Chinese virtue

Chapter 26 Lack of Empathy (2)
It is indeed not fair to judge a nation's good or bad from just one famine year, but compared with normal days, this famine year often allows people to see the most real side.Although the sale of wives and children did happen in ordinary times in China, it was not as common as in times of famine.Many people should remember that in the past few years, people in many disaster-stricken areas in China sold their wives and children openly like selling livestock.It's just that there is no need to rush to the market to sell women and children. In 1878, the entire three northeastern provinces were shrouded in the shadow of famine. Under such circumstances, people who bought and sold women could be seen everywhere.Because there are too many vehicles for transporting women, there are not enough vehicles for transportation, and even a horse-drawn carriage cannot be hired in some places.These traffickers transport women from disaster-stricken areas to impoverished areas where it is difficult to find wives.What's even more ironic is that this kind of transaction is a kind of fulfillment for both parties. No matter what the original purpose is, at least both parties have a chance to survive.

We have said before that the Chinese are indifferent to the diseases of women and children.The smallpox virus, which is regarded as a plague by Westerners, is not taken seriously by the Chinese at all.Although a lot of people died because of this, they didn't care, because those who died were all children.In China, we often meet people who are blinded by smallpox in childhood.It is unimaginable that such a disregard for the lives of children in China, which always emphasizes that "the body, hair and skin are the parents".After the children died, they were either thrown into the wasteland, or they were swept with grass and thrown into mass graves.

In the end, these corpses will become the belly of the wild dogs.In some places, the face of the child's corpse is even messed up in order to prevent the child's "ghost" from disturbing the family.

The Chinese are not afraid of the smallpox virus that Westerners fear, but they are very afraid of the typhoid virus.This fear is like seeing scarlet fever in the West.Once a Chinese traveling abroad contracted typhoid fever, they might not even receive care.Because others are afraid of infection, they avoid such people.There is a highly contagious fever in Yunnan Province of China. The British general Mr. Bedrue was very impressed by this disease.Affected people become very weak, then aches all over for hours, and finally burns so that their speech is slurred and their thinking is confused.Getting this disease is basically equivalent to pronouncing the death penalty.The local Yunnan people were very displeased with this disease. They said: "There are ghosts floating in the ward, and the beds and tables creak. They are talking and can even answer your questions. If you are brave enough Only people dare to enter such a room. I heard from the missionaries that this disease is very terrible. People are afraid of being infected. They treat patients like leprosy patients. If the elderly in the family get this disease, it is best to isolate them quickly Come, put a pot of water next to the patient, and every once in a while, the family will poke the patient with a bamboo stick to see if the patient is dead."

Chinese people have a very gentle personality. We believe that they will have their own way of caring for their families, but we have also found that it is often difficult to see the true love. When encountering disasters or diseases, the good aspects of the Chinese character will be reflected.We have seen or heard many things in a hospital where the parents are very loving and the children are very obedient to their parents.A wife takes care of her sick husband meticulously, and she can also see that the husband loves his wife.Even strangers cared for each other, and breastfeeding women nursed motherless babies with their own milk, fearing they would starve to death.

Another characteristic of the Chinese is that they don't like to help others, unless there is a certain purpose or some other reason, which can be reflected in many ways.For example, a very bright child who cannot go to school for some reason is very eager to learn.And there are many students around him who are reading. These students would rather be idle than teach him how to read and write.He also expressed to these people that he wanted to study, but he was immediately ridiculed by these scholars.These scholars seem to be thinking: Why should we teach him what we have learned for so many years?We hired a teacher who had spent so many years in school to learn these things, and he wanted to learn them easily, which is not so easy.If you want to learn, go to the teacher yourself.Maybe some people can be self-taught, but that is a minority after all.Not to mention what knowledge most people have acquired, even whether they can read or not has become a big problem.

Foreigners living in China will be surprised to learn that the Chinese hardly ever save drowning people.A few years ago, a passenger ship caught fire in the Yangtze River, and the people on board jumped into the water to escape.At that time, there were many Chinese watching the excitement on the shore, but no one offered a helping hand.Some people even robbed the belongings of the survivors who swam to the shore. Many people who had just escaped from the water died on the shore because of the people on the shore taking advantage of the fire.There have also been similar shipwrecks in the UK. In the autumn of 1892, a British ship had an accident on the coast of China. However, unlike the previous example, people struggled to launch a rescue operation. Many officials and locals All the fishermen tried their best to rescue the survivors.Having said that, it is an indisputable fact that the Chinese are indifferent to the misfortunes of others, especially when traveling.So there is such a saying: "A poor family is not poor, but a poor road is a poor person."

Chinese people generally stand by and watch foreign travelers who encounter difficulties. Although there is no hostility, they will not show kindness to help others.The road in the rainy season is very muddy, but some people have to rush to do things, as if the sky, the earth, and people are against the rushing person at this moment. The big mud pit; if you accidentally get stuck in the pit, the people nearby will not help, and they all have the attitude of "nothing to do with yourself, let's hang on high".As we talked about in the previous chapters, the road condition in China is very bad, and no one repairs it at all.So once the rainy season comes, the road will be difficult to walk for a long time.Once someone falls into the mud pit, a group of people will immediately gather to watch and point at him.If you don't give them some benefits, no one will come down to help.

Some people will deliberately dig some deep holes on the road during this season, deliberately waiting for someone to fall and paying him for help.In such a season, travelers are better off trusting their instincts and not asking locals which way to go, because maybe they will point you to a road full of mud, waiting for you to sink into a pothole Money hires them to help.

I once heard people talk about such a thing, a foreign family living in the inland of China received very enthusiastic help from the local people, the neighbors lent them a lot of daily utensils, and said that there is no need to rush to return these utensils, etc. The family's daily utensils are ready to return.There should be more than one such thing, but there should not be many such things.Maybe these neighbors are just curious about the appearance of these foreigners and want to find an excuse to take a look, otherwise they will still be indifferent.Just like a fat and tender goose, no matter how nice the people around it are to it, it will eventually become their meal.So far, I have never heard of Chinese people helping others from the bottom of their hearts.The only known example of Chinese people taking the initiative to help others is that some sailors once traveled on land, from Tianjin to Zhifu, and from Guangzhou to Shantou.

In China, there is basically no inn to transport the corpses of dead travelers home.

It was once said that the brother of a deceased man spent the night in the street because no inn would take him in.If the corpse needs to be transported by boat, the boatman will also charge a lot of money.It is said that in order to avoid these situations, some people wrapped the dead body tightly with straw mats, which looked like cargo after being tied up.I once heard such a story. On a winter night a few years ago, the owner of an inn in Weixian County, Shandong Province was afraid that the passengers would die in the store and refused to do their business. As a result, these poor travelers froze to death on the street.

(End of this chapter)