The emperor wears a yellow dress, and all his relations wear yellow
girdles.
But the relations of the emperor are not the most honorable people in the
land: the most learned are the most honorable. Every one in China who
wishes to be a great lord studies day and night. One man, that he might
not fall asleep over his books, tied his long plaited tail of hair to
the ceiling, and when his head nodded, his hair was pulled tight, and
that woke him.
But what is it the Chinese learn with so much pains?
Chiefly the books of Confucius, and a few more; but in none of them is
God made known: so that, with all his wisdom, the Chinaman is foolish
still. The words of the Bible are true.
"The world by wisdom knew not God." Yet to know God is better than to
know all beside.
There is a great hall in every town where all the men who wish to be
counted learned meet together once a year. They are desired to write, and
then to show what they have written; and then those who have written
well, and without a mistake, have an honorable title given to them; and
they are allowed to write another year in another greater hall; and at
last the most learned are made mandarins.
What is a mandarin? He is a ruler over a town, and is counted a great
man. The most learned of the mandarins are made the emperor's
counsellors. There are only three of them, and they are the greatest men
in all China, next to the emperor.
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