In the twenty-ninth year of Qianlong, the West presented as tribute eighteen bronze actors who could perform the whole of Romance of the West Chamber. Each was about a foot tall; body, ears, eyes, hands and feet were all cast in bronze; and their hearts, bellies, kidneys and bowels were joined by mechanisms, after the manner of a self-striking clock.
For each scene one inserts a key and opens a lock, by a fixed procedure; if one opens wrongly, their sitting, lying, walking and stopping fall into confusion. The persons Zhang Sheng, Yingying, Hongniang, Huiming, Facong — they could open chests and put on their own clothes. Their postures and exchanges, their bows and retreats, were lifelike, only they could not sing. When a scene was done they took off their clothes and lay down in the chest; when it was time to perform they rose of themselves and stepped back onto the stage.
To such a pitch of ingenuity have the Westerners come.
