Chinese solidarity is chiefly clannish or local, but within those limits is as patent a fact as a rope-tied faggot or bundle of firewood. In social intercourse within the clan itself every effort is made to preserve a secular edition of the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace; and a conciliatory attitude is adopted toward every friendly visitor who represents another clan or circle, and who may perhaps bring the whole resources of that other bundle of humanity to bear upon any real or imaginary affront. There is always a lurking suspicion that an outsider may be a possible foe at some time or other. He is therefore treated with a consideration which is half deprecatory, and with a politeness that consists largely in what may be termed the bribery of flattery, which bribery he on his own part returns with interest. Is his host “humble” and his visitor “honourable,” the visitor himself will describe himself as “abject” and his host “opulent.” But the reason of it all is obvious from the above considerations.

It is thus, surely, that the fine art of Chinese guest-receiving has attained to its present developments. It answers a similar purpose to that of the buffer between loosely-chained railway carriages, preventing a necessary contact from becoming an unpleasant collision.