GOOD-BYE TO THE PIGTAIL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1355, 5 February 1912, Page 9

GOOD-BYE TO THE PIGTAIL.

BONE OF CONTENTION. At last definite news has come that ihe Manchu dynasty has distinctly and officially authorised its Chinese subjects to cut off the queue or' "pigtail," savs a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." But for at least a year this question lias- been hotly debated at Peking, chiefly owing to the insistent representations of the Manchu princes who have visited Europe as special envoys or commissioners of inquiry. They were nettled at being made fun of by the young ladies at foreign Courts, and they also perceived that, beside.? furnishing a handy means for capturing prisoners of •war arid tying them safely together, the pigtail "was hopelessly unmilitary in appearance. This was especially noticeable when, as in the case, of the Minister to Berlin, Yin-chang (now removed to Peking from his supreme headship over the armies in the held), foreign military dress was worn. It mattered little if the pigtail was twisted np under the cap or hat; for in this case tho head-covering did not fit, and the hat had a "wobbly," unstable appearance. The chief "conservatives" at Peking who upheld the pigtail wore Prince King (Ching) and Na-tung. The latter wittily observed: "China's progress does not he in tho hair, of the head; even if wo have no pigtails.we shall go on blundering unless the wearers of the 'new hair' are honest and cap-able, whereas a man with good stuff in him will always show it, even if his pigtail is 'all over tho place.' As our proverb says, 'The superior man often has a bald pate, whilst tho noddle, may have a splendid head of hair/" Why It Was Encouraged, It is remarkable how few students of ancient Chinese history have perceived tho fact that the ancient Hiuug-nu (n.c. 200—a.d. 200) and their immediate descendants the Turks (a.d. 500-800) all wore plaited hair.. Fromthe scant descriptions given of a fashion so un-Chineso we are unable to say whether these plaits corresponded absolutely with tho modern Manchu queue, but it is certain that the expression "hair plaits and lapel buttons on tho left" has for two millenniums been the diplomatic expression for "nonChineso ways" in speaking of all Tartars. It is also certain that Tuyuhun—a lace akin to the Manchus who emigrated from Lijo-tung 1500 years ago and formed a powerful empire in the Koko-nor region— also wore hair plaits. Probably the Avars, . Hephthalites, and others did so .too. Even the unmarried Korean lads and men (until the "parting of the ways" ten years ago) wore pigtails absolutely indistinguishable from the Manchu queue, except tliat the front of the head was not shaved; the glossy black, or sometimes dark brown hair' was parted in tile middle, and all .strangers on their landing in Korea mistook the wearers for women —who really never appeared in the streots at all, unless very old and poor. Nothing whatever, was. know of the privato life of the Manchus after (he Ming dynasty had chased out the Mongols in 1308. The dearest desire of the Chinese heart was thenceforward to keen all Tartars and Europeans out of sight and mind. When, however, the Ming.dynasty grew rotten (1G20) and the petty Manchu tribe began first to unite all its kinsmen, and then to aspire to universal imperial power their rulers had no way of clearly differentiating the "faithful" or renegade Chinese who assisted them in various ways beyond that of making them adopt the handy Manchu dress and pigtail instead of the complicated "topknots" and puffy sleeves, petticoats, and so on of the Mings. The more Chinese flocked to their banners tho more urgent it became to invent sonie unmistakable means of identification. When at last the Manchus' grand chance came, on the suicide of the last Ming Emperor in 16-11, Dorkun, the Kcgent uncle in charge of the Manchu boy Emperor, decided that, all Chinese now being "subjects," they must wear the pigtail at least. Banning Small Feet. Other sumptuary rules were proclaimed, and amongst other things it was decided to stop female "squeezed feet." But as this last ordinanco involved pryius into Chinese harem life, it was thought better not to insist. All males, however, under pain of death, were ordered to adopt the Manchu queue, and also to shavethe front of the head entirely, except during periods of mourning. Only in ono (then only half-oonqucrcd) part of China —the fierce region around Swatow—was this peremptory law in part resisted by adopting the device of wearing black turbans and twisting up tho queue beneath; but even then in addressing a mandarin the turbaned individual was obliged always to "drop his hair." To this very day the Swatow sea-men and soldiers "have tacitly been allowed to hide their pigtails, probably on the broad and sensible ground "de minimis non curat lex." To this very day, too, a polito "boy" who twists his tail up to dust the room speedily "drops it" if his master or a Chinese superior addresses him, There is only ono point about the Manchu and Tartar pigtail on which history is not perfectly clear. Tho riuns, Turks, Tuyuhun, and others probably ndopted plaits because, being "horseback States," they wero absent from home on raiding expeditions from Korea tc- the Volga for months at a time, and found tho mode convenient. It is prolnblo (though we do not know) that they also shaved tho front as the Manchus do, otherwise the mass of plait would havo been unwieldy on horseback. This particular point" is, however, one of purely academic value, and may bo recommended to the consideration of argumentative sinologues who "have no work to do."