and finally before the mother and father of the groom, and then they receive their guests. At eight o'clock in the morning of the third day, the guests are again invited. The ceremony of emptying the Gold and Silver precious vase is performed. The bride and groom sit on the K'ang, tailor fashion. A 23

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Scion! in Chun Every minute phase of the Chinese way of life is given to detailed ceremony. Time in China does not have the same meaning as it does in America. There, the swift passage of our precious few earthly years is accepted just as naturally as the falling of the leaves in autumn. This outlook on life causes time to be limitless. That which happens is not past. It is all a part of their now. The social system of China is a very dramatic one. It supports no class or caste system. The family is the all-important social group. The Family Eldership descends from the homestead founder through the eldest son. So a man may be Family Elder in a household where he had uncles of greater age belonging to an earlier generation. When a boy is born in a family, there is great rejoicing. Every man wants sons to carry on his name, and to honor him after death. Sons are spoiled and given everything they cry for. Girls are not so welcome, especially among the poor. They are more or less ignored, and their happiness is not considered. They must wait on their elders and their brothers. An old proverb says that one deformed son is better than eighteen daughters as wise as the apostles of Buddha. .Each daughter of a homestead has the right of maintenance until marriage. It is expensive for a man to marry off his daughter, for he must provide everything she will need in her new home. Her dowry should contain clothes for four seasons, and adequate household furniture. She cannot be kept at home unmated even on the excuse that she is nec- essary to care for someone ill or aged, nor can she be forced to work to help support her home. Though Confucianism is called a religion, it is rather a system of ethics, for Confucius spoke of goodness and not of God. He said, Respect the gods, but have little to do with them. His purpose was to make men better in this life. His most famous rule of conduct is the negative golden rule which says, What ye would not that others should do unto you, do ye not unto them. But the country has been held back by his teaching that the past is more perfect than the present or the future. The effect is that the Chinese usually thinks that what was good enough for 'his grandfather is good enough for his children. Buddhism preaches kindness to all living things and persons. There is no Creator. A beginning does not exist, so there is no end, or, if there is an end, it is nothingness. There is no hope of a heaven. The Buddhists stand for self-repression. Taoism grew out of the teachings of Lao-Tse who sought to estab- lish a workable system of practical morality, emphasizing passive 25