Ment is cut down to three months, or even to one. The death of an
emperor is followed by a long spell of national tribulation. For one
hundred days no man may have his head shaved, and no woman may wear head
ornaments. For twelve months there may be no marrying or giving in
marriage among the official classes, a term which is reduced to one
hundred days for the public at large. The theatres are supposed to
remain closed for a year, but in practice they shut only for one hundred
days. Even thus great hardships are entailed upon many classes of the
community, especially upon actors and barbers, who might be in danger of
actual starvation but for the common-sense of their rulers coupled with
the common rice-pot at home. The law forbidding marriage between persons
of the same surname is widely, but not universally, in operation. No
Smith may marry a Smith; no Jones may marry a Jones; the reason of
course being that all of the same surname are regarded as members of the
same family. However, there are large districts in certain parts of
China where the people are one and all of the surname, and where it
would be a great hardship--not to mention the impossibility of enforcing
the law--if intermarriages of the kind were prohibited. Consequently,
they are allowed, but only if the contracting parties are so distantly
related that, according to the legal table of affinity, they would not
wear mourning for one another in case of death--in other words, no
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