From the Shing-meaou-che, volume first, page second, it appears that there are, in China, more than _one thousand, five hundred and sixty_ temples dedicated to Confucius. At the spring and autumnal sacrifices offered to him, it is calculated in the above-named work, that there are immolated (on the two occasions) annually, six bullocks, twenty-seven thousand pigs, five thousand eight hundred sheep, two thousand eight hundred deer, and twenty-seven thousand rabbits. Thus, there are annually sacrificed to Confucius, in China, _sixty-two thousand, six hundred and six victims_; it is added, there are offered at the same time, _twenty-seven thousand, six hundred_ pieces of silk. What becomes of these does not appear. [Sidenote: CHINESE WOMEN.] It has justly been remarked that a nation’s civilization may be estimated by the rank which females hold in society. If the civilization of China be judged of by this test, she is far from occupying that first place which she so strongly claims. Females have always been regarded with contempt by the Chinese. Their ancient sages seem to have considered them scarcely worthy of their attention. The sum of the duties they require of them is, to submit to the will of their masters. The lady, say they, who is to be betrothed to a husband, ought to follow blindly the wishes of her parents, yielding implicit obedience to their will. From the moment when she is joined in wedlock, she ceases to exist; her whole being is absorbed in that of her lord; she ought to know nothing but his will, and to deny herself in order to please him. _Pan-hwny-pan_, who is much admired as an historian, composed a book of instructions for her own sex, in which she treats of their proper station in society, the deportment they should exhibit, and the duties they ought to perform. She teaches them that they “hold the lowest rank among mankind, and that employments the least honourable, ought to be, and in fact are, their lot.” She inculcates entire submission to their husbands, and tells them in very plain terms that they ought to become abject slaves, in order to become good wives. We cannot expect that these doctrines, inculcated as they are, by a _lady_, who ought to advocate the cause of her sex, and by one held in so high repute as is _Pan-hwny-pan_, will be overlooked by the “lords of creation;” especially as they accord so perfectly with their domineering disposition, in China. Confucius, the prince of letters, _divorced his wife without assigning any cause for so doing_; and his followers have invariably adopted similar arbitrary measures in their treatment of females. The price which is paid to the parents of the bride, constitutes her at once a saleable commodity, and causes her to be regarded as differing little from a mere slave. In the choice of a partner for life, she is entirely passive, is carried to the house of the bridegroom, and there disposed of, for life, by her parents.