[84] _The Origin of Property in Land_, transl. by M. Ashley, p. 151. [85] Perhaps it is hardly necessary to explain that a Chinese who cuts himself adrift from his family, or emigrates, or sets up in business in some distant town or in a foreign Settlement such as Shanghai, may and often does acquire real property under conditions that render him absolutely independent of his family or clan. The family-rights are not, indeed, extinguished: they are merely in abeyance owing to the difficulty or impossibility of enforcing them. Yet the theory of family-ownership is often--thanks to Chinese conservatism and clan-loyalty--fully recognised even in such cases as these. [86] The Chinese word for "Family" (_chia_) is often more suitably rendered with the word "Clan." [87] This is a customary, not a legal, arrangement. [88] In Weihaiwei a mortgage is regarded as an out-and-out sale if the right of redemption is not exercised after a definite number of years. [89] This may be compared with Hindu custom. "The instant a child is born he acquires a vested right in his father's property, which cannot be sold without recognition of his joint ownership" (Maine's _Ancient Law_, p. 228). Cf. also Plato, _Laws_, xi.: "You cannot leave your property to whomsoever you please, because your property belongs to your family, that is, to your ancestors and your descendants." This is the Chinese theory precisely. [90] The _fên-shu_ being "neither secret, deferred, nor revocable," may be compared with the early Roman "Will," which was not a Will at all in the modern sense of the word. See Lord Avebury's _Origin of Civilisation_ (6th ed.), pp. 486-7. [91] Cf. p. 199. [92] That is, Mrs. Yü _née_ Ts'ung. [93] Cf. pp. 205, 284 _seq._ [94] _Shêng yang ssŭ tsang._ [95] _Pu nêng tai ch'an ch'u chi._ CHAPTER VIII VILLAGE CUSTOMS, FESTIVALS AND FOLK-LORE