Considering how squalid many Chinese homes are, it is all the more astonishing to find such deep attachment to them.  There exists in the language a definite word for home, in its fullest English sense.  As a written character, it is supposed to picture the idea of a family, the component parts being a “roof” with “three persons” underneath.  There is, indeed, another and more fanciful explanation of this character, namely, that it is composed of a “roof” with a “pig” underneath, the forms for “three men” and “pig” being sufficiently alike at any rate to justify the suggestion.  This analysis would not be altogether out of place in China any more than in Ireland; but as a matter of fact the balance of evidence is in favour of the “three men,” which number, it may be remarked, is that which technically constitutes a crowd.

Whatever may be the literary view of the word “home,” it is quite certain that to the ordinary Chinaman there is no place like it.  “One mile away from home is not so good as being in it,” says a proverb with a punning turn which cannot be brought out in English.  Another says, “Every day is happy at home, every moment miserable abroad.”  It may therefore be profitable to look inside a Chinese home, if only to discover wherein its attractiveness lies.

All such homes are arranged more or less on the patriarchal system; that is to say, at the head of the establishment are a father and mother, who rank equally so far as their juniors are concerned; the mother receiving precisely the same share of deference in life, and of ancestral worship after death, as the father.  The children grow up; wives are sought for the boys, and husbands for the girls, at about the ages of eighteen and sixteen, respectively.  The former bring their wives into the paternal home; the latter belong, from the day of their marriage, to the paternal homes of their husbands.  Bachelors and old maids have no place in the Chinese scheme of life.  Theoretically, bride and bridegroom are not supposed to see each other until the wedding-day, when the girl’s veil is lifted on her arrival at her father-in-law’s house; in practice, the young people usually manage to get at least a glimpse of one another, usually with the connivance of their elders.  Thus the family expands, and one of the greatest happinesses which can befall a Chinaman is to have “five generations in the hall.”  Owing to early marriage, this is not nearly so uncommon as it is in Western countries.  There is an authentic record of an old statesman who had so many descendants that when they came to congratulate him on his birthdays, he was quite unable to remember all their names, and could only bow as they passed in line before him.