•JAMBS - W- BASHPORD PRINCETON, N. J. '% % Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund. Division 1)5710 Section ■B35 1316 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/chinainterpretat00bash_0 OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR WESLEY AND GOETHE i6mo, net, 35 cents CHINA AND METHODISM i6mo, net, 35 cents GOD’S MISSIONARY PLAN FOR THE WORLD i2mo, net, 75 cents The A»ak,.ul„K of Chin., hy Dr. VV. A. I’. M.rth., Douhl.a.y, f..- A Co. Tomb of Confucius, ChOfu CHINA AN INTERPRETATION BY JAMES W/BASHFORD Blfbop of che Metbodi«( Epiicopal Cburcb Re»ideot in Cbioa And they read in the book, in the law of God, with an interpretation; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading. — Neh. 8. 8. THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI CopjTight, 1916, by JAMES W. BASHFORD First Edition Printed May, 1916 ' Reprinted August and December, 1916 The Bible text used in this volume is taken from the American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright, 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission CONTENTS CHAPTER TACK Preface 9 Preface to the Second Edition 15 I. China and the World 17 II. Industrial Life in China 43 III. Commercial Life IN China 73 IV. Educational Life in China 97 V. Woman's Life in China 123 VI. Life Reflected in Literature 146 VII. Life Reflected in Philosophy: Taoism and Its Schools 173 VIII. Confucius: Moral Philosophy 195 IX. The Confucian School 220 X. Religious Life and Struggles 239 XI. Chinese Law 266 XII. Political Life in China 290 XIII. The Downfall OF THE Manchus 312 XIV. The Transition : Prince Chun’s Regency. . 331 XV. The Chinese Republic 350 XVI. China and Japan 379 XVII. China and the United States 418 XVIII. China AND THE World: Conclusion 446 XIX. Yuan Shih Kai 492 Appendices 503 Index 617 -V ■■ Uil^C . '*;w ■'•*,%■' , ^ '.V^'i- JjV '., EBS • ‘ -V r*,- v'T' .1. ^^'V) «. . r,»r«.. ^ fev - . • " ’ - *-^ ' ■ J •'. * ^' ■' -7M ^ ‘ MiOV' l»*\ TJ' ji '• 4' «• ' 4 i* * J ^ .4iV -.4 *" *1 :*r ^ j . ■ IB Sh4^_ *■' ^'! •i> ■‘♦a '.*'A'>r . ■ I/' • jfc_. ' * 4 JHk-' i A: ^ :Mmt •* -■ JI , ■ . ‘Tm ^ ' t Vlfl w jf^ • ■■*3 ‘>3 'i t 4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Tomb of Confucius, Chufu Frontispiece FACING PAGE 208 316 The Empress Dowager, Her Majesty Tzu Hsi Emperor of China, Kwang-su Yuan Shih Kai 450 PREFACE Every thoughtful man holds fundamental views of human nature which constitute the preconceptions with which he comes to his tasks. In a country so large as China, with so immense a population, what- ever one’s preconceptions, he can easily find materials to confirm them. Every view advanced can be sup- ported by numerous illustrations, or it can be chal- lenged, and so many exceptions can be cited as to make the opposite opinion credible. Recognizing this danger, we have meditated for years upon both sides of every problem which has confronted us. We have aimed in dealing with so large a portion of the human race not simply to state facts but also to analyze and sift facts, and to derive from them the truth. We have been governed by the purpose not to discover in the Chinese what we wish were true, but, rather, to recog- nize those dominant characteristics, those fundamental traits of Chinese character, with which the rest of the world must reckon. All writers should aim to portray, not the countless eddies and cross currents which are so likely to confuse hasty observers, but the deep main current which reveals the trend of a race and fore- casts its goal. To do this we must know something more than its external history. We must, if possible, penetrate beneath mere facts and try to discover on the one side that which differentiates the people under consideration from the rest of the human race, and on 7 8 PREFACE the other side those more fundamental traits which make of one all men who dwell upon the earth. Lord Bryce, in his recent volume on South America, says: “The duty of a traveler or an historian or a philosopher is, of course, to reach and convey the exact truth, and any tendency either to lighten or to darken the picture is equally to be condemned. But where there is reason for doubt, and whenever that which may be called the ‘temperamental equation’ of the observer comes in, an optimistic attitude would seem to be the safer ; that is to say, likely to be nearer the truth. . . . Moreover, we are disposed, when we deal with another country, to be unduly impressed by the defects which we actually see and to forget to ask what is, after all, the really important question — whether things are getting better or worse. Is it an ebbing or a flowing tide that we see ? Even in reflect- ing upon the past in our own country, which we know better than we do that of other countries, we are apt, in noting the emergence of new dangers, to forget how many old dangers have disappeared. Much more is this kind of error likely to affect us in the case of a country whose faults repel us more than do our own national faults, and whose recuperative forces we may overlook or undervalue.”’ In this matter we confess that we are optimistic by conviction, because no per- son permeated by the Christian spirit can be other than optimistic. Moreover, in our opening chapters we are simply setting forth and attempting to account for facts — facts which are undisputed and indisputable, whatever may be their ex])lanation, namely, an im- > Bryce, James: South America. Introduction, pp. xxii, xxiii. PREFACE 9 inense population occupying that region of the earth called China, a civilization which the Chinese have maintained for three to four thousand years, and a struggle now in progress by this race to enter upon a new stage of civilization. Even should our explana- tion of the facts prove in part mistaken, nevertheless the facts are indestructible and self-assertive. Let any candid student attempt to find a rational explana- tion of the early development of Chinese civilization, of its long continuance, of the immense population which that country sustains, of the virile qualities of the people, and of their recent awakening, and these indisputable facts in the history of the Chinese must create large expectations as to the future. To quicken the interest in this vast nation, to help make China and the Chinese better known and better understood, this book has been written ; it is a growth rather than a composition ; it has largely made itself. It is the result of twelve years’ residence and some seventy thousand miles of travel in China, and ten thousand more in Japan and Korea, of hundreds of conversations with the Chinese upon all possible sub- jects, but chiefly about things Chinese, of unnumbered talks with foreigners of long residence in China con- cerning the Chinese, of the reading or examination of more than five hundred volumes on China, of more than forty notebooks written during the last twelve years mainly upon China, and of considerable medita- tion upon the problems of the Pacific Basin. The aim has been to make these problems understandable by Western peoples. In spirit we have tried to follow the Golden Rule and to interpret the Chinese to the West- 10 PREFACE ern world as we would like Chinese writers to interpret Americans and Europeans to the Orient. Such a spirit will contribute to the peace, to the commercial progress, and to the civilization of the human race. We are not unmindful of the ignorance, squalor, and misery of vast masses of the Chinese. We have pointed out the faults of the race and the dangers which threaten their civilization, but we have not dwelt upon the defects of Chinese life ; hence our inter- pretation may give hasty readers too favorable an impression of the progress and the present condition of China. Our conviction is clear that it is not wise for foreigners to enlarge upon the faults of neighbor- ing nations. Instead of maintaining a critical attitude, we have aimed, while recognizing the defects of a pagan civilization, to be constructive and to set forth the remedies. The chapters frequently lead up to Christ simply because he furnishes the solution, and the only solution, of the grave problems which con- front the Chinese. We have attempted to comply with Spencer’s defini- tion of style, and to give the reader without unneces- sary effort on his part a comprehensive view of the country and of its institutions, and as clear an insight as possible into the character of the people. In spell- ing names of persons we have followed the latest edi- tions of the Encyclopedia Britannica, of Webster’s Dictionary, and of the .Standard Dictionary, because these volumes are the most accessible of any contain- ing Chinese names. In spelling the names of places we have followed the official Postal Guide of China. No one familiar with the influence of evolution in PREFACE II the development of species can fail to realize the pro- found effect which environment has had upon the history of mankind. Were we to accept a radical con- ception of evolution, we might be led to the conviction that there have been independent origins of the human species. Even were such an hypothesis called for to account for the pigmies of central Africa or the aborigines of Australia, it is not needed as an explana- tion of the origin of the Chinese. Any profound study of this people reveals, with some marked variations, the same fundamental type of civilization, the same physical need for food, clothing, and shelter ; the same strong craving for fellowship manifested in the desire for home and social life; the same uneasy sense of sin and the same need of spiritual peace; the same imperi- ous demands of conscience; the same lasting longing for immortality ; the same deep desire for a knowledge of and reconciliation with the Creator of the universe and the Preserver of souls which exists in the hearts of the white races. These two principles, therefore — the marked variations in races and in civilizations on the one side, and the fundamental unity of humanity on the other side — should guide us in an interpretation of the Chinese. To this end we adopt Paul’s resolu- tion “to know no man after the flesh, but all men after the spirit.” We have spoken our convictions in regard to nations and possible events because in these days of inevitable struggle between races, civilizations, and religions one owes it to his fellows to express freely the judgments which travel and study have produced. If these judg- ments rest upon the laws of human development, the 12 PREFACE future will witness the slow and gradual establishment of the tendencies which they forecast. If not, history will modify the forecast. If the former happens — well. If the latter happens — still well, though not so well. Nevertheless, should the warnings uttered lead any nation in any degree whatsoever to change its course and so avoid danger, then the failure of the forecast will be the highest justification for its utter- ance. We recognize the very serious limitations which an Occidental experiences in interpreting the Orient when he comes to China in middle life and has not a knowl- edge of the language; an Occidental overwhelmed with administrative problems ; and, above all, an Occidental all of whose earlier thinking was cast in Western molds. We have been heartened, however, by the fact that, not men born in America but such for- eigners as De Tocqueville, Von Holst, and Lord Bryce, looking at America in some measure from the outside, have furnished the people of the United States the best interpretation of themselves; and that Occidentals, Lafcadio Hearn, William Elliot Griffis, and Sidney L. Gulick, have given us the best insight into the heart of that wonderful people, the Japanese; and that Presi- dent Lowell, of Harvard, has furnished probably the best interpretation of the English people. We have neither the genius nor the talent to repeat these tri- umphs. But if we can so interpret China that Ameri- can and European readers will understand better the men and forces with which they must deal in the Far East, and will appreciate more fully — not the mere in- dustrial and commercial qualities of this large section PREFACE 13 of the human race, but the aspirations, the spiritual aptitudes, and the struggles of our Chinese brothers and sisters, we shall be fully satisfied. If we can in ever so slight a measure so interpret the Chinese as to enable them better to understand themselves and to help them in advancing toward their providential goal, we shall feel amply rewarded. Peking, China, March 31, 1916. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION It is a source of gratification that a second edition of this volume is called for. Engrossed as Americans are with very grave problems in connection with Mex- ico and Europe, a slower sale of the first edition would not have been surprising. I am still more gratified at the favorable review of the volume by leading news- papers and of the receipt of letters of high appreciation of it from Americans w'ho are authorities upon China. Owing to the recent death of Yuan Shih Kai, the publishers have requested a chapter dealing with his career. I am not in reach of the materials which I have been gathering for years upon this statesman, but have furnished the estimates which I formed upon his character and his career. I am under deep obligation to my friend and fellow worker, the Rev. F. D. Gamewell, for seeing the first edition through the press and for such additional cor- rections as the speed of the publishers in issuing the second edition permits. He has labored indefatigably to eliminate errors, often searching for hours to verify or correct a single statement. I have not had time to hear from China since the publication of the volume and am ignorant of the judgment formed in that land upon it. If the judgment of the Chinese is as favor- able as the judgment of Americans, and of the Chinese in America, and especially if the volume helps the 15 i6 PREFACE Chinese to interpret themselves more, fully and so advance more swiftly toward their goal, the years of toil upon the volume will be amply compensated. New York, July 4, 1916. CHAPTER I CHINA AND THE WORLD The most ominous event in modern history is the World War which burst upon the race in 1914 and which is still spreading at the time these lines are written. No one even attempts at the present moment to forecast the outcome of this world conflagration. We may pray and trust that it will purify the human race, help the ideal of humanitarianism to transcend the ideal of nationalism, and lead to the United States of Europe, or even to a united Western world as the next step in the progress of mankind. But even then the white races would more closely than ever front the yellow races, and we should still have the problem of the Far East to solve. Wide as are the divisions of the Western races, wider still is the division between the Western world and the Eastern world. Rudyard Kipling sings : O the East is East, and the West is West, and never the twain shall meet Till earth and sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat. With this greater and later conflict in mind the late John Hay expressed the conviction that the storm center of the world would gradually pass from the Balkans, from Constantinople, from the Persian Gulf, from India, to China, and added: “Whoever under- stands that mighty empire — socially, politically, eco- 17 i8 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION nomically, religiously — has the key to world politics for the next five centuries.” While the Western World War now justly absorbs our thought, we must not forget that events are moving in the Far East with almost tragic swiftness. The race storm is facing eastward as well as westward, and its effects will be felt in Asia long after the storm has died away in Europe. It was with this possible epic or possible tragedy in view that Dr. Reinsch, United States minister to China, speaking as a student of world history, wrote in 1911: “There have been great crises in past history, but none comparable to the drama which is now being enacted in the Far East, upon the outcome of which depends the welfare not only of a country or a section of the race but of all mankind.” ^ Lovat Frazer says, “The event most fraught with meaning for the rest of the world is the awakening of the East.” B. Putnam Weale writes: “The Chinese question is the world question of the twentieth century.” In entering upon the study of any nation it is wise to begin with the physical elements which make possible that nation’s population and civilization. There are six physical causes of the population of China : The comparative size of the nation, the quality of the land, the location with reference to the equator, the rainfall, the loess formation, and the salubrity of the climate. T. Comparative Size of China, The twenty-one provinces of China have an area of 1,896,436 square ' Reinsch, Paul S.: Intellectual and Political Currents in the Far East. Preface, p. vii. CHINA AND THE WORLD 19 miles, and a population estimated by the Chinese gov- ernment in 1910 at 331,188,000. This gives an aver- age population of only 122 per square mile. Despite her large aggregate population, therefore, China is surpassed in density of population hy nine countries, whose population per square mile is as follow's: Bel- gium, 652; Holland, 483; the United Kingdom, 373; Italy, 318; Germany, 310; Switzerland, 234; Austria- Hungary, 207; Japan, 203; and France, 189. Large, therefore, as is China’s aggregate population, never- theless she ranks tenth in density of population among the nations of the world. The size of China is the first natural cause of her population. 2. Quality of the Land. But the size of China must not blind us to another fact, namely, that por- tions of the land are very densely populated. The government estimate of population for 1910 makes the population per square mile in certain of the prov- inces as follows: Shantung, 528; Chekiang, 463; Kiangsu, 448; Honan, 376; Hupeh, 348; Anhwei, 315; Fukien, 282; Hunan, 282; Chili, 281 ; Kwantung, 277. It will thus be seen that the population of large por- tions of China is very dense, perhaps the densest of any population depending upon agriculture and hand manufacturing for its maintenance, hence we must not rest with the explanation that China’s population is due solely to the size of the country. An additional cause of the immense population of China is the large pro- portion of land capable of cultivation. A glance at a relief map^ of China shows that the land consists on its western side of mountain systems, dropping down * Little, Archibald: The Far East, maps fronting pp. 19 and 44. 20 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION to the plain of Szechwan some fifteen hundred miles west of the Pacific and continuing' a mixed region of mountains, hills, and plains, to the Pacific Ocean. This rude outline of China may be compared to a huge half-moon facing southeast with the moun- tains rising on its outer border. These immense mountain masses have gathered and poured down great quantities of water during geologic ages, bring- ing down the detritus which forms the deltas of Hwang-ho or Yellow River in the north, the Yangtze in the center, and the West River in the south. This process accounts for the Yangtze basin with some five hundred and seventy thousand square miles of terri- tory, and the Yellow and West River basins, which together add perhaps five hundred thousand square miles more to the delta land of China.^ 3. The Location With Reference to the Equator. The third natural cause of the fertility of China, and therefore of her population, is her loca- tion with reference to the equator. When the map of China is placed upon proper parallels of latitude over the map of North America, it will cover not only the United States but the West Indies, the Gulf of Mexico, most of Mexico, and a considerable portion of Central America. The location of China in refer- ence to the equator gives her, on the whole, one of the best climates of any large nation on earth. It permits the production of dry rice in Manchuria, and of water rice in each of the eighteen provinces. It per- mits the production of two or three crops a year from the same land in a considerable portion of the nation. • Little, Archibald: The Far East, p. 18. CHINA AND THE WORLD 21 and four crops in some portions, so that all the culti- vated land of China proper averages at least two crops a year. Hence the location of China with reference to the equator is a third cause of the immense population of the nation, just as a similar location is a cause of the immense population of India. 4. Rainfall. The rainfall adds immensely to the productiveness of China. A study of the comparative charts of rainfall provided by Bartholomew'* shows that for all of China south of the Yangtze with the exception of Kweichow, Yunnan, and small portions of Hupeh and Szechwan, the average rainfall is from fifty to seventy-five inches per year and for the rest of China proper and of Manchuria from twenty-five to fifty inches. The rainfall of China averages higher than the rainfall of Europe or of the United States. W erner® shows that eighty-four great famines during the last four thousand years were due to excessive rainfall and seventy-one to drought. Moreover, the rainfall is usually well distributed with reference to crop production. During the winter the Pacific Ocean, lying south and east of China, is warmer than the land of central and northern Asia. Hence the warmer air over the Pacific rises and the cold dry air from the north and west flows in. During the summer the land becomes much hotter than the ocean, and the air laden with moisture flows in from the southeast and is ar- rested and cooled by the mountains, resulting in copi- ous rains. Hence by far the larger portion of the rain in China, and especially in the central and northern ‘ Atlas of World’s Commerce, p. 5, top of page. ‘ Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese. Table VIII, col. 37. 22 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION portions of the nation, falls in the summer when needed by the growing crops. Even in the most arid provinces like Kansu, Shensi, and Shansi, where famines from drought are somewhat common, the summer rains vary from ten to thirty inches, and usually are sufficient to insure a harvest. The large rainfall of China and its favorable distribution is a fourth cause of the immense population of the nation. 5. Loess Formation. A fifth cause of the popu- lation is the fertility of the northern and central por- tions of China due to the loess formation. This is due to the trade winds mentioned above. As the weather is dry and the vegetation dead during the late fall, winter, and early spring months, when the winds blow from the northwest, these winds bring a large amount of dust from Turkestan, Mongolia, and Siberia. This dust is deposited over the plains of northern and central China. When the wind changes in the spring and the southeast monsoon brings air from the Pacific expanded by heat and laden with moisture, the moisture is soon condensed by the moun- tains and falls in the form of rain; thus the dust which is brought down from the northwest during the winter months is soon wet and covered with vegetation and is not carried back to the northwest again. The northern plains of China and Manchuria are largely of loess formation, aided and modified by the deposits of the Yellow River, while the central China plain is partly of loess formation, aided and modified by the Yangtze River deposits. The main loess deposits are in northern and central China, though we have seen dust storms in the winter as far CHINA AND THE WORLD 23 south as Canton. The average depth of the loess in central and northern China has been estimated at thirty-three feet. When the land is covered to a depth of several feet with this wind-borne loess — the richest soil of the region whence it came — deposited in columnar structure such that the soil readily absorbs the rain and also enables the roots to penetrate deeply, its fertility is almost inexhaustible. The size and the extraordinary richness of the loess formation of China constitute an additional natural cause of her immense population. 6. Salubrity of China. S. Wells Williams says: “The healthy climate of China has had much to do with the civilization of its inhabitants. No similar area in the world exceeds it for general salubrity.”® Later observations show that the climates of North America and Europe contribute to a speedier and higher form of civilization.^ But upon the whole Williams’ statement is confirmed as to the value of this climate for the maintenance of a widespread and long lived civilization. However observers may ex- plain the fact, the Chinese are one of the toughest and most virile races on earth. So far as this virility of the Chinese is due to climate, its salubrity becomes one of the natural causes of China’s population. Thus, in accounting for the immense population which China sustains, we must bear in mind, first, her size, which, omitting the immense mountain and desert masses of her dependencies, is about one million nine hundred thousand square miles ; second, the proportion * The Middle Kingdom, vol. i, p. 57. ’ See Huntington, Ellsworth : Civilization and Climate. 24 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION of arable land as compared with other nations or areas of equal size ; third, a climate which permits the growth of from two to four crops a year; fourth, the large amount and admirable distribution of the rainfall; fifth, the loess formation; and, sixth, the salubrity of China. These six physical causes have made possible the immense population of the nation. But physical causes do not insure a large popula- tion. Most of these causes operate in the Tigris and the Euphrates Valleys, and they once sustained dense populations, though they are to-day sparsely settled. Physical advantages alone do not create populations. Human causes must be added in order to create, and especially in order to maintain, a nation century after century. Probably no other people exhibit a larger combina- tion of the human qualities necessary for the mainte- nance of a large population than do the Chinese. The Chinese possess those qualities of virility and indus- try, intelligence and reasonableness, adaptability and cheerfulness, solidity, common sense, and religion, which, under suitable conditions, make an exceedingly numerous people. The qualities of the country and of the people are united in the agricultural and indus- trial life of China. I. Early Marriage and Desire for Sons. The first and perhaps the chief human cause of the immense population of China grows out of a strange mixture of spiritual conviction and of the strongest passion of man. It is a religious conviction of the Chinese that no man can be at peace after death unless he leaves behind a son to perform the ancestral rites for the CHINA AND THE WORT.D 25 repose of his spirit. Future felicity is of such vital concern that every man old enough for marriage is determined to have a son before his death; and as death is no respecter even of youth, the earlier this young man marries, the safer his eternal interests. But the matter is of more than future and individual con- cern. All the dead members of the clan are supposed to be unfavorably affected by failure in the perform- ance of ancestral rites ; and the penalty for neglect of ancestral worship falls not only upon the individual but upon the family, and upon all the members of the clan, usually coming in the form of drought, flood, or plague. Hence not the young man alone, but his father and mother, brothers and sisters, cousins, uncles, and aunts, are interested in his early marriage and the birth of a son. And for the same spiritual and yet in- tensely practical reason, namely, to placate the an- cestral spirits and avoid calamity to the clan, the first and supreme duty of women in China is motherhood. Dr. De Groot calls IMencius China’s second greatest philosopher, and quotes from him two statements which De Groot thinks have had the mightiest influ- ence upon the family life of China : “Unfilial conduct is the worst of sins.” “Three things are unfilial, and having no sons is the worst.” ® W'^estern peoples find difficulty in understanding these Chinese maxims, but De Groot explains them as follows : “We have to con- sider the worship of parents and ancestors as the very core of the religious and social life of the Chinese people. As I have said, it is mentioned in the ancient books with so much frequency that no doubt is possible * Groot, J. J. M., de: The Religion of the Chinese, p. 81. 26 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION that it was the kernel of religious life as early as the oldest historical, and even semihistorical times.” ^ When observers understand that so grave a people as the Chinese take their religion seriously, that there has been an almost universal belief for the past three thou- sand years that failure to perform the ancestral rites results in the suffering of all one’s ancestors in their spirit life, and that this sin is sure sooner or later to bring dire penalties upon the clan in the present life, they will see why the Chinese consider unfilial conduct to be the worst of crimes and sonlessness the worst of unfilial conduct. So deep is this conviction among the Chinese that for three thousand years bearing no son has been recognized as ample ground for divorcing a wife and marrying another. Not only so, but in lieu of divorcing the first wife, it has justified concubinage, or the taking of a second wife, for the sake of securing a son. At just this point the Chinaman’s strongest passion supports his deepest religious conviction. If successive wives, or a wife and concubines, do not result in a son, the case is so urgent that any younger brother who has two sons must give his eldest to his older brother ; or the sonless husband must buy a son of a more fortunate member of his clan who has one to spare. This adopted or purchased son becomes not only the legal heir but the spiritual descendant of his putative father. Even if a wealthy man has sons by his first wife, nevertheless the possibility of their death and the safety and glory of having many sons is made an excuse for concubinage. Thus the other human causes of population in China are all made operative • Groot, J. J. M., de: The Religion of the Chinese, p. 83. CHINA AND THE WORLD 27 by tliis spiritual cause combined with the element of human passion. 2. Value of Grain and Vegetable Diet. The second human cause of the immense population of China is the Chinese discovery made centuries ago of the superior value of a grain diet as over against a meat diet. C. G. Hopkins says, “One thousand bushels of grain has at least five times as much food value and will support five times as many people as will the meat or milk which can be made from this grain.” The Chinese, relying solely on experimental knowledge, discovered centuries ago that many more could live by eating grains and vegetables directly than by turning the grain into pork, beef, and mutton, and indulging in a meat diet. The Chinese secure far larger food values from an acre of land by growing, for instance, rape upon it and extracting oil from the seed, than by pasturing a cow on the land and making butter from her milk. Moreover, the Chinese eat while it is grow- ing and pickle for future consumption, as we make saurkraut, large quantities of rape; thus they derive much food directly from the plant itself as well as a large amount of oil from the seed. Moreover, the rape in southern and central China is largely a winter crop, growing when other crops are not so valuable, and leaving ample time for two or more summer crops to be taken from the same field. Hence, instead of secur- ing their fat for cooking and consumption indirectly from the land through animals in the form of butter, lard, and tallow, the Chinese derive their oils very •“Hopkins, C. G.: Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture, quoted in Professor F. H. King’s Farmers of Forty Centuries, p. 135. 28 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION largely from seeds, grains, and nuts. We furnish in Appendix II a list of thirty-eight grains, nuts, vege- tables, and seeds from which the Chinese extract oil for food. Chinese who are able to afford meat, eat meat ; and a large proportion of the people use at least a little meat or fish for flavoring and enriching their rice ; and most of them eat meat upon feast days. Be- cause the land will yield more nourishment if cultivated than if left for pasture, pasture lands are infrequent in China, and hay is very uncommon. Again, because the land will yield more nourishment if devoted to grains and vegetables than if devoted to orchards, fruits are not used in such relatively large quantities in China as in the United States. Bananas and plan- tains are an exception to this statement; and on the value of the banana the Chinese anticipated through experience what scientific investigation has more definitely revealed. Hence, the second human cause of the immense population of China is their custom of eating directly their grains, vegetables, and oils, in- stead of following the costly method of turning the grains into animal food and butter and living upon this more condensed diet. 3. Relative Cost and Value of Animal Foods. In addition to the far greater number of men and women who can be sustained by the direct consumption of grains, vegetables, and vegetable oils, the Chinese recognize the relative cost and value of meats. Pro- fessor Hopkins calls attention to the Rothamsted feeding experiments in which it is demonstrated that the same amount of dry food which will make four pounds of beef will make five pounds of mutton and CHINA AND THE WORLD 29 eleven pounds of pork." Chinese farmers, without any experiments and with no accurate knowledge of the amounts of beef and pork which a fixed amount of grain will produce, nevertheless have learned by cen- turies of experience that grain turned into pork will produce a larger amount of meat than when turned into beef. Hence pigs are vastly more common in China than beef cattle. The farmer has another great advantage in raising pigs over cattle and sheep, namely, the pig is a scavenger and will eat what the ox and sheep will refuse. Indeed, cattle and sheep could not compete with pigs in any country were it not for the milk, butter, and wool which they produce. But the Chinese largely use vegetable oils instead of milk and butter, and the majority of them live so far south that cotton cloth is more highly prized than woolen. Hence the breeding of sheep is confined largely to northern China, especially Manchuria and Mongolia, where the skins are used for clothing. Almost every family in China will have one or two pigs, whereas in large areas of China there are few sheep and cattle. In addition to pigs, most Chinese families keep a few chickens, because the chickens also are scavengers and will eat what the ox or the sheep will reject; and the chicken can find insects and worms and scattered grains for food upon which it can live where the pig would starve. In addition to pigs and chickens, the Chinese, in all cases where water abounds, breed ducks because ducks get their living largely from vegetable growths in the bottoms of shallow ponds where chick- ** Hopkins, C. G.; Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture, quoted in Professor F. H. King’s Farmers of Forty Centuries, p. 135. 30 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ens cannot feed. In addition to pigs, chickens, and ducks, the Chinese breed fish along their water courses and in their ponds. For centuries they have stocked their ponds and bred fish with almost as much care as they breed chickens and ducks. In north China, where the soil is largely loess and will not hold water, ponds are not common, but in central and south China and in parts of west China a farmer usually has a small pond near each field. Although this pond may be less than a hundred feet square, and in some cases less than ten by twenty feet, the farmer will so stock it with fish that while it will not yield so much as an equal area in rice it will furnish water for the crop and will yield a food which admirably supple- ments the rice and vegetables. In many cases the Chinese flood their fields and breed fish while the land is resting in winter. In Java the farmers plan to take from their rice fields not only a large crop of rice, but a ton or more of fish per acre annually. The subsist- ence of the Chinese largely upon a vegetable diet, be- cause grain will sustain five times as many people when eaten directly as it will after it is turned Into meat, and their care in breeding those animals which will furnish the greatest amount of food in proportion to the grain consumed, are among the human causes of the immense population of China. 4. Irrigation. In Japan where statistics have been gathered, forty-six per cent of the cultivated land has been reduced to water level. In northern China, where less rice is raised than in central and southern China, farmers depend more largely upon the summer rains. Nevertheless, irrigation prevails to some extent in CHINA AND THE WORLD 31 northern China, From such observations as we have made in numerous journeys we judge that some fifty to seventy-five per cent of the land in the Yangtze Valley and in southern China is under irrigation.^* The chief method of irrigating the land in China is by canals.^® Professor King estimates that there are two hundred thousand miles of canals in China. The estimate impresses us as too high. But we have counted canals and ditches in our travels in various sections of China and in places have found them almost as common as the main wagon roads in the Mississippi Valley. Hence, if we include in the estimate ditches used largely for purposes of irrigation, but upon which the Chinese transport goods in boats, possibly Pro- fessor King's estimate is not excessive. Americans will realize something of the expense and labor in- volved in constructing these works if they imagine forty canals extending from the Atlantic to the Pa- cific, and sixty more from the northern to the southern boundary of the United States, The canals of China have required the expenditure of many times as much labor for their construction and maintenance as has the Great Wall; and they have been a thousandfold more valuable to the Chinese; but because they are not so spectacular they have not attracted from travel- ers a tithe of the attention which has been devoted to the Great Wall. Professor King says that the Chinese and Japan- ese have discovered as no other races on earth the value of water and the methods of placing it upon the See Appendix III, “ Methods of Irrigation in China.” King, F. H.: Fanners of Forty Centuries, p. 8. 32 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION land for the production of large and stable yields. Despite the large supply of rain in southern China, the Chinese even in that region constantly resort to irriga- tion. When one remembers the immense amount of soil and of valuable minerals in solution which are car- ried into the ocean by the rivers of a country, but which in part are deflected and preserved to the land by means of irrigation; and especially when one learns that most agricultural crops demand from three to six hundred tons of water to every ton of grain brought to maturity, he will readily recognize the immense value of irrigation as one means for maintaining the large population of China. Thus China, without scientific knowledge, was the first of the great nations still in existence to recognize the value of irrigation, and she has practiced it from her earliest recorded history down to the present time. 5. Preserving AND Fertilizing THE Soil. A fifth human cause of the immense population which China sustains is found in Chinese methods of preserving and fertilizing the soil. In order to prevent the washing away of the soil, as well as to facilitate irrigation, a large proportion of the land is cultivated in level fields. On land somewhat rolling a level field is secured by the process of terracing. As cultivation is ‘chiefly by hand, the size and shape of the fields make little dif- ference to the farmer. Millions of fields, especially in central and southern China, are not larger than an American dooryard, while many are not larger than a barn floor — and Professor Ross'" compares some “ King, F. H.: Farmers of Forty Centuries, p. 7. Ross. E. A.; The Changing Cliinese, p. 77. CHINA AND THE WORLD 33 fields in size to a napkin. The reduction of each field to a level by terracing and placing a ridge of soil around the border not only holds the irrigating water when it is turned upon the field, but prevents the wash- ing away of the soil. When for any reason terracing is impracticable, the farmer usually huilds a small ridge around each field and thus prevents the soil from washing away. He surrounds such fields by ditches to catch the water which overflows in time of flood, and these ditches will be loosely dammed at the end of the field so as to hold back the wash of the field as far as possible. After the rainy season farmers gather up from these ditches the soil which was washed off their fields and carry it back again. The farmers annually clear out the canals and ditches which surround their land and use the mud from the bottom, with all human and animal refuse, grass, potato vines, rice, straw, and millet roots to form a compost. Turning to fertilization. Professor King^® found that in the proportion of materials used, the time of exposure to the air, in the working over of the com- post for saving the nitrogen and other gases incident to decomposition, the Chinese by long experience have adopted the very methods recently formulated by sci- entific agriculture. Holding the chair of agriculture in the University of Wisconsin, Professor King was familiar with the splendid struggle which agricultural chemistry had made during the past generation and its brilliant success in demonstrating the value of the pulse family — peas, vetch, clover, etc. — for enriching the soil i*King, F. H.: Farmers of Forty Centuries, p. 252. 34 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION by reason of the nodules of nitrogen produced upon their roots, nitrogen in a form in which it is easily assimilated by growing vegetation. But on visiting China he was amazed to find that the Chinese, without ever having used the term “scientific chemistry” to de- scribe their processes, had learned the value of this family of plants for mulching and that for centuries they had been following the scientific methods, dis- covered in Europe and America, of growing pulse crops and plowing them under green in order to en- rich the soil. In addition to putting back upon the soil all human and animal refuse, farmers in southern China draw together the dry soil in layers some six inches thick on each of which they place a layer of vines and roots, leaves and straw. Upon this they place another layer of soil and thus build up small mounds resembling hay- cocks. Then they set the vegetable matter afire, and as it slowly burns, the smoke and gases are absorbed by the soil. Again, as the loess formation in central and northern China is usually many feet in depth, the farmers sometimes lower one part of a field, spread- ing its soil upon the rest, and then plant crops on the lower level thus produced. Our American method of dumping sewage into rivers and lakes would be re- garded by the Chinese as incredible folly, not on the ground that it poisons our drinking water, but because of the waste of matter needed for fertilization. On both sanitary and economic grounds modern science is coming to the Chinese estimate of our present prac- tice. While the Chinese have never made the scientific discovery of microbes and the contamination of water CHINA AND THE WORLD 35 by certain of them, all their water is so thoroughly contaminated by being first used for the irrigation and fertilization of the fields, that they have learned, again by bitter experience, not to drink cold water; indeed, they regard cold water as per sc unhealthful. To be sure, their poverty leads multitudes to pour boiling water over the same tea leaves a dozen times, and some use other leaves as a substitute for tea. But without ever discovering that boiling the water kills the microbes, or that there are any microbes to be killed, they know that boiled water poured over tea leaves even the twentieth time is safe and that “raw” water is dangerous. While the Chinese have lost much soil from their hills and mountains by deforestation, nevertheless they have so preserved and enriched their soil that after more than two thousand years of cultivation their land still yields a higher average per acre for most crops, and much more per acre for the year, than land in the United States in similar latitudes. The preservation and fertilization of the soil is an added cause of the population of China. Intensive Cultivation. Another human cause of the great population which China sustains is in- tensive cultivation. An evidence of this is the number of crops which the Chinese secure annually, averaging, as already mentioned, some two crops or more per year. Another illustration of intensive cultivation is found in the comparative cleanliness of Chinese fields from weeds, especially when the grains or vegetables are young and are most injured by weeds. It must not be understood that there are no weeds in China. The 36 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION natural depravity of animate and inanimate things is as great in China as in any other country. But the Chinese hold that the strength of soil needed to sustain a weed will support an additional stalk of rice. Hence their fields are better cultivated and cleaner than most American fields. Indeed, when the crops are young, one may' sometimes pass half a dozen fields looking for weeds before seeing a single one. An example of intensive cultivation is found in the care of rice. The beds in which the water rice is first sown are very thoroughly prepared and highly fertil- ized, and the rice after being sown in these beds is carefully tended for thirty to fifty days before being transplanted. As one acre thus sown to rice furnishes sufficient plants for ten acres of land, the other nine acres are used for the ripening of other crops during the first thirty days when the rice is getting started in the beds. Again, the water rice is planted in fields which have been terraced to a water level, so that by irrigating the field with an inch of water the farmer reaches every rice plant in it. The field is not only kept under water a considerable portion of the time, but carefully cultivated and fertilized. Hence Sir Alexander Hosie, a very careful observer, estimates that the dry rice yields twenty-two bushels per acre and the water rice forty-four bushels per acre.^’ Pro- fessor King’s estimates, secured independently, make a yield of forty-two bushels per acre for water rice.‘“ What is true of rice is true of wheat. The Chinese have had for hundreds of years a wheat drill, which ” Quoted in F. H. King's Farmers of Forty Centuries, p. 271. ** King, F. H.: Farmers of Forty Centuries, p. 271. CHINA AND THE WORLD 37 we regard as an American invention, and wheat is planted in rows and often in hills, like corn, and care- fully cultivated, watered, and fertilized while growing. As a result, while Americans average fifteen bushels of wheat per acre, and the Japanese seventeen bushels, the Chinese average twenty-five bushels per acre.^® Indeed, we once measured single stalks of wheat in a field in Yungan Valley, Fukien Province, five feet ten inches in height, while the entire field averaged over five feet in height. Such fields yield forty and fifty bushels per acre. In the meantime, four or five weeks before the wheat is ready for the harvest, a second crop of some other grain or vegetable is often planted between the rows of wheat and will have four or five weeks’ growth before the wheat is harvested. Inas- much as the wheat is either cut by a handsickle or pulled up by hand, the growing crop is not disturbed. This method of harvesting the wheat shows the strain which the farmers put upon themselves in order to secure an extra crop from their fields. Again, all through central and southern China the farmers produce for their winter crops large amounts of rape, winter wheat, barley, Windsor beans, and green crops like lettuce and cabbage. They cultivate such crops as are best adapted to the soil and to the changing temperature, and many of the crops named will flourish even if the temperature drops to the freez- ing point. They also observe to some extent a proper rotation of crops and choose those crops which ripen in time to permit the growth of another crop adapted to the season. With the Chinese, labor Is cheap and “ Ibid., p. 271. 38 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION land dear ; in America land has been cheap and labor dear. Hence Americans, with much land at their dis- posal and with modern machinery, produce much more, man for man, than do Chinese. But the Chinese pro- duce much more, acre for acre, than do Americans. Surely, in the intensive cultivation of their land, of which many more illustrations could be furnished, we find another human cause of the large population of China. 7. Substitution of Human for Animal Labor. Another reason for the great population which China sustains is the substitution of human for animal labor. The amount of land required to provide grain for a horse will provide food for a man ; and for the sake of life, the man in China is willing to do the horse’s work. Despite the knowledge and appreciation of horses for four thousand years, the horse never has become a common animal in China. In central, southern, and western China, almost all transportation is by boats, wheelbarrows, or carrying on the shoulders by men. Foreigners are amazed at the few horses used in cul- tivating the land. In northern China, including Man- churia and Mongolia, horses, ponies, and mules are used for transportation and to some extent for work on farms. But many human beings in China do the work of animals and supplant them. Chi Hwangti, founder of the Tsin Dynasty, B. C. 255, was annoyed by the noise of the wheels of his chariot, and ordered the body of his carriage carried on men’s shoulders. Possibly this was the beginning of travel in sedan chairs in China. This method of travel never would have become general and continued for ages had not CHINA AND THE WORLD 39 the Chinese been so hard pressed for food as to assume even the horse’s burdens in order to obtain it. Here is an added human cause of the population of China. 8. Large Variety of Grains and Vegetables AND Fruits Used. An eighth human cause of the population which China sustains almost wholly by farming is the number and variety of grains, vege- tables, and fruits which the Chinese have developed and now cultivate. The first botanical garden in the world of which we have record was established in China by the Emperor Wu Ti, B. C. in, unless pos- sibly Solomon had such a garden. Of the nine thou- sand species of flora thus far discovered in China, almost half are peculiar to China. E. H. Wilson^" says there is a greater variety of trees in China than in all North America. The London Times^^ says, “China has the richest temperate flora in the world.” Pro- fessor Sargent, of the Harvard Arboretum, in connec- tion with E. H. Wilson and other botanists, has intro- duced into the United States some twelve hundred species of trees, plants, and flowers from China.^* The same has been done for England. Thus, the Western world is being enriched by the unusual pro- ductiveness of China. Instead of the Chinese people being limited to rice alone, they use a far larger variety of vegetables, grains, and tubers than do Europeans and Americans. Among the more important plants and fruits culti- vated in China are the following: rice, beans, soy bean, sweet potatoes, kaoliang and other millet, wheat. ” National Geographic Magazine, November, 1911, p. 1009. ** Weekly Ed., December 5, 1913. ” Bashford, James W.: Notes, bk. 42, p. 53. 40 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION sugar cane, corn; fruits like pears, persimmons, ban- anas, litchi ; with immense quantities of vegetables like carrots, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, etc. Indeed, in our early travels in China we were impressed with the great variety of the products of the soil eaten by the Chinese, and began entering in our note books lists of grains, vegetables, and fruits raised and used for food. We have been able to identify four hundred and seventy-eight species of plants — not counting varieties — used for human food in China. In addition, we have the Chinese names of thirty-two plants yet un- identified. We have no similar list for Europe or for the United States; but the Chinese eat some plants which Western races regard as weeds. This combina- tion of necessity upon the part of the people with the abundance and variety of vegetation enable the Chinese to use for food a larger number of the prod- ucts of the earth than any other nation. We have entered in this chapter scarcely one tenth of the material gathered, illustrating the industry and intelligence, the common sense and the thoroughness with which the Chinese use their native resources, and which enable them to secure such large results from their land. We have omitted also a mass of details illustrating the hardships which they endure, but suffi- cient data have been furnished to make clear some of the natural and human causes which have made China the oldest and the most populous nation on earth. We reenforce our conclusion with two quotations from Professor King: “In .selecting rice as their staple crop; in developing and maintaining their systems of irriga- tion and drainage, notwithstanding they have a large CHINA AND THE WORLD 41 summer rainfall ; in their system of multiple croppings ; in their extensive and persistent use of legumes for enriching the soil ; in their rotation of crops and their use of green manure to maintain the humus of their soils and for composting; and in the almost religious fidelity with which they return to their fields every form of waste which can replace ])lant food removed by the crop, China and Japan have demonstrated a grasp of essentials and of fundamental principles which may well cause Western nations to pause and reflect.^^ “With our broad fields, our machinery and few people, their system appears to us crude and im- possible; but cut our holdings to the size of theirs, and the same stroke makes our machinery, even our plows, still more impossible ; and so the more one studies the environment of these people, thus far unavoidable, their numbers, what they have done and are doing, against what odds they have succeeded, the more diffi- cult it becomes to see what course might have been better.” Books for Reference Bartholomew, J. G. : Atlas of the World’s Commerce. E. Bretschneider : Botanicon Sinicum (3 Vols.) ; History of the European Botanical Discoveries in China ; On the Study of Chinese Botanical Works. Candolle, Alphonse L. P., de: Origin of Cultivated Plants. Groot, J. J. i\I., de: The Religion of the Chinese. Forbes and Helmsley: Plants in China (3 Vols., being Vols. XXIII, XXVI, and XXXVI of the publi- cations of the Linnean Society of Great Britain). Hopkins, C. G. : Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture, quoted in King’s volume; King, F. H.: Farmers of Forty Centuries. Li Shih Chin: Pen-tsao, or Chinese Herbal. (All writers “ King, F. H.: Farmers of Forty Centuries, pp. 274-276. ^ Ibid., pp. 289, 290. 42 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION upon the products of the soil of China are greatly indebted to this Chinese botanist, who spent some twenty-six years gathering materials from nature and consulting some eight hundred earlier Chinese writers before finishing his encyclo- pedic volume, which was completed in 1578 and published in 1597.) Little, Archibald: The Far East. Richard, P. L. : Comprehensive Geography of the Chinese Empire. Richt- ofen, Baron Ferdinand von: Letters to the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce. Ross, E. A. : The Changing Chinese. Smith, F. Porter : Chinese Materia Medica. Stuart, George A. : Chinese Materia Medica. Werner, E. T. C. : Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese. Williams, S. Wells: The Middle Kingdom (2 Vols.). Wilson, E. H. : A Naturalist in Western China (2 Vols.). We have also been aided in identifying the plants used for food in China by Mrs. Clemens, wife of Chaplain Joseph Clemens, U. S. A. Mrs. Clemens has taken an untir- ing interest in the study of plant life in China. CHAPTER II INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA Apparently, the Chinese were among the earliest peoples to discover the industrial advantages of a divi- sion of labor and of an exchange of products. In The Chinese Classics, edited by Confucius B. C. 551-478, the people are represented as divided into five classes scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants, servants; and they ranked in honor in the order named. Soldiers were included under servants, and soldiers instead of servants are often named as the fifth, or lowest, class, though military conquerors as often in China as in other lands have reached the headship of the nation. Confucius refers this division of the people into classes to two thousand years before his time. In studying Chinese history, students do not reach clear historical ground before B. C. 776. How far back of that indis- putable date the student will regard history as authentic is, according to R. K. Douglas, a matter of individual judgment; and he himself regards the his- tory as reasonably reliable back at least to B. C. 1766.^ The most valuable authority on the industrial life of China is Werner’s Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese. The five kinds of grain mentioned in The Chinese Classics, edited by Confucius, are referred to the mythological emperor, Shennung (2738-2698 • See Appendix V, "Classes of Society in China.” • Encyclopsdia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 193, d. 43 44 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION B. C.). E. Bretschneider, says the grains designated were rice, wheat, barley, millet, and soy beans. StuarP says the grains were rice, wheat, two kinds of millet and soy beans — barley being identified with wheat. Undoubtedly, these five kinds of grain had been discovered and were in use long before the time of Confucius. The Pen-tsao,® or Chinese Herbal, says the use of tea was mentioned as early as B. C. 2700. Bretschneider says tea was used as a drink in the days of Confucius, but did not become the common beverage of the Chinese until the sixth and seventh centuries A. D. The first reference to the cultivation of the tea plant is found A. D. 350.® Iron mines were opened in very early ages, iron was used for money and for tools, and the iron industry assumed a growing importance between B. C. 1122- 221.’ Pland grain mills, and hand looms and hand em- broidery, fishing with lines and nets, buckwheat for food in addition to the grains already named, the use of indigo for dyeing and rearing of silk worms find early mention, while cows, sheep, swine, chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs were the domestic animals of the Chinese a thousand years before Christ. Spin- ning, weaving, dyeing, the rearing of silk worms and the wearing of silk are claimed by the Chinese as be- longing to an even earlier date. Among industries mentioned in Confucius’s edition of the Classics as ’ Bretschneider, E. On the Study and Value of Chinese Botanical Works PP- 13. 4S- < Stuart, George A.: Chinese Materia Medica, p. 305. ‘ Encyclop®dia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 228. •Werner, E. T. C.; Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table IV, col. 32. ’ Ibid., Table II, cols. 26, 27, 34, 35. INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 45 existing long before his time are rope-making and car- pentry. Among articles of diet** in this early age, beef, mutton, dog, hare, fowls, grains, apricots, and bam- boo shoots are named. Fans, metal mirrors, flatirons, umbrellas, bamboo writing tablets, and hair pencils, the abacus for reckoning accounts, lamps, candles made from the oils of certain trees, chopsticks — all were in use a thousand years before the time of Christ.® Between B. C. 221 and A. D. 221 porcelain, paper, some form of printing with an ink made of ver- milion and oil, and a machine for sowing or planting grain,^® are mentioned walls of buildings were con- structed then, as now, by pounding clay between wooden frames. City and national walls were built by imperial levies of labor. Preexisting walls were joined together, thus forming one united Great Wall, by Shi-Hwang-ti, B. C. 214-204, though it was largely rebuilt in the fourteenth century ; stone bridges, terraces and temples were erected ; flails, forks, spades, sickles, needles and thread, beds, steamers for cooking food and stone rollers for leveling fields were in com- mon use. Among foods, vermicelli, bean-curd, refined salt and condiments, sauces, vinegar, honey, sugar, and many fruits are mentioned.^^ No slaves appear in the earliest recorded history of China: “The elders employed the younger and the well-to-do the poor.” But the labor of all was at the * Wemer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table II, col. 32. • Ibid., Table II, cols. 33, 34. Ibid., Table III, cols. 27, 28, 34. “Ibid., Table III, col. i. ■- Ibid., Table III, cols. 27, 28, 32, 34. Ibid., Table I, col. 2. 46 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION disposal of the sovereign. No man could have an occu- pation different from his father, save by the order or consent of the sovereign. Trades were segregated in different streets. Men and horses and cattle — all were used in the earliest ages and all in some measure are yet used for drawing the plow. Slavery was intro- duced into China B. C. 204,“ through the sale of chil- dren, but we do not think it has been sufficiently gen- eral seriously to affect the industrial life of the people.^® It has consisted chiefly of the purchase of girls or women for domestic service and for concubines; its inevitable evils have appeared in the degradation of family life. For the past two thousand years there has been very little change in the articles of food, raiment, or instruments of production, or in clothing, house- building or any other of the industrial arts, save that cotton-growing, introduced into China between A. D. 960 and A. D. 1280, caused a marked change in the clothing of the people.^® The fundamental human causes of production are physical vitality, industry, economy, intelligence, and power of combination. I. Physical Vitality. The Chinese are a virile race. Two facts at least are beyond question — the Chinese nation is the largest in numbers of all the nations on the earth, and their civilization is the oldest continuous civilization on our globe. The virility of the race is indisputable. The physical vitality of the Chinese is so great that they have captured industries and trades from the Russians in Vladivostock and “ Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table III, col. a. ■‘Ibid., p. II, cols. 2, 3; compare John K. Ingram's History of Slavery, pp. 269-271. >• Ibid., Table VI, col. 29. INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 47 along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and have led in industries and coninierce in competition with Japan- ese, Indians, Arabians, Europeans, and Americans in every neutral port in IMalaysia, The Chinese prob- ably can labor more continuously under extremes of heat and cold than any other people on earth. On the other side, unquestionably the vitality of the Chinese was lowered by the use of opium. Medical science shows that their vitality has been lowered by venereal diseases, by hookworm, by malaria, by tuber- culosis, and by footbinding. Their habits of thrift are demoralized, and their industry interfered with by their passion for gambling. It is also true that when- ever the Chinese have become rich they have fallen into idleness and luxury, the same as other peoples. Official corruption, moreover, has tainted the indus- trial and commercial life of China more fully than that of any other nation. The industrial efficiency of China’s young men is in danger of being lowered through the use of wine and cigarettes. Unfortunately, all other peoples share with the Chinese these vices which affect at once character and industrial efficiency, though official corruption, concu- binage, and gambling are more openly practiced by the Chinese than by any other civilized people, while foot- binding is confined to them. While concubinage with all its baleful influences is more openly practiced in China than in Western lands, sexual vice is quite as widespread among other peoples as among the Chinese. With the death penalty for adultery in force in China from the earliest ages to the present, and with far fewer open opportunities and invitations to sexual 48 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION sin in China than in Japan, probably a scientific exam- ination will show that the Chinese have suffered less in their virility and industrial efficiency from this form of sin than have most of their competitors. Again, while they do not largely use meat — the muscle-building food — Dr. J. B. Neal’s examination of foods eaten by some hundreds of Chinese shows that they secure in their diet through the use of oils, beans, nuts, etc., fully as large a proportion of foods produc- ing physical energy as the other nations of the world. At any rate, the Chinese have physical vitality suffi- cient to make them the competitors, and in most cases the industrial supplanters, of all with whom they come in contact. 2. Industry. Like all other people, if the Chinese are working for wages instead of for themselves, they waste time. But even when boatmen, cart drivers, or chairmen are hired by the day, they often call the traveler at five o’clock in the morning, sometimes at four or even at half-past three, and ask if it is not time to be up and on the road. At the spur of our chairmen, bills frequently are settled, the inn left, and the gate of the city reached before daylight, and the gatekeeper is aroused to open the gate for an early start upon the day’s journey. While these carriers are anxious to start at an early hour, they are equally anxious to reach the end of the day’s journey before dark. The Chinese have a conviction that robberies are more apt to occur in the evening when the robbers have the night for their escape than in the morning when daylight will soon reveal all who are on the road. Workmen en- gaged upon a building will begin work before five INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 49 o’clock in the morning’ and continue until nearly eight o’clock at night, although in such cases they take two or three hours for sleep in the middle of the day. The late empress dowager was accustomed to summon her ministers and enter upon important business long be- fore dawn. We have frequently gone to sleep at night hearing the sound of a rice huller, or of a blacksmith hammering on his anvil, and have awakened in the morning with the same sounds continuing, as if the labor had lasted throughout the night. In such cases, however, as also in cases where we have seen the farmers at work in their fields until the darkness shut out the view and again seen them in their fields as soon as daylight appears, the Chinese have not worked all night, but simply beyond our hours of observation. The Chinese have a great lesson to learn from Amer- ican industrial workmen in continuing uninterruptedly at their work during the hours of industry, in speed, and in eliminating all loss in movements. But even on these points the Hanyang iron workers are approach- ing Pittsburgh workmen. Again, Meadows remarks that the Chinese treat their domestic animals with greater kindness than do Western peoples, and that thus the animals prosper better and are cared for with less labor than in Western lands.^’ We are sure of the fact which iMeadows mentions, and it has some industrial value ; but of more industrial value is their well-nigh universal system of hatching eggs by arti- ficial heat and of breeding fish by stocking their ponds with eggs or young fish. 3. Economy. Along with their industry, their Meadows, T. T.: The Chinese and Their Rebellions, pp. 616, 619. 50 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION economy is proverbial. Possibly, like some of their other good qualities, economy is not so much an inher- ent virtue of the Chinese as a quality developed by the stern, hard necessities of their life. A Chinese seldom practices economy as a virtue in itself, though a Chinese proverb suggests economy even for the rich: Though you be a millionaire, Mend one half the clothes you wear. Whatever may be the theories of the race, the vast mass of the people from necessity practice the most rigid economy. That “nothing ever goes to waste” is probably more nearly true in China than in any other country on earth — not excepting India. The Chinese farmers eat cucumbers, melons, etc., without removing the rind. The farmers use overcoats of grass and hats of palm leaves, and all use varnished paper umbrellas. Stories in regard to the consumption of dogs, cats, and rats in China to a large extent misrepresent the Chinese. Such meat is seldom seen in the markets, and the Chinese who can afford other food do not eat these animals. However, Dr. Arthur H. Smith tells us that the habit of eating the horse, cow, or dog in China, whenever one of these animals dies, is well established. J. Dyer Ball says, “Rats are eaten, and so are cats, dogs, and even snakes.”^® Dr. N. S. Plopkins, of Peking, mentions a call to visit a person bitten by a dog. As he was detained at the hospital by a critical case, he sent forward his Chinese helper to get the head of the dog, in order that the spittle might be tested for rabies. When the doctor arrived he was “ The Chinese at Home, p. 165. INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 51 met at the gate by his helper with the discourag- ing statement, “Too late, loo late: dog all eaten.” Dr. Hopkins adds that he has frequently seen running sores upon Chinese caused by eating animals which have died from disease. In one Chinese village where camels were in abundance we asked if any camel’s meat was available. The innkeeper replied, “None can be had, as no camel has died recently.” We once saw a dead fish so large and puffed up that it took two or three men to draw it from the water and carry it to the village. The villagers made a great feast that night and consumed the whole of it. But such food is usually eaten by the very poor, or else in times of famine. We have seen grass roots, the bark of trees, and last year’s potato vines eaten in times of famine. Another proof of economy, but of economy arising out of necessity, is found in their use of fuel. Wood for fuel largely disappeared from China centuries ago. Unlike the people of India and Egypt, they seldom burn buffalo chips, because they deem such material more valuable for use as a fertilizer. The people in places gather kaoliang stalks, also immense quanti- ties of reeds which grow along the river banks, while the children rake up straw, tufts of grass, sweet potato vines and leaves and carry them home to be used for fuel. Reeds are frequently used for mats for the doors of houses and for the floor ; the rice straw is used for thatch roofing, and for shoes for men and cattle. The kaoliang stalks are used for fences, for the sides of houses, and often for the first layer of thatched roofs. Hence only the remnants of vegetable matter are used for fuel. It would seem impossible with so limited a 52 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION supply of swiftly burning fuel for Americans to live through a single winter. The Chinese withstand the cold by putting on more clothing. In order to make the small supply of fuel last, Chinese cooking pots and kettles, whether of pottery or of wrought iron, are very thin ; and water boils very soon after a fire is kindled. Again, where aged people must have a fire for warmth it is customary to use beneath one’s coat a bamboo fire basket with an earthenware bottom. A little charcoal placed in the basket, lighted and then half smothered under ashes will keep one warm several hours. Surely, a people capable of such economies and such self-denial, a people who are not afraid of beginning at the bottom of any business, who often work their way to the top, a people whose traders frequently manufacture their goods in the intervals of barter, will drive even the Jew out of business in any land on earth. 4. Intelligence. The chief means by which the industrial capacity of China will be increased is scien- tific knowledge. The hasty Western visitor, however, entirely overestimates the amount which the Chinese will learn from Western nations and the changes des- tined to be made in China by scientific agriculture and the introduction of Western machinery. The small size of their holdings which leads to thorough cultiva- tion, and especially the reduction of large portions of the cultivated lands to water levels by terracing, render impracticable the importation of steam gang-plows, reapers, mowers, etc., save perhaps in Manchuria. Nevertheless, the Chinese will make through Western science some marked gains in farming. Perhaps the greatest single gain will be scientific selection of seeds INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 53 and a scientific improvement of fruits and grains after the method which Dr. Burbank is now introducing in the United States. Great improvement in domestic animals will follow scientific breeding. The Japanese have nearly doubled the size of eggs by scientific breed- ing of fowls. Almost half the farms in Germany are less than two and a half acres in size; by scientific farming and the importation of nitrates the German wheatfields yield forty bushels per acre, as compared with some twenty-five bushels per acre for Chinese wheat lands. The Chinese will learn valuable lessons in agriculture and afforestation. Already Japan has learned this latter lesson. The English at Hongkong and the Germans at Kiaochow have shown China the possibility of turning their barren hills into productive forests. Already the Chinese are awaking to this need.^^ Afforestation will not only furnish the people a large supply of timber for economic use but a large supply for fuel. Moreover, forests will tend to modify the temperature, to regulate the rainfall, and espe- cially to hold back the water so as to prevent the wash- ing away of the soil from the hills and to furnish mois- ture for the crops for a longer period. The governor of the Kiangsu Province has shown his interest in such improvements by granting to the University of Nan- king some thousands of acres of hill and mountain lands for fruit-growing and afforestation. But any- one who will spend a summer among the farmers in a hilly region and learn what use the Chinese make of the smaller hills for farming by terracing and for pasture and woodland will recognize that far less of ‘•See China Year Book, 1914. p. 48. 54 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the land of China is running to waste than he formerly supposed. In Manchuria, Chihli, Fukien, Kiangsi, and Kiangsu some afforestation is in progress, strips of woodland upon the mountains being allowed to grow for eight, ten, or fifteen years before being cut. Considering the necessities of the people and the fact that women and children cut and carry on their backs this fuel, instead of keeping animals to haul their wood for them, no such widespread and long-continued afforestation will take place as theorists advocate. Nevertheless, China will profit greatly by scientific afforestation, and will sustain a considerable increase of population through scientific agriculture. Scientific knowledge also is needed in the matter of irrigation, and especially in the control of surplus water in times of great rainfall. This is the most serious problem which confronts agricultural China. The American engineers now superintending the Hwai River Conservancy have valuable lessons to im- part to the Chinese in the way of storage and care of surplus water. But the people are not ignorant of the principles underlying the reclamation of lowlands from frequent overflow. In B. C. 7 a commission of experts was invited to report on the Yellow River. Kia-jang reports for the Commission ; ( i ) to lead the water to the sea by dredging is the superior plan; (2) to dis- tribute the water by canals is the medium plan; (3) to build up the banks of the river is the poorest plan.“® Eor some two thousand years they have had the motto engraved upon stones near the sources of the Min River in Szechwan: “Dig deep the ditch, keep low the “ Faber, Ernst; Chronological Handbook of the History of China, p. 49. INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 55 dikes.” Blit the third plan has been followed so fully that the Yellow River seldom has cut or worn a channel for itself below the level of the surrounding soil, but, rather, has flowed on top of the land between artificial banks. Their difficulty at this point arises from the size and the remarkable rise of their rivers. Little^* reports that the Thames at London, forty miles from its mouth, brings down 2,000,000 cubic feet of soil per annum, and that the Yangtze at Hankow, six hundred miles from its mouth, brings down five billion cubic feet of soil per annum. In a word, it would require as much work to dredge the Yangtze River at Hankow as to dredge two thousand five hundred rivers the size of the Thames at London. Indeed, at its mouth the Chinese have in the Yangtze a river some ten to thirty feet in depth, and forty to sixty miles in width, moving with exceeding slowness, so that immense amounts of silt are deposited. Not only does the Yangtze at Hankow bring down two thousand five hundred times the silt of the Thames at London, but the Yangtze is fifteen times the length of the Thames. Again, the Yellow River especially as it flows through a loess formation where the soil crumbles into the river on the slightest provocation, furnishes a more difficult problem to control than the Mississippi. Engineers realize that the difficulty in permanent control of a river flowing through alluvial land is the constant deposit of silt when the water is slack, thus slowly building up the bed of the river, leav- ing insufficient depth to hold the water during seasons of floods. To overcome this difficulty, the farmers “ Little, Archibald: The Far East, p. 59. 56 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION along such large rivers as the Mississippi, the Yellow, and the Yangtze, instead of dredging the entire river bottom, build up the banks of the river. Thus the con- tinual rise of the bottom of the river through the set- tling of the silt and the building up of the banks for centuries results in raising the bottom of the river above the level of the surrounding country. Indeed, the Yellow River brings down so much soil that its bed has been repeatedly filled up as the farmers have raised the banks, and the river in times of floods often breaks through these banks ; the river is now running into the Pacific Ocean six hundred miles ' north of its old mouth. Despite the skill of American engineers, and despite the expenditure of over one hundred million dollars on the Mississippi, the people living along that river have been obliged to build up the banks instead of dredging out the river, and they now have fifteen hundred and thirty-eight miles of levees; and in 1913 the Mississippi broke its levees, destroying millions of dollars’ worth of property and rendering tens of thou- sands homeless. Another fact should be borne in mind. The large mountain area lying on the western borders of China and the immense amount of snow which accumulates there during the winter, melting and coming down every summer, causes an annual rise in the Yangtze at Chungking, fifteen hundred miles from its mouth, of some seventy to ninety feet each summer. The Yangtze at Chungking has risen to a height of one hundred and eight feet above the low water mark. Were the Mississippi to have an annual rise of seventy feet at Saint Paul or at Keokuk, what engineering INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 57 skill or what funds expended would keep that stream within its banks and guide it safely to the Gulf, eight hundred or a thousand miles below The London Times in March, 1914, reported a rise in the Thames of “almost five feet,” and “much damage done.” Compare this rise of five feet with a rise of seventy to ninety feet at Chungking, or even of thirty feet at Hankow.^^ The Seine and the Thames are rivulets as compared wth the Yangtze. Yet with Western engi- neering skill, backed by the wealth of England and France, both the Thames and Seine overflowed their banks and did most serious damage in 1914. One shows his ignorance of the forces of nature who charges the losses in production and the famines occur- ring through the overflow of the rivers in China wholly to the ignorance and the corruption of the Chinese, though the Chinese have sinned grievously through corruption. The region which Colonel Sibert and his colleagues are now planning to drain is, ac- cording to Shah Kai-fu, the very region which the great Yu is reported to have drained after nine years’ labor, more than two thousand years before Christ. Moreover, Colonel Sibert finds the fall of the Yangtze for the six hundred miles from Hankow to the Pacific only 2.64 inches per mile, with the water running up stream when the tide comes in, so that its direct drain- age is an almost impossible task. We believe that our W estern engineers will afford China great help in con- trolling her rivers and reclaiming her lands along their banks. But such aid must be conducted along “ Bashford, James W.: Notes, bk. 44. p. 52. ° The London Times, weekly edition, March 13, 1914. 58 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the lines already laid down by the Chinese : “Dig deep the ditch: keep low the dikes,” and especially by pro- viding canals and lakes to take care of the surplus waters during seasons of flood. But at this point we must remember that, in addition to the great basins created by nature for the reception of the overflow of the Yangtze, namely, the Tungting and Poyang Lakes, the Chinese have constructed countless ponds and also some two hundred thousand miles of creeks and canals for taking care of the surplus waters in times of floods.^^ Faber^^ reports that under imperial orders issued in A. D. 1394, forty thousand nine hundred and eighty-seven canals, ditches, and ponds were con- structed to hold back the surplus waters. If we expect to help any people in grappling with a problem, we at least owe it to them to recognize how serious their problem is, and how great the patience, the industry, and the intelligence shown during the last three thou- sand years in building canals, ponds, and ditches, not only for the transportation of their produce and for irrigation purposes, but for the protection of their farms during periods of overflow. Surely, the Chinese have shown much intelligence in their industrial life as a whole. 5. Adaptability and Cheerfulness. But more marvelous than their intelligence is the readiness and the cheerfulness with which the Chinese adapt them- selves to their environment. Adaptability is with the Chinese an inherited virtue essential to their survival. King, F. II. : Farmers of Forty Centuries, p. 102. Faber, Ernst: Chronologieal Handbook of the History of China — see date 1394. INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 59 So crowded is the population that to a far j^reater extent than with Western peoples it is a question of adaptation or death. But it is one thing to submit to one’s surroundings from necessity and quite another so to triumph over these surroundings as to make the adjustment with cheerfulness. The Chinese working people impress foreigners generally as the most cheer- ful people they have ever known. In no other land do the people remain so good-natured in the midst of their toils and hardships. In no other country do men accomplish such varied and remarkable results with such simple appliances. An American cook limited to a Chinese kitchen outfit could not be induced at any price to attempt to prepare a meal, if he had any re- gard for his reputation. A Chinese cook with what appear to be utterly inadequate facilities will produce a meal that would make the American cook jealous for his reputation. During a recent trip in a houseboat on the upper reaches of the Yangtze the Chinese cook made a stove by lining a Standard Oil tin with clay, used another oil tin for an oven, and baked bread that would make a Vienna baker jealous. A Chinese of Singapore, in contempt of timid excuses, put this sign over his door : “Any JMortal Thing Can Do.” No class of people will suffer so many inconveniences, will undertake work at such unseasonable hours, will meet so many disappointments, all with imperturbable good nature, as will Chinese servants. IMoreover, a Chinese once entering service will very seldom leave until he finds some one to take his place. This is due in part to his loyalty to his employer, and in part to that business sagacity which leads him to the conviction 6o CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION that any position once in his possession should always remain in the possession of his clan. The Chinese holds as tenaciously to any position which he once secures as an American to public office ; like the Amer- ican office-holder, he “seldom dies, and never resigns.” Probably the Chinese first learn to adapt themselves to their environment through obedience. There is very little family government, yet each child learns from infancy to be obedient in the final test. Each one is taught that from the final decision of the grandfather or father there is seldom any appeal. The younger brother is taught to respect the authority of the elder brother, and the elder brother is taught to take the re- sponsibility for the younger brother. As children grow toward manhood, despite an apparently loose family discipline, they become imbued with a sense of family responsibility which an American often lacks. As a result the entire family or clan is back of each indi- vidual in his struggle for a living. A foreign com- petitor might easily hold his own against an individual Chinaman, but he must pit his shrewdness and ability against the intelligence and activity of the whole clan. Probably the Chinese surpass all other people in their ability to adapt themselves to conditions and to those with whom they are called to live. No Western folk begin family life as two young Chinese enter upon it : usually betrothed in childhood with no consultation of their wishes, with little regard paid later to their dis- positions, and frequently almost strangers upon their marriage ; yet these two young Chinese often get along with less friction than is displayed by some married couples in Western lands. Christian marriage in TXDUSTRTAT. LIFE TN CHINA 61 Europe and America unquestionably is his/her and the Christian home purer than is the usual family life in China. Chinese young married women have a harder experience in their family life than do European or American wives. But as children enter the home the Chinese wife and mother receives increasing respect, and old people in China are treated with more rever- ence than is usually shown in America or in Europe. Chinese home life, as a whole, affords striking proof of the adaptability of this people. But the Chinese adapt themselves not only to each other but also to foreigners, and to nature. Adapta- tion to environment is a high art among them. It en- ables them to triumph alike in the cold of Siberia and in the heat of the tropics. One of Russia’s purposes in building the Trans-Siberian Railway was to enable Russian emigration to flow peaceably to the Pacific. On the contrary, it is serving as a means by which Chinese emigration is flowing peaceably toward Rus- sia. During a journey from Peking to London over this railway with a Chinese fellow passenger in 1908, Chinese were met at almost every station for some 3,000 miles from Vladivostock. At Obi, 3,200 miles west from Vladivostock and 2,200 miles east of Mos- cow, the last Chinese immigrant was seen. Indeed, the Russian government has found it necessary to restrict the flow of Chinese immigration into Russia by legisla- tion. So much for their adaptation to the cold of the north. Sir Frank Swettenham, in his Federated Malay States, attributes the great prosperity of that part of the British Dominion, first, to natural resources; sec- 62 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ond, to the Chinese ; third, to the British government ; and, fourth, to the introduction of foreign capital and inventions : thus putting the Chinese next to nature as one of the bases of the success of that colony. With such manifestation of adaptability, combined with cheerfulness, W estern nations must needs reckon with the Chinese in determining what nation, what race, and what civilization, will become dominant in the Pacific Basin. 6. Power of Combination. The fifth great prob- lem which confronts a nation in production lies beyond physical stamina, beyond industry, beyond economy, beyond even the intelligence of individual workers. Its solution demands united effort; united effort is im- possible without combinations, and successful and last- ing combinations of industry are impossible without trustworthiness and mutual trust. Only a union of these two qualities by nations will prevent interna- tional betrayals and banish war. Only the combina- tion of these two qualities by individuals will prevent betrayals in business and make possible the largest in- dustrial success. It has been said of the Chinese in the field of production that they do not know how to com- bine so as to utilize their capital and their strength for overcoming the forces of nature, and for securing the largest returns from industry. The fault in Chinese industrial life is a real one. The people find great diffi- culty in forming large companies for industrial enter- prises, and at present they often seek foreign coopera- tion and leadership in such operations. Plowever, the difficulty is not due to lack of ability upon the part of the Chinese to form combinations, but, rather, to the INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 63 lack of trustworthiness and mutual trustfulness, which are the product of a comparatively advanced Christian stage of civilization. All Chinese history illustrates the capacity of this people to form all sorts of combina- tions. As an indication not only of the power of the Chinese to combine, but also of their willingness in one instance to trust each other, and of their ability in leadership, we mention the Peking-Kalgan Railway, built wholly with Chinese capital, by a Chinese com- pany, under a Chinese engineer, by Chinese workmen, involving greater engineering difficulties than any other railway thus far built in China, and yet costing only from $30,000 to $35,000 per mile — a lower cost than any railway ever built in China by a foreign cor- poration. A careful study of the Chinese will show that there exists in their small “hweis,” or unions, and in their gilds a far older and possibly a wiser method of co- operation than Western nations have reached through trusts and labor unions. Everyone in China is eager to organize a union, and every Chinese boy or girl aspires to enter such a union. A person wishing to provide for a marriage or to start in some simple busi- ness, may form a union. Each member agrees to fur- nish to the party forming the union a small sum of money to enable this person to provide for the oppor- tunity or to enter upon the trade or industry con- templated. Often the money is advanced without in- terest, the persons receiving the first advance of the money continuing in the union until each person in the union has received an equal benefit. Of course it is impossible to form such a union except among a group 64 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION of persons who know and trust each other; and such unions in most cases are carried through in good faith. In this way not only is each one helped to enter upon some investment, impossible without the aid of others, but the resolution of each to deny himself and meet his engagements is greatly strengthened by the group spirit. These small voluntary unions are almost in- numerable in China.^° Again, the laboring classes, whatever their employment, all band together on the slightest pretext.^^ But a far larger and more important development of the cooperative spirit is found in the Chinese gilds. All Chinese industries save farming are organized into gilds. There are the silk gild, the bankers’ gild, the piece-goods gild, the goldbeaters’ gild, the wheelbar- row gild, and even the beggars’ gild and the thieves’ gild ! In the United States the churches, schools, and courthouses are the most conspicuous buildings in town or city : in China the gild halls, thus showing that commerce and industry occupy the position of chief im- portance. Trading gilds were active B. C. 1 122-221.^” Marco Polo’s report about A. D. 1275 of the gilds of the city now called Hangchow shows that practically the entire population was organized into gilds, and probably members outside of the city were included, for the report shows over one and a half million mem- bers.^® Each gild has a president and an executive committee elected yearly and eligible to reelection, and 2" Wemer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table IX, col. 2; compare S. Wells Williams's The Middle Kingdom, vol. ii, pp. 87, 88. ” Jernigan, T. R.: China in Law and Commerce, p. 214. ** Werner, E. T. C. : Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table II, col. 2. Ibid., Table VI, col. 2; compare p. 18, col. 3; compare also Yule’s Marco Polo, vol. ii, p. 146. INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 65 a secretary who is a scholar with a degree from the government but without official government position. Hence he becomes a semi-official representative of the government, or, better still, a representative of the gild upon the one side and of the rights of the government upon the other — a striking illustration of the mediator of whom more will be said later. In almost all cases the secretary serves as the lawyer of the gild. Theo- retically, all gild matters are brought before the whole body for discussion. Practically, a matter is usually brought before the leaders of the gild, dis- cussed and modified, and if they think it has a reason- able prospect of passing, the measure is then presented to the entire body : otherwise it often dies in the com- mittee stage. The democratic management of indus- trial and commercial affairs through the gilds, and the democratic origin of industrial and commercial law, furnish the historic and economic basis for the demo- cratic character of Chinese civilization. Indeed, so firmly is the authority of the gild established in settling commercial and industrial disputes that the govern- ment recognizes gild rules in all trials, giving them the rank of statute laws. Thus the gilds control not only the larger amount of industrial and commercial busi- ness in the nation, but shape and determine the com- mercial law of China; they settle quarrels between their members and usually controversies arising be- tween themselves anjd neighboring gilds. In addition the gilds, in common, promulgate the dates for settling accounts, the rate of interest, the rate of exchange, etc. In some cities they have organized a fire department and a water service. In a word, in China the gilds or 66 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION voluntary organizations, combined through their chief representatives, frequently discharge the functions of a Board of Trade, a City Council, a Board of Chari- ties, and a Board of Arbitration — all with semiofficial powers. The gilds of China probably are wiser and saner in their management than the gilds of India. We do not know the people of India well enough to form a final judgment upon the subject. But our slight knowledge of them leads us to characterize the Indians as the Frenchmen and the Chinese as the Anglo-Saxons of the Orient. The Indians are more purely intellectual and logical and are more interested in philosophical conceptions than are the Chinese. They carry concep- tions and constitutions and the management of affairs to their logical conclusions; and the Indian gilds re- strict their membership to the sons of the men in the trade generation after generation, and this became the economic basis of the caste system which so largely prevails in India. The Chinese are more practical and are guided more fully by experience ; and through ex- perience they have come to accept almost instinctively the Doctrine of the Mean, that is, that truth and prac- tical wisdom lie in the middle path equally removed from the extreme at either side. Hence the gild rules of China, like the unwritten constitution of England, furnish constant illustrations of give-and-take in poli- tics and business. They constitute a system of suc^ cessful compromises rather than a logical system of gild government. The Chinese gilds have never gone to the extreme of the Indian gilds, though trades con- tinued to be inherited in the Ming dynasty, 1368- INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 67 1644;®" and sons even to this day usually enter the father’s business. Hence, while Chinese guilds furnish many illustrations of devotion to their own members and of group selfishness, nevertheless they have never gone to the extent of hardening into castes. Evidently the trusts in the United States do not need any further lessons in organization for securing the greatest ad- vantages for their members, though they need many lessons in breadth of view — “No man liveth unto him- self.” But the labor unions of the United States might profit greatly by sending a representative to China to gather the constitutions of the Chinese gilds, and to make on the ground a thorough study of their practical management for the larger and better organization of the industrial forces of the Western world. No account of Chinese gilds or of Chinese industrial life would be complete which did not recognize that despite all gilds there is a far greater distrust of one another among business men in China than prevails in Great Britain, France, Germany, or the United States. So great is this distrust that some foreigners have been led to suppose that there exists among the Chinese an incapacity for business combinations — a disability which will greatly impede the formation of corpora- tions and the successful realization of the marvelous industrial possibilities of China. Indeed, some stu- dents of China think this mutual distrust so deep that it will hinder the successful organization of a govern- ment of the people, for the people, and by the people. It is well known that old and well-established banks and business firms in China are generally limited in * Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table VIII, col. 2. 68 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION their membership to the family or clan, resembling in this respect the Rothschilds of Europe, On the other hand, those who have resided longest in China and are most familiar with the inner life of the Chinese recog- nize a great capacity for organization upon their part. They have lived in such close contact for centuries that they display an almost instinctive capacity to get along with one another. They know how to give and take, to bargain in business, to compromise in politics, and to adjust difficulties in the home, all of which make them past masters in the art of combination. What, then, is the cause of the deep distrust which often makes a foreigner necessary to the success of a large commercial enterprise, and foreign advisers necessary in political affairs ? In a word, it is pagan- ism. Surely, business in Europe and America is far from being regenerate, much less sanctified. But nine- teen centuries of Christian teaching and practice have had a profounder influence upon politics and business than anyone can realize without a comparative study of these subjects in our Christianized countries and in non-Christian lands. It is just this lack of individual trustworthiness on the one side, and of trustfulness on the other among non-Christian peoples which has led to the large development of gilds in China; which in India has restricted even gild mem- bership to the clan or family until gilds have hardened into castes. But neither the closeness of gild organiza- tion nor of castes avails to develop on the one side that inherent honesty which deserves confidence and on the other side that faith which is willing to trust a brother. But does not the business and commercial growth of INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 69 Japan overthrow this explanation? On the contrary, we are inclined to think that the recent financial history of Japan will confirm this view. The Japanese govern- ment has found it necessary largely to assume control of the great business interests of that nation. The railways, the banks, shipbuilding, and some of the chief manufacturing interests are in the hands of the government, and all the other industries are carefully supervised by her. This is a clear proof that the Jap- anese government thinks that the people are not yet ready to manage successfully their own business. Sec- ond, some Christian missionaries in Japan maintain that the Japanese people as a whole and in the persons of their leaders are essentially Christian, and especially that the Japanese government in managing her po- litical and business afifairs shows as Christian a spirit as Germany, the United States, or Great Britain. The patriotism which the Japanese have learned and prac- ticed in recent years is a Christian virtue, though an incomplete Christian virtue. Other residents in Japan hold that the government is pagan and deny that it is managing the people’s affairs successfully. The gov- ernment’s power of taxation is such that she may fol- low a false business system for years if not for decades, before failure. Chapter XVI shows that the success of Japan’s governmental finance is not yet assured. The Hon. S. Ebara, a leading Japanese statesman, wrote recently: “The greatest need of Japan is said to be economic development. But the basis of economic development is confidence, and confidence will only come as the fruit of moral and religious education, based upon Christianity. Our need is Christian char- 70 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION acter.”®^ Whatever theoretical views one may hold of Christianity, there is a difference between even semi- Christian business methods and pagan business meth- ods which has much to do with industrial and com- mercial success. A long study of this problem leads us to the conviction that the real and final cause of the lack of large and successful business organizations in China is moral and religious. We are aware that hasty travelers have spoken of the greater reliability of Chinese bank cashiers than of American bank cashiers, and especially of Japanese bank cashiers. But a more intimate knowledge of the subject shows that the Bankers’ Gild in guaranteeing the reliability of a cashier whom it nominates does not depend upon the inherent trustworthiness of Chinese cashiers. The Shansi Bankers’ Gild in case of any defalcation makes good the loss. But the fact that the entire family or clan of the defaulter is, under Chinese law and custom, responsible for his peculations and liable to suffer both financially and physically for the absconding cashier, and that the gild will trace the absconder to the ends of the earth and take his life, lets every cashier know that other methods of redress are at hand in case honor fails. If no man could secure a cashier’s position in America until a family, strong enough to make good his loss, would guarantee his honesty, and if he then held his position with the knowledge that if he became a defaulter his family would be compelled to make good the loss and he would be followed to the ends of the earth, not for trial but for assassination, defaulting would be a rare crime in « Loomis, H.: Christian Progress in Japan, pp. 1-2. INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN CHINA 71 American banks. If one considers only the economic interests of China, the conviction is expressed that these interests can never reach their larg^est develop- ment upon a non-Christian system of ethics. They can never realize their possibilities even with a sentimental type of Christianity which ig'nores the holiness of God and proclaims a love robbed of its integral element of justice. But wherever men believe in a righteous and holy God who will bring all men to judgment, each to give an account for the deeds done in the body, and wherever men experience a regeneration which leads them to love righteousness and to hate iniquity, and to live, not by temporal, but by eternal standards, they will develop those fundamental elements of moral character upon which all high and lasting success de- pends. If the Chinese gain the industrial strength which Christianity will bring them, if they introduce our applied sciences and develop their coal and iron industries, especially if they introduce modern western inventions and transform the nation from hand manu- facturing to machine manufacturing, maintain their normal rate of growth and flow over into IMalaysia and develop her tropical possibilities, they will become a serious factor in the modern world. This subject will be discussed more fully in Chapter XVIII on “China and the W'orld.” BOOKS FOR REFERENCE Ball, J. Dyer; The Chinese at Home. E. Bretschneider, M.D. : Botanicon Sinicum (3 Vols.) ; On the Study and Value of Chinese Botanical Works; China Review; China Year Book, 1914. Candolle, Alphonse L. P. de: Origin of Culti- vated Plants. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Faber, Ernst : Chrono- 72 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION logical Handbook of the History of China. Goucher, J. F. : Growth of the Missionary Concept, Ingram, John K. : History of Slavery. Hirth, F., and Rockhill, W. W. : Translation of Chau Ju-Kua. Jernigan, T. R. : China in Law and Commerce. King, F, H. : Farmers of Forty Centuries. Legge, James: Edition of Chinese Classics. Loomis, H. : Christian Progress in Japan. Meadows, Thomas T, : The Chinese and Their Rebellions. Morse, H. G. : Chinese Gilds. Smith, Arthur: Chinese Characteristics; The Uplift of China. Werner, E. T. C. : Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese. Williams, S. Wells: The Middle Kingdom (2 Vols.). CHAPTER III COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA A BRIEF historical review of the commerce of China drawn largely from Werner’s valuable volume will furnish a suitable introduction to the study of the com- mercial life of the nation. The historical records of China back to B, C. 776 are unquestioned; and back to B. C. 1766 much of the data are so specific and relate to such common affairs that they are doubtless authentic, though mingled with legend; from B. C. 2750 to 1766 the records are largely legendary with some historical data. In the Hsia and Shang dynasties, B. C. 2205-1122, exchanges are said to have taken place at wells where the people came for water, and at fairs established in front of temples at seasons of worship. There was transportation of produce from one region to another in those early ages. Chariots are mentioned as used by the first emperor of the Hsia dynasty, B. C. 2205. In the Shang dynasty, B. C. 1766-1122, horses are mentioned as drawing chariots or carts. In the Hsia and Shang d}masties, B. C. 2205-1122, exchanges were made by barter. A little later shells were used as a medium of exchange. Cash are said to have originated B. C. 1114-1079.^ Faber says, “A mint was established B. C. 1103 and round coins with * Wemer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table I, col. 26. 73 74 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION a square hole in the center for stringing on a cord were cast.”^ The value of the “cash” varies at different places and times, but is now approximately the twen- tieth part of a cent or a fortieth of a penny. It is ex- ceedingly cumbersome money, one gold dollar’s worth weighing from ten to sixteen pounds according to the rate of exchange. But cash are of great value to the Chinese for close bargaining and small exchanges. Unminted silver has been in use for over four thou- sand years. It is used to-day in western China in the form of sycee, or “shoes.” Some two hundred years before the time of Christ pieces of linen two feet long having stamped upon them a bond or promise to pay a certain amount of money were used as currency. This is the beginning in China of the use of paper money; though these were promissory notes rather than bank bills. The earliest record of foreign trade is about R. C. 23CX).^ “There is no genuine record of the use of the marine compass by the Chinese before A. D. 1297,^ though Werner gives the earliest date of the known use of it at A. D. 1 122.* *^ Hence all claims to early for- eign commerce based upon early Chinese knowledge of the compass may be regarded as conjecture. But it is a matter of record that sea traders from the In- dian Ocean established a colony at Kiaochow, Shan- tung, B. C. 675-670.® * Faber, Ernst: Chronological Handbook of the History of China, p. 13. ’ Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table I, col. 25. ' * Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 806. i ‘Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table VI, col. 23. • Lacouperie, Terrien de: Introduction to the Catalogue of Coins in the British Museum, p. xi. COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA 75 The first registration of transport wagons appears in A. D. 1297 Foreign commerce between China and the west follows the two great land routes across cen- tral Asia, one north and one south of the Caspian. Chinese colonies sprang up in connection with these trade routes, and especially with the water-route. In the first century B. C. Chinese silk, cotton, pearls, and precious stones brought high prices in Rome. In re- turn, Chang Kien, B. C. 122, brought from the west for cultivation in the Far East peas, cucumbers, sesame, spinach, watermelons, and walnuts,® also hemp and the grape.® Again, in A. D. 166, we find the Romans striving to maintain maritime trade with China until the Arabs intervened and monopolized it. Arab monopoly continued for centuries and led to the introduction of Mohammedanism into China A. D. 628, and of four thousand Arabian soldiers in A. D. 755 to aid in putting down a rebellion. These soldiers were permitted to settle in the country, and four cen- turies later there was an influx of Arabians under Genghis Kahn which largely increased the Moham- medan population.^® These immigrants, with their zeal for religion and their desire for trade, have re- sulted in some ten to thirty million Chinese becoming Mohammedans. The translation of Chau Jukua’s writings by Professor Hirth and Mr. Rockhill fur- nishes us much valuable information on Arab trade during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Chinese Mohammedans under foreign encouragement ' Faber. Ernst: Chronological Handbook of the History of China, p. 42. 8 CandoUe, Alphonse L. P. de : Origin of Cultivated Plants. ’ Faber. Ernst: Chronological Handbook of the History of China, p. 43. Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 175, d. 76 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION attempted to establish an independent government in Yunnan in 1855-73, and in Kansu in 1860-73. Paper money, not simply the negotiable notes de- scribed above, was first introduced into China between A. D. 589 and 960, and the double standard of money followed. Two causes of the downfall of the noted Sung dynasty were the overissue of irredeemable paper money and the loss of the trade routes between the east and the west, with consequent economic suf- ferings of the people. Hence, in 1280, following the conquest of Genghis Kahn, the great land routes be- tween the east and west were freely opened again, and this was one of the causes of the great success of his government. Alongside these land routes postal routes are said to have been established. Boats with water-tight compartments came into use between A. D. 1280 and 1368, and have continued in use ever since.” In 1287 new paper money with notes a foot square made from mulberry bark was issued. Unfortu- nately, the government was not able to redeem its notes on presentation and beautiful notes printed on lasting paper cannot make a fiat currency acceptable. Hence during the latter part of the Mongol dynasty irredeem- able paper money paralyzed business, drove trade back to the old form of barter, and led to the downfall of the dynasty in 1368. In 15 1 1 the first European reached China by ship,” and in 1517” the Portuguese reached Canton. This was the beginning of modern foreign trade with China ; and European intercourse was regarded favor- Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table VII, col. 25. >= Ibid., Table VIII, col. 25. w Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 197. COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA 77 ably by the Chinese until Portuguese pirates, through extortion and cruelty, forfeited all regard. The Por- tuguese on being driven from China took possession of the Philippines, and later were supplanted by the Spaniards. Before the intervention of western na- tions, trade with the Philippines was in the hands of the Chinese, and the same is largely true of trade in Manila to-day. In 1637 five English ships arrived in Canton. This was the beginning, between the English speaking peoples and the Chinese, of that trade and intercourse which is destined to play an important part in shaping the events of the twentieth century around the Pacific Basin. In 1638 the first tea was sent to Russia by the land route, a trade between the Chinese and Russians which has been maintained down to the present day. Indeed, on account of the contact of their national boundaries and their mutual adaptation to foreign customs, the Chinese and the Russians have exercised considerable influence upon each other — an influence which probably will increase during the coming centuries. In 1660 tea was first sent from China to England.^^ In 1784 the first American ship reached Canton; during 1789 fifteen American ships entered that port, and between 1805 and 1833 896 American ships with a total tonnage of 500,000^® arrived at Canton. One of the American tea ships in 1807 brought out Robert Morrison — re- fused passage in the ships of the East India Com- pany— who became the founder of Protestant missions in China. i‘ Faber, Ernst; Chronological Handbook of the History of China, p. 234. 1‘Langdon: Thousand Things Chinese, p. 252. 78 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION Between i86i and 1900 the immense junk traffic of China was largely displaced by steamboat traffic along the coasts and upon the larger rivers. The throwing of an immense number of boatmen out of employ- ment, with no other provision for their livelihood, has been one of the great economic causes of the Chinese distrust of foreigners just as the sudden destruction of junk, cart, and wheelbarrow traffic by the opening of the Peking-Tientsin Railway was the economic occasion for the Boxer Uprising, though by no means the only reason for that struggle. It was not until 1876 that the Woosung-Shanghai Railway was built. This was a railway only ten miles long, constructed by Sir Robert Perks, of England, for English owners. The Chinese government, however, soon became alarmed through the conviction of the people that the new railway running through Chinese burial grounds disturbed the spirits of the dead. Hence the government bought the road from its English own- ers at a very considerable advance over the cost of construction and immediately hired Sir Robert Perks to tear it up. In 1895 the viceroy, Chang Chih-tung, received permission from the imperial government to build a railway from Shanghai to Nanking; and on December 6 of the same year a decree was issued by the Chinese government permitting the building of a railway from Tientsin to Lukow Bridge near Peking. In 1881 the first telegraph line, that between Shanghai and Tientsin, was opened. These data mark the be- ginning of telegraph and railway construction in China. Another ste]i in the advancement of China’s foreign trade was the opening of the Suez Canal in COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA 79 1869; and an even more important step for Japan, Australia, and New Zealand — lands lying east of China — and an important step for China was the opening of the Panama Canal in 1915* If China has been slow in introducing these physical conditions for industrial and commercial expansion, the blame was due in part to the methods by which they were developed and administered, as well as to China’s opposition to foreign trade per se. The record of her earlier foreign trade and the eagerness of her people for commerce raise the question as to whether China’s so-called innate opposition to foreign trade may not be due to the treatment she has suffered and the dangers which threaten her. All familiar with the foreign relations of China and Western governments during the last four hundred years must admit that this dread has been well founded. In view of the fact that foreign nations were robbing China of her sover- eignty, and in view of the fact that China received no material aid from any Western nation in resisting these foreign aggressions, the Boxer Uprising be- comes, hot in the slightest degree defensible, especially in the treachery with which it was conducted, but at least intelligible. In the Boxer Uprising a weak na- tion, threatened with destruction, finally resolved out of superstition and despair to trust to her gods for protection and attempt to drive every hated foreigner from her national domain. In 1863 Sir Robert Hart was accepted by the Chinese as inspector of customs ; and customhouses on the frontier were established. Great Britain never gave China a more honest or capable officer than Sir 8o CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Robert Hart. China is under a lasting debt of grati- tude to him ; and, happily, she recognized his unfailing honesty and friendship and honored him for many years before his death. But Great Britain in some measure made the appointment of Sir Robert Hart a means of attempting to control the financial policy of the empire. In order to secure the advantages of a rapid dissemination of news without the introduction of foreign control of the country, China committed the constructon of her telegraph lines to the Danes, citi- zens of one of the smallest governments of Europe; and yet Chinese officials complained recently that not only England used so honest a man as Sir Robert Hart for dictating China’s financial policy, but that the Danes took advantage of their privilege to secure most of the telegraph lines in China. The Chinese also claim that in connection with every railway built by foreigners in China the foreign governments have assumed some rights of control, thus limiting the sovereignty of the Chinese nation. In order to offset the danger of interference with her internal affairs by some of the other nations, and especially by Russia, China freely granted to an American syndicate headed by the late Senator Calvin S. Brice, of Ohio, the most valuable concession for a railway in the nation, namely, the concession from Hankow to Canton. But here, again, Chinese obstructions and financial greed be- trayed a solemn trust. The Chinese supposed that the American government controlled American citi- zens. But Mr. Brice having secured this railway for his syndicate almost without cost, through China’s high regard for the government of America, and COiMMERCTAL LIFE IN CHINA 8i being annoyed by constant delays and the apparent distrust of the Chinese government, sold it for some $5,000,000 to a Belgian syndicate, which in turn was controlled by Russia — the very nation which China was anxious to keep out of the central part of her empire. Hence China was obliged to buy back from the Belgian syndicate for $10,000,000 the concession which she had given to an American syndicate. Further interference with the industrial and commer- cial development of China has been due to territorial aggression. If, therefore, Chinese industry and com- merce have been somewhat slow' in responding to foreign commercial influences, this delay has been due in part to China’s dread of foreign aggression.^® With this brief historical review, the consideration of China’s commerce falls under the two heads, namely. Transportation and Exchange. I. Transportation Commerce depends largely upon transportation. Every person who is at all familiar wdth China will recognize the entire absence of good roads for travel or the transportation of goods. The difficulty has been remedied in some measure by the use of canals, and it has been more fully remedied by the large use of steamships and by the construction of a few rail- w^ays. Nevertheless, the lack of suitable wagon roads in China has been probably the greatest barrier to widespread trade. The government, for political pur- poses, has taken charge of road building from the earliest times, just as the Roman government took See Appendix VIII, “Japan’s Twenty-one Demands on China.” 82 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION charge of road construction during the period of im- perial expansion, and just as many modern govern- ments have taken charge of railway construction. The building of roads in China has given the governors their greatest opportunity for levying special taxes upon the people, and, through devotion to their fami- lies rather than loyalty to the state, keeping a large portion of the money for their own enrichment. This method has become so common in the official life of China that, however much the people may suffer for roads, there is an almost universal opposition to the proposal of an official to construct a new road. The people instinctively have come to regard such a pro- posal simply as a polite method of levying graft upon them. Only a radical reform in government, arising from the reorganization of society upon a basis of patriotism rather than of family interest — this alone will enable the Chinese to secure a system of good roads so essential for the transportation of their pro- duce. A more serious difficulty arises from the lack until recent years, and still in large measure, of railways. Opposition to railways sprang originally from the con- servatism of the people and of the officials, and this conservatism was based in part upon religious super- stition. It is impossible to construct railways along any lines which an engineer would approve without disturbing the graves of ancestors, and the people were afraid that the spirits of these ancestors would send plague or flood or drought upon them in return for the irreverence of such treatment. This super- stition is rapidly disappearing and probaldy will not COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA 83 prove a serious barrier to the future construction of railways throug'hout the nation. Through lack of railways the productivity of China suflfers from the large number engaged in transporta- tion. While transportation of goods from the place where there is an oversupply to the place where they are needed is absolutely essential, nevertheless that transportation does not add a pound to a ton of rice, or improve its quality in the slightest degree. Hence the fewer the number of people required in any land for the transportation of goods, the larger the number left for production ; and the comfort of the people de- pends upon the amount of goods produced for their consumption. From such observations as we have been able to make in long journeys through China we are impressed with the fact that two thirds to three fourths of the goods in the interior and in the western part of the nation are transported by human labor. Steamships and railways are now carrying the larger proportion of Chinese goods along the coasts and up and down the main rivers and over some six thousand miles of railway lines. In addition, twenty-three hun- dred miles of railway are under construction. Carts in north China divide the work of transportation with railways, steamships, boats, and wheelbarrows, and transport the greater portion of goods to the interior of perhaps the six northern provinces, including the three in Manchuria. The transportation across the deserts of Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan is by camels. But all through the central, southern and western regions of China human labor, using boats, wheelbarrows, and carrying poles, is the chief method 84 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION of transporting goods. Considering the immense amount of human labor involved in transportation in China, its low cost is a marvel. Jernigan” estimates the cost of transportation by canal and river boats, partly propelled by sails and partly drawn by men, at three cents per ton per mile ; on creek and canal boats, when the wind is favorable and they can be propelled by sails, one and a half cents per ton per mile; for transportation in mule carts, two and a half cents per ton per mile; for transportation by camel caravans across deserts, five cents per ton per mile; for trans- portation by carrying on the shoulders of men, twelve to fifteen cents per ton per mile. Jernigan’s estimates, made some ten years ago, are too low for the present time. Dr. A. H. W ood of Canton says coal transpor- tation cost him in 1906 by a canal boat one cent per ton per mile; by wheelbarrow, two and one fourth cents per ton per mile. This estimate also is low for the present time. We marvel that the Chinese can be induced to carry upon their shoulders burdens at the rate of fifteen cents per ton per mile. W. N. Brewster states that the rate is some forty-five cents, gold, per ton per mile around Hinghwa.^® L. W. Page, of the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture, says that the average cost for transportation in wagons in the United States is twenty-three cents per ton per mile.^® The average rate of railway transportation in the United States is three fourths of a cent per ton per mile. Probably some fifteen to twenty per cent of the labor of Chinese Jernigan, T. R.: China in Law and Commerce, pp. 230, 231, 360. ** Bashford, James W.: Notes, bk. 45, p. 25a. *• The World’s Work, July, 1909; compare Bashford's Notes, bk. ii. p. la. COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA 85 men is engaged in transportation. This per cent in China is far too high as compared with the other na- tions of the earth. Some si.x to eight per cent of the adult labor of the United Kingdom is employed in transportation, and the United Kingdom is in some sense the common carrier for the world. In Belgium and Austria, which to a large extent simply transport their own goods, only two to three per cent of the adult labor is engaged in transportation. If the Chinese nation by applying steam and electric power to trans- portation, can release some ten to fifteen per cent of labor from its present terrific strain in transporting goods and transfer this labor to producing goods, it will add that much to the productive capacity of the people. But while recognizing the imperative need of the introduction of steam and electricity for transporta- tion, those who propose such improvements should bear in mind the danger of turning some ten to fifteen per cent of the laboring class suddenly out of em- plo>anent without first providing other methods by which these people can earn a living. The great corporations which plan the railways ought to build them first in regions where they may tap the coal and iron fields and thus create a demand for the labor relieved from transportation, and open up these vast resources of the nation. Arrangements should be made for the employment of surplus labor in min- ing coal and in other industries immediately on the completion of the roads. Such a plan would furnish coal for transportation to keep the railways busy and enable them to earn an income on their invest- 86 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION merit from the first. Such a plan, therefore, while demanding larger capital than the mere building of a railway would require, will prove profitable to the companies which inaugurate the enterprise, help the people, and prevent a revolution springing out of industrial causes. The difficulty which the laboring classes in Western nations have had in adapting them- selves to the sudden changes made in the labor markets of Europe and America by the introduction of machin- ery has caused hard times, and on more than one occa- sion has well-nigh precipitated a revolution. The Japanese are suffering to-day very severely from this cause. Surely, statesmanship and a wise regard for permanent returns on investments, as well as human- itarian considerations, demand that the change in transportation in China should be inaugurated in a manner which will serve the immediate interest of the working classes, as well as the financial interests of managers of corporations, and thus promote the inter- ests of the nation as a whole. At one point it is quite possible that the Western world has a lesson to learn in transportation from China. A popular writer in one of our American magazines said recently that owing to the location of our factories predominantly on the eastern side of the country, far from the centers where raw materials are produced and the goods consumed, substantially sixty- five cents out of every dollar spent for consumption goes to pay the cost of transporting the goods and meeting the expenses of the middle men, etc. C. L. King,“" assistant professor of political science in Bashford, James W.: Notes, bk. 47, p. 32. COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA 87 the University of Pennsylvania, in his book entitled The Lower Living Costs in Cities, traces apples from central New York, where the farmer receives $2.50 per barrel, to the kitchen in New York city, where the housewife pays $5 per barrel — a doubling of the price between producer and consumer despite the cheap rates of freight transportation in the United States. In 1913 a study made by the Wisconsin Board of Public Affairs showed that the cost of transportation and distribution on cheese produced in that State adds for the consumer two hundred and seventy-two per cent to the price which the farmer receives for the cheese. Professor King shows that eggs in the United States for which the farmers received $6,000,000 cost the consumers $13,000,000. Of the total expenditures made by the American people for food, two fifths to three quarters go to transportation, to the middlemen, and to losses by deterioration due to inadequate facil- ities and for marketing. The Chinese, partly through necessity and partly through the remarkable resources of their country, have been able not only to live with- out much foreign importation, but also to live in vari- ous sections almost wholly upon the products of the locality. Hence the farmers in China, who compose the vast bulk of the population, come very much nearer to living upon the products of their farms and of their immediate neighborhood than people of equal civiliza- tion in probably any other country on earth. Perhaps China will not need to go so far as many Western nations in massing her industrial workers in large cities and transporting raw materials long distances to the factories and long distances back to the consumers. 88 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION At least the example of China furnishes a suggestion to the United States of a possible improvement in the wider distribution of factories and of industrial work- ers and especially in locations nearer the sources of supply. The helpful redistribution of our city popula- tion into wider residential areas may also show China how to avoid a danger which has threatened our West- ern civilization. Certainly, America has lessons to learn from China in the wider distribution of popula- tion and a lessening demand for the transportation of food, while China has lessons in transportation to learn from the Western world. II. Exchange Turning to the second great division of commerce, we are confronted by : I. Inaccuracy. Here China finds herself immedi- ately facing an unusual handicap. Some think that inaccuracy is an inherent trait of Chinese character, practically ineradicable and bound to prove a lasting hindrance to the race in the competition of the modern world. Three or four considerations tend to correct this impression. The Chinese have had a decimal sys- tem for some three thousand years, and they use it in a larger number of tables of weights and measures to- day than any Western nations save those which are using the metric system. Dr. A. PI. Smith, an un- rivaled observer, says, “The Chinese are as capable of learning minute accuracy in all things as any nation ever was — nay, more so, for they are endowed with infinite patience.” J. Dyer BalP" maintains *' Chinese Characteristics, p. 57. “ The Chinese at Home, chap, xix, "The Care of the Minute.” COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA 89 that the Chinese excel any other people on earth in the care of infinitesimals. That their inaccuracy is not due to mental dullness may be inferred from the fact that inaccuracy in coinage, weights, measures, etc,, never tells against the dominant factor in the transac- tion, but always against the victim, whether this victim be a foreigner or some poor Chinese compelled to patronize the owner of the goods. Again, one can hardly charge inaccuracy as an ineradicable trait of character against a people who master and use several thousand characters in their language. It must be remembered also that precision and clearness in hand- writing is especially insisted upon by the Chinese, and that their chirography far surpasses the chirography of Western hands. Even with the most inaccurate class it is difficult to charge inaccuracy as an inherent trait against women who surpass their best Western competitors in the exquisite delicacy with which they match colors and shades in weaving and in needle- work. We think this inaccuracy can be explained in part upon the ground that the Chinese language is a clumsy vehicle of thought and that appliances and tools are exceedingly crude. First, a language with no inflec- tions to denote mood, tense or case, a language in which men are compelled to express finer shades of meaning by agglutinations or by additional words, makes accurate thought and expression difficult. But the critic at once will answer that we are confusing cause and effect, that the clumsy language is an indica- tion of the inaccurate thinker, and that the tools of the mind and of the hand would be more precise if the 90 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION Chinese mind itself were clearer. But three answers may be made to this objection. First, the Chinese have not until recently reached that stage of civilization in which accuracy is regarded as necessary or desirable. Western civilization fur- nishes many proofs of a similer lack of accuracy pre- vailing down to our scientific era, and continuing, at least among many of our people, down to the present time. Nothing is more common in the social life of the Western world than speech and manners which fall far short of scientific accuracy or of absolute truthful- ness. Even we have not yet reached the stage of Christian civilization when our yea is }'^ea and our nay is nay. The Chinese have been obliged to live in far closer contact with each other than we in the West- ern world could endure. Entire accuracy and candor of speech in unredeemed humanity demands a degree of virtue to which no race has yet attained. Vague as their language is, this close contact of unsanctified humanity makes them chary and indirect in the use even of their indefinite speech. Indeed, the Chinese would deem clear, transparent speech as unwise, as a transparent house, or a transparent brain or heart, revealing all that goes on within. The first explana- tion, therefore, of inaccuracy among the Chinese is that scientific clearness has not been deemed by them necessary or wise. Second, our Western nations, while not so grossly careless as the Chinese, share at least something of their inaccuracy. Western statistics never have mathe- matical exactness. We quote our census statistics down to the last man. We seem to forget that human- COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA 91 ity is a living organism and that no statistics of popu- lation or health, no statistics relating to any living subject on earth are, or in the nature of the case can be, scientifically accurate. Again, in our land mea- sures we attempt to survey ground for sale to measure on the level, whereas in measuring roads it is custom- ary for the chain to follow the rise and fall of the road- way. So a Chinese measuring the hill up which he car- ries his load calls the distance farther than when he measures down the hill; and the varying distances which he names are no proof of his ignorance or inac- curacy. Boatmen on a certain portion of the Yangtze count the distance one hundred and twenty li up the river, and reckon the same distance as eighty li down the river. They find substantially this difference in time and cost of transporting the goods in these diff er- ent directions. If they can incorporate these differ- ences in their estimate of the distance and leave them embodied in the road or river, fixed once for all, they can count transportation so much per li, instead of being obliged not only to remember the distance but to vary the price per li constantly in proportion to the dif- ficulties of the road. Third, final explanation of Chinese inaccuracy is found in the fact already cited, that the strong profit through inaccuracy. A study of Werner’s Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese will reveal on almost every page of the parts in which he treats of exchange, changes in the standard of value, in the standard of weights and in the standard of measures. The Rev. Frank Chalfant writes: “Probably no nation has had so great a variety of coinage as China. The 92 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION imperial, state, and private issues are not fewer than ten thousand.” These changing standards through- out the history of China have been used by the strong parties to their own advantage. The banker generally handles the difference in exchange so that it tells upon his side and not upon the side of the borrower. The merchant generally handles the difference in exchange and in measures in such a manner that they contribute to his own advantage. The builder manipulates the differences in his measurements in a manner to in- crease his profits. This almost universal inaccuracy in China is not due to any ineradicable habit of inac- curacy, but to the fact that for centuries inaccuracy has tended to the temporary profit of the leaders in industry and exchange. Doubtless China as a whole and in the long run will be helped by a correction of this fault. But it is at least a striking situation that the foreign banks doing business in China are not pressing with any degree of eagerness for the currency reform. It may be hoped that a growth of the spirit of patriotism and an appreciation of China’s necessities in international trade presently will develop a body of men of sufficient foresight and unselfishness to give China a fair chance in production and exchange among other nations of the world by placing her sys- tem of coinage, of weights and measures upon an accurate basis. We must await the higher education and the loftier patriotism and the broader statesman- ship of the future to accomplish this reform. China is in need of sufficient faith in a righteous God and a “ Ancient Chinese Coinage, p. 6. COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA 93 future life to make men honest, even when honesty limits temporary gains. 2. Reliability. Next to fixed standards of weights, measures, and currency, or perhaps more important, is honesty as a condition of exchange. At this point the Chinese in some measure atone for their inaccuracy. The long centuries of Chinese commerce have led them through hard experience to develop business perceptions and to elaborate business prin- ciples unexcelled by those of any other people. Com- merce in China has been reduced probably to simpler principles than in an)'^ other country on earth, and one principle which every Chinese firm recognizes as underlying all long-continued success in trade is reliability. So strong is the Chinese emphasis upon this virtue that Western writers have overestimated the inherent honesty of the Chinese and have made exaggerated statements upon the subject. If we define the honest man as he who is reliable from principle without regard to consequences, and the reliable man as he who is honest from policy because he knows that in the long run honesty pays best, we should characterize the Chinese as reliable rather than honest. Their representations of goods cannot always be trusted, and few merchants quote fixed prices to all who enter their stores. Probably they furnish as many people who are honest from prin- ciple as any other non-Christian country and as most so-called Christian nations. But, in the main, Chinese reliability in commerce has grown up from centuries of experience and rests upon their sound business judgment. Those residing in Peking at the 94 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION close of the Boxer Uprising will recall an instance of two leaders of an old firm rebuilding one of the city gates who on learning that they had been cheated by a distant firm and were unable to keep their engage- ments, committed suicide rather than face the humilia- tion of seeing the firm name and the family name dis- graced. Another cause of Chinese reliability is the conviction than one is humiliated in the next world by a financial failure in the present world. If, therefore, a father dies with outstanding obligations, sometimes his sons and even his grandsons toil for years to pay his debts in order to maintain their father’s credit in the spirit world as well as the credit of themselves in the pres- ent world. Here is a motive for reliability which takes rank with Christian motives. 3. The Chinese Mediator. A third factor which bulks large in Chinese commerce is the mediator, known as the compr adore, or “go-between.” The go- between is not simply the middleman of the Western world. In addition to making sales, first, he serves the purposes accomplished by advertising in the West, making known to the limited group of men with whom he deals the new styles and as nearly as possible the value of the goods which the manufacturer or importer has to sell. Second, he serves as a Chinese Bradstreet, giving the banker, manufacturer, or importer infor- mation as to the success and honesty of the merchant who wishes accommodation. Especially is the compra- dore of importance in dealings between foreign firms and the Chinese, tiis importance is not limited to his services as an advertiser and as a confidential agent COMMERCIAL LIFE IN CHINA 95 of both parties. Third, he is a real mediator between them, bringing each man to look at the common prob- lem from the other man’s point of view, and thus bringing the parties together. From the earliest his- tory of China the go-between, or mediator, has been a recognized factor in almost all marriage contracts, such a person being able to present the mutual qualifi- cations of the young people and the value of the alli- ance to the respective families better than each family could present its own claims. The go-between some- times aids in making the selection of young people for marriage as well as in bringing about a union. Just as a bishop is a mediator between pastors and churches, often selecting one for the other and always striving to maintain mutually helpful relations between them, so in many large business transactions, and especially government affairs, the go-between in the Far East occupies something of the relation of the bishop in the Western church world. The finest defini- tion we have ever heard of the Japanese Genro, or Elder Statesmen, characterized them as “The Bishops of Japan,” and defined their function as that of medi- ators between the sovereign upon the one side, and the Parliament and the people upon the other side. This has been in some measure also the service which the recognized advisers of the emperor and the Board of Censors have rendered in China. We are inclined to think that in some form this mediator will remain a lasting factor of business and political life in the Far East. Does not the appointment of commissions in the United States like the Railway Commission, which has, not only the judicial power to arbitrate between I 96 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION contending parties, but the legislative power to make new rules and new rates between the railways and the people, indicate an approach by Western peoples to the mediatorial principle which has been employed for many centuries in China? Certainly, the Chinese mediator, or go-between, is one of the causes of the commercial supremacy of the Chinese in every neutral port of the Far East. Friends of China hope that her population will not multiply as rapidly as her industry and trade seem destined to increase, and the people thus continue to live upon the verge of starvation. But we may antici- pate a large increase of industry and commerce, of wealth and population. If Christianity strengthens Chinese business capacity by undergirding it with the added moral power of godliness ; if a proper system of steam and electrical transportation relieves ten to fif- teen per cent of her men from burden-bearing and turns them into productive industries ; if China adopts a single standard for her currency and a scientific sys- tem of weights and measures; if in addition to the pro- ducts of her fields she develops her almost untouched resources and her unrealized water power; if steam and electricity and the countless inventions of the Western world are utilized, the Chinese will become a people to be reckoned with before the close of the twentieth century and ever after. Books for Reference The same as for the preceding chapter. CHAPTER IV EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA I. Advantages Inhering in the Chinese System OF Education i. Chinese Education. Chinese education is the oldest system of government education known to his- tory. The schools described under the early feudal period, B. C. 2357-1122, were state schools. Of these earliest ages Professor James Legge says, “Education was state-conducted.” ^ Williams says : “The impor- tance of generally instructing the people was acknowl- edged even before the time of Confucius (B. C. 551) and practiced to a good degree at an age when other nations in the world had no such system. ... It is said in the Book of Rites, B. C. 1200, ‘That for the purposes of education among the ancients, villages had their schools, districts their academies, departments their colleges, and principalities their universities. This, so far as we know, was altogether superior to what obtained among the Jews, Persians and Syrians of the same period.’ ” ^ Under the Shang dynasty, B. C. 1766-1122, there was a minister of instruction, and we read of a classification of officials according to their grades of ability.^ Professor Giles writes, “The Chows [dynasty founded B. C. 1122] established a * The Chinese Classics, vol. i, p. 230. ‘Williams, S. Wells: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. i, pp. 519, 520. ’ Wemer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 53, col. 2. 97 98 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION university, the shadow of which remains to the present day.” * If we may depend upon these earliest records, the schools continued to be supported by the state from the Shang dynasty, B. C. 1766, down to A, D. 706, that is, for some twenty-five hundred years. 2. Uniform Curriculum. The second advantage of the Chinese system of education is its uniform cur- riculum based upon the Chinese Classics. When the Chinese records become entirely historical, some eight hundred years before Christ, we find that the multipli- cation table, arithmetic, geometry, with a knowledge of the properties of the right-angled triangle, and the elements of trigonometry were studied. The abacus for making calculations, sun dials, instruments for measuring distances, and the clepsydra were in use.® But the principal course of study in the early cur- riculum was probably the Chinese Classics. It is well known that Confucius (B. C. 551-478) made a compilation of these with some editorial notes, and that this edition was used in the schools soon after his death, and has constituted a large part of the course of study from that time to the present.® It is alto- gether probable that the Classics were studied long before the time of Confucius and that the honor paid to them by scholars was the motive which led Con- fucius to edit them. If they were taught only from the time of Confucius, they would constitute the bulk of the Chinese course of study for twenty-five hundred years. We have an impressive testimony to the high estimate in which they were held in the fact that when * Giles, Herbert A.: Historic China, p. ii. ^Werner, E. T, C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table II, col, 23. •See Appendix VI, "Courses of Study in China.” EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA 99 the schools ceased to be supported by the Government in A. D., 706, the classical course of study had such a hold upon the people that the private schools continued to teach them as faithfully as the government schools had done. It is difficult to overestimate the value of a uniform curriculum accepted by every school in the nation for over twenty-five hundred years in creating uniformity in language and a uniform type of civiliza- tion. 3. Democratic Character of System. One other striking advantage of the Chinese education is its democratic character. Wu Wang, founder of the Chow dynasty, B. C. 1122, ordered that in admitting students to degrees, including the highest, no distinc- tion should be made between high and low, rich and poor. His own son, the heir to the throne, was edu- cated at one of these schools like the son of a common laborer.’ We find a notice of vacations of forty-five days in order that the land might be prepared for cul- tivation. This indicates that the schools were patron- ized not only by the sons of scholars and of wealthy men but by boys who were obliged to engage in phys- ical labor during the farming season. Not only were the schools democratic in their admission of students of all classes, but the government was democratic in its appointment of scholars to public office. “Regular promotions according to merit, determined by exam- inations, were established not only for admission to the higher schools but for admission to administrative offices.” * * In A. D. 177 Ling Tu made appointments ’ Hirth, Friedrich: The Ancient History of China, p. 99. • Biot, Edouard: Essai sur I’Histoire de ITnstruction Publique en Chine, P- 34- loo CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION to all civil offices dependent on passing the govern- ment examinations. These government-supported schools, apparently open to all the children of the nation and leading to promotions in civil life, formed the most democratic system of education found in any nation outside of the United States, and the Chinese system antedated the American school system by more than three thousand years. 4. Its Practical Character. Another great ad- vantage, not of the scholastic system, but of the actual training of Chinese boys and girls, is its practical character. While the schools, so long as they were supported by the government, that is, down to A. D. 706, were with few exceptions open to all bo)^s, never- theless the Chinese never have sought book learning as an end in itself. While they have deemed a knowl- edge of reading, writing, arithmetic, etc., desirable, yet they have not deemed it essential to send to school a boy who was destined for work on a farm or in a shop any more than we have deemed it essential to send such a boy to a law school or a medical school. Consequently, the overwhelming mass of the Chinese are almost destitute of any scholastic training. This does not imply that the common people have no edu- cation whatever. If Bacon’s maxim, “Teach the boy when young that which he must practice when he is grown,” is a wise one, then every Chinese child has some practical education. Industrially, China has been until recently, and she is yet largely, in the stage of hand labor. This stage demands a larger amount of human effort than the stage of machine labor; but the hand labor required is so simple that children can EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA loi join in rendering it. Hence in China all the children, save the few who are sent to school, are expected to assist their parents in their daily work. Moreover, farming in China, in which the majority of the people are engaged, is a specialized industry, like market gardening or fruit raising in Europe and America. These two facts account for the large amount of prac- tical training which the masses of common people possess. Professor Parker writes in the following strain of their native skill: “We talk about Jack be- ing a ‘handy man’; he is nothing to the Chinaman. The usual exceptions excepted, every Chinese knows the time without a watch ; can, at a pinch, buy, prepare, and cook his own food; wash, patch, if not make his own clothes; judge the weather; till the fields; carry a pole and its load; indicate the north; maneuver a punt; sail a boat; catch fish, saddle a horse; tackle animals, birds, and reptiles of all kinds under unex- pected circumstances; walk or ride long distances; sleep anywhere at any moment ; take no exercise what- ever for any length of time; ... do anything; go anywhere ; remain without a change, and other things innumerable.” ^ As every Chinese trader so far as possible makes the goods which he sells, and as most manufacturing is by hand labor, there is work for the boy, not only on every farm but in every shop and in almost every store in China. Even in Chinese banks, which are often pawnshops, in money-changers’ stalls, one often sees lads making the change and transacting the routine business under the father’s eye. Often the industrial • Parker, E. H., China, Her History, Diplomacy, and Commerce, p. 278. 102 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION training received in China is crude; but there is an art to be mastered even in carrying upon one’s shoulders a pole with a load at each end, shifting the load while walking, acquiring the trotting gait of the burden-bearer, and traveling thus heavy laden twenty- five to thirty miles a day. In view of the almost uni- versal industrial training, China more fully than any other nation illustrates Bacon’s maxim cited above. This maxim has grave intellectual limitations. Never- theless, when the physical tasks are not too heavy, the freedom from intellectual strain and the life and exer- cise in the open air contribute to physical vigor. More- over, training under the supervision of parents whp, in addition to natural affection, have every motive for wise instruction in the fact that they are to spend their lives with their children and their declining }^ears in dependence upon them ; the common life in the open with small opportunity for vice; the frequent custom of the village teacher to read aloud proclamations, newspapers, and books; the democratic spirit of the Chinese which leads master and workmen to eat to- gether and to discuss in common the problems of the business — all these combined, keep the number of de- generates in China down to the minimum, result in the more general spread of ordinary knowledge than would seem possible among an illiterate people, and lead to a comparatively high level of efficiency in the art of earning a living and maintaining the existing civilization. It should be added that this industrial training includes girls as well as boys, women from the earliest ages acquiring a rude skill in housekeeping, in the care EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA 103 of children, and in the domestic arts generally, and an unusual skill in hatching silk worms, spinning and weaving, embroidery, etc. So evident are the advan- tages of industrial training that ultimately it will be- come an integral part of the educational system of every nation. We have thus found four marked advantages in the system of Chinese education: first, education supported by the government from the time when “the memory of man runneth not to the con- trary” down to A. D. 706; second, education based upon the Classics contributing greatly to the unifica- tion of the language and civilization of China; third, education open to all and conducted in a democratic spirit, followed by advancement to the higher degrees and to government offices; fourth, a system of thor- oughly practical training for all. II. Dangers Inhering in the Chinese System of Education i. The Private Nature of Chinese Education. A serious revolution in Chinese education was inaug- urated in A. D. 706 when an imperial edict caused the salaries of the teachers to be paid by the pupils instead of by the state. This marked a fundamental change in the methods by which education was to be supported in China. The government still controlled education after it ceased to support it, because it pre- scribed the examinations which every student must pass in order to secure an office, and a teacher of a private school was sure to teach the subjects which would help his students most speedily to a government position. Private education is necessarily more nar- 104 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION row in the range of subjects taught than is education at government expense. Moreover, private education interferes far more fully than does government educa- tion with the independence of the teacher, makes him subject to the caprice of the student, lessens the rever- ence due his office and his character, turns him into the hired man of his patrons, and results in education being put upon a commercial basis and used for per- sonal gain the same as any other trade. 2. Corruption. A second and far more serious defect in Chinese education arose from the corruption growing out of the connection between private educa- tion and official life. In B. C. 243 a most unfortunate precedent in education was established. Locusts and pestilence visited the land and many of the poorer people perished. To help relieve the distress, the first degree, admitting to the lowest literary rank, was openly sold for a contribution of one hundred and seventy-seven pounds of rice for famine relief. We find another record of the open sale of degrees in B. C. 123.^® In A. D. 177 an imperial decree was issued ordering that only those holding literary de- grees be appointed to political office. In A. D. 178 and again in 198 we read of offices being sold to the graduates of colleges at a fixed price. This sale of degrees and of offices has continued to a greater or less extent down to the present day and has been one of the prime causes of political corruption in China, because only men with degrees were eligible to office and those who bought degrees resorted to official cor- ruption to recoup their purchase money. In A. D. 627 w Faber, Ernst: Chronological Handbook of the History of China, p. 43. EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA 105 the decree limiting political offices to those holding literary degrees was made much more stringent. At the same time the government limited the number of literary degrees which could be conferred in a single year to approximately one per cent of the candidates. The great value of the degree made candidates willing not only to prepare for the examinations but to pay for the degree. A further development of this cor- ruption is recorded in A. D. 729, when the number of doctors’ degrees which could be given in any single year was limited to one hundred. The fact that many more than one hundred men completed the first and second degrees and prepared for the examination for the doctor’s degree led to the degree being given to those candidates who in addition to passing the exam- inations paid the largest sums for the degree. Here is the root of one of the grave evils which long has blighted China. In Great Britain knighthood and other civil honors usually are conferred in return for distinguished work in science or distinguished service rendered to the nation and humanity. But we are told that sometimes these honors have been conferred in return for large contributions to the party exchequer. In United States also there was a time when medical and advanced literary degrees were practically sold by a few falsely called institutions of learning. But the revenue from the sale of titles and literary degrees in all Western lands combined has been infinitesimal as compared with the corruption in connection with their sale in China. 3. Inherent Conservatism. A third defect in the educational system of the Chinese was its inherent con- io6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION servatism. This is due to two causes : first, to the con- servative tendency of education in general ; and, second, to the connection between education and offi- cial life in China. One great advantage of knowledge is the dangers it enables one to avoid. A baby will thrust its hand into the flame; an ignorant child will eat noxious fruit if it is attractive, will drink infected water, expose itself to disease. One of the first effects of education is the tendency toward carefulness which it develops. Again, education, in the very nature of the case, consists largely in teaching children the lan- guage, literature, the discoveries, inventions and deeds of ancestors. The more advanced the education, the more it steeps to the lips the students in the literature, history, and philosophy of the past. As men prize that which they have mastered, students naturally grow to reverence that which they have learned. Moreover, history makes students, and especially ad- vanced students, familiar with countless schemes of reform which seemed very attractive on paper but which failed in operation. Hence one marked ten- dency of scholarship is toward conservatism ; and con- servatism is born of skepticism, especially of skepti- cism in regard to any new and radical action not in conformity with accepted standards. Thus, educa- tion, with its training in classical literature and in reverence for institutions which are old, with its knowl- edge of the countless failures of reform schemes, and its recognition that the highest ideals have seldom found embodiment in reality, tends, in general, toward timidity and conservatism. The marked exceptions to this rule are the scientific schools of the West; EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA 107 and these through reaction against a priori theolog- ical views and through being engrossed in material studies have tended toward skepticism and material- ism. The schools of Egypt rejected Moses, the schools of Greece rejected Socrates, the schools of the scribes and Pharisees rejected Jesus and Paul, the univer- sities of Europe -in most cases opposed the Reforma- tion, the leaders of the church in Rome forced Gali- leo to recant, the universities of France opposed the French Revolution, the University of Oxford rejected Methodism but nursed the Anglo-Catholic reactionary movement, and trained the conservatives who opposed the Reform Bill. With rare exceptions the univer- sities and colleges of America opposed the anti-slavery agitation; and they are not prominent in the present attempt to secure national prohibition, or in the re- forms demanded in the relations between capital and labor, or in extending equal political rights to women. But in no other country has education been so con- servative a force as in China. While conservatism inheres in all higher education. Occidental as well as Oriental, nevertheless the breadth of Western culture, the fact that in no Western nation has scholarship been regarded as a profession and been made the test of office-holding, the deepening conviction that educa- tion is a boon conferred by the state and therefore to be used for the good of all, and, above all, the scientific spirit and Christian and moral character of Western education, have saved scholarship from undue reac- tion. University training has made educators in gen- eral the conservators of civilization. In the case of original minds, strong enough to maintain their io8 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION prophetic cast in spite of learning, the higher educa- tion has furnished the mental discipline and the wide knowledge of the struggles and the dangers of reform which have enabled them to become the leaders in the progress of mankind. But in China, in addition to the conservative tendency of education, the govern- ment adopted an arrangement which inevitably put almost all the recognized scholars upon the side of the existing order. With a curriculum which consisted almost wholly of the Classics, and which demanded that reverence, and even worship, be paid to Con- fucius, the government has made official life dependent upon scholarship ; and China has had substantially for two thousand years, and certainly for thirteen hun- dred years, an aristocracy of learning with all the honors and emoluments of the government at the dis- posal of this class. The strongest scholars in China have been led for centuries to uphold the existing order because their own honors and support were involved in its maintenance. To ask’ a member of the Hanlin to attack the government was like asking a Liberal, a Republican, or a Democrat to destroy his party in the interest of reform, or a churchman to destroy his church, at the very time when he is admin- istering the party or the church, and when it is the source of all his wealth, his honors, and his influence. This exclusive exaltation of the learned class has done more to enlist the talents of China’s learned men in the interest of conservatism and to check intellectual free- dom than any other system of education ever devised. Contrast the aristocracy of learning in China with the aristocracy of blood in Europe, and the rising aris- EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA icx) tocracy of wealth in the Western world, and one must recognize that the Chinese aristocracy was the most subtle in its influence, had the strongest grip, and was the most far-reaching of the three, and that it was wholly devoted to conservatism. Through this con- servatism, China turned her face from the future to the past, forfeited her opportunity, stunted her de- velopment, and lost the leadership of the world. III. The Future of Chinese Education For a clear view of the probable future development of Chinese education we must gain a little fuller knowl- edge of its history.^^ In A. D. 192 in addition to the examinations in the classics, competitive exam- inations were established in family law and in A. D. 243 examinations were added in morals and in proper official conduct. We catch the spirit of one of the nobler teachers from the following story recorded in A. D. 387. A student came a long distance to hear a Sage discourse on wisdom. His face showed such an interest that at the close of the public lecture the Sage called him and asked if he could do any more for him. The student answered that he had been greatly profited and stirred by the Sage’s wisdom and that he was eager to ask more questions, but that it was entirely improper for a poor student to weary a Sage with foolish questions. The Sage replied, “Does the mirror grow weary of reflecting images?” A finer illustra- tion of the value of education is found in the story of Mencius’ mother narrated in Appendix VI. “ For the cotorse of study which has been taught for the last seven hundred years, and in part for two thousand years, see Appendix VI. no CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION The precession of equinoxes was discovered between A. D, loo and 200; and in A. D. 301 the first un- doubted observation of sun spots was recorded. Med- ical studies occupied a considerable place in the school curriculum of China at dififerent times. A knowledge of botany, of medicine, and of human anatomy existed as early as B. C. 540. The Caesarian operation is recorded as having been performed in A. D. 285. In the twelfth century A. D. inoculation for smallpox and the operation for the removal of cataracts from the eyes are recorded.^^ The Chinese Classics were cut on wooden blocks and printed A. D. 926 to 933, thus antedating by five hun- dred years the printing of the Bible (A. D. 1450 to 1455 ) This early discovery of block printing by the Chinese and its use not only in printing the Classics but also other books, helps account for China’s intel- lectual supremacy over Europe from the downfall of Greek and Roman culture to the time of the Reforma- tion. In the Far East The Chinese Classics, the great book of the past, appeared; in Europe, the Bible — the great book of the future. In A. D. 1492 China was collecting rare volumes glorifying the past; Columbus was discovering America and laying the foundation for the future of the Western races. In A. D. 606 the doctor’s degree was added to the literary degrees already existing, and from that day to the present three literary degrees have been con- ferred in China corresponding somewhat roughly to our bachelor’s, master’s, and doctor’s degrees; they 12 Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table VI, col. 23. '•Ibid., Table V, col. 28. EDUCATIOXAL LIFE IN CHINA iii required perhaps more memoriter work, but less de- velopment of the reasoning powers than do our West- ern degrees. In addition to these degrees there is another degree, or at least an honor, which consists in the election to membership in the Hanlin Academy. This is an election for life, carries with it a salary, and is usually followed by some political appointment. Between 1644 and 1900, through contact with for- eign nations, education became more widely diffused, and Western learning was slowly introduced into China. The Jesuits introduced scientific training; and the Protestant missionaries, by the establishment of primary, intermediate, high schools, and colleges, laid the foundations for a system of public education. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic schools include por- tions of the Chinese Classics in the courses of study. The Chino- Japanese war of 1894-95 and the Boxer Uprising of 1900 awakened China more fully and gave an impetus to Western learning. Dr. W. A. P. Martin was called as educational and general adviser by Chang Chih-tung at Wuchang, Dr. Timothy Richard to the presidency of the University of Shansi at Tai Yuen Fu and Dr. W. M. Hayes to the presidency of the Shantung Provincial College at Tsinanfu. In 1901 an imperial decree ordered, in addition to the universi- ties, a junior college at the capital of each province, a middle (high) school at each prefectural capital, ah intermediate school at each hsien (county) capital, and a primary school in every village — a worthy edu- cational program, but, like many other noble ideals, existing mainly on paper. In 1903 an edict was issued ordering the abolition within ten years of the old sys- 1 12 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION tern of examinations for officials, and in 1905 Yuan Shill Kai and Chang Chih-tung secured a decree sum- marily abolishing the old system and providing for a new system to go into immediate effect. Very wisely, however, this order permitted all who held degrees granted under the old system to continue as officials. In addition to Yuan Shih Kai and Chang Chih-tung, Chou Fu, Chao Ehr Hsun, Tuan Fang, and Chen Tsun Hsuan were leaders in these reforms. A commission was appointed to devise a system of education along Western lines. The new system includes arithmetic, geography, history, and a considerable portion of the Classics. After the establishment of the republic, the first National Educational Conference ever held in China met in Peking July 12, to August 11, 1912, under the presidency of Wang Shao-lien, and adopted the following arrangement of courses of study which the government, September 5, 1912, approved and promulgated. (1) Lower Primary School, compulsory — four years’ course. (2) Higher Primary School — three years’ course. (3) Middle School — four years’ course. (4) Preparatory School or Junior College — three years’ course. (5) College and Professional Schools — three or four years’ course. This curriculum provides for eleven years up to the entrance to the junior college, instead of twelve, as in the United States. The difference is due to China’s attempt to model her school system after that of Ger- many. The Junior College corresponds to the German EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA 113 gymnasium. It extends through three years, while a professional course, or the arts course proper, requires three or four years more for its completion. There are also normal and industrial schools. The convention of 1912 appointed a commission to devise an alphabet in order to save the large amount of time now required of children for the mastery of the Chinese characters. The statistics for 1912 showed 57,267 government schools of all classes, with 1,626,529 pupils in attend- ance— a small attendance for 331,000,000 people, but a good beginning of education by the government. It must be remembered that China relied entirely upon private schools from A. D. 706 to 1905, the govern- ment conducting the examinations and encouraging education by limiting office-holding to men possessing degrees. No statistics of these private schools are available; but tens of thousands of them are still in existence in China and they are training many-fold more pupils than are the government schools so re- cently established. In addition to the large number of private schools and a comparatively small number of government schools, Protestant IMissions had in China in 1914, 3,736 schools with 104,986 scholars in attendance. The Roman Catholics, largely under the direction of the French, had at the same time 8,034 schools with 132,850 pupils in attendance. The mission schools, with their Western learning and modern pedagogical methods and their strong emphasis upon moral cul- ture, are in some measure setting the standard of edu- cation for the nation. As to the relative influence of the various nations in mission schools, the French 1 14 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION unquestionably exercise a large influence through the Roman Catholic schools. The following are the sta- tistics of the three leading nations in Protestant edu- cation German Schools in China Lower Schools Middle and Higher. 164 — Scholars 15 — Scholars . . 4,862 523 Total 179 Total • • 5,385 English Schools in China Lower Schools Middle and Higher. 1,445 — Scholars 241 — Scholars • •• 32,303 • • 7,752 Total 1,686 Total .. 40,055 American Schools in China Lower Schools Middle and Higher. 1,992 — Scholars 286 — Scholars .. 44,354 .. 23,040 Total 2,278 Total • . 67,394 These figures show that British and Americans have charge of 3,964 schools with 107,449 scholars, and that the Germans have charge of 179 schools with 5,385 pupils ; and thus that the United States decidedly leads both Great Britain and Germany in higher education. Probably the Protestant schools are exercising a larger formative influence on the nation and especially upon the public life of the nation than are the Roman Catholic schools. This review of Chinese education furnishes some basis for a forecast of future development: I. The future education of the Chinese undoubtedly Statistics compiled by the German Association of Shanghai. EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA 115 will be supported by the government and will be demo- cratic in character. Only as education is supported liberally by the government and offered freely to all her children can it cease to be commercialized and narrow and become comprehensive in character, be extended to all the children of the nation and help China reach her goal. If education is offered freely by the government and becomes the general possession of the people, many educated reformers will arise. While education, as already pointed out, naturally tends to conservatism, nevertheless as a fact of his- tory education has produced almost all the great reformers of the human race. Our statement of the conservative influence of education would be unjust were we not to recognize, as previously stated, that the colleges of the Western world have furnished the mental discipline, have developed the moral vigor, and largely have been instrumental in the scientific dis- coveries through which the progress of the world has been assured. When a man has the strength of char- acter to profit by all the mental discipline and knowl- edge which the university can offer him, and at the same time maintain his ideals against all discourage- ments through historical knowledge of countless fail- ures, and especially when such a man finds his own life touched to higher issues by the Spirit of God, he becomes the strongest possible reformer. Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Plato, Paul, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, Wesley, Bacon, Newton, Galileo, Gladstone, Darwin, Jefferson, Hamilton, the founders of mis- sions, the organizers of churches, the leaders of revo- lutions— the men who “have turned the world upside ii6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION down” — are in the overwhelming majority of cases men of strong personality who received their discipline at the great seats of learning. Confucius, Socrates, Shakespeare, Franklin, and Lincoln are the exceptions to the rule ; and these men became the leaders of ages because without the outer advantages of the university they possessed such sanity and balance, such indomi- table will and unconquerable ideals, and they so mas- tered the best literature of the ages in which they lived, that they secured for themselves the advantages which other men receive from college training. Mohammed- anism is the example of a reform miscarrying through an exceedingly strong leader remaining largely igno- rant. The hope of China’s future rests upon the adop- tion of universal- education maintained at government expense. Moreover, only universal education will enable the Chinese children of the twentieth century and beyond to take their places side by side with the children of Japan and India, of Britain and Germany and America as leaders in the civilization of the world. 2. The second hope for China lies in the introduc- tion of Western learning. This learning is sure to prove as revolutionary in its effects upon Chinese insti- tutions as Galileo’s discovery of the earth’s revolutions and the introduction of the doctrine of evolution have proved upon Western education. It is simply impos- sible for China to introduce Western education and maintain a despotic form of government. And this second hope already has become a certainty. The Western learning is at hand, and the mental revolu- tion already is in progress ; and it is as impossible for any group of men or for any government to check it EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA 117 as it is to push back the tides or to delay the advancing dawn. But along with Western science China must preserve the universal industrial training of her chil- dren, greatly broadened and enriched by the applied sciences of the West. China has a great lesson to learn from the Western world as to the intellectual and scientific side of industrial training, but the Western world has a great lesson to learn from China on universal instruction in some form of industrial training. At this i)oint Chinese and Japanese educa- tion is more practical than that of Western nations. Again, China must either follow Japan or else devise some better plan for simplifying her characters and constructing an alphabet of her own. After the dis- covery or adoption of an alphabet and the universal training of her children in the art of reading and writing, China’s new educational program should introduce a large amount of religious, industrial, and domestic training, modeled in some measure on the Gary plan of the United States but carried beyond the point to which it is carried in the Gary schools. Every boy and girl should be trained in some means of earning a living. The domestic arts, home-making and scholastic training should be made prominent in the case of girls; and agricultural, industrial, business and scholastic training prominent in case of the boys. Again China must make a far larger use of the press for the dissemination of popular instruction, and she must maintain through newspapers, etc., the intel- lectual contact of her people with the Western world. We are clear also that China should go further than the United States and other Western nations and make ii8 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION suffrage depend upon five conditions: age, residence, education, property, absence of a criminal record. 3. The third and by far the largest hope for China is in Christian education. At this point China can pattern only in part after the Western nations. If she makes education compulsory and insists upon every child attending the government school, she 'will be obliged, like the United States, either to forbid the teaching of religion by the public schools or else she will be obliged, like Germany and Great Britain, to adopt a state religion. Upon the whole, we believe the former alternative is the preferable one. But no can- did student of education or observer of the developing life of the United States can be wholly satisfied with the American system of public education. In our determination to give no denominational instruction in the public schools, members of our American school boards stand so straight that they lean backward. Some of our school boards have forbidden the read- ing of the Bible or the teaching of the Bible as lit- erature in the public schools. On the other hand. Professor Huxley, a scientist of the highest stand- ing, favored the systematic teaching of considerable portions of the Bible in the public schools of Eng- land, not in the interest of the churches, but in the interest of the rising manhood of the nation. While o])enly professing agnosticism in regard to the divine origin of the Bible, nevertheless Professor Huxley pronounced that Book “the unrivaled instrument for moral culture in possession of the human race.” Properly edited portions of the Old and New Testa- ments should be introduced into the American pub- EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA 119 lie schools in order to save the nation from the in- creasing growth of crime, especially among young people. In employing teachers, other qualifications being equal, school boards should give the preference to candidates of moral character, of Christian prin- ciples and of such attractive graces as constitute “the beauty of holiness.” State schools should set aside definite hours for religious and moral training by such types of religious leaders as the parents may elect, and give credit for work done in such Sunday schools as care to secure teachers of intellectual qualifications approved by the state. The fundamental defect of secular culture is that it creates ideals which it is impossible for man by merely human strength to realize. This is the fundamental strength and weakness of all purely ethical teaching, as the failure of the Confucian ethics to save China, and of Greek and Roman culture to save those West- ern nations, demonstrates. These systems of ethics reveal ideals worthy of all commendation. Confucian- ism is a providential preparation of China for Christi- anity, even as were the Greek and Roman ethics and the teachings of the Old Testament. But ethical sys- tems nowhere reveal to man the power by which he may realize his ideals ; that help comes from the new birth in Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven within the hearts of believers. Hence children struggling with moral ideals which lie beyond their own inherent strength to realize should be made familiar with re- ligious experience and should be led by the examples of teachers to venture upon the Great Experiment themselves. 120 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION China already is feeling the need of placing her education upon a higher basis than the Western na- tions thus far have reached. The modern learning being introduced into China is showing one sign of decay, namely, the loss of reverence for teachers and for authority, the abuse of freedom, and the assump- tion by the students of the right to manage the school. This is due in part to the fact that many men of ma- ture years in China are seeking an education for the sake of the Western learning, in part to the confusion of freedom with license, and in part to the fact that education in China has been for centuries a private enterprise and the Chinese families employing tutors have come, in some measure, to regard them as hired men. The Japanese also are finding our Western system of education insufficient for their needs. They have fully equaled the Western nations in the scientific character of their instruction; but the Japanese com- missioner of education in 1911 called together repre- sentatives of Shintoism, Buddhism, and Christianity for a conference on the improvement of education, be- cause the government had discovered that the Jap- anese teachers trained in government normal schools were not successful in imparting high moral ideals or in developing strong moral character among their stu- dents. The result of the conference, in which Chris- tian missionaries were permitted to tell of Christian experience in transforming the lives of young people, was an exhortation sent to every school in Japan, in- cluding our mission schools, urging them to lay greater stress upon the teaching of religion as an EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN CHINA 121 essential preparation for the future lives of the young people. A recent report on the religious conditions in the University of Tokyo revealed the startling fact that of 4,966 students reporting, not one wrote him- self down as a Shintoist, only 6 enrolled themselves as Confucianists, only 60 as Christians, only 300 as Bud- dhists, while 1,000 enrolled themselves as atheists, and 3,600 as agnostics. With this condition of affairs, do you wonder that thoughtful statesmen in Japan are turning to religion as an essential for national safety? The mayor of Tokyo said in 1914, “Education has taken off the helmet to religion.” The Chinese will not be satisfied with mere hook knowledge, with the theoretical science, philosophy and theology of the West. They will be content with nothing less than the applied sciences and applied Christianity. The Chinese doctrine of the innate goodness of human nature, while defective and untrue to life, nevertheless is more consonant with the teach- ing of the Bible as a whole than the doctrine of the total depravity of man. If the Chinese can once recognize that while man was originally made in the image of God, he has, in some strange manner, de- generated from his high estate, and if they once adopt Christianity as essential to their spiritual nature and their moral culture, very possibly they will make a wider and deeper use of it than we are making in the West. If they discard the false barrier between na- ture and the supernatural, seek new life and power for their daily tasks through Christ and the indwelling spirit; if the Far East bravely meets the crisis which now confronts her and not only Westernizes but Chris- 122 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION tianizes her education, then China, because of the tre- mendous break-up of old customs and institutions, has perhaps as bright a prospect for the future as America or Europe. If, along with her outworn civilization, she also puts aside the half Christian, half-pagan civilization of America and Europe, with its worship of material success, its glorification of war, its in- dulgence of lust and worldly pride, and accepts Chris- tianity in earnest, she may surpass the Western world in realizing the New Humanity in Christ. Books for Reference Biot, Edouard : Essai sur I’Historie de I’lnstruction Publique en Chine. Burton, Margaret E. : The Education of Women in China. Faber, Ernst : Chronological Handbook of the History of China. Giles, Herbert A. : Chinese Biographical Dictionary. Hirth, Friedrich: The Ancient History of China. King, H. E. : The Education of China (U. S. Dept, of Ed., Vol. I — 1905, 1908, 1909). Kuo, P. W. : The Chinese System of Public Education. Lewis, Robert: The Educational Conquest of the Far East. Monroe, Paul : History of Education ; Encyclo- pedia of Education. Parker, E. H. : China, Her History, Diplo- macy, and Commerce. Thwing, C. F. : Education in the Far East. Werner, E. T. C. : Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese. Yen Lin-ho: Chinese Education. CHAPTER V WOMAN’S LIFE IN CHINA Perhaps we cannot better open this chapter than with a brief historical sketch of the domestic and family relations of the Chinese. B. C. 2700 — Marriage supplants the capture of brides;^ B. C. 2357-1122 — Polygamy and concubinage were common.^ B. C. 1 1 22-22 1® — The matchmaker, or the agent arranging marriages between two families, was recog- nized ; the function has continued down to the present time. Probably this custom arose when marriage by purchase supplanted marriage by capture, for under industry and commerce, we find the go-between, or middleman, recognized in almost all commercial trans- actions. From the earliest times to the present, marriages were arranged on the judgment of the parents or of the mediator without consulting the young people. Nevertheless, true affection often sprang up between husband and wife. Meadows speaks of love at first sight springing up between young men and young women in the Orient; and cites in proof of this both Chinese novels and the Arabian Nights’ Entertain- ment.^ Marriage among those of the same surname or > Wemer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 91, col. i. » Ibid., Table I. col. 3. ’ Ibid., Table II. col. 3. * Meadows, T. T.: The Chinese and Their Rebellions, p. 556-57. 123 124 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION within the clan was early forbidden, and this wise regulation checking intermarriage has continued. The bride has always been regarded as ceasing to be a member of her father’s family and as becoming legally and spiritually a member of her husband’s family. This is shown by her permanently joining him in worship at his family altar, thus recognizing his ancestors rather than her own as the persons demand- ing her worship and service. But permission was given the bride a short time after marriage to visit her own family, and that custom has continued down to the present time. Despite the surrender of all family rights upon the part of the parents of the daughter, and the daughter herself, nature has as- serted the divine right of parent and child, and the Chinese usually recognize the advisability of seeking an alliance for a son with a family of equal standing, on the ground that the family will not lose interest in its daughter. Remarriage after the death of a wife was freely permitted the husband, and sometimes took place speedily, but public sentiment practically forbade the remarriage of a widow until after three years of mourning. Any remarriage of a widow was regarded as unchaste on her part and unchaste on the part of the man selecting her for a wife. This is due to the fact that the spirit of the dead man is supposed still to need the service of the living wife and she is re- garded as still belonging to him. l\Iany stone arches are seen in China commemorating widows who refused all offers of remarriage. The widow remains in the home of parents-in-law and belongs to them. Only in WOMAN’S UFE TN CHINA 125 cases of extreme poverty where the parents-in-law cannot support the widowed daughter-in-law, or ar- range for her to contribute to their mutual suj)port, is the remarriage of a widow excepted from condemna- tion. The service of fathers and mothers by all chil- dren was placed by Mencius’' among religious duties. Sons were absolved from military service if needed by aged parents for their care. B. C. 221-A. D. 221® — An unbroken succession in the male line to insure the performance of ancestral rites and the repose of the spirits of the dead and their consequent protection of the living was deemed the highest blessing. The male line was perpetuated either through a son by the first wife or by a concubine, or, if need be, an heir was secured by adoption. This con- ception of family life has continued down to the present. A. D. 221-589’ — Edicts were issued forbidding the royal family, scholars, and common people to marry outside their own class; but the regulation was not maintained, and it did not result in the establishment of a caste system in China. The custom of arranging betrothals sprang up, and parents even pledged their children to each other before the children were born, provided they proved to be of the opposite sex. The early transfer of girls to the homes of their future hus- bands arose from the fact that the girl belongs to her husband’s family; and the future mother-in-law often was better pleased with a daughter-in-law whom she herself trained. But this early transfer of a girl to ‘ Lived B. C. 372-289. •Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table IV, col. 4. ’ Ibid., Table IV, cols. 3, 4. 126 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION the home of the future husband and the early betrothal of children are slowly disappearing. The sale of chil- dren into slavery became so common between A. D. 221 and 589 that an imperial decree was issued pro- hibiting it; and also prohibiting female infanticide, though both have continued in some measure down to the present time. A. D. 960-1280® — Added emphasis was laid upon the necessity of male descendants to perform ancestral rites, and Buddhist priests were condemned for their failure to marry and secure male descendants. A. D. 1368-1644” — Marriage still took place at an early age for the sake of male descendants. Polygamy as well as concubinage was permitted under the Ming dynasty, two wives being sometimes recognized; but polygamy was authorized only when a son was obliged to raise up separate descendants to perform the an- cestral rites of two lines of ancestors ; otherwise con- cubinage supplanted polygamy, the concubine being practically the slave of the wife, and her children being reckoned as the children of her mistress. The Chinese draw a clear distinction between concubinage and polygamy; and we know of no condition save the one named above in which polygamy is legal or is socially approved. A. D. 1644-1915^” — ^The family embraces all per- sons, without distinction, including slaves ; all such are under the power of the father. Marriage is not legally compulsory ; but the social and religious conviction of the duty of securing male heirs is so strong that mar- • Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table VI, cols. 3, 4. • Ibid., Table VIII, cols. 3, 4. >« Ibid., Table IX, cols. 3, 4. WOMAN’S LIFE IN CHINA 127 riage is all but universal in China. The lowest legal age for the marriage of a girl is fifteen, although there are exceptions to this rule. The descent of real and personal property is now to all sons of wives and of concubines in shares : sons of concubines receiving half shares, adopted sons receiving the same shares as real sons. The power of the father, and in case of his death, of the mother, over the child extends still legally to life and death.” Implicit obedience of the wife is enforced. She cannof possess separate property. On the other hand, the husband cannot hire her out for prostitution. Divorce is still theoretically easy for men. Nevertheless, practically, it is limited; because the sending of a wife back to her parents without suit- able cause is sure to awaken the antagonism of her family and create a bitter feud. Slavery in China owed its origin in part to the payment of money or a dowry for wives, and it consists chiefly in the owner- ship of female slaves who are often concubines. From this brief historical review the following conclusions may be drawn : I. Inferior Position of Women in China I. Women in China have always suffered from the teaching by the religious books of their inferiority to men. The I Ching, which is venerated as holy scrip- ture by the Chinese, teaches that the original principle out of which heaven and earth evolved was a united male and female principle ; but that the two separated, the male becoming the heavenly principle and the fe- male becoming the earthly principle. The male prin- ^ Meadows, T. T.: The Chinese and Their Rebellions, pp. 551, 635. 128 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ciple is represented by light and the female by dark- ness; the male by strength, and the female by weak- ness; the male by wisdom, the female by ignorance. For this reason the ancient Chinese, including Con- fucius, laid stress upon the distinction between the sexes. Confucius says, “Women are as different from men as earth is from heaven.” Again: “Women are, indeed, human beings, but they are of a lower state than men. They never can attain a full equality with men. The aim of female education, therefore, is per- fect submission — not cultivation and the development of the mind.” Again he says, “It is a law of nature that women should be kept under the control of men and not allowed any will of their own.” Finally, as if to make clear that the difference between men and women is eternal, Confucius adds, “In the other world the condition of affairs is exactly the same, for family laws govern there as well as here.” Hence, if sons are in subjection to their parents under Chinese law, daughters are in even more complete subjection to their parents and to the parents-in-law. 2. Another evidence of the complete subordination of women in China is found in the determination of their marriage by their grandparents, if these are still living; and in case the grandparents are dead, by their parents, without ever consulting the daughters’ wishes. The son as well as the daughter is under the same sub- jection: and family affection leads the parents usually to plan such a marriage as they think, upon the whole, will be for the best interests of the family, including the children. r)Ut inasmuch as the sons remain an integral portion of the family and the oldest son be- WOMAN’S LIFE IN CHINA 129 comes the continuator of the line and performs the ancestral rites for the parents at their death, the father and mother naturally are more eager to conserve a son’s interests in marriage than to conserve the inter- ests of a daughter who goes by marriage to an entirely different clan. Hence a daughter’s marriage is de- termined more by the amount which can be procured for her, with less reference to the character of the man or of the family to whom she is married, than is the case with the son. 3. The wife is under complete subjection to her hus- band. Divorce is allowed to the husband for seven causes, and any man desiring to get rid of a wife can easily find legal grounds for action. Upon the other hand, divorce is not allowed the wife save for long- continued desertion by her husband; or leprosy; and only in the rarest cases does a woman succeed in se- curing a divorce. 4. The wife is subject to the humiliation of concu- binage, that is, she may become one of two or more women who are taken into the home by the husband. And she is put at some disadvantage as over against the concubine from the fact already mentioned, that she is chosen for her husband by his parents, while the husband selects the concubine according to his own wishes. However grave this evil, nevertheless, the husband is forbidden by law to show a preference for the concubine, but must recognize her position as in- ferior to that of his wife. 5. The wife is subject to the parents-in-law. If the father-in-law is dead, the wife must ask the mother- in-law about everything. It is improper for a wife to 130 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION retire to her private apartments without waiting on her parents-in-law and asking their permission. If the wife has any business, either large or small, she must ask her parents-in-law in regard to it. Legally she can have no private property, no private domestic animals, or article for her own personal use. 6. Cramping women’s feet into the so-called “golden lilies” originated probably A. D. 900-970, though re- ferred by some to a period several hundred years earlier.^^ As to how it originated, there is no sufficient trustworthy evidence. “The fashion is ascribed to one of the concubines of the last princes of the late T’ang dynasty (A. D. 934).”^^ The binding usually begins when the girls are from three or four to six or seven years of age. It consists in binding the smaller toes under the foot and of bending the large toe upward and backward in such a way as to make a bow of the foot and in such a manner also as to make the foot to a considerable extent the extension of the limb in a straight line. The effect is always to deform the foot, sometimes the bones are crushed in the process, and usually the woman is crippled for life. 7. The position of women is shown by the system of merits which was established originally by Bud- dhism. According to this system, the wife received in heaven one merit for every day during which she is dutiful and obedient to her parents-in-law and respect- fully serves her husband; one merit for each day dur- ing which she waits on her husband or parents-in-law Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table V, col. 13, near bottom of page. See Meadow’s reference to L’Abb6 E. R. Hue, in The Chinese and Their Rebellions, p. 551, note. WOMAN’S LIFE IN CHINA 131 during illness ; three merits for selling her toilet arti- cles to assist them; three merits for each time she suffers violence at the hands of her parents-in-law without a resentful word, or an angry look, and three merits for every time she yields to a coarse and violent husband without anger. The husband and wife each receive a merit for each day the husband achieves vir- tue and they endure their lot when hard, the husband not refusing to strive for gain and the wife not refus- ing to draw the water and pound the rice. On the other hand, the wife receives one demerit for every word spoken to impede her husband in the pursuit of virtue or to incite him to the pursuit of vice ; one de- merit for not living in peace with her neighbors ; five demerits for each time she plays cards with anybody; three to ten demerits for want of cleanliness or for going to see sights ; ten demerits for using paper with writing or printing on it to wrap up her needles and thread; one thousand demerits for disliking her hus- band on account of an ugly face ! 8. When one considers the fundamental distinction between men and women in all authoritative Chinese teaching from a thousand years before Christ down to the present time ; when one remembers that under this teaching and under almost universal practice, the Chinese woman was treated as inferior to man, and that this inferiority is considered to inhere in her very nature and to continue throughout eternity; when one remembers how the daughters have been liable to in- fanticide or slavery, how wives have been from the earliest times under the power of husbands; how in addition to the grosser tyranny of a bad man every 132 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Chinese wife becomes practically the slave of her parents-in-law, and may be subject to a refined cruelty upon the part of a mother-in-law, which even a coarse husband would not think of practicing; when one re- members that the physical torture of bound feet is only a symbol of the mental cramping and spiritual torture which marks the entire life, then the grim decision sometimes reached by mothers to drown their baby girls, partly out of poverty and to avoid the alternative of selling them as slaves, and partly out of discourage- ment over woman’s lot in general, and the more des- perate decision to commit suicide themselves, are sad comments on the lot of women in the most populous nation on earth. II. Ameliorating Conditions On the other side, we must bear in mind that suicide among women probably is not more common in China than in Western lands. L’Abbe E. R. Huc,^^ Dr. Ernst Eaber,^^ and many missionaries portray woman’s lot in China as sadder than it is. Moreover, while recognizing the inferior position which woman holds in China, Alabaster^® shows that not only Chin- ese law, but the administration of that law by the courts tends to discourage the abuse of women by hus- bands, or by parents-in-law. We do not know what ])roportion of wives subjected to oppression appeal to the courts, and we do know that the courts clearly recognize woman’s subjection to her husband ; and that ** See Meadows’s reference to L’Abbfe E. R. Hue, in The Chinese and Their Rebellions, p. 5 si, note. “ Two articles in The Messenger, Nos. 8 and 9, 1889. See Preface to Notes on Chinese Law and Practice. WOMAN’S LIFE IN CHINA 133 Chinese law despite all mitigations rests upon the fundamental assumption of woman’s inferiority. But such observation as we have made in Chinese homes, not simply Christian but non-Christian, show that the Chinese treatment of women is frequently better than the theories of the sexes would imply. Certainly there is some measure of relief from the terrible abuse made possible under the Chinese Classics. Human nature, after all, is often better than human laws, and es- pecially than some religious teachings. First, every woman who is subject to her father-in- law and her mother-in-law during their lifetime has the grim satisfaction of knowing that under ordinary conditions she will outlive them and that she also will reach the position of mother-in-law and can exercise authority over others as others have exercised author- ity over her. Second, while she is subject to the loss of her husband’s aflfection and to the humiliation of sharing his life with a concubine, she has here also the grim satisfaction of feeling that the concubine is abso- lutely under her own control and is as much a slave to her as she in turn is bound to her father-in-law and mother-in-law. But neither of these considerations will have weight with a noble woman. Third, Chinese law prescribes the death penalty for adultery in the case of the man as well as the woman. Fourth, in the case of the death of her husband the Chinese mother has the same power over the family, even extending to the life and death of the sons, which the father pos- sessed.^^ This apparently contradicts the view that on the death of the father the mother becomes sub- ” Meadows, T. T.: The Chinese and Their Rebellions, pp. 551, 635. 134 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ject to the oldest son/® but each custom exists in parts of China. Fifth, above all, every woman in China looks forward to the glory of motherhood. The birth of children is of such importance that any mother bearing a son secures by that act something like an equal parental standing with her husband. The fifth textbook in all Chinese schools. The Manual of Filial Piety, says : “With the same love with which children serve their fathers they should serve their mothers; and with the same respect with which they serve their fathers they should serve their prince. Universal love, therefore, will be the offering they make to their mothers; unfeigned respect will be the tribute they bring to their prince ; while toward their fathers both will be combined.” Again it says: “There are a thousand crimes, and of these no one is greater than disobedience to parents. When ministers exercise control over the monarch, then there is no supremacy ; when the maxims of the Sages are set aside, then the law is abrogated; and so those who disregard filial piety are as though they had no parents. These three evils prepare the way for universal rebellion.” Finally, probably a far less proportion of the women of China than of the men fall into the social evil, one bad woman often corrupting a score of men; and women are reaping the benefit of their stronger virtue. It is to motherhood that such redemption as has come to Chinese women for the last four thousand years has been due ; and it is through the service of motherhood that Chinese women will achieve the larger freedom which the gospel offers them. Legge, James: The Chinese Clas.sics, vol. ii. p. i8. WOMAN’S LIFE IN CHINA 135 III. Education of Chinese Women On woman’s education in China we must bear in mind what was written in the preceding chapter on in- dustrial and domestic education. Girls in China, called to help their mothers almost from infancy, have re- ceived all the domestic knowledge which their mothers possess. Many women also have a stern, practical knowledge of field labor. Breeding silk worms, weav- ing, making garments, embroidery, as well as cooking, care of the house, social etiquette, and all the arts con- nected with the birth and rearing of children are em- braced in domestic training. Mr. Charles writes, “The embroidery of China is not only unequaled, but is immeasurably superior to that of any other na- tion.” On scholastic education in China, Miss Margaret E. Burton’s volume. The Education of Women in China, is the standard. Professor Headland^® makes out a more favorable case for women than most other writers upon China. He has found a Chinese Primer for girls ; a collection of Chinese IMother Goose Rhymes, comprising six hundred nursery ditties ; Four Books for Girls, corresponding in some measure to four books for boys ; Studies for Women, by Lu Chau, comprising the examples of illustrious women of an- cient times; Studies for the Inner Apartments, and a Filial Piety Classic for Girls. He thinks China would not have produced women of such education as the late empress dowager, or established for a time a Daily Newspaper for Women in Peking — the first exclu- Charles, Henry: Life in China Described by Great Writers, p. 382, * Headland, Isaac T.: China’s New Day. 136 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION sively woman’s daily ever published — had not educa- tion been more general than most statements indicate. But while the private teaching of women was not pro- hibited by the government, and while there were some textbooks for girls and some education for women in court circles with which Professor Headland is fa- miliar, yet even this education laid great emphasis upon the subordination of women, as Lady Tsao’s book. Rules for Women, written about the time of Christ, makes clear. The headings of her seven chap- ters show what were, in her opinion, the most im- portant features of a woman’s education: I. The State of Subjection and Weakness in which Women Are Born. II. The Duties of a Woman When Under the Power of Her Husband. III. The Unlimited Respect Due to a Husband and Constant Self-Examination and Restraint. IV. The Qualities which Render a Female Lovable: Her Virtue, Her Conversation, Her Dress, and Occupa- tions. V. The Lasting Attachment Due from a Wife to a Husband. VI. The Obedience Due to a Husband and to His Parents. VII. The Cordial Relations to be Maintained with Her Hus- band’s Brothers and Sisters. That education among the masses of Chinese women was very rare is indicated by the statement of Dr. W. A. P. Martin, who said in 1877, “Not one in ten thousand women can read.” Mrs. Calvin Mateer, a missionary of unusual experience, basing her opinion upon her observations in Shantung, wrote that prob- Burton, Margaret E.: The Education of Women in China, pp. 17, 18. “ Ibid., p. 31. WOMAN’S LIFE IN CHINA 137 ably one woman in two or three thousand could read."^ Mrs. Arthur H, Smith, a woman of exceptional oppor- tunities to know the women of the Great Plain, said at the Shanghai Conference in 1890, “Among the thou- sands of women whom we have met not more than ten had learned to read.” Mrs. Ing, a missionary in Kiukiang, wrote to the Heathen Woman’s Friend in 1874, “When we came to Kiukiang three years since, we could not by diligent inquiry find a woman who could read. There was indeed a vague rumor of one thus distinguished, but where we could not learn.” Miss Burton sums up the matter in a sober and con- vincing statement; “Surely, when the percentage of women who can read or write is estimated at one in a thousand, we may make the general statement that the time when China was opened to foreigners, a little over half a century ago, the women of the nation were illiterate, and wholly without the benefits of any edu- cation beyond that which came in the regular round of their household and field duties.” As to the origin of modern education for women in China: The Roman Catholic Sisters started an or- phanage for girls in which they were taught needle- work and other arts before any Protestant schools for girls were opened. Orphanages proved a great boon for those who entered them, partly because they fol- lowed the Chinese method of instructing girls in indus- try or art rather than the sudden introduction of mod- ern education into China, but more largely because they enabled the women who completed the course to “ Burton, Margaret E.: The Education of Women in China, p. 24. ** Ibid., p. 24. “ Ibid., p. 24. Ibid., p. 28. 138 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION earn a living, and thus place themselves upon a basis of economic independence. The honor of establishing schools for teaching Chinese girls to read and write, and of maintaining these schools despite indifference and opposition, belongs to Protestant missionaries. Scattered beginnings in teaching girls were made by Miss Grant, an Englishwoman, at Singapore in 1825 ; by Miss Aldersey in her school for Chinese girls at Java in 1837, ^^^1 at Ningpo in 1842 ; by the schools for girls established by American women, the Misses Woolston, at Foochow in 1849, by Mrs. Nevius at T’unchow in 1862, by Miss Dunning at Chef 00 in 1872, by Dr. Lucy Hoag and Miss Gertrude Howe at Kiukiang in 1873. Christian education for women and girls has spread until now it is carried on in large portions of the nation. The honor of securing the un- binding of the girls’ feet as a condition of admission to Western schools, and of carrying the reform to a successful issue until they had the largest school in China, belongs to Mary Porter Gamewell and Maria Brown Davis, and to their girls’ school opened in Peking in 1872. Inasmuch as Professor Headland cites positive facts as over against negative testimony, and inasmuch as Cliinese literature and history show that the learned woman in the nation, while regarded as a phenomenon, has nevertheless usually been treated with honor, and inasmuch as the estimates of Protestant missionaries have until recent years been based upon observations of the common people, we are inclined to think that there has always been among the official classes, es- pecially at the capital, a slight degree of learning WOMAN’S LIFE IN CHINA 139 among women and special honor shown those who mastered the Chinese characters ; and that this special honor of female learning among the official classes, together with the high regard felt for the late empress dowager and the frequent boasts of her learning, have contributed in part to the favorable attitude of the Chinese generally toward the education of women to-day. This is further confirmed by the fact that Dr. Young J. Allen’s Encyclopedia of Noted Women of All Ages and Lands, published in Chinese, received a very hearty reception among the official classes. But that Confucius’s principles — “It is a law of nature that women should be kept under the control of men and not be allowed any will of their own,” and “The aim of female education, then, is perfect submission, not culti- vation and the development of the mind” — have domi- nated China is shown by the fact that no government school for women was ever opened until 1887, forty- five years after the first Protestant missionary woman started a school for girls. In 1912, with 57,257 gov- ernment schools and 1,626,529 pupils, only 298 govern- ment schools were for girls, with only 13,489 pupils in attendance, as compared with 41,308 girls in the Protestant mission schools. But now that the movement for woman’s advance- ment is started, progress is reasonably sure. Foot- binding, although still widely practiced, has received its deathblow among intelligent Chinese. Too much credit for this reform cannot be given to the noble band of women missionaries who fought the stub- born battle for a hundred years and are fighting it to-day. Praise is also due Mrs. Archibald Little, who 140 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION did much to enlist officials and gentry in the move- ment. The government is now upon the side of the reform so far as public exhortations are concerned. But the wives of very few officials have unbound their feet, and the cruel custom has thus far disappeared among only a small section of the people. Hence we fear that for two or three generations more Chinese women will continue to suffer themselves and the vitality of their children will be lowered by marring the body — the temple of the Spirit. But despite this cruel custom, despite the untidiness and unskillfulness of very many Chinese mothers and mothers-in-law who oversee the industrial training of their children, Chinese womanhood is essentially sound, and is the hope of the Chinese nation. IV. The Outlook The openness of the Chinese houses and courts, ad- mitting the masses of the people to air and sunshine, the general healthfulness of domestic employments, the practical training in the simple duties of the household, and the more skillful training in dyeing, weaving, matching colors, fitting garments, and sewing than even Western women receive ; and, above all, the disci- pline and self-restraint in modesty and politeness and the constant insistence upon unselfish service of their families, giving Chinese girls an education in the art of living, all help to account for the long continuance of Chinese civilization. The dress of Chinese women is more comfortable, economical, modest and becoming than is the dress of the so-called better classes in Eu- WOMAN’S LIFE IN CHINA 141 rope and America. Even the poorest women are fond of flowers for the hair; and with their jet black hair and dark complexion a flower is very becoming. Chinese women compare favorably in physical vigor with American and European women. Owing to the Confucian teaching and the rigid practices of the Chinese, the women of China probably are freer from immorality than any other class of ])agan women on earth. Indeed, in this fundamental virtue they sur- pass the women of some of the Christian nations. With the disappearance of footbinding, they give promise of surpassing their Western sisters in physical stamina. Professor E. A. Ross estimates the birth rate in China at between fifty-five and sixty per thousand of the population. This is only a “guess,” for statistics are unknown. But the general observation of mission- aries makes the birth rate in China much higher than in Western lands. Still, writers on China mislead Western readers and also mislead the Chinese by the foolish assumption that the Chinese are not subject to the same laws of health which Western peoples are compelled to keep. There is a certain immunity from disease which arises from generations of exposure to it and from the death of all who are not able to resist its assaults. But the ravages of contagious diseases in China, the rapid spread of disease in a semitropical climate, the wider range of tuberculosis and hook- worm, the higher mortality due to footbinding, to in- sanitary homes and villages, and the very high rate of infant mortality, should lead missionaries and the Chinese alike to preach the gospel of good health and to warn the nation that physically, mentally, and 142 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION spiritually, the Chinese as well as other nations are in a universe of law and that they must reap what they sow. If motherhood is to accomplish its highest task, a mother must be more than a mere child-bearer. If a nation looks to the quality of its citizens as well as to their numbers, mothers must be women of strong character. Hence to render the highest service to the nation women must have not only good physiques but mental training and moral stamina. In a word, in order to render the best service as a means of produc- ing the highest type of manhood, women must be more than means — they must be ends in themselves. The curse of slavery and of the doctrine of sex inferiority is due to the fact that the systems resting upon these falsehoods treat portions of the human race as mere means to ends and not as ends in themselves. But this theory invariably results in slaves, and in women who fail to render the highest service as means and become rather a source of demoralization. Hence Kant taught that civilization never could reach its highest stage until every human being becomes an end in himself or herself. The Christian conception is that all spiritual beings from the little child up to and including the Christ are both means and ends. Jesus speaks of his sanctification as a means of serving others: “For their sakes I sanctify myself.” On the other hand, he speaks of his death on Calvary for us as if it were a step in his own personal perfection — “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am perfected” — as if tasting John 17. 19. “ Luke 13. 32. WOMAN’S LIFE IN CHINA 143 death for others were simply a step in the perfection of his own nature. Certainly, Christianity makes every life an end in itself: “What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose or forfeit his own self?” 29 < Wylie, Alexander: Notes on Chinese Literature, Introduction, p. xxi. * Ibid., pp. 207, 208. ’ Ibid., pp. 208-224. * Longdon, Samuel: Thousand Things Chinese, p. 49. 148 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION tory of China down to 1747, in the Cambridge (Eng- land) Library Edition, two hundred and nineteen large volumes, several Chinese volumes being included in each English volume. Again, the Kang-hsi’s Im- perial Dictionary contains sixty-three volumes, each as large as the volume in Legge’s Oxford Edition of the Sacred Books of the East. Wylie calls it the larg- est book of a lexicographical character ever produced.^ But the quality of Chinese books is worthy of mention as well as the quantity. Of the history just mentioned. Dr. Legge writes, “No nation has a history so thor- oughly digested, and, upon the whole, it is reliable.” ® Ma Tuan-Lin published in 1321 his General Examina- tion of Records and Scholars — a huge encyclopedia of general information. Remusat says, “This excel- lent work is a library in itself, and if Chinese liter- ature possessed no other, the language would be worth learning for the sake of reading this work alone.” Professor Legge adds, “It does indeed display all but incredible research . . . digested in three hundred and forty-eight books.” ^ The imagination of a people is stirred by great upheavals, and these in turn are in part produced by and in part produce great characters. Hence the great periods of Chinese literature are linked with great events and great characters, such as are found in the dynasties of the Hans (B. C. 206 — A. D. 221), of the T’angs (A. D. 620-907), and the Sungs (A. D. 960- 1127). Indeed, going back to the beginnings of Chinese literature, we find that of the Classics, com- ‘ Wylie, Alexander: Quoted in James Legge’s Sacred Books of the East, vol. i, p. 135. • Legge, James; The Chinese Classics, vol. i, p. 134. » Ibid. LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE 149 piled by Confucius, the I Ching, Shu Ching, Shih Ching, and the Li Chi are forever linked with the leg- endary heroes Fu-hi, Shun-nung, Hwang-ti, Yao, and Shun. The remaining Classics compiled by Confucius are linked with the early and great historical char- acters Yu,T’ang, and Wu Wang, founders of the Hia, the Shang, and the Chou dynasties. While apparently no great and glorious events mark the greatest literary age of China, that of Lao Tzu, Confucius, Mencius, and Mo-ti, nevertheless these men were the product of the death-throes of the old feudal order, and they were the creators of the China of succeeding millen- niums. Shi Hwang-ti (B. C. 221), who, despite his despotism and cruelty, and despite the everlasting hatred of the Chinese which he incurred, was, after all, the “Napoleon of China” and the creator of her na- tionality, was in some measure the product of the same forces which produced Lao Tzu, Confucius, and Mencius. He was the creator of China’s more imme- diate history, and they of China’s later institutions. The early poetry of China as embodied in the Shih Ching reflects in some measure the aesthetic sense of the people, and not one of these early poems contains an impure line. The nine Classics which were com- piled in the Confucian era bear no comparison in im- aginative qualities with the Greek and Roman classics, but they are characterized by an elliptical conciseness which reveals forceful personalities back of them. They faithfully portray and strongly condemn the lewdness, intemperance, and general wickedness which more or less characterize all human history, and reveal in the writers a moral earnestness seldom equaled in 150 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Greek and Roman literature. The inscriptions on the famous stone drums at Peking are generally believed to date from King Hsuan, B. C. 827, and to exhibit the Greater Seal characters at their best.® A dictionary of Chinese characters was compiled about B. C. 400, and on the basis of this there was gradually formed a style deemed suitable for books. The earliest proverbs, which go back certainly to the fourth century before Christ, ** smack of the soil and of the simple life. The Han dynasty (B. C. 206 — A. D. 221), under strong leaders like Kao-ti, Hwei-ti, Chang-k’ien, Wu- ti, Wang Mang, made Chinese history so glorious that to this day the people love to call themselves the “Sons of Han.” The fullness of life blossomed into litera- ture, especially under the Emperor Ling-ti, who had the Classics carved in stone and placed at the doors of the imperial college. Corresponding with these great men was Ssu-ma Ch’ien, the first great historian, who wrote the history of China from the earliest ages down to his own time, about B. C. 100, and included biog- raphies of the most eminent men of China for some three thousand years. Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s research is regarded by the Chinese as so thorough, the judgments so just, and the style so brilliant that he is yet ranked as their model historian. Ts’ai Lun, at the opening of the second century A. D., substituted silk and ink for bamboo tablets for purposes of writing and invented paper, making it of silk and linen. These improve- ments contributed to literary activity.^” The great * Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 220, a. • Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table II, col. 24. 10 Giles, Herbert A.: Chinese Biographical Dictionary, p. 751, No. 1977. LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE 15 1 calHgraphist, Wang Hsi Chih, standardized Chinese writing in the fourth century A. D., and when black printing was invented in the ninth century A. D. Wang Hsi Chili’s characters were adopted as the model and have largely so continued down to the pres- ent day.“ The Period of Disruption, A. D. 221-589, was in itself unfavorable to literature, though possibly it fur- nished the historical conditions which found literary and artistic expression in the T’ang dynasty. Despite its lack of literary character, this period produced Yuan Chi, one of the Seven Poets of the Bamboo Grove, noted for his poems voicing the calamities of his age; and Tsung Tse, who retired from the evils of his time to a mountain monastery and became the great painter of his age; and Hsiin Hsii, who took a leading part in editing the Bamboo Books — one of the chief literary sources of our knowledge of the Classics — and in addition to this scholarly work helped revise the Penal Code, then filled the highest administrative posi- tions under Wu-ti, and finally won distinction as an artist. Indeed, China dififers from all other countries, or, at any rate, surpasses all other countries, in the large proportion of her literary men who have pre- viously had experience in administrative work. The T’ang dynasty, A. D. 620-907, is characterized by a great period in Chinese literature. Among the rulers were T’ai Tsung (Li Shih-min), who founded the dynasty and extended the bounds of the kingdom to the Caspian Sea on the west and the Hindu Kush on the south. Under him the Nestorian missionaries ** Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 220. 152 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION were welcomed into China and permitted to settle at his capital in 636. So widespread was his reputation that the Greek emperor, Theodosius, sent a mission to his court. He was not only a great warrior and a great statesman but he also fostered learning. He built a library and collected one hundred thousand volumes, and two of his proverbs reveal his wit and wisdom: “Confucius is for the Chinese what water is for the fish” ; “With a mirror of brass you can adjust your cap ; with antiquity as a mirror you can forecast the rise and fall of empires.” Another strong char- acter of this dynasty was Wu How, A. D. 625-705, the usurping empress, the Catharine the Great of China, who ruled with ability but enjoyed the unenviable dis- tinction of surpassing any other woman in China, if not in the world, in her wickedness, and had the presumption to. call herself God Almighty.^^ The Mandarin, or Kuan Hua dialect, which originally was a Kiangnan, or south-of-the- Yangtze speech, began to emerge into notice as the leading dialect of China.^^ Kuan Hua arose from the reproduction of classical plays in that dialect. The First Tone Dictionary was published during the T’ang dynasty. Theatrical plays without moral significance were regarded as senseless. The invention of printing, which occurred A. D. 926- 933, would have marked an era in the civilized world had the rest of the world only known what China had done. This great invention, however, did not produce its full effect in Chinese literature until the Sung dy- nasty. It, however, began its influence immediately Giles, Herbert A.: History of Chinese Literature, p. 883. “Werner, E. T. C. : Table V, col. 24. LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE 153 by helping rapidly to fix the forms of the characters which so long as they were written hy hand had been subject to considerable variation. But the three great literary leaders of the T’ang dynasty all appeared before the discovery of printing. They were Li Po (A. D. 705-762), Tu Fu (A. D. 712-770), and Han Yii (A. D, 768-824). Of these, Li Po was a poet at ten, became dissipated in early life, was introduced to the emperor as a “Banished angel,” was really a great poet, but drowned himself by falling out of a boat in a drunken effort to embrace the moon whose image he saw in the Avater below him. Tu Fu, one of China’s famous poets, was first an honest censor of the empire who offended the emperor and was driven from power to lead a wandering life. Han Yii, born at Changli, Chihli, was a poet and essayist of the highest originality and style. He surpassed Li Po and Tu Fu as a literary artist and the former as a man of character. One of his contemporaries said of Han Yii that he never opened one of his writings without first washing his hands in rose water. An- other contemporary wrote of him: “From the age of the Hans, truth began to be obscured and literature to fade, until Han Yii, the cotton-clothed, arose and blasted falsehood with a sneer. But in heaven there was no music and God was sad. Hence he summoned Han Yii to a place beside the throne.” From the fall of the T’ang dynasty in 907 to the establishment of the Sung dynasty in A. D. 960, China had five short dynasties unfavorable to literary pro- duction on account of the turbulent conditions. But Giles, Herbert A.: Chinese Biographical Dictionary, No. 632; also p. 256. 154 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the printing of the nine Classics was enough to make the age a glorious one in literature. Among the artists of this period were Li Ssu-hsun, the great- grandson of the founder of the T’ang dynasty, and his more brilliant son. These two became the leaders of the northern school of art for the T’ang dynasty. Ssu-ma Kuang linked himself with the older historian, Ssu-ma Ch’ien, by his famous Mirror of History, based upon the earlier writer’s history. As revised by Chu Hsi the Mirror of History has been the ac- cepted history of China for the last seven hundred years. But while there was a dearth of literar}'- per- sons during this turbulent age, nevertheless it pro- duced four women authors — Sung Jo-chao, author of the Analects for Women, Chu Shu-cheng, the Poetess, Chang Chi, and Li 1.^® The Sung dynasty, A. D. 960-1280, was one of the most productive periods in Chinese literature and art. T’ai-tsu, who founded the dynasty, and T’ai-tsung,‘® or Li Shih-min,^^ his son, Jen-tsung, or Chao Chen, who encouraged literature, and Wang An-shih, the re- former, are the chief men of the dynasty. It was, upon the whole, a peaceful age and entered into the inheritance of the past. The great inheritance into which the Sung dynasty entered was the invention of printing.^® The upheaval of the nation during five short, troubled dynasties, A. D. 907-960, had involved the people in profound struggles awakening deep thought; and the invention of printing followed by the Werner, E. T.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table V, col. 19. Encyclopa:dia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 196, b. Giles, Herbert A.: Chinese Biographical Dictionary, p. 461. Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table VI, col, 38. LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE 155 peaceful dynasty of the Sungs gave the needful oppor- tunity for literary expression. These two factors com- bined made the Sung dynasty the Augustan Age of Chinese literature and Hangchow the Rome of medi- eval China. China was profoundly stirred by the visits of the Polos, which enriched and clarified and intensified the world vision of the nation; and this enlarged vision found expression in a two-volume history of foreign lands, which showed a fair knowledge upon China’s part of all central Asia as far west as the Caspian Sea, of all southern Asia as far southwest as Arabia, and of a portion of southern Europe, including Spain. This period is marked by the first appearance of en- cyclopedias which have since become an exceedingly popular and informing part of Chinese literature. As already remarked, the introduction of printing fixed the forms of the Chinese language and it may be said that the language reached during the Sung dynasty the form which it has maintained down to the present time ; as there has been little enlargement of the vocab- ulary and only slight changes in the forms of char- acters since that date. The Sung dynasty is marked by the great struggle between the socialistic reforms of Wang An-shih on the one side, and the Confucian reaction on the other. Both of these movements grew out of a new interpre- tation of Confucianism; Wang An-shih interpreting it in the terms of absolute imperialism, with such so- cialism on the part of the emperor as befitted a father dealing with the lives and property of millions of chil- dren regarded as absolutely his own, and toward 156 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION every one of whom he felt a fatherly interest ; and the individualistic and materialistic interpretation of Chinese history by Ssu-ma Kuang in his three hun- dred and fifty-four historical volumes called The Mirror of History, condensed by Chu Hsi, and in the like interpretation of the Classics by Chu Hsi. The history of Chinese literature culminates in the Sung dynasty. This is due to the fact that the nation has been under foreign dynasties, the Mongols and the Manchus, for most of the time since the Sung dynasty disappeared; and to the fact that there has been an arrest of civilization and no profound change in the national life or thought for the last six hundred years. The Mongol Period, A. D. 1280-1368, was marked in politics and statesmanship by two great characters — Genghiz Khan and Kublai Khan. But as these per- sons showed their greatness largely by adopting the higher civilization of the Chinese, they produced no profound change in the substance of Chinese society; and the Mongol era was at best a continuation upon a lower plane of the literary traditions of the Sung dy- nasty rather than an outburst of new life in fresh forms of expression. Voluminous commentaries upon the classical literature appeared. The little Three Character Classics received its final shape and entered upon its career of seven hundred years as the first text- book for Chinese boys. The third dramatic epoch, during which dramatic art reached its highest level, oc- curred in this period, and the drama was upon the side of morality. Novels and historical romances, as distin- guished from fables and short stories, began to appear ; but the manners of the age were depicted by the drama LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE 157 rather than by the novel; and in the drama little use was made of scenery, the actors appealing to the im- agination of their audiences rather than to their senses. Chao Meng-fu was the greatest painter of the Mongol dynasty and ranks with the greatest artists of China. The Ming Period, 1368-1644, was to a large extent a continuation of the Sung Period. Block printing laid the foundation for stereotyping. Chinese archi- tecture reached its highest point; the temples and tombs by their size and impressiveness fostered rever- ence and a suppression of human will upon the part of the worshipers. The literature was copious and great, but less original than in the Sung dynasty. The period was characterized by gigantic encyclopedias and by some scientific works produced under the guidance of the Jesuits, who now first introduced Western science and knowledge into China. Novels were produced in considerable numbers, but there were no really great poets. The Manchu Period, 1644-1911, was characterized by such political leaders as Nurhachu, Shun Chih (1644), Kang-hsi (1662), K’ien-lung (1736), and Tzu Hsi, the late empress dowager. Among the class- ical writers of the dynasty are Ma-ssu, Wang Fu-ch’i; among the painters, Yun Shou-p’ing, Wang-hui, and Huang-ting; among the poets, Li O, Li T’iao-yiian; among the historians, Wu Chih-i, and Ch’en Huang- chung; among the philosophers, Wei Hsi. But here again, while Nurhachu, Kang-hsi, K’ien-lung, and the late empress dowager rank with the great rulers of China, or of any nation, nevertheless these rulers were foreigners and they produced no profound change in 158 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Chinese life and thought. Upon the contrary, the con- querors were so fully absorbed that the Manchu lan- guage entirely disappeared from the court and the Manchus were far less able to produce a profound influence upon the Chinese than are the Germanic occupants of the English throne to create a German literature, or to exercise a Germanic influence upon the English people whom they rule. As has been previously indicated it is impossible for China in her impending struggle to hold her own as an independent nation among the other great nations of the civilized world if she continues to use so many characters for the expression of her life that her chil- dren must spend eight or ten years in learning them. Already the Japanese have so modified the written Chinese as to create an alphabet. The first National Conference of Education called under the auspices of the government in 1912 recognized the language diffi- culty and appointed a commission to select or create an alphabet for the Chinese language. This profound revolution in the language of the nation is a symptom and a portent. It is a sign of the tremendous intellect- ual revolution through which the nation is passing, and it is a prophecy of a yet greater change which will follow this modification of the language. Again, Western commerce. Western railways, the Western post office. Western telegraph lines, and countless other Western inventions, including most significantly of all. Western textbooks, the Bible, and the Christian religion, are already in China and already are doing their work. It is as impossible for neo-Confucianists to push back these influences as it is to stop the stars LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE 159 in their courses: the transformation of the civilizations of the Pacific Basin into a world civilization will pro- duce profound changes in Chinese life and thought which will be reflected in Chinese literature and art and worship. Students of China may therefore look forward to a new and original period in Chinese liter- ature during the twentieth and twenty- first centuries. In attempting to characterize the literature of China we cannot do better than to avail ourselves of the scholarly judgment of Professor Giles : “It is remark- able, first, for its antiquity coupled with an unbroken continuity down to the present day; second, for the variety of subjects presented and for the exhaustive treatment which not only each subject but also each subdivision, each separate item, has received, as well as for the colossal scale on which many literary monu- ments have been conceived and carried out ; third, for the accuracy of its historic statements so far as it has been possible to test them ; and, further, fourth, for its ennobling standards and lofty ideals as well as for its wholesome purity and almost total absence of coarse- ness and obscenity.” Professor Giles also furnishes the four great classes into which the Chinese have been accustomed to divide their literature: “Under the first of these we find the Confucian canon together with lexicographical, philo- logical, and other works dealing with the elucidation of words. Under the second, histories of various kinds officially compiled, privately written, constitutional, etc.; also biography, geography, and bibliography. Under the third, philosophy, religion, e.g.. Buddhism ; *’ Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 222, d. i6o CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the arts and sciences, e.g., war, law, agriculture, medi- cine, astronomy, painting, music, and archery; also a host of general works, monographs, and treatises on a number of topics, as well as encyclopedias. The fourth class is confined to poetry of all descriptions, poetical critiques, and works dealing with the all-im- portant rhymes.” Professor Giles tells us that there is no history of Chinese literature in the Chinese lan- guage. Fortunately, he has remedied this lack in the English by his brief but clear history of this great sub- ject. Professor Giles’s characterization of Chinese liter- ature will be accepted by all. Perhaps an additional remark is demanded upon two items in his character- ization. He says that Chinese literature is marked “by the accuracy of its historical statements so far as it has been possible to test them.” This statement, which is true, helps to correct the very prevalent im- pression among Western peoples as to the general inaccuracy of the Chinese. The impression has grown up partly from the fact that many Western persons residing in China have been in contact largely with the uneducated class. This class in China, as in every other land, is noted for inaccuracy of statement. A larger knowledge of China, and especially of its higher classes, will greatly increase the respect for the thor- oughness with which educated Chinese attend to the work committed to them ; and this thoroughness natur- ally gives rise to accuracy in historical references. The statement of Professor Giles that Chinese liter- ature is remarkable for “its ennobling standards and lofty ideals, as well as for its wholesome purity and an LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE i6i almost total absence of coarseness and obscenity,” is certainly true of the classical literature, and of all those writings which the Chinese scholars would include under literature. This fact, however, does not carry with it an assurance of the lofty type of Chinese con- duct in all cases, or of the purity of Chinese conversa- tion. We have in Chinese civilization a case in which the morality inculcated in books is powerless to enforce itself, and the deepest need of China is of some moral and spiritual power which will enable the people to realize the ideals set forth so nobly in her literature. Moreover, all those familiar with the daily life of the Chinese know that coarseness and obscenity character- ize the conversation of the common people more than these qualities characterize the conversation of the people in Western lands. We are assured that these lower qualities characterize also many writings which have a very wide vogue in China, but which, being written in the vernacular, the Chinese do not recog- nize as literature. Chinese literature has another striking character- istic. It is concrete and practical and seeks to express at all times the golden mean. The Chinese mind is of a practical cast. Chinese excel Anglo-Saxons — even the American branch of that stock — in common sense. They keep to the level road of experience. The pres- ence of the concrete and the practical and the absence of the imaginative, of the spiritual and eternal, are alike marks of Chinese literature. “It is not custom” condemns any untried experiments. In philosophy their common sense finds its highest illustration in the Chinese Doctrine of the Mean, and in religion in Con- i62 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION fucianism, Chinese literature reflects on almost every page the Chinese philosophy of life. But common sense has its limitations. It seldom leads one beyond individualism. Why build a road when you may never travel this way again? Why plant a tree when you may not live to gather the fruit? So, through the presence of common sense and the lack of community sense, through absorption in the present and lack of citizenship in the future, the Chinese are losing hundreds of millions by poor roads and deforested hills and mountains. The Chinese lacked the imagination to see the value of the printing press after they made its discovery, or of gunpowder for defense against their enemies. Only as common sense runs up and out into imagination and faith do people become inventors, and, above all, hold their cit- izenship in heaven, and walk the earth “not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.” Probably no literature reveals the character of the people so well in small space as do national proverbs. A view of life which even a poem requires a page to express is embodied in a proverb in a couple of lines. No nation attaches more importance to proverbs than do the Chinese. They are constantly used in conversa- tion and in public speech, and the orator in China who can find proverbs covering the issue which he is press- ing usually gains his point. Nevertheless, all Chinese scholars affect to despise proverbs, and there are comparatively few Chinese collections of them, on the ground that such work is unworthy of a scholar. This is due to the fact that the proverbs in almost LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE 163 all cases are embodied in the homely speech of the common people and not in the classical language of the scholars. But despite this apparent contempt upon the part of scholars, proverbs probably exer- cise a larger influence upon the people than any other form of Chinese literature; and the scholars them- selves seek to be supplied with countless wise say- ings with which to spice their speech. Sir J. F. Davis published Chinese Moral Maxims, embracing some two hundred proverbs, in 1823. P. Ferny, M. A., pub- lished Proverbs Chinois in 1869, embracing four hun- dred and forty-nine proverbs. J. Doolittle furnishes some scattered lists of proverbs in his Llandbook of the Chinese Language. William Scarborough, a Wes- leyan missionary, published in 1873 A Collection of Chinese Proverbs numbering two thousand seven hun- dred and twenty, with an admirable index. But by far the ablest discussion of Chinese proverbs, with the best exposition of the wise sayings of this people, is found in Arthur H. Smith’s Proverbs and Common Sayings of the Chinese, published in 1902. Of the volume of proverbs Dr. Smith says: “To accept every- thing which is to be found in many Chinese proverbs as a trustworthy exponent of Chinese character and thought would be a mistake; for some of the sayings are ironical, and some flatly contradict others. But whatever the subject-matter, or however extravagant the mode of expression, every Chinese proverb contrib- utes something toward an apprehension of the point of view from which, and in the light of which, a great and ancient family of mankind looks upon the tangled web of human life, and of the construction which the i64 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION experience of ages has led them to put upon its prac- tical problems. Chinese proverbs contain an almost complete chart of human nature as the Chinese under- stand it.” Disraeli, in his Curiosities of Literature, thinks there are twenty thousand proverbs in use in Europe. Scarborough is confident that China can fur- nish as large a number, and Dr. Smith accepts Scar- borough’s view. It is impossible to define a proverb, to determine whether a particular saying is proverbial or not. Many of the proverbs of Solomon would not be recog- nized as proverbs if appearing outside that book. Probably the best definition thus far given is that by Lord John Russell: “The wisdom of many, the wit of one.” The following proverbs are taken chiefly from Scar- borough’s collection which has been gone through twice, with a period of two years’ interval between the readings, in order to select what seemed the most char- acteristic sayings of the Chinese. Scarborough aims unduly at the literal, rather than at embodying the thought in words most likely to recall the suggestive- ness and the terseness of the Chinese form. In a few cases English proverbs are identical with Chinese proverbs. In such coincidences the Chinese proverb is the older, but the English proverb probably originated in entire independence of the Chinese. Occasionally we have condensed Scarborough’s language, and for convenience of reference we have grouped the prov- erbs under headings. We also give, so far as the prov- erbs are taken from Scarborough, the number, so that *0 Smith, A. H.: Proverbs and Common Sayings of the Chinese. LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE i6 through the use of Scarborough’s volume, readers of Chinese can readily consult the original. Ahscnt-Mindcdness 629. “Felling a tree to catch the blackbird.” 636. “Asking a blind man the road.” 640. “Dragging the lake for the moon in the water.” 623. “Adding fuel to put out the fire.” Accuracy 1951. “Deviate an inch; lose a thousand miles.” Avoiding Suspicion 1928. “Do not lace your shoes in a melon patch, Nor adjust your hat under the plum trees.” Business 179. “Without a smiling face do not become a mer- chant.” 1988. “Better go than send.” 292. “Surety for the bow. Surety for the arrow.” 186. “Great profits : great risks.” 188. “Easy to open a shop; hard to keep it open.” 233. “Before buying, calculate the selling.” Compensations 888. “The beautiful bird gets caged.” Conscience 1644. “Of all important things, the first is not to cheat conscience.” 1641. “A good conscience pays badly.” 1655. “Do good regardless of consequences.” to i66 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Difficulties 1 18. “Easier said than done.” 790. “Out of the wolf’s den, into the tiger’s mouth.” Divine Providence 2353. “Man without divine assistance, Cannot move an inch of distance.” 675. “Misery and happiness depend on oneself.” Education 515. “Husbandry and letters are the two chief pro- fessions.” 529. “Who teaches me for a day is my father for a lifetime.” 558. “All pursuits are mean in comparison with learning.” 575. “Extensive reading is a priceless treasure.” (Bacon’s maxim, “Reading maketh a full man, con- templation a wise man, practice a perfect man” ; Con- fucius’ saying, “Much thought without study, vain speculation ; much study without thought, words with- out knowledge.”) 544. “Easy to learn, hard to master.” 494. “Scholars are their country’s treasure, and the richest ornaments of the feast.” Effort 17. “If you do not scale the mountain you cannot view the plain.” 103. “Practice becomes second nature,” or “Prac- tice makes perfect.” LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE 167 Example 45. “Where the prince leads, the people follow.” Family We find abundant proverbs setting forth the duties of children to parents; comparatively few settinj:^ forth the duties of parents to children. The omission of girls from almost all reference in proverbial literature re- lating to the family is significant. 2135. “Strict fathers, filial sons.” 2137. “Dutiful fathers, dutiful sons.” 2157. “The prodigal’s repentance is a priceless treasure.” 392. “In a united family happiness springs up of itself.” Friendship 2280. “Tigers and deer do not stroll together.” 441. “When kinsmen and neighbors continue sin- cere, Then kinsmen and neighbors have nothing to fear.” Gambling 762. “Believe in gambling, sell your house.” 761. “Losing comes of winning money.” Government 2096. “If the Son of Heaven breaks law, he is guilty like one of the people.” “Heaven sees as the people see; Heaven hears as the people hear.” “The guilty emperor exhausts the mandate of hea- ven” (Mencius). i68 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION “Killing a bad monarch is no murder” (Mencius). “The emperor is the father of his people, not a master to be served by slaves.” 577. “Would you know politics, read history.” Gratitude 1906. “Lambs have the grace to suck kneeling.” (Nothing finer than this in any language.) Heedlessness 2080. “In at one ear, out of the other.” i486. “Man cannot reach perfection in an hun- dred years : he can fall in a day with time to spare.” Honesty 219. “Just scales and full measure injure no man.” 1925. “Never do what you wouldn’t have known.” 2719. “However much you promise, never fail to pay” ; or, “Do not vary your promise for any price.” Humanity 1915. “Putting on clothes, remember the weaver’s work; Eating daily food, remember the farmer’s toil.” 1888. “Guide the blind over the bridge.” 1898. “Kindness is greater than law.” Husbands and Wives 2180. “Nought must divide the married pair; Its weight the steelyard cannot spare.” 2207. “If they match by nature, marry them.” 2235. “Who is the wife of one, cannot eat the rice of two.” LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE 169 2204. “In the husband fidelity, in the wife obe- dience.” “Every family has a Goddess of Mercy.” Humility “Falling hurts least those who fly low.” Industry 1830. “Who will not work shall not eat.” Instinct 2440. “Plants surpass men in recognizing spring.” 155. “Does the swallow know the wild goose’s Course.” Knowledge 1583. “Schools hide future premiers.” 1 1 30. “The pen conveys one’s meaning a thousand miles.” Laivsuits 1153. “Win your lawsuit, lose your money.” 1 147. “If one family has a lawsuit, ten families are involved.” Vanity of Life 1776. “Naked we came, naked we go.” 936. “The Great Wall stands ; the builder is gone.” Man 1345. “Virtuous men are a king’s treasure.” 1518. “Mind is lord of man.” Opportunity 752. “Strike while the iron is hot.” 789. “Spilt water cannot be gathered up.” Smith, Arthur H.: Chinese Proverbs, p. 291. 170 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Physicians 1615. “Easy to get a thousand prescriptions ; hard to obtain a cure.” 1624. “The cleverest doctor cannot save himself.” “He that takes medicine and neglects diet, wastes the skill of the physician.” Priests 2401. “Only those become priests who cannot earn a living.” 2394. “One son becomes a priest, nine generations are sure of heaven.” Procrastination 2458. “Procrastination is the thief of time.” 2461. “Never waste time.” Practical Religion “God loves all men” (Mo Ti). 2372. “Better do a kindness near home than go far to burn incense.” 1675. “To save one life is better than to build a seven-story pagoda.” 1699. “Blame yourself as you would blame others : excuse others as you would yourself.” Reciprocity “Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you” (Confucius’ Silver Rule). Self-Control “Think twice — and say nothing.” (Better than the English, “Think twice before you speak,”) “ Smith, Arthur H.: Chinese Proverbs, p. 269. LIFE REFLECTED IN LITERATURE 171 Service 832. “One generation plants the trees; another sits in their shade.” 868. “Injure others, injure yourself.” Skill 306. “Unskilled fools quarrel with their tools.” 317. “Better master of one than jack of all trades.” Virtue “It is a little thing to starve to death; it is a serious matter to lose one’s virtue.” 1837. “Better die than turn your back on reason.” 1936. “Look not on temptation, and your mind will be at rest.” Wine 999. “Wine is the discoverer of secrets.” 1822. “Leisure breeds lust.” 1005. “Intoxication is not the wine’s fault, but the man’s.” Women 1447. “The good-looking woman needs no paint.” 1461. “Three tenths of good looks are due to nature; seven tenths to dress.” 1742. “Never quarrel with a woman.” Youth 1432. “The mark must be made in youth.” 1434. “In the boy see the man.” General 2253- “Better prevent than cure disease.” 172 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION 1760. “When men come face to face their differ- ences vanish.” 1767. “Do not neglect your own in order to weed another’s field.” 2449. “Time flies like an arrow; days and months like a shuttle.^’ Books for Reference Allen, C. F. R. : A Book of Chinese Poetry. Bowring, Sir John; The Flowery Scroll. Bushell, S. W. ; Chinese Art (2 Vols.). dementi, Cecil: Cantonese Love Songs (2 Vols.). Cornaby, W. A.: A String of Chinese Peach Stones. Davis, J. F. : The Poetry of the Chinese ; Chinese Moral Maxims. Doolittle, Justus : Handbook of the Chinese Language. Doug- las, R. K. : Chinese Stories. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Giles, Herbert A. : Gems of Chinese Literature ; History of Chinese Literature. Hearn, Lafcadio: Some Chinese Ghosts. Long- den, Samuel: A Thousand Things Chinese. Legge, James: edition of The Chinese Classics (6 Vols.). Martin, W. A. P. : Chinese Legends and Lyrics. Perny, P. : Proverbs Chinois. Scarborough, William : Collection of Chinese Proverbs. Smith, Arthur: Chinese Proverbs. Stent, D. C. : Chinese Poems (2 Vols.). T. T. T. : The Porcelain Tower. Watters, T. : Stories from Every Day Life in Modern China. Wylie, A.: Notes on Chinese Literature. CHAPTER VII i I ; 1 LIFE REFLECTED IN PHILOSOPHY: TAOISM [ AND ITS SCHOOLS I Chinese philosophy sufTers from three limitations: ■ first, the language of the Chinese is slightly ideo- graphic, and wholly uninflected. It is adequate for the description of concrete objects. It is remark- able for its terseness and its strength and perhaps it is sufficient for the expression of the indefinite, mystical philosophy of the Lao Tzu, and the transcendental philosophy of the I Ching. Indeed, Professor Giles and modern Chinese scholars lean toward the view that the language is capable of expressing philosoph- ical conceptions with a fair degree of accuracy.^ But all will admit that at this point Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle had a great advantage over Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Mencius. A second difficulty is the lack of a proper method- ology or logic. By setting forth the method of true reasoning and pointing out the danger of mistaken reasoning, Aristotle did much to make a system of philosophy possible. But the Chinese have never de- veloped logic in the strict sense of the term. We know of no ancient Chinese treatises which distinguish clearly between observation, induction, and deduction — three stages involved in all attempts to rationalize ^ Encyclopsdia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 232. 173 174 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION experience. For a field of investigation so vague and indefinite as is philosophy, the lack of well-organized laws of reasoning is a serious limitation. The third difficulty is the practical cast of the Chinese mind. This characteristic is so pronounced that some foreigners deny the Chinese the possession of the transcendental bent of mind. They forget Lao Tzu and his followers. Others claim that Lao Tzu borrowed his transcendental views from Buddha. But Lao Tzu was a contemporary of Buddha, and ideas traveled slowly in those days and regions, so that Buddhism did not reach China until long after Lao Tzu’s death. Besides, if some of the followers of Lao Tzu have borrowed and developed Buddhistic con- ceptions, nevertheless the borrowing and developing of transcendentalism by later Chinese indicates the possession of the capacity for lofty, mystical specula- tion. But while transcendentalism always has existed among the Chinese, nevertheless the predominant bent of the Chinese mind is practical, and Chinese thought is prone to materialism. Indeed, it is this practical cast of the national mind which enabled the philosophy of Confucius to triumph over the teachings of Lao Tzu and Mo Ti, These three limitations to philosophy — the lack of a language capable of expressing exact philosophical distinctions, the lack of a logic or methodology, and the predominance of the practical type of mind — have made the Chinese less eminent in philosophy than the Greeks or the Germans. Notwithstanding this, only our ignorance of Chinese philosophical literature has led to the judgment, often expressed, that the Chinese LIFE REFLECTED IN PHILOSOPHY 175 are destitute of philosophy. Thomas Taylor Mea- dows, perhaps the most philosophical Western writer upon China, says, “Philosophy, systematized and un- systematized, has penetrated into popular life and in- fluenced popular language to an extent perhaps un- equaled in the later history of any other people.” ^ The Imperial Library in B. C. 190 contained two thou- sand seven hundred and five volumes on Chinese phi- losophy by one hundred and thirty-seven different authors.^ This statement gives us some conception of the mass of Chinese philosophical literature before the time of Christ. It should be remarked that a Chinese volume usually does not contain as much matter as a Western volume. But an illustration of the wealth of Chinese philosophical literature is found in the fact that while Baldwin’s Dictionary of Philos- ophy embraces only three volumes, the Chinese Im- perial Encyclopedia of Philosophy embraces three hundred and sixty volumes. Chinese philosophy finds its earliest embodiment in The Chinese Classics edited by Confucius, B. C. 551- 478. The complete edition of the Classics was pub- lished by the order of the Emperor Tai-Tsung, A. D. 1403-1425. Tai-Tsung also had the commentaries on the Classics condensed, arranged, and published in sixteen volumes, each of unusual size, called the Com- plete Philosophy : this work would fill in English more than sixteen volumes of large octavo size. Later, the Emperor Kang-hi had a condensed edition of the Com- plete Philosophy, prepared and published in four vol- • Meadows, T. T.: The Chinese and Their Rebellions, p. 68. * Wylie, Alexander: Notes on Chinese Literature, Introduction, p. xiv. i;6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION umes, entitled Philosophy’s Essential Signification, or The Essence of Philosophy, The creative periods of Chinese philosophy may be roughly divided as follows: (i) B. C. 1 100-300, the period in which the transcendental philosophy found its highest embodiment in the I Ching and the Tao Teh Ching; (2) B. C. 551-289, the period in which the Confucian philosophy found its most brilliant interpre- tation through Confucius and Mencius and in which Mo Ti in some measure anticipated the Christian doc- trine of love. These periods overlap each other simply because some of the most brilliant writers of the two periods were contemporaries. These two periods were followed by some thirteen hundred years of compara- tive barrenness in philosophical literature, A third period was inaugurated about A. D. 950 following the invention of block printing in China, some five hun- dred years before printing was invented in Europe. It culminated in Chu-Hsi’s great commentary on the Classics, A. D. 1200. Classifying the periods in which the various types of philosophy were predominant gives the following result: B. C. 2500-400, Transcendentalism, Mysticism, Superstition; B. C. 400-A. D. 1900, Confucianism. This attempted division of the period of the two reign- ing philosophies in China is somewhat unsatisfactory because the theories which found embodiment in Con- fucianism undoubtedly appeared in Chinese thought before the birth of Confucius, B. C. 551. On the other hand, the transcendental and mystical philosophy does not disappear with the triumph of Confucianism in the third or fourth century before Christ. Transcen- LIFE REFLECTED IN PHILOSOPHY 177 (lentalism, mysticism, and especially superstition, have continued down to the present time. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that the predominant philosophy in China during the early period of her history down to B. C. 400 was the mystical, transcendental philosophy which found its highest embodiment in the teachings of Lao Tzu; and that the predominant philosophy of China from B. C. 400 down to the present is the common sense, rational, skeptical and materialistic philosophy, with a strong moral bias, which found its highest em- bodiment in the teachings of Confucius, the Sage of China. Classifying the religions from their philosophical affinities, Taoism was the outgrowth of the early tran- scendental philosophy, and may be treated on its phil- osophical side under this first period. Buddhism, while originating in India, has displayed some affinity for transcendentalism and superstition from its earliest recorded introduction into China in B. C. 217 down to the present time. Confucianism, on the other hand, has in general been associated with rationalism and mate- rialism. While these three religions of China inter- mingle somewhat in their philosophy, and more fully in their following, nevertheless they tend in general to represent two conceptions of the world and of hu- man life: Taoism and Buddhism present a predomi- nantly supernatural view of life, constantly verging toward quietism and superstition ; while Confucianism stands predominantly for the ethical conception of life and tends toward skepticism and materialism. We shall discuss Taoism and Buddhism in the present chapter and treat Confucianism, which is vastly 1 178 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION more important for its practical influence over the Chinese, in the two succeeding chapters. I. The I Ching — Dualism, Transcendentalism, Superstition — B. C. 2500-400 The earliest Chinese philosophy is found in the notes added to the I Ching. The word “Ching” means book, and especially any sacred book, corresponding in meaning to our word “Bible.” The “I” consisted originally of eight trigrams and of sixty-four hexa- grams ; and these trigrams and hexagrams were made up of the combination of unbroken and broken lines arranged in such a manner as not to repeat the com- bination, thus: =-r^. ■ ■ . These lines and their grouping are supposed by some to date from Fu-hi, a mythological character, who is assigned to B. C. 2853-2738.^ The impossibility of making any sense out of these lines in their original form has led to the use of the I Ching for purposes of divination. The Duke of Chow, Wen-wang, B. C. 1122, during three years in prison probably wrote the first notes or commentary upon these lines which came down to Confucius.'^ Confucius was greatly enamoured of these mathematical lines, for there was a transcendental side to his nature as well as a practical side; and he compiled with additions of his own a commentary upon them. Confucius said that if he could devote fifty years to the study of these lines, he might attain wis- dom. These lines were an attempt to account for the origin of nature on mathematical principles. Numbers * Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 191, b. ‘Ibid., vol. vi, p. 193, a. LIFE REFLECTED IN PHILOSOPHY 179 were conceived not as relations predicable of things, but as constituting the essence of things. They are the rational reality to which the appearances, as expe- rienced by the senses, are reducible.” Indeed, the Chinese Buddhists have carried this transcendental conception of the universe so far as to hold that thought produces reality. Thought has creative force. It acts like magic.'^ Again, the Buddhists hold that “by fixedly imagining that the souls in hell — hungry, thirsty, indescribably miserable — are fed, clothed, re- freshed, and relieved, the clergy magically refreshed and redeemed these souls in reality.” ® It is at least striking that Pythagoras among the' Greeks, B. C. 586, held a view quite similar to that advanced by early commentators on the I Ching and attempted to explain nature on mathematical prin- ciples. He made numbers the basis of his philosophical system. The early Pythagoreans discovered the har- monic intervals which underlie musical notes. Im- pressed by the musical relations which they found in nature, they enunciated the doctrine, “All things are numbers.” As Aristotle puts their teaching, num- bers seem to them the “first things in nature.” Pro- fessor Giles writes, “What we may call modern Chinese music reached China through Bactria, a Greek kingdom founded by Diodotus, B. C. 256.” * * He holds that the Chinese system of music and their philosophy of numbers were derived from Pythagoras.^” But, as the Bactrian Kingdom through which the Chinese are • Ibid., vol. xxii, p. 699, c. ’ Groot, J. J. M., de: The Religion of the Chinese, p. 181. • Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, 225, b. “ Ibid., vol. xxii, p. 699. • Ibid. i8o CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION supposed to have received their music from Greece was not founded until B. C. 256, as Mencius died B. C. 289, and as Mencius mentions the five notes of Chinese music, “ we regard the likeness between Chinese and Greek thought as a coincidence rather than a case of borrowing on either side. It is also sig- nificant that the philosophy of the I Ching and the Pythagoreans and the teachings of Buddhism antici- pate the absolute idealism of Hegel. The Chinese developed more fully than either the Greeks or the Germans the dualistic side of early phi- losophy, accounting for the universe on the theory of parenthood, and accounting for parenthood through the Yang and the Yin, that is, the male and female principles. Hence, while there are traces of monism and transcendentalism running through the earliest notes on the I Ching, nevertheless these notes as re- vised by Confucius explain the origin of the universe upon the principle of parenthood. But while early Chinese philosophers give a dualistic explanation of nature, nevertheless they apparently carry this dual- istic explanation back to a monistic principle. Pro- fessor Legge^^ quotes these two sentences from Con- fucius’s Appendix on the I Chang: ‘‘The successive movements of the inactive and active elements make what is called the course (of things in nature).” “That which is unfathomable in [the movement of] the inactive and active elements is what we call [the presence of a] spiritual (operation).” Professor Legge comments as follows: “Confucius felt that all which appeared in the Yi [I] did not account for all “ Encyclopfficlia Britannica, vol. xviii, p. 112, c. ** Notes on the I Ching. LIFE REFLECTED IN PHILOSOPHY i8i that took place in the world of fact. Given the distinc- tion of the states of matter into inactive and active; given also the agencies of expansion and contraction — there was, after all, something unfathomable in every phenomenon, and in that unfathomableness the (Sage recognized the working of a spiritual power,” The “I” is often said to be the source of all things, and I this “I” is represented as an “absolute principle, not I conscious, not laboring, but nevertheless quickened with the reason of the universe,” “If it were not the most spiritual thing in the universe, how could it be- have in this wise ?” “ Apparently, therefore, the mon- istic or pantheistic principle is prior in Chinese philos- ophy, In early Greek philosophy as in early Chinese philosophy we find the monistic or pantheistic explana- tion of the universe lying side by side with the dual- istic principle, though in Greek philosophy the mon- istic principle gradually supplants dualism. Probably the general resemblance between Greek and Chinese philosophy is due to the tendency of human minds to fall into similar lines of thought in grappling with common problems, II, The Tao Teh Ching — Monism, Mysticism, Transcendentalism — B, C, 604-550 The second philosophical book of note is the Tao Teh Ching, by Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu is said to have been born B, C, 604, to have been a scholar absorbed in speculation instead of striving for success in prac- tical affairs. He is said to have had an interview with Confucius in B, C, 517, when he was eighty-seven ** Notes on the I Ching, Ibid, i82 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION years old. Confucius was only thirty-three at this time and is said to have been deeply impressed by the old philosopher, though Lao Tzu lightly esteemed the young philosopher. At a later date, discouraged over the failure of men to accept his philosophy, Lao Tzu is said to have started on a journey westward. The gatekeeper of the pass through which he departed from his native land appealed to him to write out an account of his teachings, and the Tao Teh Ching, which is about half the length of Mark’s Gospel, is said to be the result of this request. As the book is not mentioned in Chinese literature until some four cen- turies after its alleged date of composition,^® Western writers regard the Tao Teh Ching not as the authentic writing of Lao Tzu, but as embodying what was pre- served by tradition of his oral teaching. The word “Tao” in this title has a meaning somewhat similar to that assigned to the word “I” in the title of the first book on Chinese philosophy. The best translation of “Tao” is the Greek word “Logos,” as used in John’s Gospel. It has been defined by the words “reason,” “the way,” “life,” etc. Perhaps the best translation of “teh” in the title to Lao Tzu’s book is the word “vir- tue,” though here again “teh” is very indefinite and has many meanings beyond that expressed by the simple word “virtue.” Lao Tzu carried still farther than the commentators on the I Ching the tendency which Hegel developed in modern philosophy to identify thought and things ; and also the conviction that each form of existence carries with it its opposite in reality as well as in thought. “ Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 226. b. LIFE REFLECTED IN PHILOSOPHY 183 “When man speaks of beauty as beautiful, ugliness is at once defined or at once arises in the mind. When goodness is seen to be good, evil is at once apparent. So too existence and nonexistence give rise to each other.” This leads Lao Tzu to hold that existence and nonexistence are not only correlates of thought ) but correlates of being, each giving rise to the other. Undoubtedly, the transcendental, monistic, mystical lore which appears throughout the Tao Teh Ching had been preceded by a similar speculation, because transcendentalism appears in an advanced stage in the Tao Teh Ching. The Chinese language is admir- ably adapted to the epigrammatic and aphoristic ex- pression of the indefinite thought of this book. The first chapter of the book furnishes one some idea of its contents. “The reason that can be reasoned is not the eternal reason. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The unnamable is the beginning of heaven and earth. The namable is the mother of all things. Therefore, in eternal nonbeing I wish to see the spirituality of things; and in eternal being I wish to see the limitation of things. These two things are the same in source but diflferent in name. It is called a mystery. Indeed, it is the mystery of mys- teries. It is the door of all speculation.” This chap- ter in its English form is sufificiently bewildering; but the Chinese form is still more vague. To illustrate the vague and transcendental character of Lao Tzu’s thought, we furnish another translation of the same chapter. “The ‘Tao’ which can be explained in words is not the eternal ‘Tao.’ The name which can be Old, W. G.: A New Translation of the Tao Teh King, chap. i. 1 84 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION uttered is not the eternal name. Without a name it is the beginning of heaven and earth. With a name it is the mother of all things. Only one who is eternally free from earthly passions can comprehend its spiritual essence. He who is ever clogged by passions can see no more than its outer form. These two things — the spiritual and the material, though we call them by different names, in their origin are one and the same. This sameness is a mystery ; the mystery of mysteries — it is the gate of all spiritualitv.”^^ This brief chapter shows that at least one Chinese can rival an Emerson or a Hegel in vagueness and transcendentalism. But while one is apt to stumble over such mysticism, it is possible to cite abundant matter for meditation and spiritual guidance in other teachings by Lao Tzii. “Both heaven and earth endure a long time. The cause of their endurance is their indifference to long life. Thus the wise man indifferent to himself is the great- est among men; and taking no care of himself he is nevertheless preserved. By being the most unselfish he is the most secure of all.” Again the Sage writes : “It is advisable to refrain from continual reaching after wealth. If the house be full of jewels, who shall protect it? Wealth and glory bring care along with pride. To stop when good work is done and honor is advancing is the way of heaven.” Again the Sage counsels us: “By mastering the passions and letting gentleness have sway it is possible to continue as a child. By purging the mind of impurity it is possible to preserve it from rust. To.bring forth and preserve. Giles, Lionel: The Sayings of Laotze, chap. i. The China Review, vol. xvii. No. 4. LIFE REFLECTED IN PHILOSOPHY 185 to produce without possessing, to act without hope of reward, and to spend without waste — this is the su- preme virtue.” Again Lao Tzu writes: “Lie who bestows the same love upon others as he does upon himself may be intrusted with the government of an empire.” “God is eternally at rest, yet there is noth- ing that he does not do.” “He who humbleth himself shall be exalted: he who exalteth himself shall be humbled.”* *^ Candid readers of the Tao Teh Ching regard General Alexander’s translation as lacking in accuracy and influenced by Christian philosophy. But the book itself, in the translation of Legge or of Lionel Giles, or of Paul Cams, is well worth the mod- ern student’s attention. Professor G. von der Gabe- lenz, of Leipsic, said of the Tao Teh Ching: “One of the most eminent masterpieces of the Chinese lan- guage ; one of the profoundest philosophical books the world has ever produced.” Moreover, students of philosophy should bear in mind the fact that while dualism as the philosophic explanation of the world is found along with monism in the I Ching, monism or pantheism as a single force or principle or sub- stance or mind is the explanation of the universe in the Tao Teh Ching. III. Yang Chu — Epicureanism, Hedonistic In- dividualism— B. C. 600-500 Possibly Yang Chu was a younger contemporary of Lao Tzu and received some instruction from him. The exhortation of the Tao Teh Ching to follow na- G. G. Alexander's Translation of the Tao Teh Ching, chap. xiii. * Ibid., chap, xxxvii. 21 ibid., chap. xlii. 2^Gabelenz, G. von der: Tao Teh Ching, chap. vii. i86 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ture and not to be anxious for virtue, and especially the absence throughout that book of any sense of sin, enables Taoism which naturally calls forth the highest in man, nevertheless to lend itself to a ready compli- ance with the lower instincts of human nature. Yang- chu developed this side of Lao Tzu’s philosophy to its logical end. Yang-chu might have triumphed over the more puritanical teachings of Confucius had not Mencius brilliantly attacked his teachings and rallied the common sense, the conservative instincts, and the moral motives of the Chinese to Confucius’ side. Yang-chu left no book, for he did not care enough for humanity to write out his conception of human life. He denied all distinction between virtue and vice, be- tween glory and shame. As a thorough materialist, as well as epicurean, he held that death ends all. Hence his practical advice was: “Eat, drink, and be merry. Get slaves and wine and women, and if the days are not sufficient, spend the nights also in pleasure while the brief span of life lasts.” Materialism and epicu- reanism apparently never had a more brilliant or logical advocate than is found in the pictures given of Yang-chu. We are glad to add that there was another side to Yang-chu’s character. There are passages in his reported conversations which remind one of the better side of Rousseau and of the simple artlessness of Paul and Virginia. IV. Mo Ti — Utilitarian Altruism, Socialism — B. C. 600-500 Mo Ti was a philosopher of the Sung state and prob- ably of the sixth and fifth centuries before Christ. The LIFE REFLECTED IN PHILOSOPHY 187 Encyclopaedia Britannica^® puts him in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C. As his birth is unknown and he stands in no philosophical relation with Confucius, but antagonizes Yang-chu, it is better to treat the two together. Mo Ti is best characterized as a utilitarian altruist. As over against Yang-chu he developed the altruistic side of Lao Tzu’s teachings to the highest point ; but he based most of his arguments in favor of altruism upon utilitarian grounds. He held official posts like most of the learned men of China. His work consists in one book of fifty-three chapters, or, as the Chinese would say, of fifty-three books. It is probable that not one of these was directly written by Mo Ti. They consist probably of tracts written by his per- sonal disciples after his death. Mo Ti’s doctrine did not commend itself to the practical Chinese, despite the utilitarian grounds upon which he largely urged it. Moreover, Mo Ti as well as Yang-chu was thoroughly discredited by the more brilliant Mencius. Hence his book suffered neglect for centuries, and it contains so many corruptions of the text and so many textual dis- crepancies that it is impossible to tell what part is the teaching of ^lo Ti, and what is the work of commenta- tors. But the work doubtless contains the substance of Mo Ti’s teachings. Dr. Ernst Faber gives in German an abstract of each of the fifty-three books and David published in 1907 a French work on Mo Ti’s philoso- phy. We know no work in English upon him, or his philosophy, though an excellent summary by Uong Di Gi, of Foochow, translated by H. R. Caldwell, is in manuscript. ® Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi. p. 226, d. i88 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Mo Ti comes nearer to furnishing us a methodology than any other ancient Chinese writer. He attempted to supply the lack of a Chinese logic or law of reason- ing by formulating three tests of truth ; ( i ) Is the doc- trine in accordance with the spirit of the universe? (2) Is it in accordance with the teachings of the an- cients? (3) Is it helpful to the individual and the nation, that is, will it stand the test of experience? Each of these three tests of truth has real value, and the third is the scientific test of truth, though, like the modern pragmatists, he drops to utilitarian considera- tions. Mo Ti maintains that his doctrine of love stands all three of these tests. Under the first head he argues, in Chapter XVII, that nature is full of love; that Heaven gives us the sun, moon and stars, rain and warmth, and that through these Heaven gives us flowers for beauty and grain for food. Hence Mo Ti argues that Heaven is the source of love, and our duty on earth is to practice universal benevolence. First, then, love, or universal benevolence, is in accord with the spirit of the universe. Turning to the second proof of his philosophy (Is it in accord with the teachings of the Sages?) Mo Ti maintained that the ancient kings and Sages of China in all their undertakings aimed to help three groups of beings, namely, God, spiritual beings, and the people. Hence he argued that we should follow in the footsteps of the Sages and make our conduct pleasing to Heaven, reverential toward the spirits, and benevolent toward the people. Turning to the third test of truth, experience, Mo Ti appealed throughout to utilitarian considerations. The single cause of all wars and evils is selfishness. If any LIFE REFLECTED TN PITILOSOPHY 189 nation will love every other nation, and if any indi- vidual will love his neighbors, they in turn will love and help that nation and that individual (Chapters XIV, XV). On utilitarian grounds. Mo Ti, in Chap- ter XXV, strenuously combats the custom of securing fine coffins for the dead and making elaborate and costly funerals. He also condemns concubinage on utilitarian grounds, music on the same ground; and he devotes Chapters XVIII and XIX to a condemna- tion of war for a similar reason. Again, in Chapters XXXV, XXXVI, XXXII, he condemns fatalism as the enemy of energetic and hopeful action. He com- mends in the most vigorous fashion the strenuous life as contributing to the advancement of the race. On the same utilitarian ground he argues for the existence of a supreme God, of intelligence, reason and love, and of a Divine Providence ruling the affairs of men. In- deed, his argument for theism anticipates by twenty- five hundred years the pragmatism of William James. Mo Ti in all his practical reforms dwelt so largely upon utilitarian considerations that Suzuki, in his admirable summary, calls him the “Apostle of Utilitarianism.” We prefer to designate him as a utilitarian altruist. Mo Ti is not a profound thinker; too often he makes superficial appeals to utility instead of sounding the depths of the soul or of appealing to God. Dr. Legge holds that Mo Ti had in mind no deeper basis for his doctrine of universal love than expediency, and that this is the weak point in his philosophy.^® It is true that in his defense of the law of love IMo Ti has no concep- M Suzuki, T. D.: pp. 93-100. * The Chinese Classics, vol. ii, p. 119. 1 igo CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION tion that love is the revealed will of the Creator of the universe, nor does he relate love to other virtues, such as justice. At these points he falls below the Christian doctrine of love, though we marvel that he came so near to apprehending that doctrine. He comes the nearest of any ancient philosopher to the discovery of the scientific test of truth : and he devoted all his ener- gies to promoting that doctrine of love which later was revealed and embodied by Jesus Christ. Moreover, he impresses us as the most open-minded and progressive philosopher China has produced. We rank Confucius, Mencius and Mo Ti as China’s three great philoso- phers. They lack or do not reveal the speculative genius of the Greeks; and they left on record far fewer philosophical writings than their western con- freres. But as founders of civilization, as leaders of their people, as molders of the future, Confucius, Mo Ti, and Mencius are worthy to be compared with Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates. IV. Chuang Tzu’^® — Exponent of Lao Tzu — B. C. 400-300 Master Chuang lived about B. C. 350. He was the most brilliant expounder of Lao Tzu, just as Mo Ti showed the greatest insight into Lao Tzu’s doctrines. Like Mo Ti, Master Chuang was a small official, and, like Mo Ti, he lived in Shantung. His wisdom, and especially his brilliant exposition of Lao Tzu’s philoso- phy, attracted the attention of Prince Ch’u, who sent “Alexander Wylie, in Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 218, says this man's name was Chwang Chow, and that his literary work in ten books was originally circulated with the title Chwanz Tsze, and that the present form of his name originated from the title of his book. LIFE REFLECTED IN PHILOSOPHY 191 a large delegation to him, offering him the place of premier. Chuang was out fishing, and without turn- ing his head replied to the delegation: “The Prince has a sacred tortoise in a chest in the ancestral temple which has been dead for more than three thousand years, but whose shell is still greatly reverenced. Would the tortoise rather be dead and have its shell venerated, or be alive and wagging its tail in the mud?” The delegation replied, “It would rather be alive and wagging its tail in the mud.” “Begone,” said Chuang, “I too prefer to live.” Chuang raised a cry against the multiplication of laws, against material progress, against the growth of luxury, somewhat after the fashion of Ruskin; but all in vain. He ex- presses the frailty and the utter dependence of man in the following sentences : “The rain said to the shadow, ‘Why have you no fixity of purpose, but are constantly moving from one spot to another?’ The shadow re- plied, ‘Because I am dependent upon another, and that other Form on which I depend is dependent in its turn.’ ” So Master Chuang held, there is One from whom the shadow derived “the power of motion, though I have never seen his Form; verily, there is One Supreme Being who holds all together.” Part of Chuang Tzu’s writings are full of sadness and remind one of the author of Ecclesiastes. Again, however, he catches glimpses of the Divine Provi- dence, and his words reveal something of the peace of the twenty-third psalm. “I conform to the teachings of Him who has the guidance of the heart. All is clear to the heart that is thus taught, and even the simplest » Balfour, F. H.: Chuang Tsze, Introduction, pp. xxiv, xxv. iq2 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION and the most ignorant are not left without instruc- tion.” Further study, however, leads to the convic- tion that Chuang has relied upon spirits or angels as guides for souls instead of upon a single mind direct- ing all hearts and all the forces of the universe. After Chuang Tzu’s time, this doctrine of spirits degenerated into witchcraft and magic, and Taoist priests by seek- ing the elixir of life, and especially by their assumed power to exorcise evil spirits, became impostors and made the people, and later themselves, a prey to their superstitions. In opposition to Mo Ti, Master Chuang was a fatalist. “If she [Nature] begat me to die quickly and I demur, I am an undutiful son ; she can do me no wrong.” The universe, then, is “the melting pot and God is the molder. I shall go whithersoever I am sent, to awake unconscious of the past as a man awakes from a dreamless sleep.” Master Chuang’s soliloquy on a skull reminds one of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, and shows that Shakespeare’s device had been anticipated by another literary artist by more than two thousand years. Master Chuang holds that the true Sage ignores man, ignores matter, ignores a beginning, moves in harmony with his generation and suffers not. He takes things as they come and thus is not overwhelmed. This is the wisdom of Tao. There is too much fatalism in this teaching; too much yielding to that which the Sage calls “natural inclina- tion” for it to develop any heroic life. Nevertheless, on the sentimental side his virtues shine conspicuously. As Chuang lay dying his friends comforted him by the assurance of a splendid funeral. He replied, “With heaven and earth for my coffin, with the sun, moon and LIFE REFLECTED IN PHILOSOPHY 193 stars for my regalia, and with all creation to escort me to the tomb, are not my funeral paraphernalia wholly sufficient?” Professor Giles calls him “the most original of China’s philosophical writers.” Werner regards him as “advancing Taoism with so- phisticated reasoning on ethics and social reformation. In him is a man whose style is equal to Plato’s, but who is neither strong nor deep.” He is the most suggestive philosophical writer of China; and his style in its power to awaken interest in philosophical specu- lation is unequaled in Chinese and unexcelled even by Plato. On the Buddhistic literature Wylie requires the same number of pages for its description as for the Taoist literature; and it is even more abundant and of a higher type of philosophical speculation than is Tao- ism. Without space to touch this immense mass of philosophical speculations we must add that, in our judgment, Buddhism, originally coming from India — the land of speculation — in China has been more open to the influence of religious speculation and of life than has Confucianism or Taoism. We shall refer to this vast mass of Buddhistic literature in Chapter XII. Certainly we have presented sufficient data to reveal the rich philosophical literature of the Chinese, and to give at least some conception of the philosophical sig- nificance of Taoism and Buddhism. Books for Reference Alexander, G. G. : Laotze, A Great Thinker. Baldwin, James Mark: Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology (3 Vols.). ® Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 226. “ Wemer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table II, col. 23. 194 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Borel, Henri: Wu Wei. Cams, Paul: Chinese Philosophy; Chinese Thought. Douglas, Robert: Confuciusism and Taoism. Edkins, J. C. : Religion in China. Faber, Ernst: Systematic Digest of the Doctrines of Confucius; The Mind of Mencius. Giles, Lionel: The Sayings of Laotze; The Musings of a Chinese Mystic — Selections from the Philosophy of Chuang Tzu. Groot, J. J. M., de: The Religious System of China (6 Vols.) ; Religion in China; The Religion of the Chinese. Ku Hung Ming: The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius. La- couperie, Terrien de: Booklet on the I Ching. Legge, James: The Chinese Classics (6 Vols.) ; Life and Teachings of Con- fucius. Mayers, W. F. : Chinese Readers’ Manual. Meadows, T. T. : The Chinese and Their Rebellions, Chapter XVIII. Old, W. G. : Laotze — The Simple Way. Richard, Timothy : The New Testament of Higher Buddhism; A Mission to Heaven. Soothill, W. E. : Analects of Confucius — Translation and Notes; The Three Religions of China. Suzuki, D. T. : A Brief History of Chinese Philosophy. Wylie, Alexander: Notes on Chinese Literature. CHAPTER VIII CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY “As a man thinketh ; so is he.” All genuine philoso- phy eventuates in conduct. Confucius is not to be ex- cluded from the Porch because he devoted his life to the rectification of human conduct rather than to vague speculations as to the nature of the world and man. Rather the fact that he is a moral philosopher places him with Socrates and Epictetus, with Marcus Aurelius and Moses, among the greatest teachers of mankind. Confucius — Master K’ung — lived B. C. 551-478. The population of China was then ten to fifteen mil- lions. In many of the arts and in civilization, and especially in literature, the Chinese were in advance of Europe in the Middle Ages. Every country or kingdom had its historiographer, its musicians, its code of law, its treatises on agriculture and on con- duct. Yet, on the whole, it was a period of dying civilization with widespread degeneracy and suffer- ing. Slavery existed, polygamy and concubinage were common, there was an absence of any clear belief in a holy and righteous God, and religion consisted largely of superstitious practices. The Chow dynasty lasted from B. C. 1122 to 255. Already the dynasty had passed its zenith and its rulers were yielding to those vices which demoralized the nation and which in the end led to its downfall. China had not yet reached true national existence. Instead of a great nation 195 196 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION there was a congeries of semi-independent, feudal states warring with each other. A sign of the times was the appearance in the sixth century B. C. of Sun Wu’s Art of War — a book first enunciating some of the principles still recognized by military writers. Feudal government, in the nature of the case, falls into disorder unless the central sovereign is a strong character commanding ability and energy. Preced- ing Confucius, subordinate princes arose in various provinces stronger than the emperor, until at last the empire was tottering to its fall. It was in such a period that Confucius was born. Confucius’s genealogy is traced by admiring biog- raphers through kings of the Shang dynasty to the mythological emperor, Hwang-ti, B. C. 2700. Inas- much as the genealogy of his descendants has been preserved down to the present day, the family now counts seventy-six generations, probably the longest known genealogy in human history, even if we do not trace it back beyond Confucius. While his genealogy traced back to Hwang-ti is doubtless mythical, never- theless Confucius came of good stock. His father, K’ung Shu Liang-ho,^ was a small official noted for his feats of physical strength, his daring, and his up- right character. He had nine daughters and one son before the birth of Confucius. But as this son was a cripple and could not become an official, the father when beyond seventy years of age took Cheng Tsai, the youngest daughter of the head of a neighboring clan, as a concubine, and she bore him his illustrious son. Confucius, like Goethe, was thus the son of an Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 908, b. CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 197 old man and a young mother. When Confucius was only three years old the father died, leaving the family poor. Later, when Confucius became eminent and was congratulated upon his practical knowledge of many arts, he explained that* this was due to his early pov- erty which compelled him to do many kinds of work. Mencius says: “Wdien Heaven is about to confer a great office upon a man, it always first exercises his mind and soul with suffering and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger and exposes him to extreme poverty, and baffles all his undertak- ings. By these means it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and enables him to do acts otherwise im- possible to him.” As a boy Confucius was grave, self-contained, and fond of playing at ceremonies. He writes later of himself that at fifteen his mind was set on learning; at nineteen he was married, and a year later his wife bore him a son, and later still two daughters. On his marriage he was employed by the chief of the Ki clan, first as the keeper of his stores, and later as superin- tendent of his parks and herds. IMencius explains that Confucius accepted these two offices, considered humble for the son of an official,. .because of his pov- erty, and that he proved efficient in them and showed no effort to become rich, though corruption was then common. At twenty-two Confucius became a school teacher, and this continued to be his main employment throughout life. Gradually there gathered around him, not simply boys to be taught the Chinese char- acters, but young men apparently of some social and political standing who wished to learn the principles 198 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION of government. Confucius did not hold himself re- sponsible for any fixed hours of instruction, or even for remaining in any fixed abode, but traveled from place to place accompanied by such of his more de- voted pupils as were able to accompany him at their own expense. He accepted readily the large fees which the wealthier young men brought him, but re- jected no young man of earnestness and ability because he brought only small fees. He followed two methods of selection. He said, “When I have presented one corner of the subject and the pupil cannot make out the other three, I do not repeat the lesson.” In the next place, he never lowered his moral principles for the sake of his rich pupils ; and probably his moral earnest- ness and the iteration of moral principles prevented any long continuance of many of them as disciples. It is said that during his long life he was patronized by some three thousand pupils, of whom seventy-two, or some reports say seventy-six, became lifelong dis- ciples. Of this group part entered public life to put into practice his principles, while a small number of them traveled with the master, cared for him, con- versed with him, and served as his companions during his life, and helped preserve his teachings. His method of teaching was evidently by dialogue, like the method of Socrates and the Master. Instead of devoting all of his time to his pupils, Con- fucius was two or three times an administrator for short periods, and continued throughout life a stu- dent of music, and of history, and took time to write at least one comparatively brief historical book — The Spring and Autumn Annals, When Confucius was CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 199 twenty-four his mother died, though still a com- paratively young woman, and in anticipation of travel and of long absence from home he placed her body in the grave of his father and raised a mound over the tomb that he might recognize the spot whenever he re- turned. Apparently at that time it was customary to leave most graves on a level with the ground and pos- sibly to cultivate the soil over them. Confucius seemed to care little for his wife. Ac- cording to some reports, he divorced her ; and his son and grandson divorced their wives — possibly follow- ing the example of their illustrious sire. We have no account of his wife, which would not be strange, until her death is mentioned, and Confucius rebukes his son for mourning for her. This shows that the mother at least retained her son’s affection to the last. Dr. Legge thinks the reports of the divorce are not suffi- ciently attested. We have no report of Confucius ever marrying a second wife or taking a concubine or being guilty of social immorality. Being furnished with funds by the Marquis of Lu, Confucius made a visit of some duration to the capital of his native state. He spent some part of his time in the study and hearing of music, which he found in its highest style at the court; but he devoted the larger portion of it to study in the royal library. It was at this time, according to Ssu-ma Ch’ien, the Herodotus of China, that he had one or more interviews with Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu is reported to have rebuked Con- fucius for pride of heart and for too much attention to forms and ceremonies instead of grasping realities. But while Lao Tzu greatly impressed Confucius there 200 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION is nothing in the latter’s subsequent life, unless it be his devotion to the I Ching, to show that Lao Tzu made any permanent contribution to his thinking. Soon after returning home the marquis at whose ex- pense Confucius had visited the capital was driven from the kingdom, Confucius, out of friendship for his patron but more especially to show reverence for constituted authority, also abandoned the state of Lu, saying that he would not live in a state whose citizens had driven away the rightful sovereign. He went to the neighboring state of Wei, apparently to secure em- ployment, as well as to show his disapproval of the rebellion in Lu. But owing to the embarrassments in Wei over his reception and the unwillingness of the ruler to employ him, he returned to Lu at the age of thirty-seven and spent the next fifteen years as a teacher. During this period there were notable acces- sions of disciples and his reputation spread throughout the nation. At last, at fifty-two, Confucius was called to the magistracy of a small city, and ruled so well that through his example a marvelous change took place in the morals and manners of the people. Confucius was then called to become the minister of crime, and two of his leading disciples were also called to important posts in the state. He now had the first opportunity of putting his principles into practice. He punished one of the chief officials of the state, repressed the barons who were disloyal to the king and negligent in obedience, rewarded honesty and punished dissolute- ness, so that the little kingdom was quite transformed, and Confucius became the idol of the people, and his CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 201 name flew in songs throughout the land. Unfortu- nately, the marquis or ruler of Tsi feared that the state of Lu would rise to the headship of the entire nation. So he sent to the Marquis of Lu a present of fine horses and a group of beautiful singing and danc- ing girls. The Marquis of 1ai accepted the present eagerly and soon became infatuated with his pleasures. Confucius, finding the very head of the state indulging the vices which he was punishing in others, was obliged to resign in order to preserve his self-respect. He left the capital very reluctantly, hoping that the ruler would come to himself and recall him to his post. But the ruler remained absorbed in his pleasures, and at fifty-six Confucius started as a wanderer from state to state, seeking employment and finding none. We wonder at his failure, and yet his terms were hard. He was willing that the ruler of the state should re- main nominally sovereign, with the supreme power of dismis’sing him at any time. But Confucius insisted that, as prime minister, the reins of government must be placed in his hands. Even modern kings have been slow in learning this lesson, and it is not strange that Oriental sovereigns were loath to surrender their rule to a prime minister who wanted the kingdom ruled ac- cording to puritanical ideals. Confucius said, “If any ruler would submit to me [as dictator or give me full authority] for twelve months, I could accomplish con- siderable ; and in three years I could obtain the realiza- tion of my hopes.” Confucius spent the next nine years in seeking office and finding none. But before condemning him as an office-seeker we must remember that he knew the times 202 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION were out of joint, that China was drifting to destruc- tion, that he feared indeed the dissolution of civiliza- tion, that he believed himself commissioned of Heaven to lead the people back to the paths of righteousness and safety. Moreover, he did not seek office either for money or fame. Had money been his aim, he would have accepted the support which the rulers of several states freely offered him. But as the princes tendering him gifts did not reform their lives, Confucius refused to tarry in their states, but passed on as a wanderer to other states. Journeying at times in want and at times in actual danger, he maintained his trust in his call and in himself, though the conviction that he would never find an opportunity to put his principles into practice began to dawn upon him. One day, having lost the road, one of his chief disciples went to an old man to inquire the way. The old man said: “Disorder spreads over the kingdom like a swelling flood ; and no one is able to repress it. Rather than follow a master who withdraws from one ruler after another because they will not take his advice, would you not better follow those who withdraw from the world alto- gether?” Tze-lu returned and told his master the farmer’s advice. Confucius replied : “It is impossible to withdraw from the world and associate with birds and beasts which have no affinity with us. With whom should I associate but with suffering man?” At sixty-nine, after some thirteen years of wander- ing and peripatetic teaching, Confucius returned to the state of Lu. The ruler who had been carried away by the singing girls was dead, and one of the disciples of Confucius had become a successful general under the CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 203 young ruler. The general sought to have Confucius restored to power. But Confucius, seeing that the movement was not spontaneous, declined to consider the matter, and spent his remaining years with his dis- ciples in literary labor. The next year his son, who had reached the age of fifty, died, leaving descendants through whom the family has continued to the present day: two or three of them are prominent Christian workers in China — H. H. K’ung, a professor in the Oberlin School at Taiyuenfu, in the province of Shansi, and Dr. Ida Kahn (or K’ung), a very able physician of Nanchang, in the province of Kiangsi. It was a grandson of Confucius, K’ung Ch’i, who wrote the famous book — The Doctrine of the IMean, or, as Wylie translates it. The Doctrine of the Invariable Medium, which ranks as one of the Nine Classics. Confucius bore the death of his son with equanimity. But the next year his favorite disciple. Yen Huei, died; and Confucius wept over his loss beyond what seemed to his disciples the bounds of propriety. Three years later, when Confucius was seventy-four, his next best- loved disciple died, and Confucius felt that his own end was drawing near. One morning he was seen walking back and forth in front of his door dragging his staff in his hands behind his back, and crooning the words: “The great mountain must crumble; The strong beam must break : The wise man must wither away like a plant.” Disciples hastened to him and he said : “No intelligent ruler arises to take me as his master. My time has come to die.” He took to his bed and died seven days 204 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION later. What had become of his daughters we do not know; and we do not know that any grandchildren were near him at his death. His disciples ministered to his needs. He uttered no prayer, he betrayed no apprehension, but died apparently in dejection under the conviction that his life had been a failure. But the death of the man whose teachings had emphasized justice and responsibility upon the part of rulers, rev- erence and obedience upon the part of subjects; the death of the man who had constantly sought for fifty years to put his principles into practice, not through love of money or of honor, but for the sake of the pub- lic welfare ; the death of the man who had maintained that moral influence is the only source of lasting au- thority upon the part of a sovereign and whose own example had transformed the state he was called to rule; and especially the death of the man whose aus- tere but genuine virtues had won the admiration and love of his disciples and led noble men to devote their lives to him, produced an impression upon the nation ; and the fame of Confucius began to rise almost from the day of his burial. The philosophy of China is found chiefly in her Nine Classics. Of these, Confucius corrected and edited three and wrote the fourth, while the fifth — the Analects, or Dialogues of Confucius, written by dis- ciples— furnishes the best embodiment of his teach- ings. In addition to these books, the next three simply set forth the doctrines of the master by his disciples. So far as he speaks clearly, Confucius accepted a dualistic explanation of the origin of the universe and accounted for heaven, earth, and man as springing CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 205 from preexisting male and female principles, Yang and Yin, though apparently he had a conviction that some eternal principle or person exists back of these preexisting dual principles. In the Shu Ching he compiled the history of the preceding centuries in one hundred chapters, of which we now have fifty-eight; and of these fifty-eight probably twenty-three date from Confucius. The reverence of Confucius for the past thus saved to posterity the early records of the Chinese nation. He also compiled the Shih Ching, or Book of Poetry, consisting of three hundred and eleven h)Tims, of which we still possess three hundred and five. Here again he exercised his judgment in select- ing hymns which he deemed worthy of preservation. He himself said of the collection that the faithful study of it would produce a mind without a single depraving thought; and, indeed, there is not a line in the three hundred and five hymns which contains an impure or improper sentiment. The Li Chi, or Book of Rites, is said to date in its original composition from the Chow dynasty, which was founded B. C. 1122. Con- fucius edited this book and probably took more in- terest in it than in any other of the books compiled by him, because he attached very large importance to forms and ceremonies. The Chinese people also have been more interested in the Li Chi than in probably any other book which Confucius transmitted to them ; and the book has been so changed by reediting that possibly not a single line of it in its present form was written by Confucius. On the other hand, we know from the Analects that Confucius strenuously incul- cated the observance of forms and ceremonies. West- 2o6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ern ethical writers fail to understand this emphasis upon outward conduct. But so far as we can learn from the prophet’s own teachings, his theory at this point rested upon two convictions. First, that the inner life could be repressed and controlled and re- molded through outward conduct. While there is danger of substituting good manners for inner affec- tion or loyalty, nevertheless. Western nations, and es- pecially Americans, have a lesson to learn from the Chinese in regard to the inculcation of reverence and correctness and propriety in the speech and acts of children ; and the great influence which such outward propriety, imposed upon children for years, will eventually have upon their lives and characters. Sec- ond, Confucius insisted upon sincerity as one of the supreme virtues of mankind ; and by sincerity he meant perfect correspondence between the outward word or act and the inward impulse. “Let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil.” But inasmuch as we cannot see into the hearts of men and know their inmost feelings, Confucius laid supreme stress upon manners and con- duct as the proper expression of the inner state; and third, Confucius insisted upon the outward conduct of all in authority as of supreme importance ; for only by example can rulers exert moral influence over their subjects; and moral influence is the only lasting influ- ence in government. The favorite disciple of Confucius, Yen Hui, asked the secret of self-control. Confucius replied, “Over- come egotism and return to propriety [or li].” When pressed for details the master added, “Do not say any- CONFUCIUS: jMORAL PHILOSOPHY 207 thing improper; do not listen to anything improper; do not speak of anything improper; do not move toward anything improper,”^ “and be chary of speech.”^ Again Confucius said, “A man of noble mind seeks to perfect the good in others and not their evil.”^ It was the difficulty of carrying out these lofty teachings which led Confucius to prescribe slowness of movement and of speech in order that the spirit might have time for meditation and for forming reso- lutions instead of being called to impulsive action. Confucius finally sums up his whole teaching in regard to manners in the Golden Rule stated negatively: “Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you.” The Bible throughout, and especially in the first chapters of the Gospel according to John and in the Epistle to the Romans, makes clear a universal judg- ment of men by God on the ground that God has re- vealed to each some measure of light and of law. The law of God involves for each man a cross — denial of self and the acceptance of the duty which God imposes upon each through his conscience. That Confucius faced this light and accepted his cross is clear from the following sentences which he uttered : “If on ' self-examination I find that I am not upright, shall I not be in fear even of the beggar ? If I examine my- self and find I am upright, I will go forward against thousands and tens of thousands.” So the greatest disciple of Confucius, IMencius, once said : “I love life and I love righteousness. But if I must decide be- •Soothill, W. E.: The Analects of Confucius, xii, i. ’ Ibid., xiii, i. * Ibid., xii, l6. 2o8 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION tween the two, I choose righteousness.” Surely, these confessions are worthy to stand alongside of the say- ings of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, of Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah, each of whom, perhaps unwit- tingly but no less really, accepted his cross and fol- lowed the light God gave him. This is the cardinal law of that religion to which Dr. Johnson once said “every good man belongs.” The one test at the final judgment, whether men have heard of Christ or not, will be their acceptance or rejection of the cross which the unseen Christ holds before every man. Surely, Confucius heard God speak through his conscience, and obeyed. Again, in the acceptance or rejection of this cross, most souls come to a crisis. This crisis is one of the experiences not simply of Christianity but of universal religion. Sakymuni has his hour of absolute sur- render to his call, a surrender as clear and marked as was Augustine’s when he was praying in the garden and heard sounding in his ears as if God himself were speaking, “Not in reveling and in drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness; . . . but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” Mohammed had his day of seclusion from which he came forth changed in every fiber of his being, though later he lapsed in part. So Confucius appears to have had his day of decision when he writes, “At thirty I took my stand.” After one comes to his cross and accepts it, there comes a freedom such as one never knows so long as he walks in the path of self-will. Augustine wrote, “The soul was made for thee, O God, and finds rest China l'n>ier The Empress Dowager, by J. O. P. Bland .and E. B.arkhoase. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. The Empress Dowager, Her Majesty TzO Hsi (See Chapter XIII) (From a Photi>grapU taken io CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 2cx; only in thee” — the greatest sentence this Roman father ever penned. But again he writes, “The Christian law is to love, and to do as you please.” This sentence smacks of antinomianism and falls far below the great sentence quoted above. But still it is needed to set forth the freedom of which one is often conscious when he fully abandons self-will for the path of duty. We think Confucius had not absolute perfection but such spiritual freedom in mind when he wrote that striking sentence: “At sixty I never relapsed into any known fault: at seventy I could follow my own inclinations without going wrong.” This statement may imply that by stern moral discipline Confucius had brought himself at the age of sixty under such subjection that he never relapsed into a known fault, and at seventy under such complete subjection that he could follow his inclinations without moral condemnation. If we make allowance for the lower moral standards of the age in which he lived, and especially for Confucius’s lack of the Bible and lack of any deep sense of sin, we may regard the statement as a sincere expression of his judgment, but at the same time as revealing a de- fective conception of moral perfection. Upon the whole, we are inclined to treat the statement as a con- fession by Confucius of the sense of freedom which had come to him on the complete surrender of all per- sonal ambition and all personal will. If so, it indicates that he not only passed through the moral crisis through which every soul must pass in deciding be- tween right and wrong, but that he experienced the sense of freedom which comes sooner or later to the soul on the abandonment of self-will for duty. If un- 210 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION derstood in this sense, the sentence is not to be in- terpreted as a profession of any absolute perfection on Confucius’s part. Confucius confessed that he had not attained to conformity to his own rule of not doing to others what he would not have them do to him.® But if Confucius challenges posterity as did the Christ, “Who of you convicteth me of sin ?” we put our finger upon faults both of omission and commission, which are difficult to reconcile with the moral stand- ards of his own age. Confucius wrote the Annals of his native state of Lu, covering a period of two hun- dred and thirty-eight years, B. C. 722-484. This book, the Spring and Autumn Annals, consists largely of a list of events almost as brief as the headings of the chapters in the older, authorized version of the Bible. One of his contemporaries, probably his disciple, Tso,® wrote out more fully the historical records of the period which Confucius covered in his Spring and Autumn Annals. Possibly he copied them out in ad- vance for the use of Confucius. If written after Con- fucius had prepared the Spring and Autumn Annals, the disciple never challenges the text of the master. He writes apparently in entire loyalty to Confucius. But, on the other hand, he displays something of Con- fucius’s unbending nature, and he does not change his narrative to make it correspond with the summary which Confucius wrote. Of course it is possible that the disciple was not familiar with Confucius’ summary, though if he wrote after Confucius, this does not seem ‘ Encyclopajdia Britannica, vol. viii, p. 114, d. CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 21 1 at all probable. It must be borne in mind that Con- fucius was a born conservative, that he was loyal to existing authority, that he believed most sincerely that rulers were appointed by Heaven. The Spring and Autumn Annals were compiled, therefore, with a very definite purpose on the part of Confucius, namely, to set forth the principles upon which he believed civiliza- tion rested. He himself was aware of his perversion of history in the interest of his moral philosophy. One of his reported remarks is, “By these Annals I will be known, and by these Annals I will be judged.” Our high estimate of Confucius is shocked by the fact that the full narrative of his disciple, Tso, shows that the summary of Confucius is at times thoroughly mislead- ing. Dr. Legge, who writes with respect and rever- ence for Confucius, is obliged to charge him in the Spring and Autumn Annals, first, with ignoring facts of history; second, with concealing facts of history; and, third, with misrepresenting facts of history. He thinks that the influence of the book has been injurious to Chinese civilization by greatly lowering the Chinese conception of truthfulness. Certainly, this volume gives a decidedly lower impression both of the ability of Confucius and his character than do the estimates furnished of him by his disciples. We have two other illustrations that Confucius’s conception of truthfulness was not lofty. At fifty-six the leader of a civil faction captured him and some of his disciples, but released them on an oath from Con- fucius promising that they would go to P’u. Confu- cius broke faith as soon as the group were out of the leader’s sight and went to Wei instead of to P’u. 212 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION When one of his disciples asked the ground of this strange conduct he replied that no oath given under duress was binding. On another occasion a person whom Confucius did not wish to see called upon him. Confucius sent him the formal answer that he was not at home, but continued playing the lute in his room in order to let the visitor and Confucius’s friends know that he was at home and so to disgrace his visitor in the eyes of his friends. It may be said, however, that this conduct does not display any lack of truthfulness on the part of Confucius; because by his action he made it clear both to his disciples and to the would-be guest that he was at home. On the other hand, the action was not only a violation of that courtesy toward others which Confucius always taught, but showed a low standard of moral veracity. A self-respecting man with a high standard of truthfulness will certainly find some better way of rejecting a caller than by send- ing a false statement to the door. A second blemish in his character is found in his lack of humanitarianism, and especially in a lack of kindly treatment of women. He was familiar with slavery and with concubinage and neglected to con- demn either of them, not, however, because, like Christ, he was placing supreme emphasis upon the heart and spirit, and summing up all outward conduct in the two spiritual injunctions. Love God with all thine heart, and thy neighbor as thy self. Upon the contrary, while Confucius laid little emphasis upon the heart and all his teachings were concentrated upon outward con- duct, he uttered no condemnation of slavery and no condemnation of concubinage — the vilest forms of out- 1 CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 213 ward conduct ever devised by man. Indeed, he buried his own mother, who was his father’s concubine, in the grave with his father and raised a mound over them, leaving the real wife of his father in an unknown grave. While his disciples record his acts in great detail, there is not a reference to the lame brother or to any one of the nine sisters ; and there is not a refer- ence to the two daughters of Confucius nor to his wife, except the indirect knowledge that he was at times separated from her for years with no statement of provision for her support, and with the record of his rebuke of his son for mourning over her death. We do Confucius serious injustice, however, if we judge these faults in the light of our day. We must remember that Plato openly sanctioned slavery, that Abraham practiced concubinage and was guilty of falsehood in representing Sarah as his sister instead of as his wife. John Stuart Mill, in spite of his own failure to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord, said that if the civilized world were to select any person whose example should be implicitly followed, the choice could not possibly have fallen upon a nobler character than that of Jesus. So with a lack of knowledge of Jesus by the Chinese, if they were to select a person whom they would reverence and attempt to imitate, upon the whole, they could not have selected a better person than Confucius. Confucius impresses all students of his life as a puritanical character, lacking somewhat in natural affection, but, everything considered, worthy of the imitation with which the Chinese have honored him. Turning to his theology and philosophy, while Con- 214 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION fucius laid no claim to a revelation, nevertheless he indicated on one or two classic occasions his conviction that he had a mission from Heaven. He believed vaguely in a personal Creator, or, at any rate, in edit- ing the Shu Ching, he left untouched numerous pas- sages which he found in these ancient books relating to a personal God. In his own conversations as re- lated in the Analects compiled by the second genera- tion of his disciples, the word “Shang-ti” — our usual Protestant term for “God” — largely disappears, and the more impersonal, vaguer term, “Heaven,” takes its place. Probably his reticence in regard to spiritual beings was due in part to the evils which he saw flow- ing from the gross superstition of his age. Moses makes no mention of immortality, Socrates was put to death nominally on the ground of his disbelief in God, and Plato rejects polytheism in favor of theism. Prob- ably without any strong conviction of a personal God, Confucius also remains reticent upon supernatural themes because of his opposition to superstitions which he did not care to condemn more openly. On being asked what constitutes wisdom, he replied, “To give oneself earnestly to duties to men, and while respecting spiritual beings, to keep aloof from them — that may be called wisdom.” In answer to the inquiry as to how we may best serve the spirits, he said, “When one cannot serve man, how can he serve the spirits?” On being qustioned as to what lies beyond death, he said, “While one cannot know life, how can he know death?” In regard to theism and eternal life he was, therefore, largely agnostic. Throughout his life and teaching Confucius lays the i CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 215 supreme stress on duty. His moral philosophy is em- bodied in the five relations of life: ruler and minister, husband and wife, father and son, older brother and younger brother, friend and friend. And in discussing the relation of the superior — ruler, husband, father, elder brother — while always recognizing his authority, he ever lays the emphasis upon duty. In discussing the relation of the inferior — minister, wife, son, and younger brother — he never ceases laying the emphasis upon obedience and duty. Indeed, so stern and un- bending is his estimate of duty that he feels compelled to assert as its corollary the ability of every man, un- aided, always to do those acts which he ought to per- form, and to conquer those temptations which ought to be suppressed. Above all, Confucius is a practical idealist; he holds to the inherent goodness of human nature. While this indicates the lofty tone of his phi- losophy, nevertheless it indicates also one of the weak- nesses of it. He had no adequate conception of sin, and of the consequent corruption of human nature; he believed despite all teachings of experience that man is capable of perfecting himself by his own strength. This is one of the fundamental weaknesses of his ethical system, and one reason why that system has failed so conspicuously in regenerating China. Despite all appearances to the contrary, Confucius never abandoned the conviction that man is free, that he is self-sufficient for all moral tasks, and he so be- lieved in man’s greatness as to teach that heaven, earth, and man form a trinity. He holds throughout his life that at different times in history a Saint, or holy man, has appeared, that is, a man who from 2i6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION infancy is of unerring wisdom, and of faultless char- acter— a character such as Christians represent Jesus alone to have* developed. This is the representative man of humanity; and Confucius holds that the Holy Man may be expected to reappear at any time. Below the Saint, Confucius places the Sage, that is, the man who by lifelong struggle for his convictions at last attains to sainthood. Confucius holds that every man may hope to become a Sage. Among other definitions of idealism is this: “Any view of the universe which holds that the ground of existence is a realistic reason or spirit.” ’ Confucius firmly held this conviction and consistently held that a life according to this reason is the highest duty of man in the present world. Again, Confucius holds obedience to reason to be the central virtue of man, to be the supreme proof of his humanity. This is the realization of one’s inner self. The humanity which each is to cultivate is self-perfec- tion, but each one must manifest his humanity in the practical sphere of life in the discharge of one’s duties among men; therein lies the path of perfection. At this point Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are agreed, and they all point toward Christ. Surely, this undying enthusiasm for humanity, this inexpugnable conviction of the goodness and worth of man’s intel- lectual and moral nature, justify us in calling Con- fucius a practical idealist. Confucius is clear in the conviction that all philosophy culminates in a doctrine of human perfection, and that in seeking human per- fection the path lies along the road of duty to the ’Baldwin, James Mark: Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, article on "Idealism.” CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 217 family, the community, and the state. In the teachings of humanitarianism as a supreme virtue Confucius is a practical idealist of the highest type. Once more, Confucius holds as his final demonstra- tion of the goodness of human nature that the highest sincerity and the highest moral perfection simply de- mand outward action in accordance with one’s inner nature. But acting according to one’s nature will not result in goodness unless the nature itself is funda- mentally good. There could be no call to virtue unless men were made for virtue. The insistence of Con- fucius throughout that ideal conduct upon the part of the Ruler is all-sufficient to produce ideal conduct upon the part of the ruled is not true to the facts of history or to the realities of life. It fails to recognize the de- generate condition of human nature. Nevertheless, the error is a noble one. It rests upon the fundamental assumption that man was made in the image of Tao, or Reason, or the Logos; and that he is capable of responding to that call. A very few references in his reported conversations to providential guidance and providential help might lead one to think that, like Socrates, he was an unconscious advocate in advance of the doctrine that there is a Holy Spirit in the world to guide men into all truth, and to give them strength to walk in the path of duty. One gains no proper con- ception of the influence of Confucius over nearly a fourth of the human race for the last twenty-five hun- dred years without a recognition of the idealism for which he ever pleaded in his conversations, and to which he devoted his life. Here, again, while Con- fucius emphasizes idealism, at the same time he is so 2i8 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION thoroughly practical and resorts to such utilitarian considerations in his appeals to men to lead the ideal life, that he may be called a utilitarian idealist. Lastly, Confucius seems to us to be the greatest con- servative that the human race has ever produced. There are two types of great men : the progressive and the conservative, the prophet and the priest. The former is the greater type because it requires more foresight, more power of initiative, and greater en- ergy to inaugurate a new kingdom than to maintain a kingdom already established. But while sympathiz- ing by predilection with the former class, we have a growing appreciation of the conservative type of mankind. Surely, next to creating wealth is the power to preserve it and to use it wisely after it is created. Next to gaining knowledge is the power to retain all the knowledge one has ever possessed and be able to use it at a moment’s notice. Surely, next to increasing one’s strength is the power to preserve the strength and vitality which one already possesses. Next to achieving holiness is the power to maintain the moral and spiritual heights already achieved. Next to creating national life is the ability to preserve the resources of a nation or a civilization in lasting power. Christ is the supreme leader of hu- manity. He is the alpha and the omega — the first and the last: he is the supreme conservative because the preserver of all that is good in antiquity. He is the supreme utilitarian or servant of the present, because he is the guide and inspirer and energizer of men in their present struggles. He is the supreme prophet, because he alone knows the goal and is able to guide CONFUCIUS: MORAL PHILOSOPHY 219 humanity to its own: “I am he who was, and who is, and who is to come.” But next to Christ, in forming any estimate of great men, Confucius is the supreme conservative. Moses is the only other man who can rank with him in this regard. Moses as the lawgiver of the Western world preserves as well as creates: his chief function was prophetic or creative. In this joint capacity, as preserver of the best in the earlier history of his race and as their guide to a higher moral and spiritual life, Moses surpassed Confucius. But Con- fucius has preserved a larger race for a longer time and with greater national unity than did Moses. Con- fucius rendered this supreme service to China because of the common sense and of the moral judgment dis- played by his teachings ; because of his reverence and self-control ; because of his unswerving devotion to his ideal through fifty-six years of struggle; and because, above all, with integrity and sincerity he responded more fully than any other of his countrymen to “the true light which lighteth every man coming into the world.” Hence he deserves to rank among the great moral philosophers and teachers of mankind. Indeed, he ranks along with the forces of nature as one of the causes contributing to the preservation of Chinese civ- ilization. Books for Reference Same as for Chapter VII. CHAPTER IX THE CONFUCIAN SCHOOL Mencius, B. C. 372-289. Mencius was the most brilliant exponent of Confucius. As Confucius died in B. C. 478 and Mencius was born in B. C. 372, a cen- tury lies between them. During this century political conditions grew steadily worse. The Chow dynasty was approaching ruin. While China constituted nom- inally one kingdom, in reality it consisted of seven monarchies, usually at war with one another; and these wars led to many abuses of royal prerogative. Mencius was at first a Taoist; but after fuller study and reflection he came to regard Confucius as the greatest Sage and later as one of the Holy Men of China, and followed in his footsteps. No account of the life of Mencius is complete which does not begin with his mother, who is regarded as the “model mother” of China. We have told the story in Appendix VI. Mencius became a teacher like Con- fucius, and for many years conducted a school. He was greatly troubled, as was Confucius, over the condi- tion of the people, and finally decided that he was called by Heaven to reform the nation. As a scholar Men- cius, like Confucius, had access to official circles. But the visits of Mencius to courts were as little pro- ductive of immediate effects as were the visits of Con- fucius. A few of his disciples remained faithful to him during the twenty years of travel from court to 220 THE CONFUCIAN SCHOOL 22 1 court. Mencius accepted large gifts from the kings whom he visited, and lived as a man of rank. But in the year B. C. 310, after twenty years of travel and constant failure to find employment as an official, he accepted these refusals as the will of Heaven, and retired to teach his pupils and to arrange his doctrine in a written form for posterity. The advanced stage of corruption in the nation led Mencius to more radical measures of reform than Confucius had proposed, and in theory Mencius adopted to a large extent the demo- cratic principle. This principle, however, antedates both Mencius and Confucius. There is an old motto, “Heaven sees as the people see : Heaven hears as the people hear.” This motto Mencius delighted to quote, and advo- cated its constant application. He himself said: “The people are the most important element in the nation. The altars of the spirits of land and grain are second. The sovereign is the slightest element.” Mencius placed the altars of the spirits of land and grain as the second element in the nation because he believed that upon the worship of these spirits de- pended the prosperity of the people. He expressed his reliance upon popular will in the following statements : “If the ministers say a certain man is a man of ability, it is insufficient ; if all the officials say he is able, do not yet make him an official ; if all the people say he is able, examine him and afterward use him as an official.” In the next quotation he applies the same principle in condemning men as in exalting them, and states the principle upon which our trial by jury rests : “If all the 222 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ministers say this man should be executed, do not listen ; if all the officials say you can kill this man, their verdict is yet insufficient; if all the people say you ought to kill him, examine and see if you should kill him, and then execute him.” Wicked kings were then ruling, and one of them asked Mencius the duty of a minister, Mencius answered : “If the king is false, he should be admonished, that is, by the minister. If warned several times and he heeds not, change him.” The king was angry at the answer and changed color. Mencius replied, “I must speak the truth in my an- swers.” Mencius went still further and coined the expression, “Killing a bad monarch is no murder.” He thus was perhaps the first to formulate the principle of revolution. When asked how the people should proceed in overthrowing a bad monarch, Mencius said : “The first to act should be the royal family. If the royal family refuses to put away a bad ruler, then the minister should act. If the minister fails to do his duty, then the ‘Minister of Heaven.’ ” By the “Min- ister of Heaven” Mencius meant some man who either in private life or as an official had shown such virtue that the eyes of all turned to him in national distress for deliverance. He was the person who in the final crisis should summon the people to his aid and over- throw a bad government. Mencius advocated universal education, free trade, and light taxes based wholly upon ground rent — the single-tax theory of Henry George. He also advo- cated drainage and irrigation. For the control of the people he depended, as did Confucius, very largely upon the example of the sovereign in virtue, industry, THE CONFUCTAN SCHOOT. 223 and unselfish service. He held, like Confucius, that man is by nature good ; and that if the sovereign acts wisely, justly, and unselfishly, he will move all hearts to imitate his example. In distinguishing men from beasts he lays stress upon what ought to be the leading mark of humanity in his statement, “Benevolence is the distinguishing characteristic of man.” In holding to the uprightness of human nature Mencius is followed by Butler, the profoundest thinker on moral questions whom England has produced, but whose views on this question were those of Zeno baptized into Christ.^ Again Mencius said: “When one by force subdues men, they do not submit to him in heart. When he subdues them by virtue, in their hearts’ core they bless him and sincerely submit to him.” Another time he said, “The great man is he who does not lose his child heart.” In regard to the attainment of virtue, the Encyclopaedia Britannica^ says that Confucius con- fessed that he had not attained his ideal, but that Men- cius never made that confession. But this pride, so far as it existed, was due to the summons frequently made upon him to stand up for his convictions in opposition to men in far higher stations than himself. If Con- fucius was the Moses, Mencius was the Elijah of his people. He rebuked kings and men in authority on many occasions, saying to his disciples, “The rich man has his palace, his wealth, and his concubines; you have your principles : why should you fear him ?” He warned his disciples to look down on external glory and external wealth and to look up only to character * Butler, Joseph: Sermons II and III. • Encyclopsedia Britannica, vol. xviii, p. 1 14, d. 224 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION and benevolence. Apparently, he caught more than glimpses of monotheism, saying at one time, “God is all-knowing, self-controlled, all-controlling, and one.” Again he said, “Only God is constant: the good are regarded and the evil punished.” On the other hand, in the saying already quoted, that the altars of the spirits of land and of grain constitute the second ele- ment in the nation, Mencius admits the worship of spirits in addition to the worship of the true God. The stern life of this ancient Puritan is seen in the closing cpiotation: “I love life and I love righteousness. If I cannot have both, I choose righteousness.” Wang An-siiih, A. D. 1021-1086. Already we have mentioned the fact that no great original move- ment in philosophy appeared for twelve hundred years after the death of Mencius. In addition to the great quickening of intellectual life, about A. D. 1000, by the discovery of block printing in A. D. 932, there was another reason for a new era in philosophy, and espe- cially in political philosophy. Werner^ shows that in the preceding century there was a tax of five per cent on the produce of the land, also that a system of rents prevailed, but that at a later date illegal taxes were abolished, and that there were attempts to induce the people to cultivate and settle on the land, indicatingthat they had left it. These signs betoken a profound up- heaval among the farmers of the empire. ByA.D. 1052 the area of the taxable cultivated land had fallen off one half. Some economic cause was producing pro- found changes among the farmers. Wang An-shih, 1021-1086, was a brilliant scholar who first attracted ’ Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table VI, col. 2. THE CONFUCIAN SCHOOL 225 attention by a fresh interpretation of the Classics, sug- gesting’ some methods for the relief of the farmers. He received an appointment as a magistrate in the Che- kiang Province and made a high reputation by check- ing the devastations of floods and by other measures for the benefit of the farmers. He was invited to the capital in 1060 but preferred his provincial appoint- ment. But in 1068, on the invitation of the emperor Shen Tsung, he became expositor at the Hanlin Acad- emy, the appointment indicating that his reputation consisted in his interpretation of the Classics. But the same year the emperor made him state councilor. The basis of his political philosophy was very acceptable to the imperial mind. Wang An-shih held that the land, property, and persons of all the earth, and especially of China, belonged to the emperor as the Son of Heaven. Chinese philosophy in general accepted this view with the emphasis laid upon the clause “As Son of Heaven,” and it meant little more than the “right of eminent domain” means in Western nations. But Wang An-shih in the crisis urged the emperor as “father and mother of the people” to use his unlimited power for the relief of agriculture which had fallen oflf by one half. Wang was speedily made prime min- ister, and for eighteen years, from 1068 to 1086, he was supported by the emperor against all opponents in carrying out his reforms.^ First. He provided for a resurvey of all the lands and a lowering of the land taxes. Second. He provided for taxes payable in kind. Third. He brought about a nationalization of com- * Pott, F. L. H.: A Sketch of Chinese History, p. 65. 226 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION merce and transportation. The government after ac- cepting its share of the produce for a moderate tax then bought at a fair price such balance of the produce as the farmers could spare, transported it to a place of need, and sold it at a fair profit. Fourth. The government made advances for seed, tools, etc., for the reclamation of the land, and also to aid impoverished farmers on cultivated plots, and ac- cepted repayment of loans after harvest with interest at the rate of two per cent a month — the usual rate of interest being three per cent a month and even more. Fifth. The government levied an income tax. All the internal improvements of the empire — roads, canals, great walls for defense, walls for cities, etc. — had been maintained down to this period through forced labor. At best, this burden fell evenly upon each individual, rich and poor; but the rich usually escaped direct personal labor through payment of a small tax or through bribery. At Wang An-shih’s advice, the entire expense of the government for the maintenance and extension of internal improvements and public works was turned into a money tax, and this money tax was levied upon the citizens in propor- tion to each man’s income. This took the burden off the common people and placed it upon the wealthy. Sixth. Wang An-shih nationalized military service. As a partial offset to the relief of the masses, the na- tion was divided into groups of ten families with an inspector or alderman over each group; and each family was obliged to keep on its doorpost the name and age of each member within. A rigid inspection of families was thus maintained similar to the rigid THE CONFUCIAN SCHOOL 227 inspection of income; and every family having two sons was obliged to enroll the younger for service as a soldier. In time of peace he could continue on the farm or in the shop, but in times of national danger the alderman must gather and forward these recruits to the drill ground and from there send them on to the army. Partly to maintain a strong cavalry force in case of national trouble, and partly as a sop to the farmers for the surrender of their sons, the govern- ment allowed each farmer the price of a horse and the cost of its upkeep on the condition that a horse be kept upon each farm. The farmer was allowed the free use of the animal during times of peace, but when na- tional danger approached the younger son must not only come to the central camp but bring the horse with him. Seventh. Wang An-shih nationalized local gov- ernment or supplanted local authority by national authority. From the earliest ages in the struggles between nationalism and feudalism the emperor in China usually had striven to keep the families and clans upon his side by not appointing any official lower than the district or county magistrates, thus virtually guaranteeing local self-government to all divisions within the county. These county officials had subor- dinates who reported to them on the affairs of the dis- trict and helped enforce the laws. The emperor thus in part made a virtue of necessity. With the nobles strug- gling for the subjection of the people to themselves as serfs on the ground that they in turn were obliged to render service to the sovereign, it was difficult for the sovereign, had he desired to do so, to thrust officials 228 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION into the districts or counties directly over the people whom the noble assumed to control. But as the people wished to rule themselves or do as they pleased, it was easy for the sovereign to encourage them in resisting the exactions of the barons and in maintaining local self-government. As a result of the constantly aris- ing conflicts between the nobles and the imperial authorities, the villages, clans, and families from the earliest ages had been accustomed largely to rule them- selves. Thus the townships or wards and villages selected their own immediate rulers, made their own regulations in regard to police, the census, and the method of gathering taxes for the central government and contributions for their local protection and for other purposes. This local self-government had al- ways been acceptable to the people, and they usually had maintained their right to it against the conflicting claims of the sovereign and the nobles. Wang An- shih’s plan struck a deathblow to local self-government by the central government appointing an alderman over every ten families, a superior officer over every fifty families, and a still higher officer over every group of five hundred families. The imperial power thus ran down from the throne to the last man in the empire. In a word, Wang An-shih inaugurated in China gov- ernment socialism of an advanced type — a profound reform or revolution to introduce into any country at any period of history — and he completely abolished for the time being all local self-government throughout the empire. The opposition to his philosophy developed among a group of brilliant leaders. Ch’eng Hsiang, A. D. THE CONFUCIAN SCHOOL 229 1006-1090, and his son Ch’eng Hao, 1032-1085,® were prominent advisers in the government, and both openly opposed Wang An-shih’s reforms on the ground that they violated the Confucian philosophy, and were based upon a false exposition of the Classics. Ch’en Hsiang, another imperial adviser'* who had recom- mended Ssu-ma Kuang, the great historian, to the em- peror, also openly opposed Wans: An-shih. In response to this unpleasant advice, the emperor appointed these three men to petty posts in different provinces — a mild form of banishment. Ssu-ma Kuang remained at court longer and recommended Ch’eng I, the youngest and most brilliant son of Ch’eng Hsiang, as tutor to the young emperor. But later, Ssu-ma Kuang, on the emperor not accepting his suggestion that Wang An-shih be made the head of the Hanlin Academy instead of prime minister, retired to private life. These four men, Ch’eng Hsiang, Ch’eng Hao, Chen Hsiang, and Ssu-ma Kuang, being left at leisure, did their utmost, Ssu-ma Kuang as an historian and the rest as philosophers and as commentators on the Classics, to overthrow Wang An-shih. It may be added that later the emperor himself became weary of Wang An-shih because he followed an old custom of many Chinese farmers of not washing either cloth- ing or hands and face, and appeared in the emperor’s presence in clothes that had never been washed, and with the dirt simply rubbed off his hands and face; the farmers at first were delighted with him and helped by his reforms, but they grew tired of giving a son to the nation and sparing both him and the horse often at ‘Giles, Herbert A.: China and the Chinese, p. 115. ‘ Ibid., p. 91. 230 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the very time when both were most needed on the farm ; the great masses of the people living in the vil- lages were offended at the enforced surrender of local self-government to a central bureaucracy ; and all men of means opposed what they deemed his deathblow to thrift and private property. Above all, experience did not vindicate the reforms. Hence Wang An-shih, at the close of eighteen years of almost complete control of the empire, found himself dismissed and every one of his reforms reversed. Probably Wang An-shih ’s administration of China furnishes the largest illustra- tion in human history of the embodiment of socialism in national government. Chu Hsi, a. D. 1130-1200. The socialistic experi- ment stirred the nation to its depths, and entailed con- sequences reaching far beyond Wang An-shih’s life- time or the century in which he lived. The man who, himself profoundly stirred by the new thought spring- ing out of Wang An-shih’s experiment, created an epoch in Chinese philosophy, was yet to appear. This man was Chu Hsi. He was born in Fukien, the son of an official. He was a brilliant student and won his third, or Hanlin, degree at nineteen. He received an office and made a brilliant official record. At this time he was a liberal in religion, or at least a Dissenter, inclined to Buddhism, and some reports say that he entered the priesthood. But in 1154, under Li Tsung, a much profounder philosopher and commentator on the Classics than Chu Hsi ever had met before, he became a thorough Confucianist of the orthodox type. His reputation led to a sinecure appointment in Honan with time for literary work — time which he improved THE CONFUCIAN SCHOOL 231 to the utmost. He was summoned to the capital in A. D. 1 163, but soon received permission to retire, and spent fifteen years more in study, bringing out a sum- mary of the philosophy of his old master, Li Tsung, and revising, condensing, and bringing down to date Ssu-ma Kuang’s Mirror of History, adapting it so per- fectly to the Chinese mind that it has been the Chinese textbook of history for the last seven hundred years. His reputation rose to such a height that he was ap- pointed by the emperor, much against his will, gov- ernor of Nanchang, the metropolitan city of the Kiangsi Province. He made a brilliant record for honesty and ability. His love of study led him to estab- lish on the lower brow of the nearest mountain, not far from Killing, the White Deer Grotto University for brief periods of rest and study with his disciples, until at his repeated and earnest requests he was permitted to retire from office and devote the remainder of his life to scholarship. His ability as a commentator arose from his consistency. Like Meyer, the prince of Ger- man commentators on the New Testament, he rejected on exegetical grounds many interpretations of the Classics favorable to his own views. On the other hand, unlike Meyer, he clearly strained the meaning of some of the Classics, or at least neglected to bring out their divergent meanings in order to establish his thesis that the Classics all taught one doctrine. But the rejection of conceited, shallow, and inconsistent interpretations of the Classics, although these were in favor of his own principles; the apparently rugged honesty of the scholar as well as of the official; the mental grasp with which he seized the essential points 232 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION in classical teaching; and, above all, the ability with which erroneously but apparently without mental dis- honesty he developed a single consistent body of teach- ing out of the Classics, and thus vindicated their infallibility, gave him a tremendous hold upon his own and subsequent generations. Through his loy- alty to Confucius his interpretations were added to the classical textbooks which constituted the curriculum of Chinese schools; and probably they have had more influence than the Classics themselves upon the minds of the rising generations. The Trimetrical Classic, in some measure embodying his views, emerged as the opening textbook for every Chinese schoolboy during his own day. Certainly, next only to Confucius, through his commentaries on the Classics, Chu Hsi has been the teacher of China for more than twenty generations. Unfortunately for the Chinese, Chu Hsi’s philos- ophy is materialistic. Its first postulate is that the Grand Beginning, or First Principle, is Force, without intelligence or will, operating mechanically by some dynamic process which Chu Hsi does not explain. Second, Chu Hsi holds to the pulsation or mechanical operation of the First Principle from eternity in the form of Yang and Yin. These are the active and passive, the expansive and intensive modes of external motion. All existence, animate and inanimate, mental and material, originated and yet operates through this Yang and Yin process. Force produces the five material elements: water, fire, wind, metals, earth; and also the four seasons which are not simply four divisions of time, but four forms in which the Tae THE COXFUCIAN SCHOOL 233 Keih, or Orig^inal Force, acts. The original force and the five elements now coalesce and act in two modes — the heavenly, or male, and the earthly, or female. The whole explanation of the origin of the universe is as clear or as cloudy, as complete or as defective, as Haeckel’s materialistic evolution which it antici- pates by seven centuries. Had Chu Hsi started with the theistic assumption clearly found in the Shu Ching, he would have developed the doctrine of theistic evolu- tion or unfolding, and his speculation would have been more nearly in line with modern thought. But as already pointed out, Confucius himself, while publish- ing the theistic views of the earlier writers, tends to explain their references to Shang Ti’s seeing, willing, acting, etc., as personifications; and he substitutes the more impersonal word “Heaven” for “Shang-Ti.” Again, we have shown that Confucius, probably to avoid superstition, leaned strongly toward agnosti- cism. Hence Chu Hsi carried the views of his master to their logical conclusion. Strange to say, while Chu Hsi rejected a spiritual intelligent creator of the uni- verse, he with Haeckel not only violated the law of causation by accepting intelligent moral beings as the product of unintelligent force, but surpassed Haeckel in inconsistency by recognizing the existence of spirits — both good and evil — superior to man. As Chu Hsi had no definite proof of the existence of Eternal Force, but postulated its existence in order to explain the phe- nomena which confronted him, he would far better have postulated with Kant an intelligent Personal Cre- ator sufficient to account for the intelligent moral per- sons who confronted him — beings whose existence de- 234 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION manded an explanation ; and then attempted to explain the emergence of evil as due to the abuse of freedom by created free moral agents. Again, Chu Hsi, Confucius, Mencius, and almost all Chinese moral philosophers hold to one uniform, unvarying system of laws, and especially of moral laws, operating throughout the universe. This is one of their deepest and truest moral convictions, and we think that this system of laws by supplanting a Per- sonal Creator may have been a stumbling-block to Chinese moralists as to many Western moralists and scientists. Just so far as a human character ap- proaches perfection, man’s acts move along the lines of eternal principles and approach the uniformity of nature. But the absence of perfect human beings and the universal experience of willfulness in connection with personality have led modern as well as Chinese philosophers to misinterpret the uniformity of nature as an argument against a Personal Creator, because they associate personality with caprice and blind will- fulness. But it is not our function to correct Chu Hsi, but to state his explanation of the universe. We have not found any statement of Wang An-shih’s belief in a personal God. But possibly by imitation of Mo Ti, who furnishes the germ of socialism in his law of love, Wang An-shih was a theist. Then Chu Hsi, by way of reaction from Wang An shih, or else from the orig- inal bent of his mind, pressed the agnostic position of Confucius further than a fair exegesis warrants. Con- fucius undoubtedly believed in an overruling Provi- dence, and he had a clear belief in his own call. All this is inconsistent with a materialistic conception of THE CONFUCTAN SCHOOL 235 the universe. The Yang and the Yin principle — the point at which all early Chinese philosophy diverges from theism — is a divergence in the direction of poly- theism instead of materialistic monism. In our judg- ment, it was the reaction in Chinese thought from poly- theism to monism, and the difficulty of Chinese thought explaining such different beings as they believed man and woman to be which led thinkers to transcend per- sonality entirely, and posit an original creative force instead of an original Creator. At any rate, Chu Hsi gives as the cause of the universe an original mechan- ical force eternally in motion, resulting in some inex- plicable way in tbe appearance of matter of various kinds, and then in the emergence from matter of men and women, and finally in the emergence of spiritual beings more powerful than men. Turning to his ethical philosophy, Chu Hsi held that the Sing, or nature, attached to man in this process of evolution is wholly good, while woman’s nature is at best negative. Man’s nature reveals itself in the five virtues; Jin, E, Li, Che, Sin — very imperfectly ren- dered by benevolence, righteousness, propriety or what is becoming one’s character, wisdom, sincerity, Man’s form having been thus produced and his consciousness having dawned, his originally pure nature is now open to good and evil influences. But as inanimate nature is assumed to be perfect, the origin of evil is over- slaughed and the existence of evil is so far as possible minimized. ‘So far as we can draw an}'^ inferences, evil arises from the negative, Yin, or female principle. Chu Hsi held with Confucius to an absolutely uniform, unswerving system of laws in the moral universe. 236 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION However impersonal this force acting in nature, Chinese thinking is so intensely moral that the Chinese believe human sin, and especially imperial sin, will cause drought or plague or flood or some other form of punishment. So deep has been this conviction that the emperors of China down to the latest representa- tive have publicly confessed their sins whenever dis- orders in nature or upheavals in society have occurred. But Chu Hsi held along with Confucius that man at heart and in his essential nature is so good that Holy Men, or Saints, appear. These are they who instinc- tively perceive the movements in nature and in man of the First Principle, and spontaneously obey all the dictates of the Sing acting in any one of the five forms of virtue. Chu Hsi, like Mencius, added Confucius to the list of Holy Men. Below these he placed the Sages, who gradully and by effort attain correct vision, the chief of whom is Mencius. Meadows sums up Chu Hsi’s philosophy in the following propositions : ( i ) a fundamental unity underlies the phenomenal variety of the universe; (2) in the midst of all change there is an eternal harmonious order; (3) man at his birth is endowed with a nature perfectly good. We sum up Chu Hsi’s philosophy in four statements: first, the infallibility and logical consistency of the Classics; second, materialistic monism; third, an eternal moral order operative in human life; fourth, the ability of man unaided always to recognize and observe this un- changing moral order. Our criticism of Chu Hsi is that his interpretation of the Classics is incorrect, that his materialistic monism violates the law of causation which prompts all scientific and philosophical inquiry; THE CONFUCIAN SCHOOL 237 but that his maintenance of a moral order running through the universe and life is the profoundest truth in ethics ; and his view that each man is able in and of himself to keep the moral law springs from a noble but mistaken idealism. Meadows writes of him, “This man is the fashioner of Chinese mental life as it now exists, and is in virtue of the immense practical effects of his labors fairly entitled to be considered one of the greatest men that history makes known to us.’ The complete historical defeat of Wang An-shih’s reforms in the twelfth century, and the complete erad- ication of his philosophy by Chu Hsi are all the more interesting because Neo-Confucianists under K’ang Yu Wei, Ch’en Chuang-cheng, and Sun Yat Sen are attempting to reintroduce the reforms of Wang An- shih under the cloak of the authority of Confucius. We are not now discussing the truth or falsehood of state socialism. If called to express an opinion, while rejecting state socialism, we believe Mo Ti’s doctrine of love contains more truth and furnishes a wiser rule of conduct than Confucianism. But the most that can be charged against Chu Hsi is that he is more positive than his master, and carries the doctrine of Confucius to its logical conclusion. He does not, like the Neo- Confucianists, pervert the master’s teachings. A slight acquaintance with Chinese philosophy makes clear three conclusions: first, its rich and pro- found and in many respects admirable teachings; second, that Divine Providence has operated in Chinese history, making Mo Ti’s teaching, Confucian- ism, and in a lesser measure Taoism and Buddhism, ’ Meadows. T. T. : The Chinese and Their Rebellions, chap, xviii. 238 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION a divine preparation for the gospel, just as God oper- ated in western history making Greek philosophy and Roman government and Jewish law a divine prepara- tion for the Advent ; third, Confucianism has been effi- cient, but not sufficient. With three to four hundred million people individually as strong as are the Chinese, prostrate at the feet of Western nations, and even of Japan, the answer to the claim that Confucian- ism is sufficient and Christianit}'- not needed is the one word, “China.” The fundamental weakness of Con- fucianism from the start has been its lack of recogni- tion of a personal God and of human sinfulness. This fundamental lack was deepened and made permanent by Chu Hsi’s development of Confucianism into mate- rialism. Hence the growing demonstration of the in- ability of Confucianism to save China. Only a recog- nition of the Fatherhood of God, of the impotence of man’s sinful nature and yet of its inherent right to divine sonship by creation and redemption, and of its possibilities through regeneration and the indwelling Spirit, will enable renewed, or twice-born Chinese, to build up the New China among the nations of the earth. Books for Reference The same as for Chapter VII. CHAPTER X RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES The wealth of the religions literature is seen from the following data: De Groot’ speaks of a catalogue of Buddhist books compiled in A. D, 518 which de- scribes two thousand two hundred and thirteen books on Buddhism. We have also the Fa Yuen Choo Lin,^ compiled in A. D. 668, giving in one hundred and twenty volumes a comprehensive view of Buddhism. This is the first religious encyclopedia of which we have knowledge. Another thesaurus or encyclopedia of Buddhist books embraced one hundred volumes. In addition to this vast mass of Buddhistic liter- ature, a catalogue of Taoist books, compiled under the Ming dynasty, A. D. 1368-1644, required thirty volumes for the titles and for a very brief characteriza- tion of the books.® This statement indicates that Tao- ism had at that date perhaps as voluminous a literature as Buddhism. In addition to this great number of Buddhist and Taoist books, Wylie^ refers to a vast mass of literature relating to Taoism and Buddhism in common. This literature describes innumerable gods and goddesses and good and evil spirits, and por- trays their operations upon the earth and their influ- ence upon human affairs. It abounds in accounts of miracles and in legends and fairy stories, and it has a ■ Groot, J. J. M., de: The Religion of the Chinese, p. 179. ’Wylie, Alexander: Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 207. • Ibid., p. 224. ■* * Ibid., p. 224. 239 240 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION larger circulation among the common people than the higher ethical literature of Confucianism. The eager- ness for this literature, like the custom of the Chinese of summoning Buddhist and Taoist priests at death, is due to the fact that multitudes believe that these books supply a knowledge of supernatural beings and of the future life which Confucianism does not profess to furnish. In addition to the literature of Buddhism and Tao- ism, and of the two religions combined, there is per- haps an even vaster mass of Confucian literature, as already mentioned in the chapters on Chinese philos- ophy. This brief review of the religious literature confirms the judgment expressed in the chapter on philosophy that the philosophico-theological literature of China has been greatly enlarged and enriched by Taoist and Buddhist writings. Surely, no one will challenge the amount of religious literature which China has produced. The three religions of China are Taoism, Confu- cianism, and Buddhism. But preceding all three of these religions, underlying Taoism, profoundly modi- fying Buddhism, and deeply affecting Confucianism, is the original religion of the Chinese. De Groot opens his volume on The Religion of the Chinese with the statement, “The primeval form of the religion of the Chinese, and its very core to this day, is animism.” In addition to the worship of Heaven, or God, by the emperor, the animistic worship described by De Groot was universally practiced at the time of our earliest knowledge of the Chinese. The only originating cause of which man has personal knowledge is the human RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 241 will ; and the Chinese advanced by a natural process of reasoning from their knowledge that through hu- man volition they could effect changes in nature to the conviction that the larger changes which they themselves could not effect were due to some higher ])ersonal volition. Hence they explained light and darkness, cold and heat, the growth and decay of vege- tation, the movement of clouds and streams, the noise of thunder, etc., as due to personal wills. As they found part of the operations of nature helpful to them- selves and part harmful, they reached the conclusion that some of these wills were good and some evil. At the head of the entire realm of wills they believed in a Supreme Will, which had power in the last analysis to overrule and control all subordinate wills. Whether this conviction of a Supreme Will was the orisfinal con- viction of the Chinese, and their belief in subordinate wills was due to degeneration, as Dr. John Ross® and other authorities maintain, or whether De Groot is right in maintaining that animism is the original form of Chinese worship, we have not sufficient data for deciding. Professor Giles says, “The earliest traces of thought and practice in China point to a simple monotheism,” but he adds, “Side by side with such sacrificial rites was the worship of ancestors, stretch- ing so far back that its origin is not discernible.” ® Professor Giles thus admits that both animism and theism run back into prehistoric ages ; this fact makes it impossible for us to determine from historical data which is the older form of worship. But inasmuch as ‘Ross, John: The Original Religion of China. •Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi. p. 174, c. 242 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the worship of Heaven, or Shang Ti, has been from the earliest times reserved for the emperor alone, the wor- ship of the people from the earliest times to the present is animism and polytheism. Inasmuch as the Chinese endowed clouds, stones, rivers, trees, and hills with spirits, they readily believed in human spirits surviving the death of the body. The general conviction of the Chinese is that each body is endowed with three spirits, one of which remains with the body in the grave, another abides in the ancestral tablet which is usually prepared for each deceased person, placed in the family temple and worshiped by his descendants, while the third passes on to the realm of spirits for reward or punishment according to the deeds done in the body. The Chinese had experienced the activities of the spirit in dreams while the body was quiescent. As a result they had a distinct conviction of life beyond the grave, and manifested this belief in ancestral wor- ship. That ancestral worship was the prevalent form of animism in China from the earliest times is shown by the fact that the minister of religion was named “The Arranger of the Ancestral Temple.” ^ De Groot says of this ancestral worship, “It is mentioned in the ancient books with so much frequency that no doubt is possible that it was the kernel of the religious life as early as the older historical and even semihistorical times.” ® Springing out of this strong belief in countless spir- its operating in nature, there emerged in the earliest recorded life of the Chinese, the Wu, namely, exorcists. ’’ Legge, James: The Chinese Classics. * Groot, J. J. M., de: The Religion of the Chinese, p. 83. RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 243 magicians, soothsayers, or priests of the spiritual realm. These priests are male and female, the female perhaps exercising larger influence than the male priests; the influence of these Wu continues down to the present time.® The Wu rites are wholly supersti- tious incantations, and the Wu, as expressing the belief of the Chinese in supernatural bodies, enter into and form a part of Taoism, or the earliest religion of the Chinese. Taoism is usually dated from the life of its so-called founder, Lao Tzu, who was born in B. C. 604. As already described in Chapter VII on Chinese philos- ophy, Lao Tzu’s philosophy was idealistic, mystical, and spiritual. It was lofty, unselfish, and moral. But after Lao Tzu’s mysterious disappearance the ancient Wuists fixed upon his name as their High Priest, or as the divine incarnation of their doctrine of supernatural forces operating through nature; and Lao Tzu’s lofty teachings were transformed into a degrading alchemy. As a proof that the superstition which now passes under the name of Taoism is earlier than Lao Tzu’s time, we have the record that temples were erected for Taoist worship between B. C. 1000 and 900.^® The existence of these temples three or four hundred years before the birth of Lao Tzu furnishes historical proof that Taoism is not the product of Lao Tzu but is an older superstition which took advantage of his name and transformed his vague, pantheistic speculations into superstitious practices. The use of idols in connection with Wu worship, and the chanting •Wemer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table II. col. lo. “ Ibid. 244 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION and dancing exorcists are first reported B, C. 1197- 1194. Later, the transformation of Lao Tzu’s phi- losophy into Taoism is associated with the name of Chang Tao Ling.“ He is said to have been born A. D. 34 and to have been a descendant of Chang Liang, one of the three heroes who helped found the Han dynasty. On the enthronement of the first Han emperor Chang Liang refused all political or judicial offices and gave himself up to the search after the elixir of immortality. He failed to find this treasure and died. But Chang Tao Ling is reported finally to have discovered the elixir of life and through it to have become immortal and ascended on high. On his translation he be- queathed the secret to his son, and from that day to this Chang Tao Ling’s family has furnished the patriarchs or popes of Taoism. Chang Tao Ling was by imperial edict deified in A. D. 1116, as the “Pearly Emperor,” and is frequently, if not usually, worshiped by the Tao- ists as Shang Ti, or the true God. Taoism has con- tinued as a low superstitious form of religion whose baleful influence upon the Chinese race has yet to be written. Confucianism dates from Confucius, B. C. 551-478. It consisted originally and in the main consists to-day of ethical teaching. With its practical idealism, Con- fucianism leans so far toward agnosticism in regard to God and the future life that the teaching of Con- fucius cannot properly be called a religion. But soon after his death Confucius was honored not only with the worship which every father may expect from a son, but also with the worship of his disciples, and the Soothill, W. E.: The Three Religions of the Chinese, p. 82. RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 245 reputation which he enjoyed during his life soon led to his worship throughout his native state of Lu. By A. D. 57 the worship of Confucius had spread through- out the nation.^^ Hence from that time to the pres- ent Confucianism has been regarded not only as an ethical system influencing the conduct of its followers, but as a religious system demanding worship upon their part. It has never lost its ethical teaching, though it has often been devoid not only of all power to transform life after the ideals of Confucius, but of any serious effort upon the part of its followers to mold their lives after the teachings of their master. Buddhism was brought to China two hundred and fifty years before Christ^® by eighteen Buddhist mis- sionaries, though reports of it had reached China at an earlier date. The real Buddhistic evangelization of China commenced in A. D. 148 on the arrival of the second group of missionaries from India.** Werner says that by A. D. 400 nine tenths of the householders had accepted Buddhism.*® In order to understand the influence of Buddhism upon China we must remember the transformation which took place in the original Buddhism about the time of its intro- duction into China. Buddhism is divided into two schools, namely, the Hinayana and the Mahayana schools. The Hinayana school is largely agnostic in regard to God and teaches that man must remain wholly self-centered in his efforts after spiritual per- ** Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 120, col. 3; compare Legge, James: The Chinese Classics, vol. i. Prolegomena, 91, 2. “ Eitel, E. J.: Handbook of Chinese Buddhism, p. 21. ** Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 120, col. 2. “ Ibid., p. I2I, col. 3. 246 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION fection. Dr. Timothy Richard^® tells us that for the first four hundred years after Buddha’s death the Hinayana school of Buddhism prevailed and that the Mahayana school was unknown. Dr. Richard adds that after some five hundred years of existence Bud- dhism began to lose its hold upon India. This decay of Hinayana Buddhism in India is well known and led to the removal of the Buddhist patriarchate from India to China in A. D. 520.^^ The view of Dr. Richard and of Dr. Lloyd, of Japan, of the relation between Buddhism and Christianity, is based upon the remarkable resemblances between, not the original Hinayana Buddhism and Roman Catholic Christianity, but between the Mahayana Buddhism and Roman Catholic rites. “The cross, the miter, the dalmatica, the cope which the lamas wear on their journeys or when performing some ceremony out of the temple, the service with double choirs, the psalm- ody, the exorcisms, the censer suspended from five chains, . . . the benediction given by extending the right hand over the heads of the faithful ; the rosary, ecclesiastical celibacy, spiritual retirement, worship of the saints; the fasts, processions, litanies, and holy water — all these are analogies between ourselves and the Buddhists.”^* The institution of nuns, as well as religious orders for men, and masses for the dead, are common to both faiths. Both faiths teach the doc- trine of purgatory from which souls can be released by the prayers of the priests. Both conduct their ser- ** Richard, Timothy; The New Testament of Higher Buddhism, p. 40. Encyclopjedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 175. ‘•Hue, L'Abb6 E. R.: Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China During the Years 1844-5-6. Translated by W. Hazlitt, vol. ii, p. 50. RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 247 vices in a dead language, and both claim the power to work miracles. The doctrine of perpetual virginity of Maya, the mother of Sakyamuni, is taught by the Mongol Buddhists, very similar to the teaching con- cerning Mary by the Roman Catholics ; and the lamas practice a form of infant baptism in which the child is dipped three times under the water.^” Possibly the data are not sufficient for a demonstration of the rise of Mahayana Buddhism from early Christianity. Moreover, these half-pagan rites were developed both in Christianity and in Buddhism at a far later date than the first centuries of Christianity. Neverthe- less, the data seem sufficient to show the contact of Buddhism with early Christianity. Possibly the impulse and the spiritual light which led Maming, or Ashvagosha, to write at the close of the first century of the Christian era the volume called Ta Ching Ki Shin Lun, translated by Dr. Richard under the title The Awakening of Faith, may have come from Christianity. At any rate, whatever its origin, Mahayana Buddhism adds to the earlier form of Buddhism the distinctly theistic and Christian doc- trine of help from God through repentance and prayer, of communion with God, and of the possibility of men partaking of the nature of the Divine.^® All the Bud- dhist temples in Japan to-day apparently give the Mahayana form of Buddhism a place of honor, while seventeen thousand out of the twenty-six thousand monks and nuns accept the Mahayana form.^^ What- ever its origin, De Groot holds that this book, trans- '•WilUams, S. Wells: The Middle Kingdom, vol. ii, p. 231, 232. * Richard, Timothy: The New Testament of Higher Buddhism, pp. 2, 26, 37i 48. ** Ibid., p. 30. “ Ibid., p. 37, 248 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION lated by Dr. Richard under the title The Awakening of Faith, “certainly deserves to be called the most impor- tant of the sacred books of the East, . . . the might- iest instrument for the amelioration of customs and the mitigation of cruelty in Asia.”^^ De Groot again says, “Buddhism represents the highest stage of devotion and piety to which, to this day, man in East Asia has been able to raise him- self.”^^ No one questions the superiority of the teach- ings of Mahayana Buddhism to the superstitious doc- trines of Taoism. Drs. De Groot, Richard, and Lloyd are right in finding in this Mahayana teaching some of the true light which lighteth every man coming into the world, and Richard and Lloyd are right in tracing the Christian teachings found in Buddhism back to Christianity. But the majority of students of Bud- dhism do not accept the high estimate placed upon its teachings and influence by De Groot and in some mea- sure by Dr. Richard. On the contrary, a fair study of Buddhism as it exists at the present time in China, and a fair estimate of its influence, so far as that esti- mate can be gained from Chinese history, reveal the fact that while a few Buddhist priests have succeeded in obtaining a reasonable degree of self-mastery by giving themselves to earnest study, to literature, and to lives of service, nevertheless the overwhelming mass of priests and nuns have degraded Buddhism into a system of gross superstition and have lived upon the fears of the people. Paul Krantz, basing his figures upon the calculations of Dr. Ernest Faber and Pastor “ Groot, J. J. M., de: The Religion of the Chinese, p. 188. ^ Ibid., p. 182. RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 249 Yen, and of the statements made at the missionary conference in Shanghai in 1890, estimates that the total expenditures of the Chinese through superstitious practices, prompted and directed by Taoists and Bud- dhists, reach the enormous sum of over $300,000,000, gold, a year.^*^ W'hether the actual expenditures are more or less it must be borne in mind that the aggre- gate expenditures are enormous, and that they are devoted wholly to the repose of the dead, and not used at all for the benefit of the living. Buddhism has again and again been partially purified by the severe persecutions to which it has been subjected in the Chinese empire; and in their persecutions the Bud- dhists, like all human beings, have relied upon some supernatural power for direction and help. But, on the whole, our study of Buddhism upon the ground and such reports of it as are furnished by a large number of far more competent observers, lead to the conviction that the Mahayana doctrine has been unable to free Buddhism from the superstition and magic into which it has fallen through its attempts to compete with Tao- ism for the support of the ignorant masses. The temple at Taianfu, in which the incantations were per- formed which furnished the religious impulse for the Boxer Uprising, is a Buddhist temple. Religious Struggles in China. Foreign resi- dents of China are aware of the fact that every Chi- nese professes to be a follower of Confucius. At the same time, as death approaches, almost every Chinese family calls in the Buddhist or Taoist priest — and the “ Faber, Ernst: Chronological Handbook of the History of China, p. vi. 250 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION family seems entirely indifferent as to whether a priest is a Buddhist or Taoist — to exercise his magic for the prolongation of life, or to select the burial site for the repose of the spirit of the dead. Hence the general conviction has prevailed that Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism have throughout their history > maintained the friendliest relations with each other. Students of China are indebted to De Groot’s two volumes on Sectarianism and Religious Persecution ° . .1 m China more than to all other sources of information i for the revelation of the hostility which has been main- tained for centuries by Confucianist officials toward the Buddhists and the Taoists; and De Groot’s views are amply confirmed by other historians. Long- continued and terrible persecutions on the one side, and frequent uprisings upon the other, have stained the religious and political history of China. A close study of the Chinese and their history shows the reason for | this religious conflict. From the dawn of Chinese ‘ history the emperor has assumed to be the religious as well as the political head of the nation. Like the Ro- man emperors, he has been the Pontifex Maximus, or “Lord of the Spirits,”^® as well as the emperor. Prob- ably as early as B. C. 2000, certainly before B. C. 1 100, the emperors of China reserved to themselves the right of worshiping Heaven. The restriction of this worship to a single person and a single place in the empire, and the infliction of immediate death upon any Legge, James: The Chinese Classics, vol. iii, part i, p. 215, note. Shi Ching, vol. iv, part iii, bk. ii, ode viii, stanza 3. Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table I, col. 10; compare Legge, James: The Chinese Classics, vol. iii, part i. Prolegomena, p. 194. i RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 251 person aside from the emperor assuming to worship at the temple, may account for the loss of monotheistic worship, if, according to Dr. Ross’s theory, that was the original worship of the Chinese. The emperors of China have gone farther than the Roman emperors in their assumption of supreme spiritual as well as political authority. In most cases the Roman em- peror was not deified until after his death. But from the time when “the memory of man runneth not to the contrary,” the Chinese emperor has assumed to be literally the Son of Heaven, or the Son of God. Lie has usurped the place which W’estern nations assign to Christ, and has sought to act as the mediator be- tween God and man. This is shown by his title. Son of Heaven, which means in plain English Son of God. It is also shown by the fact that every Chinese em- peror recognized any failure in crops, any plague, or famine or flood as demanding the immediate discharge of some mediatorial function upon his part, namely, the confession of sin, the ofifering of sacrifice, and the putting forth of every effort to reconcile God with him- self as his son and with the people of his empire. The imperial authorities have not been unmindful of the tremendous additional power which this assumption of spiritual in addition to political authority has given them. Hence one can readily understand on political grounds why they have determined to maintain at all hazards their spiritual as well as their political authority. On the other hand, one can well understand how re- ligious leaders, with the large influence which their claims of supernatural power give them, not only over 252 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the life that now is but also over the life that is to come, can never rest in subjection to any temporal authority. It has seemed to most leaders of religions claiming external authority that the natural order is rather the subjection of the political authority of a nation to its spiritual powers. In other words, not the emperor but the “Pope,” that is to say, the highest religious authority, is the vicegerent of God, the repre- sentative and wielder of the higher and permanent powers of the universe, and as such he deserves to be, and, in the right order of the universe, is, destined to be the head of all earthly authority. This conflict which has arisen in the history of Judea, of Rome, and of the Christian nations, has never been absent from China. Hence the inevitable conflict between the two realms of authority in China. Confucianism has been the state religion of China substantially from the death of its founder down to the present time, because Confucius, as a moral teacher, defined as the first and most important relation of earth that between emperor and people. This political rela- tion rested back upon the theological view that the emperor was the Son of Pleaven, and as Son of Heaven the supreme religious as well as political head of the nation. Hence the teachings of the Classics as edited by Confucius are favorable to the union of the religious with the political authority of the state. This led early in Chinese history to the establishment of a state re- ligion, divergence from which was heresy. De Groot writes: “Chinese philosophy and politics both abso- lutely forbid freedom of religion and religious doc- trines. The reason why they do so is because un- RELTGTOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 253 orthodox teachings are opposed to the classical teach- ings of the ancients. Confucius condemned all that was not in conformity with the one infallible doctrine embodied in the counsels of Yii the Great, namely, ‘Hesitate not to put away all that is hsieh’ (i. c. not correct). Vii said, ‘The practice of that which swerves from the orthodox, O what harm it causes!’ It was Mencius, however, who first both by word and ex- ample laid upon all future ages the duty of persecuting heresy. He violently attacked all heretics. . . . Ac- cording to him, heresy is ‘everything which diverges from the teachings of the Sages and in particular from three among them,’ viz., Yii, Cheu Kung (Chow Kung), and Confucius. It is certain that to the Chi- nese the true doctrine has always been exactly what was deemed written or edited by that triad. Alencius regarded heresies as dangerous to the state and ‘crit- icisms inevitably end in heresies.’ On the other side, the strength of the Buddhist movement is shown by the fact that soon after the re- turn of Fa Hsien, A. D. 414, bringing more sacred books from India, “nine tenths of the households had embraced the doctrine,”^'* by the fact that under Em- peror Wen Tsung, of the Yuan dynasty, 1280-1368, the priests were allowed to wear the imperial yellow, and that they have been permitted to wear it until the present day.®” We have an even stronger illustration of the political power of Buddhism in the fact that the followers of the Buddhist Messiah, Ming Shih, grew * Groot, J. J. M., de: Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China, vol. i, pp. II, 12. See the entire chapter. ^Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 121, col. 3. “ Ibid., p. 126, col. I. 254 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION so strong that they overthrew the legal emperor and placed a fellow Buddhist on the throne.®^ At any rate, the interference of religious orders with the state was sufficient to lead to many imperial decrees proscribing sectarianism by the government.^^ So De GrooP^ maintains that the bloody rebellions marking the last eighty years of the reign of the Mings, and their downfall in 1644, were caused by severe measures against Buddhism, and that the White Lotus sect of Buddhists played a conspicuous part in the downfall of the dynasty. He writes: “Perhaps Buddhism was the chief agent in that revolution which set the Manchu house upon the throne. By its ragings against a religion of peace the Ming dynasty dug its own grave.”^^ Again, all historians recognize the frightful wars of a religio-political nature waged by the Chinese government and the secret societies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Faber writes: “The struggle from 1795 to 1803 originated in a re- bellion of the White Lily Society composed of Bud- dhists. It broke out in Hupeh, and within four months the viceroy had decapitated between twenty and thirty thousand people. This cruelty made the Buddhists desperate, and the rebellion spread through six prov- inces, costing the government more than $150,000,000, gold, and countless lives for its suppression.”®® Dr. Llawks-Pott says: “The leaders of the White Lily Society, taking advantage of the appearance of a ’’Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 126, col. 2; compare Groot, J. J. M., de: Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China, vol. i, p. 165. ” Groot, J. J. M., de: Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China, vol. i. pp. 154-61. ” Ibid. Ibid., vol. i, pp. 89-91. ” Faber, Ernst: Chronological Handbook of the History of China, p. 239. RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 255 comet, raised the standard of revolt. The main object of the society was the extermination of the dynasty. . . . The rebellion was finally subdued, but at an enormous cost of lives and money.”^® MacGowan writes: “Hardly had Kia King got seated on the throne, however, before a rebellion broke out which gradually spread through six of the richest provinces of China and for nine years caused infinite sorrow and distress. A secret society, named the ‘White Lily,’ and composed mainly of Buddhists, was the cause of this. . . . The whole power of the em- pire was engaged in a life-and-death struggle with it.”®^ \^'erner^* points out the fact that between forty and fifty persecutions and religio-political struggles took place between 1746 and 1850. These struggles occurred in almost every part of China. Werner spe- cifically mentions Anhwei, Chihli, Formosa, Fukien, Honan, Hunan, Hupeh, Kiangsi, Kiangsu, Kwangsi, Kwantung, Manchuria, Shantung, Shansi, Szechwan, and Turkestan as regions through which these strug- gles raged, and he speaks of certain areas as being “drenched with blood.” It is well known that in addi- tion to the wars with the Buddhists, there were two noted Mohammedan uprisings, one in Yunnan, 1855-73, one in Kansu, 1860-73, lo overthrow the Manchu dynasty and establish IMohammedan rule, at least over western China. Paul Kranz®® speaks of over fifty rebellions upon a large scale and of almost “ Hawks-Pott, F. L.: A Sketch of Chinese History, pp. 109-110. MacGowan, John: A History of China, pp. 553, 554. “Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, pp. 132, 133. ’’Faber, Ernst: Chronological Handbook of the History of China, Preface, 256 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION annual rebellions upon a small scale breaking out in China within the last two thousand years, aggregating a loss of life of hundreds of millions; he recognizes too that these struggles were due to the determination of the Confucianists to maintain religious as well as political authority in their own hands. Again, everyone recognizes the Taiping rebellion as a religio-political war. It was simply another phase of the old struggle between religious ambition upon the one side and political ambition upon the other side, for no less a prize than the throne of China with its rule of three to four hundred millions of people. Accord- ing to Williams’s estimate, this rebellion entailed a loss by death, plague, and famine of twenty million lives. According to Parker, the loss of life aggregated over forty million. These indisputable facts go to show that the religious history of China has been far from the peaceful, quiet, unconcerned, half-secular life por- trayed by most Western writers. Possibly the Chinese themselves have learned the lesson which this long and bitter experience teaches ; and the present Chinese au- thorities have accepted the solution of the problem reached in Western nations, namely, the separation of church and state with spiritual liberty for the people as long as they maintain their political allegiance to the ruling power. Our own view is that De Groot lays too much stress upon the religious causes of these wars. In our judgment, these uprisings were due to three causes: (i) religion; (2) acts of spoliation on the part of the ruler; (3) opposition to foreign rulers of the Mongol and the Manchu dynasties. These three factors combined were the cause of most of these wars. RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 257 But that the religious element was predominant is shown in the fact that most of the wars were started by a secret religious society. Summary : Turning now to the evil and the good in the religious life of the Chinese, it is easy for foreign- ers to look upon the dark side and to point out religious faults. First, Confucianism as the state religion displayed a lack of knowledge of the living God. If the early Chinese possessed this knowledge their rulers deprived them of it in order that they might become the medi- ators between God and men. Had Confucius, instead of assuming an agnostic position, emphasized the recognition of a personal and a righteous God, both of which truths are in some measure found in the Shih Ching and the Shu Ching, he would have contributed immensely to the spiritual life of the nation and to the progress of his race. Second, The agnosticism of Confucius in regard to God was matched by his ignorance of the nature of man. He not only assumed that men were and must remain in ignorance of God, but that human nature could be satisfied without spiritual light and life and power. Mencius and Chu Hsi, and Confucius himself, showed an utter lack of any true conception of the nature of sin and of its demoralizing effects upon man. To students their lack of true insight into human nature is more surprising than their lack of knowledge of the divine nature, because they were in conscious and constant contact with men, and with an open vision they must have recognized the weakness and sinfulness of human nature. 258 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Third, Confucianism betrayed a lack of high and lofty conceptions of spiritual beings and of a future life. Indeed, Confucianism in daily practice degen- erated to such an extent that millions of its followers made sacrifices to evil rather than to good spirits. These were made on the low ground that the good spirits will do no harm, whether placated or not, while the evil spirits must receive abundant sacrifices in order to turn them from their evil purposes. Turning to Taoism : First, there has been through- out the years a lack of any true conception of a per- sonal God. Second, Taoism has been pessimistic in its prevailing philosophy from the beginning of its his- tory down to the present time. Third, there was an undue emphasis of fate or of predestination by Chuang Tzu and by Lao Tzu himself, thus robbing the race of moral initiative. Fourth, as already pointed out, Taoism was originally a system of superstition and magic from the degrading influence of which the teachings of Lao Tzu were powerless to deliver it. Turning to Buddhism: First, in its original form as presented by Gotama"*" it was without God and without hope in the world. Second, its conception of life was so pessimistic that the highest desire of its followers was for Nirvana — endless sleep or practi- cal annihilation of the soul. As a consequence, the Hinayana, or original form of Buddhism, after three or four centuries began losing its hold upon India and made little progress in China until it was completely transformed. Third, Ashvagosha’s profound modifi- cation of Buddhism is possibly due to the early influ- “ Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. iv, p. 737, d. RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 259 ence of Christianity, ^^'e are clear in our view that later modifications of Buddhism were due to Roman Catholic Christianity. But whether Christianity was the cause or one of the causes of the Mahayana form of Buddhism, whether the “Great Path” was due to Christianity or not, all must recognize that later Buddhism largely lost its theistic and redemptive character and sank back into the superstitions of its Taoist congener. If the Mahayana Buddhists dis- covered the source of life and light in Christianity, it is difficult to explain why Christianity did not work a deeper and more long-continued change among them. On the other hand, we must recognize that Christianity in its Western forms has been repeatedly corrupted by its followers, that the very nature of a spiritual re- ligion renders uncertain its transmission from genera- tion to generation, because it must be deliberately ac- cepted by each generation and by each individual in order to accomplish its spiritual work in the soul. Hence, whether Mahayana Buddhism was at one time reinforced by Christianity or not, all must recognize that the Mahayana as well as the Hinayana type of Buddhism largely has lost its beneficial influence in the Far East, and has sunk to the level of superstition and magic. Summing up the matter, we may say that Confuci- anism presented a rational system of ethics, but re- vealed no power by which man could regain a high moral life, and lacked the infinite motive of eternal life to prompt to the effort. Hence, with its inability to deliver the soul from sin and with its countless official opportunities for corruption, it soon substituted moral 26o CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION precepts for moral life until, indeed, it came at last, apparently by some strange magic, to identify the ut- terance of moral precepts with morality. So it is that Confucianism has not only proved powerless to ad- vance the nation, but repeatedly has tolerated political corruption and despotism. Taoism and Buddhism both rested on the supposition of the evil of the present world, were pessimistic in their philosophy, found the highest type of life in monasticism, and devoted mon- astic life to idleness instead of service until separation from the world grew into indifference to the sufferings of humanity, and idleness bred wicked imaginations and led to corrupt lives. So far as these religionists took any part in practical life, their services consisted in attempts to expel disease by exorcism and supersti- tion, which cost the people annually millions upon mil- lions of dollars, leaving them more degraded than be- fore. “The history of the world is the judgment of the world.” The history of Chinese religion is the judg- ment of Chinese religion. As the result of three thou- sand years of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, we find the most numerous and virile people on earth continuing in existence a civilization which has been paralyzed for two thousand years. Inventing gun- powder a thousand years in advance of the Western world, they never used it even for national defense; discovering natural gas and petroleum centuries ago, they never dreamed of the possibilities of this marvel- ous fuel. Inventing the wheat drill, the fanning mill, the steam cooker with a dozen divisions, and the com- partment boat, they carried none of these inventions RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 261 forward to their practical possibilities. They carried to great success the art of manufacturing silk, the cul- tivation of the tea plant, and the manufacture of porce- lain; but they lost the first to the Western world, the second to India, and are in danger of losing the third to more enterprising rivals. Above all, discovering five centuries in advance of the Western world the art of printing, they failed utterly to use this mightiest engine of human progress for the general education and advancement of the masses. At the close of three thousand years of continuous history upon their part, and of advancing knowledge upon the part of the human race as a whole, this largest and most virile nation on earth is lying helpless at the mercy of the world. The history of a religion is the judgment of a religion, because religion more than any other agency on earth molds the civilization and the life of the na- tion which adopts it. Hence whenever the Chinese say “Confucianism or Buddhism or Taoism is sufficient, or that all these combined are sufficient, and we have no need of Christianity,” all the missionary need do is to point to China’s present condition. The Chi- nese either must admit that they are by nature so weak and inefficient, so inferior to other races that three hun- dred and thirty million are unable to cope with fifty million Japanese, or else that the Western world has discovered a source of power which they have not yet understood and accepted. It would be unfair to close the chapter without look- ing at the other side of the shield. Taoism, whatever its superstitions, never took its eyes off the future life and the eternal world. It also had the insight to 262 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION choose as its founder the profoundest and most spir- itual philosopher of the Chinese race. Buddhism in China soon adopted the “Broad Path,” or Mahayana doctrine, and it too never lost sight of the spiritual and eternal interests of mankind. Confucianism never lost its vision of the moral duty of man. Like the law of the Old Testament, it yet serves as a divine prepara- tion for the coming of the gospel. Whatever else China has done or failed to do, she at least has continued in existence for a longer time than any other nation on earth, and for a nation long-continued life is a miracle. Not another nation on earth which arose with China has continued in existence down to the present time. Indeed, few nations have enjoyed a lifetime of half a millennium. The only race on earth which in this re- spect can be compared with the Chinese is the Jewish race ; and in this case, while the Jewish race has sur- vived, the Jewish nation has perished. If, therefore, the Chinese system of religion is chiefly to blame for the arrest of her civilization, we must, on the other side, credit the continuance of that civilization chiefly to the same religious system. The Chinese people, es- pecially through the teachings of Confucius, have been imbued for over two thousand years with the concep- tion that they are in a universe of law: they have known that above all the turmoil of gods and spirits this universe is dominated by a moral order. Hence there has been in China a vague, indefinite and yet continuous struggle toward practical idealism. In the universal inculcation of reverence for parents we find the Chinese embodiment of the fifth commandment ; in the adoption of the death penalty for adultery we find RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 263 the embodiment in national legislation of the seventh commandment; in the clear conception of a moral order and the dim perception of a supreme governor of the world, the Chinese catch glimpses of the first commandment — the most vital conception of the Jew- ish people. In their almost universal belief in a future life of rewards and punishments based upon conduct in the present life, we have the recognition of a funda- mental doctrine of the New Testament. In the Maha- yana form of Buddhism we find, according to Dr. Richard, Dr. De Groot, and Dr. Lloyd, an embodiment, however imperfect, of the law of love, one of the funda- mental teachings of the Master : in the Silver Rule of Confucius we have the Golden Rule of Christ in its negative form, while in the teachings of Mo Ti we find the Law of Love in an imperfect form anticipated by half a millennium. Surely, if we say with some re- proach in our tone, “The history of China is the judg- ment of China,” the Chinese can answer with some pride of tone, “Yes, the history of China is the judg- ment of China,” and the}^ can point to a civilization outlasting any other on earth, and to a people at the end of four thousand years of national life still the most numerous and virile race upon our globe, as proof of the good elements embedded in the Chinese religious system. Surely, those who desire to be fair in judg- ment, “to know no man after the flesh, but all men after the spirit,” who believe in a Divine Providence, who accept the teaching of the New Testament that God hath made of one blood all nations of the earth, and that he is equally the God and Father of us all, must recognize in the teachings of Confucianism, 264 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Buddhism, and Taoism, and especially in the use which the Chinese have made of these doctrines, a providen- tial preparation for a higher and diviner destiny than this race has yet reached. If the Chinese follow the apostolic injunction to prove all things and hold fast that which is good ; if they supplement the conservative instinct which has preserved the nation with a pro- phetic instinct which leads to new moral conquests, and to fresh advances in the spiritual life; if they ac- cept Confucianism as a providential preparation of themselves for Christianity, as Judaism was a provi- dential preparation of the Jews ; if they now accept the Bible as a revelation springing up on their own con- tinent, coming from their God as well as our God, and destined for their race as well as ours, the Chinese will yet play a worthy part in the religious history of man- kind. Let them still claim that man was made in the image of God, but let them recognize the sinfulness and consequent weakness of human nature; let them once accept by faith Jesus Christ as the Redeemer, Regen- erator, and Master of men; let them once experience the new birth and the indwelling Spirit, and the Chi- nese may yet lead the world to that ‘‘far-off divine event, to which the whole creation moves.” Books for Reference Eitel, E. H. : Handbook of Chinese Buddhism. Faber, Enist: Chronological Handbook of the History of China. Groot, J. J. M., de: The Religious System of China (6 Vols.) ; Sectarian- ism and Religious Persecution in China (2 Vols.) ; Religion in China; The Religion of the Chinese. Hue, I’Abbe E. R. : Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China During the years 1844- 5-6; translated by G. W. Hazlitt (2 Vols.). Legge, James: RELIGIOUS LIFE AND STRUGGLES 265 The Chinese Classics (6 Vols.). Loyd, Arthur: The Wheat Among Tares. MacGowan, J. A. : The History of China. Pott, F. L. H.: A Sketch of Chinese History. Richard, Timothy: The New Testament of the Higher Buddhism; Awakening of Faith. Ross, John: The Original Religion of China. Soothill, W. E. : The Three Religions of China. Werner, E. T. C. : Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese. Williams, S. Wells: The Middle Kingdom (2 Vols.). Wylie, Alexander: Notes on Chinese Literature. CHAPTER XI CHINESE LAW Some Chinese treatises on law extend to one hun- dred volumes, and the aggregate of Chinese law books is enormous. The civil and military establishments, public revenue and expenditures, national rites and ceremonies, public justice and public works and ad- ministration, each has its body of regulations. Chinese law is said to have originated some twenty- seven hundred years before Christ, in marriage regu- lations.^ It is also said that in the seventy-sixth year of Yao, 2357-2255, the five physical punishments were enacted: branding, cutting off the nose, castra- tion, cutting off the feet, cutting off the head.^ Under Yao’s successor. Shun, these five physical punishments were modified into banishment, the wearing of the kang, the use of the bamboo, and, in case of doubt, into fines. Imprisonment in the early history of China, and for many centuries, consisted in detention of the accused until the trial ; it was not imposed as a punish- ment. While imprisonment later was added as a pun- ishment for crime, nevertheless in China it is not a usual punishment for crime but is resorted to as a method of detaining suspects under harsh conditions until they are ready to confess their crimes. Any study of the early codes of China shows Chi- ' Wemer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of th? Chinese, p. 91, col. i. > Ibid. 266 CHINESE LAW 267 nese law originating in patriarchal law, and it has never ceased to recognize the patriarchal principle. In this regard Chinese law to-day corresponds more fully to Roman law and to the Hebrew law of the Old Testa- ment than to modern legislation. The vital and uni- versally operating principle in the Chinese govern- ment is the duty of submission upon the part of all children to parental authority, and upon the part of all subjects to imperial authority, because the emperor was regarded as the father and mother of the nation. This principle has survived each successive dynasty and all the revolutions through which the nation has passed, and it is yet quite fully embodied in Chinese statutes and supported by public opinion. For in- stance, as there is no question raised in the Bible over Abraham’s right to put Isaac to death or Jephthah’s right to offer up his daughter, so in China the power of life and death is still conceded to the father. The father is not expected to put the son to death himself, but to deliver him to the magistrate for execution. This law is due to two considerations: first, it is sup- posed that natural affection will render every son’s life safe in the father’s keeping; but, secondly, the family and the entire clan are held responsible for crime committed by any member of the clan. Hence, if a son’s criminal tendencies are likely to bring death to the entire clan, the father is expected to deliver him to the magistrate for execution. The husband has also the power of life and death over his wife, but is justi- fied under Chinese law in slaying her himself only in case he discovers her in adultery, and then slays on the spur of the moment both her and her paramour. 268 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION An effort to codify the laws was bound to appear early among a people at once so practical and literary as are the Chinese. The first code which has entered into later codes was framed under King Wu, about B. C. 950, and is translated in full in Dr. Legge’s “The Chinese Classics.”^ Other codes were framed in B. C. 650^ and in B. C. 535-^ These were followed by the code of the celebrated Shi Hwang-ti, about B. C. 220. As Shi Hwang-ti’s code, like most of his work, was largely original and did not conform to established patterns,® it has not entered into later codes so fully as have its predecessors. Shi Hwang-ti’s code was largely supplanted in A. D. 196 by the code of the Han dynasty. This code, drawn up by Hsiao Ho (died B. C. 193), is the standard upon which all the later codes of China are based. Under Kao-tsu, about A. D. 206, a code was drawn up which has since been known as the code of the T’ang dynasty. This consisted largely, not of a transcript of the laws themselves, but of directions to officials in administering justice. In this regard it is an addition to the Han code. Every dynasty since the T’ang has adopted a code. Each of these codes, however, has been composed largely of the older codes with such modifications as the new rulers decreed; but the changes were few as compared with the transmitted code. The ordinary laws of the coun- try, therefore, underwent little change between the Han and the Ming dynasties. The legal records of the Ming dynasty state that all legislation embraced 3 Parker, E. H.: Ancient China Simplified, pp. 109, no. < Ibid., p. III. ‘Giles, Herbert A.: Chinese Biographical Dictionary, p. 394, No. 1039. ‘Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 94, col. i. CHINESE LAW 269 in their code is based upon the nine chapters of the Han dynasty code, issued about B. C. 200. In A. D. 1373 the Ming dynasty published its code which has the same divisions as are embodied in the T’ang code/ Moreover, the present Manchu code, drawn up by Yung Lo, is based upon the Ming code. The Manchu code is called the Ta Tsing Lu, or “Great Bright Legislation.” Sir George Staunton has translated the Ta Tsing Lu in his compendious volume entitled The Penal Code of China. But in addition to the Ta Tsing Lu the Manchu dynasty added its own Li, or addi- tional laws, for the modification and adaptation of the old code to present conditions.® The entire body of Chinese law embraced in the Lu and the Li fills some two thousand nine hundred and six octavo pages. Of these two divisions of the law, the Lu are generally recognized as the fundamental laws of the nation, and the Li as the statute laws of each dynasty, modifying these fundamental laws. Alabaster holds that the Lu, or basic code, is not a dynastic but a national code; that is, that the founder of a new dynasty would not be free to substitute new laws for the established code of the nation ; this would be a violation of Chinese na- tional custom and of the Chinese sense of right. This violation of Chinese custom and this adoption of an original code by Shi Hwang-ti was one of the causes of the speedy downfall of his dynasty. Alabaster says, “The head of a state in legislating afresh may not follow his own arbitrary will, but, on the contrary, ' Journal N. C. B. R. A. S. New Series, vol. xi, p. 41. ® Note. — The Li are translated and published in the Notes and Commen- taries on Chinese Criminal Law, Together with a Brief Excursus on Law and Property, by Sir Chaloner Alabaster, edited by Ernest Alabaster. 270 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION must obey certain general principles known to the country at large.'’** This statement confirms the opin- ion expressed in the chapter on Chinese government, that while the government is a despotism in name, it is nevertheless in fact subject to limitations. “The same principle is repeatedly laid down by the Manchu emperor, K’ang-hi, that was asserted by the Roman emperors, viz., though above the law, the emperors considered themselves bound to live under the law.”^“ The distinction between the Lu and the Li is some- times likened to that between common law and statute law. This statement is not quite accurate because the Lu as well as the Li are embraced in the published code. Moreover, the Li while practically adding to and modifying the Lu, nevertheless are treated rather as by-laws under a charter than as additions taking rank on an equality with the sections of the charter. The toleration of this addition of the Li to the Lu by the Chinese is due to their desire to reconcile abstract and ancient law with modern justice. The Chinese legal motto runs, “If the law does not provide a remedy for injustice, one must be found.” The Li is an attempt on the part of the emperor to frame such new laws as the new and unusual conditions in par- ticular cases may demand. Another Chinese legal proverb is : “The law lays down great principles. The Li accommodate these principles to human nature.” Again: “In all ages a person has been considered more important than property.” With this brief review of the origin and development •Alabaster, Ernest; Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law, Introduction, p. xliii. Journal N. C. B. R. A. S. New Series, vol. xi, p. 39. CHINESE LAW 271 of Chinese law, let us turn to a consideration of its character. Gibbon writes, “The laws of a nation form the most instructive portion of its history.” Medhurst says, “The laws of China are numerous, minute, and circumstantial, and give the best idea of the character of the people and their advance in civilization which could possibly be furnished. A conspectus of the laws of China furnishes us insight not only into the government of China but also into the national habits and character, the conditions and the stage of civiliza- tion of the Chinese people. Nevertheless, we must not trust too implicitly to laws to reveal the character of a people, because laws may be found upon statute books which are seldom or never executed. At this point Alabaster furnishes us an additional source of knowl- edge, because he gi\-es not only the laws themselves but the decisions of the courts in many cases. These de- cisions furnish illustrations of the administration of law in China and reveal far more authoritatively than the statements of travelers, or of foreign residents or students, the actual state of civilization upon numerous points of morals covered by the decisions. But the laws and the cases recorded under them by Alabaster do not furnish an exhaustive knowledge of Chinese civilization, because the cases which he cites are not exhaustive, and especially fail to cover numerous trials in court in which there was a miscarriage of justice. This misuse of law, or failure to secure justice, is to be severely condemned; but in forming our judgment of Chinese civilization we must recog- nize it. In a word, we need a knowledge of the law “ Medhurst, W. H.: China, pp. 131, 132. 272 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION itself, the knowledge furnished by cases in which the law has been enforced or modified by the sentence of the judge, and also some knowledge of the cases in which criminals through bribery have escaped the law, in order to get a clear knowledge of the civilization of the nation. We lack authoritative knowledge on this last point. The following may serve as illustrations of the code : “The land tax is supposed never to exceed two per cent of the annual produce of the land.”^^ A remedy for crime which was put in practice for a time consisted of an appeal to the sense of shame instead of the threat of punishment — the criminal being compelled to wear a green kerchief for a time proportionate to the crime. Women convicted of lewdness were compelled to wear a green handkerchief on the head; and bad women to-day are sometimes called “green handkerchiefs.” In A. D. 1869 ^ named Chao committed a capital offense by misappropriating government funds. At the time of his execution his daughter appeared with him before the magistrate and said : “My mother died when I was seven years old. My father has brought me up on funds taken from the government. As my life has depended upon his defalcations, I must claim the privilege of dying with him.” The officials re- ferred her case to the emperor, who, impressed by the filial piety of the daughter, lowered the crime below the death penalty. Wine and spirits causing the tem- porary loss of reason and the commission of many crimes, the death penalty was decreed and inflicted on manufacturers, venders, and purchasers of intoxi- ‘2 Medhurst, W. II.: China, pp. 131, 133. CHINESE LAW 273 cants in the twelfth century before Christ.'^ The de- cree has been repeated whenever drunkenness has threatened to become widespread; and as a conse- quence the Chinese are aniono- the most solder people on earth. In the jieriod of disruption, A. D. 221-589, a law was passed that fugitive criminals should have their feet cut off so that they could no longer run away from justice. Eor the same reason thieves lost their hands, the licentious were mutilated, etc.“ In the reign of Yang-ti, of the Sui dynasty, the people were forbidden to carry arms, and another decree was issued in A. D. 196 ordering the people to deliver all weapons up to the government on pain of execution.^® Again, in A. D. 1336, the Chinese were forbidden to carry arms, a prohibition always indicative of an ad- vance in civilization.^® In A. D. 999 before a magis- trate of Hangchow a brother brought action against his sister for the recovery of his share of the paternal estate. The brother-in-law appeared in the defense and testified that the father died when the contestant was three years old, that just before his death he had made the will leaving three tenths of the property to the son and seven tenths of the property to the daugh- ter on condition that the daughter and her husband bring up the son, and he showed the will in proof of his statements ; and the conditions were in accordance with his testimony. The magistrate accepted the will, and in announcing his judgment pronounced the father a wise man who knew that the little son would not sur- “Wemer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 95, col. i. ** Ibid., p. 95, col. 2. Wemer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 97, col. 2. Miss Simcox: Primitive Civilization, vol. ii, p. 130. 274 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION vive him long unless he bribed the daughter and her husband to bring him up by willing them the larger share of his property. He further expressed the judg- ment that the father relied upon the judge to correct this seeming injustice to his son, and the figures in the will showed how the father really wished the property divided, namely, seven tenths to the son, and three tenths to the daughter. Accordingly, the judge re- versed the terms of the will in accordance with the meaning which he read into it. This decision is praised by the Chinese^^ as Solomon’s decision discovering the true mother of the surviving baby has been praised by the Jews.^* An attempt to prevent usury by decreeing the loss of the money loaned and other punishments was made by the late dynasty in 1561.^® These illustra- tions furnish some conception of the law and its ad- ministration. A study of Chinese law reveals the following fea- tures : First. In the early laws of China corporal, or physical, punishment is prescribed for almost every crime. This form of punishment continues to a large extent down to the present day. But so many grounds for the modification of punishment are now specified that its infliction is not so common as the law itself might lead one to suppose, though corporal punishment prevails throughout China to a far greater extent than in any country of Europe or America. Second. Chinese law is characterized by the se- verity of its penalties, combined with leniency in their ” Werner, E. T. C. : Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 97, col. 2. '* I Kings 3. 16-28. *• Mendoza: History of China, Introduction, p. 42. CHINESE LAW 275 enforcement. The law in China, as in many Western countries, is thus made very broad and severe in order that no real criminal may slip through its meshes. On the other hand, where there is evidently no intention upon the part of the transgressor to violate the law, or where there are mitigating circumstances, the law is not expected to be strictly enforced. However, the lower judges are not allowed to exercise this leniency. The court must put down opposite the crime of which it finds the culprit guilty the punishment as prescribed by law, and then write after the penalty the phrase, "Subject to revision.” The case is then sent up to the higher authorities and through them to the emperor who receives the credit for the leniency exercised. Upon the whole, it is said that this exercise of leniency upon the part of the emperor where the moral offense is not great has a salutary effect upon the people. But the promulgation of laws which are not expected to be strictly enforced leaves abundant opportunities in China, as in Western nations, for corruption of offi- cials who are called upon to enforce the laws. Never- theless, Staunton maintains that while many criminals escape through bribery, no very frequent or long-con- tinued lawlessness fails of punishment in China. Third. Chinese law is characterized by the tendency to draw fine distinctions in order to attain exact justice in each particular case. This makes the law complex and its enforcement slow and difficult. The golden mean lies somewhere between the attempt to reach the national ideal of exact justice upon the one side, and, upon the other side, promptness and certainty in the “Staunton, Sir George; The Penal Code of China, Introduction, p. xxiii. 276 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION administration of the laws. Western statesmen have no more reached this golden mean than have Chinese statesmen; and possibly Chinese laws are not more complex than is Western legislation. Fourth. Chinese law is marked by the absolute sovereignty of the law within its own realm. Thus, theoretically, no military intervention with the civil law is tolerated in China, and Alabaster cites many cases under the late dynasty where this principle has been rigidly enforced. But the Chinese have a pro- vision permitting the execution of suitable punishment by the emperor whenever the safety of the state de- mands it. This provision is similar to the provision in the United States for the proclamation of martial law, save that in the United States the suspension of civil law is proclaimed in advance, whereas in China the official must assume the risk of acting in time of dan- ger and rely upon securing vindication later. Yuan Shi Kai secured such a decree from the Supreme Court of China in 1914 absolving him from all guilt for suspending civil law and the execution of martial law during the late rebellion. Fifth. The administration of justice in China is modified by the large amount of local self-government which prevails throughout the nation. Alabaster, in his introduction, writes: “There is a considerable amount of local self-government in China.” In its simplest form it is the self-government exercised by the head of the family. From this there has been evolved the self-government exercised by the head of the clan, then the authority passed from the oldest to the most capable man in the clan — usually a man with CHINESE LAW 277 a literary degree. In addition to the family and clan laws, the various gilds have their statutes for the man- agement of the business of the various members; and the gilds, either individually or combined, largely regu- late all commercial transactions throughout the nation. Hence, the national law of China is largely confined to the collection of the revenues and to the maintenance of public peace. “All the mass of what we call com- mercial and civil jurisprudence no more concerned the government, so far as individual rights were con- cerned, than Agricultural Custom, Bankers’ Custom, Butchers’ Weights, and such like petty matters ; wher- ever these or analogous matters were touched by the State, it was for commonwealth purposes, and not for the maintenance of private rights,”^^ This ap- parent indifference of the government to individual rights is due to the fact that these rights are guarded by family, local, and gild customs and regulations, save so far as some local injustice threatens the peace of the State. Sixth. The Chinese legal system is marked by the supremacy of the imperial decrees over all local regu- lations. Local self-government, theoretically, does not con- flict with the principle of the supremacy of the Lu and the Li, for the clan is regarded as, after all, sub- ject to the imperial law. To the Chinese, therefore, it seems incredible that any single State in the Union, like California, should be able to pass laws contraven- ing in any measure the treaties of the central govern- ment or the action of the national government as eni- “ Parker, E. H.: Ancient Chinese Simplified, p. 109. 278 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION bodied in Congress, or any executive order of the President. It seems to the Chinese government still more incredible that a private syndicate, like that headed by the late Senator Brice, of Ohio, could sell the concession to build a railway from Hankow to Can- ton, which China freely granted the Brice syndicate through her friendship for the American government, to a Belgian syndicate without first obtaining the con- sent of the American government to the transfer. It may be added, however, that while the Chinese nation is theoretically supreme over gilds and clans and all local authorities, yet the Chinese government hesitates and, indeed, refuses to set aside the gild or clan laws save so far as these interfere with the general welfare of the nation. It may also be said that family law is so strong in China and the members of the family or clan live in such close contact, and the interference of a stranger in falnily or clan conflicts is so frequently for purposes of plunder, or for the sake of some per- sonal advantage, that Chinese law forbids any inter- ference with a family quarrel, a family fight, a family robbery, or even family murder, save by an official charged with the responsibility of maintaining the public peace. This regulation, which compels a stranger to stand idly by, even though he witnesses one member of a clan robbed or murdered by another mem- ber thereof, springs from the long experience of the Chinese under family relationships. Seventh. A striking feature of the administration of public justice is the lack of provision for litigation. Although the people are somewhat litigious and quite willing when once engaged in a quarrel to employ CHINESE LAW 279 others to help them secure the victory, yet there is no professional class of lawyers. The place of lawyers in China is taken by the middlemen mentioned in Chapter V, who serve as mediators between the con- tending parties. These men are not simply authorized to interpret existing laws, but their authority re- sembles that of commissioners in our country; and they are authorized to make additional regulations and agreements for the settlement of difficulties. The Chinese have two classes of men who may to some extent be connected with cases before the courts. Since a law published in the tenth century and gen- erally observed down to the present time prescribes that all petitions shall be in writing, there is a class of notaries, or scribes, who may draw up complaints to present to the magistrate. But so strong is the objection upon the part of the Chinese authorities to litigation that it is illegal for a Chinese notary to write a paper constituting an argument of the case for a litigant. Indeed, punishment was sometimes meted out for such offenses upon the part of notaries. There is another class of men corresponding very closely to legal counselors in Great Britain and the United States. But only the officials are authorized to employ such counselors, and their function is, through their superior knowledge, to direct the official in the administration of the laws so as to protect him from transgressing legal bounds. Here, again, Ala- baster cites the case of a counselor, who, although seventy years of age, was sentenced to eighty blows by ** Alabaster, Ernest; Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law, P- 59- 28o CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the bamboo and two years’ imprisonment for appear- ing before an official without that official’s invitation and attempting to bring down the offense of a pris- oner from a charge of murder to that of man- slaughter. The prohibition of the use of lawyers in China has some grave limitations as well as advantages. Fre- quently an official does not receive an important office until he is an old man. Then if he fails or neglects to secure the services of a counselor of law, whose services in such a case are entirely legal, he often falls into maladministration of the law. This maladmin- istration of the law upon the part of the official is quite as often due to his desire to secure a bribe from one of the petitioners as it is to his willful ignorance of the law. Eighth. Another peculiarity of Chinese adminis- tration of justice is the method of judicial procedure. The judge attempts by an examination of the witnesses against the prisoner and also by an examination of the culprit to ascertain the exact facts bearing upon the alleged crime. He then turns to the government coun- selor, or to the law books, to find out under which definition of crime this case most nearly falls. He then has no alternative save to write opposite the crime of which he finds the prisoner guilty the penalty fixed by the code for this crime, but may add the words, “Subject to revision.” Thus it will be seen that the authority of the Board of Punishments to decrease or increase the penalty creates a very strong desire upon the part of a criminal or his friends to secure the favor of that board. This furnishes very great CHINESE LAW 281 opportunities for corruption. While tliere are numer- ous cases of political corruption in Western lands, and numerous illustrations of failure to enforce the laws through the desire of officials to secure the support of the criminal class, nevertheless the corruption of jus- tice, and especially of judges in China, has been more serious and is deeper and more widespread than is known in Western lands. Ninth. A marked characteristic of the Chinese legal system is that of social responsibility for crime. A father is held responsible for crimes committed by any member of his family. The head of a clan and in some measure the entire clan is held responsible for a crime committed by any member thereof. Undoubt- edly, this arrangement is far from ideal; and this feature of Chinese law, like the feature of parental responsibility in Roman and Jewish law, is doomed to disappear. Nevertheless, the following consider- tions tend to mitigate the injustice and to make the system more tolerable in practice than it seems in theory: The father of the family or the head of the clan or gild is closely associated with those under him, and is therefore expected to be fully aware of the faults and crimes committed by the members of his gild, clan, or family. Moreover, if the head of a gild or family knows that a member is vicious, he ought to go to the head of the county or prefecture and deliver up this guilty person for punishment, or at least lodge complaint against him. Knowing the father’s natural affection for his son, the civil authorities in parental cases usually follow the father’s judgment, and may go so far as to inflict the death penalty upon a son if 282 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the father so advises. Hence, with this intimate knowledge and large authority, the father is held responsible for the conduct of all the members of his family. If, therefore, he permits crime to develop, the Chinese hold him responsible for the crime. Chinese officials are not held responsible for individual crimes committed in regions under their supervision, but they are held responsible for any large increase of crime or for a rebellion, on the ground that they ought to know the people over whom they have been appointed to rule, and that prompt and impartial administration of justice on their part will prevent society from falling into disorder. As a matter of fact, two results have followed the Chinese practice of social responsibility for crime. First, there is a tendency to suppress the facts in regard to crime, so that parents and officials may escape any penalties therefor. A free press will pres- ently remedy this evil. Second, the responsibility of the head of the household, and in some measure of the entire household, and at times of an entire clan or gild for the crime, together with the severe penalties imposed upon criminals and their families, has made crime in China probably less in proportion to the popu- lation than in the United States. Considering the downfall of the IManchu dynasty in 1911-12, the rebel- lions of Sun Yat Sen and White Wolf in 1913, and the famines which these rebellions and the overflow of the Yangtze and of the West river caused, the marvel is that the Chinese people maintain so large a measure of general peace and order and self-control as has characterized the nation since the downfall of the late CHINESE LAW 283 dynasty. The Chinese are a quiet, orderly, peace- lo\dng people. Tenth. The grave defects in Chinese administration of justice are: the wiekling of the judicial and execu- tive authority by the same person. The judge ex- amines the witnesses and becomes in some measure the prosecutor. In addition to this defect, there is still graver fault in the use of torture and imprisonment to extract the truth from witnesses, or a confession from the accused. In addition to these serious defects, the government fails to provide adequate salaries for the judges and administrators. Not only is the official left without sufficient salary for himself, but the head of a city, the judge of a court, and the collector of the revenues must provide all the agencies for the carrying forward of administration in the city, the court, or in the revenue department, from the fees which he collects or extorts in the administration of his office. Unfortunately, when one begins to extort fees or to accept bribes for the necessary expenses of administer- ing his office, and thus confounds public and private interests, he seldom stops with the acceptance of suffi- cient fees or bribes to cover the legitimate expenses of administration, but attempts speedily to enrich him- self out of these illegal fees. The corruption of justice impresses foreigners as the most serious fault in Chinese administration of law. The evils of the Chinese administration of justice by the general government are in a considerable meas- ure limited by the large amount of self-government enjoyed by the various communities and gilds. “The common law is administered by the people themselves. 284 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION . . . It is a question whether liberty in any other country, even in our own, has ever advanced beyond this stage.”^^ Williams expresses the following com- parative judgment of Chinese law and its administra- tion: “Still, with all its tortures and punishments allowed by the law, and all the cruelties put upon the criminals by irritated officials and rapacious under- lings and jailers, a broad survey of Chinese legisla- tion, judged by its results and the general appearance of society, gives the impression of an administration far superior to other Asiatic countries.”^^ A favor- able comparison between Chinese legislation and the legislation of Western countries has been made by the Edinburgh Review: “By far the most remarkable thing in this code appeared to us to be its great reason- ableness, clearness and consistency — the businesslike brevity and directness of the various provisions, and the plainness and moderation of the language in which they are expressed. There is nothing here of the turgid adulation, the accumulated epithets, and fa- tiguing self-praise of other Eastern despotisms, but a calm, concise, and distinct series of enactments, savor- ing throughout of practical judgment and European good sense. . . . And redundant and absurdly minute as these laws are in many particulars, we scarcely know any European code that is at once so copious and so consistent, or that is so nearly free from intri- cacy, bigotry, and fiction.”^® Alabaster concludes that the Chinese system of law as a whole is a subject for admiration rather than “Journal N. C. B. R. A. S. New Series, vol. xl. pp. 14-16. “Williams, S. Wells: The Middle Kingdom, vol. i, pp. 391, 392. “The Edinburgh Review, vol. xvi (1810). p. 476, English edition. CHINESE LAW ridicule by Western critics. Western residents in China who have made any thorough study of Chinese law and of its administration will agree with Ala- baster. Probably a fair judgment of the Chinese system of justice may he summed up in the following conclusions: First, the grave blemish in Chinese administration of law is official corruption. Second, the system of law in China resembles Roman and Jew- ish law more than it resembles European or American law. Third, Chinese law is not so favorable to indi- vidual rights and does not encourage individual initia- tive so much as American law. In this regard its patriarchal origin and its paternal character are a serious blemish. Fourth, with a single criminal system for the whole nation and with family, gild, and local legislation subject to the national law, and with one national Board of Punishments, or Supreme Court, to review all the capital criminal cases in the nation, criminal law and administration in China is more uni- form than in the United States. Fifth, commercial law being subject so largely to various gilds is even more complex in China than commercial law in the various States of the Union. Sixth, with the centuries upon centuries for the elaboration of their legal system, with the practical common sense of the Chinese and the high moral code of Confucius, the Chinese legal system, with the exception of its emphasis of the family as the unit of society, compares favorably with the legal system of Western nations. Chinese law tends to confirm Maine’s theory that the movement of pro- gressive society has been from status to contract, and from the family as the unit of society to the individual 286 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION as the unit. China, until recently, has been in the status of the family stage. In the reaction from the ancient conception. Western governments went too far in the direction of freedom of contract and of pure individualism, and a healthy reaction is now in prog- ress in the Western world, while Japan and China in the Eastern world are moving toward individualism. The human race will reach a wiser administration of justice by this interaction of Occident and Orient. The golden mean lies in a combination of the highest interests of the individual with the highest interests of the famly, the nation, and humanity; and this con- stitutes the ideal for both Oriental and Western na- tions. The chief failure of Chinese administration of justice lies, not in the law, but in the men who have administered it. The Chinese themselves are begin- ning to accept the Christian program and to recognize that the New China is impossible without a regenerate Chinese; that a higher type of manhood is essential for the successful adoption by the Chinese of Western civilization. Christian ideals of patriotism and of unselfish service are supplanting the earlier ideals which regarded official life as a profession to be prose- cuted for the benefit of oneself and family. The rapid recent growth of patriotism, the substitution of the national for the family ideal, the frequent exhortations of Yuan Shih Kai against official corruption, all reen- forced by recent acts in the punishment of corruption, remind one of a similar course taken by the Chinese government some years ago against the growth of the poppy and the use of opium, and furnish some ground CHINESE LAW 287 of hope that in China a movement is setting in against official and judicial corruption similar to the move- ment which is sweeping opium out of the nation. Stu- dents of recent Chinese affairs know that not only have good officials been frequently mentioned by name, and some of them decorated with honors, and bad offi- cials warned, but that three high officials. Yen Feng Kang, Tao Chih Fu, and Ku Chi Huang, have been severely punished for corruption; while one official, Lu Tsing Hsi, has been executed for accepting bribes. Moreover, the nation was stirred in October, 1914, when Lieutenant-General Wang Chih Hsiang, an old and loyal friend of Yuan Shih Kai, was convicted of official corruption. The court found this corruption at- tended by circumstances of such cruelty and tyranny that the offense under Chinese law was death; and the lower court affixed the death penalty, writing after it, “Subject to revision.” The case with the report of these aggravating circumstances was sent to the Board of Punishments, or Supreme Court, in Peking. The Supreme Court found Yuan Shih Kai’s old friend guilty, and, in view of the aggravated circumstances accompanying his crimes, the court felt compelled to confirm the death penalty. While many believed that Wang Chih Hsiang would lose much of his ill-gotten wealth, officials lit'tle dreamed that he would be executed. According to law, the sentence was sub- mitted to Yuan Shih Kai for his final approval or modification. Before Wang Chih Hsiang’s friends could lodge a plea for mercy. Yuan Shih Kai wrote under the sentence, “Let him be shot immediately” ; and the next morning at daylight the dumfounded 288 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION official was carried to the execution grounds, his face drawn and distorted with horror, and there he was summarily shot. It is said that Yuan Shih Kai shed tears over the death of his friend, but declared that, at whatever cost, corruption must be uprooted. Public sentiment is even stronger against judicial corruption than against the use of opium, because corruption benefits only a few, while the indulgence of opium was enjoyed by a multitude. Hence, although corruption is still flourishing, it is at least possible, that within a few years this abuse may be disappearing from China as rapidly as the use of opium is disappearing to-day. We must anticipate the disappearance of social re- sponsibility for crime in the near future. Along with the increase of individualism, the Chinese people may expect the practical acceptance of the freedom of the press and of freedom for women. These reforms will be attended in the beginning by a recrudescence of crime. But the inevitable abuse of freedom, until the people learn its proper use, is no justification for with- holding this boon from the common people. The Chinese, with their strong sense of social order, with their ingrained respect for the high ideals inculcated by Confucianism, with their large common sense and their love of peace, will adapt themselves to the larger freedom of the twentieth century; and they will build up on the splendid foundations already existing a system of legislation which will compare favorably with that of any Western nation. Surely, this will be true if Chinese law is modified by the influence of the Christian religion and if the Chinese people experience CHINESE LAW 289 the power of an indwelling Christ even to the moderate extent to which Christianity has affected the legisla- tion and purified the administration of justice in the Western world. Books for Reference Alabaster, Ernest: Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law, Together with a Brief Excursus on Law and Property. Jemigan, T. R. : China in Law and Commerce. Morse, H. B. : The Gilds of China. Parker, E. II. : Ancient China Simplified. Simcox, Miss: Primitive Civilization. Pig- gott. Sir Francis: Letters on the Chinese Constitution. Staun- ton, Sir George: The Penal Code of China. Werner, E. T. C. : Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese. Williams, E. T. : Trans- lation of Recent Chinese Legislation Relating to Commerce, Railways, and Mining Enterprises. CHAPTER XII POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA It matters little whether the principles which the political history of China reveals first emerged at the dates usually assigned by Werner, some two thousand years before Christ, or at such later dates as Hirth and Giles name. The undisputed facts are that the principles of Chinese government emerged early in Chinese history, and that they have largely molded the subsequent life of the nation. Two main questions which arise in the study of human governments are : ( i ) What does the govern- ment exact from the individual in taxes for its support, and how far does it abridge personal liberty in the exercise of its powers? (2) What safety of person and property and what aids to living does the govern- ment furnish the individual in return? In general, China has never exacted large tolls from the masses in the way of taxes, and she has never greatly in- fringed upon the personal liberties of any large num- ber of peaceable subjects. Both of these statements are contrary to the general opinion in regard to Chinese government, and yet we believe that a careful examination of Chinese history will vindicate them. Upon the other side, while Chinese society is so organ- ized that persons and property have been quite as safe as in most civilized countries, the government has con- tributed almost nothing, in the way of roads, schools, 2QO POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA 291 and public improvements for the advantage of the people. In a word, we should say that civil govern- ment bulks smaller in China than in almost any other modern nation. These views will become clearer from a fuller study of Chinese government. Theoretically, Chinese government is a despotism pure and simple. Practically the authority of the emperor is limited by many restrictions. Theoreti- cally, the emperor always has been supreme. He has been regarded not only as the father and mother of his people but as the Son of Heaven or of God and the vicegerent of God, and as such theoretically he has always enjoyed the right to exercise full power not only over the property but also over the liberties and lives of his people. As the representative of Heaven, not only the Chinese but all other nations were assumed to occupy a subordinate relation to his impe- rial majesty. As the representative of Heaven, the Chinese emperor has freely exercised the power of exalting and degrading his dead subjects in their rela- tions in the other world as well as controlling the liv- ing in their relations in the present world. That the imperial authority has stretched itself beyond all human bounds is shown in the chapter on the “Relig- ious Life and Struggles” of the Chinese. I. The fundamental modification of this theoretical despotism arises from the fact that the Chinese government is largely patriarchal in form, and also in substance. The family has been the unit of society and of government in China from the earliest history of the Chinese; and the family has continued as the unit of society down to the present time, and is only 292 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION now being displaced as the unit of government. The Chinese government has never been in practice such an irresponsible despotism as Western writers have frequently represented it to be, because the emperor’s authority, in the Chinese phrase, is that of “father and mother of his people.” But the father, in the very nature of the case, is supposed to love his family, and to guide them wisely, and to promote their highest interests. This conception of the emperor gives him upon the one side complete control, but demands upon the other side the use of this authority in a fatherly fashion. A Chinese proverb says : The Emperor is the father of his people. Not a master to be served by slaves. 2. In addition to this view, or as Meadows^ claims in contradistinction to this view, civil government in , China rests upon moral agency rather than upon patri- ; archal authority. The Chinese never have drawn the distinction between government by moral influence, and civil government as resting in the final analysis upon military force. Upon the contrary, they main- tain that the most potent and lasting influence of a sov- ereign springs from his example, and that if any sovereign lives a righteous life, his people will be- I come a righteous nation. This, according to Mead- ] ows, is the fundamental conception of government i in China — a conception in which Lao Tzii, Buddha, t and Confucius agree and which Mencius fully con- f firms. Moreover, Meadows holds that the long life I of the Chinese nation is due to three principles : ( i ) f' • Meadows, T. T.: The Chinese and Their Rebellions, pp. 400-404. POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA 293 The nation must be governed by moral agency in preference to physical force. (2) The services of the wisest and ablest men in the nation secured by civil service examinations are indispensable to good government. (3) The people have a right to depose a sovereign who, either from active wicked- ness or vicious indolence, gives rise to oppressive and tyrannical rule. Meadows maintains that under the patriarchal principle the son never has the right to resist his father, no matter how cruel or tyrannical the father may be, but that one of the oldest and most deeply rooted national doctrines is the right of rebel- lion and of killing a tyrannical ruler. He contends that the three principles, namely, government by moral example, securing the ablest men for officials by com- petitive examinations, and the right of the people at any time to depose and put to death a wicked sovereign, are the cause of thfe long life of the Chinese nation. Meadows lays undue emphasis upon the value of civil service examination; as a matter of fact, as seen in the chapter on “Educational Life in China,” despite civil service examinations, or rather, because of civil service examinations, Chinese government became corrupt. Nevertheless, IMeadows’s view is largely correct, and this view removes Chinese gov- ernment far from an absolute despotism. 3. No emperor has been omnipresent. Either he has been forced to remain at the capital and send forth his decrees to the ends of the empire and trust their enforcement to his representatives, or else he has spent his time traveling over the empire in order to learn exactly how his representatives were ruling in his 294 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION name. If he remained at the capital, he was neces- sarily limited in his knowledge as to how his decrees were being carried out. If he traveled through the empire, in his absence the imperial authority remained largely in abeyance, or was exercised by ministers. In either case a limit to despotic power arises from the physical limitations of the emperor. 4. The empire has often been involved in a life-and- death conflict with another nation, or in formidable up- risings within the nation when the continuance or downfall of the throne was being settled upon the battlefield. These battlefields were often distant from the capital. Here, again, the emperor was obliged to decide whether he would go with the army or remain at the capital, and there exercise general control over the nation. While, theoretically, he was regarded as having all military as well as all civil authority, yet if he remained at the dapital in order to control the nation as a whole, he was confronted by a twofold danger — that of losing the empire through the loss of the battle, and that of yielding authority a little later to a successful general who had won the hearts of the army through his victory upon the battlefield. 5. Another limitation, less dramatic but even more effective, has arisen through the emperor’s lack of omnipotence. Theoretically, he may indeed control every act upon the part of every person within his empire. Practically, it is impossible for him to exer- cise this authority in one case in a million, or even to know in one case in a hundred how the authority is exercised by his representatives. Hence we find that as early as the Chow dynasty, B.C. 1 122, this authority POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA 295 was intrusted to six boards, the heads of which were expected to carry out the will of the emperor in the departments assigned to them. These boards were substantially as follows: Prime Minister, Board of Education, Board of Religion, Board of War, Board of Crime, Board of Public Works. Every minister came in some measure into personal contact with those over whom the decrees were made efifective, and he was sobered by the responsibility of executing them; he often discovered difficulties of which the emperor was ignorant in the way of literal enforcement of decrees, or reasons for gradual obedience upon the part of subjects. Moreover, the minister knew that his popularity as a representative of the emperor and his ability to remain in office depended upon the lack of friction with which his office was administered and the decrees of the emperor enforced. He well knew that in case of any general upheaval upon the part of the people he would be made the scapegoat and would suffer the loss of his office and probably of his head, while the emperor would be held blameless on the ground that the minister had outrun the imperial wishes. Despotism is thus often paralyzed by the lack of omnipresence and omnipotence upon the part of its author. 6. From the earliest ages before issuing decrees the emperor was expected to consult the ministers who must enforce them. He was thus obliged to govern in some measure in accordance with ministerial advice. So large was the authority often exercised by min- isters, that Confucius warned China of the danger of usurpation of authority upon their part. Mencius, on 296 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the other side, warned China of the danger of em- perors acting without suitable consultation with their ministers. Each warning was needed, and out of this double warning, and out of the long experience of the Chinese nation in dealing with these problems, there grew up a twofold conviction : first, the supremacy of the emperor in the last resort; second, the obligation of the emperor to hear and give good heed to the advice of his ministers before issuing any decrees binding upon the nation, and calling upon these ministers to execute it. 7. A far higher restriction of despotism was found in the codes of Chinese law discussed in the preceding chapter. While the emperor, theoretically, was the source of all authority, nevertheless he was bound to rule in accordance with a code. Unless he proclaimed a code or accepted the code already proclaimed by his predecessor, his will could not be known to the utter- most bounds of his empire. But the moment he adopted the code of his predecessor or issued a new code, the emperor himself, as well as his subjects, was limited by that code.^ As has already been pointed out in the chapter on Chinese law, the code consisted of two portions : The Lu, or laws coming down from pre- ceding emperors, and the Li, embracing such modifi- cations or additions to the code as the new emperor thought necessary in order to adapt the ancient laws to the existing conditions of the state. The emperor was not at liberty to disregard the codes adopted by his predecessors. Indeed, Meadows® declares that the ’Williams, S. Wells: The Middle Kingdom, vol. i, p. 384. * Meadows, T. T.: The Chinese and Their Rebellions, p. 119. POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA 297 Chinese codes of law throughout the history of the nation have been national rather than dynastic. Wylie^ speaks of one division of the historic books known as the Ching Shu, or “Treatise on the Consti- tution,” which did for China what case law does in Western countries. It furnished the emperor the pre- cedents which had been maintained upon almost every possible subject of administration, and the precedents which had been set aside, and furnished the reasons which had been given for this final disposition of former cases. Wylie speaks of two hundred and forty- four volumes of such cases “commencing with the earliest period of history and continuing down to the middle of the eighteenth century.” Again, he de- scribes these volumes of precedents as constituting “one of the most complete and masterly works of the kind ever issued.” Such a work shows clearly that in practice China has been far removed from an irre- sponsible despotism. Still, again, Wylie speaks of this library of precedents and of the various published codes as the “constitutional means for solidifying and unifying the legislation and the public sentiment of China through restricting imperial authority within legal precedents.” Whatever may be the theoretical view of imperial authority, in practice throughout her long history surely the Chinese have been far removed from the pure despotism. 8. Another method of influencing the emperor was adopted during the Han dynasty, and consisted of making one of the ministers the historiographer of the empire. It was his duty to keep a daily record of ‘ Wylie, Alexander: Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 68. 298 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION the conferences of the king with his ministers and to record the decision which the ministers reached on the one side, and on the other the attitude toward this decision taken by the emperor, and the decrees which the emperor issued in accordance with or in contravention of the advice of his ministers. This book with its frank revelation of the inner life of the imperial administration was never to be read by the emperor, and was to be published only at the close of the dynasty. The emperor’s knowledge that in the most solemn conferences with his ministers, and in his lightest conduct, all his decisions and acts and the motives which prompted them were being faithfully recorded for the judgment of posterity tended to re- press despotism and promote just conduct upon the part of any man who was at all sensitive to criticism, or cared for the approbation of future generations. We have also many proofs in Chinese history of the honesty and fidelity of this group of men in recording the evil deeds as well as the glorious acts of the sov- ereigns under whom they lived, and of the influence which this daily record had in restraining tyranny. And this office has continued down to the present time. 9. Along with the ministers who served as the ad- visers of the emperor, we find appearing early in Chinese history a Board of Censors, a body of men especially selected to rebuke the emperor or his min- isters for maladministration. This board also has continued down to the present time and over and over again has discharged an heroic part in the history of China. Summing up the restrictions upon despotism, we POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA 299 find tliat in the fundamental conception of the emperor as the father and mother of his people, in the other fundamental conception that sovereignty rests upon moral influence rather than upon military force, in the emperor’s lack of omnipresence and omnipotence, in the necessity inhering in his limitations of dividing his authority with a Board of Ministers, in the necessity of issuing a code of law in order that his will may be made known throughout the empire, the necessity of observing this code himself as well as demanding obe- dience throughout the nation after it was once pro- mulgated, and in the fact that the code was national rather than personal in its character, in the possession of a historiographer, and in the Board of Censors, the Chinese imperial rule is hedged about with so many limitations as in some measure to transform the empire into a constitutional form of government, but with large gaps left for personal caprice and oppression. Moreover, China has derived some remarkable bene- fits from the large authority centered in the single ruler of a great empire. In time of war such author- ity becomes almost a necessity for the largest military efficiency, and probably the exercise of this immense authority has developed in China a larger number of truly great rulers than any other nation in history can claim. Also, the large authority centered in one man in China has given him power to accomplish great reforms in a comparatively short time. The de- cree in the twelfth century B. C.®, denouncing drunken- ness as treason on the ground that its spread would lead to the downfall of the kingdom and of civilization. * Weraer, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table II, col. 7. 300 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION and ordering all manufacturers, sellers, and drinkers of intoxicants put to death; the repetition of that decree by subsequent sovereigns,® so that China has remained the soberest nation in history ; the abolition of opium by imperial decrees, sustained by public senti- ment, and the decree against slavery issued by Prince Chun in 1909 — though not yet fully carried out — all illustrate the great ease with which evils can be legally abolished by imperial decrees. China’s success in war and in such reforms as she has earnestly undertaken to accomplish has been due in part to the large au- thority which she has centered in the emperor, but with a paralysis of all individual initiative in governmental affairs outside the imperial will. But subjects are concerned not simply with the in- terference of the government with freedom but with its interference with incomes. From the date of the Chow dynasty, B. C. 1122, revenues for the support of the government have been derived from the tax on land, usually not expected to exceed two per cent of the value of the crops ; from a duty on iron and salt, on silk, on the minting of currency, and on tea. This last tax has been imposed since A. D. 793^ and is one cause of the loss of the tea market by China to India and to other countries. In recent years China has also derived a five per cent tax from imports and a far larger tax called “likin” from the importation of goods into provinces, and in some cases into pre- fectures and into cities. She has also derived some means for the support of the government, or perhaps • Bashford, James W.: Notes, bk. 30, p. 69. ’ Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, Table V, col. 6. POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA 301 rather for the enrichment of the governing bodies, by levies upon the rich, upon officials, by graft and by tribute imposed upon subject nations. She has also received a population tax paid by the various provinces for the support of the central government, though we think the governor has been expected to pay this popu- lation tax from the land revenues and that no direct poll tax is levied on the people. In general, the system of taxation in recent years has not been especially bur- densome upon the masses of the people, though graft to an exceedingly burdensome degree has been levied upon persons held in jail awaiting trial or remanded for punishment after their conviction for crime. This system of taxation and of corruption has been in vogue from perhaps a thousand years before Christ down to the present time. Despite all the corruption which attends their collection and administration, the taxes of China are far lighter to-day than the taxes of Japan and of most Western countries. This is perhaps due to the fact that no offense would so speed- ily cause a revolution among the Chinese as the im- position upon them of additional taxes. Increase of taxes has been a fruitful cause of the downfall of dynasties and of the downfall of countless Chinese officials. Often there has been an attempt to conceal taxation through debasing metallic currency, or through an overissue of paper currency. This was one cause of the downfall of the Sung dynasty, of the Mongol dynasty, and of the Ming dynasty. Another marked feature of the Chinese government, though by no means peculiar to that government, is the long struggle between feudalism and nationalism. 302 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION or between the barons and the emperor. The struggle began at least a thousand years before Christ. Con- fucius, who lived B. C. 551-478, exerted his strong in- fluence in favor of a central government as over against the feudal governments of his time. He thus helped to transform China into a nation. In B. C. 535 Hsiang Shu (or Heang Seuh) attempted to form a truce between the contending parties in this struggle by the establishment of a Peace League and the aboli- tion of war. The Peace League failed in part at least, because it was brought forward with selfish and ambitious motives, and aimed to secure the headship of the empire for the state to which Hsiang Shu be- longed, and the personal leadership of Hsiang Shu in that state. The triumph of nationalism over feudalism in this early struggle was due, first, to the sufferings of the farmers from the petty exactions of their feudal lords, from the foragings of robbers, and from feudal wars; second, to the ability of the national officers secured through competitive examinations ; third, to the exist- ence of one written language throughout China and to the common ideals which then prevailed among the literary class ; fourth, to the all-embracing moral sys- tem of Confucius,® and especially from his efforts to strengthen the central government. While Mencius, one hundred years after Confucius, guarded against the tyranny of the central government better than did his master, yet he too favored nationalism as over against feudalism, and these two Sages of China have exercised a vast influence in favor of the national ideal. " See Oxenham’s Atlas, Preface, p. ii, quoted in Werner, p. 43, col. 1. POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA 303 The immediate triumph of nationalism was due to Shih Hwang-ti, the Napoleon of China, who overthrew the feudal states, transformed China into a nation, and took the title of Emperor the First. He built the Great Wall as a defense against Mongolian horsemen armed with bows and arrows, and he attempted to destroy the literature of China because the scholars tried to check his despotism and quoted the Classics against him. Although his persecution of the literary class has made his name despised throughout the history of China, yet the nation which he formed numbered thirteen million seven hundred thousand people at his death® and China became under Shih Hwang-ti the strongest nation on the earth. A reaction immediately followed, and provinces again became independent kingdoms after Shih Hwang-ti’s death. But the Han dynasty, B. C. 206-A. D. 221, maintained nationalism against feudalism by the justice of its rule, by the per- sonal strength of its rulers, and by the fact that this dynasty engaged largely in foreign wars which led to a union of the Chinese under their warrior emperors, and again consolidated the petty kingdoms of China into the Chinese nation. But the period following the Hans, A. D. 221-589, was characterized by a great weakening of the central government, and such a growth of feudalism that China broke up into three kingdoms: viz., the Wei kingdom in the north, with its capital at Kaifengfu in Honan; the Wu kingdom in the south, with its capital at Nanking; and the Hsi kingdom in the west, with its capital at Hochow in Szechwan. This period was characterized not only by * Werner, E. T. C.: Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 42, col. i. 304 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION the break-up of the empire but by sixty-one short- lived dynasties. A. D. 589-960 is the glorious period of the T’angs. Under the T’ang dynasty feudalism largely decreased and the central government became strong again. On the weakening of the T’ang dynasty and the reappear- ance of feudalism the founder of the Sung dynasty grasped the scepter from the last of the T’ang rulers and founded another dynasty, which continued the glorious traditions of China from A. D. 960-1127. Only the Sung, the T’ang, and the Han dynasties are in the eyes of the Chinese worthy to be compared with the golden age of Yao and Shun and Yii — the reigns which were glorified by Confucius but which are wrapped in legendary lore. Once more feudalism revived as the later rulers of the Sung dynasty became corrupt and weak ; and there arose a foreign dynasty — the Mongol, or Yuen, dynasty — under Kublai Khan and his greater son, Genghis Kahn, who restored the national ideal and made China again a great empire, ruling from the Pacific to the Caspian. The same struggle between nationalism and feudalism characterized the downfall of the Mongols and the rise of the Mings; and the downfall of the Ming dynasty and the rise of the Man- chu dynasty; and on the downfall of the Manchu dynasty the struggle between national authority and provincial independence has reappeared. The following causes help account for the weakness of government in China. First. Despite the strength of individual rulers and the periods of remarkable strength upon the part of 1 POUTTCAL LIFE IN CHINA ‘ 305 the nation, China was in the hands of an alien race from A. D. 1644 to 1911. Moreover, the Manchu dynasty, instead of allowing its people freely to mingle with the Chinese and the two races to melt together into one and so become a strong single race, has main- tained the isolation of Manchiis and forbidden their intermarriage with the Chinese. Hence, while the dangers confronting the dynasty bred a Kang-hi and a Kien Lung, nevertheless the Manchu consciousness of weakness and the knowledge of the rulers that they were not a part of the people whom they ruled, and that their three or four hundred million Chinese sub- jects were not backing their administration, paralyzed the government and made it weak. Second. As already pointed out, the family, and not the individual, has been the unit of Chinese society. This has resulted in devotion.to the family rather than loyalty to the nation. The Chinese who became offi- cials under the Manchu dynasty were regarded as were the publicans and tax-gatherers among the Jews, and in return used their positions for the enrichment of their families rather than for the service of the gov- ernment or of the people. For instance Li Hung- chang’s salary at the height of his power was some 1,540 taels, or $1,150 per annuni.^® Nevertheless, at his death he was one of the richest men in China, and one of the rich men of the world. Only as patriotism supplants family devotion and the love of the Chinese race supplants ancestral worship, will China become a strong nation. Again, it must be borne in mind that the father and mother conception of government grow- Secret Memoirs of Count Hayashi, p. 272. 3o6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ing out of the organization of Chinese society upon the basis of the family has weakened individual initi- ative and has led the people to rely upon officials for all leadership in governmental affairs. Hence, while the people show remarkable initiative in individual business, they have contributed little toward the up- building of the nation. Third. China, under the influence of Confucius, has been looking backward rather than forward for the last twenty-four hundred years. Benjamin Kidd“ calls attention to three stages in civilization: First, the stage of authority in which the governing motive lies in the past. Society is naturally divided into the priests and the prophets, the conservative and the progressive parties, and the conservatives always quote precedents, are governed by customs, and anchor authority in the past. Such a civilization never be- comes progressive, and fails to adapt itself to its pres- ent and to its advancing environment. Mr. Kidd calls attention, second, to the great efforts of the utilitarian philosophy to overthrow authority and to anchor gov- ernment and civilization in the greatest good of the greatest number. If by the greatest number the utili- tarians were to include posterity, their ideal could be far more safely followed. But with the greatest num- ber embracing simply the present generation, and that generation looking to present happiness, utilitarianism degenerates into epicureanism. No lofty motives for self-sacrifice and no heroic action will be developed by a utilitarian philosophy. If the old Chinese civilization is doomed because it was anchored solely in the past, " Western Civilization. POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA 307 Mr. Kidd points out that utilitarianism is equally doomed because it is anchored solely in the present. Mr. Kidd maintains, third, that Western civilization, by which he means the civilization of Europe and es- pecially of the United States, has grown by leaps and bounds because it has substituted a future goal instead of either past authority or present indulgence. He maintains that only as parents look forward and plan for the future of their children, only as children deny themselves, become earnest students and make preparation for future careers, is family progress pos- sible ; that only as states and nations are governed, not by authority emanating from the past or by considera- tions of comfort and pleasure existing in the present, but by ideals demanding the future for their realiza- tion, is rapid progress possible. A false conservatism has been a striking cause of the weakness of the Chi- nese nation. Fourth. Another cause of the weakness of the Chinese nation has been her isolation. Set off from the rest of the world by geographical causes and by Pharisaic pride, isolated from God through a loss of monotheistic worship, the Chinese nation has suffered from intellectual and spiritual inbreeding. Such an in- breeding always results in pride and self-sufficiency, and pride and self-sufficiency always result in a sta- tionary civilization. A fifth possible and probable cause of the weak- ness of national government in China is the amount of local self-government which the people have exer- cised from immemorial times. For this reason, the people have not been greatly interested in the national 3o8 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION government. National government as conducted in j China, with its large regard for local self-government, concerned the people vastly less than in most Western lands. The two points of vital concern were the main- tenance of public order and the amount of taxes col- lected. Whenever a section of the country was over- run or threatened by invasion, it called loudly for national help, and for the time being accepted gladly imperial direction. But local order was largely main- tained through the responsibility of an entire family for the crime of any of its members. Hence the taxes were the one point where the general government | came into vital contact with the people; and the in- I ternal history of China shows that at this point the I people were intensely concerned. In a word, the gen- : eral government in China did not confer any wide- | spread and vital benefit upon the people. Here is one | of the deepest causes of lack of popular interest in the < central government, and especially in the old Manchu f government, and of the consequent weakness of po- litical institutions in China. Whatever may be the causes, we have in China the strange phenomenon of a people of remarkable strength and initiative in all industrial, commercial, intellectual, and social lines living under a government whose weakness is the amazement of all students of political affairs. The immediate form which government in China will assume and the functions it will perform will de- pend in part upon the outcome of the European strug- gle. Yuan Shill Kai is deeply impressed with the strength and efficiency of Germany. Should Germany temporarily triumph in the present struggle, Japan and POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA 309 China would follow largely in her footsteps and not only attempt to maintain autocratic rule but to in- crease governmental functions, with a consequent de- crease of individual initiative in business. One cause of the great superiority in governmental efficiency of Japan over China is the fact that for forty years Japan has molded her government on the German pat- tern. But this has also been one cause of the failure of Japanese business men in competition with Chinese business men in the neutral ports of the Far East. Un- questionably, the autocratic is the superior form of government during the progress of a war. But while nations should be prepared for self-defense and should consent to the suspension of some civil rights during war, nevertheless, war is not the normal state of the human race. The advocates of autocracy maintain that if nations are not engaged in a military struggle, they are in a state of industrial warfare, and that an autocratic form of government adds to the efficiency of a nation in the industrial struggles of modern states. If this theory is correct, a despotic form of government with state socialism is the goal of civiliza- tion. No large and sane body of political thinkers ac- cepts this philosophy. China tried the experiment on a nation-wide scale in the thirteenth century, and after trial, China rejected it. Considering the terrific in- crease of national indebtedness and the paralysis of individual initiative in business in Germany and Japan, the people of the United States are surpassing both in material gains, while enjoying freedom in countless details of life denied to their brethren across the seas. Above all, with man’s innate and ineradicable love 310 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION of freedom, even were militarism, which is an integral part of an autocratic form of government, to triumph temporarily in the present struggle, it would no more dominate Europe permanently than did Napoleon after the victory of Leipsic. Militarism, whether in the form of a German army, or a British navy, or a French Napoleon — militarism, either as Japanese Shintoism, or Russian autocracy, or the white races’ claim to dominate this globe, is doomed under a divine providence in which God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth, in wEich Christ has tasted death for every man, and called us all to a common brother- hood in a heavenly kingdom. With moral freedom committed to man by God as the essential condition of moral responsibility, and with political freedom as the corollary of religious freedom, a European autocracy would be followed by another Reformation, and a re- ligious Reformation would be followed as of yore, by the growth of political freedom. The human race cannot rest either in the political anarchy of the ex- treme pacifists, or in the political and industrial despot- ism of the extreme advocates of efficiency. It will find peace somewhere along the line of the golden mean between the two. With an entire reorganization of her system of taxa- tion and administration, with suitable salaries for offi- cials and the abolition of all forms of graft, with an extension or, rather, introduction of education by the government preparing the people for adaptation to their environment and for participation in public af- fairs, with a gradual grant of suffrage so that the people may become interested and intelligent sharers POLITICAL LIFE IN CHINA 31 1 in public responsibilities, with the maintenance of swift and sure justice in all parts of the nation; with the streng’thening of the central government, so that the nation may maintain her integrity and sovereignty against all foreign aggressors; with the reorganiza- tion of the currency and tariff laws; and with the establishment or, at least, the control of the means of transportation ; with governmental encouragement of the opening of her mines ; with scientific hygiene, af- forestation, agriculture and breeding of animals; and, underlying all, with a quickening of the moral life of the Chinese by vital union with Jesus Christ, China will yet reach that stage of civilization which God has or- dained for all his children. Books for Reference Same as for the preceding chapter with the following addi- tions : Hayashi, Count Tadasu : Secret Memoirs. Kidd, Ben- jamin: Western Civilization. Oxenham, Atlas, Preface, p. ii, quoted in Werner’s Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese, p. 43> col. 3. CHAPTER XIII THE DOWNFALL OF THE MANCHUS No government will better repay historical study than China. The story is as interesting as romance, and the facts are necessary for the understanding of the political conditions in the Far East. To explain recent history, we must go back far enough to see how the late dowager empress, Tzu Hsi Yehonala, came to the throne. We have drawn upon Messrs. Bland and Backhouse for most of the materials relating to the romantic ca- reer of Tzu Hsi. This chapter is largely a summary of their volume of over five hundred pages. These men announce that they compiled their volume largely from the State Papers of China, and the private diary of Ching Shan, who was for many years comptroller of the household of the empress dowager, and was thus familiar with the inner life of the rulers. This book is acquiring increasing weight as an authority. To begin at the beginning, Nurhachu, who founded the Manchu dynasty, 1644, married a maiden whose family name was Yehonala, and these two clans sup- plied the sovereigns for China throughout the Man- chu reign. So far as blood is concerned, the late dynasty descends from the Yehonalas as fully as from the Nurhachus. But female blood did not count among the Manchus; the descendants upon the male side alone were entitled to wear the Yellow Girdle of royalty, while the members of the Yehonala clan wore 312 DOWNFALL OF THE MANCHUS 313 the Red Girdle; the late struggle between these two clans is suggestive of the Wars of the Roses in Eng- land; though the “wholesome fear of the empress dowager’s divine wrath prevented any definite cleav- age.”^ In Pewter Lane, near the Legation quarter of Pe- king, there was born in 1835 of the Yehonala clan a little girl, who by a strange destiny became the ruler of China, and who is known by the formal name, Tzu Hsi. Among her childhood playmates was a kinsman, Jung Lu, to whom by common report Tzu Hsi was betrothed from birth.” The report cannot be verified and we cannot read the hearts of men, and especially of women, to know that these two loved each other. But they showed many signs of lovers, and Jung Lu was devoted throughout his life to Tzu Hsi’s plans; and on various occasions risked his life for her, and quietly exercised great influence over her. The course of true love never runs smooth, and in 1852, sixty of the fairest maidens of the Manchu aristocracy were summoned to court, that concubines might be selected for the young emperor Hien Feng.^ As Tzu LIsi was beautiful and bright, she was among the ones selected, and poor Jung Lu was left desolate. In 1856 Tzu Hsi bore the emperor his only son, T’ung Chi. This led to her advancement to a position next to that of the empress herself. In this new position she acquired great influence over the emperor, took a prominent part in advising in regard to affairs, and showed far more ability and spirit in dealing with the Taiping Re- * Bland, J. O. P., and Backhouse, E.: China Under the Empress Dowager, p. 3, 4. * Ibid., p. 8. ^ Ibid., p. 9. 314 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION bellion than did the emperor himself, who had been stricken with paralysis. The enemies of Tzu Hsi charged that her love for Jung Lu never ceased, and that the young captain of the guards in charge of the palace was frequently recognized by the young concu- bine of the emperor.^ In i860 Peking was captured by the British and French, and Hsien Feng fled to Jehol, taking the royal family with him. It is possible that he doubted the fidelity of his beautiful and forceful concubine, but did not care to antagonize her plans until he was beyond her reach. On the other hand, it is possible that Hsien Feng was only half conscious, and knew not what he did when his hand was guided by others to sign a de- cree appointing three regents and putting the little emperor. Thing Chi, into the keeping of the wife of Prince Yi, chief of the men who were conspiring for the throne,'* instead of leaving him in the care of his able mother. Again, it is possible that with the indif- ference which characterized the emperor he yielded to the persuasion of his counselors and appointed the regents on their recommendation. Giles® and Faber’ hold that the eight counselors, including the regents, plotted the death of the emperor’s three brothers, of the emperor’s wife and of Tzu Hsi. At any rate, a few hours before his death, in 1861, Hien Feng signed the decree appointing three regents and committing T’ung Chi to their care. Tzu Hsi was expected by dynastic custom and court ‘ Bland, J. O. P., and Backhouse. E.: China Under the Empress Dowager, p. 8. ‘ Ibid., p. 33. » Giles. Herbert A.; Chinese Biographical Dictionary. Nos. 1019. 2114, 2116. ’ Faber, Ernst: Chronological Notes for a History of China, p. 241. DOWNFALL OF THE MANCHUS 315 etiquette to reach Peking in advance of the regents and of the royal body whicli they were bringing home for burial. This would give her an advantage over the regents, and it was urged by Su Shun, the strong- est of the conspirators, that she should be assassinated on the journey. But she was accompanied by Jung Lu and his faithful band, and reached the capital in safety. Moreover, Tzu Hsi had concealed the royal seal a few days before the emperor’s death, suspecting the purpose of the regents, and she brought it to Peking with her. The imperial stamp is absolutely essential to the validity of any supposed decree pro- duced after an emperor’s death. As the imperial de- cree appointing the three regents was not stamped, Tzu Hsi insisted that it was never really issued by Hien Feng, but was an act of usurpation. The con- spirators had committed a fatal blunder in permitting her to reach Peking in advance of themselves. She ac- quainted Prince Kung, the brother of Hien Feng, more fully with the plot of the counselors to put him and her and the dowager empress to death; and she and the Prince appointed Jung Lu in charge of the troops in the city. As the regents entered the northwest gate with the body of the emperor they were quietly appre- hended, denounced as usurpers, and Su Shun, the leader, and one of the richest men in China, was promptly executed and his property secured ; the other two regents were condemned to suicide ; the remaining counselors were banished; and the dowager empress, Tzu An, with Tzu Hsi, assumed the rule. As Tzu An was the widow of the late emperor; as Tzu Hsi had borne the emperor his only son; as her advance- 3i6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ment next to that of the empress after bearing this son was in accordance with Chinese custom; as she had demonstrated her ability as a strong adviser, and the emperor had maintained her at his side down to his death ; and especially as the imperial decree appointing the three regents had not the royal seal, the leaders of such opinion as existed in China were inclined to re- gard the act of the supposed regents as an attempt at usurpation. At any rate, China peaceably accepted Tzu An and Tzu Hsi as regents during the minority of T’ung Chi. Meanwhile Tzu Hsi’s appropriation of the immense estate of Su Shun gave her ready money to carry out her plans. Thus two women, nominally, but one prac- tically, ruled the empire as regents for the twelve years from i86i to 1873. Tzu Hsi had picked out A Lu-te as the wife for T’ung Chi; she saw him safely mar- ried, and placed the scepter in his hands when he was seventeen years of age. But the young emperor died in the second year of his reign, a few months before his wife was to give birth to an heir. Chinese custom prescribed a pause in announcing the future ruler of the empire awaiting the birth of this child. In case the child was not a son the dynastic law governing such cases required the selection of Prince Kung’s son as the next in succession. But Tzu Hsi, during her twelve years of rule, had grasped the reins of government very firmly and had become a very acceptable ruler. As the conditions were perilous, she decided not to wait for the birth of an heir before selecting a person for the vacant throne. She also passed by the son of Prince Kung and selected Reproduced from Harper's Weekly. Emperor of China, Kwang-su (See Chapter XIII) DOWNFALT. OF THF MANCHUS 317 Kwang’-sii, son of liis younger brother and of Tzu Hsi’s favorite sister, as emperor. Prol)ably this choice of the heir was due in part to family pride and affection, and in part to the fact that Kwang-su was only three years old and offered ample time for a second regency ; whereas Prince Kung’s son was fifteen or sixteen years old and would soon come to the throne. Li Hung Chang, who was at that time the leading statesman of China, heartily approved Tzu Hsi’s choice, and through his support, through her own popularity, and because she had all the forces of the empire at her disposal, she entered successfully upon a second regency which lasted for fourteen years. T’ung Chi’s widow died before giving birth to an heir, and the complications which would have arisen had she given birth to a son were thus avoided. Some have hinted that a death which fell out so opportunely for Tzu Hsi may have been brought about through her instigation. Certainly, during her reign she put to death many persons whose lives threatened her power less than did A Lu-te’s. In 1881 the dowager empress, Tzu An, the widow' of Hsien Feng, wdio had jointly ruled with Tzu Hsi, died. No suspicion ever attached to Tzu Hsi wdth reference to her death, inasmuch as she was thoroughly domestic in her habits, never made the slightest attempt to rule the empire, and always indorsed Tzu Hsi’s actions. Hence during the last years of her regency Tzu Hsi ruled alone. But it wdll be remembered that Kwang-su, of both the Yellow Girdle and the Red Girdle Clan, was the son of a younger brother of Prince Kung, and that under the laws of imperial descent the throne belonged 3i8 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION to Prince Kung’s son. If Kwang-su grew up a con- servative and followed Manchu precedent, or Chinese precedent for that matter, he must needs surrender the throne to the son of Prince Kung. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that by training and inclina- tion, Kwang-su grew up a liberal ; and here is the first point where this strange story touches upon the po- litical revolution of China. Some of Kwang-su’s tutors, including Kang Yii- Wei, were selected from Canton, which on account of its long commercial connection with the Western world has been the most progressive city in China. At that time far more Cantonese visited the Western world and returned with Western ideas than people from any other part of China. Moreover, some of the men selected as tutors and advisers of Kwang-su had become political radicals. They failed to grasp the principles of political evolution. During Kwang- su’s reign, 1889-1898, the times were out of joint. The Chinese people as a whole were embittered against foreign aggression; they were deeply humili- ated by their defeat in the war with Japan in 1894-95 ; and they were greatly impressed by Japan’s political progress. Kwang-su was strongly moved by a book on Japanese reforms. These conditions, and es- pecially the threatened partition of China among the Western nations, led Kwang-su to feel that radical ac- tion was needed in order to save the nation. As there was no hope in bidding for the support of his fellow Manchus unless he was willing to follow the Manchu and Chinese law of descent and surrender the throne to the son of Prince Kung, Kwang-su was driven to ! DOWNFALL OF THE MANCTTUS 319 j the opposite course of attempting such a revolution as ' would lead to the regeneration of China, inaugurate a new era of progress, bring the Chinese masses to his side, and thus establish morally a new dynasty which I should rest upon the support of the Chinese nation rather than upon the Manchu contingent. Hence, in 1898, Kwang-su, at the suggestion of K’ang Yii-wei and other radical advisers, began issuing reform de- crees, following one decree by another almost before I the paper was dry. He issued seven decrees between ' September first and fourth, and eight more during the next seventeen days: as if a new China could be created by paper pronunciamentos. He startled the empire; and instead of rallying the Chinese to his sup- port, created almost as much consternation among them as among his Manchu relations. He thus started not a reform but a revolution in China. In this crisis the destiny of China rested with Jung Lu and Yuan Shih Kai. Yuan Shih Kai had risen rapidly in political favor, had been an official in Korea, had there seen something of the new life of Japan, had had a leading part in the recent war with Japan, and had seen the hopelessness of outworn practices and institutions in a struggle against a nation guided by Western science. Hence at the close of the war with Japan he was a most earnest advocate of a new army for China after Western models. Accordingly, he had been intrusted with this task; and he had, in 1898, the strongest army not only in north China but in the na- tion. Probably his reform measures at Tientsin, and as governor of the Chihli Province, led Kwang-su to feel that he could rely upon Yuan Shih Kai in carry- 320 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ing out a reform program. Yuan Shih Kai was at that time judicial commissioner of Chihli,® Jung Lu being governor-general of Chihli and commander-in- chief of the foreign drilled troops.^ The emperor sent for Yuan Shih Kai and asked his support in maintain- ing the reform policy but did not fully disclose his plans to him. As Yuan Shih Kai was especially anx- ious for a reform of the army, he promised the emperor his support, and was assigned to “Army Reform.”^” Jung Lu was unswerving in his loyalty to the empress dowager, and Yuan Shih Kai was the only man who could secure the support of the troops as over against Jung Lu. The empress dowager heard of Yuan Shih Kai’s summons into the presence of the emperor, and she immediately sent for him and questioned him closely. She found that he had pledged the emperor to undertake the reform of the army on Western lines. She readily consented to this reform, but told Yuan Shih Kai that the emperor had other purposes, and she ordered him to report to her after he next saw the emperor. In the next meeting with the emperor the conversation was apparently confined to army reform, and again Yuan Shih Kai pledged his loyalty. At a third interview, before dawn three days later, the em- peror ordered Yuan Shih Kai to take charge of an engine on the Peking-Tientsin Railway, go immedi- ately to Tientsin, kill Jung Lu, and bring back Jung Lu’s troops, whom Yuan Shih Kai could easily con- trol, and with these troops arrest the empress dowager. Yuan Shih Kai did not call upon the empress dowager * Bland, J. O. P.. and Backhouse, E.: China Under the Empress Dowager, p. 201. ' Ibid., p. 202. Ibid., p. 203. I DOWNFALL OF THE MANCHUS 321 ’ after either of these two last visits to Kwang-su; but I he saw the absurdity of attempting to create a new China by mere paper decrees. He recognized that the empire was upon the verge of revolution, and that the only person who could prevent the revolution or pre- serve the empire from division among foreign nations was the empress dowager. Hence Yuan Shih Kai de- cided promptly in favor of Tzii Hsi: he went to I Tientsin, as ordered, showed Jung Lu the emperor’s decree for his execution, informed Jung Lu of his purpose to place the empress dowager back upon the ; throne, and arranged for Jung Lu’s prompt support with troops. He returned the same day to Peking, promptly placed his own troops around Kwang-su’s residence and made the young emperor his prisoner, September 20, 1898. Kwang-su placed the scepter back in his aunt’s hands, and remained practically a prisoner of state during the remaining ten years of his life. It must be remembered that Tzu Hsi had violated the law of imperial descent in placing Kwang-su upon the throne; and that Yuan Shih Kai, first in support- ing Kwang-su as emperor and later in placing the scepter back in the hands of Tzu Hsi instead of in those of the oldest and most direct descendant of the throne, condoned this violation of the law of imperial descent. Probably this was one of the factors which inclined him to lean toward liberal government. Tzu Hsi had violated the law of imperial descent; and she had broken the more important law of spiritual descent in choosing her nephew to succeed her son as emperor. These two cousins belonged to the same generation. 322 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Under Chinese law Kwang-su, being selected asthe son and successor of T’ung Chi, must perform the an- cestral rites for the repose of T’ung Chi’s soul. But under a higher Chinese spiritual law, one cousin can- not perform the ancestral rites for another cousin. The person adopted as a son must always belong at least to a generation later in descent than the person adopting him; and Tzu Hsi in selecting Kwang-su as emperor, thus making him the son of his cousin, had not provided for the repose of T’ung Chi’s soul. This was a far more serious offense and a far more grievous danger to the throne in her own eyes, and in the eyes of the Chinese people, than the violation of the law of imperial descent. But Tzu Hsi was self-willed and violated both the spiritual and political law with ap- parent impunity. Nevertheless, she was deeply stirred when the imperial censor, Wu Ko-tu, openly rebuked her for impiety in not providing for the repose of the soul of her son in the other world ; he prophesied that dire distress would fall upon the empire as a result of her wickedness, and sealed his prophecy with his blood by committing suicide. Kwang-su had bitterly dis- appointed Tzu Hsi by becoming far more radical than she desired, had brought China to the verge of revolu- tion, and had forced her to seize the reins of govern- ment again. She therefore publicly confessed her sin in making Kwang-su emperor, announced the eleva- tion of Wu Ko-tu in the next world, and selected Pu Chun, the great-grandson of the Emperor Tao- kwang, as the heir apparent. Tzu Hsi thus attempted to arrest the revolution, to propitiate the ancestral spirits, and to solve the dynastic problem all by a DOWNFALL OF THE MANCHUS 323 prompt reversion to the conservative system. But China had reached such a stage of unstable equi- librium, and the reaction against Kwang-su’s liberal- ism was so decided, that it quickly developed into a conservative reaction called the Boxer Uprising, June 20- August 14, 1900. We do not think Tzu Hsi planned this revolution, but she was swept much farther in the conservative re- action than she intended to go. It is remarkable that her ablest advisers, Li Hung-chang, Chang Chih- tung. Yuan Shih Kai, and Jung Lu, in this crisis, all attempted to hold her to the golden mean; and Jung Lu, now generalissimo of Chihli, together with the other three men in charge of three provinces, held back their people from participating to any large extent in the Boxer Uprising, and protected the lives of for- eigners. It is further remarkable that three secre- taries of the Tsung-li Yamen went so far in trying to protect the lives of foreigners and also to preserve China from the partition which they thought would inevitably follow the execution of the decree, that they secretly changed the decree of the empress dowager ordering the massacre of all foreigners throughout the provinces, substituting the word “protect” for “de- stroy.” They knew well that they would pay for this act by their lives. They quietly sent their families away from Peking and calmly waited at the capital until the decree in the form in which they had written it had reached all the governors and word had come back from some of the conservatives expressing sur- prise, and inquiring more fully as to the meaning of the decree. Then they endured death by the linchi 324 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION process — the process of slow slicing of the body — in return for changing the imperial decree/^ After the close of the Boxer Uprising — one of the most remarkable sieges of history, during which the lives of foreigners were saved apparently only through providential intervention — the world was again startled by the foreign nations calling Tzu Hsi back to the throne of China; and she reentered Peking January 7, 1902. This was due to the fact that part of the foreign nations, including America, were greatly opposed to any attempt to partition the empire, that no partition could be agreed upon which would not prob- ably result in international war, and that Tzu Hsi had demonstrated through a quarter of a century that she was the most competent ruler of China known to the foreigners, and that she could command the support and obedience of the Chinese nation. Some have ex- pressed great surprise at the liberalism which char- acterized Tzu PIsi’s conduct and words during the last period of her regency after her restoration to power. Probably this was due to two causes : she had found that her efforts to propitiate the gods and to obey the dynastic laws had resulted in a more over- whelming and conspicuous defeat than China had suf- fered under the liberalism of Kwang-su. She knew that Prince Tuan, grandson of the Emperor Tao- kwang, and the father of Pu Chiin, had led the Boxer Uprising and that all foreigners demanded at least his banishment, and many of them demanded his death. She discovered Pu Chiin already had developed quali- ties which showed that he was utterly unfit to be the " Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 205, c. DOWNFALL OF THE MANCHUS 325 sovereign of China. Possibly also she noticed that he was within a year or two of the age when he would assume the reins of government and she must again retire. Above all, we must remember that Tzii Hsi belonged to the Red Girdle Clan, and that during a struggle lasting nearly forty years, with the exception of the temporary fever of the Boxer Uprising, she had stood for the Red Girdle Clan as over against the ex- treme conservatism of the Yellow Girdle Clan and the advocates of legitimacy in imperial descent. Another fact, or sentiment, must be borne in mind. We have said little of Jung Lu, her early lover. In- deed, he never became prominent in the eyes of for- eigners. But it was Jung Lu and his faithful guards who preserved Tzu Hsi’s life during her return as a young widow from Jehol to Peking; it was Jung Lu and his faithful guards who more than any others gave her the first regency; it was Jung Lu and his faithful guards who supported Li Hung-chang in giving Tzu Hsi the second regency ; and it was Jung Lu’s devotion which next to Yuan Shih Kai’s decision gave her the third regency. And in the crisis of the Boxer Up- rising, when she temporarily lost her judgment, Jung Lu after the first month of the siege of the Legations checked the intensity of the artillery fire, knowing that the destruction of the foreigners would certainly be followed by the division of the empire. Here was devo- tion, coupled with judgment, worthy of a mature and life-long lover. One incident has been cited in proof of Tzu Hsi’s lack of affection for Jung Lu, but to our mind it shows only the depth of her feeling for him; Jung Lu’s parents arranged as a wife for him Prince 326 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Ch’in’s daughter, and this arrangement apparently fully met the approval of Tzu Hsi after she had been taken as a concubine by the emperor. But Jung Lu was only human ; and, perhaps in part because of di- vided affection, he fell under a temporary infatuation for another woman who was neither Tzu Hsi nor his own wife. Tzu Hsi apparently resented this more bitterly even than Jung Lu’s wife, and she banished him from the capital for seven years. His recall to Peking and appointment in the crisis of 1898 as gen- eralissimo of the armies of Chihli, his later appointment to organize the Grand Army of the North, and his high authority in Tzu Hsi’s councils until his death; and, above all, the strange and solemn pledge she made him on his deathbed — all show that during his seven years’ absence she had not forgotten her old lover. After her last restoration to the regency, when Jung Lu lay dying from overwork and devotion to her services, in 1903, and dying without a son, Tzu Hsi made him a secret promise that should his daughter now approach- ing the age of marriage bear a son, she would make that son the heir to the throne. What is this but an attempt of the old empress dowager to transform her old lover into an ex post facto emperor ? The death of Jung Lu turned her burning words into a sacred prom- ise, binding upon the heart of Tzu Hsi. Without giving the slightest indication of her purpose, and steadily declining to follow the urgent reminders of the imperial councilors that she must select an heir to the throne, she ordered her nephew, Prince Chun, to marry Jung Lu’s daughter. Her order was law, and the marriage was promptly consummated. Prince DOWNFALL OF THE MANCHUS 327 Chun was the younger half-brother of the Emperor Kwang-su, and, like Kwang-su, was the son of her favorite sister, and a leading member of the Red Girdle Clan, but not the legitimate heir to the throne. Tzu Hsi knew that he excelled Pu Chiin in character, and she thought him a man of sounder judgment than Kwang-su. For all these reasons, and, above all, through her devotion to her old lover, when Jung Lu’s daughter gave birth to a son, she once more resolved to violate the dynastic law and to put the little lad upon the throne. She kept her counsel to herself. Not even Prince Chun or Jung Lu’s daughter dreamed of her purpose, for she postponed the inevitable struggle with the Yellow Girdle Clan as long as possible. At last, in 1908, when Kwang-su lay dying, she ordered nurses sent to care for the little son in Prince Chun’s home. This gave the members of the council knowl- edge of her choice of the heir apparent. A few days later she herself suffered a slight stroke of paralysis; the imperial council met November 14th. Kwang-su was yet alive. But she ignored any claim he might have as emperor to name his successor to the throne. Her own choice which long had been a secret was now apparent to the members of the council. But Yuan Shih Kai, who decided in her favor against Kwang-su in 1898, a decision which had left Kwang-su practically a political prisoner for ten years, naturally hesitated to see Kwang-su’s brother assume the regency. Possibly also his own judgment led him to the conviction that China could not go through a long period under another regency. Prince P’u Lun, a member of the Yellow Girdle Clan, was under the 328 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION house laws of the Manchu dynasty the legitimate heir to the throne in case of Kwang-su’s death; and he was of such an age that he could immediately, or else at an early date, assume the scepter. Hence Yuan Shih Kai openly and earnestly advised that P’u Lun be selected as heir to the throne. Prince Chun, who was present at the councils, out of his politeness, form- ally joined in Yuan Shih Kai’s suggestion and indi- cated his acquiescence in the choice of P’u Lun. Two members of the council voted with Yuan Shih Kai in favor of P’u Lun. But the majority of the council, knowing the empress dowager’s mind, voted for little P’u Yi, Prince Chun’s son, for emperor. Yuan Shih Kai was bold enough to protest against the selection, affirming that this was another violation of the d}mas- tic law, and that it would be impossible to preserve the peace of the nation during another long period under a regency. But Tzu Hsi, with her imperial instincts, forgot even that death was staring her in the face, and quickly and sharply told her great min- ister that she would be here to protect P’u Yi in his rights. She ordered the decree immediately prepared proclaiming him emperor, and a second decree pre- pared proclaiming Prince Chun as Prince Cooperat- ing in the Empire, to become prince regent at her death, and messengers were sent to bring P’u Yi into the palace. It is said that she told the council in that memorable meeting that five years before, on Jung Lu’s deathbed, she had promised him that if his daughter bore a son that son should be the emperor of China, that she had ordered Prince Chun to marry Jung Lu’s daughter, that a son had been granted in DOWNFALL OF THE MANCIIUS 329 answer to her prayers, and that she would now see to it that he was placed upon the throne. When the news reached Kwang-su that his nephew P’u Yi was to be the emperor and his younger brother the regent, it is said that he was much gratified and began imme- diately a message to his brother; and that this mes- sage opened with the declaration: “For our misery of the last ten years. Yuan Shih Kai is responsible . , . When the time comes, I desire that Yuan shall be summarily beheaded.” It is said that before the letter was completed the writing became illegible and that a few minutes later Kwang-su was dead, Novem- ber 14, 1908. The empress dowager with her custom- ary promptness had the little son of Prince Ch’tin safe in the palace within an hour. It was well she acted promptly, for the next day, November 15, perhaps as the result of the extra strain, she received a second stroke of paralysis and soon expired. Her childish love of Jung Lu, a love apparently deepening through- out her lifetime ; her own choice as a royal concubine ; her fortune in bearing Hien-feng his only son ; her ad- vancement to a position next to that of the empress of China ; her remarkable ability ; her unequaled power of work and surprising energy of action ; her success- sions to the regency in 1861-73, in 1875-88, in 1898- 1900, and again in 1902-08, and her whole remarkable reign stretching through forty-seven years, from 1861 to 1908; the death of her own son and the selection of her favorite sister’s son as emperor ; the committal of herself by this choice against the legitimate heir and the wishes of the Yellow Girdle Clan, and the conse- London Times, Sept. 8, 1909, quoted in Encyc. Britannica, vol. vi, p. 212, a. 330 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION quent swinging of herself and Kwang-su to the side of political liberalism; her reversion at the time of the Boxer Uprising to the old conservatism; her second committal to the principles of liberalism; her promise to her old lover as he lay dying ; her selection of a hus- band for his daughter; her prayers for a son to be emperor of China and her success in her dying hours in placing this son upon the throne — all form a romance unrivaled in ancient or in modern history. Were we writing fiction, we should be obliged to make the story end in triumph for the little P’u Yi, selected for an heroic cast before his birth. But truth is even stranger than fiction, and the stern facts of Prince Chun’s reign reveal the irony of the mightiest rulers’ attempts to shape the unfolding history of nations. Nevertheless, there is in some measure a logic of history in the subsequent events. It was her womanly devotion to her own weaker clan, her jeal- ousy of the Yellow Girdle Clan, and her undying love for Jung Lu, which resulted in Tzii Hsi’s break with the conservative forces of the empire ; which led to life- long opposition of extreme conservatives and legit- imists to her rule, and which forced Kwang-su and Prince Chun to start evolutions which turned into revolutions impossible for them to control, resulting at last in the downfall of the dynasty and the establish- ment of the Republic. This will become clearer as we study Prince Chun’s reign. But that is another chapter. Books for Reference Bland, J. O. P., and Backhouse, E, ; China Under the Em- press Dowager. CHAPTER XIV THE TRANSITION: PRINCE CHUN’S REGENCY When the representatives of the foreign govern- ments in Peking learned that Kwang-su was dead, that the empress dowager was dead, that an unknown infant was emperor, and that an almost unknown prince, named Chun, was regent, they were filled with consternation. They had some hope that Yuan Shih Kai was back of this strange selection and that he would be the power behind the throne. Had they known that the real power which placed Prince Chun upon the throne had been exercised by the deceased empress against a double protest from Yuan Shih Kai, possibly their consternation would have led to open interference with the program. As it was, they shook their heads ominously, saying : “A young man ; almost an unknown man; his brother — the late emperor — a dreamer; the only public act of this man’s life an apol- ogy to a foreign government ; his quiet manner a sign of weakness; China has made an irreparable blunder.” We are inclined to think that in part, at least, foreign representatives misread then, and, in the light of their early contempt, continued to misread the character of Prince Chun. Certainly, a word of appreciation may not be out of place in view of his tragic failure and his loss of the crown for his son and for his dynasty. First, the young man’s apology to Germany for the murder of Baron Klemens von Ketteler was not to his 331 332 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION discredit. It was, indeed, a humiliating mission on which to send a prince of the oldest nation on earth. Moreover, on reaching Basle he was informed that he and his suite would be expected to perform the kowtow before the German emperor. As this was the uni- versal method of approaching Chinese sovereigns, and as China had always maintained that it was the proper method of approaching a sovereign; as China had been guilty of a most heinous crime in the murder of an accredited German representative in her own capital, William II thought it not unfitting that the young prince should appear in his presence in the Chinese fashion of saluting rulers and read his apology upon his knees. Prince Chun at once pro- tested. At first the emperor was firm. Prince Chun was only eighteen years old ; he was wholly lacking in experience; he was far away from home; the German army was in Peking ; and his country was at the mercy of foreigners. But he immediately cabled home for instructions. Meantime he feigned illness and did not appear in the emperor’s presence to read his apology at the time appointed and, of course, the emperor could not order a sick man dragged into his presence. The instructions cabled back to Prince Chun read : “Act as circumstances demand. Compromise if possible.” He thus had authority from his government to perform the kowtow if the circumstances demanded it; and they certainly seemed to demand this humiliation upon his part. But he persistently remained ill and unable to ap- pear before the emperor. Through the Chinese min- ister to Germany and through an able German citizen who was acting as Chinese consul at Hamburg, he THE TRANSITION 333 made clear to the emperor that he would return to China without making any apology, and that the fiasco would make both nations ridiculous in the eyes of the world. He therefore asked that as a personal favor he be excused from this humiliation. His tact in approaching the emperor privately, while stead- fastly refusing to make any public statement of the difficulty; his postponement of an appearance upon his knees through a feigned illness which “saved the emperor’s face”; and his firmness — all tended to win Emperor William’s appreciation. Moreover, while the German emperor thought remaining upon one’s knees for a few minutes a very short humiliation to suffer in return for the violation of national good faith in the murder of a German ambassador, nevertheless he began to feel the mistake on his part of exacting from the Chinese in their distress a form of homage which Western diplomacy had refused for generations to render, on the ground that it was barbarous and degrading. Hence, the emperor agreed that he should read the apology standing. Prince Chun suddenly recovered, and read his apology standing on his feet like a man. Later in the day the emperor returned the call and remained with the prince long beyond the time demanded by etiquette, and invited the prince to visit him and the German empress; and by both of them he was royally received, so that his commission beginning in penitence terminated almost in an ova- tion. One can understand why the first act of this young man on becoming regent was the abolition for the Chinese of the age-long custom of approaching rulers with the kowtow. 334 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION A second incident is of interest, at least to Amer- icans. Long before the selection of this young man for the regency, during diplomatic meetings he showed a preference for Mr, and Mrs, Conger. Prince Chun became a caller and an occasional visitor at the Amer- ican Legation. The Congers received him with their customary courtesy; but they little dreamed that this quiet man, whose questions about America drew from them a fund of information in regard to our American institutions, would later become the ruler of three to four hundred million people. A third incident, reported by the London Globe, is of interest to Christians and to all who honor the Bible. It is well known that after the Boxer Up- rising the imperial palace was entered by foreigners. In looting the imperial palace the Old Testament was found in the empress dowager’s chamber, and the New Testament in Kwang-su’s study, with occa- sional notes made by himself upon the margin of the pages. The evident interest taken by these persons in the copies of the Scriptures presented to them led to the presentation of a less pretentious but still very beautiful copy of the Bible in Chinese to the prince regent. The regent in accepting the gift at the hands of the American minister assured his Excellency that as soon as P’ti Yi had mastered the rudiments of reading he should study these Sacred Scriptures. Doubtless the prince and the little lad still have the volume, and we trust that in the strange changes of fortune which have come to them this book may become their guide and their consolation. A fourth act displays unusual courage. In 1908, THE TRANSITION 335 before the death of Kwang-su and of the empress dowager, Yuan Shih Kai reached his fiftieth birthday. The “king-maker” of China was then apparently at the height of his power. The empress dowager sent him congratulations and a gift, and foreigners and Chinese alike crowded his palace throughout the day with congratulations and gifts. But Prince Chun, without the slightest regard to the effect which his open refusal to call might have upon the great min- ister, or upon the empress dowager, stubbornly de- clined to honor the man who ten years before had, as he believed, betrayed his brother. Do you wonder, bearing these facts in mind, that Yuan Shih Kai spoke twice to the empress dowager of the danger of making this young man the regent ? A fifth act displays the characteristic Chinese pref- erence for the middle course and resolution tempered by discretion in carrying out that course. Well might Prince Chun, the night after the throne was com- mitted to him, have said, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” The prayer of his dying brother that Yuan Shih Kai, the strongest man in China, should be beheaded; the struggle of the younger line of the Manchu dynasty to hold the throne against the older and legitimate line; the maintenance of the territorial integrity of China against foreign governments vastly stronger than China and eager to take advantage of her weakness ; and the guidance of a fifth of the human race in both political and moral reforms which had become imperative, but which had never been carried through in any nation without bloodshed — these were the problems which confronted the young man as he 336 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION assumed the authority over three hundred and thirty million people on that dark November afternoon in 1908. Certainly, history would be stranger than fic- tion and would contradict the laws of progress had this inexperienced young man solved successfully all these problems in three brief years. He did not make a fatal blunder in the spirit in which he confronted them and he advanced each one of them to a greater or less degree. I. Prince Chun pushed the opium reform forward with such earnestness that he brought it practically to a successful conclusion. The first edict against opium was issued by the Chinese government in 1729.^ This was followed by a second imperial decree in 1796 declaring contraband all opium imported into China. But following the “Opium War” of 1840-42 with Great Britain, and in part as the consequence of British pressure, the opium traffic was legalized by the Chinese government in 1858.^ In response to a petition signed by twelve hundred missionaries, the dowager empress, on September 20, 1906, issued an edict that the growth, sale, and use of opium should decrease ten per cent a year and cease wholly at the end of ten years. This was followed by a further imperial decree against opium, issued in May, and another in June, 1907. But as the dowager empress sometimes used opium herself, her decrees were not fully obeyed — especially as many of the officials under her were using opium and were receiving bribes for permitting the growth of the poppy and the manu- * EncyclopcEdia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 210, d. 2 Ibid., vol. vi, p. 210, c. THE TRANSITION 337 facture and sale of the drug-. Prince Chiin selected opium for his first reform and pressed it with such energy as to transform the opium struggle from a provincial problem into a national and international reform. He recognized that the use of opium affected vitally the moral, mental, and physical stamina of his people, and that its complete abolition was essential to the safety of the empire. Thus, by stead}^ and con- stant pressure upon the officials on the one side, and by enlisting the sympathy and cooperation of the foreign governments on the other side, he placed the opium reform on the road to successful accomplishment. The London Times, in an editorial upon the triumph of this reform, said of Prince Chun: “The whole world has contemplated with admiration and not a little envy the striking success of the Chinese crusade against opium. Posterity will recognize his success in this reform as an event worthy to immortalize the reign of any prince.” 2. October 12, 1910, pneumonic plague broke out in Manchourie in the province of Manchuria. By January 2, 1911, the plague appeared at Mukden and Peking. Prince Chun, on the advice of Alfred Sze and others, decided in favor of Western methods in combating the plague and appointed Dr. Wu Lien-teh, a graduate of a school of medicine in London and a postgraduate student of schools of medicine in Paris and Berlin, to take medical charge of the plague dis- tricts. Under his direction the plague was stamped out after causing the death of forty thousand people. April 5, 1911, the Plague Conference called by Prince Chun met at Mukden and continued in session for a 338 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION month. Delegates were present from Austria-Hun- gary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, and the United States. Dr. Wu Lien-teh was elected president of the conference; the delegates present rejected the claims of Japanese physicians that they had discovered a cure for the plague and adopted resolutions highly commending the efforts of Dr. Wu and of the Chinese government in stamping out the plague. Surely, here was an indi- cation of a progressive spirit on the part of Prince Chun. A further indication of the same spirit was found in the decree issued by him in February, 1910, ordering reforms and improvements in the judiciary and an extension of local self-government so as to make the prefecture, instead of the county, the meet- ing place of the imperial authority descending from above, and the local self-government originating with the people. These two reforms were recommended by the committee on constitutional reforms and readily accepted by the prince regent. 3. Prince Chun inaugurated a greatly needed reform in China by abolishing slavery — at least on paper. Slavery never has been accompanied by the excesses or the fearful evils with which it cursed the Western nations. We suspect, however, that our lenient judg- ment upon this moral monstrosity is due more to Western ignorance of the bitterness of Chinese slave life than to any good which can possibly inhere in slavery. While Prince Chun did not throw himself into this reform with the energy with which he prose- cuted the opium reform, nevertheless he did issue, February 10, 1910, his famous decree formally abol- TUK TRANSITION 339 ishing’ slavery throughout the nation. Had he l)een a sufficiently energetic and brave ruler, he would have seen that his decree was carried out instead of simply being, in this case, content, like his brother, Kwang-su, with the issue of his paper proclamation. On the other hand we must recognize that he never had any strong or loyal army under his control, and that he would have found it very dangerous to resort to force in carrying out the decree against an evil which was not so strongly condemned by public sentiment in China as was the opium evil. There was no marked public agitation for the abolition of slavery. Slavery does not bulk large in the economic life of the nation. But this blot upon Chinese civilization must awaken the moral condemnation of the nation in the not distant future; and when that struggle comes the advocates of freedom will find themselves greatly helped by Prince Chun’s imperial proclamation making slavery illegal throughout the nation. 4. The reform which was to have the most momen- tous influence upon Prince Chun’s career, and prob- ably upon the destiny of the Chinese government, was not, indeed, inaugurated, but was carried forward rap- idly by him. This was the effort for representative government. The reform began before Prince Chun assumed the reins. Owing to the agitation arising from the Boxer Uprising, the Russo-Japanese war, the influence of missionaries with their schools, and West- ern science, the dowager empress, as early as 1905, ap- pointed a commission headed by Prince Tsai Tse to study the organization and administrative systems of foreign countries, with a view to the possible estab- 340 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION lishment of representative government in China.^ The commission visited Japan, the United States and Europe, and on its return in 1906 reported in favor of the adoption by China of representative government. In response to this report the dowager empress issued an imperial decree in September, 1906, promising the establishment of some form of representative govern- ment in the future. Again, in 1907, a decree was issued promising, at an early date, an Imperial Assembly with advisory powers as a preparation for the Imperial Parliament which was to be established later. In 1907, on the recommendation of Yuan Shih Kai, a commission was appointed to study especially the constitutions and the parliamentary systems of Great Britain, Germany, and Japan.'* August 27, 1908, the dowager empress issued the long-expected decree promising that the first formal Chinese Parlia- ment would assemble in 1917.^ This was the condi- tion of the movement on the death of Kwang-su November 14, and the death of the dowager empress November 15, 1908. October 14, 1909, a notable step toward parlia- mentary government was inaugurated by the meeting of Advisory Provincial Assemblies the members of which had been elected according to a decree issued by Prince Chun. The suffrage by which these repre- sentatives to the Advisory Assemblies were chosen was limited by educational, property and moral quali- fications. Hence the electorate was a very restricted one. It embraced, however, more than a million per- • Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 209, d. ‘ Ibid., vol. vi, p. 210, a. ‘ Ibid. THE TRANSITION 341 sons qualified to vote, distributed over the whole of China, and the suffrage could easily be enlarged. Moreover, the electors were recognized as the legit- imate leaders of public sentiment in the localities in which they reside.® Hence the step from a theoretical despotism to a representative assembly was a very real one — all the more real because of the conservatism with which the step was taken, manifested by the restriction of suffrage and by the granting of only advisory powers to the assemblies in their earlier meetings. These assemblies met in all tbe provinces October 14, 1909, and the members showed ad- mirable poise and self-restraint in the debates and in resolutions adopted recommending various reforms. Among these were resolutions providing for meetings of the Advisory Provincial Assemblies and also for a meeting of a National Advisory Assembly the fol- lowing year. October 3, 1910, the National Assembly, or Tzu Cheng Yuan, met and continued in session until January ii, 1911. It secured a pledge from Prince Chun to rule through a Cabinet, by which it meant a Cabinet whose continuance should be subject to the votes of a national Parliament; and it also secured a pledge from him for a meeting of the first National Parliament with full legislative powers in 1914, instead of 1917, as the dowager empress had decreed. This brief review makes clear the qualities which Prince Chun revealed and the reforms which he either inaugurated or accepted. Surely, his success in press- ing the opium reform, his modern spirit in adopting * Bashford, James W.: Notes, Bk. 48, p. 59. 342 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Western methods in dealing with the plague, his decree abolishing slavery and his acceptance of the change from a despotic to a representative form of govern- ment will in due time make his reign memorable in the history of China. Turning now to the other side of the picture, we discover the weaknesses which caused the downfall of the regency and of the Manchu dynasty. It is true that Prince Chun had not displayed marked leadership in any of these reforms save that of opium, and that the parliamentary reforms were thrust upon him by Chinese reformers instead of springing from his own initiative. But friendly ob- servers were beginning to wonder whether the weak- ness of Prince Chun might not prove a providential preparation for the adoption of representative insti- tutions in China, just as the weakness of Prince John gave England the Magna Charta. But a wider knowl- edge of history would have convinced these observers that great reforms seldom spring from the weakness of princes. De Tocqueville, with rare insight into the movement of political forces, points out the fatality of any surrender of privileges which have been long maintained by a despotic or corrupt government. The slightest surrender concedes the injustice of the old system of corruption or despotism, while at the same time it reveals the weakness of the upholders of that system. Hence any attempt at evolution from cor- ruption to honesty, or from despotism to republican- ism, usually marks the speedy doom of the outworn system. Here is a case where conversion, and not slow moral progress, is the divine remedy. THE TRANSITION 343 Prince Chun’s reign was from the first embar- rassed by two grave problems. The first problem was the holding together of the conservative and radical elements of the nation so as to avoid a revolution. He attempted to solve this problem by securing the united support of Yuan Shih Kai and Chang Chi-tung, whom he appointed Grand Guardians of the Heir. These two men prevented for a brief time the break between the Chinese and the Manchus. But this solution only deepened the difficulty of the second problem, which was Yuan Shih Kai. The carrying out by Prince Chun of Kwang-su’s reported last request, viz., that Yuan Shih Kai be beheaded, would have been in exact accord with Oriental custom and would have furnished the conservative element the highest proof of the loy- alty of Prince Chun to his dead elder brother. On the other hand, the keeping of Yuan Shih Kai in power would have been in accordance with the wish and almost the demand of the foreign nations. But the acceptance of foreign dictation at this point would have been universally regarded by the Chinese as an act of ingratitude and disloyalty to the dead brother, and the manifestation of such ingratitude as would surely bring down punishment upon Prince Chun and upon the empire. Prince Chun’s decision, which was gladly accepted by Yuan Shih Kai, and carried out without difficulty, showed the tendency of this young man to choose “the golden mean” so dear to all Chinese hearts. He retired Yuan Shih Kai from office on the ground of illness and permitted him to return quietly to his home, but did not attempt his execution. Meantime the oldest son of Yuan Shih Kai remained 344 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION at Peking at the request of Prince Chun, nominally for the purpose of study, but probably as a hostage for the good behavior of Yuan Shih Kai. The retire- ment of Yuan Shih Kai by Prince Chun was regarded by most foreigners as abandonment by the prince of any sound or progressive policy for China, and a return to the reactionary policy of the Manchus. Again Prince Chun aimed at “the golden mean*’ by the appointment of a Manchu as the successor of Yuan Shih Kai, Tuan Fang, a man who might prove acceptable to the conservatives on account of his Manchu origin and to the progressives on account of his Western training and his advanced ideas. Un- fortunately, however, Tuan Fang’s progressive prin- ciples soon made him unacceptable to the Manchus, and in October, 1909, he was removed from office; thus revealing the fact that the prince regent had not the courage or strength to carry through a consistent middle course, but was yielding to the pressure now of one faction and now of the other. During this same month the throne was further weakened by the death of Chang Chih-tung. We now come to another act in which Prince Chun clearly betrayed his weakness and took the wrong course to strengthen his hold upon the army. For fear of betrayal by the army he appointed in 1909 his older brother, Tsai Hsun, one of the two head com- missioners of the navy, and his younger brother, Tsai Tao, one of the two chiefs of the army. The step was taken for the evident purpose of holding the army and navy loyal to the throne. A strong ruler would have found loyal supporters outside his own family. THE TRANSITION 345 and Prince Chun especially blundered in committing the large responsibility of the control of the army and navy of the nation to members of his own family who were notoriously unfit. Had Prince Chun possessed the insight of the dowager empress and of Yuan Shih Kai and perceived that the temporary support of every despotic form of government is the army, he would have provided that his soldiers be properly fed, clothed, paid, armed, and led; and to this end he would have selected generals who were loyal to himself and com- petent for their tasks. Had he then possessed the insight to perceive that a just and progressive gov- ernment is the permanent support of a throne, he might have guided China safely through this grave transition and helped her to establish liberal institu- tions. Only a good and great man could have proved equal to this task, and the temporary surrender of Prince Chun, now to one faction and now to another, simply made inevitable the revolution which swept him from the throne. In August, 1910, he appointed Tang Shao-yi, a man of American education and of great ability, president of the Board of Commerce and gave him a double task — first of reconciling the inter- ests of foreign investors with the interests of the Chinese builders of the new railways, and, second, of reconciling the claims of the central government, aim- ing at supreme authority, with those of provincial rulers determined to maintain state rights, with repre- sentatives of both groups eager for the profits which would arise from the building of these roads. The struggle between the representatives of the provinces and of the central government became so intense that 346 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION it threatened danger to the nation. January 9, 1911, Tang Shao-yi resigned and Sheng Kimg-pao (also called Sheng Hsuan-huai) was appointed in his place. He was a man of large ability, but he had a reputation for graft. He immediately succeeded in negotiating a small loan for the temporary relief of the govern- ment. On January 14, at a meeting in Chang Su-ho’s gardens in Shanghai, a movement was formally inaug- urated for cutting off the queue. As the queue was a badge of subserviency to the Manchu government, this movement was an indirect proclamation of indepen- dence by the Chinese. The movement spread like wild- fire in the leading cities. February 13, in response to this expression of independence by the people, an imperial rescript was issued commanding reform and retrenchment. This was followed February 24 by an- other imperial decree abrogating torture in all criminal trials. Prince Chun now recognized that his two brothers were not competent to hold the army and navy loyal to the throne and by a decree of April 9, 1911, placed himself over them as the supreme commander of the military forces of the nation. April 7, 1911, Sheng Kung-pao negotiated a second loan, this time with the Eastern Extension and Great Northern Telegraph Company, for $2,500,000, gold. April 18, he effected with citizens of four nations, namely, France, Ger- many, Great Britain, and the United States, a loan of $50,000,000, gold. These loans, while secured nom- inally for the nationalization of the proposed new rail- ways, show the efforts of the Manchu dynasty to THE TRANSITION 347 secure funds for the crisis which was rapidly ap- proaching. April 21, 1911, Fu Chi, Tartar general of Canton, was shot and killed by an assassin who professed to be a follower of Sun Yat Sen. This was the first indication of the coming outbreak. April 28, revolu- tionists in Canton attacked Viceroy Chang Ming- chuh’s yamen. The viceroy escaped through a back door, but the revolutionists succeeded in assassinating two of the prefects serving under him. May 8, 1911, Prince Chun yielded to the liberal element far enough to carry out the promise made to the National As- sembly to appoint a Cabinet. Through this measure the National Assembly aimed to secure a Cabinet whose life, like the life of the Cabinets in England, would depend upon the vote of the parliament. Prince Chun, however, aimed to appoint a Cabinet whose life, like the life of the Cabinets in Germany, would depend upon the imperial will, and he further irri- tated the liberals by naming Prince Ching — the prince of corruptionists — as the head of the new Cabinet. May 9, 1911, the government proclaimed its policy for the nationalization of the railways of China. An illustration of the irony of history is found in the fact that in the technical struggle over which the revolu- tion finally broke. Prince Chun was in the right and the liberals were in the wrong. This technical struggle was over the question whether the railways should be under the control of the central government or under the control of the various provincial govern- ments. Prince Chun stood for a national ideal as over against the ideal of provincial supremacy, while the 348 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION provincial authorities, suffering from the despotism of preceding centuries, struggled for provincial control. Every American can see how dangerous, especially in time of war, would be forty-eight systems of Ameri- can railways, each under a state, rather than under national control. Surely, if China is to protect herself against foreign aggression, she must have, as speedily as possible, a system of railways extending through- out the nation and under national control, by which she can move her troops quickly to any point where danger threatens. The whole political history of the nineteenth century may be summed up in a movement toward nationalism as over against state rights, or the rights of petty independent kingdoms. In this last struggle Prince Chun placed himself in line with great statesmen of the modern world. But he had not the strength to carry out his plans. Unfortunately also, his appointment of such a reputed corruptionist as Sheng Kung-pao aroused against him all the forces in favor of honesty as well as those in favor of state rights, and he was soon forced to yield and remove Sheng Kung-pao from his position. Prince Chun at best was the Hamlet and not the Henry VI of China. No man who gives a nation republican institutions simply because he is not strong enough to help him- self can be ranked among the great leaders of hu- manity. The history of the empress dowager’s struggle for the Red Girdle Clan as over against the Yellow Girdle Clan; the inevitable committal of her- self to the side found moving toward liberal institu- tions, as over against political and religious conserv- atism; the selection of Jung Lu’s unborn grandchild THE TRANSITION 349 \ to be emperor of China ; the failure of little P’u Yi to j hold the scepter through the weakness of his father, Prince Chun, hint at the epic and the tragedy of the I modern history of China. Books of Reference Bland, J. O. P., and Backhouse, E. : China under the Em- press Dowager. CHAPTER XV THE CHINESE REPUBLIC The nation was ripe for change. In the preceding chapter we have depicted the causes for dissatisfac- tion. The people were angry with their rulers over the humiliation of China at the hands of foreigners. The Manchu authorities had sanctioned the Boxer Upris- ing partly as a means of diverting the wrath of the Chinese from themselves. Anger against the Man- chus was still greater after the collapse of that effort. The people were becoming convinced that the dynasty had “exhausted the mandate of Heaven.” Foreign readers should have at least brief sketches of a few leaders of the revolution. Sun Yat Sen was the most conspicuous promoter of the republic. He was born in 1869, son of a Chinese Christian parents, educated in mission schools and later trained as a physician by foreign teachers. In 1895 he led a revolution which failed. Some of his companions were beheaded, but he escaped the police and fled the country. The next sixteen years he spent in collecting funds from Chinese in Malaysia, Plawaii, and California, planning uprisings and writ- ing revolutionary tracts. The struggle portrayed in preceding chapters developed into a revolution some years earlier than Sun Yat Sen had planned. He was in Europe, when the storm broke in 191 1. He hastened back to China, arriving in Shanghai without men or 350 THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 351 money and with very slight personal acquaintance with the leaders of the revolution. But these leaders were casting about for a head for the republic. Al- ready they had their minds upon a compromise involv- ing the acceptance of a republic by the north and the acceptance of Yuan Shih Kai as president by the south. Sun Yat Sen was asked if he would accept the presi- dency of the provisional republic with the understand- ing that he would resign and support Yuan Shih Kai for president of a permanent republic, providing such an arrangement could be effected.^ Without troops, without money, and without close personal friends in China, Sun Yat Sen gladly accepted the presidency on' these conditions. On the other side, his reputation as one of the oldest and foremost advocates of a republic for China, his long exile, and numerous sacri- fices made his name one to conjure with; and he carried out in good faith his agreement to resign in favor of Yuan Shih Kai. His later union with Huang Hsing in the rebellion of 1913, his flight to Japan as soon as the rebellion developed its weakness, his life under the protection of Japan, and his efforts to start a third revolution are well known. Perhaps it is too early to form a final estimate of the man. Thus far he impresses us as a John the Baptist of the republic. He is a dreamer superbly confident of his dreams, without accurate knowledge or executive capacity, he is a plotter rather than an organizer, with the deceit which comes from years of fugitive living and plotting. He accepted money freely from the Japanese government and from Yuan Shih Kai with * Millard, T. F.: Editorial in the China Press, July 26, 1913. 352 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION no sense of obligation to the latter.^ Nevertheless, his clear face and his honesty in narrating his plans indicate that he is essentially sincere. Of rude but forceful oratory, he conquers his hearers by dazzling schemes and his own all-conquering faith. Liang Chih-chiao rendered as great a service in preparing for the revolution as did Sun Yat Sen. He was one of the advisers of the throne appointed by Kwang-su when the latter entered upon his revolution- ary program. On the restoration of authority to the dowager empress in 1898, Liang Chih-chiao and Kang Yu-wei were two of the imperial advisers who suc- ceeded in escaping the sword of the dowager empress by fleeing to Japan. Liang Chih-chiao was the best thinker and the strongest writer of the revolutionary group; and his tracts probably were more influential in preparing the Chinese for the overthrow of the dynasty than were any other writings. Certainly, his writings were better balanced and more persuasive and he was better known in northern China which especially needed intellectual preparation if the nation was to move as a unit in the revolution. After the revolution triumphed Yuan Shih Kai invited Liang Chih-chiao to a place in his Cabinet. Liang felt that he could render better service to China as an independ- ent writer than as a member of the Cabinet. Hence he returned to Peking and published a newspaper in the interests of the new government. Liang Chih- ’ It is public knowledge that the government founded by Sun Yat Sen re- ceived money from the Japanese for which the Japanese secured claims upon the Hanyang Iron Works and the China Merchants Steamship Company, and that Dr. Sun also used the money furnished him by Yuan Shih Kai's govern- ment for developing the government railways in plots for the overthrow of Yuan. THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 353 chiao is the Cavour, while Kang Yii-wei is at best only the Mazzini, of China. Along with Liang Chih-chiao should be mentioned Wu Tse-hseng, another very strong and incorruptible writer on Chinese political subjects. While Wu Tse- hseng is one of the greatest scholars of China, he pub- lished his paper and his tracts in Mandarin, because Mandarin, rather than the more classical Wenli, is the language of the common people. Huang Hsing, whom B. Putnam Weale character- izes as “The Danton of the Chinese Revolution,” “ was born in Hunan in 1875."* * He is said to have been born under a comet, leading wise men to predict that he would some day overthrow the Manchus and occupy the throne of China. If the account is true, why were not a million other Chinese boys born under the same comet equally destined to the imperial purple? It is not necessary in China that such an account be rational, or even true, but only that it be accepted. Such stories in regard to the birth of heroes are easily spread and readily believed, and this legend in regard to Huang Hsing’s birth did not lack circulation or acceptance.® He was educated in a school established by Chang Chih-tung for the two Hu provinces.® He studied at the University of Tokyo and later established two schools in his native province, in which he filled the minds of his pupils with revolutionary teachings after ’ In a brilliant article published in the Japan Chronicle and republished in the National Review at Shanghai, May 3, 1913. * MuUoney, J. J„ M.D.: A Revelation of the Chinese Revolution, p. 14. ® Weale. B. Putnam: National Review, May 8. 1913. * Mxdloney, J. J., M.D.: A Revelation of the Chinese Revolution, p. 14. 354 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the type of Rousseau. His boys drank in his words and started an insurrection, and some of them were promptly beheaded, but Huang Hsing escaped to Japan, where “the man of action met the dreamer.” He and Sun Yat Sen organized the Tung Men Hui, pledged to deliver China from the Manchus; they col- lected funds and in 1906 following the Russo-Japanese War they started a revolution which came to nothing. Weale says that the proclamation of the revolution, which was scattered over the Yangste Valley after the Wuchang uprising of 1911, was prepared six years before in Japan.'^ When he heard of the revolu- tion at Wuchang under Li Yuan Hung, Huang Hsing hastened to his native province, raised some Hunanese troops, and proclaimed himself “Eield Marshal of the Revolutionary Eorces.” * * He, however, accepted an appointment under Li Yuan Hung, and was assigned by him to the defense of Hanyang, which General Li had captured. Hanyang Heights are the Gibraltar of central China and General Huang Hsing, once having possession of them, was no more justified in losing them than was General Stoessel in surrender- ing Port Arthur. But he sent two thousand of his Hunanese boys across the river in open boats in the face of the direct fire of the imperial troops to seize Hankow ; they were shot or drowned almost to a man, and a little later on, owing to dissensions and dissatis- faction he lost Hanyang. He fled to Shanghai to escape the wrath of General Li, who denounced him for his cowardice, and went on to Canton to raise ’ See article above cited. * MuUoney, J. J., M.D.: A Revelation of the Chinese Revolution, p. 25. THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 355 another army. He returned from Canton to Shang- hai with some troops and planned to become the head of whatever government might be set up in China. All such plans were rendered impossible because of Li Yuan Hung’s opposition; and the provisional presi- dency fell to Sun Yat Sen, as already narrated. Huang Hsing opposed Sun Yat Sen’s surrender of the presidency to Yuan Shih Kai. While Sun Yat Sen was the nominal head of the rebellion of 1913, Gen- eral Huang Hsing was its real leader. He is the stormy petrel of Chinese politics. Tang Shao-yi was the most brilliant man intellect- ually of those who took part in the revolution. Born in Canton, educated in the United States, he returned to an obscure clerkship in the Chinese customs service and gradually rose in office, until a quarter of a cen- tury later he became vice-foreign minister for China and revolutionized the customs service over night, politely shifting Sir Robert Hart from the headship and becoming himself one of the chiefs of the Customs Board of Control. He was one of the leaders of the opium reform and later was called by Prince Chun, as already narrated, to the presidency of the Board of Commerce. Later he retired to private life ; on the out- break of the revolution he wrote Yuan Shih Kai twice and on Yuan’s acceptance of office went to Peking to confer with him. Appointed by Yuan Shih Kai, Tang Shao-yi went to Hankow as the representative of the government in arranging the armistice with Li Yuan Hung, and there learned that Li Yuan Hung’s condi- tion of peace was the acceptance of the republic. From Hankow he went to Shanghai to represent Yuan Shih 356 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Kai in conference with Wu Ting Fang, the foreign minister of Sun Yat Sen, in regard to the terms of peace between the republic and the Manchus.** He arranged more fully than any other man save Yuan Shih Kai for the abdication of the Manchus as the necessary step for peace. In consenting to the demand of the south for this abdication, he outran the wishes of the Manchus as well as their knowledge, and the Manchu leaders denounced him as a betrayer of the throne, and expressed their determination to fight for their rights to the bitter end. In order to save Yuan Shih Kai from blame by the Manchus, Tang Shao-yi advised Yuan to repudiate Tang’s agreement for the Manchu abdication, discharge him, and then to lead them slowly to the recognition that abdication was inevitable and to the peaceable acceptance of it. Yuan Shih Kai followed the advice of Tang Shao-yi, and formally discharged him ; after the retirement of the Manchus, he called him back to public service. More fully than any other man, Tang Shao-yi brought Yuan Shih Kai himself to the acceptance of the repub- lican form of government in order to avoid a civil war with Li Yuan Hung, and the south to the acceptance of Yuan Shih Kai as president in order to avoid a conflict with the north. As General Li Yuan Hung was not personally ambitious and did not desire the presidency, he strongly favored the election of Yuan Shih Kai. In a word, Tang Shao-yi’s Contonese birth, his friendship with Cantonese leaders, his ability as a diplomat to see both sides, and his own successful career enabled him more fully than any other man to • Millard, T, F.: Editorial in the China Press, July 26, 1913. THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 357 settle the conflicting claims between the north and the south, to determine the form which the new gov- ernment should take, and to select Yuan Shih Kai as the president. On accepting the presidency Yuan Shih Kai made Tang Shao-yi premier, and when the Five Power Group demanded hard and difficult conditions for a loan to the new republic — conditions compromising the sovereignty of the republic — Tang Shao-yi arranged for a Belgian loan. The Five Power Group insisted that in securing this loan from the Belgians the new government broke the contract made by the late Manchu government to borrow money only of them- selves; and as the new government had pledged itself to observe the contracts of the old government Tang Shao-yi resigned. If, with his great natural ability and his Western training, Tang Shao-yi combined the courage, the quickness of decision, the willingness to assume responsibility and the firmness which char- acterize Yuan Shih Kai, and if he had the sterling honesty and were willing to make the sacrifices de- manded in the critical conditions which confront China, he would be worthy of any honors in the gift of the republic. He has the gifts and many of the qualities of a great statesman. Li Yuan Hung was brigadier-general in charge of the government troops at Wuchang at the outbreak of the revolution. He had been trained in Japan and speaks English, imperfectly. He was carrying out the government orders in regard to disbanding dis- affected troops when some revolutionists succeeded one night in reaching him and offered him the alterna- 358 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION tive of death at their hands or leadership of the revo- lution. He refused to be hurried in his decision, but took some hours to meditate upon the problem. Lack- ing sympathy with the Manchus and looking down the barrel of a revolver, he at last decided to head the revolution, and under his leadership Wuchang fell into the hands of the revolutionists the next day ; and a little later Hanyang and Hankow on the north side of the Yangste. Both Hankow and Hanyang later were recaptured. Li Yuan Hung proved to be the fighting leader of the revolution and did most of the fighting required for the overthrow of the Manchus. He has impressed most persons who have met him, as an honest man of moderate ability who will not sacri- fice the interests of China or his convictions to am- bition. He ought yet to have a useful career before him in the service of his country. Such were a few of the leaders of the Chinese revolution. Turning now to the revolution, during the summer of 1911 very serious floods occurred in the Yangtze Valley, destroying the crops, and producing famine and distress ; and they helped undermine the authority of Prince Chun, because they were attributed to the anger of Heaven displaying itself against the Manchu rulers. August 24, 1911, the Szechwan Railway Bureau, a body of contractors whose profits were lost through the nationalization scheme, inaugurated a general strike which speedily developed into revolution in Chengtu, the capital of the Szechwan Province. By September 14, 1911, the disorder in Szechwan be- came so great that the British and American consuls THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 359 issued a letter urging all missionaries and other for- eigners to leave the Szechwan Province and repair immediately to Shanghai or other eastern cities. At the same time the prince regent appointed Tseng Chen- hsuan, the popular former viceroy of Szechwan, to take charge of all the military forces in the province, and Tuan Fang to go to Szechwan and arrange the railway difficulties. The throne was thoroughly alarmed by the spread of the uprising. Both men were directed to use the utmost clemency in dealing with the people. September i6, the imperial bodyguard at Peking was reviewed by Prince Chun in person. He took occasion to present to the bodyguard his own colors — an almost unprecedented glorification of the army and an earnest effort on his part to keep the army loyal to himself. The outbreak at Wuchang, October g, 1911, is gen- erally regarded as the formal inauguration of the revo- lution. October 14, 1911, Yuan Shih Kai was recalled by imperial decree. He did not, however, immediately accept office under the Manchu dynasty. October 21, Ichang, in the Hupeh Province, and Changsha, the capital of the Hunan Province, passed over to the revo- lution. October 24, Kiukiang, the Yangtze River port of the Kiangsi Province, joined the revolutionists. The same day the new Tartar general of Canton, Feng Shan, was blown to pieces by a bomb as he attempted to make a landing. October 25, Sianfu, the capital of the Shensi Province, and an old capital of China, revolted and set up an independent govern- ment for that province. October 25 to 29 Hankow 36o CHINA: AN' INTERPRETATION ' was recaptured by the imperialists under General Yin Chang. The city was largely destroyed by shells and incendiary fires of the imperialists. October 26 Prince Chun yielded to the demands of the National Assembly, which had reconvened, and dismissed from office Sheng Kung-pao. October 30 the prince regent issued his famous Decree of Peni- tence, in which, in the name of the little emperor, he confessed the sins of the dynasty. November i, Nanchang, the capital of the Kiangsi Province, renounced Manchu rule. The same day Yuan Shih Kai, who had thus far refused to leave his home and go to Peking in response to the appeals of the throne, issued a declaration in favor of peace and entered into a negotiation for peace with Li Yuan Hung. November 2, in response to a demand by the imperial troops at Lanchow in the Chihli Province, the prince regent promised to accept a constitution. So far from the Decree of Penitence and the pledge to accept a constitution stopping the revolution, these acts appar- ently encouraged the revolutionists the more, and November 3 to 9, 1911, Shanghai, Soochow, Hashing, Ningpo, Shaohsingfu, Chinkiang, Changchow, Ku, Sungkiangfu, and Anking, capital of the Anhwei Province, passed over to the revolutionists. Shanghai is the leading commercial city of China ; the Shanghai revolutionary government immediately appointed Wu Ting Fang foreign minister of the revolutionists, with instructions to secure foreign recognition of the revo- lution. November 9 Canton joined the revolution- ists and proclaimed an independent republic for THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 361 Kwantung. November 9 to 1 1 Foochow, under Gen- eral Sung, a former Manchu, after two days skirmish- ing overthrew the Manchus, thus carrying the Fukien province over to the side of the revolution, the viceroy of the province committing suicide. November ii, 191 1, Wu Ting Fang published an appeal to the prince regent, in the interest of the peace of the nation, to abdicate. November 13, Yuan Shih Kai reached Peking, but gave the Manchus no explanation of his independent efforts to establish peace with Li Yuan Hung. Indeed, he entered Peking quite as much the representative of the Chinese people as of the Manchu government. November 9 to 13 the two provinces of Hunan and Kweichow joined the revolutionists. November 14, Mukden, the leading city in Manchuria, appointed a committee of safety with Viceroy Chao Er-hsun as president. This action carried the provinces of Kirin, Shengking, and Heilungkiang, embracing the old home of the Manchus, against the dynasty. The same day Shantung province proclaimed itself a republic with its governor, Sun Pao-chi, as president. November 26, 1911, the throne swore allegiance to the eighteen articles of the constitution which had been framed by the National Assembly at Peking. Early in November Viceroy Chang Ju Chun at Nanking, the old capital of China, announced that the city might go over to the revolutionists, but Chang Hsun, the Manchu general in command of the troops, thrust the viceroy into prison and declared that he and his men would die fighting before they would surrender Nanking to the republicans. The repub- 362 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION lican army marched on Nanking and easily captured Purple Mountain, overlooking the city, and brought their guns directly to bear upon the city. December I, 19 1 1 in view of the fact that the city was at the mercy of the revolutionists and could be destroyed by the cannon, missionaries induced General Chang Hsun to leave the city. Accompanied by a body of soldiers who remained loyal to him, he retreated north, crossing the Yangtze River and marching along the line of the Pukow-Tientsin Railway to Suchowfu. The rest of the army and the people of Nanking wel- comed the revolutionists. December 2, Lung Yu, the widow of Kwang-su, now the dowager empress, published a decree announc- ing the abdication of the throne by P’u Yi and of the regency of Prince Chun. This brings to a conclusion one stage of the revolution, namely, the downfall of the Manchus. The problem which now confronted the people was the form of government which should succeed the Manchu dynasty. The people south of the Yangtze River were demanding not simply the abdication of the Manchus but also the formation of a republic. As already narrated, a few leaders had chosen Sun Yat Sen as president of the provisional republic, and he had appointed a Cabinet with Wu Ting Fang as foreign minister. Meantime a few leaders in the north were not idle. We are told on good authority, though we are not at liberty to quote the official’s name, that Yuan Shih Kai, almost immediately after reaching Peking, recognized that the Manchu dy- nasty was doomed and conferred as a private person THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 363 with the representatives of the foreign governments at Peking, not in their official capacity but as private persons, in regard to the form of government which it would be advisable for the Chinese people to adopt in the present crisis. We are assured that the advice which he received from all monarchical governments was strongly in favor of a monarchy, and that men who belonged to republics said that they thought China was not yet ready for a republic, but would better accept a constitutional monarchy for twenty- five or fifty years as a preparation for republican institutions. We are told that the representative of Japan went so far as to promise Yuan Shih Kai finan- cial help, and, in case of necessity, military help from the Japanese government for the preservation of mon- archical institutions. As a monarchy was in line with Yuan Shih Kai’s convictions he sent Tang Shao-yi south to confer with Li Yuan Hung and Wu Ting Fang with instructions that Tang was to favor a monarchical form of government. Tang Shao-yi en- countered the opposition of Li Yuan Hung, who was determined that China should adopt a republican form of government; otherwise his army would continue to fight. He also encountered the opposition of Wu Ting Fang, who was confident of Japanese support of the southern claims on the ground that Japanese already had advanced money to the republic with the Hanyang Iron Works and the China Merchants’ Steamship property pledged as security. Sun Yat Sen and Wu Ting Fang also claimed strong assurances from cer- tain Japanese that their government would support the republic. On the mutual discovery that Japanese 364 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION officials were pledging support to the monarchy and Japanese citizens were pledging support to the re- public, each claiming the backing of the Japanese government, the leaders of both sides saw the danger of Japanese intervention in case of a civil war. De- cember 20 the six great powers, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Russia and the United States, expressed through their consuls at Shanghai the earnest hope that peace might be reestablished. This action rested upon an earlier action of Secretary Knox and President Taft, begun at the outbreak of the revolution, in which they secured a mutual agree- ment between the United States and Great Britain, France, Germany, and Russia that no intervention should take place in China without the consent and cooperation of a majority of these powers. A little later Japan joined in the agreement; and this joint strong expression of a desire for peace was the re- sult of the binding together of the great powers of the world for the maintenance of the integrity and independence of China. As Li Yuan Hung remained stubborn as to the form of government, but had no personal ambition for the presidency and desired that the office should go to Yuan Shih Kai, a compromise was effected by the acceptance on the part of the north of a republic as the form of government and upon the part of the south, of Yuan Shih Kai as president. We are assured that this compromise was not at all accept- able to representatives in China of the various monar- chical governments of the world. A successful re- public in China would prove particularly dangerous to Japan, where universal primary education had pro- THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 365 ducecl a reading class wlio were groaning under the burdens of militarism; to India, where the educated class were not able to secure government employment and regarded commercial and industrial life as degrad- ing; to the French protectorates in Tonquin and Cochin China, which were not-administered on repub- lican principles. A republic, on general principles, was obnoxious to Russia, Austria, Germany, etc. The only governments which earnestly desired a republic were Switzerland, the United States, and some South American republics. Even many of the representa- tives of the United States in China felt that a republic was premature. On the other hand, all the leaders of young China were favorable to a republic. They maintained, with reason, that the Chinese would not be satisfied with a despotic form of monarchy, and that as much intelli- gence is required to maintain a real constitutional monarchy with a Parliament dependent upon the votes of the people, as to maintain a republic. They asserted furthermore that they were not anxious to have a full- fledged republic immediately; that they were willing to see Yuan Shih Kai elected president for a long term, and possibly reelected, so that he might practically serve during his lifetime ; but that the Chinese people ought to determine who should succeed Yuan Shih Kai. If a monarchy were adopted. Yuan Shih Kai’s oldest son, who was not a promising candidate, would naturally succeed him on the throne ; and a revolution would be necessary on the part of the Chinese in order to place upon the throne the man whom they then might think fittest. If, on the other hand, a republican 366 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION form of government were adopted, at the close of Yuan Shih Kai’s career the Chinese leaders could select the most competent man to succeed to the throne, and Yuan Shih Kai’s son would be obliged to start a revolution in order to succeed his father. Upon the whole, therefore, they thought that a republican form of government, even though it found imperfect em- bodiment at first, was the best, and the only permanent solution of the problem. The decision in favor of a republic was brought about by the firmness of Li Yuan Hung and deter- mination of his army in its favor. It became very clear to Yuan Shih Kai that a monarchy could not be established in China without a civil war ; and he was resolved not to resort to a war with his own country- men over the form of government which should pre- vail. Yuan Shih Kai decided in favor of the republic, and the problem was solved by the dowager empress formally announcing February 12, 1912, the accep- tance of the republic by the Chinese throne and pledg- ing the Manchu support to the same ; by the resigna- tion February 14 of Dr. Sun Yat Sen as provisional president and his earnest recommendation of the elec- tion of Yuan Shih Kai as permanent president, and by the unanimous election, February 15, of Yuan Shih Kai to the presidency of the republic. Yuan Shih Kai agreed to go south and be inaugurated as president at Nanking. A riot on the part of the Peking soldiers March i, the night before Yuan Shih Kai was to start for Nanking, led to a general acquiescence in the inauguration of Yuan Shih Kai at Peking instead of Nanking; and March 2, 1912, he was formally THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 367 inaugurated president of the United Chinese Republic. April 8, 1913, the National Assembly met at Peking to draft a constitution, and May 2, 1913, the Chinese Republic was recognized by the United States. Turning, in conclusion, to the outlook for the re- public, China is confronted by two most serious prob- lems. First, the problem of maintaining her existence and integrity as a nation and, second, the problem of developing a representative form of government. The first is the most immediate and pressing problem. It is idle to talk about a greater or less degree of consti- tutional government, so long as the very existence of a nation as over against foreign aggression is hanging in the balance. The most imperative need of China to-day is the development of patriotism, the growth of such a national spirit as will lead the Chinese to look upon the country as a whole, and gladly to make all sacrifices necessary for the maintenance of its exist- ence. They must be willing to pay such taxes as will be required for the maintenance of an army for de- fense. Down to the time when he accepted the crown, a majority of foreign observers residing in China, of students of Chinese affairs in other lands, and probably a majority of the Chinese leaders, regarded Yuan Shih Kai as the best present ruler. They thought if he could maintain the integrity and the independence of the Chinese nation without a foreign war, or without the downfall of China in case of a foreign war, he would prove the providential man for the present crisis. The second grave problem which confronts China is not simply the continued existence and integrity of 368 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the nation, but the quality of national life which she will develop. How rapidly can she realize representa- tive institutions ? All students of political institutions recognize that representative government is a growth and not a gift. China must develop republicanism for herself — not borrow a constitution from America; and all true friends of the nation and of republican insti- tutions must be content to see the Chinese move slowly, provided only they move in the right direction. A man with the gifts for leadership, the strength of purpose and the military equalities of Yuan Shih Kai is tempted to establish and maintain a strong government instead of a representative government. Men of this type are more anxious to see things accomplished than con- cerned about the methods by which the task is done. Such men are impatient over the debates, the delays, and the compromises of representative government. Hence it is not unnatural for Yuan Shih Kai, like Cromwell, to swing back toward a monarchy. More- over, all friends of China were disappointed over the factions, the distrust of each other and the corruption appearing among the members of the late Parliament. Representative government existed only in form. But the Chinese leaders felt that if only they could preserve the form for a time, presently they would secure the substance. Li Yuan Hung recommended the election of Yuan Shih Kai to the presidency for a second term of eight or ten years, in order that China might have unbroken leadership during the critical years of the formation of the republic. A simple record of recent events shows, in the ex- pressive jdirase of the Chinese, that while Yuan Shih THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 369 Kai’s Ups spoke for the republic his heart beat for monarchy. During the early fall of 1913 the rebellion of Sun Yat Sen and Huang Hsing collapsed and they both escaped from China. October 5, 1913, the Parlia- ment passed a law by which the president was to be elected by Parliament, for a term of five years, and was to be eligible for a second term, and reelected Yuan Shih Kai for this period, thus placing the des- tinies of China in his hands down to 1918. November 6, 1913, Yuan Shih Kai expelled from Parliament the Kuomintang party, numbering three hundred and ten members, on the ground that they had conspired with Sun Yat Sen and Huang Hsing to promote the late rebellion. This “purging of Parliament,” with the departure of other members through fear, left no quorum; and January ii, 1914, Yuan Shih Kai form- ally dissolved the Parliament; and instructed the governors to dissolve the Provincial Assemblies. Be- fore the dissolution Yuan Shih Kai chose a Political Council to aid him in selecting a Constitutional Com- mission. This Constitutional Commission, of sixty-five persons, is composed of representatives of scholarship, of business experience, and of political experience. In a sense it fairly represents the best elements of China; but it is too fully dominated by the president for its action to command the confidence of the nation. Dr. Frank J. Goodnow, president of the Johns Hopkins University, was constitutional adviser to the republic, and drafted for it a constitution far superior to the one adopted at Nanking. The Constitutional Commission modified Dr. Goodnow’s proposed constitution by ex- tending the presidential term to ten years, with no bar 370 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION to reelection. It adopted this modified constitution; and on December 9, 1914, once more elected Yuan Shih Kai president, thus extending his term of office until December, 1924. October 6, 1915, the question of restoring the mon- archy having been raised. Yuan Shih Kai issued a decree calling upon certain specified electors to vote upon it, the election being under the control of the governors who owed their appointments to Yuan Shih Kai. Each voter registered his preference and signed his name to his ballot. Most of those who voted for the monarchy designated Yuan Shih Kai as their choice for emperor. Signing the ballot led some who at heart were opposed to the monarchy to vote for it, as we were personally informed by voters. Many electors failed to vote. As these at heart were either opposed to the monarchy or else indifferent to it. Yuan Shih Kai’s claim of popular support for his imperial ambition is not well grounded. Dec. ii, 1915, the Council of State invited Yuan Shih Kai to assume the throne. Undoubtedly there is in China a group of political and religious conservatives who prefer to return to the old ways ; but the people as a whole did not desire an agitation of this subject at the present time. The United States hoped for the success of the republic, but felt debarred from taking any part in the domestic affairs of a neighboring nation and did not feel called upon to support by arms a republican form of govern- ment in China. Monarchical governments were from the first unfavorable to the republic on account of its possible reflex influence upon their own peoples. One THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 371 nation with whom China knew she mig^ht be called upon to reckon expressed a desire in 1915 that China might return to a monarchical form of government. Yuan Shih Kai in the condition in which he was placed felt a pressure to regard this wish, and he acted according to it. Later, after the new monarchy was almost consummated Great Britain, Russia, France and Japan openly advised that action be not taken at the present time. Accordingly Yuan Shih Kai post- poned the coronation. Uprisings against the mon- archy in Yunnan, Szechwan, and other provinces arose. There was deep, sullen discontent throughout southern and western China against the monarchy. A. D. 1916, March 21, Yuan Shih Kai canceled the action of the Council of State of Dec. ii, 1915, and directed that the petitions for him to accept the throne be returned to the original signers for destruction. A. D. 1916, March 23, Yuan Shih Kai issued a decree restoring the republic. Thus the republic was granted a renewed lease of life through the steady pressure of Chinese sentiment in its favor. The following con- siderations lead to the conviction that China will in the long run maintain some form of representative government, preferably a republic : I. No one can have watched the grave revolution which led to the overthrow of the Manchus without seeing how potent public sentiment is in China. So far as the fighting was concerned, it was by no means over- whelmingly in favor of the republican forces. The only hard fighting between the Manchus and the re- publican forces occurred in and around Hankow. Wu- chang, Hankow and Hanyang fell into the hands of 372 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the revolutionists almost without a struggle. When the Manchu authorities sent General Yin Chang south, the fighting between his forces and Li Yuan Hung’s troops was worthy of any soldiers. It will be remem- bered, however, that after a desperate struggle. Gen- eral Yin Chang recaptured Hankow, and even Han- yang, previously referred to as the Gibraltar of China. The struggle of the revolutionists seemed hopeless. But, marvelous to relate, the defeat, so far from chang- ing the purpose of the Chinese people, simply deepened their determination to throw off the Manchu yoke; and every Manchu victory was followed by the passing over of city after city and province after province to the side of the revolutionists. Between the outbreak of the revolution, October 9, 1911, and January 10, 1912, eighteen of the twenty-two provinces had form- ally renounced Manchu rule and proclaimed them- selves in favor of some form of government by the Chinese; and it was this declaration of the people against Manchu rule, far more than any efforts of the army or any negotiations of mediators, which deter- mined the abdication of the Manchus. In a word, the Manchus accepted the old Chinese proverb: Heaven hears as the people hear. Heaven sees as the people see. Here is a striking proof that whatever may be the form of Chinese government, in substance it is a government of the people. 2. Friends of republican government cannot fail to be impressed with the gravity and care with which the nation moved toward this form of government. THE CHINESE REPUBUC 373 The appointment of at least two separate commissions to study the forms of government of other nations and their report in favor of representative government, the appointment of provisional advisory assemblies in the provinces and of a provisional advisory national assembly in preparation for parliamentary govern- ment, and the limitation of the suffrage by intelligence, property, and moral qualifications so that only approx- imately one million persons became electors, all show the care with which the Chinese rulers adopted repub- lican institutions. Men who make such wise provi- sions for the establishment of a republican form of government instinctively reveal their fitness for repre- sentative government. 3. But the largest hope of the Chinese Republic rests in the considerable amount of training which the people have had in local self-government. Already we have discussed the struggle between feudalism and nationalism, and called attention to the fact that the emperor, in order to weaken the authority of the feudal princes, encouraged the people. Accordingly, the national authority has for centuries largely termi- nated with the Hsien, or county official, who is in charge of a region about the size of an American county, but with a population as large as is usually found in an American congressional district. The people of the county are responsible to this Hsien offi- cial for their taxes, and for the maintenance of order, and they know that in case of failure on their part, they must expect the interference of the Hsien official and his assistants. Aside from this recognition of the sovereignty of the nation, all local affairs are con- 374 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION trolled by the people. This long training in local self- government is an admirable preparation for the exten- sion of self-government to the provinces and to the nation. 4. As an integral part of this local self-government the Chinese have had a further remarkable prepara- tion for democracy in their centuries of gild govern- ment described in Chapter II. Just as the gilds of Europe during the Middle Ages more than any other single agency prepared the way for the free cities and contributed largely to the overthrow of the barons and the downfall of feudalism, so the gilds of China, with their free discussions, their annual elections of officers, their give-and-take in arranging terms of business, their power in initiative and their willingness to meet responsibility, furnish a providential prepara- tion for representative government. Finally, the brief history of the first republic is full of promise. Personally we left Peking Oct. 10, 1911, the day following the outbreak in Wuchang, and during the next five months traveled through central and southern China. During this entire trip, in which we heard the opinions of certainly more than a thousand different Chinese, only one single person, a Mohammedan priest at Foochow, expressed con- fidence that the Manchus would maintain their place, while the remainder said, “The Manchus have ex- hausted the mandate of Heaven.” Again, before the outbreak of the rebellion under Sun Yat Sen and Huang Hsing, in 1913, we made a second trip over much the same territory, hearing on this occa- sion from representatives of the Kiangsi Province THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 375 more fully than from the Fukien Province. Here again, out of perhaps a thousand opinions expressed, only one was in favor of the rebellion. While Yuan Shill Kai was not popular in the Yangtse Valley, yet it was astonishing to see the overwhelming sentiment in central China against a second revolution ; and the second revolution soon collapsed. In a word, affairs in China moved in accordance with the over- whelming judgment of the people. Again, it is remarkable that Yuan Shih Kai suc- ceeded in reestablishing the authority of the central government against the claims for independence upon the part of several of the provinces. In this regard China has secured in three years, without war, a victory in favor of nationalism which Italy, Germany, and the United States won only after bloody wars. Moreover, Yuan Shih Kai put forth earnest efforts for the establishment of civil service reform. As already narrated, he not only issued proclamations urging the abolition of the old system of graft, but he went so far as to ratify the death penalty pro- nounced by a lower court and confirmed by the Su- preme Court of the nation upon one of his old friends for resorting to tyranny in order to extort graft from his victims. Yuan Shih Kai further simplified and centralized the government by making the governors directly responsible to the president, the taotais re- sponsible to the governor and the magistrates or Hsien officials responsible to the taotais. The govern- ment also entered upon a policy outlined June 3, 1914, for securing an efficient army for the maintenance of peace and order, for the development of the resources 376 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION and the reduction of expenses of the government, for the maintenance of moral standards in education, for the advance of general education, for peaceful methods of diplomacy, but not for the impairment of sovereign rights of China. In a word, one sees in the council of sixty-five a partial and temporary sub- stitution of commission government for parliament- ary government. The tendency of Western govern- ment is toward the substitution of small commissions for large elective boards of aldermen and councilmen. Our national government has resorted to commissions for the control of its railways and banking interests, the public lands and public water powers, and for the control, in some measure, of the struggle of capital and labor. It is not discouraging, therefore, that China, on finding parliamentary government imprac- ticable for the present, has attempted to establish a commission form of government. Again, along with the establishment of the commission government and the strengthening of the central authority, the prov- inces have remitted the taxes to Peking to such an extent that in 1915 the manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai bank, the largest bank in China, de- clared the national finances to be on a satisfactory basis. The income was meeting the expenses at the time when Japan presented her demands. The two discouraging signs are the danger which threatens China’s sovereignty and the reversion to a monarchy. There need be no misgivings as to the final triumph of representative government in China. The whole movement of modern history, to which even Germany and Japan are not exceptions, is from the despotic THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 377 toward the representative form of government, a movement which even Napoleon could not stop. Germany and Japan have adopted parliamentary gov- ernment in form, and presently they will fill this form with substance. William T. Stead, in his volume The Americanization of the World, calls attention to the fact that every British colony has followed the United States with a written constitution rather than the mother country with an unwritten one. In China the young men of modern education are devoted to the republican ideal; and as the young men think to-day the nation will move to-morrow. One of the most remarkable and hopeful facts in the political situation is that despite centuries upon cen- turies of training in reverence for authority, young China to-day cherishes these ideals of republican insti- tutions. It would be an irreparable loss to China if her young men should abandon these ideals, or should in the long run fail to carry them out. Baron Bunsen wrote that personality with its con- viction of the worth of the individual scarcely existed in Rome or Greece or Judaea, that the individual was born with Christ and reborn at the Reformation. A new China is impossible without renewed Chinese. The new birth is the key to the Chinese Republic. The formula of progress in the Western world has been: Renaissance, Reformation, Revolution. More broadly and sweeping a wider span of history, it has been: The New Life in Christ, the Reformation, Re- ligious Freedom, Political Progress. Can China reach our goal without following the path we have trod? 378 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Careful observers have accepted for China a journey in the wilderness before she enters the prom- ised land. How speedily China can “turn a corner in human history” depends partly on the Western world — more upon herself. Alas! Europe is lighting the path of progress for China by the ghastly conflagra- tion of her own half-pagan, half-Christian civiliza- tion. If China turns to the United States for guid- ance, we are struggling over the race problem, capital and labor, worldliness and lust, ourselves doubtful whether we are making such progress in self-control and reverence for law as will insure the permanence of our institutions. Modesty becomes us all. But God’s plans are very broad. The awakening of the Chinese, the great progress of America in recent years, her self-control in the present world crisis, and the conviction that Europe, after all, is in the birth- pangs of a new civilization, make us, in view of the whole situation, hopeful for the future. Books for Reference Brown, Arthur J. : The Chinese Revolution. Dingle, Edwin J. : China Revolutionized. Kent, P. H.: The Passing of the Manchus. Tanning, George: Old Forces in New China. For additional material consult current publications on China, especially The China Press, The North China Daily News, The Far Eastern Review. CHAPTER XVI CHINA AND JAPAN We wish we might appeal solely to considerations of right and wrong in dealing with the relations of Japan and China. But, unfortunately, so-called Chris- tian and non-Christian nations alike are seldom gov- erned solely by righteousness. “It is a condition and not a theory which confronts us.” Our considera- tion of the Chino-Japanese problem must deal with the conditions as they are, and through these existing conditions attempt to find a solution of the problem. A brief historical review will bring the problem before us. B. Putnam Weale writes of Japan’s Twenty-one Demands Upon China: “January i8, 1915, ranks in Japanese history and in world history with Japan’s invasion of Seoul in 1894; her declaration of war with Russia in 1904; her annexation of Korea in 1910. Japan’s attitude toward China has not changed per- ceptibly since her statesmen, a quarter of a century ago, laid it down as a root principle that Japan must dominate all Asia washed by the Pacific. . . . When China suddenly turned her back on the East, and by her revolution of 19 ii declared to the world that she wished to enter the Western family of nations as a republic, a great menace to Japan’s plans arose. She fomented the rebellion of 1913; again Yuan Shih Kai and a Western loan beat her. Now when Europe is ab- 379 38o CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION sorbed in her drama and the United States is isolated for action in the Far East, Japan is binding China; and America leaves her with the threads of destiny being twisted around her to wrestle as best she may, at least for the present.” ^ This statement, like that of Dr, Griffis, which will be quoted a little later, falls into the error of all sweeping generalizations. Japan a quarter of a century ago probably had no such defi- nite Machiavellian plans. Japanese history, like the history of other nations, has moved more or less un- consciously in certain directions; and only after the events do the lines become clear. But the value of these generalizations consists in the fact that they bring out into the open light the half-conscious and half-unconscious aspirations of a nation. To accept literally each statement of Mr. Weale and Dr. Griffis is to charge Japan with falsehood in dealing with other nations, for Japan in four treaties since 1900 has accepted the policy of the open door and the integ- rity of China. In 1894-95 Japan precipitated the war with China over the suzerainty of Korea, though China’s conduct had been exceedingly provoking. Japan had adopted Western civilization on its material side, and with a modern army and navy she soon won a brilliant victory. As a result a treaty was signed at Shimon- oseki, April 17, 1895, declaring the absolute independ- ence of Korea, ceding to Japan Formosa, the Pesca- dores, the Liaotung peninsula and Port Arthur, and pledging China to pay an indemnity of 200,000,000 taels. But Port Arthur is the Gibraltar of Asia — the Japan Advertiser, April 3, 1915. CHINA AND JAPAN 381 first great deep-sea harbor on the Pacific Coast soiitli of the ice line, land-locked and protected hy rocky hills rising almost from the water’s edge. Japan’s mastery of Port Arthur blocked Russia’s aim for an ice-free port on the Pacific Coast. Russia induced Germany and France to unite with her in demanding that Japan exact a much larger indemnity from China and return Port Arthur and the Liaotung peninsula, on the ground that Japan’s sovereignty on the Man- churian coast would render the independence of Korea illusory, would menace the security of the Chinese capital, and constitute an obstacle to the peace of the Far East. Japan bowed to superior force, but with great inward bitterness over being robbed of the just fruits of her victory. In 1897, in punishment for the death of two German missionaries who had been killed in a Chinese riot, Germany demanded 200,000 taels for the murdered men, the rebuilding of the church destroyed by the rioters, reimbursement of all German expenses incurred, dismissal of the governor of the province, the severest penalties on the assassins and local officials, the cession of Kiaochow as a per- manent naval base for Germany, exclusive coal-min- ing rights in Shantung, and railway concessions in the province. Captain Brinkley writes, “Never had the most rudimentary principles of international morality been so grossly betrayed in the Far East.” ^ On March 3, 1898, four months after the Kiaochow incident, Russia asked China for a lease of Port Arthur and Talien (Dalny), in the Liaotung penin- * Brinkley, Captain F. : Oriental Series. China and Japan, vol. xii: China, Its History, Arts and Literature, p. 190. 382 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION sula, and gave China five days to reply; and on the 25th of March China yielded. A few days later Great Britain demanded and obtained from China a lease of Weihaiwci, on the north coast of Shantung; and also two hundred square miles of the hinterland of the Kowloon promontory north of Hongkong. France secured a part of the mainland opposite the island of Hainan.^ The only result, therefore, of Japan’s humiliation was the increased .aggression of other foreign Powers, and the lessened chance of Japan ever securing the fruits of a future victory over China. The iron entered Japan’s soul, and immediately she began to double her army and treble her navy. In 1904-05 came Japan’s war with Russia. Before entering upon the war she wrote the most solemn declarations to Korea, China, and the world proclaim- ing that her sole purpose was to drive Russia out of China where she was a menace to both China and Japan, and that she would not annex a foot of Korean or Chinese territory. Japan’s brilliant victory over Russia startled the world. She defeated a nation deemed hitherto well-nigh invincible; it was the first great triumph of the yellow race over the white race — a result deemed incredible among white races. Japan’s triumph thrilled the Orient into new life; and its efifects will be felt for generations throughout the Far East, and possibly throughout the world. Japan at once took her position as one of the great Powers of the earth. But the Japanese were disappointed over the Treaty •Brinkley, Captain F. : Oriental Series, China and Japan, vol. xii: China, Its History, Arts and Literature, pp. 193-4. CHINA AND JAPAN 3?;3 of Portsmouth. In the treaty Japan secured the exact results wliich she had announced as the object of the war, namely, the driving of Russia from Manchuria, where her presence destroyed the balance of power in the Far East. By the Treaty of Portsmouth Japan also secured Port Arthur and the southern half of Saghalien, but not a dollar to repay her for her tre- mendous expenditures. Japan had lost one hundred and thirty thousand of her noblest sons, she had a far larger number crippled or diseased for life; and in addition to such current expenses as she had raised by heroic sacrifices she found herself at the close of the war with a permanent addition to her debt of $500,ooo,cxx).^ Such sacrifices, so large an added indebtedness, and so brilliant a victory seemed to the Japanese to demand far more than they received; and to them the war seemed to end in empty glory. The dissatisfaction in Japan over the Treaty of Ports- mouth was such that she withdrew her troops slowly and reluctantly from Manchuria, and never fully. Indeed, she continued openly and fully to occupy Korea, despite the fact that Japan had pledged Korea and the world that she would respect and preserve Korea’s sovereignty as a condition of peaceably pass- ing through her borders. We do not think that Japan at the opening of the war planned to seize Korea. For the first few months after the proclamation of her purpose in attacking Russia, she was so fully imbued with the principles of that proclamation that she herself hesitated to repudiate them. We are inclined to believe that at the * The Christian Movement in the Japanese Empire, 1914, p. 16. 384 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION treaty of Portsmouth responsible Japanese leaders agreed with Russia that Japan was to continue to hold Korea and that President Roosevelt acquiesced in Japan’s purpose. Meantime, another great opportunity began to loom in sight. Japanese leaders had known the value of Manchuria for many years. But the Japanese people as a whole had not realized either their own power to become a dominant factor on the continent of Asia or the large and splendid territory across the straits which invited colonization and development. The campaign against Russia had carried hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers across the plains of Manchuria. They saw stretching out before them immense fertile plains, surrounded in places by hills and mountains; and they became aware that China was impotent to protect her own. Manchuria em- braces a territory of three hundred and sixty thou- sand square miles, as rich in natural resources as Wis- consin and Minnesota, capable, according to such competent authorities as W. D. Straight and Alex- ander Hosie and Japanese experts, of sustaining an addition to her population of from sixty to eighty million people. The temptation which beset Japan reminds one of Satan’s temptation of the Master when he showed him all the kingdoms of the earth and said, “All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Great Britain, Germany, Russia, France, and the United States, during their respective histories, all have fallen before a similar temptation to make gains in territory. Japan saw not simply the plains of Manchuria, but also, in view CHINA AND JAPAN 385 of the weakness of China and her own undreamed of military prowess, she saw the Chinese empire stretch- ing" out before her. Indeed, she dreamed of the pos- sibility of uniting the yellow races under her leader- ship and through them gaining the leadership of the I^acific Basin and of the world. It was a very sore temptation. Down to 1915 Japan had not fallen be- fore the glittering prize. On the other hand, she had not turned away her gaze from the temptation which enthralled her. As the story of Japan’s recent conflict with China is not yet in official print, and as the record of some well-known acts is challenged, we avail ourselves of an account of Japan’s plans and acts with reference to China by the Rev. William Elliot Griffis, D.D.,“ an earnest friend of Japan. As Baron Komura, the hero of the story, is a former pupil of Dr. Griffis, as Dr. Griffis speaks of plans in Baron Komura’s mind which he could know only through the Baron’s con- fessions to himself, it is evident that the scholar has taken his old teacher into his confidence and unfolded to him some of his plans for turning the barren vic- tory of Japan over Russia into a brilliant triumph over China. While condensing Dr. Griffis’s account, we give the story as fully as possible in his own words : “After serving as civil administrator of Antung, Komura was sent to Seoul ‘to save face’ for Japan when the queen of Korea had been assassinated by some Japanese ruffians.” Komura was later called to the Katsura Cabinet as foreign minister “where it was part of his work to secure the alliance of Japan ^New York Sun. May 30, 1915. 386 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION with England and to conduct those prolonged nego- tiations of which the war with Russia was the sequel.” After the defeat of Russia “Komura was selected by the emperor to be the bearer of the olive branch at Portsmouth. . . . Marquis Ito had forewarned him to expect on his return home a storm of unpopularity and possibly danger to his life. . . . With his plans thoroughly wrought out, Komura purposed more than the settlement of the war. He schemed to gain a victory more decisive than either Togo with his battleships or Oyama with his half million war- riors had won. On the Asian continent he would create a greater Japan. . . . Manchuria and the road to Europe must be won. In the Portsmouth deliberations, August lo to September 5, 1905, Russia agreed to share with Japan all her special rights in the Chinese empire and, accordingly, turned over to her the texts of all her previous treaties with China. . . . Until 1907 this secret arrangement between Russia and Japan was unknown at Washington.” Dr. Griffis does not tell fully what the secret arrange- ment entered into by Japan and Russia was. Fred- erick K. McCormick® shows that the secret clause, by which Japan was to assume control over the Manchur- ian Railway, and thus over the single line of trans- portation running from Asia to Europe, was Article 6 of an agreement made by China with Russia as to the east and west line — that portion of the railway which Russia retained. This Article 6 gave Russia “sole and exclusive right of administration in the railway zone,” that is, a territory about one mile ® The Flowery Republic, p. 306. CHINA AND JAPAN 387 wide on each side of the railway. We should think it would be difficult for a Christian statesman to over- look two difficulties in Baron Komura’s program. First: China made the concession mentioned above only for the east and west extension of the railway, that is, for that end of the line which was nearest to Russia and furthest from Peking, and, therefore, run- ning through a portion of the country whose control was not so vital to China’s interest as was the north and south Manchurian line. China never made this concession in regard to the administration for the latter line, hence the famous “plan of state” by which Baron Komura proposed that Japan should gain a foothold in IManchuria consisted in Japan claiming and exercising in southern Manchuria an authority which China never granted either to Russia or Japan. Second: The whole cause of Japan’s war with Russia, as proclaimed to the world by Japan, was Russia’s unjust claim of authority in southern Manchuria. Japan professed to the world to fight the war in the interest of China, of Korea, and of all other nations who had treat}^ relations with China, as well as for the preservation of her own rights. It was because Japan professed to be fighting for the interests of all nations that she had the sympathy of the world in her war with Russia. Hence for Japan to take over from Russia these unjust claims of authority which trenched upon the sovereignty of China — claims which Japan maintained Russia had not the slightest right to exercise, claims which endangered the peace of the Far East — and proceed to exercise the very injustice which she began the war to overthrow, and 388 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION even extend this theft of sovereignty from the east and west line to the north and south line, is very embarrassing to every fair-minded defender of Japan. Even some of the Japanese writers admit the embar- rassment. Dr. Griffis apparently feels it in some mea- sure, for he adds: “Nevertheless, this diplomatic tri- umph placed the Island Empire in a precarious situa- tion. While posing as the champion of the open door and of China’s territorial integrity, . . . Japan was expected to act with rectitude and to be equally gen- erous to all. That neither she nor China has been able to do so has given cause for vast areas of copy.” We may add that the only reason why China has not been able to give equal rights in Manchurian trade to all is this interference on the part of Japan. Dr. Griffis continues, “Right or wrong Japan in China stood as the equal of semi-Oriental Russia and, in so far, as the superior of Occidental nations.” It was for the express purpose of destroying Russia’s as- sumption of superior privileges in China that Japan proclaimed the war, but, according to Dr. Griffis, the war transferred to Japan that unjust privilege which threatened the peace of the world and which Japan began the war to destroy. That there may be no doubt of Japan’s purpose in the war in taking Korea and subordinating China to herself we quote Dr. Griffis’ statement of it: “What was wanted was that which would guarantee Japan’s future — a foothold on the Continent, control of the high seas to Europe, preponderance in the development of Manchuria, the subordinating of China, and the friendship of Russia. . . . All these points — the ends for which the war CHINA AND JAPAN 389 had been foiiglit — had been settled in Komura’s mind before leaving Japan, and were won at Portsmouth. . . . Komura’s next mission to Peking was wholly successful. China seemed grateful because the Rus- sian incubus seemed lightened by its being shared, instead of being, as it really was, doubled. A few months later, when the reality was suspected, Chinese popular feeling suffered a revulsion. A campaign for the recovery of rights began in China which has per- sisted and will not down.” But Dr. Griffis is hurt that China does not welcome the overlordship of Japan as a plan ordained of God for her relief. In the above quotations Dr. Griffis speaks as Baron Komura’s old teacher, and doubtless reports correctly Komura’s interpretation of the events for the last ten years. Nevertheless, the account impresses us as too consistent and a priori on Baron Komura’s part to be wholly accurate. It gives too much credit to Ja- pan’s brain and too little to her conscience. Our own conversations with Japanese statesmen lead to a higher view of Japanese morality than is taken in Dr. Griffis’s article. It is indisputable that there were and are yet two parties in Japan — one the IMilitary Party and the other the Economico-Ethical Party — and these two parties are }^et somewhat sharply divided. Komura represents the Military Party. Prince Ito, during the first months following the Portsmouth treaty, and Okuma down to the winter of 1914-1915, represented the Economico-Ethical Party. Frederick McCormick informs us that when the treaty of Ports- mouth was signed, September, 1905, it became the immediate business of the two contestants, Russia and 390 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Japan, to separate from each other so far as practic- able. The Manchurian Railway had been divided be- tween them, Japan securing the Southern Manchuria, or the north and south division, Russia securing the east and west division. Prince Ito immediately made with E. H. Harriman, an American railway financier, a tentative agreement which would turn the southern Manchurian railway into an American railway to serve as a buffer between Russia and Japan.’^ Russia seemed quite as eager as Japan to separate from her former foe and offered her division for sale on Wall Street, New York. She did not abandon her plan to sell the railway until 1908, after an open and decisive failure to dispose of it in America — a failure wdiich brought considerable humiliation to herself. On Komura’s arrival in Japan after the Treaty of Ports- mouth he was condemned even more bitterly than Ito had warned him to expect. In the attempt to extricate Japan from her humiliation he proposed that the con- cession of the sole jurisdiction for two or three li along each side of the railway, which Russia had secured for the east and west division of the Manchurian line, should be boldly taken by Japan along the north and south division.® Japan proposed to Russia thus to seize a portion of the sovereignty of Manchuria — Russia to emphasize her sovereignty in the railway zone in upper Manchuria, and Japan to seize a similar zone in lower Manchuria, and emphasize her sover- eignty in that. It took four years and a visit of Baron Goto to Russia, and finally of Prince Ito himself, to ’ McCormick, Frederick: The Flowery Republic, p. 305. * Ibid., p. 306. CHINA AND JAPAN 391 persuade Russia to enter into this agreement with Japan. In the meantime the agreement was not en- tered into until Japan finally pushed her communica- tions to the Amur River, thus awakening Russia’s fear of her influence in northern Manchuria, when Russia finally signed the agreement, July 4, 1910. It w'as a tragedy that Prince Ito, who opposed all move- ments toward aggression on Japan’s part until she could recover financially from her war with Russia, and who declared to the last that Japan would never annex Korea, lost his life while on a mission for the Military Party against his own earlier convictions but at the request of the emperor. It was through the influence of men of the reputation of Prince Ito, and through Russia’s feeling of isolation at the opposi- tion of the United States, Germany, France, and Great Britain over what seemed to them to be plans for alienating the sovereignty of China in Manchuria, that Russia is said to have signed the agreement.® With a fine contempt for morality the Military Party in Japan led the nation to set up in a Japanese-Rus- sian compact the very agreement impairing the sover- eignty of China which Japan in the name of humanity had gone to war with Russia to demolish. The European war made possible Japanese aggres- sion on China. The War Party in Japan assured their compatriots that all Europe was engrossed in a life-and-death struggle; and no European nation would or could interfere with Japan’s realization of her ambitions; that the United States was isolated, and the protection of China would not furnish her a • Ibid., p. 309. 392 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION sufficient motive for going to war with Japan; that the United States could not transport troops five thou- sand miles and conquer Japan; that her failure might cost her the Philippines, and in any case would add immensely to her own humiliation and to the prestige of Japan. Hence the War Party maintained that the United States would do nothing more than protest, and Japan would be left free to deal with China as she might wish. Japan had won her first and only real recognition from the Western world by her defeat of Russia; hence, the War Party argued, she would win further recognition by the Western world only through the further display of military power. China had not yet become a military power. She was weak- ened by the revolution, by the rebellion of Sun Yat Sen and that of White Wolf. She had employed •Ger- man officers to train her army, and they had intro- duced German guns and induced China to buy Ger- man ammunition, which ceased to be shipped to China some three months before the outbreak of the Euro- pean struggle ; and the Chinese government had used up her supplies in the suppression of the White Wolf uprising and had not yet completed an arsenal for the manufacture of her own ammunition. In a word, it was now possible, so the War Party argued, for Japan to take possession of Manchuria, to dominate the whole of China, and in case of violent opposition to overthrow the Chinese government; and in any case thoroughly intrench herself as a great continental Power in Asia. Nev’^er did military glory and world- liness appeal more powerfully to a nation. At the outbreak of the European struggle and CHINA AND JAPAN 393 Japan’s attack upon the German possessions in China, Count Okuma appealed to Parliament for the increase in the army and navy which the people had refused to "rant to the three Cabinets which had preceded him. Members of Parliament were afraid to vote the in- crease without an appeal to their constituents, and Okuma dissolved Parliament and made the appeal. The War Party made a sharp attack upon him on the ground that he had always been a man of peace, that he was president of the Peace Society of Japan, and that at seventy-eight years of age and with his peace record, he was not the man to be at the head of Japan for such a time as this ; they assured the people, groaning under their taxes, that the conquest of China would bring financial relief. It looked as if the War Party would sweep the nation. Count Okuma, pos- sibly to prevent defeat in the impending election, formulated and presented January 18, 1915, Twenty- one Demands upon China. An examination of these Demands shows their cruel injustice to the Chinese, and the attempt of the Japanese government to keep them secret and to compel China by threats and by doubling the Japanese troops in China to sign them speedily, reveals Japan’s own recognition of the injustice of her Demands. Any one who reads care- fully Appendices VIII and IX will see the necessity for the strong statements which follow as to the danger of the War Party’s attempt to seize for Japan the suzerainty of China. Evidently, the sense of the injustice of the Demands, the stubborn refusal of Yuan Shih Kai to concede Group V which most fully “ See Appendices VIII to XII. 394 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION trenched upon the sovereignty of the nation, and the urgent advice of the United States and great Britain led the Japanese government to postpone the most obnoxious of these Demands. China and also the Economico- Ethical Party in Japan owe a lasting debt of gratitude to President Wilson and Secretary Bryan and Great Britain for leading Japan to this deci- sion. The one hundred and thirty votes in the Japanese Parliament in favor of impeaching Count Okuma for making such demands upon China shows the moral resentment of Japanese leaders over these reckless Demands. The Japanese Government as- sured the American government that Japan had dropped Group V. Unfortunately, the Revised De- mands (Appendix IX) show that the Group is only postponed. This fact, coupled with a request by a Japanese representative, on the heels of the an- nounced postponement, that Yuan Shih Kai would restore the monarchy, was one of the causes leading to Yuan Shih Kai’s unfortunate decision in favor of a monarchy. Located as the two nations are, Japan must adopt one of two policies: Japan must either conquer and govern the Chinese, or else she must treat China as one neighbor should treat another and thus win her friendship, her trade, and in time of need her support. She cannot possibly combine the two. As the two nations must always remain neighbors, and especially as Japan is the smaller nation, and for most of the last three thousand years has been the weaker nation, the only wise course is neighborly conduct. This view rests upon the following considerations: CHINA AND JAPAN 395 I. Japan's Overlordsiiip of China Is Not Neces- sary TO Her Own Growth 1. The late Professor F. H. King, of the Uni- versity of Wisconsin, may have fallen into some errors through the haste of his trip in the Far East. But Professor King was an authority upon agricul- ture. He carefully examined the resources of Japan and received the thorough reports of the Japanese government in regard to them and he thus wrote of Japan’s possibilities: “If all lands having a slope of less than fifteen degrees may be tilled, there yet re- mains in the four main islands of Japan as much as sixty-five per cent of uncultivated land which may yet be brought under cultivation. If the new lands to be reclaimed can be made as productive as those in use, there should be an opportunity for an increase in population to the extent of about 35,000,000 people. While the lands remaining to be reclaimed are not as inherently productive as those now in use, improve- ments in management will more than compensate for this difference; and the empire is quite certain to double its present maintenance capacity and provide for at least 100,000,000 people in the four islands with many more comforts than they now enjoy.” This would enable the Japanese to provide for their growth at their present rate of expansion for half a century without making the population any more predomi- nantly an industrial population than it is to-day. 2. In addition to this opportunity for a large ex- pansion of population within her four main islands. ** Farmers of Forty Centuries, p. 425. 396 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Japan already holds Formosa, Korea, and Lower Saghalien. These three territories offer opportunities for an expansion of population of 20,000,000 to 25,- 000,000 beyond the 35,000,000 increase which Pro- fessor King estimates. Thus Japan by agriculture alone can more than double her present population on the land which she now rules. 3. If Japan does not cripple her resources and divert the energies of her men in war, she has a prospect of becoming the industrial and commercial leader of the Far East for the next fifty years, as Great Britain has been the industrial commercial leader of the At- lantic Basin. 4. The Japanese have unlimited opportunities of migrating to the mainland and helping shape the civilization of the Continent, as Germanic, English and Irish people have migrated to the mainland of the Western continent and jointly have helped shape the political life and civilization of the United States. 5. The Malay Archipelago, or Malaysia, is ca- pable of sustaining an increase of population of some four hundred million people, and the Japanese can as readily overflow their borders, fill up and colo- nize certain islands of Malaysia as the Chinese are doing. Hence, no problem of life and death is con- fronting Japan through her failure to gain an imme- diate foothold on the mainland of Asia. Indeed, the problem of life and death will become imminent only when Japan decides upon the policy of expansion by the defeat of China and the capture of a portion of her territory. CHINA AND JAPAN 397 II. Japan Is in No Condition for the Heavy Mili- tary Expenditure which Her Exercise of Overlordship in China Would Demand I. Japan has now annexed Formosa, Lower Sag- halien, and Korea, embracing more than 15,000,000 subjects in all. W'ere she to annex the lower part of Manchuria, she would add some 12,000,000 to 15,- 000,000 Chinese subjects to those she now rules. This would make it necessary for some 50,000,000 Jap- anese to exercise constant control over some 30,- 000,000 subjects of alien races and of different lan- guages, filled with the hatred which the conquered always feel toward their conquerors. It is well known that the Japanese have been in a state of friction and warfare with the Chinese in Formosa since 1895; and this warfare is by no means at an end. Nominally, the Japanese army is in Formosa for the protection of the people from the head-hunters of the mountains, but in reality the Japanese conquerors cannot trust their few colonists with Japanese institu- tions and civilization to the Chinese of the valleys. Despite some conspicuous external service to Korea, all who have been living in that country or have come in close contact with the Koreans, know something of the bitterness of heart with which they are realiz- ing their loss of nationality and are submitting to the control of a foreign nation. The Japanese them- selves maintain that the Koreans are disloyal and have been frequently plotting the death of their rulers. It may be questioned whether the very thoroughness of the Japanese, along with the pride which almost 398 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION invariably attends noted conquests, does not unfit them to become the successful assimilators of an alien race. It seems impossible for fifty million Japanese to transform into their own nationality and imbue with their own ideals 15,000,000 people held in sub- jection in Korea, Saghalien, and Formosa, and then subdue and speedily assimilate 15,000,000 Chinese in southern Manchuria. So that with the most favor- able outcome of annexation, with the speedy and com- plete conquest of the Manchurians, and with the speedy and complete cessation of all external warfare upon the part of the three hundred and thirty million Chinese over the loss of their fertile provinces, the Japanese would be forced to an immediate and per- manent increase of both army and navy in order to protect herself from internal and external dangers. This is not a matter of speculation. The most careful military advisers of Japan, indeed all the leaders of the army and navy, have been agreed during the last four or five years that the safety of Japan, even with- out the annexation of Manchuria, depends upon the increase by two divisions of the army and the building of additions to the navy; and the increase is now in rapid process of accomplishment. It was this recog- nized, indisputable problem in Japanese politics, namely, the determination upon the part of the mili- tary and naval party for an increase of military ex- penditures upon the one side, and the conviction of the people upon the other side that they would be driven to bankruptcy by the increase in expenditures, which brought about the downfall of ministry after ministry, and at last restored Count Okuma to office CHINA AND JAPAN 3(>j after his enforced retirement by the Japanese bureau- cracy for eighteen years. 2. Professor King‘d tells us that Japan has 15,- 201,960 acres of land under cultivation, with an aver- age of two and six tenths acres of land for each of the 5,246,911 households. Dividing the taxes by the households gives us $28.17, gold, as an average annual tax for each household in the nation. Or, dividing the taxes by the acres of cultivated land gives us an annual tax of $10.83, gold, as the average tax now paid for every acre of land cultivated in the nation. The Japan Year Book for 1914 gives the population of Japan in the 1910 census, exclusive of Korea, Formosa, and Saghalien, at 50,984,844, and the Japanese expenditures at $258,422,714. This makes an annual tax levy of $5.06, gold, for each man, woman, and child in Japan to meet the national expenses, not mentioning the taxes for municipal and local expenses. Should the family average five and a half, as is the case in China, the figures derived from this source would be $27.83, gold, for each family as compared with $28.17, gold, per household by the other method of calculation. The national debt of Japan is placed by the Christian Movement in the Japanese Empire, 1914, at $1,282,211,158. Taking Japan’s debt and the highest estimate we have ever found of Japan’s wealth,^® and comparing that ratio of debt to wealth in the United States make the na- tional debt of Japan weigh upon her people sixteen times as heavily in proportion to her wealth as the “ King, F. H.: Farmers of Forty Centuries, p. 425. “ Captain Brinckley, in Encyclopcedia Britannica, vol. xv, p. 2 19. 400 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION national debt weighs upon the people of the United States. Professor Kambe, of Kyoto Imperial Uni- versity/^ makes the national debt of Japan twenty- two times as large in proportion to her wealth as the national debt of the United States. While Professor Kambe’s figures are less favorable to Japan than our own, either statement shows the tremendous weight of Japan’s debt in proportion to her wealth as com- pared with the United States. Let the pressure of our national taxes be increased twenty-twofold, or even sixteenfold, and we should have a revolution in our country. The tax, for instance, on an income of $2,500 a year in Japan amounts to twenty per cent and takes $500 of the man’s salary for its discharge. With such an enormous tax rate pressing upon the Japanese, the prospect of an increase of this rate which is absolutely necessary for the conquest and the maintenance of control over Manchuria, and not only of a temporary increase but of a permanent increase, involves the gravest peril to the economic and political life of the Japanese. Japan is in no con- dition to stand a large and permanent increase of mili- tary expenditures. III. The Military Career Demanded by Japan’s OVERLORDSHIP OF ChINA MeANS IN THE EnD THE Downfall of Japanese Civilization I. Japan either can enter upon a course of indus- trial and commercial expansion or she can decide to be a military nation. She cannot travel toward both goals at the same time, for these two goals lie “See Japanese Journal of Economy for 1910. 401 CHINA AND JAPAN in opposite directions. For industrial and commer- cial expansion her young' men should remain at home, in the schools, on the farms, in the factories, in busi- ness: the formative period of their lives should be spent not in military drill, and especially not in cam- paigns which keep them away from their families and industries and decimate their numbers, but should be spent in acquiring the skill and experience for success- ful business careers. One of the greatest economists in England some forty years ago noted the percent- age of young men in the armies of Europe in pro- portion to the percentage in schools, and compared this condition in Europe with the proportion of young men in schools to those in the army in the United States, and maintained that Europe was giving the United States the economic advantage, and that within half a century the United States would have the economic leadership of the world. This prophecy has come true ; and wdth the rapid growth of popula- tion in the United States, with the immense capital ready to be invested in industrial enterprises, with the remarkable inventive genius of Americans, with the cutting of the Panama Canal, and with Japan en- grossed in military affairs and Europe exhausted by the same, the United States will secure the industrial and commercial leadership of the Pacific during the next half century. On the other hand, if Japan can devote her energies to an industrial and commercial career, then with the spread of general education in Japan, with the remarkable industry of her people, with the ease with which she can borrow the inven- tions of her neighbors, and with five thousand miles’ 402 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION advantage in nearness of market to the Far East as compared with the United States, and with similar advantages over Europe, Japan can become the indus- trial and commercial leader of the Far East for the next fifty years. Either of these alternatives is be- fore her. She cannot possibty grasp the two together. 2. In determining which of the alternatives, a mili- tary career or an educational, intellectual, and com- mercial career, she will choose, Japan should remem- ber the axiom which Bacon laid down, namely, any nation which gives herself definitely to war may be- come for the time being a great military power, but in doing so destroys the foundations of permanent existence. The life of Alexander, the histories of Rome in her later period, of Spain in her period of conquest, and of France under Louis XIV, and Napoleon, confirm Bacon’s maxim. This is because the permanent maintenance of armies not only drains the financial resources of a nation, but decimates the nation’s manhood. We do well to remember a greater than Bacon said, “They that take the sword shall perish by the sword.” 3. War has ceased to be profitable. When nations were so sunk in savagery that the victors extermi- nated the conquered, taking possession of their lands and all their wealth, or sold them into slavery, taking not only their goods but adding to this the money which the sale of captives brought, war was profitable. But, as Norman Angell has well shown,^'^ we have reached a time when civilization forbids a conquering nation exterminating or enslaving the conquered. If ** Europe’s Optical Illusion. CHINA AND JAPAN 403 the conqueror nuist sj^arc the lives of the con([uerecl, then he must maintain himself in a military position so strong that he cannot possibly be surprised and overcome by any disloyalty upon the part of his sub- jects; or he must treat these subjects with such kind- ness as to win their loyalty and service. Germany, despite a somewhat dictatorial manner, has aimed to treat Alsace-Lorraine and Schleswig-Holstein with essential justice, and she has administered their affairs with honesty and wisdom since the conquest of these lands. France has done the same with' Nice and Savoy. Great Britain is ruling India with justice and humanity. We have reached a stage of civiliza- tion when the Japanese leaders and the Japanese people do not dream of deliberately grinding down their Korean subjects, or those of Manchuria, should they conquer Manchuria ; when, indeed, they could not inflict any marked and permanent injustice upon them without the protest, the financial boycott, and, if need be, the armed intervention of other nations of the world. But if Japan is to take control of Manchuria and grant to the Chinese economic privileges substan- tially equal to the privileges which Japanese settling in Manchuria shall possess, then the Chinese, already in possession of these lands, able and willing to stand a larger amount of hard work than their Japanese neighbors can perform upon the land, and with the larger experience and skill in merchandise, will mul- tiply faster than the Japanese, and either will absorb them, or else in the economic struggle will drive them from the country. Professor lyenaga, Japanese lec- turer on political science at the University of Chi- 404 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION cago, recognizes that the Chinese in Manchuria sur- pass the Japanese both in industries and in trade. What possible economic gain can Japan contemplate as the result of the seizure of Manchuria and the attempt to administer that country on terms giving the Manchurians substantial equality with them- selves? On the other hand, if Japan deliberately re- solves to exploit the Manchurians for the enrichment of her own people, then a state of chronic warfare with the military expenditures portrayed above must lead Japan into national bankruptcy, even provided the other nations would tolerate such in- humanity. IV. Other Nations Will Not Permit Japan to Hold the Overlordship of China Japan is under treaty obligations with the other nations of the earth to maintain the open door in Man- churia. In order to do this she is also under obliga- tion to maintain the integrity of China. Japan joined the other leading nations of the earth in solemn treaty to this effect in 1900. She renewed the covenant with Russia in the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905. Again she renewed this solemn promise with the United States in the Root-Takahira Agreement in 1908. She renewed it with Great Britain in her alli- ance of 1909 and in the renewal of that alliance in 1913. These five recent treaties are a formal notice that the nations of the world will no more permit Japan to upset the balance of power and disturb the peace of the world by large aggressions in the Par East than they would permit a similar action through CHINA AND JAPAN 405 the seizure of Switzerland or Belj^ium or Holland by any European nation. If Japanese statesmen have a wise regard for the considerate opinions of mankind, they will pause long before attempting to set aside treaty obligations and disturb the balance of power in such a way as to involve the nations of the earth in a united struggle against herself. It is simply incred- ible that the Western nations will sit idly by and permit Japan’s attempt to secure the headship of the Chinese race in addition to her own and to become the dominant power in the Pacific Basin for centuries. V. China Alone Will Defe.\t Japan’s Plans for Her Conquest — Toughness and Strength of Chinese Character and Civilization I. While the Japanese Military Party cite the con- quests and the long rule of the Chinese by the Mongols and the Manchus as an assurance of their ability to conquer and rule China, a careful study of these struggles shows that while they began as foreign conquests they ended in Chinese victories. China was conquered and ruled by the Mongols 1280-1368 and by the IManchus 1644-1911. But neither the Mongol nor the Manchu language or civilization made any lasting advance as the result of the conquest. On the contrary, both languages soon ceased to be spoken, even by their own peoples living in China; and the Chinese language largely penetrated Mongolia and has almost displaced the Manchu language in Man- churia. The real conquest of China by either of these nations was no greater than was the conquest of Eng- 4o6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION land by Germany when England accepted the Georges as kings. It is said that the late dowager empress, whose reputation as a scholar far exceeded that of Edward VII, could not speak her native Manchu, while Edward spoke German fluently. Moreover, in case of both the Mongols and the Manchus, Chinese civilization transformed the conquerors more com- pletely than Greek civilization transformed Alex- ander’s kingdom. 2. Wherever intermarriage between the Chinese and other races takes place the descendants are largely Chinese in characteristics. In marriages of the Chi- nese with Mongols, Manchus, Burmese, Hawaiians, and Malays, these races have been transformed into Chinese, with comparatively few cases of the descendants of the Chinese transformed in habits and character into Malays or Mongols. Buddhism came to China as a missionary religion about the time of Christ. It is well known that the Hinayana, or original form of Buddhism, was after a few centuries transformed into the Mahayana form of Buddhism.^® It was by this transformation that Buddhism became a popular religion embracing multitudes of followers. This transformation of Bud- dhism was inaugurated in India. But the Rev. Timothy Richard,^^ of China, and Professor Lloyd, of Japan, maintain that the transformation of Bud- dhism was carried forward to more vital changes after its introduction to the Far East. Following Indian initiative, the Chinese have so transformed ** Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xvii, p. 395, c. Richard, Timothy: New Testament of Higher Buddhism, chap, i, Lloyd, Arthur; The Wheat Among Tares, chap. .\i. CHINA AND JAPAN 407 Buddhism that it bears little resemblance to the orig- inal teachings and practices of Gotama. 3. Nestorian Christianity entered China A. D. 505, but the Chinese so completely transformed it, or else encysted it and left it to perish, that only a single tablet preserved to us by the Chinese furnishes the evidence that such a religion ever entered the empired® 4. The Jews came to China and once numbered many thousands. But this persistent and uncom- promising race has been so fully absorbed that the few poor families left at their original seat of wor- ship do not know a word of Hebrew, and their wor- ship of the true God in the Chinese language has entirely ceased.^" 5. If Mohammedanism has fared better than Juda- ism and Nestorian Christianity so far as winning adherents and maintaining an existence is concerned, probably this is because Mohammedanism, as we saw in Chapter HI, entered the country along with trade and was supported by economic causes. Neverthe- less, the Chinese have so encysted this foreign faith that it has not made any impression upon Confucian- ism or “had the least influence on the polytheism of the nation or in elevating the tone of morals.” With the failure of the Mohammedan Rebellion of 1862-76 “those Mohammedans who might be said to be Chinese in ways and appearance ceased to possess any political importance. It would not be going much too far to say that they no longer existed.” “ Yule’s Edition Marco Polo. See the index references to Nestorianism. “Williams. S. Wells: The Middle Kingdom, vol. ii, p. 274. “ Ibid., vol. ii, p. 269. “ Boulger, Demetrius: Short History of China, pp. 339-342, 4o8 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION VI. Japan Can Overthrow Temporarily the Existing Government in China, but She Cannot Placate and Control the People I. Before Japan attempts such serious interfer- ence in China as was proposed in 1915, she ought to decide upon her permanent policy toward the Chinese people. Even if Japan limits herself to a humble pro- gram of conquest and resolves to take only Manchuria and to let China develop her own resources without interference, provided China leaves Japan in peace- able possession of her capture, then Japan will find a nation of over three hundred million people rapidly emerging into a stage of modern civilization. She will find also that the military stage is the earliest and the easiest form of civilization for a nation to assume. The art of war is speedily and easily learned so far as the masses are concerned. General Gordon’s estimate of the Chinese soldiers was, that if well armed, well drilled, well fed, clothed and paid and well led, they are equal to British soldiers. The Japanese already have learned the art of war as fully as have Western nations. Probably the Jap- anese soldiers are not excelled by any other soldiers on earth. When we consider the officers, China has developed as many great generals as Japan. When it comes to national resources in comparison with na- tional indebtedness, and especially when it comes to potential resources upon which as well as upon pres- ent resources capitalists make loans, the Chinese nation surpasses Japan even more than in numbers. Can Japan rob the bear of its young and yet allow this 409 CHINA AND JAPAN bear, sixfold larger than herself, to continue to in- crease in strength for another half century to come? If so, she simply dooms herself to annihilation at the close of that half century. If Japan decides to take Manchuria, probably she will be forced in the end to undertake the subjugation of all China. Japan prob- ably could easily overthrow the present Chinese gov- ernment, first, because the government is temporarily ill through the corruption and downfall of the Manchu dynasty, and there has not yet been time for anarchy and revolts to disappear and any vigorous govern- ment to become established; and, second, because Yuan Shill Kai has awakened the deep resentment of Young China by attempting to reestablish monarchy; and third, because Japan is forty years in advance of China in the acceptance of the material civilization and the arts of war of the Western world. But even as a military power China has been stronger than Japan during the far greater portion of their re- spective lives. It is entirely possible for a strong nation to fall ill during her three thousand years of history and for a smaller nation to be stronger than herself during this crisis. But it is incredible that the Chinese people, outnumbering the Japanese six fold, man for man equaling if not surpassing them in industry and commerce, having been stronger as a military power than Japan for twenty-nine hundred of her three thousand years of history, should reverse history and the laws of survival and remain per- manently weaker than Japan. To the student of his- tory the permanent conquest of the Chinese by the Japanese is impossible unless the Chinese are a dead 410 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION or a dying people; and outside a few Japanese, not a foreigner residing in China accepts this view. 2. It is true that the Chinese have ranked soldiers in the fifth and lowest class; they believe in reason rather than force as the means of settling disputes, and are slow to enter upon a fight. But, like men of slow temper, the Chinese people when once aroused never know when or how to quit fighting. Dr. Ernst Faber, a calm, well-balanced German missionary who lived among the Chinese for a generation and had an unusual knowledge of Chinese history, declared them to be a race of strong fighters and cited their worship of the god of war in confirmation of his view. Any observer of Chinese temples can confirm Dr. Faber’s statement that, next to the worship of ancestral spirits and the god of wealth, the Chinese worship the god of war. We have read three thousand years of Chinese history, marking their wars. Making the best arrangement possible of the often vague and imperfect data, we find that China has averaged one war, either internal or external, every fifteen years during this entire period. Surely, Chinese history does not reveal the Chinese as the peaceable, easily governed people whom the Japanese love to portray. 3. The Chinese claim that they inaugurated fifty- two rebellions against the Manchus. Certainly, the Chinese never ceased their uprisings against the Mon- gols and the Manchus until finally they overthrew both. The strength and intensity of the wars against their conquerors is illustrated by a closer study of three of these recorded uprisings : In the Szechwan- ese uprising against the Chinese usurper Chang and CHINA AND JAPAN 41 1 against the Manchus, Faber^'^ records a loss of 6,ocxd,- cxxD people out of a population at that time of some 25,000,000. Parker makes the loss far greater than Faber records. In several weeks spent in travel in the Szechwan Province in 1915 we heard simply uni- versal denunciation of Japanese aggressions in China. We are sure the 68,000,000 people occupying this province will resist the Japanese as stubbornly as they resisted the Manchus; and with the long dis- tance to transport troops and supplies and main- tain their connection with the home base, we do not think it possible for the Japanese to placate the Szechwanese alone in a century to say nothing of the twenty-one other provinces of China. Again his- torians speak of uprisings against the Manchus at the close of the eighteenth and opening of the nine- teenth century which shook the empire to its base. Boulger says of this struggle: “Minor troubles cul- minated in the Miaotze rebellion — the most formid- able internal war between that of Wu San-kwei and the Taiping rebellion.” A third of these uprisings against the -Manchus, the Taiping rebellion, took place under the eyes of the civilized world, raging from 1852 to 1865. So determined and so desperate were the Chinese that Williams estimates the loss of the Taiping rebellion, including those killed, dying of plagues, other diseases, and starvation, at 20,000,000 people, and Parker places the losses at 40,000,000.^® 4. Napoleon found it very easy to capture Madrid, “ Faber, Ernst: Chronological Handbook of the History of the Chinese, p. 229. “ Boulger, Demetrius: Short History of China, pp. 200-202. ‘‘Parker, E. H.: China: Her History, Diplomacy, and Commerce, p. 190. 412 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION but impossible to conquer the Spaniards. He found it easy to invade Russia and reach the capital, but he found Moscow burning when he reached it and the people falling back, burning their homes and crops and driving their cattle before the invading army; and the greatest conqueror of the world, who went out with six hundred thousand men, returned with a pitiful handful of survivors from his Russian cam- paign. With such stuff as Chinese men are made of, with such an immense population, and with such poor means of communication, if the Chinese simply fall back from one defense to another, hanging upon the flanks of the Japanese, burning and destroying prop- erty upon either side as they did in the case of Kox- inga’s invasion, the Japanese army might find it easy to capture Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking, Hankow, and Canton; but she would find it impos- sible to subdue and transform and assimilate more than three hundred million Chinese. In a word, in a contest of physical force and courage, fifty million Japanese cannot keep under control thirty million hostile subjects as Japan would be obliged to do after the conquest of Manchuria, and then conquer and placate over three hundred million additional people, each of whom, man for man, is stronger than his opponent. However long or short the contest might be, whether the destruction came through financial failure or through picking off by sniping, or through exposure, disease, and lack of supplies, or whether it came by the slower method of absorption as the Chinese have absorbed the Mongols and the Manchus, we are sure that even if China were unaided by the CHINA AND JAPAN 4C3 Western world, the final termination of a struggle between Japan and China would end in the destruction of Japan. VII. The Chief Positive Political Considera- tion The chief positive political consideration which should lead Japan to cease all aggression on China and cultivate the most friendly relations with the Chinese is her need of the Chinese to help her to secure fair treatment by the white races. We shall point out the danger confronting the yellow races in Chapter XVIII. In view of Japan’s need of help in order to secure her just rights, her present treatment of over 300,000,000 of the yellow race whose help she so sorely needs is suicidal. VIII. Japan Has a Vastly Higher and Nobler Destiny Confronting Her than Can Pos- sibly Arise from the Savage Program of Military Conquest. I. The alternative which confronts Japan is the leadership of the Far East industrially and commer- cially for half a century, and the possible leadership in civilization and humanitarianism for ages to come. Japan already has the leadership of the Far East in commerce, in industry, and in science; and she is making rapid advance in modern inventions. One of the leading English newspapers reports that the Uni- versity of Tokyo is not surpassed in teaching the applied sciences and modern medicine by any uni- versity in Europe or America. We have studied the 414 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION catalogue of this university, visited it, and found in a single department in applied science sixteen pro- fessors, each of whom has his Ph.D. degree either from an xVmerican or a European university. We have found in the government hospital at Seoul a medical equipment surpassed by few hospitals in the Western world and unequaled by any other hospital in the Far East except Tokyo itself, and the United States government hospital at Manila. If Japan does not fritter away in wars, her men and her resources, it is possible with the five thousand miles advantage which Almighty God has given her over any other rival, for her to secure precedence over the Western world in industry and commerce in the Pacific Basin for the next half century. 2. But God has called the Japanese to a larger service than this. We have sometimes thought that the western side of the Pacific Ocean is to repeat on a large scale not simply the history of the nineteenth century in the Atlantic Basin, but the history of the early centuries around the Mediterranean. The Koreans seem to show a genius for religion. Just as God permitted the Israelites to rest under bitter bondage to the Babylonians until polytheism was pressed out of them, so he may be suffering the Koreans to lose their nationality in order that they may make God their heritage. The Japanese, upon the other hand, have many of the qualities of the Greeks. They are the most brilliant and versatile of the Oriental races. Their minds are constantly open to new truth. They are leading not only in Western scholarship and Western sciences, but in certain types CIITNA AND JAPAN 415 of drawing and painting which the Western nations will not rival. Tt is certainly possible, therefore, that just as Plato and Socrates and Phidias have ruled the Western world intellectually and jesthetically for centuries, so the Japanese may remain the intellec- tual leaders of the Eastern world for generations to come. 3. But greater possibilities than this are before the Japanese, namely, the leadership of the world in modern humanitarianism. It is remarkable that Japan began her acceptance of Western civilization by the choice of Herbert Spencer as her philosoph- ical and scientific adviser and by the acceptance through him of an agnostic position in regard to Christianity and the future life, and also by the acceptance through him of pure individualism in the economic and political sphere. Mr. Spencer con- demned patriotism and all forms of self-sacrifice for the sake of a nation as leading individuals directly away from their goal. He held to the greatest happi- ness of the greatest number as the guiding principle in ethics. Inasmuch as the state and the church have no conscious life, but are abstract entities incapable either of happiness or pain, Mr. Spencer maintained that for an individual to give up his own personal enjoyment, and especially to sacrifice his life for the sake of the state or the church was a violation of the fundamental principles of ethics and the height of folly. Such, in brief, were the open teachings of the man whom Japan called as her philosophical and economic and political mentor. It is the highest trib- ute on the one side to the persuasive power of the 4i6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION gospel, and on the other side to the Japanese capacity for spiritual insight that in the crises of their late wars, the Japanese rose instantly from the lower plane of individualism to the higher plane of patriotism. 4, At this point Japan has reached the parting of the ways. Already she has advanced half way up the road to Calvary ; she has sacrificed her individ- ualism for the sake of the family; she has sacrificed her family life for the sake of the nation; and thus she has made Japan great in the eyes of all the world. Can she now climb the farther steep ascent to Cal- vary? Can she put the cross above the flag, the interests of humanity above the interests of the Jap- anese? Upon her answer to 'this question depends not only the present peace of the world but Japan’s ultimate survival as a nation. We trust that Japan will answer this question with that same wisdom and prophetic foresight which has led her to her present glorious heights. “Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven given among men whereby we may be saved.” Japan is called to become not simply the leader in the industries and commerce of the Far East in the twentieth century, not simply the leader in the intellectual life and art of the Far East for cen- turies to come, but the leader of the Far East, and in some measure of the human race in applied Chris- tianity. Books for Reference Angell, Norman : Europe’s Optical Illusion. Boulger, Deme- trius: A Short History of the Chinese. Brinkley, Captain F. : Oriental Series; China and Japan, Vols. XI, XII, and XIII; China, Its History, Arts, and Literature. The Christian Move- CHINA AND JAPAN 417 merit in Japan, 1914: Encyclopaedia Rritannica, eleventh edition. Faber, Ernst: Chronological Handbook of the His- tory of China. King, F. H. ; Farmers of Forty Centuries. Loyd, Arthur: The Wheat Among Tares. Marco Polo, Yule’s edition. McCormick, Frederick: The Flowery Republic. Parker, E. H. : China : Her History, Diplomacy, and Com- merce. Richard, Timothy: The New Testament of Higher Buddhism. Williams, S. Wells: The Middle Kingdom (2 \’ols.). CHAPTER XVII CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES With the exception of the Exclusion Act, the en- tire relation of China and the United States has been one of traditional friendship. “The position of America with respect to China was defined in 1843 as one of complete neutrality, friendship, and disin- terested aid in the preservation to China of her sov- ereignty and her place among the nations.” ^ This friendship was due in part to the attitude of our gov- ernment in regard to opium : a question of vital im- portance to China. Li Hung-chang, one of China’s greatest statesmen in the nineteenth century, said that the single article of opium imported “equals in value all other goods brought into China, and is greater than all the tea or all the silk — the two chief articles of export — sent out of the country.” ^ He added in a letter to the United States in 1882: “Opium is a sub- ject in the discussion of which England and China can never meet on common ground. China views the whole question from a moral standpoint; England from a fiscal. England would sustain a source of revenue in India, while China contends for the lives and property of her people. . . . The present import duty on opium was established by China, not from choice but because China submitted to the adverse decision of arms. The war must be considered as * McCormick. Frederick: The Flowery Republic, p. 300. ’ Foster, John W.; American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 296. 418 CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 419 China’s standing protest against legalizing such a revenue. . . . The new treaty with the United States, containing the prohibitory clause against opium, encourages the belief that the broad prin- ciples of justice, as well as of humanity, will prevail in the future relations between China and the Western nations.”^ Mr. Foster adds in regard to Great Brit- ain’s connection with the opium traffic: “There is much to be said in commendation of the British gov- ernment in its relations with the Orient. But its con- nection with the opium traffic in China has left a dark and ineffaceable stain upon its record.” * As early as 1858, when Mr. Reed was sent out to negotiate a treaty with China, he was instructed to say to that government; The “effort of China to prevent the importation and consumption of opium is praise- worthy. The United States will not seek for its citizens the legal establishment of opium, nor will it uphold them in any attempt to violate the laws of China by the introduction of that article into the country.” ® Dr. W. A. P. Martin, who acted as Mr. Reed’s translator on this occasion, said that in the first draft submitted by the United States to China there was an article denouncing and forbidding the opium trade; but that Mr. Reed was induced by Lord Elgin to withdraw that article, greatly to the surprise of the Chinese negotiators.® But while Mr. Reed withdrew the formal denunciation of the opium trade in the treaty negotiations between the two govern- ments, the position of our government had been ren- > Ibid., pp. 297, 298. ‘ Ibid., p. 299. * Ibid., p. 299. • Ibid., p. 299. 420 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION dered entirly clear to China by Mr. Reed’s formal declaration, made on the authority of the government, denying protection to American citizens engaged in the opium business. Again, the Chinese people suffered greatly from the coolie trade which sprang up at Macao, chiefly under the Portuguese government. ' The American consul at Hongkong reported to his government that this trade ‘‘differed from the African slave trade in little else than the employment of fraud instead of force to make its victims captive.” ^ Hon. Wm. H. Seward, who visited China on his tour around the world in 1868-70, described this coolie trade as “an abomination scarcely less execrable than the African slave trade.” The United States won the friendship of China by the passage of a law in 1862 making it unlawful for American vessels to transport subjects of China or any Oriental countries known as coolies to any foreign port to be held for service or labor. The law was a strict one and was strictly enforced by our government, and all American vessels and citizens were speedily driven out of this iniquitous traffic. In 1880 the United States government, at the spe- cial request of the Chinese government, and in order to help China in dealing with other nations, concluded her treaty limiting the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States by an additional clause formally prohibiting the opium traffic between the two coun- tries : “Citizens of the United States shall not be per- mitted to import opium into any of the open ports of China, to transport it from one open port to another ’ Foster, John W. ; American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 275. CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 421 open port, or to buy and sell opium in any of the open ports of China.” This absolute prohibition of the opium traffic greatly pleased the Chinese and was enforced by appropriate legislation upon the part of our country, and by a thorough administration of the laws against the few Americans who attempted to enter upon that trade. The favorable relations between China and the United States caused by our original treaty of 1843 and our attitude in regard to China’s wishes upon the opium question, was greatly strengthened by the appointment of Anson Burlingame as Minister to China during President Lincoln’s administration. It was a curious and apparently providential interven- tion which led to Mr. Burlingame’s transfer to China. He had taken a prominent part as a member of Con- gress from Massachusetts and as a brilliant orator in the campaign which led to the election of Mr. Lin- coln to the presidency. Later he was appointed by Mr. Lincoln as minister to Austria-Hungary, and proceeded upon his journey as far as Paris. The Aus- trian government declared him a persona non grata because Mr. Burlingame had ventured in public speeches in the United States to praise the Hungarian patriot, Kossuth, and to commend the rising kingdom of Italy under Victor Emmanuel. Accordingly, Mr. Lincoln transferred Mr. Burlingame from the post at Vienna to the post at Peking ; and Mr. Burlingame reluctantly accepted the transfer. On the journey to Peking Mr. Burlingame reached Canton in 1861 and spent several months visiting the various treaty ports between Canton and Tientsin in order to familiarize 422 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION himself with the state of Chinese affairs and with American interests before reaching Peking in July, 1862. On reaching the capital he entered into his mission in full accord with the spirit of friendliness and forbearance which at that time actuated the American government toward China, and by his attractive personality and genial manners he soon established delightful relations with Prince Kung, Wen Siang, and also with his diplomatic colleagues from the other governments. He brought before these colleagues a “policy of cooperation — an effort to substitute fair diplomatic action in China for force.” ® This friendly action was greatly appreci- ated by the Chinese government and was in some measure accepted by his colleagues. During Mr. Burlingame’s service as minister a Chinese scholar and governor of the Fukien Province, Sen Ki-yu, wrote a book in which he sought to show the Chinese that the Western nations were not the barbarians which the action of certain foreign countries had led the Chinese to believe. In this book Sen Ki-yu especially held up the American nation as an enlight- ened government, and paid the following tribute to George Washington : “In devising plans he was more daring than Chin Shing or Han Kwang; in winning a country he was braver than Tsau Tsau or Lin Pi; wielding his four-foot sword, he enlarged the fron- tiers of his country by myriads of miles, and yet he refused to usurp imperial dignity or to transmit it to his posterity, but, on the contrary, was the first to propose the plan of electing men to office. Where in •Foster, John W.: American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 258. CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 423 the world can be found a mode more equitable? It is the same idea, in fact, that has been handed down to us from the three great reigns of Yau, Shun, and Yu. In ruling the state he honored and fostered good usages and did not exalt military merit — a principle totally unlike those found in other kingdoms. I have seen a portrait of him. His mien and countenance are grand and impressive in the highest degree. Ah ! who is there that does not call him a hero?”” For writing a book so favorable to the West the governor was removed from office, degraded, and left in private life for sixteen years. But under a new Chinese sovereign he was in 1866 recalled to public life, and made a member of the Tsung-li Yamen, or Foreign Office, at Peking. Mr. Burlingame called Secretary Seward’s attention to Sen Ki-yu’s career, and to his eulogy of Washington. Mr. Seward ordered a por- trait of our first President painted and presented, in the name of the United States government, through Mr. Burlingame, to Sen Ki-yu. Mr. Burlingame was instrumental in having Dr, W. A. P. Martin, his translator, made the managing director of an impe- rial college established in Peking for the education in Western languages of a select number of Chinese young men; and he also secured the distribution to officials throughout the nation of a Chinese version of Wheaton’s International Law, translated by Dr. Martin. During his six years at Peking Mr. Burlingame found himself in the most friendly relations with Wen Siang, the ablest Chinese statesman in the Foreign • Ibid., p. 260. 424 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Office; and he used his American influence to aid in the advancement of Sir Robert Hart, a man of like spirit with himself and the greatest civil servant whom Great Britain ever gave to China. When Mr. Bur- lingame resigned the Chinese made a great banquet for him. In the speeches at the banquet, Wen Siang, half in earnest and half in compliment, suggested that Mr. Burlingame become the representative of the Chinese government to the Western nations. Sir Robert Hart saw the value of the suggestion and urged the Chinese government to create an ambas- sadorship-in-general, and select Mr. Burlingame to fill the place. Mr. Burlingame consulted his diplo- matic colleagues, who heartily approved of the action of the Chinese, and pledged their support to his mis- sion. He then wrote Secretary Seward as follows: “When the oldest nation in the world, containing one third of the human race, asks for the first time to come into the relations with the West, and requests the youngest nation, through its representative, to act as the medium of such a change, the mission is one not to be solicited or rejected.” Mr. Burlingame’s commission by the Chinese emperor was in the follow- ing terse form : “The envoy, Anson Burlingame, manages affairs in a friendly and peaceful manner, and is fully acquainted with the general relations between this and other countries. Let him, therefore, now be sent to all the treaty powers as the Minister Plenipotentiary empowered to attend to every ques- tion arising between China and those countries. This from the emperor.”" Surely, no higher proof of “ Foster, John W. : American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 363. “ Ibid., p. 363. CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 425 the confidence of the Chinese nation was ever f^iven to a foreign resident ; and this is all the more remark- able as Mr. Burlingame was not able to write or speak a word of the Chinese language. He was at first received with coolness in London by the older British ofificials, who desired to adhere to the tradi- tional, British, coercive policy. But his persuasive address and enthusiastic temperament won the favor of Queen Victoria, and after his reception by the queen, his dignified conduct completely disarmed opposition and created a favorable impression not only for China but for the United States. The mission had its origin in the proposed revi- sion of the Treaty of Tientsin of 1858. Unfortu- nately, the death of Mr. Burlingame, at Saint Peters- burg, while he was on his visitation of the nations, prevented the consummation of his mission; and the only nation which immediately acted upon the pro- posal for a revision of the treaty was the United States. Mr. Seward drew up the treaty, stipulating the preservation of the territorial integrity of the Chinese empire, and disavowing any right upon the part of the United States to interfere with her rights of eminent domain or jurisdiction over her subjects and property, recognizing the right of China to regu- late her own internal trade ; providing for the appoint- ment of consuls; securing exemption from persecu- tion of Chinese citizens on account of religion ; recog- nizing the right of voluntary emigration; pledging the privileges of residence and travel to the citi- zens of either country in the other on the basis of the “most favored nation” ; securing the privilege of 426 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION establishing schools and colleges in China; disavow- ing any intention to interfere with the domestic ad- ministration of China in respect to public improve- ments but expressing the willingness of the United States to aid in such improvements when so requested by the Chinese government/^ The treaty was a model of justice and of friendliness, embodied in admirable language. Unfortunately, the continued opposition of England to the opium reform, the con- tinued conservatism of the most of the Chinese officials and the continued belief in the coercive policy by most of the foreign diplomats in China, resulted in the Tientsin Massacre in 1870, which to a large extent effaced the truer interpretation of China which Mr. Burlingame had presented to the Western world. Indeed, there was a strong reaction in the United States itself against the Burlingame treaty. Before considering the reaction, however, we should bear in mind that the United States through her missionaries introduced free schools into China. Her influence was so great that the Chinese govern- ment in 1870 selected some thirty of the ablest young men in the empire and sent them to the United States for foreign training, and followed this number by an additional thirty in 1871. Unfortunately, a few years later, under a policy of reaction, these students were recalled. But the apparently genuine total lack upon the part of the American representatives of a desire for territorial aggression or for unfair advan- tages in trade, and the friendliness and democratic manner of the American missionaries and represen- Foster, John W.; American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 266. CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 427 tatives did much to win the permanent friendship of China. In accounting for the friendly relations between the United States and China we must not overlook the efforts of such American ministers, in addition to Burlingame, as Parker, Angell, Denby, Conger, Rock- hill, Calhoun, and Dr. Reinsch. Perhaps of equally great or greater importance is the service of such interpreters as S. Wells Williams and W. A. P. Martin, two of the greatest American scholars ever given to a foreign country, such diplomats as the Hon. John W. Foster; such Presidents for friends as Grant, Hayes, Arthur, Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson; such representatives in Congress as Senators Platt, of Connecticut, and Morton, of Indiana; such current publications as the Chinese Recorder and the China Press; such men as W. N. Pethick, for many years adviser to Li Hung-chang, whose collection of news- paper clippings relating to Li Hung-chang is unap- proached by those relating to any other man in China such representatives of the Associated Press as Frederick McCormick and Frederick Moore; such consuls as Jernigan and Wilder; such advisers as Professor Henry C. Adams, of the University of Michigan, and President Frank J. Goodnow; and by missionaries whose services to China are priceless, a roster of whom would include almost the entire list of American missionaries to China, the mention of whose names is less necessary here because their record is on high. On the other hand, the friendliness between the two nations is due equally to such Chinese “ Now in the library of Peking University. 428 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION as Yuan Shih Kai, Kwang-su, Prince Chun, Prince Kung, Wu Ting-fang, Wen Siang, Admiral Tsai Ting-kan, Tang Shao-yi, Liang Chi-chao, Lu Tseng- tsiang, and W. W. Yen: and such Chinese mission- aries as Dr. Hu King-eng, Dr. Mary Stone, and Dr. Ida Kahn. Sometimes, indeed, China has been cari- catured by those who have made hasty trips. But the reports of most visitors like ex-President Grant and ex-President Eliot are favorable and have contrib- uted to the good will of the two countries. Another cause of good will among the Chinese toward Americans, which will become more and more potent as the years go by, is the work undertaken by the China Medical Commission. The Commission aims to develop in China scientific medicine and scien- tific sanitation, and thus place the Chinese within half a century, so far as their health is concerned, upon a par with the people of the United States. The Com- mission is now authorized to expend one hundred thousand dollars gold per month, or one million two hundred thousand "dollars per year; and the expend- itures probably will presently exceed this large sum. The work is wholly humanitarian. The Commission, instead of relieving missionary societies from expend- itures, will, by advancing the standard of medical work, compel the raising of the standard of educa- tional work and of all other mission work in China, and will thus increase the responsibilities of mission- ary societies. The people of no nation ever before in human history have made so large, so thoroughly scientific and so constructive a contribution to the physical welfare of another nation. The effect of this CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 429 effort toward the banishment of disease from a nation already so virile as the Chinese, will not become fully apparent before two or three generations have passed. But the century and more of missionary effort already put forth in China, the splendid service of the Amer- ican government in aiding her sister government to suppress foreign traffic in Chinese coolies, foreign trade in opium, and to preserve her sovereignty and integrity, the return of the Boxer Indemnity and its use in educating Chinese students in American uni- versities and the services of the Chinese Medical Com- mission— all, will inaugurate a new epoch in inter- national relations around the Pacific Basin. The traditional friendship between the two coun- tries has been greatly increased by the friendship and services of Americans in famine relief, especially in the Great Famine in Shensi and the severe recent famines in the Yangtze Valley. Still more has this friendly feeling been increased by the protests of Mr. Hay and Mr. Rockhill against the large indemnities imposed upon China at the close of the Boxer Upris- ing, and the return to China by the United States of all her unclaimed indemnity. This is leading the Chinese to send other groups of students to America, whose influence upon the country will be of incal- culable worth. Despite all these favorable influences, the United States faces a most serious problem with China and with the yellow races in general, on account of her exclusion policy. The stipulations to which the great- est value were attached by the United States in the Burlingame Treaty were contained in Article 5, which 430 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION recognized upon the part of both governments the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual advantage of the freest immigration and emigration of their citizens and subjects respectively from one country to the other for purposes of travel, of trade or for per- manent residence; and to Article 6, in which it was provided that the citizens and subjects of each country respectively should enjoy the same privileges in respect of travel or residence as may be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation. President Grant and the American people generally were fearful that we should not be able to induce China to sign this liberal treaty, and Secretary Hamilton Fish, under General Grant, instructed the American minister in Peking to exert his influence with the Chinese authorities to bring about its early ratification; and the secretary closed his letter to the minister by assuring him that the ratification of the treaty “will be welcomed by the United States.” President Hayes, ten years later, wrote in regard to China’s ratification of the treaty, “Unquestionably, the adhesion of the government of China to these liberal principles of the freedom of emigration with which we are so familiar and with which we are so well satisfied, was a great advance toward opening that empire to our civilization and religion, and gave promise in the future of greater and greater prac- tical results in the dififusion throughout that great population of our arts and industries, our manufac- tures, our material improvements, and the sentiments “Foster, John W.: American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 284. CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 431 of government and religion which seemed to us so important to the welfare of mankind.” But within a few years after the ratification of the treaty, our foreign and native workmen found them- selves unable to compete with the Chinese workmen who were pouring into our Pacific ports as immi- grants to America. Perhaps this cry of distress raised by the American workmen is the greatest com- pliment thus far paid to the industry and ability of their Chinese fellow laborers. At any rate, the hos- tility to Chinese immigration rapidly became so great that in 1876 a joint committee of the two Houses was appointed to visit the Pacific Coast and investigate the character and extent and effect of immigration. Two reports were submitted: the majority report strongly recommending the repeal of the immigration law ; and the minority report, partially completed by Senator Morton before his death, strongly advocating Amer- ican adherence to “the great and eternal doctrine of the equality and natural rights of men which were the foundation of the political system of the United States.” The agitation was so great that Congress passed a bill so greatly restricting the immigration of the Chinese into the United States that, in the language of President Hayes, who vetoed it, “It fell little short of absolute exclusion.” It was, therefore, in direct violation of the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. The bill thus far failed to become a law; but the agi- tation continued to grow and a commission was appointed in 1880 under the leadership of James B. Angell, which visited China and secured an agree- Ibid., p. 285. 432 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION merit with the Chinese government, ratified the same year, by which power was conferred upon the United States to regulate, limit, or suspend such coming of residents, but not absolutely to prohibit them, when- ever in the opinion of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers threatened to affect the interests of that country^” Under this new treaty Congress in 1882 passed a drastic bill prohibiting, or suspending the coming of Chinese laborers into the country for a period of twenty years. This bill so violated the spirit of the treaty secured by Dr. Angell that Presi- dent Arthur vetoed it. But the clamor continued, and a new treaty was proposed between the United States and China in 1888. While this treaty was pending, however, a presidential campaign was approaching, and Congress passed the Scott Act, in direct viola- tion of our existing treaties with China ; and this was allowed to become a law by President Cleveland. President Cleveland, however, unwilling to allow the stain of treaty violation to rest upon the United States, negotiated through the secretary of state a new treaty, signed in 1894, practically giving authority to the Scott Act, which had been passed by our government six years before. The sentiment against Chinese immigration became so strong that it was proposed in the Fifty-seventh Congress to make the prohibi- tion of Chinese laborers permanent. Senator Lodge supported this act on the ground, first, that the Chinese people will not and cannot become a part of the body of our American people ; second, because the Chinese immigrants create economic conditions under Foster, John W.; American Diplomacy in the Orient, pp. 295-299. CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 433 which American laborers cannot survive. Fortu- nately, Senator Platt, of Connecticut, by appealing to the better sentiment of the country, induced Congress not to repudiate its solemn treaty obligations with China but to continue the present regulations until 1904, or until a new treaty could be concluded. It should be added that the United States has thus far failed to find any satisfactory solution of the immi- gration problem, and that her exclusion of the Jap- anese as well as Chinese laborers has produced a tense situation between the Japanese nation and our- selves. The Chinese government, on economic, on patriotic, and on religious grounds, is opposed to people, born and reared in China until they reach the period of economic productivity, deserting that land for homes or even temporary residence in foreign lands. Hence we judge that the Chinese government would be placated by a treaty between the two gov- ernments excluding manual laborers from each country, or excluding from permanent admission persons who are unable to read and write their own language; or admitting persons who come to it for commercial, intellectual, and religious purposes. Such recommendations, however, probably would not prove satisfactory to the Japanese at the present time. Dr. Sidney L. Gulick has proposed a solution which would obviate the claim made by Senator Lodge that the people of the yellow races are unable and unwill- ing to become absorbed into American citizenship. Dr. Gulick’s proposal is that the United States agree to the admission annually from any country of a num- ber of immigrants equal to a fixed per cent, say five, 434 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION of the living immigrants from that country who have become American citizens. He shows that in prac- tical operation such a regulation would bring in very few from the yellow races, because there are very few American citizens of Chinese and Japanese blood; that it would permit a larger number of English, Irish, Scotch, and German immigrants than are now coming to our country, wdiile it would exercise a re- straining influence upon southern European immi- gration. The present condition is becoming more and more intolerable. Both statesmanship and Christianity demand a change. While we hold, first, to the right of every nation to preserve its own inherent qualities, by excluding from that nation those who are unwilling to adopt its language, its civilization, and its political institutions and become its citizens, we hold, on the other side, that no nation has the right to set up a claim to exclusive ownership of land which God has made for all and to shut out the peoples of other nations and races from territory which is not effec- tively occupied by itself. The Indians had not a right to the permanent control of the American continent by a method of occupancy which permitted a population of not more than one to the square mile. Large por- tions of Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, South America, Mexico, and possibly parts of the United States and Canada, are not effectively occupied. Some such solution as that proposed by Dr. Gulick is essential for the preservation of friendly relations between the United States, upon the one side, and Japan and China, upon tlie other side. We shall try CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 435 to show in the concluding chapter that a Christian solution is not only practicable, but that it is the only practicable solution of the grave problems which will confront the white and the yellow races before the close of the present century. As we tried to portray in the last chapter the dangers of a policy of aggression upon the part of Japan, so we have aimed in the pres- ent chapter to portra)'- clearly the sinfulness and folly of the present exclusive policy of the United States. The United States has a very strong material inter- est in the preservation of the integrity and independ- ence of the Chinese Republic as over against its absorption by any other nation or nations. The for- eign trade of the United States for 1914, before it was affected by the war, amounted to $4,258,ooo,cxx) of which $2,531,000,000 consisted of exports to for- eign lands. If this two and a half billion dollars were taken from the annual receipts of the American people, many American industries would be para- lyzed, many workmen out of employment, and gen- eral distress would confront us. In a word, the main- tenance of our foreign trade is essential to the con- tinuance of our prosperity; the growth of foreign trade is essential to the growth of the United States; the United States is no longer an isolated nation. The possibilities of our Pacific trade are shown by the growth of Japanese commerce. In 1868 Japan’s foreign trade was $13,123,272, gold; in 1888 it had increased fivefold and was $65,580,382 ; in 1898 it was $221,627,954; in 1913 it was $680,934,729— $15 per inhabitant.^' The foreign trade of China probably ” The Christian Movement in Japan, 1914, p. 19. 436 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION will make greater relative increase per inhabitant during the next twenty-five years than that of Japan made during the last twenty-five years. The trade of Japan increased almost fourteenfold from 1888 to 1913. If the trade of China increases at a similar rate during the next twenty-five years, it will reach over $8,000,000,000 by 1941, half of which will con- sist of imports. But if China is to import $8,000,- 000,000 worth of goods a year within the next quarter of a century, the importance of the Chinese market to the United States for the maintenance of our export trade can scarcely be overestimated. Edward Maxey, in the Journal of Race Development, for April, 1912, showed that our exports to Japan from 1895 to 1905 increased at a tenfold rate in the ten years, while the estimate given above assumes only a fourteenfold increase in our exports to China in twenty-five years. The facts in regard to our foreign trade with Japan show the large possibilities which lie before us in our trade with China. The late Sir Thomas Jackson, manager-in-chief of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, said recently that China is at the beginning of a commercial develop- ment which in its magnitude cannot be estimated. Two other facts should be borne in mind in contem- plating the growth of America’s trade with China. In 1900 China took less than eight and one half of her imports directly from the United States, though she took some additional imports from us indirectly in the form of raw materials shipped to the United Kingdom, manufactured and reshipped to China in British bottoms; and in the form of sales made indi- CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 437 rectly to China through Hongkong and Kiaochovv. The western coast of the United States, where we may expect a great growth in manufacture during the twentieth century, is nearer Ja])an and China than are the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. Again, the completion of the Panama Canal puts the eastern shores of the United States, where our chief manufacturing now takes place, closer to Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, and almost as close to China as the western coast of Europe. No geological cause will be able to destroy the commercial advantages which the United States possesses in western South America, in New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, and in some measure in China, because the building of no other canal will ever change the channel of trade which the Panama Canal is establishing be- tween the East and the West. The building of an- other canal across Nicaragua would open a second gateway, thus enhancing our advantages for trade in the Pacific Basin. If the United States adopts a ship- ping policy which puts American vessels upon a par as to the cost of building, of operation and as to gov- ernment support with European vessels, then she ought not simply to maintain the eight and one half per cent of this trade which she holds at present, but to capture twenty to thirty per cent of the trade of the Pacific Basin. Mr. John Barrett, in 1904. summed up the possibilities of the Far Eastern trade in the follow- ing sentence. “The foreign trade of the coast line in the Far East from Singapore to Vladivostock is one billion dollars per year, and it is only in its infancy. The foreign trade of Australia and Oceanica meas- 438 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ures another billion dollars per year, and of the Dutch East Indies a quarter of a billion more.” Hence, with the immense increase of foreign com- merce through the industrial development of the west- ern coast of the United States, including Alaska, of western Canada, and South America, of Japan, China, and of Malaysia, the United States has almost as great possibilities for industrial and commercial de- velopment in the twentieth century as the opening up of our natural resources gave us in the nineteenth century. But still another fact must be borne in mind before we form our final estimate. Benjamin Kidd^® has compiled statistics which, while showing an increas- ing commerce along the lines running from east to west, reveal a very much greater increase of com- merce between the tropical and temperate zones, along lines running from north to south. Mr. Kidd main- tains that while the commerce between the United States and Great Britain and the United States and France is greater to-day than at any period in past history, yet that we may anticipate a time when the rate of increase in commerce between these Western nations may slacken and when the commerce between them may even decrease, because these nations are upon the same parallels of latitude and are reaching substantially the same stage of civilization, and are able to duplicate in their own countries each other’s products. However, owing to different tastes and styles and to a desire of people for foreign goods, he does not anticipate a decrease in the commerce along >* The Control of the Tropics. CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 439 the lines running from east to west. But Mr. Kidd points out the fact that there is certain to be a large increase in the commerce along the lines running north and south because the differences in climate make it possible for each section to produce many kinds of goods which cannot be produced in the other section. Hence he points out the fact that whatever may be the future of trade between the East and the West, trade between the North and South must in- crease indefinitely as the years go by. It may be said that as soon as she is able China will impose an import tax on all foreign goods, and that we may have to pay as much import tax to the Chinese government as we would pay to the Japanese and Russians and Germans and French, were China di- vided among them; that Great Britain is the only country which grants us free trade with her colon- ists, and that we may expect Great Britain to follow in the footsteps of the other nations and attempt to make a trade league between herself and her colonies, instead of the other nations following in the footsteps of Great Britain and throwing their colonies open for the commerce of the world. As the United States has led in tariff legislation, she is the last nation which can complain if other nations follow in her footsteps. But there is a marked difference between China estab- lishing a tariff, and Japan or Russia establishing a tariff" over a portion of China. However high the Chinese tariff may become, it will apply to all foreign nations alike. It will not, therefore, prove a barrier to American trade with China any more than to Japanese, Russian, or German trade with China. 440 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Hence a tariff established by China herself equally applying to all nations alike will not shut the door to America any more than to any other country. But if China should be divided between nations, each nation would establish free trade within its colonies and then charge a tariff upon the goods of other nations, and the trade of the United States with China would be destroyed. What the United States asks is, not any artificial advantages over other foreign nations trad- ing with China, but equal opportunities for all. She protests against this great population with its immense possibilities for foreign trade falling under the political control of any nation ; for with the polit- ical control of China once assured, the conquering nation would inevitably monopolize China’s trade for herself. Indeed, the interest of the United States in this matter is identical with the interest of every other foreign nation on earth, except such foreign nation as proposes to seize a portion or all of China for her own benefit and exploit China’s trade for her own enrichment. Another fact must be borne in mind, namely, that the United States has developed a consistent foreign policy, and for half a century has pursued a policy in the Pacific quite as definite as that embodied in our Monroe doctrine. Anson Burlingame, in 1868, made the treaty between the United States and China which admitted her into the family of nations — a treaty so just and expressed in such felicitous language that it has served as a model for all subsequent treaties of Western nations with China. This treaty inaugu- rated the policy of recognizing China as an equal CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 441 among all nations of the world and also of securing her acceptance of Western international law. It also inaugurated the policy of respecting her integrity upon the one side, and claiming equal rights of trade with her by all nations of the earth upon the other side. It was the influence of this treaty upon the public sentiment of the civilized world and the deter- mination of Japan, of the United States and other W^estern Powers to stand for these principles, which enabled Secretary Hay to secure another treaty, signed by every leading nation in 1900, pledging all to respect the integrity and independence of the Chinese empire, and to claim no rights of trade which were not freely conceded to others. This is the open door policy for China. The Alaska Purchase gives us a line of islands with open ports free from ice during the winter, some of them sufiicient in size for the largest navy of the world, all the way from the United States to within seven hundred and fifty miles of Asia. Harold Bolce^® says that Attu, the most westerly island of the Aleutian group, is fifty miles long, and that it has a fine harbor within seven hundred and fifty miles of Kamchatka; in Yukon Island is a harbor two miles long and three quarters of a mile wide. Dutch Harbor, Water Falls, Constantine Bay, Lost Harbor, Baldir Bay, and Glory of Russia are splendid harbors v extending from Norton Sound, Alaska, to Attu Island, many of them large and deep enough to hold half a dozen fleets at a time. Moreover, the distance from San Francisco to Tokyo is two hundred and In the Booklovers’ Magazine. March to June. 1904. 442 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION forty-three miles shorter by this northern route along the Aleutian Islands than by what appears upon the maps to be a straight course from San Francisco to Tokyo. These fine harbors in a climate rendered mild the year round by the Japanese or Black Current, along the shortest route to Asia, constitute a national asset of incalculable value to the United States for the exercise of large commercial influence in the Pacific Basin. The development of these harbors will prove one of the most important enterprises of the United States during the twentieth century. Trade between the Western world and Asia made Venice, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Under modern conditions it will make great Japan or Russia or the United States: and possibly it will make all of them great during the twentieth century. We secured Hawaii in order that the key to the Pacific might rest in our possession. The Philippines almost providentially fell into our lap when we little realized their significance in enabling us to play our proper part in shaping the commerce and civilization of the Pacific Basin. Finally, the Panama Canal, now completed, places even the eastern coast of the United States nearer to Japan and almost as near to China as Liverpool, London, or Hamburg. Surely, after having developed a policy for the Pacific Basin for half a century, and especially after all that Al- mighty God has done for the United States, Amer- icans are not prepared to sit idly by and see the open door in the Far East shut in their faces. Thus far we have confined ourselves to the low plane of material interests and have tried to show CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 443 that economic considerations will simply compel the United States eventually to maintain the open door in China. Advancing now to the higher plane of political and intellectual and moral interests, the Pacific Basin will be one great theater of human events for all the cen- turies to come. Civilization has advanced westward from the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, thence to the Atlantic, and it is now advancing to the Pacific. In the gathering of the nations around the Pacific Basin, the United States is not called upon to engage in any selfish or warlike attempt to overthrow the sovereignty, the language, or the civilization of any other nation; least of all is America called upon to attempt to transform by force the civilization of China. All the nations of the world are beginning to learn the better way of service and the eternal gain of moral influence as over against mere external force. Lavelaye, the noted French writer, says, “A hun- dred years hence, leaving China out of the question, there will be two colossal powers in the world, beside which Germany, England, France, and Italy will be pigmies: the United States and Russia.” It is no wiser to speculate upon the great Powers around the Pacific Basin a hundred years hence and leave China out of the reckoning than to write a treatise on oceans and leave the Pacific Ocean out of the account. If the Chinese and the Americans preserve their moral soundness, we venture the prophecy that in the twenty-first century the two peoples which will loom largest on the globe will be the Chinese and the Amer- 444 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION icans — or, perhaps better, the Chinese and the Anglo- Saxons. Whatever course human history takes, therefore, China will bulk large in the coining cen- turies. If the United States follows a statesmanlike, just, and Christian policy, she too will bulk large in the coming centuries, and despite her lesser numbers she may possibly bulk even larger than China in the moral leadership of the race. Moreover, if Russia fills up her large areas of tillable land, and if the Rus- sians make the advance in political institutions and Christian civilization which we all hope and pray for, then, with Canada and the United States and such white populations as may be in South America on the east, and with the Russians upon the west, and with such moral influence as Great Britain and the Nether- lands and France may exercise in Malaysia, the influ- ence of the white race and of Christian civilization around the Pacific Basin may be maintained. On the other hand, with the rapid advance which the Jap- anese, the Chinese, and the people of India are now making, the influence of the yellow races in the Pacific Basin is certain to increase. In a word, the influence of each race and each civilization will last so long as it deserves to last. The influence of the white races will pale before the influence of the yellow races if the latter surpass us in intellectual and moral power. If we read aright the principles of evolution or the unfolding moral and spiritual history of the race, or the teachings of the New Testament, Christ is set for the rise and fall of nations. If the Christian forces of the world respond to the divine summons, and Christianity takes deep root and spreads widely CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES 445 and rapidly around the Pacific, we may be sure that all will recognize that each race and nation has its ])rovidential work. In that event we shall approach the era “When each one shall find his own in every other’s good, And all men join in a common brotherhood.” CHAPTER XVIII CHINA AND THE WORLD: CONCLUSION A POLICY rapidly taking shape among the white races of the world excludes the yellow races from five of the six continents and from a portion of the sixth. Since 1848 Portugal has annexed approximately 800,000 square miles of territory, Belgium, 900,000; Germany and Russia each 1,200,000; the United States, 1,800,000; France, 3,200,000; Great Britain, 3,600,000; and other white nations approximately 500,000, thus making 1 3,200,000 square miles of terri- tory directly annexed by white races during the last seventy years, an area three and one half times the size of Europe.^ The tendency at present is to exclude the Asiatic races from Europe, Africa, North Amer- ica, South America, Australia, and from Russian holdings in Asia, and to confine them to the southern portion of this last continent. The exclusion policy extends not only to the Chinese and Japanese and Malays, but to the people of India, a portion of whom, being of Aryan stock, are cousins to the higher branches of the white race. If the proposed aggres- sion of Japan upon China and the exclusion policy of the United States called for extended comment, surely this denial by the white races of equal opportunities to their colored brethren demands our most serious consideration. * Grosvenor, Edwin A.: Contemporary History, pp. 142-48. 446 CHINA AND THE WORLD 447 It will contribute further to the peace of nations if the white races do not attempt to formulate too speedily a final policy as to the occupation of the globe, and if they do not resort to arms to exclude the yellow races from undeveloped portions of the globe. For the white races, numbering fifty-one per cent of the whole human race, to assume control over five continents and a considerable portion of the sixth, and to limit the yellow races, numbering thirty-six per cent of the whole, to a portion of a single continent, is neither Christian nor statesmanlike." The following facts bring us face to face with perhaps the most serious problem which confronts the white races. I. Increase of Population in China. So great is Chinese virility that the population of China doubles substantially within eighty years, whereas the population of Europe doubles substantially in a cen- tury. C. H. Pearson thinks that under favorable con- ditions China will double her population within sixty years. In case peace is preserved, the conditions seem favorable for a large increase of China’s population at home. Archibald Little writes: “Nothing but the want of roads and civilized means of intercommunica- tion prevents the development of the mineral resources of Shansi and competition in the world’s markets with the iron of Britain and America. . . . Shansi’s coal measures spread over twenty-five degrees of meri- dian— from the western desert right across the province and thence round, in the extension of its mountains to the north of the Chihli plain, to the sea- coast, and again rounding the Chihli Gulf into Man- 2 Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xi, p. 635, d. 448 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION chiiria. These coal and iron strata are said to belong to the old carboniferous formations; the deposits are inexhaustible; the coal seams reach as large as forty feet in thickness, and lie mostly undisturbed and are easily worked, resting as they do on a horizontal lime- stone foundation and at an altitude of some three thousand feet above sea level : hence the coal and iron of Shansi are in a position to be forwarded for con- sumption to the populous wood-bare plains to the south and east and to the coast for export almost by their own gravity, as soon as the needful railroads are constructed.” ® Little’s small, imperfect, but valuable map of the coal deposits shows, in all, fifty-six coal regions of varying dimensions in China. It will be remembered that Baron Richthofen spent some years in China and prepared a report, chiefly upon her coal and iron resources, which startled Ger- many and the civilized world. Baron Richthofen pronounced the coal and iron resources of China the greatest of any nation upon the earth. Coal had been found in almost every province, and immense beds of anthracite and bituminous coal had been discovered, separated by only slight ridges. Alongside of these coal deposits, especially in Shansi and Shensi and Anhwei, are large deposits of excellent iron ore; and in many cases, on account of the elevation of the mountains after the.se deposits had been laid down, the coal is taken out by horizontal shafts instead of by perpendicular shafts. Baron Richthofen says, “From this description it will be seen that Shansi is one of the most remarkable coal and iron regions in the ’ The Far East, pp. 30, 31. CHINA AND THE WORT.D 449 world : and some of the details which T will give will make it patent that the world at the j)resent rate of consumption could be supplied for thousands of years from Shansi alone.” * Mr. Bailey, an American geol- ogist, recognizes the correctness of Baron Richt- hofen’s measurements, but thinks the depth of the coal seams where Richthofen examined them, namely, five hundred feet, may be due to folding in those particular spots, and that this depth probably does not extend throughout the entire field. But while fuller examination is demanded, yet Richthofen’s statement as to the depth of the seams referred to only one field, whereas his investigations showed that coal is found in at least fifteen provinces, and his estimates were based upon his judgment of the entire country and not of one particular field. The secretary of the Bitu- minous Coal Trade Association of the United States estimates the world’s supply of coal outside the United States and China at five hundred and seventy-three billion tons, while naming three trillion tons as the supply of the United States, and one trillion five hun- dred billion tons as the supply of China.'^ This esti- mate, plainly incomplete for China, yet gives her nearly three times the supply of the rest of the world outside of the United States. Again, Baron Richt- hofen estimates the coal area for China at 419,000 square miles as compared with 310,000 square miles in the United States. Sufficient investigation has been made to justify experts in accepting 232,000 ♦ Richthofen, Baron Ferdinand von: Letters to the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce in 1870-72, second edition, 1903, p. 43. ® Quoted in The World Almanac, 1915, p- 257, from secretary of Bituminous Coal Trade Association of the United States. 450 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION square miles in China as underlaid by coal. No doubt fuller investigation will reveal larger areas of coal in China in regions not yet covered by surveys; and scientists most familiar with China believe that there will be found here a considerable addition to the coal and iron supplies already reported. Another factor must be added to the immense sup- plies of coal and iron ore in China in attempting to forecast her future, namely, China has now the larg- est and, upon the whole, the best supply of labor found on the face of the earth; and the Chinese means of living enables them to supply labor at lower cost than any other nation on earth. On May 14, 1913, Mr. Farrell, President of the United States Steel Com- pany, testified before a commission of Congress that. Chinese pig iron could be landed at San Francisco and sold at $10.78 per ton, whereas the price of American pig iron at San Francisco was at that time $21 per ton. The Shanghai Times of July 7, 1911, reported Sir Moreton Frewen, M. P., as writing, after a visit to Hankow, to the British Review of Reviews, that Chinese rails turned out by the Hanyang Iron Works were quite equal to American rails, that one hundred and ten Chinese workmen at Hanyang can turn out as much iron a day as one hundred Pittsburgh iron- workers, that the wages of the Pittsburgh work- men are fifteen times as large as the wages of the Hanyang workers, and that with some changes, which could easily be introduced into the Hanyang works, the Chinese company can produce pig iron at 12s. — $3, gold — per ton. Dr. Ernst Faber, a conservative, well-balanced Yuan Shih Kai (See Chapter XV) CHINA AND THE WORLD 451 German missionary, after many years in China made the prediction that the eighteen pro\dnces of China alone would sustain double China’s present popula- tion by the close of the twentieth century. Dr. Faber based this estimate upon the increase of population in Belgium, Holland, England, and Germany when they passed from hand manufacturing to machine manu- facturing and upon the fact that China will make that transition during the twentieth century. Japan en- tered upon this era nearly half a century ago, and her population is doubling in sixty years. Who doubts that from similar causes China will experience a sim- ilar increase of population in the twentieth century? 2. Increase of the Chinese in the North and West. In estimating the future of the Chinese an- other fact must be borne in mind. Manchuria and Inner Mongolia on the northern, and Turkestan on the western borders of China, will sustain very con- siderable increases of population, and there will be a large increase of Chinese in these regions before the close of the present century. Von Schierbrand esti- mates an increase in ^Manchuria alone of over 100,- 000,000 people f our estimate is 60,000,000. Pear- son estimates an increase of 75,000,000, mostly Chinese, in Turkestan;^ our estimate is much lower, but Curtis’s recent volume on Turkestan® shows that we may anticipate a considerable overflow of Chinese into these regions during the twentieth century. Russia built the Trans-Siberian Railway not only for military purposes but also for industrial purposes. ‘Schierbrand, Wolf Von: America, Asia, and the Pacific, p. 283. ^ Pearson, C. H.: National Life and Character, p. 46. * Curtis, William E. : Turkestan, the Heart of Asia. 452 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION She believed that this railway would furnish a line over which emigration would flow from European Russia to Siberia, Mongolia, and Manchuria, The railway is starting a double stream — one of emigra- tion from European Russia and one of immigra- tion, for the Chinese are flowing westward while the Russians are flowing eastward. Whatever govern- ment prevails in Siberia, Mongolia, and Manchuria, population must be desired as the one factor which can give value to these lands. And unless Chinese immigration is checked, there will be a large overflow of Chinese population into Manchuria, and even Siberia, within the next one hundred years, 3. Increase of the Chinese in Malaysia. North America, South America, Africa, and the Malay Archipelago in Asia are the unfilled regions of the globe capable of sustaining large increases of popu- lation. While Africa will sustain a much larger popu- lation than she now has, probably her increase will not rank with that of South America or Malaysia. The area of land in the Malay Archipelago is 1,002,267 square miles, and the population is 44,067,000.® Al- fred Russel Wallace writes : “The Malay Archipelago extends for more than 4,000 miles from east to west, and is about 1,300 miles in breadth from north to south. It includes three islands larger than Great Britain and in one of them the whole of the British Isles might be set down and they would be surrounded | by a sea of forests.” “As a whole the Malay Archi- j pelago is comparable with the primary divisions of the l • Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xvii, p. 466, b. Malay Archipelago, vol. i. pp. 2, 4. CHINA AND THE WORLD 453 globe.” ” The great rainfall, the high temperature, and the rich soil combine to make the Archipelago as a whole extremely fertile.’” Indeed, Macmillan Brown’^ speaks of billows of vegetation and forests rolling over the islands, making it almost impossible for civilized men to get a foothold unless they come in sufficient numbers to uproot the wild forests, keep them uprooted, and turn the land to fruitful purposes. Hence, Java is the only island of the entire group which human culture thus far has subdued. W'allace speaks of the dry climate and arid soil of Bali and Temor and the eastern end of Java and adds, “The island of Java contains more volcanoes, active and extinct, than any other known district of equal extent.” “ Hence the proportion of arable land and the rainfall in most of the islands exceed those of Java ; the soil of the islands is generally fertile, therefore the entire region seems capable of sustaining a population as dense as that of Java. But Java has a population of 5/0 to the square mile. At this rate, the entire Archipelago with its million square miles of territory would sustain a population of 570,000,000 people. Indeed, Dr. W. F. Oldham, who has traveled through the Archipelago perhaps as widely as any other Amer- ican, in public addresses upon Malaysia estimates that it is capable of sustaining a population of 600,000,- 000 people; and Macmillan Brown, speaking of Malaysia as a whole says, “These rich regions might easily support the whole population of the world.” Wallace, Alfred Russel: The Malay Archipelago, vol. i, pp. 2-4. Ibid., vol. i, p. 24. “ The Dutch East, p. 136. Wallace, Alfred Russel: The Malay Archipelago, vol. i, p. 8. The Dutch East, p. 188. 454 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION If the rest of Malaysia is capable of sustaining a population at all equal to that of Java, the question naturally arises as to why two thirds of the popula- tion now in the Archipelago is confined to this one island, which has only one nineteenth of the area of the whole. Macmillan Brown explains the popula- tion of Java as due largely to the Dutch government, under which life and property have been safe for some two hundred years. “All acknowledge the excellence of the Dutch rule in Java. . . . The increase of the native population under it from 2,000,000 two cen- turies ago to 30,000,000 in the twentieth century is « clear enough proof.” But all the islands of the Archipelago are now under American, British, Dutch, Erench or German rule. Moreover, the health meas- ures which have been successfully inaugurated by the United States in Panama and in the Philippine Islands show that the tropics can be made habitable even for the white man, and comparatively healthy for races accustomed to a greater heat than are the white races. In view of these statements, it seems entirely safe to assume that in Malaysia there is room for the over- flow of the Chinese and Japanese for the twentieth century, even though these two races should double their populations within that period. Moreover, the Chinese at least are rapidly pouring over their borders into Malaysia; and the Chinese who go to these lands are meeting with such success and are sending such streams of gold back to the mother country that the people of China are destined to overflow into Malaysia during the twentieth century as the people The Dutch East, p. 17. CHINA AND THE WORLD 455 of Europe have overflowed into North America dur- ing the last two centuries. Macmillan Brown says, “There are 1,500,000 Chinese and 300,000 Arabs in Netherlands India, and these are the overlords of the land; and the Chinese are superior to the Arab traders.” Singapore is receiving 200,000 Chinese per year, according to the latest reports of Dr. W. F. Oldham. “Throughout the length and breadth of Malaysia,” says Dr. Francis H. H. Guillemard, “the Chinese has made his way.” Wherever the Chinese come in contact with the Malays they either develop them or supplant them. The same phenomenon is taking place in the Malay Archipelago in the twentieth century which took place in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ; and under whatever government the future inhabit- ants of Malaysia may live, the}'^ will be Chinese in their commerce, social life, civilization, and in their influence upon their neighbors. Mr. Pearson says; “So great a people as the Chinese, and possessed with such enormous material resources, will sooner or later overflow and spread over new territory and submerge weaker races. . . . With civilization equally dif- fused, the most populous country must ultimately be the most powerful; and in the Pacific Basin the pre- ponderance of China over any rival — even over the United States of America — is likely to be overwhelm- ing.” Mr. Pearson shows throughout his volume the pessimism which possibly came through failing health. We do not for a moment share the dark fore- Ibid., p. 155. GuiUemard, Francis H. H.; The Cruise of the Marchesa, vol. ii, p. 126. Pearson. C. H.: National Life and Character, p. 54. 456 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION bodings for the white race which his volume as a whole expresses. Instead of believing that the Aryan race and modern science and Christian civilization are exhausted, we hold that we are on the threshold of undreamed-of possibilities. But the large antici- pation of China formed by a writer whose general view of the future of the race is as pessimistic as Mr. Pearson’s is a very significant fact. We do not antici- pate so large a growth of population in Malaysia dur- ing the twentieth century as the advance from 44,- 000,000 now there to the 570,000,000, because, while the Chinese are multiplying rapidly, they are also advancing their standard of living; and such an advance usually is followed by a decreasing birth rate. But after the twentieth century comes the twenty-first century ; and science, and especially American experience at Panama, demonstrates that the tropics are easily habitable by yellow races. It seems safe, therefore, to anticipate a population of some 300,000,000, partly Chinese in blood and almost wholly Chinese in culture, in Malaysia by the begin- ning or middle of the twenty-first century. Considering the growth of population which has been taking place in China for centuries through the virility of the race, the prospective large overflow of population into Malaysia in the twentieth century, similar to the overflow of European population into North America during the nineteenth century, the expansion of her population now taking place in her northern and western territory, the great increase of l^opulation within the eighteen provinces during the twentieth century through the introduction of modern CHINA AND THE WORLD 457 machinery and the transformation of her industries from the stage of hand labor to that of machine labor, it is probable that the population of China and Japan will reach 8cx), 000,000 to 1,000,000,000 souls by the year A. D. 2000. India has trebled her population since British occupation; she now has 300,000,000 yellow people to add to the Chinese-Japanese popula- tion; and with the introduction of modern machinery she may have a population of 500,000,000 to add to the yellow races by the year A. D. 2000. With a de- creasing population among some of the white nations and a decreasing rate of growth in population among them all, and with the decimation of Europe through the present war, the yellow races will rapidly approach the white races in numbers within a century or two. All these data combined challenge the present disposi- tion of the white races to control the six continents of earth for their own advantage and to restrict the yellow races to a portion of one of them. However great the problems which confront the various mem- bers of the white races in Europe to-day and to- morrow, all men of foresight are beginning to recog- nize the problems which will confront the white and yellow races the day after to-morrow. If the white races attempt to solve the race problem with selfish motives and through military power, we may wit- ness a race war in comparison with which the pres- ent European struggle will prove only a skirmish. It is discouraging to point out the conditions which confront the white and the yellow races, the exclu- sion policy already adopted by the white races, and the conflict into which we seem to be drift- 458 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ing unless there is some solution of the problem. We believe there is such a solution. Divine Providence apparently has provided for a large expansion of the Japanese and Chinese at home and for an even greater expansion of the yellow races in Malaysia during the twentieth century. Doubtless there will be a rapid expansion of the white races during the century. But thoughtful white people must see that the yellow races are likely to gain on us in numbers and that it will be impossible for us to hold them in permanent subjec- tion by militarism. Besides, both militarism and the permanent subjection of one section of the human race to another section are repugnant to all our instincts of justice and of love. Is there not some wiser and better solution of the problems? With a clear and full presentation of the case we believe it will become clear to all that the New Testament and the great movements of the natural world under evo- lution alike show that the survival and increase of each and every race depend upon service rather than upon selfishness. First, we are clear that this is the teaching of Jesus. The most casual reader of the Bible must recognize that Christ makes love the supreme law of the Chris- tian life. In the twenty-second chapter of Matthew he is formally asked to name the great commandment in the law, and by the “law” the inquirer meant the Old Testament as a whole, or the divine revelation as it existed at that time. Jesus promptly accepts the challenge as furnishing an op])ortunity to sum up revelation in brief compass: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, CHINA AND THE WORLD 459 and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment.” As if to make his statement com- plete, Jesus adds; “And a second like unto it is this; d'hou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” And then, in order to exclude all others from the primacy, Jesus concludes, “On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.” Again, in his final conversation with his disciples Jesus sums up all his teaching in the injunction ; “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” There can be no question as to the formal and solemn nature of Jesus’s proclamation of the law of love as the supreme law of revelation. Moreover, Jesus does not simply teach the law of love. He illustrates it by his life and his death. “He went about doing good.” “He tasted death for every man.” Paul sums up the life of Christ and makes that life the pattern for our own in the following words; “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” But Paul, so far from seeing in this life of service and this death upon the cross the failure of Jesus to make his own highest interest secure in the universe, recognizes that through this act of supreme service Jesus comes to the throne of the universe. “ John 13. 34. “ Phil. 2. 5-9. 46o CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Surely, if the Bible contains any revelation from God at all, the divine program for mankind is the life of service rather than the life of selfishness; and revela- tion teaches that this life is a practicable life even in a world of sin. Paul finds the highest manifestation of Christ’s love in the fact that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Above all, Jesus makes love the law of God in dealing with a sinful race, as well as the law of man. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.” We must bear in mind that Jesus contemplates no narrow asceticism and no dwarfing of one’s personal powers, and hence no impracticable idealism in his exposition of the law of love. As expounded by Christ, love does not exclude love of one’s country, of one’s family, or even of oneself. Love of God is indeed the supreme command. But Jesus himself makes the love of neighbor second only to this first command and “like unto it.” Moreover, in the second command, to love one’s neighbor, Jesus clearly implies the love of self. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as “ Phil. 2. 9-1 1. John 3. 16. 17. CHINA AND THE WORLD 461 thyself.” If these words do not imply the love of self, how much do they command us to love our neighbors ? But we are not left to inferences as to the compat- ability of the law of love as set forth by Jesus with the law of self-perfection also enjoined by him. Kant was right in holding that the teaching of Jesus makes every person an end in himself. Jesus sums up the most important section of the Sermon on the Mount in the statement: “Ye, therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” All recognize that the Bible contains a doctrine of sanctification or of personal spiritual perfection enjoined upon the chil- dren of the Kingdom. But Jesus, so far from regard- ing sanctification as something to be sought inde- pendently of and in preference to one’s service of his neighbor, regards it, rather, as an absolute condition for the highest service of humanity. “For their sakes I sanctify myself.” And again, so far from regard- ing the service which is demanded by our families and by the nation to which we belong and by the world as inconsistent with personal perfection, Jesus regards the humiliations and sufferings which he endured for others as an essential part of the program for his own perfection. When even the Pharisees warned him that Herod was seeking his life, and advised him to escape from Herod’s jurisdiction, Jesus answered them: “Go and say to that fox. Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am — ” what? Crucified? Yes, that is what happened on the third day. But Jesus does not describe the process by that humiliating ** Matt, s- 48. “John 17. 19. 462 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION term; “Go and say to that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am perfected.”^® As if his death upon the cross was the highest and final step in his own per- fection. The program prescribed for individuals and for humanity under the law of love as interpreted by Jesus is exceeding broad. It includes the perfection of the individual as well as the highest service of others. Again, in considering the New Testament teaching on love, we must keep in mind the distinc- tion between the state and the church. In general, the state rests upon, and should be the embodiment of, justice; the church, of love. This distinction arises from the fundamental difference between the two : the state executes her laws, when necessary, by physical force; the church urges her principles upon men only by reason, by moral influence, by spiritual power. Hence, in the main, the state should restrict her activ- ities within the province of justice, while the church should urge men not only to act justly but to go beyond justice and obey the impulse of love in serving one another. There are occasions and possibly there are realms of action in which the state for self-preserva- tion should go beyond the dictates of justice in its serv- ice of individuals, of communities, and of neighboring states. But, in the main, the state should not impose legislation beyond the demands of justice, because her laws in the last analysis are imposed upon men by force. Herein lies the fundamental objection to state socialism. “To each according to his need, from each Luke 13. 32. CHINA AND THE WORLD 463 according to his ability” is a Christian injunction vvliich ought to be accepted loy each man in dealing with his fellows, just as prayer and worship of God are Christian injunctions. But for the state to en- force worship by law' is to lose sight of the funda- mental distinction between herself and the church. But the state has no more right to enforce by law Christianity in the form of service than to enforce Christianity in the form of w'orship. Hence, while the law' of love applies to the church and to all individ- uals in their voluntary relations to others, the state in general should confine its demands within the bounds of justice. Hence the law of love wdiich Christ enjoined upon mankind does not demand that the state, as a political organization, use money collected by taxation — that is, in the last analysis, by force — for the alleviation of the suft’erings in another state, save so far as such action may be a wise provision for the state’s own safety in some similar crisis. But if we can show that obedience to Christ’s demand of love is not only safe but is the only condition for life and growth on the part of all voluntary organizations like the church, much more will it become apparent that obedience to the demands of justice is essential to the continuance and growth of the state. Justice is the eternal foundation upon which all enduring national life must be built. But the growth, or even the con- tinuance, of a race demands not only that race’s acceptance of justice as its ideal and its actual law in its corporate capacity, but love as the rule in the vol- untary action of individuals. But is it possible to reconcile the teaching of the 464 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION New Testament with the doctrine of evolution? Yes, provided we recognize this broader interpretation of the law of love. The church has not fully recognized the divine justification of self-regard. God would have commanded us to love ourselves had not such a command been entirely unnecessary. Certainly, along with caring for one’s neighbor it is right and neces- sary to care for oneself. If every person would care for his own needs, secure his own growth and perfec- tion, the whole race would be properly cared for. Indeed, loving oneself and caring for oneself is not only necessary in order to personal perfection, and is not only placed by Jesus in the second command upon a par with caring for one’s neighbor, but self- perfection is essential to the highest service of one’s neighbor. Hence any broad view of nature or of human nature must recognize self-love, self-support, self-perfection, as a part of the divine program for plants and animals and men. Self-preservation is said to be the first law of nature. This is not true. Upon the contrary, both nature and revelation point to service as the first and supreme law of nature. But self-preservation is necessary also to the law of love, and in the form in which the second command is stated is placed upon a par with it. Along with love there must also be faith sufficient to recognize that spiritual and not material goods are of supreme value to man. Inasmuch as population always is pressing upon the means of subsistence, so long as the central interest of men lies in material goods we cannot hope that the stronger will join with the weaker in helj)ful cooperation; rather will they be CHINA AND THE WORLD 465 inclined to accept that view of life in which might makes right, and displaces not only love but justice. “The end of war on earth lies entirely beyond the vision of men who recognize only material goods. ‘Warless when her tens are thousands And her nations millions, then. All her harvests all too narrow, Who can picture warless men ?’ ” Only as men have a faith which swallows up all tem- poral and personal aims in universal and eternal ends will they recognize the superior value of spiritual to material goods. Turning now, with this broader conception of love to nature, we must remember the New Testament teaching that “All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made”;^’ and also the further teaching that “In him [that is, in Christ] all things consist [or stand together].”^® Hence, as Christ is the Author of nature as well. as of revelation, we ought to find his finger prints upon the one as well as upon the other. Evolution has taught us to recognize the severe struggle which is constantly going on in nature. Every plant and tree is found sending its roots down into the earth for nourishment, and lifting its branches and leaves upward for air and sunlight. In this con- stant struggle the weaker forms of vegetation are starved and perish. But self-preservation is not the first law of the vegetable kingdom. The first law is found in Genesis i. ii : “And God said. Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit tree ® Col. I. 17. ^ John I. 3. 466 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth.” What is the object of this universal law of the vegetable kingdom? The seeds and fruits produced are never for the benefit of the individual plant or tree producing them. They are produced for the preservation and spread of the species. That this law of seed- and fruit-bearing is the first and deepest law of the vegetable kingdom is apparent from the fact that upon obedience to this law the continuation of the species, and, indeed, the continuation of the whole vegetable kingdom depends. Hence not self-preservation but the perpetuation of the species, not selfishness but service, is the deepest law of the vegetable kingdom — the law upon which the very existence of the vegetable kingdom depends. So deep is this law that we find certain fruit trees pouring out their strength in fruit- and seed-bearing so fully during one season that they have not strength sufficient to yield an equal harvest a second season. Indeed, some trees so pour out their lives in fruit- and seed-bearing that they have not vitality enough left to carry them through the winter, and, in the expres- sive phrase of the farmer, they are “winter-killed.” What is such conduct upon the part of trees, but an imitation of the life of Him who saved others, while himself he could not save? Sidney Lanier, with the poet’s vision, represents Christ worn out by the days of struggle and controversy in Jerusalem going out into the garden of Gethsemane for understanding and comfort from the trees. His lines, slightly changed, give us a truer insight into the heart of nature than many books upon evolution: CAUKA AXD THE WORLD 467 “Into the woods my Master went, Clean forspent, forspent ; Into the woods my Master went Forspent with grief and shame; But the olives were not blind to Him, The little gray leaves were kind to Him, The thorn tree had the mind of Him, As into the woods He came. “Out of the woods my Master went, And He was well content ; Out of the woods my Master came. Content with grief and shame.” Companions slept and fled at last ; The olive trees remained steadfast; Buds whispered death could not last, As out of the woods He came. Surely, the law of love is rooted in the vegetable king- dom as fully as it is enjoined by Christ upon the human kingdom. Turning to the animal kingdom, our minds have been filled with pictures of nature “ravin in tooth and claw.” It is impossible to tell how much of the sav- agery of the animal kingdom is due to man’s ill treat- ment of the wild animals. But we must recognize that we are in a universe of struggle, and that animals live by preying upon each other. Hence there is an instinct of slaughter found in the animal kingdom which leads most animals to kill others for their own sustenance, and sometimes apparently out of sheer wantonness. Taking the law of love manifested by service in its broadest sense, recognizing that the animal’s preservation of itself is second only to its service of the species, and recognizing further that 468 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION in this mutual destruction of each other in the animal kingdom there is involved no element of self-condem- nation and self-degradation, nevertheless, we are sometimes shocked by the slaughter which reigns throughout the animal kingdom. Inasmuch as nature will sustain only a certain number of animals, and as no degradation is involved in their mutual slaughter, possibly a higher amount of animal enjoyment is found in the shorter life of animals during the periods of their vigor with a more frequent appearance of generation after generation than would be expe- rienced were the life of each generation prolonged to a decaying old age. However this may be, and how- ever much the humanitarian may be shocked at mutual slaughter in the animal kingdom, nevertheless here, as in the vegetable kingdom, service, not slaughter, is the fundamental law. The deepest law in the animal kingdom, the law without which the animal kingdom could not continue beyond the present gen- eration, is the law of motherhood — the law by which animals produce young at the cost of pain and danger to themselves, nourish them with their own substance, and defend them with their own lives; and in this law of motherhood the animals are found walking all unconsciously in the pathway of Him who devoted his life to service, and finally tasted death for every man. Turning to the human kingdom, the record of man’s true life is obscured by the fact of degeneration. Whatever may be said in regard to the fall of man, the fact of degeneration is as clearly recognized by science as the fact of evolution; and we find men in CHINA AND THE WORT.D 469 the lower stages of existence manifesting signs of degeneracy which obscure the true lines of life upon which the race should be advancing. Hence there are two stages of human life which apparently do not enter into the original plan of creation for men, but which are marks of his degeneration ; I. The Stage of Sensual Gratification. The lowest stage into which human beings fall is that of pure individualism, seeking its gratification in the indulgence of physical appetites. Morally, this stage is below that of animalhood. It is a stage in which the individual, forgetting the claims of his family upon him, forgetting the claims of himself upon him- self, loses self-respect and self-mastery and sinks into spiritual death. The drunkard, the man given up to the use of drugs, and the man surrendering himself to lust, each illustrates this lowest stage to which human beings can fall. Under evolution and the stern law of competition, people so surrendering them- selves are speedily swept from the earth. Individuals, families, nations, and races which abandon themselves to self-indulgence and to sensuality are exceedingly shortlived. A striking fact, giving hope of the race’s redemption from this low degeneration, is the spon- taneous emergence of great movements against the use of intoxicating liquors, and of all forms of self- indulgence upon the part of nations and races when- ever they are engaged in a death grapple with each other. Great upheavals against intemperance and against all forms of self-indulgence are the by-pro- ducts of the wars and the commercial struggles through which the nations pass, simply because tern- 470 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION perance and self-control are essential to the continu- ance of the race’s life, 2, The Stage of Selfish Ambition. Above the lowest and vilest stage is a stage of individual selfish- ness, manifested by personal ambition and worldli- ness. In this stage men recognize the necessity of suppressing at least temporarily their grosser appetites and training at least for a time their powers of body and mind and will for their mastery over their fellow men in the struggles of the earthly life. This stage has one element of good in it in that it demands at least temporarily self-mastery and self-development. This stage illustrates the fact that, despite degenera- tion, the race originally was created on a divine plan. Under the stern laws of evolution and the conflicts of human life, those entering the second stage soon surpass and master those sinking into the lowest stage. But this second stage rests equally with the lowest stage upon selfishness. It is thus evil at the core, and being evil at the core it also is doomed to destruction. History is full of illustrations of the dire consequences which come to individuals engaged in a purely per- sonal and selfish struggle against families or com- munities or nations. It is full of illustrations of the dire calamities which befall nations or races when they yield themselves as instruments to the personal ambitions of military conquerors. The Napoleons, the Caesars, and the Alexanders have sowed the seeds of death in the nations which they have ruled. These two stages, therefore, illustrate human nature in its state of degeneration rather than in any state appar- ently contemplated in the original plan of creation. CHINA AND THE WORLD 471 Turning now to what is apparently tlie original divine plan in creation, we find : 1. The Stage of Family Affection and Serv- ice. This is the first stage ordained by God. It is the stage into which all men are born. God provided for the law of love first in the physical organization of the race. He has brought us into the world, not by a process of direct creation, because separate creation would leave each human being entirely independent of every other human being. Hence God has brought us into the world by the process of filiation. All of us have entered upon life through parents, and through our family lives we are called into an instinctive love and service of each other. This is the law of love; and the manifestation of this law by service is woven into the very physical texture of the race; and the New Testament teaches that the family is a divine institution by which God strives to call us out of pure individualism into family fellowship, family affection, and family service. 2. The National Stage. In the stern struggles of competition, families are obliged to group them- selves into states and nations for the sake of self- preservation and of progress. Hence above the family is the state or the nation. And the nation is a divine institution by which God calls us out of the narrower life of the family or the clan into the larger life of patriotism and of devotion to the state. “The powers that be are ordained of God.” In portraying the national stage of civilization as superior to the family stage of civilization we are assuming the motives to be the same in the two stages, namely, service : in the 472 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION one case the service of the family, and in the other the service of the nation. Of course if a family is held together simply by motives of greed for the purpose of preying upon the individuals of other families, the family has become degenerate. So if a nation is held together simply by predatory motives for the sake of preying upon other nations, the nation becomes de- generate. But with the motive of love manifested by service operating in the family and in the nation, patriotism is a higher virtue than devotion to family interests, because it calls for a wider and more nearly universal application of the law of love. Hence, in the competition of modern life, any nation whose civ- ilization is based upon the family is doomed in the struggle with other nations whose civilization is based upon patriotism, or devotion to the life of the nation as a whole. Just because China has in the past been composed of small groups of individuals bound to- gether as families, and just because on the other side of the straits a far smaller number of Japanese have recently become inspired with a devotion to the nation and to the race and are moved by a common impulse, Japan has become stronger than China. The tran- sition of civilization from the family to the national stage is the most marked characteristic of the last fifteen years of Chinese public life; and the time is speedily coming when the three or four hundred mil- lions of Chinese welded together as a nation will be invincible to any foes which may be hurled against them. Professor Seeley, of Cambridge, was accustomed to tell his students that nationalism is the key to the CHINA AND THE WORLD 473 civilization of the nineteenth century. He cited the twenty-five German kingdoms united to form the Ger- man empire, the eight principalities of Italy uniting into the kingdom of Italy, the welding together of the discordant States into the American Union, and the knitting together of the far-flung colonies and de- pendencies of Great Britain into the British empire as the products of the national ideal operating in the history of the nineteenth century. Some Americans recall the baptism of patriotism through which the United States passed in the great struggle from i86i- 65. Those of us who are boys recall the young men whom we regarded as our natural leaders enlist- ing, sometimes one at a time, more frequently in groups, and sometimes by entire companies, and start- ing for the distant battlefields. Our hearts were thrilled with the reports which reached home describ- ing the battles and giving the names of the wounded and the dead. We enshrined in our hearts our dead brothers and friends, and transfigured them into heroes in our youthful imaginations. It is this same spirit of patriotism which is lifting millions and mil- lions of humble Chinese to that exalted plane in which they are willing to lay down their lives upon the altar of their country. \Mio doubts that the tens of thou- sands of Americans who laid down their lives at Antietam and Gettysburg, of the Japanese at Port Arthur and on the plains of Mukden, of Germans, of Englishmen, of Frenchmen who are pouring out their blood for what seems to them to be the very existence of their fatherlands are — some of them blindly and unconsciously, but all of them in reality — following in 474 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the footsteps of Him who trod the heights of Calvary? In the Horatii dying at the bridge for Rome, in Arnold von Winkelried gathering the spears of his country’s enemies into his own breast and dying for his native land, in the hundreds of thousands in all lands who have poured out their blood like water for their beloved countries, do we find illustrations of the weakness and sentimentality of human nature ? Does not such conduct rather represent high and noble qualities of human nature, qualities which will lead on to the new humanity in Christ? Surely, family affection and patriotism are stages along the way to the perfection of the race. 3. The Stage of Universal Service. But above the family and above the nation God has placed the church. The church is not simply an ecclesiastical organization through which spiritual ambitions are to be realized, nor is it established for the consolation and comfort of the weaker portions of humanity. Jesus said little about the church in any formal sense, but spoke frequently of a kingdom of heaven upon earth. The church is a divine institution so far as it represents this larger and completer organization of humanity as a whole. It is divine because it is the means by which God calls us out of the broader service of the nation or the race into the highest ser- vice of humanity as a whole. Just because national- ism does not represent the supreme embodiment of the law of love it cannot represent the final stage of civilization. In practice it denies that God hath made of one blood all nations to dwell upon the face of the earth. It discredits Christ’s supreme act of sacrifice CHINA AND THE WORLD 475 in tasting death for every man. Just as the slight- est deviation at the start from the straight line which leads from our earth to Sirius would, in the infinite journey thither, cause one to miss entirely that star, so the diflference between patriotism and the perfect law of love is sufficient to cause any nation or any race which makes patriotism supreme to miss its goal and perish by the wayside. The same danger which con- fronts any race which makes nationalism or race supremacy its goal, confronts any church which makes its own supremacy its chief aim, and its funda- mental teaching. Denominationalism, under what- ever guise it may cloak itself, and especially when it hides under the guise of a universal church, is open to the same danger as nationalism, namely, of substituting the glorification of a part for the service of the whole. Denominationalism is more dangerous to Christendom than is patriotism, because patriotism is a natural stage in the evolution of humanity and the advancement of the race toward its goal, whereas, the race having once entered upon the stage of universal service, denominationalism be- comes a retrogression to the stage of nationalism. Denominationalism is, therefore, a sign of degenera- tion in the church. It consists in losing sight of the church’s summons to universal service and harking back to the false dream of sectarian supremacy under the false warrant of a divine decree. Accepting Professor Seeley’s maxim that national- ism has been the key to the political history of the nineteenth century, we predict that internationalism will be the key to the political history of the twentieth 476 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION century and after. If God is the Creator and Ruler of this universe, and if love is the fundamental law revealed by him for human conduct, and practiced by him in the guidance of the universe, destruction is inevitable for any nation or race which falsely interprets evolution and attempts to maintain the doctrine that might makes right. Upon the other hand, we find illustrations in nature of the principle which must guide us in our final international rela- tions. As evolution has advanced and the various races of mankind have settled down into a partial possession of the earth, they have found it necessary to cultivate those products of the vegetable king- dom which contribute most to human and animal subsistence. Hence such grains as rice, wheat, maize, oats, etc., are gradually spreading over the earth, while the harmful and even useless forms of vegeta- tion are gradually being extirpated. The process is very far from complete because the human race is very far from taking complete possession of the earth upon which it lives. Nevertheless, the process has gone so far that the domestic animals and certain grains are now in possession of considerable portions of the earth’s surface, not primarily because of their own efforts at self-preservation, but primarily through the efforts of members of a higher kingdom. Were these animals and grains endowed with reason and were they able to discuss their present condition and their prospects, doubtless they would be found attributing their extension over the earth to some Divine Provi- dence which led the beings in some higher kingdom to select them for preservation and supremacy. This CHINA AND THE WORLD 477 thought of a Divine Providence operating in the his- tory of mankind has never been absent from the human race, and there is a profound truth lying at its base. If the time comes, as under the progress of evolution scientists believe that it will, when the race multiplies until it takes complete possession of all the earth, then all the noxious weeds and purely useless vegetable products will be eliminated and only the useful products of the vegetable kingdom preserved. Thus, under an evolution in which the vegetables and grains are not directly the chief factors but in which they are indirectly the chief factors, because of their service to higher kingdoms, we shall find a final sur- vival of those members of the vegetable kingdom which render the largest service to the higher king- doms upon the earth. The same will be true of the animal kingdom. Here we find forecasts of the sur- vival in nature of those grains and animals which render the largest service to the race. Already this same law is beginning to operate in the human kingdom. There are now found in all so- called pagan nations various types of religion which set themselves to minister to human needs. Already the law of evolution is operating among them, and Christianity is by no means beyond the reach of this law. The reason Alohammedanism has supplanted many lower types of polytheism is because of its greater service to humanity. The observance of the command, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” is more essential to the preservation of the race to which it is given than to the glory of the God who utters it. Let a nation once believe that Ceres is a 478 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION goddess who can be worshiped only by uninterrupted cultivation of the soil ; that Mars is a god who can be worshiped only by men engaged in war ; that Bacchus is a god -who can be worshiped only by men giving themselves up to drunkenness; and Venus a goddess the worship of whom demands that men and women give themselves up to lives of lust, and such a nation is so divided in its aims and efforts that it cannot pos- sibly develop any strong life. Mohammedanism, with its stern doctrine of the unity of God, easily supplanted polytheism, not simply or chiefly because of the wars which Mohammedans were willing to wage for their religion. The Mohammedans waged these wars, rather, because they felt that their faith was essential to the success or even the survival of civilization : and Mohammedanism supplanted these other faiths be- cause it made larger contributions toward the preser- vation and growth of the races adopting it than poly- theism could possibly make. So ancestral worship has survived in China because it has contributed more to the preservation of the existence of the families adopting it than the ani- mistic forms of worship with which it was largely in competition. And so Shintoism has survived in Japan because it has developed a national patriotism and has contributed more to the upbuilding of the Japanese nation than the various forms of nature worship which it supplanted. Christianity is brought face to face with these varied types of religion. Its survival or decadence will depend wholly upon the service which it renders the races and civilizations to which it claims to minister. If it makes these races stronger CHINA AND THE WORLD 479 than their competitors who maintain the older forms of religions, then the races which accept Christianity are sure to survive and grow, and the races which neglect it are doomed to perish. If Christianity once recognizes its divine charter and remains true to the command to serve, we may be sure of its final triumph. Who doubts that Christianity with its doc- trine of one God; that Christianity with its doctrine of a holy God; that Christianity with its revelation of the possibilities of the forgiveness of sin; that Chris- tianity with its doctrine of a new birth and its promise of a Holy Spirit who enters the human heart and reinforces human personality; that Christianity with its doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the brother- hood of man ; that Christianity with love manifested by service as its supreme law, will contribute more to the preservation and advancement of individuals and families and nations and races who honestly ac- cept it than can iMohammedanism or Confucianism or Hinduism? Christ is set in the world for the rise and fall of families, of nations, of churches, and of races. Any family which dreams that it has the power to rule by divine fiat; any race or nation which believes that it is called to the leadership by virtue of its color or its birthright or of the divine favor; any church which holds that by some magical power of the keys or by some divine decree it is called to the leadership of the Christian world, and through that leadership to the domination of the human race, is as surely doomed as selfishness in all the smaller manifestations of life is doomed. Even Christ is coming to the throne of 48o CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the universe, not by virtue of his sonship to God, but by virtue of his service to humanity. It was because he thought equality with God not a prize to be seized ; it was because he humbled himself and appeared in fashion as a man; it was because, being found in fashion as a man, he devoted himself to a life of serv- ice and to death upon the cross for our redemption, that God hath highly exalted him and given him the name above every name, “that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess him Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Sir Robert Hart, who studied the Chinese for some forty years, believed that Chinese potential hatred of foreigners constitutes a real menace to the human race. He held that some four hundred million people, sturdy and passionately devoted to their ancient cus- toms, might in time, under the influence of bitter race hatred between the yellow and the white peoples, be changed from a peace-loving community into a war- like people, bent on avenging their wrongs. He saw only two courses open to the white races in dealing with the Chinese problem: partition of China among the white nations, which he regarded as impossible, or an almost miraculous spread of Christianity among them — “a not impossible but scarcely to be hoped for religious service which will convert China into the friendliest of friendly powers.” We suggest the following measures for the relief of the situation: First. Introduce Christianity into China as rapidly as possible. This will insure the education of Chinese children; the education of Chi- 2* Foster, John W.: American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 435. CHINA AND THE WORLD 481 nesc children will demand houses with large window frames filled with glass — as in American homes — with board floors instead of damp cold dirt or brick floors, and with suflicient heat in winter for comfort in study- ing. Christian education also will insure the lighting as well as the heating of the homes. In a word, the introduction of Christianity into China automatically tends to raise the condition of the Chinese laborers to that of Western workmen and thus to equalize wages around the globe. Probably also the disap- pearance of the superstition in regard to the need of sons to perform ancestral rites and the raising of the standard of living will be followed by the lowering of the birth rate and a decreasing pressure of the yellow races upon the white races. Second. We should introduce the applied sciences into China and thus develop her marvelous resources so as to enable her to take care of the natural increase of her population. With the intense love of the Chinese for their own country, very few Chinese will emigrate, provided they can make a comfortable liv- ing at home. Third. Introduce applied sciences and Christianity into Malaysia — the natural region for Chinese, Jap- anese, and Indian colonization; and in due time per- mit the people of these regions to decide for them- selves whether they prefer the maintenance of their affiliations with the United States and the various European nations or establishing new affiliations with Japan, China, and possibly India, or establishing inde- pendent governments. In case they choose the latter course, the so-called Christian nations should bind 482 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION themselves to respect the independence of these peo- ples and preserve them from aggression by other nations until they have a reasonable opportunity to demonstrate their fitness for self-government. Fourth. Broaden the Monroe Doctrine so as to take all American governments into partnership with the United States in maintaining it. At the same time permit each American nation to make such arrangements as it wishes with other nations for the increase of its population by immigration, so far as the other American nations judge such immigration to be consistent with the liberty and safety of the American nations as a whole. Fifth. Let the United States adopt some such policy for the control of immigration into our own borders as that outlined by Dr. Sidney Gulick ; namely, the admission to our country annually of five per cent of the number of people of any other country, now living in the United States who have become natural- ized American citizens. Dr. Gulick points out the fact that this rule would permit even an increase of emigrants from northern Europe while tending to restrict emigration from southern Europe, and at the same time admit only a handful of Chinese and Japanese during the coming generation. Certainly, the rule would insure the assimilation of all who come to America, because, while operating fairly among all nations, it would exclude increasing emigration from those lands whose emigrants have not become American citizens. Despite the fact that our country is in considerable measure effectively occupied, some such policy impresses us as sane and safe. CHINA AND THE WORLD 483 Sixth. Above all, by Christian conduct and service assure the people of every land of the desire of the white races not to exploit them hut to serve them. Lhider the teachings alike of human history, of evolu- tion, and of the gospel, this is the only assurance of our continuance as white races. Use not thy power in manner rude. To rule for gain the multitude; Or thou shalt find that power depart, To seek some holier heart. Lord Curzon in his latest volume upon The Far East, referring to English bravery and appealing to English ambition, wrote : We sailed wherever ship could sail, We founded many a mighty state, Pray God our greatness do not fail. Through craven fear of being great. In view of the missionaries, of the physicians, of the teachers, and the preachers, whom the Christian churches are sending to pagan lands, we prefer to change Lord Curzon’s quatrain and make it read as follows : We went where ship could never sail. We sowed the seeds of church and state. Pray God our greatness do not fail, Through false ambition to be great. The question, then, which confronts the people of Europe, the United States, China, Japan, and India, is not the question as to how much we can get, but how much we can give. It is not the question as to how far one nation or race can dominate the Pacific, but how far each can stand for absolute justice as between nations and races. Giving the yellow races 484 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION a fair chance in the world indeed seems to restrict the privilege of the white races, but in reality the very existence of the white races, and especially their con- tinued moral and political influence upon our globe, depend upon the justice which as nations and the serv- ice which as Christians they can render the yellow races. We get by giving; we live by dying; we in- crease by being spent; love is wisdom; the servant is the ruler. Only as we forego all personal and temporal aims do we rise into the region of the uni- versal and the eternal. Justice and love are the prin- ciples upon which not only the safety and progress but the very life of races and nations depend. This program for nations rests upon justice and gives assurance of permanent national life because justice is eternal. This program for individuals rests upon love manifested by service and is in accord with the whole spirit of evolution and the entire teachings of revelation. Already, as mentioned in the chapter on China and America, the American people have won the hearts of the Chinese by a century of missionary efforts for their upliftment, by the services of the American gov- ernment in aiding the Chinese government to suppress foreign traffic in Chinese coolies, foreign trade in opium, and to preserve the sovereignty and integrity of the nation, by the return of the Boxer indemnity and its use in educating Chinese students in American universities, and by the proposed services of the China Medical Commission. Both the American govern- ment and the American people should strive, along different lines, but in every possible way, to cultivate CHINA AND THE WORLD 485 equally friendly and equally helpful relations with Japan, If, with confidence in and service of two such nations as Japan and China, the United States will wisely continue for a generation her service of the Philippines and then conclude these services by an unselfish recognition of the Filipino independence, fol- lowed by such complete freedom on their part or such an alliance with ourselves as the Filipinos may desire — the United States may help inaugurate a policy which will not cost a thousandth part of the price of military dictation, but which will be worth in trade, in the avoidance of war and in humanitarian blessings a million fold more than any possible outcome of mili- tary dictation. Is it too much for our government to aim to establish around the Pacific basin a new diplomacy based upon justice and service? We have fetched a wide compass but we have never lost sight of our goal. Our problem is China and the world. Shallow thinkers regard Christianity as an “iridescent dream,” a beautiful ideal utterly impos- sible of application to the business and political condi- tions of the world in which we live. Alfred Austin, poet laureate of England, expresses contempt of this worldly philosophy, and a wise confidence in the Chris- tian ideal: Say that we dream ! our dreams have woven Truths that outface the burning sun. The lightnings that we dreamed have cloven Time, space, and locked all lands in one ; Have knit the world with threads of steel Till no remotest island lingers Beyond the world’s one Commonweal. 486 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION Tell us that custom, sloth, and fear Are strong ; then name them “Common sense” ; Tell us that greed rules everywhere; Then dub the lie “experience” ; Year after year, age after age Has handed down through fool and child For earth’s divinest heritage The dreams whereon old Wisdom smiled. Dreams are they? But ye cannot stay them Or thrust the dawn back for one hour ! Truth, love, and justice, if ye slay them. Return with more than earthly power. Strive, if ye will, to seal the fountains That send the spring through leaf and spray. Drive back the sun from eastern mountains. Then bid this mightier movement stay. Descending from England’s prophet to one of her great economists, Alfred Marshall puts in the fore- front of his Principles of Economics the conviction which business experience has led political economists to accept, namely: “The two great forming agencies of the world’s history have been the religious and the economic. Here and there the military or the artistic spirit has been for a while predominant, but religious and economic influences have nowhere been displaced from the front rank even for a time; and they have nearly always been more important than all others put together.” Let us quote again, and this time from a historian who, while professing skepticism in regard to theolog- ical dogmas, recognizes the binding nature of the law of service. James Anthony Froude writes ; “Through- out human life, from the first relation of parent and child to the organization of a nation, in daily inter- CHINA AND THE WORLD 487 course of common life, in our loves and in our friend- ships, in our toils and in our amusements, in trades and in handicrafts, in sickness and in health, in war and in peace, at every point where one human soul comes in contact with another, there is to be found everywhere, as the condition of right conduct, the obligation to sacrifice self. ... In common things the law of sacrifice takes the form of positive duty. A soldier is bound to stand by his colors. Every one of us is bound to speak the truth, whatever the cost. But beyond the limits of positive enactment, the same rule, and the same rule only, leads up to the higher zones of character. . . . From the sweeping of a door to the governing of a country, from the baking of a loaf to the watching by the sick-bed of a friend, there is the same rule everywhere. . . . The upward sweep of excellence is proportioned, with strictest accuracy, to the oblivion of the self which is ascend- ing.” China joins us in this verdict. Mencius writes; “Benevolence is the distinguishing characteristic of man,” and Mo Ti half a millennium before Christ recognized love as the one power which could save nations from external and internal wars and bring outer and inner peace to all men. Turning now to Professor D. S. Cairns, of Scot- land, we find sacrifice and the religious motive for sacrifice presented as the only solution of the diffi- culties which confront the modern world; and his position is buttressed by a solemn appeal to history. “Have nations ever been great except by virtue of Short Studies, vol. iii, “Sea Studies.” 488 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION their possessing citizens who were willing to subor- dinate their private interests to the public good? Is not the great palace hall of history, in all its dim recesses and sunlit spaces, hung with the portraits and adorned with the statues and blazoned with the names of those who lived and died for interests greater than their own? . . , The one hope of better days lies in the moralizing of industry by the spread of a new conception of the common good. . . . It is only in such a moral transformation that I can see any hope of deliverance from present and impending evils. . . . From what possible source can such a transformation come? It cannot be hoped for from the progress of secular education alone. Education, as the recent course of events in Germany proves, may be an explosive rather than a consolidat- ing force. . . . Nor, I submit, can the change be brought about by any purely ethical movement divorced from the appeal to the tremendous sanctions of the divine judgment and mercy and the power of the world to come. What is wanted is something which will appeal not only to the desire for moral beauty and perfection, but something which will invest the ideal in its loveliness with awful and commanding power. The work to be done is too vast to be accom- plished by anything but by that power which has been the great historic force in the making of nations — the power of religion. Historic investigation has only brought out with increasing clearness the immense part which religion has played in the national and social life of man. It has shown that the classical civilizations rested upon a religious basis and that CHINA AND THE WORLD 489 they fell with its disintegration. ... It has shown how, in the terrific hurricane of the barbaric inva- sions, the Catholic synthesis of Christianity formed the basis* of the new social order. It has shown how out of the birth of Islam there arose the great Moham- medan nations. . . . Religion with its tremendous sanctions has the power, which no other force pos- sesses, of checking and transforming egoistic impulses so that it makes the creation and the working of great social aggregates not only possible but actual. Hence religion has always been the mother of nations. Every new religion has either created a new type of society or has transformed the old. . . . What was it that enabled Judah to transcend the social and political cataclysm of the captivity? It was the pro- phetic synthesis which had been slowly elaborated during the preceding centuries. . . . What was it finally that gave rise to the great free nations of modern days with their civil and religious liberties, their industrial energ}% their colonizing power? It was the new Christian synthesis of Wittenberg and Geneva.” What is the great war now convulsing Europe and Asia, threatening Africa, and deeply affecting the rest of the world but the most magnificent illustration his- tory ever has provided of patriotism — of men rising above individual selfishness and family interests and offering by the ten million their lives upon the altar of their country? What is it, on the other side, but the most appalling spectacle furnished by human “ In the Contemporary Review, quoted in Littell’s The Living Age, No. 3112. February 27, 1909. 490 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION history of a false or, at the best, defective type of Christianity, of the dire effects of placing the flag above the cross, and national selfishness above the interests of humanity? The twenty-one American republics have been driven together out of sheer neces- sity. The altruistic cry, “One for all, all for one,” is not a Christian platitude, but a political necessity. In the language of Secretary Lansing: “Pan- American- ism is an expression of internationalism. America has become the expression of that idea which in the end will rule the world.” The day is at hand when Christianity, with its teaching that God hath made of one all who dwell upon the face of the earth, and with its high commission to disciple all the nations, is not only practicable, but is the only solution possible of the problems which confront us. The question naturally arises whether with the deep need of the application of the teachings of the New Testament by nations, the United States should main- tain and especially increase her army and navy. Surely we should not build a ship or enlist a soldier for purposes of aggression. But the New Testament does not sanction anarchy or decry the use of force upon the part of the State. The ruler “beareth not the sword in vain; for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil.” Rom. 13. 4. Since the State as well as the Church is or- dained of God, it should have sufficient police force to uphold justice and suppress disorder both at home and in international relations. We are unable to perceive any fundamental contradiction between the principle of justice to which the State should devote itself main- CHINA AND THE WORLD 491 taining this principle by force and the principle of love to which the Church should devote itself maintaining this principle by service. In this connection we quote as peculiarly applicable to our conditions the words of Washington in an address to both Houses of Congress December 3, 1793: “I cannot recommend to your notice measures for the fulfillment of our duties to the rest of the world without again pressing upon you the necessity of placing ourselves in a condition of complete defence, and of exacting from them (other nations) the fulfillment of their duties toward us. The United States ought not to indulge a persuasion that contrary to the order of human events they will for- ever keep at a distance those painful appeals to arms with which the history of every nation abounds. There is a rank due these United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost by the reputation for weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it ; if we desire to secure peace — one of the most powerful incidents of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.” We close our volume as we began : to-day our eyes are upon the welter of Europe; to-morrow we shall be wrestling with an energy born of desperation with the economic effects of the World War. But the day after we shall face the struggle of the white and the yellow races. Already our ship of state, and every other ship of state, is entering the rapids. We lift our faces to Christ because he alone can furnish the guidance which will clear the rocks and the pow'er which will bring us all to our desired haven. CHAPTER XIX YUAN SHIH KAP Just judgment of every man demands that the ver- dict be formed in the light of the civilization in which he is born and reared and the standards of life ac- cepted by his people. This consideration should be borne in mind in the judgment which Western Chris- tian nations pass upon Yuan Shih Kai. Yuan Shih Kai was an unusual combination; the son of the Far East, he revealed many traits of the American people. He was born in the north central portion of China. He was the son of a small official. He was educated by an uncle who had also been in official life. Like some Western boys, his mind was too original to run in the mold of custom, especially as the system of Chinese education at that time con- sisted of memorizing characters without any under- standing on the boy’s part of the meaning of the char- acters whose names he learned. The brilliant Chinese boy rebelled at this process and did not master the tasks assigned to him by his uncle, and failed in his examinations, just as Darwin was an indifferent scholar at Cambridge and Emerson at Harvard. . Missing the civil service and political life. Yuan Shih Kai again displayed his originality by choosing ■An address delivered by Bishop J. W. Bashford, LL.D., of Peking, China, at Washing- ton, D. C., by the invitation of the Chinese Minister on the occasion of the memorial services to the late President of the Chinese Republic, 492 YUAN SHTH KAI 493 a military career. Military life was held in small esteem in China; indeed, the Chinese always reckoned soldiers along with servants. But Yuan Shih Kai had an intuition that military training might be essential for his future advancement. The young officer’s ability soon impressed Li Hung Chang, China’s best-known statesman of the nineteenth century; and he made Yuan Shih Kai his protege and soon transferred him to civil life. With the patience, reserve, and lack of political scruples, which characterized Li Hung Chang, Yuan combined the industry, the ability, the power of initiative, and the willingness to take respon- sibility, which are essential to true greatness. Hence he rose rapidly in official positions and soon became the representative of China in Korea, where Japan and China were struggling for the headship. (i) Experience in Korea taught Yuan Shih Kai the value of WYstern civilization. He had never been outside of China until he entered Korea, and he entirely under-estimated the material power of the Western applied sciences, and especially of West- ern military science, and he felt confident that China would triumph over Japan in a military struggle. In the war between China and Japan in 1894-95, China suffered a humiliating defeat. Yuan Shih Kai was an apt learner, and the advantages of Western military training were burned into his soul. Immediately on returning to China he secured permission from the governor to train Chinese troops by Western methods. He selected German officers as the best qualified mili- tary experts, and through their aid he gradually de- veloped in North China the best trained and equipped 494 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION army which China had ever known. His successes in training the army led to his appointment as ruler of Tientsin, and he so modernized the city as to make Tientsin for the time being the model city of China. He also was made viceroy of the province and he intro- duced a modern educational system into Chihli, and soon had three hundred thousand children attending the public schools of the province. Later, when the dowager empress had proclaimed her purpose of ulti- mately establishing representative government, he ap- pointed meetings for public discussions of political questions and trained the people for democratic institu- tions by establishing in Tientsin the first formal elec- tions after the Western model which were held in China. Part of these reforms were begun under the reign of the Emperor Kwangsu. It is quite probable that the Kwangsu reform spirit helped to start Yuan Shill Kai upon his reform policy. In 1898 the crisis arose between Kwangsu and the dowager empress, and the young emperor, perhaps misled by the reform zeal of Yuan Shih Kai, appealed to him for military support. Yuan Shih Kai’s originality in choosing a military career was now justified. He had charge of the largest and best-trained army in China, and the soldiers were very loyal to him. Kwangsu was com- pelled to appeal to Yuan Shih Kai because Yuan Shih Kai alone had the power to make good his decision as between the dowager empress, who had retired, and the young emperor. Kwangsu was an agitator rather than a wise reformer. At best he was a Wendell Phil- lips, not an Abraham Lincoln; a Mazzini, not a YUAN SHIH KAI 495 Cavour, During the three weeks, September i to 21, 1898, Kwangsu issued fifteen decrees, practically over- turning the existing civilization in China and revolu- tionizing Chinese institutions. Not only the Manchus but the Chinese were amazed. Consternation filled all classes and a counter revolution was at once headed by the retired dowager empress, who had placed the scepter in the hands of her adopted son, Kwangsu, and now demanded it back again. She was the ablest woman who had ever ruled China, and one of the ablest who ever ruled any country. Yuan Shill Kai perceived at once that the immense population of China could not be transformed into a new nation and a new civilization created by mere paper pronunciamentos issued at the rate of five per week. He promptly decided for the dowager empress and restored her to the throne, leaving Kwangsu the nominal ruler, but a virtual prisoner for the next ten years. In his career thus far Yuan Shih Kai had dis- played remarkable ability, industry, power of initia- tive, and willingness to take responsibility and through these qualities he had reached the headship of the army, and through the army he was in reality the most powerful man in the empire. (2) Foreign nations soon discovered that in addi- tion to the virtues named. Yuan Shih Kai possessed one other virtue, namely, reliability. At this point again he exhibited a striking combination of the East and the West. Western people think reliability a peculiarly Western virtue. But in business aflairs the Chinese are perhaps more reliable than Americans. In political affairs it has become almost a proverb in 496 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION America that platforms are made to be broken. Yuan Shih Kai exhibited a grasp of a profound principle when he applied to politics the virtue of reliability so essential to business success. He gained immense in- fluence at home and abroad by the general conviction that he would carry out his promises. It is true that Yuan Shih Kai broke faith with the young emperor, Kwangsu. As already remarked, Kwangsu leaned upon Yuan Shih Kai because the sol- diers of the north were loyal to him and because he knew Yuan Shih Kai largely held the destiny of China in his hands ; hence the only man to whom Kwangsu could turn in the crisis he had brought upon the empire was Yuan Shih Kai. Moreover, under Chinese cus- tom, Kwangsu ought not to have taken the throne while the former ruler was alive. The ruler is the father and the mother of the people, and under Chinese law has the power of life and death over every subject. But in the family the father has supreme control and in the case of the father’s death the mother has supreme control over the children, extending under certain con- ditions to the power of life and death. Hence China was at that moment, with Kwangsu at its head, but with a mother who had adopted him and made him emperor, and who herself had been the recent ruler, still living, a double-headed nation. Hence, under Chinese custom, it was at least a question whether Kwangsu ought to surrender the scepter to his mother when she demanded its return. At any rate, so Yuan Shih Kai decided, and accordingly Kwangsu made the surrender; and historians will record that Yuan Shih Kai rendered China a patriotic service in this YUAN SHIH KAI 497 crisis by saving her from a revolution. This was his first notable service to his country. (3) A little later, when the Chinese were driven to madness by unjust foreign oppression, and the dowager empress in her despair cast in her lot with the Boxers, four men, Li Hung Chang, Chang Chih Tung, Yuan Shill Kai and Jung Lu, suppressed the uprising against foreigners in their provinces, thereby in most cases saving the missionaries, the merchants and the foreign officials from massacre, and thereby also sav- ing the Chinese nation from overthrow and partition among foreign nations. Here is another crisis in which Yuan Shih Kai showed his willingness to as- sume responsibility; and posterity will give him credit for another act of statesmanship and patriotism. (4) The fourth crisis came in the revolution of 191 1. In 1908 the old dowager empress passed by Prince Pu Lun, who under the Manchti House Laws was entitled to the throne, in favor of Pu Yi, the son of her nephew and of Jung Lu’s daughter. Yuan Shih Kai openly and earnestly, and on two occasions, in the presence of the dowager empress, protested against this choice of one of her relations, a mere infant, and not the legitimate heir to the throne, as emperor ; and warned the dowager empress that the empire could not be held together until Pu Yi became of age. But Tzu Hsi was willful and would not listen to her great minister. Only two members of the Council voted with him. The rest followed the dowager empress’s wishes, and Pu Yi was made emperor and his father. Prince Chun, was made the regent. Prince Chun on receiving the scepter permitted Yuan Shih Kai to return to his 498 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION old home in Honan; and three years later, when Yuan’s forecast of the downfall of the dynasty was rapidly becoming a reality, Prince Chun appealed to him to come out of his retirement and save them. Yuan Shih Kai returned to Peking slowly but reluctantly and came back to save the nation first, and then the dynasty if possible ; he soon found it necessary to give up the dynasty in order to save the nation, and here again posterity will regard his act as wise and patriotic. (5) Yuan Shih Kai next faced the problem of a monarchy or a republic. Personally, he knew nothing of a republic and favored a monarchy, and later, like Cromwell, showed his contempt of legislative restraint by expelling the majority of the Parliament and ruling with the aid of a Council, which he himself selected. In attempting in the revolution of 1911 to reach a de- cision as to a monarchy or a republic, we have been told that Yuan Shih Kai conferred in a private capacity with many of the foreign leaders in Peking and that he was advised by them to establish a constitutional monarchy. If he consulted foreigners, advice in favor of a monarchy would naturally be given by all repre- sentatives of monarchical institutions, while even Americans might feel that the Chinese were not yet ready for a republic. Hence, at the beginning of the struggle between the republicans and the monarchists. Yuan Shih Kai was struggling upon the side of monarchy. In this crisis, it was Li Yuan Hung, the new presi- dent, who saved the republic. Li was now in command of the most vigorous portion of the army — that por- YUAN Slllli KAI 499 tion which did most of the hard fighting for the re- public, Li Yuan Hung held that not only must the Manchus be dethroned, but a republic must be estab- lished; and the only alternative which Li Yuan LIung proposed was the continuance of the war. Li Yuan Hung was not ambitious for the presidency for him- self and suggested that Yuan Shih Kai should be made the head of the new republic. Partly to save China from civil war and partly from ambition, Yuan Shih Kai compromised on the republic with himself as presi- dent. He is said to have told his friends that neither he nor any other man could found a dynasty, and he often said that he would rather be like Washington, the father of a republic, than to attempt to found a dynasty like Napoleon. (6) On assuming the headship of the republic, he at once confronted the problem which the American nation has faced for more than a hundred years, namely, the relation between the national government and the provinces. Professor Seeley, of Cambridge, says that nationalism has been the key to the political history of the Western world during the nineteenth century; that it was the national spirit which led to the formation of the twenty-six petty kingdoms of Germany into the German empire ; that it was national- ism which led to the union of the eight kingdoms of Italy into the Italian kingdom ; that it was nationalism which led to the triumph of the union in the American struggle between the North and the South, i86i- 65 ; that it was the national spirit which has led to the union of the far-flung colonies of Great Britain into an imperial government. Is it not striking that Yuan 500 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Shill Kai, without travel in the Western world and without a knowledge of Western history, yet had learned from Chinese history the necessity of welding the semi-independent provinces of China into a nation and that he did much to establish the nation upon a firmer and larger foundation. (7) We are sorry that in the recent crisis Yuan Shill Kai failed the republican cause and apparently temporarily abandoned his convictions. He made the fatal blunder of attempting to restore the monarchy and to found a dynasty. Immediately the people of the southern and western parts of China arose for their liberties; and in a short time even Yuan Shih Kai was convinced that he had made a stupendous blunder. Hence, he openly retracted his proposal to restore the monarchy and proclaimed again his allegiance to the republic. But he had lost the confidence of the people, and the strain of the crisis in addition to the tremen- dous burdens resting upon him cost his life. On his deathbed he confessed his mistake in attempting to restore the monarchy, and instead of making any attempt to put his son upon the throne announced to the world that Li Yuan Hung, the regularly elected vice-president, should succeed him in the presidency. It is unfair to demand an understanding of repub- lican institutions and much more unfair to demand government according to republican ideals upon the part of one who received a purely Chinese education, and only a modicum of that, and, above all, a man trained in despotism under so strong a sovereign as Tzu Hsi. While Yuan Shih Kai unquestionably was patriotic and showed great strength and wisdom in YUAN sum KAI 501 preserving the independence and integrity of China, nevertheless he furnishes one of the strongest illus- trations in history of the inherent evil of despotic rule. He held, according to the old and accepted theory of Chinese monarchy, that the ruler, as father and mother of his people, had power of life and death over his subjects: and he exercised this right when he thought the interests of the nation called for such exercise. Personally, we share the general conviction that some who plotted against his authority, or against what they regarded as the abuse of his authority, were put to death. Recalcitrant subjects met assassination with attempts at assassination. This right also is con- ceded in ancient China as the necessary check to despotic abuses : Mencius framed the motto, “Killing a bad monarch is no murder.” Under mutual attempts at assassination fear displaces trust, and good order and safety disappear. Thus Yuan Shih Kai found himself at the last facing rebellion on every side when the external dangers of China demanded a united na- tion and a strong government. Li Yuan Hung has before him an impressive lesson of the dangers in- herent in the very nature of despotism, no matter how able and patriotic the ruler. There is hope for China. For centuries the Chinese people have been accustomed to local self-government in the villages and wards which compose the Hsiens or counties. This has given China a fine preparation for the successful founding of national democracy. Again, the responsibility of the entire family or clan for crime committed by any of its members is another providential preparation of a great people for free 502 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION institutions. The democratic organization of the guilds and the creation and democratic administration of the commercial and industrial legislation of China by these guilds is the highest preparation for republi- can institutions. With the enduring character of the Chinese civiliza- tion, with a partial Western training of Li Yuan Hung through Japan, and with his unquestioned patri- otism, with the very capable young men of Western training and devoted patriotism who represent China at all the leading capitals of the world, and with the large number of young men with Western training and Christian character now found in China rallying around the standard of Li Yuan Hung, with the gen- erous support of many foreign governments and with our own government never more generously support- ing China than at present, with the slow but reason- ably certain development of parliamentary institutions, with the providential preparation for a republic al- ready named, and, above all, with that Divine Provi- dence which guides the course and shapes the destiny of nations, we may trust that China will emerge into modern civilization and take her place among the great nations of the earth. APPENDIX I Sec Chapter I POPULATION OF CHINA 38 Censuses: B. C. 1766-A. D. 1902 The data arc insufficient for even an approximate esti- mate of the present population of China. The estimates vary from 270,000,000 by the late W. W. Rockhill, to 439.000. 000 by the Statesman’s Year Book. iMost competent Chinese and foreign authorities are inclined to place the present population of China at between 300,000,000 and 400.000. 000 people, and we accept this estimate. So fre- quently have taxes been levied in China on estimates of the population, and so strong is the temptation for the head men of the villages and wards to report fewer people than inhabit these villages, that China has laws punishing officials for understating the population, but none for overstating it. These facts incline S. Wells Williams, in The Middle King- dom, to the view that the reports of China’s population are not overestimates. The estimates given by the Imperial Customs Service for China under Sir Robert Hart, com- pleted by the statistics from the Statesman’s Year Book for 1907, give a population of 428,500,000 with 11,000,000 for the dependencies. Upon the other side, every one familiar with the Chinese knows the looseness with which they report figures. The wide variations in the official estimates of the population of China show that this looseness attaches to the reports of population despite the fact that carelessness in these figures costs the people an increase in taxation. The following is 503 504 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the estimate of population for the provinces upon which the Boxer indemnity was divided and imposed upon them ; PROVINCE AREA SQUARE POPULATION POPULATION PER SQUARE Anhwei MILES 55,000 24,000,000 MILE 432 Chekiang 37,000 12,000,000 316 Chihli 115,000 21,000,000 172 Fukien 46,000 23,000,000 494 Heilungkiang 140,000 2,000,000 14 Honan 68,000 35,000,000 520 Hunan 83,000 22,000,000 266 Hupeh 71,000 35,000,000 492 Kansu 125,000 10,000,000 82 Kiangsi 69,000 27,000,000 382 Kiangsu 39,000 14,000,000 362 Kirin 90,000 7,000,000 77 Kwangsi 77,000 5,000,000 67 Kwantung 100,000 67,000 32,000,000 320 Kweichow 8,000,000 1 14 Shansi 82,000 12,000,000 38,000,000 149 Shantung 56,000 683 Shengking 50,000 12,000,000 240 Shensi 75,000 8,500,000 III Szechwan 218,000 69,000,000 314 Yunnan 146,000 12,000,000 84 Dependencies, including what is now the Prov- ince of Sinkiang 2,590,000 11,000,000 4 4,399,000 439.500,000 Av. 100 — This gives a total estimate of 439,500,000 as the population of China. But as the best authorities, especially within recent years, regard these estimates as too high, we shall follow throughout the volume the estimates given in the China Year Book for 1914, namely, 331,000,000. The following data are gathered largely by Werner in his Descriptive Sociology of the Chinese. The page and column in which the estimates are found in his book are given, and a reference to that book will show the authorities from which he quotes. The data show that the Chinese have been accustomed to gather statistics of households and of “mouths” since B. C. 1766. Our first study of the.se statistics led to a general distrust of China’s statistics of population because of their sudden and wide variations. But APPENDIX I 505 further study gives us added confidence in their general reliability, because a study of Chinese history shows that the variations in almost every case are accounted for by wars and the varying amounts of territory and population which are included or excluded in the reckoning. Were the statistics artificial, they would show greater uniformity. Again, the wide variations in the number of households as compared with the “mouths” is explained by the historians as due to different methods of reckoning the heads of households, in some cases the actual number of households being reckoned, while in other cases every head who paid taxes. An analysis of the census tables in the light of Chinese history does not discredit them so much as a hasty glance at them tends to do. DATE HOUSEHOLDS POPULATION wb:KM2;K PAGE COL.; B. C. 1766 3,221,212 39 3 B. C. 240 13.704.923 42 I B. C. 212 10,000,000 43 3 A. D. 2 12,233,062 59,594.978 43 3 A. D. 39 0 . A. D. 221-589 a Under the Three Kingdoms 4,432,8816 44 2 Under the Tsin (Chin) .... 16,163,863 44 2 Under the Wei 3,375.3686 44 2 Under the Tsi (Chi) 9,009,6406 44 2 A. D. 609 8,700,000 47,000,000 45 2 A. D. 652 3,800,000 6 A. D. 733 7,861,236 45,431.263 45 2 A. D. 755 9.619.254 52,880,488 45 2 A. D. 820 2,400,000 1 6,000,000c 45 2 A. D. 1014 9.055.729 21,976,965^ 46 2 A. D. 1088 18,289,385 32,163,017^ 46 2 A. D. 1097 19.435.570 33,401, 6o6d 46 2 A. D. 1102-1111 20,910,000 43,8io,oood 46 3 A. D. 1183 615.629 6,158,636c 46 3 A. D. 1190 6,939.000 45,447.900/ 46 3 a — Statistics of arable land and population ordered, but no report found. b — Embraced only a portion of China. c — This excludes Szechwan, Kweichow, the two Kiang provinces, and Annam. d — Probably taxpayers — not “mouths”; compare Simcox, Miss E. J., Primitive Ci'vulizations. e — A small portion of the empire south of the Yangtze (vol. ii, p. 168). / — Evidently the population in this census is reckoned by mouths, and not by taxpayers. Some think the figures for the farmlies represent the heads of households who paid taxes. Cn o6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION DATE HOUSEHOLDS POPULATION WERNER PAGE COL. A. D. 1195 48,490,000^ 46 3 A. D. 1235 873,781 4.754.975^ 47 I A. D. 1264 5.696,989 13,206,532^ 46 3 A. D. 1275 9,370,472 19,721,915ft 47 I A. D. 1391 10,684,435 56,744,561^ 48 2 A. D. 1393 16,052,860 60,545,8127 48 2 A. D. 1491 9,113,446 53,281,158 48 2 A. D. 1578 10,621,436 60,692,856 48 2 A. D. 1644 50,000,000 50 3 A. D. 1651 10,633,326 SO 1 A. D. 1735 60,000,000 50 3 A. D. 1741 143,411,559 50 3 A. D. 1792 300,000,000ft 50 3 A. D. 1842 419,600,000 50 3 A. D. 1851 432,164,047 50 3 A. D. 1894 421,800,000 50 3 A. D. 1902 426,000,000 50 3 A. D. 1904 428,500,000 g — Possibly the large increase reported 1190 and 1195 represents the temporary reconquests by Kao-tsung; compare S. Wells Williams, The Middle Kingdom (vol. ii, p. 175). h — Apparently simply subjects who remained loyal to Ning-tsung; com- pare Ibid. i — Increase due to Hupeh, Hunan, Kiangsi, Chekiang, and Kiangsu being added to the empire under Kublai Khan: brought the population up to about 50,000,000, as shown by next census. E. H. Parker, China: Her History, Diplomacy, and Commerce, p. 188. j — Increase due to further conquests. k — Increase due to a growth of population and expansion of territory by conquests imder Kien-lung; compare Demetrius Boulger, Short History of China, p. 179. APPENDIX II See Chapter I VEGETABLE OILS The Chinese extract oil from fish and animal fat, and from the following vegetables or their seeds : almond, anise, apricot, bean, beech, cabbage, camellia, cananga, canarium, cassia, castor-bean, chaulmoogra, chestnut, cinnamon, clove, cocoanut, cotton, crocus, flax, hazelnut, hemp, jasmine, lentils, linseed,. lime, mint, peanut, peppermint, persimmon, pine, rape, roses, safflower, sesame, sunflower, tea-oil tree, walnut. In addition to these there are six valuable oil- producing trees of the sponge family, though the oil is not used for food. 507 APPENDIX III See Chapter I METHODS OF IRRIGATION IN CHINA First. Gravity. The Chinese show great skill in damming their streams, deflecting them along the courses which they desire them to take, and thus conducting them to the fields which they wish to irrigate. For instance, the headwaters of the Fu, or Min River, above Chengtu, in the Szechwan Province, are divided by bamboo baskets filled with stones so as to carry such proportions of water as the farmers desire to different parts of the plain. Second. Water wheels operated by water. These are caused to revolve by the flowing stream and thus lift the water in hollow bamboo joints fastened to the rim of the wheel to the height desired. We have seen such wheels forty feet in diameter. Third. Water wheels operated by animals. A common method of operating the water wheel is by the use of a cow blindfolded and fastened to the lever which causes the wheel to revolve and trained to keep steadily walking by being hit with a whip whenever she stops. After a little training the farmer is enabled to engage in other work near by and yet keep the cow at her task. Fourth. Direct human labor. Farmers largely irrigate their fields by their own efforts. A common method in northern China is the use of an old-fashioned well sweep with a bucket fastened to the end of it. A more popular method in southern China is the use of a wooden chain- pump very simply constructed and carried on the shoulders 508 APPENDIX III 509 to the pond from which the farmer wishes to pump the water to his field; and then operated by his feet after the manner of the treadmill. The Chinese often construct a larger chain-pump, which requires two or three men to work it. Professor King, page 298, shows that by the treadmill method a season’s supply of sixteen inches of water can be put on an acre by human labor at a cost of from seventy- seven to ninety-six cents, gold. A fifth method of lifting water from a shallow pond located near a field is by the swinging of a bucket by two men, very much after the fashion of children swinging the rope in our American game of skipping the rope. The men use two ropes, however, one fastened to each side of the bucket, and as the bucket rises to the level of the field it is tipped by a skillful pull of the ropes and the water landed on the field four or five feet above the pond. Sixth. But the chief method of irrigation in China is through the construction of canals as mentioned in the text. APPENDIX IV See Chapter I LIST OF SPECIES OF PLANTS, VEGETABLES, ROOTS, BERRIES, FRUITS, ETC., USED FOR FOOD IN CHINA We began twelve years ago collecting, through mission- aries and Chinese, lists of all products of the earth used in China for food. The list doubtless is larger than in other countries, first, because the necessities of the immense popu- lation lead the Chinese to use as food many plants which people of other lands treat as weeds. But, second, the far southern sweep of China, giving the people subtropical fruits and plants not produced in Europe and the United States, together with their mountains, furnishing them a range of climate from the tropics to the poles, the abundant rainfall, and the great stretches of alluvial soil, together with Chinese skill in discovering food plants and in irrigat- ing, fertilizing and cultivating plants, and their simple tastes uncorrupted by any large use of condiments, all com- bined, give them a list of food plants which astonished us by their number. Thus far we have ascertained the botani- cal names of 478 species of plants, including fruits, nuts, tubers, etc., used for human food in China. In addition, we have the Chinese names of thirty-two species whose botanical names we have not yet ascertained. This does not include varieties, of which in some cases there are a dozen or more for a species, or of some species whose Chinese names we cannot learn ; and we are sure that our list is not exhaustive. The Britannica says : “The vegetation 510 APPENDIX IV 5^1 of China is exceedingly rich, no fewer than 9,000 species of flowering plants having been enumerated, of which nearly one half are endemic, or not known to occur elsewhere. Whole provinces are as yet only partially explored; and the total flora is estimated to comprise ultimately 12,000 species.”^ E. H. Wilson, who has spent fifteen years in botanical explorations in China and has made the largest recent contributions to our knowledge of her plant life, told us in 1911 that he thinks China will be found to contain at least 15,000 species of plants when the botanical survey is complete. As China thus has nearly twice as many species of plants as Europe or the United States, and inasmuch as long experience and stern necessity have made the Chinese skillful in selecting and developing plants for food, we think that their list of food plants is much larger than the list of plants cultivated for food in the United States, and that China will continue to surpass us. \W have arranged the species in alphabetical order, and again the plants under each species in alphabetical order for convenience of refer- ence. The letters and figures in the parenthesis, following the name of a species, refer to the author, volume, and page where the existence of this species in China is recognized. (B.) stands for Bretschneider’s Botanicon Sinicum 3 vols. (C.) stands for !Mrs. Clemens; (DeC.) for DeCandolle’s The Origin of Cultivated Plants; (F) for Forbes and Helmsley’s Plants of China; (Sm.) for Smith’s Chinese Materia ]\Iedica ; ( St. ) for Dr. George A. Stuart’s Chinese Materia Medica; and (W.) for E. H. Wilson’s A Naturalist in Western China, W.I. :5i means Wilson, Vol. I, p. 51. F.III :2/4 means Forbes and Helmsley’s Plants of China, Vol. Ill, p. 274. The edible quality of the species has been ascertained largely by inquiries among the Chinese, and * Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 171. 512 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION I recorded in my notebooks. Very often the edible quality of the plant is indicated in the volume cited. Alg^. — This is not a species, or even a family, but em- braces an entire division of cellular cryptogams. The small list given covers only a fraction of the vegetable sea-foods used by the Chinese, but it is all of whose identity and use as foods we are certain. Alaria (St.24) ; Gigartina tenax (St.24) ; Gracilaria lichenoides; G. spinosa (St.24) ; Lami- naria digitata (Sm.129); L. saccharina (St.24); Nostoc edule (St.24); Sargassum siliquastruni (St.24); Sphcero- coccus (St.24). Amaranth Family. — Aniarantacece — amaranth; Ama- rantlms paniculatus (W.II:63); A. spinosus (St.34); Celosia argentea (W.II:63); C. cristata (F.II:3i8); ox- knee, Achryanthes bidentata (St.6,34). Apple Family. — Pomacece — Apple, Malus prunifolia ( W.II 128) ; M. spectabilis (W.II 128) : Mr. Meyer has dis- covered a grove of wild apple trees in a valley on the borders of Tibet which confirms his belief that the apple originated in China. Crabapple, Pyrus spectabilis (St. 365); Siberian crabapple, baccata (F.I; 225); pear: Pyrus aria (F.1 1254) ; P. aucuparia (F.I :254) ; P. Baccata (St.262) ; P. Betulcefolia (F.I :255), which is a valuable stock for use in grafting; P. calleryana (F.I:255); P. chinensis (or sinensis) (DeC.233), (St.364);P. communis (DeC.233); P. indica (F.I:256); P. malus (St.364); P. ussurrctisis (W.II:28) ; Stuart gives the Chinese names of four more pears, but we cannot identify them; the oli pear, of Shan- tung, sometimes weighs one and a half pounds; quince: Pyrus cathayensis (St. 362) ; or Cydonia vulgaris (St.363) ; P. cydonia (St.363) ; P. japonica (St.363). Aster Family. — Compositce — The largest order of plants on earth — 835 genera, over 10,000 species, many of them found in China, but few used for food. Artemisia APPENDIX IV 513 apiacea (St. 50); A. japonica (St.51); dandelion, Taraxa- cum officinale (W. 11:62); Inula chincnsis or elecampane, cultivated for medicinal purposes and for use as a flavor; safflower, Carthamus tinctorius (F.III:47o); the oil is pressed from seeds and used for cooking, but the plant is also used. The main use of the plant, however, is for dye- ing. Salsify, Tragopagon porrifolius, recently introduced; Sonclius oleraceus (St 230) ; sunflower, Helianthus annuus (VV.II :6i ), the seeds of the sunflower are eaten at all feasts and the oil pressed from the seeds is used. Banana Family. — Musacecc — Musa paradisica, or plan- tain (St.2yo) ; Musa'sapienta (St. 269). Barberry Family. — Beberidacecc — Beheris vulgaris (W.I:44). Bean Family. — Leguminosce — Acacia nemu, leaves are eaten (Sm.2); alfalfa, or Mcdicago saliva (St. 260-61), brought to China from the west B. C. 122 by Chang K’ien under the Emperor Wu f beans, including Glycine hispidia, or soy-bean (St. 1 89) ; Pachyrhizus thunbergiamts (St. 299) ; Phaseolus anginus; P. angulata; P. chrysanthus ; P. hu- milis; P. minimus (F.1 1192-3); P. mungo (St.315); P. radiatus (St.316) ; P. vulgaris (F.I:i93); Vida faba, or Windsor bean (St.453) 5 P- hirsuta (St.454) ; V. saliva, or vetch (F.I:i85); broom, Cylisus cajan (Sm.43) (F.I: 195); Cassia mimosoides (St.96-7); clover, eaten young. Trifolium globosum (F.I:i55); T. indicum (F.I:i55); T. lupinasler (F.I:i55); Lalhyrus marilimus (St. 232); len- tils: Lens esculenla (Sm. 132) ; Lablab vulgaris (Sm.128) ; lupine (F.I:i52) ; pea, Pisum salivum; peanut, two species, Arachis asialic (F.Diyi) ; A. hypogaea (F.Diyi), one of China’s large products; the oil also is used; sainfoin, Ono- brychis saliva (B.849) 5 Tai-yu, or Hidysarum esculenlum (F.I:i69); Wislaria cliinensis (F.I:i62). * Faber, Ernst: Chronological Handbook of the History of China, p. 43. 514 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Bean-caper Family. — Zygophyllacece — caper bean, Ni- traria schoheri, a globular red edible berry growing in Kansu, an important article of Mongol diet (St.286). Beech Family. — Fagacea; — Forbes and Helmsley (II: 523) mention fourteen species under Castanopsis, and six under Fagus — twenty in all. Wilson (11:33), says that nuts of several of these species are eaten, but we cannot tell to which species the nuts used for food belong. Bellwort Family. — Canipanulacecu — Platycodon grandi- florum (St.18,337). Buckwheat Family. — Polygonacece — buckwheat, Poly- gonatum officinale (St.340); Polygonum harhatum (St. 344) ; P. ffaccidum (St. 342) ; P. orient ale (St.343). Buckthorn Family. — Rhamnaceo’ — Rhamnus theezans (F.I:i3i), imitation tea much used by the poor; Zisyphus jujuha (St.466) ; Z. lotus (F.I :i26) ; Z. sativa (F.I :i27) ; Z. vulgaris (St.466) ; used for fruits and preserves. Meyer thinks there are not less than 100 varieties of the jujube used in China, fresh, cooked, preserved, and dried. The so- called Persian date is the honey jujube. Z. vulgaris is often seen growing wild on the western hills near Peking. Cashew Family. — Anacardiacece — cashew nut, Rhus chinensis (F.I :14b); mango, Mangifera indica (F.I: 148); pistachio nut, Pistacia chinensis (W.II:62); P. vera (St. 334); Rhus semialata (St. 376); R. venenata (Sm.209); Spondias amara (St.421) ; S. dulcis (St.421). Chicory Family. — Cichoriacecc — chicory: Chicorium intyhus, recently introduced: endive, Cichorium endiva (St. 230) ; lettuce: fifty-three species of lactuca grow in China (1^.1:480-483); twenty-one species have distinct Chinese names and these are the species eaten raw with salt and vinegar, or as a pot-herb: Lactuca hrevirostris (F.H479); L. debilis (St.230) ; L. denticulata (St. 230); (W.II:62); L. data (F.I .-48) ; L. formosana (F.I :482) ; L. graciliffora APPENDIX IV 515 (F.I:482); L. gracilis (F.I:482); L. polycephala (F.III: 488) ; L. raddcana (F.III :488) ; L. rcpens; L. roborowskii; L. sativa (St.229) ; L. scariola (\V.II:62); L. sibirica (F.I:484); L. sororia (F.I:484); L. sqiiarrosa (St.230) ; L. stolonifera (F.I:484); L. tatarica (F.l:484); L. thun- bcrgiana (F.I:484); L. tridora (F.I:485); L. versicolor (F.I;485);L. triangiilata (F. 1:482). CoLANUT Family. — Stcrculiacecc — Stcrculia plantifolia (W.I:2o) ; (B.173) (St. 423). Convolvulus Family. — Convolridacecc — Calystegia sc- pium (St. 80) ; C onvolvidus arvensis (St.125) ; C. japonicus (St.8o); C. reptans, or Ipomoea aquatica (B.484) (St. 219); Ipomoea batatas, or sweet potato (St.220); I. nil (St.490). Cycad Family. — Cycadacece — Cycas inermis (F.I:559) ; C. revoliita; sago is obtained from the pith of the trunks of the Cycadacece. Custard-Apple Family. — Anonacece — custard-apple, Anona retietdata (Sm.8i) (DeC.170,172) ; A. unicinata (F.I:26). Dogwood Family. — Cornacece — Cormis capitata (W.II : 32); C. kousa (\V.II:32); both these trees growing in Szechwan and Hupeh are called in Chinese, Yang-mei, in English, strawberry tree. Each species bears a flattened- round red fruit with a tough covering or outside, but the inside is very juicy and of a good flavor. The Yang-mei of Yunnan and southeastern China belongs to an entirely dififerent family. (See Sweetgale Family.) Ebony Family. — Ebenace.e — Diospyros embryopteris (St.151) ; D. kaki (St.152) ; D. lotus, or possibly Zizyphus lotus (St.151,153) (Sm.87,139) ;D. melanoxylon (Sm.87). All these species of persimmons are grown in China. Mrs. Clemens finds that the fruit is grafted on a wild persimmon tree, not on the jujube tree as is often reported. Mrs. 5i6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Clemens also reports one species of which the fruit is seed- less and weighs more than a pound ; this fruit is not astrin- gent and can be eaten green. The persimmon constitutes a leading fruit in north China for four or five months of the year. Persimmon oil is much used in varnishing paper umbrellas. Evening Primrose Family. — Onagrace.e — Trapa bi- cornis, or T. natans, sometimes called water chestnut (St.440) (W.II:59); T. tricornis (St.440) ; water cal- throp, a four-horned species (St.440). The water chestnut is an article of common diet in China, both boiled, and dried and used for flour. Ferns. — Order Filicales — Ceratopteris thalictr aides, used as a potherb (C.) ; Nephrodium (Sm.23) ; Pteris esculenta (Sm.96) ; Pteridium aquilinum (W.II :63). Young shoots and rhizomes eaten. An arrow root is also made from the rhizomes. Flax Family. — Linacece — three species are named (F.I: 95) 3.S grown in China. Mrs. Clemens names Linum agustifolium; L. humilie; L. usitatissimum, oil from the seeds is used for food. Ginger Family. — Zingihmcece — Amotnum cardamo- mum (St. 36), or A. globosum (St.36); A. medium (St. 37); A. xanthoides (St.39); Kaempferia (Sm.127); Zingiber mioga (St.464); Z. oificinale (St. 465). Gooseberry Family. — Grossulariacecc — Currant, Ribes longeracemosum, with racemes eighteen inches long (W.II: 31) ; gooseberry, Ribes alpestre. Wilson mentions a goose- berry bush cultivated as a hedge plant on the China-Tibetan border bearing a small round fruit which is very sharp in taste. Mrs. Clemens mentions nine species of the wild gooseberry found in north China. Forbes names eleven. Some of these species are very promising for introduction into Western lands; but Meyer says that the Chinese are APPENDIX IV 517 not fond of soft fruits, especially of soft berries, possibly due in part to the inferior quality of fruit. Goosefoot Family. — Chcnopodiaccce — Agrophyllum go- bictim, “the gift of the desert”; beet, Beta vulgaris (St.68, 473) ; Chenopodium (St.475) > olbum (St.104) ; spinach, Spinacea oleracea. Gourd Family. — Cncurbitacecc — bottle gourd, Laginaria leiicantha (W.II:57); L. vulgaris (St.231); cucumbers, Cucumis sativus (St.135) ; muskmelon, C. melo (St.134); pumpkin, Cucurbita pepo (St. 136), the original of the pumpkin and of the crook-neck squash (Stand. Diet.); squashes, Cucurbita citrullus (\V.II:57); C. maxima (St. 136) ; C. moshata (St. 136) (\V. 11:57) ; C. ovifera (W.II: 57) ; many varieties of pumpkins, melons, and squashes are cultivated; tallow gourd, Bcnincasa cerifera (St. 67) ; water- melon, Citrullus vidgaris (St. no). Grass Family. — Gramincce — Arundinaria nitida (W.II: 62); bamboo, Bambusa arundinacccc (F. 111:445) (W.II: 62) ; B. retiadata, or B. tesselata (F. 111:446) ; B. vulgaris (F.III :447) (W.II :62) ; Dendrocalamus giganteus (W.II : 18); Phyllostachys nigra, var. henosis (F.III :443); P. Staunton (F.III :443); P. pubscens (W.ID17); P. hetero- clada (W.II: 1 7). The knotty bamboo was brought to , China by Chang K’ien, B. C. 122, under Emperor Wu; but the bamboo is a native of China. ^ Wilson says that thirty-three species of bamboo grow in China, but we are able to name only nine. Bamboo sprouts are used for food. The bamboo is used for some 600 different pur- poses: for every part of a house, of a boat, and for all kinds of domestic utensils; for fishing rods and hunting bows, for pens and writing tablets, for umbrellas, fans, ropes, walking sticks, and for paper. It is one of the most useful trees, or, rather, grasses, in China. I have seen * Faber, Erast: Chronological Handbook of the History of China, p. 43. 5i8 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION bamboo trees in the Fukien Province six inches in diameter at the ground and eighty feet high. The trees grow in a single year, but require two or three years for hardening, and when hard make good paper pulp. Chinese bamboo can supply paper for the world. We think it could be grown profitably in the southern part of the United States. Barley, or Hordeum vulgare (St.207); H. distichum (C.) ; Job’s tears, Coix lachryma (St. 122); Zea mays, or maize, said to have been introduced from America; Millet: kaoliang, or Holcus sorghum (Sm.113), Smith says this Chinese name is the old name of the Szechwan Province, where this millet is largely grown ; Panicum crus-galli, var. frumenta- ceum (St.304-5) (W.II:54);P. maximum (F.III:33i); P. miliaceum, or panicled millet (St.305), supposed to be the millet mentioned by Shennung as cultivated in B. C. 2700; Setaria glauca (Sm.190); S. italica (W.II:54); Sorghum vulgare (W. 11:54), the kaoliang most largely cultivated. Forbes (111:327-333) mentions eighteen species of millet grown in China. As the Chinese have only seven distinct names for millet, we do not think over seven species are used for food; at any rate, we are able to name only seven species as certainly eaten. The millet is a very im- portant crop for the northern and northwestern parts of China where the rainfall is least. It can stand the drought, it grows with great rapidity after the summer rains begin, it grows to a height of five to ten feet and resembles sugar- cane. (We have seen stalks fifteen feet high, and Dr. F. D. Gamewell has seen stalks eighteen feet high.) It is the kaffir-corn of Africa and the United States; the leaves are stripped off when the grain is nearly ripe and dried for fodder, the stalks are cut, and the heads cut off, the seed threshed out and used for food for chickens, pigs, horses, and for man; while the stalks are used for fences, for the sides of houses and stables, for the first layer of thatch APPENDIX IV 519 roofing, while stalks and roots are used for fuel. VVe think it ranks next to rice in value to the Chinese. Oats, of four species : Avcna fatiia; A. niida; A. pratensis; A. sativa; oats are not so widely used as in the United States and Europe. Reeds, Phragmitcs communis, often used for food (B.991) ; jP. karka (F.III :4io) ; P. longivalvis, or possibly Arundo phragmitcs (Chinese chiao pii) (F.III :409); Stuart (318) thinks reeds rank next to rice and bamboo in value to the Chinese: young shoots and roots grow in the mud and are eaten, also the leaves and tops furnish a glutinous sugar, stalks are used for building fences and houses, leaves are used for mattresses ; stalks are woven into baskets, mats, etc. ; the whole plant is fed to cattle ; and, above all, the immense reed beds furnish fuel for millions. Rice, including Hydrospyrum latifolmm (St. 210); Oryza sativa; Zizania aqnatica (F.III :344~5) ; rice (Oryza sativa), is eaten by a larger number of the human family than any other food ; it comes the nearest of any cereal to having all the elements required to sustain life (St.295). Rye; Bretschneider thinks rye is not found in China, but the Rev. H. H. Lowry, a missionary of forty- nine years’ standing in China, tells us that he has seen rye growing in China and he has eaten rye bread in China. DeCandolle, p. 118, says rye was introduced into China B. C. 300 to 600. Sugar cane, Saccliarum officinarum arundinacemn (F.III :349); 5". narenga (F.III ;349); S'. officinarum (St. 386) ; Sorghum saccharatum (Sm.202). Sugar cane has been grown in China at least since B. C. 200. Wheat, some fifteen species known in Europe and temperate Asia, but Forbes (111:431-433) mentions only six Chinese species: Triticum caninum; T. chinense; T. ciliare; T. pseudo-agropyrum; T. repens; T. strigosum; and T. sativum (W.II:52). The learned compiler of the Pen Ts’ao gives Kai Sze-tzu as the Chinese transliteration of 520 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the Sanscrit or Pali name for wheat. This seems to indi- cate that wheat was brought from western Asia. The wheat drill is a Chinese invention in use in China centuries before it was invented in America. The fanning mill is also an old invention of the Chinese, long used by them. The use of wheat bread in China is very ancient and is much more widespread than many missionaries suppose, though wheat is consumed usually in other forms than bread. Honeysuckle Family. — Caprifoliacecp — elder tree, Sambucus racemosa (B.680) ; Soapberry tree. Viburnum dilatatum (St.453). Holly Family. — Ilicinecc — Ilex pedunculosa (St.214). Iris Family. — Iridacece — Crocus sativus, used pre- dominantly as a dye, but the oil of the seeds is used for cooking; Iris ensafa, var. chinensis (F.HI :8i-82) ; I. dorcn- tina (Sm.i2o) ; I. japonica (F.HI:82) ; I. oxypetala (Sm. 120); I. sibirica (F. Ill 184), whose rhizomes are used for food; I. tectorum (F. 111:85), yielding orris root; I. %vil- sonii (W.I.60). Laurel Family. — Lauracece — Avocado, a lauraceous tree bearing the alligator pear ; Cinnamomum cassia, Chinese cinnamon (St.107) (W.I:95) (W.II:37). Cassia oil also is used. Lily Family. — Liliacecc — about 280 species are found in China, among them the following are used for food : Arabic onion. Allium scordopracum (St. 28) ; Asparagus lucidus; A. officinalis; chives. Allium schacnoprasum; garlic, A. sativus; leek, A. odorum (St. 26,27) ; Lilium bakerianum (W.I:i55); L. brownii (St.240) ; L. concolor (St.240); L. sargentiae (W.II 163) ; L. thayerac ( W.1 1155) ; L. tigri- num (W.H;6o); onion. Allium cepa; Welsh onion, A. fistulosum, really of Chinese origin (St.26) (DeC.437) ; shallot, A. ascalonicum (St.25,26). APPENDIX IV 521 Linden Family. — Tiliacccc — broomweed, Corchorus cap- sularis, eaten when young. Mallow Family. — Malvacea: — cotton, Gossyphim arbo- rtint; G. herbacium; G. rcUgiosum. The seeds of these species of cotton are used for their oil and the fiber for clothing. Hibiscus esculent us (Sm. 112) ; H. syriacus (Sm. 1 13); Malva verticillata (St.256) (W. II 162); M. parvi- Hora (W.II:62). Mint Family. — Labiatce — catmint, Nepeta cataria (Sm. 150); Lophanthus rugosus (C.) (F.) cultivated in North China; Mentha arvensis, or peppermint (St.263), oil is also used (Sm.iio) M. crispa (Sm. 150) ; M. hirsuta (Sm. 150); M. pulegiuni or pennyroyal (Sm.150); Ocinium basilicum (F.II:266); 0. canuin (F.II:266); 0. sanctum (F.II;256) (C.), cultivated for the oil of the seeds (W.II : 61), the leaves are eaten also as a vegetable (St.313) ; Rosmarinus officinalis (F.) (C.) ; Sakia officinalis, common sage (F.); Etachys tuberifera, cultivated in Chihli for its tubers (C.) (F.); Thymus sarpyllum, cultivated in Shan- tung (C). Mistletoe Family. — Loranthacecc — Lorenthus kcemp- feri (St.248); L. yadorika (St.248). (See also Mush- rooms.) Moracea Family. — morus: Fids carrea (St. 174); F. erecta (St.488) ; F. pumila (St.175) ; Morus alba (St.266) ; M. cathayana (F.II:456); M. indica (St. 267); M. nigra (F.) ; M. multicaulis, the mulberry has been cultivated since the earliest times (Standard Dictionary). Mosses. — Class Musci — Ceramium rubrum (St.270). Mushrooms. — Class Basidiomycetes — Wilson (W.II : 63 ) mentions under Fungi the following edible cryptogams : Agaricus boletus; A. campestris, the common mushroom; Cantharellus cibarius; Hirneola polyutricha; Lactarius deli- ciosus Tricholoma gambosa. In addition, Stuart (271) 522 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION says that six varieties or possibly species of fungi under Clavaria or Sparassis are edible. Under Exidis auricula judce, Stuart (170,272) says that four species are edible. I judge one of these is the Jew’s ear fungus (W.II :38). On pp. 272, 273 Stuart speaks of four more species which are edible, and on page 374 he mentions two more species, prob- ably Auricularides. Here are in all some twenty-two species of edible fungi, or mushrooms. We are able to name only eleven. Mustard Family. — Brassicacecc — Brassica campestris, oleifera — is one of the two species producing rape seed oil of which great quantities are used in China in foods. Wil- son (II:6o) says that this is not the true rape, and that he has never seen the true rape in China. But the Britan- nica and the Standard Dictionary identify rape with Bras- sica campestris; B. campestris, var. rapa, is the turnip; B. chinensis, a cabbage grown in winter, dried and pickled ; B. juncea, var. oleifera, is the other species yielding rape seed oil (W.II:6o), this is sometimes called colza oil; B. olera- cea: Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, kan- lan, and lan-tsai, all are varieties of this species; B. rapa- depressaea, rape or turnip (St.74) ; Lepidium chinensis (F.I:48); L. sativum, recently introduced; Nastuturium amoracia, horseradish; N. capsella, bursa-past oris or shep- herd’s purse; N. crambo maritima, sea kale; N. officinalis, water cress; N. palustre, marsh cress; Raphanus sativus, radish; also two species of radish grow and are used in the Gobi desert. The radish has been cultivated in China since B. C. 1100 (DeC.437). Sinapis alba, white mustard; S. nigra, black mustard. Myrobalan Family. — Combretacece — myrobalan, a prune-like fruit which is eaten dried. The kernels also are eaten. In all probability this is the Quisqualis sinensis (Sm.182). APPENDIX IV 523 Myrtle Family. — Myrtacecc — cloves, Carophyllus aro- maticus (St.95), oil is also made from cloves; guava, two varieties, Psidium guaiava pomifcriim, and the P.g.pyri- fcrum; pomegranate, Punka granatum (F.I:3o6); rose- apple, Eugenia jambos (C.). Myrrh Family. — Burseraccce — Chinese olive, or Cana- rium album; C. pimela, hawked all over China, eaten fresh, pickled, or preserved (C.) (F.). Nettle Family. — Urticaca — elm: Ulmus parvifolia (W.I:2o); U. pumila (W. II 145), seeds commonly eaten, bark used for food in times of famine. We saw elm bark eaten in the famine of 1907. Hemp, or Cannabis saliva, brought to China from the west by Chang K’ien under Emperor Wu, B. C. 122, the seeds of which are eaten (St. 404); oil also is used (W.II:8i), while the stems are used for the manufacture of rope; Jack fruit, or Artocarpiis intergrifolia (St.54); Broussonctia papyrifera, or paper mulberry. Nightshade Family. — Solanacea — cayenne pepper. Capsicum frutescens (F.II:i69) ; C. annum (C); C. bacca- funi (C.) C. chinense (F. 11:169), Chinese pepper used by millions instead of our mustard and pepper, though these are also used; “cape-gooseberry,” or ground cherry, Physa- lis peruviania; egg plant, or brinjal, Solanum melongena, var. chinensis, sometimes a foot long and weighing two and a half pounds (W.II:6i); 6". esculentum (F.II:i69); aethiopicum (F.II:i69); Jerusalem cherry, Solanum pseudo-capsicum; potato, or S'. Tuberosum (W.II:58); stramony. Datura stramonium; tomato, Solanum lycopersi- cum (W.II:6i). Oak F.\mily. — Cupidifercc — acorns of at least three species of oak are used for food : Betula alba, var. mandshu- rica (F.II:496); B. chinensis (F.II:498); B. utilis (F.II: 499) ; chestnut : the nuts of Castanea molissima ( W.II :32) ; 524 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION C. seguinii (W.II:32); C. vilmoriniana (\V.II:33) are eaten. Of the hazelnut, Wilson (W.II:33) speaks of nuts of different species being gathered and used : Corylus avellana (F.II : 504) ; C. colurna, var. chinensis (F.II :503) ; C. ferox (F.II:503); C. heterophylla (F.II:504); (W.I:232); C. mandshuria (F.II .-505). He also (W.I:232) speaks of a hazelnut tree five feet in girth and sixty feet tall bearing a nut in its crested cup. Mrs. Clemens, to whom we have pre- viously referred, speaks of four species of hazelnuts used in China, one of which is the filbert, or Cupulifcra avettana (St. 81) (Standard Dictionary). Olive Family. — Oleacea — At least four species of this family are cultivated for the flowers, which are mixed with tea (F.II:78-82) namely, Jasminum humilie; J. nudidorum, var. angulare; J. officinale; J. piibesccns, var. multidorum; so far as we know, the olive tree is not cultivated in China for its fruit, the Chinese olive belonging to the Myrrh family. Jasmine was introduced into China from the west between A. D. 200 and 300.^ Oil is extracted from the jasmine leaves. Fraxinus chinensis — this tree is cultivated in China, but not for its fruit. It is the white wax tree, or Pai La-shu of several provinces. Orange Family. — Aurantacece — Dr. Stuart, pp. 11-17, names the following species: Aegle separia; Citrus acida, or lime; C. aurantimn, or golden orange; C. decnmana, or pomelo; C. japonica, or cumquat; C. linionum, or lemon; C. medica, or citron; C. medico, var. chirocarpus, or Buddha’s hand; C. nobilis, or tangerine. Wilson says the orange family originated in China. There are said to be over eighty species and varieties of oranges grown in China. We are able to name only nine species. The orange and lemon white fly has caused a loss of millions to citrus growers in the United States. But in China and India this * See Chau Ju-kua, p. 6. APPENDIX IV 525 fly is kept in check by a cousin of the laclybug, CryptognatUa Havescenta, assisted by an internal parasite, Frospaltella lahorensis. Orchis Family. — Orchidacecc — Gastrodia elata (St. 185). Palm Family. — Palmacece — areca, or nut palm, Acacia catechu; cocoanut palm, or Cocos nucifera (F.IIDiyo); date palm, or Phoenix dactylifcra, or P. hanccana (F.III: 168); fan palm, Liz’istona chincnsis (C.) (F.III :i68); palmyra palm, or Borassiis dabelliformis (St. 122) ; Trachy- carpus excelsus (F.II:i68). Papaw Family. — Caricacece — Carica papaya- Ameri- cans recently have discovered the value of papaw juice in making meat tender. This fact has been known to the Chinese for centuries. They have been accustomed to feed the fruit to old chickens, and to hang up dressed chickens in the boughs where the exhalations from the leaves may intenerate them. Parsley Family. — Umbclliferce — anise seed, Pimpimella anisum, for seed and oil (St.331) (Sm.158); cara- way, Carum carz'i (F.II:463); C. sinense (F.II:464); carrot, Dauciis carots (F.I:336) ; celery, Apium graveolens (St.42,43) coriander, Coriandrum sativum (F.I:336) ; dill, Peucedaniim graveolens (F.1 1335 ) ; Foeniculum duke (Sm. 97); fennel, F. vulgare (St. 176) (F. 1:331); F. libanatis (Sm.133) ; parsley, Petroselinum sativum (F.1 1328) ; pars- nip, Peucedanum sativum (\V.II:6o); European parsnip, or Pastinaca saliva (C.); water parsnip, Sinum sisarum (B.82,144) (F.329). Carrots are larger and we think of finer flavor in China than in many countries. Our note- books record carrots seen in Szechwan measuring nine inches in length and four and a half inches in circumference at the top. Passion-flower Family. — Passidoracecr — Nine species 526 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION are found in China and we have eaten the fruit,® but we do not know of which species. The Encyclopaedia Britan- nica names six species as fruit bearing, but none of the species given in the Britannica is included in the nine named as found in China. Pedaliad Family. — Pedalicece — Sesamum indicum (St. 404), oil an important article of food. Pepper Family. — Piperaceco — found in China, but not largely cultivated. Capsicum and Xanthroxylum largely tak- ing its place; Betel nut, Piper betle (F.II:364) ; black and white pepper, P. nigrum (St. 334); Chavica roxhurghii (St.103). Pine Family. — Coniferce — Pinus bungeana (C.) (St. 333)5 P- koraiensis (St. 333); P. massoniana (St.333). Kernels of these and perhaps of other species are eaten in all parts of China. PoKEWEED Family. — Phytolaccacecc — Phytolacca aci- nosa, young shoots eaten (Sm.171), roots also eaten (St. 319). Another species is poisonous. Purslane Family. — Portulacacea — Portulacea oleracea (St.397)- Rhubarb Family. — Polygonacece — Chinese rhubarb. Rheum officinale, has been known in China since the very earliest times (about B. C. 3000). It grows to a height of six or seven feet, and the stocks are six or seven inches in diameter at the base (St. 374) ; it is considered the best species of rhubarb medicinally; there is also the garden rhubarb, R. rhaponticuni (St. 374); Turkish rhubarb, R. palmatum, grown in northwestern China. Rose Family. — Roseacece — almond, or Amygdalus com- nmnis (Sm.8); Mr. Frederick Meyer, collector for the Agricultural Department of the United States government, says apricot seeds are sold as almonds. He does not think ‘ Bash ford, James W.: Notes, vol. 45, p. 27. APPENDIX IV 5^7 the true Amygdalus communis grows in China. Dr. Stuart expresses a similar opinion on p. 44; but on p. 354 he re- ports that the Amygdalus communis was brought to China by Mohammedans, and is cultivated in Kansu and Mon- golia. A. cochin-chincnsis (Sm.8); Primus dehiscens — an allied species of almond (W. II 127). Apricot; Prunus armeniaca (Sm.158); P. mume (\V.II:27); Stuart (p. 355) calls this last a plum. Cherry: Wilson says there are over forty species in China, but few of them cultivated ; we can name only Prunus humilis (B.20); P. involucrata (W.II;28); P. japonica (St. 355); P. paucidora (C.) (F.I:22o) ; P. pseudo-ccrasus (St.358) ; P. tomentosa (St. 358); Brambles: Wilson (W.II:3i), says, “Over too species are recorded from China; the majority of them being edible.” Wilson has introduced into Europe and America over thirty species of these from China. We are certain that these thirty species, which have been tested and introduced into other countries, are edible. Among them are Rubus amabilis (W.II;3i); R. bidoris (W.II: 31); R. bugeri (St. 383); R. corchorifolius (W.I:32); R. coreanus (St. 383); R. dosculosus (W.II:3i) (F.I:5ii); R. fockeanus (W.I;248); R. iciiangcnsis (St. 383) (F.I: 231); R. incisus (St.382) ; R. innominatus (W.II:3i) (F.I:23i); R. omeiense (W.II:3i); R. parvifolius (St. 383) (F.I:235); (W.II:3i); R. pileatus (W.II:3i) (F.III :5i2) ; R. tokkura (St. 383) ; R. thunbergii (St. 383) ; R. tricolor (W.I:25o) ; R. trifidus (St.383) ; xanthocarpus (W.I :i44) (W.II :3i ). This makes eighteen species which we are able to name. Forbes and Helmsley name more than 100 additional species growing in China, many of which are doubtless edible, but we cannot distinguish them. Probably as many more brambles will eventually be intro- duced into the United States from China as have already been introduced. Haw: Crataegus cuncata (St. 130); C. 528 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Hava (St.130); C. hupehensis (W.I:20,34); C. macracan- tha (St.130), probably the “sour date” of the Chinese; C. parvafolia (St.130) ; C. pinnatifidia (St.130), haws of red color and the size of a crabapple and agreeable taste are cultivated, especially in Shantung, preserved in syrup, trans- fixed on long needles of bamboo, and hawked at railway stations in many parts of China; loquat ; Eribotrya japonica (St. 164); Photinia japonica, Chekiang is noted for the production of this fruit. There is also a P. glabra growing in Szechwan with a small red berry resembling a cherry which is dried or pickled for food (St.317) ; peach: Primus amygdalus (C. ) (F.) ; P. persica platycarpa (DeC.228) ; P. davidii (DeC.228) ; P. mira — a new and valuable species of peach discovered by Wilson (W.I:203); P. persica simonii (St.256); DeCandolle says the peach originated in China, that it is mentioned in China two thou- sand years before its introduction into the lands of the Sanscrit-speaking races; there is a fci peach, which some- times weighs a pound, or even more. Plum : Prunus salicina (W.I:xxvii) (W.II:27); P. tridora (St.358); Potentilla anserina (B.991); P. discolor (St. 348-9) (W.II:63); P. multifidia (W.II 163) ; Rosa multidora (St. 380) ; R. rugosa (St.381); strawberry: Fragaria eliator; F. filipendula (W.I:25o) — new species discovered by Wilson. Rue Family. — Rutacecc — Clausena wampi (St.117), or Clausena punctata (W.II:33) ; Xanthroxylum ailanthroides (St. 462); X. bungei (St. 464); X. piperitum (St.463); X. sp. (St. 464) ; these are pepper trees. Sedge Family. — Cyperacece — Eleocharis palustris, water nut (C.); E. tuber osus, an arrow root (Sm.92); Scirpus tuberosus, sometimes called the water chestnut (St.398). (See also Evening Primrose Family.) Scirpus capsularis of this same family is not used for food, but millions upon millions of the small stems are dried and used in China for APPENDIX IV 529 lamp wicks, that is, for small wicks placed in saucers for burning oil. Soapberry Family. — Sapindacccc — Aisctihis chimensis (St. 19) (F. 1:139), resembles the horse chestnut; Ae. tur- binata (St. 19) (F.I:i39); Sapindus mukorossi (St. 395) (F.I:i39); Ncphelium lapacum; N. litchi; N. longana, or N. lungli; N. sp. (St.281-2). Mrs. Clemens says these last are among the most popular fruits in China, that no formal dinner is quite complete without them. The fruits are eaten fresh, canned, or dried. Spiderwort Family. — Commelinacecc — Commelina polygama (F.III:i56) much used as a potherb (Sm.69). Spurge Family. — Euphorbiacecc — Aleurites cordata (F. 11:433); fordii (W.II:67); A. montana (\V.II:64); A. triloba (Sm.i6o) (F.IF434) (St.23). All these are valuable oil trees, and at least one of them, A. fordii, has been introduced into the United States. Castor bean, Rici- nus communis (F.II:443); Exaccaria sebifera (F.II:445), a valuable oil or tallow tree; Jatropha curcas, another oil producing tree (Sm.125). Staff Family. — Celastracea — spindle tree, Euonymus chinensis (F.I:ii9) (F. II :47s), leaves eaten when young. Sweet Gale Family. — Myricacece — Myrica rubra with two varieties: M. rubra (St.275) and M. rubra sapida (B. 42,486) (W.II :32) are the strawberry trees of Che- kiang, Yunnan, and southern China. Mackay, in From Far Formosa, identifies the strawberry tree of Formosa with Arbutus unedo of the Heath family, but probably it is a M. rubra. Tea Family. — Theacea — Camellia japonica (St. 81) ; C. oleifera (St.8i); furnishes the tea oil used as a food and for light and the tea-seed cakes. Thea assamica (St.82) ; T. sinensis (St.82). Vine Family. — Vitacece — Vitis hancockii (F.U132); 530 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION V. henryana (F.I:i32); V. heterophylla (F.I:i33); H japonica (F.I:i34); V. lahrusa (F.I:i34); V. vinifera (F.I:i36). Brought to China from the west by Chang K’ien under Emperor Wu, B. C. 122. Walnut Family. — brought to China from the west by Chang K’ien under Emperor Wu, B. C. 122. Juglans catJia- ycnsis (W.1 :24c ) ; butternut : /. nigra ( W.II :493) i T (W.I:33), and one more species (W.I:xx), possibly /. mandshuria (E. 11:493), possibly J. sieboldiana (F.III: 487). Water-lily Family. — Nyniphaeacece — Chinese cocks- head, or Euryale ferox (F.III :33) (St. 169) ; Nelumbrium speciosum (St. 278) (W.II:3o); Nuphar japonicum (St. 287), this is the Chinese “water millet”; Nymphaea caeru- lia; N. lotus; N. tetragona, yellow water lily (St.288). Willow Family. — Salicacece — Salix alba, leaves mixed with tea leaves and used for tea ; also eaten when young. Water Plantain Family. — Alismacecp — Sagittaria sa- gittifolia, a sort of arrow root is made from the tubers (St.389) ; tubers cooked and eaten (W.II :59). Yam Family. — Dioscoreacece — Dioscorea batatas (St. 150) ; D. japonica (St.150) ; D. quinqueloba (St.150) ; D. sativa (St.151). Yew Family. — Taxacece — Feishihe, Torreya nucifera (F.II:546); Ginko-biloba, this last species, whose seeds are used for food, “is the most remarkable tree in China, the only surviving link between the ferns and the conifers.”* Mrs. Clemens says it can even be traced back to the primary rocks. If so, perhaps it represents the oldest form of tree life upon our globe. In addition to the species we have named, we know there are two more species of walnut, nine more of gooseberries, six of beech nuts, two of radishes, eleven of mushrooms, •Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vi, p. 171. APPENDIX IV 531 and twelve of brambles, which are edible, but which we have not been able to designate. This makes 519 species of products of the earth in China which are eaten by human beings. Great Britain, with her world-wide possessions, ought to be able to name certainly an equal or greater num- ber of products of her soil which are eaten by her people, including the residents of the Indian empire. We do not think any other nation can furnish so large a list of vege- table foods. APPENDIX V See Chapter II CLASSES OF SOCIETY IN CHINA About B. C. 2000 society is reported as divided into three classes: the agriculturists, the artisans, and the mer- cantile class. During the Chow dynasty, B. C. 1122 to B. C. 255, society was divided into the following classes : (i) scholars, embracing (a) officials, (&) gentry, or edu- cated men who were not in official life; (2) farmers; (3) artisans; (4) merchants; (5) servants and slaves. In books on China soldiers are frequently substituted for servants and slaves as constituting the fifth class. The substitution is due to the fact that slaves were frequently called upon to fight for the family when there was a demand for such service. Thus the two groups included under Class 5 have become confused. There is a tendency in present political life in China to emphasize the value of the army. With the growth of patriotism, which is now spreading rapidly throughout the nation, a higher estimate will be placed upon the soldier. However low the older Chinese estimate is of the soldier, nevertheless it has been true in China, as in every other country, that a successful general often has come to the headship of the nation. The founder of a new dynasty usually has been a successful general. 532 APPENDIX VI COURSES OF STUDY IN CHINA See Chapter IV A. D. I20O-A. D. 19 1 1 The following are the courses of study which were pre- scribed in China and have remained unchanged from the death of Chu Hsi in A. D. 1200, and the Four Books and Five Classics from before the Christian era, down to A. D. 1911. The matter in this Appendix is condensed from Williams’ The Middle Kingdom. The fifteen text books of China are the following: First the six textbooks for young students: 1. Trimetrical Classic. 2. Family Surnames. 3. Thousand Character Classic. 4. Odes for Children. 5. The Manual or Canon of Filial Piety. 6. The Juvenile Instructor. These six books were followed by the Four Books ; 7. The Great Learning. 8. The Just Medium. 9. The Analects of Confucius. 10. The Book of Mencius. These four books were followed by another group called the Five Classics as follows : 11. The I Ching, or Book of Changes. 12. The Shu Ching, or Book of Records. 13. The Shih Ching, or Book of Odes. 14. The Li Chi, or Book of Rites. 15. The Spring and Autumn Annals. 533 534 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION The first book, the Trimetrical Classic, was compiled by Wang Pih-hao, about A. D. 1050 for use in his private school. It was compiled, however, from earlier materials and most of the matter had been in use for more than a thousand years before its compilation. After its compila- tion its use spread rapidly and it has been the accepted text- book in China for the opening of one’s educational career since A. D. 1117. It contains 1,068 words. This “horn- book” teaches the value of education, as will be seen from the following lines. The translation by Dr. Legge seems to us unduly formal and heavy with words unduly long for a child of seven. But the Chinese boy was not expected to understand the meaning of what he learned; he had simply to memorize the characters, and later their meaning might become clear to him. Surely, the transla- tion will help Western readers to realize the solid and heavy character of the primary textbooks in the Chinese curriculum. Men at their birth are by nature radically good ; Though alike in this, in practice they widely diverge. If not educated, the natural character grows worse; A course of education is made valuable by close attention. Of old, Mencius’s mother selected a residence, And when her son did not learn, cut the web. To nurture and not to educate is a father’s error ; To educate without rigor shows a teacher’s indolence. If boys should not learn in youth, what will they do when old? As gems unwrought serve no useful end, So men untaught will never know what right conduct is. The lines relating to the mother of Mencius selecting a residence and to her cutting the unfinished web show her wisdom and determination. The father of Mencius died when he was three years old and the mother trained the boy. Her first home was near a slaughterhouse, and she found the little son first horrified, then interested, and then delighted with the slaughter of animals. She moved APPENDIX VI 535 from that location. Her second home was near a cemetery and she found her little son looking with interest on the funerals, then with sympathy, and then participating in mourning exercises and often inaugurating them for the amusement of himself and other children. This also she regarded as evil and moved to a third home. In this case she located by the side of a school, or by the home of a man who taught school in his house, and her son soon be- came interested in the school. Accordingly, the mother at much sacrifice secured the means to place him in school. The novelty soon wore off and the lad returned home from school one evening and threw down his book, telling his mother that he would never do any more hateful studying. The mother caught up the knife and cut the web of cloth which she was weaving. The boy in terror and anger cried out, “You have made impossible my winter clothing.” The mother repeated the same Chinese character, saying, “I have made impossible your comfort simply for the winter ; you have made impossible your prospects and your comfort for all of life.” The boy saw the danger which the mother had thus vividly portrayed, and picking up the book assurred her that he would study faithfully. He carried out his promise so well that he became the leading scholar in the school and gradually rose to the rank of a Sage in China. The Trimetrical Classic closes with the following in- centives for learning : Formerly Confucius had young Hiang Toh for his teacher; Even the sages of antiquity studied with diligence. Chau, a minister of state, read the Confucian Analects, And he too, though high in office, studied assiduously. One copied lessons on reeds, another on strips of bamboo; These though without books, eagerly sought knowledge. One tied his head to a beam and another pierced his thigh with an awl [to keep awake] ; 536 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION One read by the glow-worm’s light, another by reflection from the snow ; One carried fagots and another tied his book to a cow’s horn, And while thus engaged in labor studied with intensity. Su Lau Tsieuen when he was twenty-seven years old Commenced close study and applied his mind to books; This man when old grieved that he had commenced so late. You who are young must early think of these things. Behold Liang Hau, at the ripe age of eighty-two, In the imperial hall, amongst many scholars, gains the first rank; This he accomplished and all regarded him a prodigy. You, my young readers, should now resolve to be diligent. Yung when only eight years old could recite the Odes; Pi at the age of seven understood the game of chess; These displayed ability and all deemed them to be rare men; And you, my hopeful scholars, ought to imitate them. . . . The second book is the list of family surnames. One gets some idea of the third textbook from the follow- ing quotation : Now this our human body is endowed With four great powers and five cardinal virtues; Preserve with care what your parents nourished. How dare you destroy or injure it? Let females guard their chastity and purity. And let men imitate the talented and virtuous. When you know your own errors, then reform; And when you have made acquisitions do not lose them. Forbear to complain of the defects of other people. And cease to boast of your own superiority. Let your truth be such as may be verified, Your capacities as to be measured with difficulty. Observe and imitate the conduct of the virtuous. And command your thoughts that you may be wise. Your virtue once fixed, your reputation will be established; Your habits once rectified, your example will be correct. Sounds are reverberated in the deep valleys. And the vacant hall reechoes all it hears; So misery is the penalty of accumulated vice. And happiness the reward of illustrious virtue. A cubit of jade stone is not to be valued. But an inch of time you ought to contend for. APPENDIX VI 537 Mencius esteemed plainness and simplicity; And Yu, the historian, held firmly to rectitude. These nearly approached the golden medium. Being laborious, humble, diligent, and moderate. Listen to what is said, and investigate the principles explained; Watch men’s demeanor that you may distinguish their characters. Leave behind you none but purposes of good ; And strive to act in such a manner as to command respect. The fourth in the series of textbooks is called Odes for Children, and contains thirty-four stanzas of four lines each. The following extracts will give some idea of its nature : It is of the utmost importance to educate children ; Do not say that your families are poor. For those who can handle well the pencil. Go where they will never need ask for favors. In the morning I was an humble cottager. In the evening I entered the court of the Son of Heaven — Civil and military offices are not hereditary; Men must, therefore, rely on their own efforts. Once, I, myself, was a poor, indigent scholar; Now I ride mounted in my four-horse chariot. And all my fellow villagers exclaim with surprise. Let those who have children thoroughly educate them. Perhaps nothing is more frequent in the Chinese textbook than the examples of intelligent young men rising to the highest honors in the state. Throughout the centuries the Chinese have thus been laying the foundations for a govern- ment of the people. The fifth textbook is called The Manual or Canon of Filial Piety. It records the conversation between Confucius and his disciple Tsang Tsan. The utmost emphasis is laid upon filial duty. It is, “the root of virtue and the stem from which instruction in moral principles springs.” Of the Four Books in the old curriculum, the Just Medium, was compiled by Confucius’s grandson and is the interpretation of the Chinese philosophy of the Golden 538 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Mean ; or perhaps a better translation makes it an interpre- tation of the wisdom of maintaining one’s mental and moral balance, one’s proper equilibrium, one’s equanimity in all the struggles of life. Number nine contains, as already mentioned, the Conversations of Confucius, and it has been very influential in molding the life of China. The Book of Mencius, does for Mencius what the Analects do for Con- fucius, though not in such an interesting form. Numbers eleven to fifteen of the fifteen books constituting the curriculum, were compiled by Confucius, who lived B. C. 551-478, and another one, number seven, was composed by him and still another one, number ten, is made up of conversations of Confucius with his disciples. The books compiled by Confucius were exceedingly ancient in his time. Indeed, the first book, the Book of Changes, was so old that Confucius could not make out its meaning, and nobody has succeeded in reading much sense into it since. It is described in Chapter VIII. The Shu Ching consists of a series of annals compiled by Confucius from the oldest documents on the history of China from B. C. 2357-637. Internal evidence leads to the conviction that Confucius acted chiefly as an editor of documents existing in his day, though not in existence now. A sample of the book is found in the following advice of Emperor Yao, about B. C. 2357, to Shun, whom he had selected as his successor: “I admonish you to be cautious when there seems to be no reason for anxiety. Do not fail in due attention to laws and ordinances. Do not find enjoyment in indulgent ease. Do not go to excess in pleasure. Employ men of worth without intermediaries. Put away evil advisers: do not try to carry out doubtful plans. Study that all your pur- poses may be according to reason. Do not seek the people’s praise to the extent of acting against your own reason, nor oppose the people to follow your own desires. Be 539 APPENDIX VI neither idle nor wayward. Thus even foreign tribes will come under your sway.” In the estimate of the Chinese, the Shu Ching, or Book of Records, contains the seeds of all things that are valuable. It is the foundation of their history, of their religious customs, the basis of their political system, of their military tactics, of their music, and of their astronomy. The thirteenth book, the Shih Ching, or Book of Odes, contains 305 national songs, eulogies, and sacrificial odes which Confucius preserved from the ancient writings. Dr. Legge says, “It was the duty of the kings to make themselves acquainted with the odes and songs current in the different states, and to judge from them the character of the rule e.xercised by the various princes. Apparently, these odes were first collected by Wen Wang approximately B. C. 1122. Their age is uncertain, but probably none of them antedate B. C. 1719. As these were edited by Confucius, he included odes written as late as B. C. 585. It is difficult to estimate the power which these odes have had over subse- quent generations of Chinese scholars. If they are lacking in soul-stirring, epic qualities, and contain little of human passion, they at least never have tended to debase the morals of their readers. We give selections from three, the first as a sample of admiration for nature, one as a sample of a love song: O fell not that sweet pear tree 1 See how its branches spread. Spoil not its shade, For Shao’s chief laid Beneath his weary head. . The following is the love song: Maiden fair, so sweet, retiring. At the tryst I wait for thee ; Still I pause in doubt, inquiring, Why thou triflest thus with me. 540 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Ahl the maiden coy and handsome. Pledged she with a rosy reed; Than the reed is she more winsome ; Love with beauty hard must plead. The third reveals the family life of an emperor and fur- nishes an estimate of the relative value of sons and daugh- ters : High pillars rise the level court around ; The pleasant light the open chamber steeps, And deep recesses, wide alcoves are found. Where our good king in perfect quiet sleeps. Sons shall be his — on couches lulled to rest; The little ones in robes with scepters play. And daughters also to him shall be born. They shall be placed upon the ground to sleep ; Their playthings, tiles ; Their dress the simplest worn ; Their part alike from good and ill to keep. The fourteenth of these books, the Li Chi, or Book of Rites, is not adequately translated by the word “rites.” It is the book of customs, of conduct, of morals. It also contains the divisions of the administrative work of the government; and the six divisions described by the Book of Rites are the foundations of the government boards of to-day. It will thus be seen that the Book of Rites deals with very much more than simple ceremonies. M. Gallery writes: “The Li Chi is the most exact and complete monograph that China has been able to give of itself to other nations. . . . To that people it reveals man as a moral, political, and reli- gious being, in his multiplied relations with family and country.” We worship God in spirit when our hearts are right. We worship God in truth when our conduct corre- sponds with the order in the universe. The Book of Rites is an attempt to expound the last half of Jesus’ statement to set forth that conduct which is in accord with the laws APPENDIX VI 541 of the universe. The fifteenth book already has been dis- cussed under Chapter VIII. In addition to the textbooks used in Chinese education, great importance was attached to the commentaries. Indeed, the commentaries sometimes became of more importance than the book itself. Thus Chu Hsi, who died in A. D. 1200, and who gave a materialistic explanation of the Confucian text, became almost as much as Confucius himself the teacher of China from A. D. 1200 to 1900; his life and work are discussed in Chapter IX. APPENDIX VII See Chapter XVI ROOT-TAKAHIRA AGREEMENT The following is the declaration adopted in 1908 between the American and Japanese governments in regard to Man- churia : I. It is the wish of the two governments to encourage free and peaceful development of their commerce on the Pacific. II. The policy of both governments is to maintain the existing status quo in the regions above mentioned, and to defend the principle of equal opportunity for commerce and industry in China. III. They are, accordingly, firmly resolved to respect the territorial possessions belonging to each other in said regions.^ IV. They are also determined to preserve the common interests of all the Powers in China by supporting by all pacific means the independence and integrity of China, and the principle of equal opportunity and industry of all nations in that empire. V. Should any event occur threatening the status quo as above described, or the principle of equal opportunity as above defined, it remains for the two governments to communicate with each other in order to arrive at an under- standing as to what measures they may consider it useful to take. > This doubtless refers to the Philippines and Korea. It is not clear enough to enable one to see whether or not it means respect for the Japanese occupa- tion of the railway zone in Manchuria. 542 APPENDIX VIII See Chapter XVI JAPAN’S ORIGINAL DEMANDS, JANUARY i8, 1915 Group I The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government being desirous of maintaining the general peace in Eastern Asia, and further strengthening the friendly relations and good neighborhood existing between the two nations, agree to the following articles : Article i. The Chinese Government engages to give full assent to all matters upon which the Japanese Govern- ment may hereafter agree with the German Government relating to the disposition of all rights, interests, and con- cessions which Germany, by virtue of treaties, or otherwise, possesses in relation to the Province of Shantung. Article 2. The Chinese Government engages that within the Province of Shantung and along its coast no territory or island will be ceded or leased to a third Power under any pretext. Article 3. The Chinese Government consents to Japan’s building a railway from Chefoo, or Lungkow, to join the Kiaochow-Tsinanfu Railway. Article 4. The Chinese Government engages, in the interest of trade and for the residence of foreigners, to open by herself as soon as possible certain important cities and towns in the Province of Shantung as Commercial Ports. What places are to be opened are to be jointly decided upon in a separate agreement. 543 544 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Group II The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, since the Chinese Government has always acknowledged the special position enjoyed by Japan in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia, agree to the following articles : Article i. The two contracting Powers mutually agree that the term of lease of Port Arthur and Dalny, and the term of lease of the South Manchurian Railway and the Antung-Mukden Railway shall be extended to the period of ninety-nine years. Article 2. Japanese subjects in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia shall have the right to lease or own land required either for erecting suitable buildings for trade and manufacture or for farming. Article 3. Japanese subjects shall be free to reside and travel in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia, and to engage in business and in manufacture of any kind whatsoever. Article 4. The Chinese Government agrees to grant to Japanese subjects the right of opening mines in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia. As regards what mines shall be opened, they shall be decided upon jointly. Article 5. The Chinese Government agrees that in respect of the (two) cases mentioned herein below, the Japanese Government’s consent shall be first obtained before action is taken : (a) Whenever permission is granted to the subject of a third Power to build a railway or to make a loan with a third Power for the purpose of building a railway in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia. (b) Whenever a loan is to be made with a third Power pledging the local taxes of South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia as security. APPENDIX VIII 545 Article 6. The Chinese Government agrees that if the Chinese Government employs political, financial, or military advisers or instructors in South Manchuria or Eastern Inner Mongolia, the Japanese Government shall first be consulted. Article 7. The Chinese Government agrees that the control and management of the Kirin-Changchun Railway shall be handed over to the Japanese Government for a term of ninety-nine years dating from the signing of this Agree- ment. Group III The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, seeing that Japanese financiers and the Hanyehping Com- pany have close relations with each other at present, and desiring that the common interests of the two nations shall be advanced, agree to the following articles : Article i. The two contracting parties mutually agree that when the opportune moment arrives the Hanyehping Company shall be made a joint concern of the two nations, and they further agree that without the previous consent of Japan, China shall not by her own act dispose of the rights and property of whatsoever nature of the said Com- pany nor cause the said Company to dispose freely of the same. Article 2. The Chinese Government agrees that all mines in the neighborhood of those owned by the Hanyeh- ping Company shall not be permitted, without the consent of the said Company, to be worked by other persons outside of the said Company; and further agrees that if it is desired to carry out any undertaking which, it is apprehended, may directly or indirectly affect the interests of the said Com- pany, the consent of the said Company shall first be obtained. 546 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Group IV The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government with the object of effectively preserving the territorial in- tegrity of China agree to the following special article: The Chinese Government engages not to cede or lease to a third Power any harbor or bay or island along the coast of China. Group V Article i. The Chinese Central Government shall em- ploy influential Japanese as advisers in political, financial, and military affairs. Article 2. Japanese hospitals, churches, and schools in the interior of China shall be granted the right of owning land. Article 3. Inasmuch as the Japanese Government and the Chinese Government have had many cases of dispute between Japanese and Chinese police to settle, cases which caused no little misunderstanding, it is for this reason neces- sary that the police departments of important places (in China) shall be jointly administered by Japanese and Chinese, or that the police departments of these places shall employ numerous Japanese, so that they may at the same time help to plan for the improvement of the Chinese police service. Article 4. China shall purchase from Japan a fixed amount of munitions of war (say fifty per cent or more of what is needed by the Chinese Government) or there shall be established in China a Sino-Japanese jointly worked arsenal. Japanese technical experts to be employed and Japanese material to be purchased. Article 5. China agrees to grant to Japan the right of constructing a railway connecting Wuchang with Kiukiang APPENDIX VIII 547 and Nanchang, another line between Nanchang and Hang- chow, and another between Nanchang and Chaochou. Article 6. If China needs foreign capital to work mines, build railways, and construct harbor works (including dock yard) in the Province of Fukien, Japan shall be first con- sulted. Article 7. China agrees that Japanese subjects shall have the right to propagate Buddhism in China. Yuan Shih-Kai strenuously objected to most of the Twenty-one Demands, and positively refused to sign any Chinese agreement to the Seven Demands included under Group V. At the friendly request of the United States and Great Britain, Japan agreed to drop Group V from her list of Demands, and presented an ultimatum demanding that China accept the remainder of the Demands as the Japanese had revised them by six o’clock. May 9, 1915. The Chinese Government, “with a view to preserving peace,” on May 8, 1915, accepted these Demands. APPENDIX IX See Chapter XVI JAPAN’S REVISED DEMANDS Japan’s Revised Demands on China, twenty-four in all, pre- sented April 26^ 1915. The revised list of articles is a Chinese translation of the Japanese text. It is hereby declared that when a final de- cision is reached, there shall be a revision of the wording of the text. Group I The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, being desirous of maintaining the general peace in Eastern Asia and further strengthening the friendly relations and good neighbourhood existing between the two nations, agree to the following articles : Article i. The Chinese Government engages to give full assent to all matters upon which the Japanese Govern- ment may hereafter agree with the German Government, relating to the disposition of all rights, interests and con- cessions, which Germany, by virtue of treaties or other- wise, possesses in relation to the Province of Shantung. Article 2. (Changed into an exchange of notes). The Chinese Government declares that within the Prov- ince of Shantung and along its coast no territory or island will be ceded or leased to any Power under any pretext. Article 3. The Chinese Government consents that as regards the railway to be built by China herself from Chefoo or Lungkow to connect with the Kiaochow-Tsinanfu Rail- 548 APPENDIX IX 549 way, if Germany is willing to abandon the privilege of financing the Chefoo-Weihsien line, China will approach Japanese capitalists to negotiate for a loan. Article 4. The Chinese Government engages, in the interest of trade and for the residence of foreigners, to open by China herself as soon as possible certain suitable places in the Province of Shantung as Commercial Ports. (Supplementary Exchange of Notes) The places which ought to be opened are to be chosen, and the regulations are to be drafted, by the Chinese Govern- ment, but the Japanese Minister must be consulted before making a decision. Group II The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, with a view to developing their economic relations in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia, agree to the follow- ing articles : Article i . The two contracting Powers mutually agree that the term of lease of Port Arthur and Dalny and the terms of the South iManchuria Railway and the Antung- Mukden Railway, shall be extended to 99 years. (Supplementary Exchange of Notes) The term of lease of Port Arthur and Dalny shall expire in the 86th year of the Republic, or 1997. The date for restoring the South Manchurian Railway to China shall fall due in the 91st year of the Republic, or 2002. Article 12 in the original South Manchurian Railway Agreement that it may be redeemed by China after 36 years after the traffic is opened is hereby canceled. The term of the Antung- Mukden Railway shall expire in the 96th year of the Re- public, or 2007. 550 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Article 2. Japanese subjects in South Manchuria may lease or purchase the necessary land for erecting suitable buildings for trade and manufacture or for prosecuting agri- cultural enterprises. Article 3. Japanese subjects shall be free to reside and travel in South Manchuria and to engage in business and manufacture of any kind whatsoever. Article 3a. The Japanese subjects referred to in the preceding two articles, besides being required to register with the local authorities passports which they must procure under the existing regulations, shall also submit to police laws and ordinances and tax regulations, which are ap- proved by the Japanese consul. Civil and criminal cases in which the defendants are Japanese shall be tried and ad- judicated by the Japanese consul ; those in which the defend- ants are Chinese shall be tried and adjudicated by Chinese authorities. In either case an officer can be deputed to the court to attend the proceedings. But mixed civil cases between Chinese and Japanese relating to land shall be tried and adjudicated by delegates of both nations conjointly in accordance with Chinese law and local usage. When the judicial system in the said region is completely reformed, all civil and criminal cases concerning Japanese subjects shall be tried entirely by Chinese law courts. Article 4. (Changed to an exchange: of notes.) The Chinese Government agrees that Japanese subjects shall be permitted forthwith to investigate, select, and then prospect for and open mines at the following places in South Manchuria, apart from those mining areas in which mines are being prospected for or worked; until the Mining Ordi- nance is definitely settled methods at present in force shall be followed. APPENDIX IX 551 PROVINCE OF FENG-TIEN Locality District Mineral Niu Hsin T’ai Pen-hsi Coal Tien Shih Fu Kou Pen-hsi do. Sha Sung Kang Hai-lung do. T’ieh Ch’ang T’ung-hua do. Nuan Ti T’ang Chin do. An Shan Chan region From Liao-yang to Pen-hsi Iron. PROVINCE OF KIRIN {Southern portion) Sha Sung Kang Ho-lung C.&I. Kang Yao Chi-lin (Kirin) Coal Chia P’i Kou Hua-tien Gold Article 5. (Changed to an exchange of notes.) The Chinese Government declares that China will here- after provide funds for building railways in South Man- churia; if foreign capital is required, the Chinese Govern- ment agrees to negotiate for the loan with Japanese capitalists first. Article 5a. (Changed to an exchange of notes.) The Chinese Government agrees that hereafter, when a foreign loan is to be made on the security of the taxes of South Manchuria (not including customs and salt revenue on the security of which loans have already been made by the Central Government), it will negotiate for the loan with Japanese capitalists first. Article 6. (Changed to an exchange of notes.) The Chinese Government declares that hereafter if 552 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION foreign advisers or instructors on political, financial, mili- tary or police matters, are to be employed in South Man- churia, Japanese will be employed first. Article 7. The Chinese Government agrees speedily to make a fundamental revision of the Kirin-Changchun Railway Loan Agreement, taking as a standard the pro- visions in railway loan agreements made heretofore between China and foreign financiers. If, in the future, more advantageous terms than those in existing railway loan agreements are granted to foreign financiers, in connection with railway loans, the above agreement shall again be re- vised in accordance with Japan’s wishes. All existing treaties between China and Japan relating to Manchuria shall, except where otherwise provided for by this Convention, remain in force. 1. The Chinese Government agrees that hereafter when a foreign loan is to be made on the security of the taxes of Eastern Inner Mongolia, China must negotiate with the Japanese Government first. 2. The Chinese Government agrees that China will her- self provide funds for building the railways in Eastern Inner Mongolia; if foreign capital is required, she must negotiate with Japanese Government first. 3. The Chinese Government agrees, in the interest of trade and for the residence of foreigners, to open by China herself, as soon as possible, certain suitable places in Eastern Inner Mongolia as Commercial Ports. The places which ought to be opened are to be chosen, and the regulations are to be drafted, by the Chinese Government, but the Japa- nese Minister must be consulted before making a decision. 4. In the event of Japanese and Chinese desiring jointly to undertake agricultural enterprises and industries inci- dental thereto, the Chinese Government shall give its per- mission. 553 APPENDIX IX Group III The relations between Japan and the Hanyehping Com- pany being very intimate, if those interested in the said Company come to an agreement with the Japanese capitalists for cooperation, the Chinese Government shall forthwith give its consent thereto. The Chinese Government further agrees that, without the consent of the Japanese capitalists, China will not convert the Company into a state enterprise, nor confiscate it, nor cause it to borrow and use foreign capital other than Japanese. Group IV China to give a pronouncement by herself in accordance with the following principle : No bay, harbor, or island along the coast of China may be ceded or leased to any Power. Notes to be Exchanged A As regards the right of financing a railway from Wu- chang to connect with the Kiukiang-Nanchang line, the Nanchang-Hangchow railway, and the Nanchang-Chao- chow railway, if it is clearly ascertained that other Powers have no objection, China shall grant the said right to Japan. B As regards the right of financing a railway from Wu- chang to connect with the Kiukiang-Nanchang railway, a railway from Nanchang to Hangchow and another from Nanchang to Chaochow, the Chinese Government shall not grant the said right, to any foreign Pozver before Japan comes to an understanding with the other Power which is heretofore interested therein. 554 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Notes to he Exchanged The Chinese Government agrees that no nation whatever is to be permitted to construct, on the coast of Fukien Prov- ince, a dock-yard, a coaling station for military use, or a naval base ; nor to be authorized to set up any other military establishment. The Chinese Government further agrees not to use foreign capital for setting up the above mentioned construction or establishment. Mr. Lu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated as follows : 1. The Chinese Government shall, whenever, in future, it considers this step necessary, engage numerous Japanese advisers. 2. Whenever, in future, Japanese subjects desire to lease or purchase land in the interior of China for establishing schools or hospitals, the Chinese Government shall forth- with give its consent thereto. 3. When a suitable opportunity arises in future the Chinese Government will send military officers to Japan to negotiate with Japanese military authorities the matter of purchasing arms or that of establishing a joint arsenal. Mr. Hioki, the Japanese Minister, stated as follows: As relates to the question of the right of missionary propaganda, the same shall be taken up again for negotiation in future. APPENDIX X See Chapter XVI CHINA’S REPLY TO JAPAN’S REVISED DEMANDS China's Reply of May i, 1915, to the Japanese Revised De- mands of April 26, 1915. Group I The Chinese Government and the Japanese Government, being desirous of maintaining the general peace in Eastern Asia and further strengthening the friendly relations and good neighbourhood existing between the two nations, agree to the following articles: Article i. The Chinese Government declare that they will give full assent to all matters upon which the Japanese and German Governments may hereafter mutually agree, relating to the disposition of all interests, which Germany, by virtue of treaties or recorded cases, possesses in relation to the Province of Shantung. . The Japanese Government declare that when the Chinese Government give their assent to the disposition of interests above referred to, Japan will restore the leased territory of Kiaochow to China; and further recognize the right of the Chinese Government to participate in the negotiations re- ferred to above between Japan and Germany. Article 2. The Japanese Government consent to be responsible for the indemnification of all losses occasioned by Japan’s military operation around the leased territory of Kiaochow. The customs, telegraphs, and post offices 556 556 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION within the leased territory of Kiaochow shall, prior to the restoration of the said leased territory to China, be ad- ministered as heretofore for the time being. The railways and telegraph lines erected by Japan for military purposes are to be removed forthwith. The Japanese troops now stationed outside the original leased territory of Kiaochow are now to be withdrawn first, those within the original leased territory are to be withdrawn on the restoration of the said leased territory to China. Article 3. (Changed to an exchange of notes.) The Chinese Government declare that within the Province of Shantung and along its coast no territory or island will be ceded or leased to any Power under any pretext. Article 4. The Chinese Government consent that as regards the railway to be built by China herself from Chefoo or Lungkow to connect with the Kiaochow-Tsinanfu Rail- way, if Germany is willing to abandon the privilege of financing the Chefoo-Weihsien line, China will approach Japanese capitalists for a loan. Article 5. The Chinese Government engage, in the interest of trade and for the residence of foreigners, to open by herself as soon as possible certain suitable places in the Province of Shantung as Commercial Ports. (Supplementary Exchange of Notes.) The places which ought to be opened are to be chosen, and the regulations are to be drafted by the Chinese Gov- ernment, but the Japanese Minister must be consulted before making a decision. Article 6. If the Japanese and German Governments are not able to come to a definite agreement in future in their negotiations respecting transfer, etc., this provincial agreement contained in the foregoing articles shall be void. APPENDIX X 557 Group IP The Chinese Government and the Japanese Government, with a view to developing their economic relations in South Manchuria, agree to the following articles : Article 2. Japanese subjects in South Manchuria may, by arrangement with the owners, lease land required for erecting suitable buildings for trade and manufacture or agriculture enterprises. Article 3. Japanese subjects shall be free to reside and travel in South Manchuria and to engage in business and manufacture of any kind whatsoever. Article 3a. The Japanese subjects referred to in the preceding two articles, besides being required to register with the local authorities passports which they must procure under the existing regulations, shall also observe police rules and regulations and pay taxes in the same manner as Chinese. Civil and criminal cases shall be tried and adjudicated by the authorities of the defendant nationality and an officer can be deputed to attend the proceedings. But all cases purely between Japanese subjects and mixed cases between Japanese and Chinese, relating to land or disputes arising from lease contracts, shall be tried and adjudicated by Chinese authorities and the Japanese Consul may also depute an officer to attend the proceedings. When the judicial system in the said Province is completely re- formed, all the civil and criminal cases concerning Japanese subjects shall be tried entirely by Chinese law courts. Relating to Eastern Inner Mongolia (To be Exchanged by Notes) i. The Chinese Government declare that China will not * The six articles which are found in Japan’s Revised Demands of April 26, 1915, but omitted herein, are those already initialled by the Chinese Foreign Minister and the Japanese Minister. 558 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION in future pledge the taxes, other than customs and salt revenue of that part of Eastern Inner IMongolia under the jurisdiction of South Manchuria and Jehol Intendency, as security for raising a foreign loan. 2. The Chinese Government declare that China will herself provide funds for building the railways in that part of Eastern Inner Mongolia under the jurisdiction of South Manchuria and the Jehol Intendency; if foreign capital is required, China will negotiate with Japanese capitalists first, provided this does not conflict with agreements already concluded with other Powers. The Chinese Government agree, in the interest of trade and for the residence of foreigners, to open by China her- self certain suitable places in that part of Eastern Inner Mongolia under the jurisdiction of South Manchuria and the Jehol Intendency, as Commercial Marts. The regulations for the said Commercial Marts will be made in accordance with those of other Commercial Marts opened by China herself. GROUP III The relations between Japan and the Hanyehping Com- pany being very intimate, if the said Company comes to an agreement with the Japanese capitalists for cooperation, the Chinese Government shall forthwith give their consent thereto. The Chinese Government further declare that China will not convert the company into a state enterprise, nor confiscate it, nor cause it to borrow and use foreign capital other than Japanese. Letter to be addressed by the Japanese Minister to the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs. Excellency: I have the honor to state that a report has reached me that the Chinese Government have given per- mission to foreign nation to construct, on the coast of APPENDIX X 559 Fukien Province, dock-yards, coaling stations for military use, naval bases and other establishments for military pur- poses; and further, that the Chinese Government are borrowing foreign capital for putting up the above-men- tioned constructions or establishments. I shall be much obliged, if the Chinese Government will inform me whether or not these reports are well founded in fact. Reply to he addressed by the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Japanese Minister. Excellency; I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency’s Note of In reply I beg to state that the Chinese Government have not given permission to foreign Powers to construct, on the coast of Fukien Prov- ince, dock-yards, coaling stations for military use, naval bases or other establishments for military purposes; nor do they contemplate to borrow foreign capital for putting up such constructions or establishments. APPENDIX XI See Chapter XVI JAPAN’S ULTIMATUM TO CHINA Japan’s Ultimatum delivered by the Japanese Minister to the Chinese Government, on May yth, 1915. The reason why the Imperial Government opened the present negotiations with the Chinese Government is first to endeavor to dispose of the complications arising out of the war between Japan and Germany, and, secondly, to attempt to solve those various questions which are detri- mental to the intimate relations of China and Japan with a view to solidifying the foundation of cordial friendship subsisting between the two countries to the end that the peace of the Far East may be effectually and permanently preserved. With this object in view, definite proposals were presented to the Chinese Government in January of this year, and up to to-day as many as twenty-five conferences have been held with the Chinese Government in perfect sincerity and frankness. In the course of the negotiation the Imperial Government have consistently explained the aims and objects of the proposals in a conciliatory spirit, while on the other hand the proposals of the Chinese Government, whether impor- tant or unimportant, have been attended to without any reserve. It may be stated with confidence that no effort has been spared to arrive at a satisfactory and amicable settlement of those questions. 560 APPENDIX XI 561 The discussion of the entire corpus of the proposals was practically at an end at the twenty-fourth conference; that is on 17th of the last month. The Imperial Govern- ment, taking a broad view of the negotiation and in con- sideration of the points raised by the Chinese Government, modified the original proposals with considerable conces- sions and presented to the Chinese Government on the 26th of the same month the revised proposals for agreement, and at the same time it was offered that, on the acceptance of the revised proposals, the Imperial Government would, at a suitable opportunity, restore, with fair and proper conditions, to the Chinese Government the Kiaochow terri- tory, in the acquisition of which the Imperial Government had made a great sacrifice. On the 1st of May, the Chinese Government delivered the reply to the revised proposals of the Japanese Govern- ment, which is contrary to the expectations of the Imperial Government. The Chinese Government not only did not give a careful consideration to the revised proposals but even with regard to the offer of the Japanese Government to restore Kiaochow to the Chinese Government the latter did not manifest the least appreciation for Japan’s goodwill and difficulties. From the commercial and military points of view Kiao- chow is an important place, in the acquisition of which the Japanese Empire sacrificed much blood and money, and, after the acquisition the Empire incurs no obligation to restore it to China. But with the object of increasing the future friendly relations of the two countries, they went to the extent of proposing its restoration, yet to her great regret, the Chinese Government did not take into consider- ation the good intention of Japan and manifest appreciation of her difficulties. Furthermore, the Chinese Government not only ignored the friendly feelings of the Imperial Gov- 562 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION ernment in offering the restoration of Kiaochow Bay, but also in replying to the revised proposals they even demanded its unconditional restoration; and again China demanded that Japan should bear the responsibility of paying in- demnity for all the unavoidable losses and damages result- ing from Japan’s military operations at Kiaochow; and still further in connection with the territory of Kiaochow China advanced other demands and declared that she has the right of participation at the future peace conference to be held between Japan and Germany. Although China is fully aware that the unconditional restoration of Kiao- chow and Japan’s responsibility of indemnification for the unavoidable losses and damages can never be tolerated by Japan, yet she purposely advanced these demands and de- clared that this reply was final and decisive. Since Japan could not tolerate such demands, the settle- ments of the other questions, however compromising it may be, would not be to her interest. The consequence is that the present reply of the Chinese Government is, on the whole, vague and meaningless. Furthermore, in the reply of the Chinese Government to the other proposals in the revised list of the Imperial Government, such as South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia, where Japan particularly has geographical, com- mercial, industrial, and strategic relations, as recognized by all the nations, and made more remarkable in conse- quence of the two wars in which Japan was engaged, the Chinese Government overlooks these facts and does not respect Japan’s position in that place. The Chinese Govern- ment even freely altered those articles which the Imperial Government, in a compromising spirit, have formulated in accordance with the statement of the Chinese Represen- tatives, thereby making the statements of the Representa- tives an empty talk ; and on seeing them conceding with the APPENDIX XI one hand and withholding with the other it is very difficult to attribute faithfulness and sincerity to the Chinese au- thorities. As regards the articles relating to the employment of advisers, the establishment of schools and hospitals, the supply of arms and ammunition and the establishment of arsenals and railway concessions in South China in the revised proposals they were either proposed with the pro- viso that the consent of the Power concerned must be obtained, or they are merely to be recorded in the minutes in accordance with the statements of the Chinese delegates, and thus they are not in the least in conflict either with Chinese sovereignty or her treaties with the Foreign Powers, yet the Chinese Government in their reply to the proposals, alleging that these proposals are incompatible with their sovereign rights and treaties with Foreign Powers, defeat the expectations of the Imperial Govern- ment. However, in spite of such attitude of the Chinese Government, the Imperial Government, though regretting to see that there is no room for further negotiations, yet warmly attached to the preservation of the peace of the Far East, is still hoping for a satisfactory settlement in order to avoid the disturbance of the relations. So in spite of the circumstances which admitted no patience, they have reconsidered the feelings of the Govern- ment of their neighboring country and, with the exception of the article relating to Fukien, which is to be the subject of an exchange of notes as has already been agreed upon by the Representatives of both nations, will undertake to detach the Group V. from the present negotiation and dis- cuss it separately in the future. Therefore the Chinese Government should appreciate the friendly feelings of the Imperial Government by immediately accepting without any alteration all the articles of Group I, II, III, and IV and 564 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION the exchange of notes in connection with Fukien Province in Group V as contained in the revised proposals presented on the 26th of April. The Imperial Government hereby again offer their advice and hope that the Chinese Government, upon this advice, will give a satisfactory reply by six o’clock p. M. on the 9th day of May. It is hereby declaied that if no satisfac- tory reply is received before or at the specified time, the Imperial Government will take steps they may deem neces- sary. Explanatory Note Accompanying Ultimatum delivered to the Minister of Foreign Affairs by the Japanese Minister, May yth, 1915. 1. With the exception of the question of Fukien to be arranged by an exchange of notes, the five articles post- poned for later negotiation refer to (a) the employment of advisers, {h) the establishment of schools and hospitals, (c) the railway concessions in South China, (d) the supply of arms and ammunition and the establishment of arsenals and {e) right of Missionary propaganda. 2. The acceptance by the Chinese Government of the article relating to Fukien may be either in the form as proposed by the Japanese Minister on the 26th of April or in that contained in the Reply of the Chinese Government of May 1st. Although the Ultimatum calls for the immedi- ate acceptance by China of the modified proposals presented on April 26th without alteration, but it should be noted that it merely states the principle and does not apply to this article and Articles 4 and 5 of this note. 3. If the Chinese Government accept all the articles as demanded in the Ultimatum, the offer of the Japanese Gov- ernment to restore Kiaochow to China made on the 26th of April, will still hold good. APPENDIX XI 565 ■4. Article 2 of Group II relating to the lease or pur- chase of land, the terms “lease” and “purchase” may be replaced by the terms “temporary lease” and “perpetual lease” or “lease on consultation,” which means a long-term lease with its unconditional renewal. Article 4 of Group II relating to the approval of Police laws and Ordinances and local taxes by the Japanese Consul may form the subject of a secret agreement. 5. The phrase “to consult with the Japanese Govern- ment” in connection with questions of pledging the local taxes for raising loans and the loans for the construction of railways in Eastern Inner Mongolia, which is similar to the agreement in Manchuria relating to the matters of the same kind, may be replaced by the phrase “to consult with the Japanese capitalists.” The article relating to the opening of trade marts in Eastern Inner Mongolia in respect to location and regula- tions, may, following the precedent set in Shantung, be the subject of an exchange of notes. 6. From the phrase “those interested in the Company” in Group III of the revised list of demands, the words “those interested in” may be deleted. 7. The Japanese version of the Formal Agreement and its annexes shall be the official text or both the Chinese and Japanese shall be the official texts. APPENDIX XII See Chapter XVI CHINA’S ACCEPTANCE OF JAPAN’S ULTI- MATUM Reply of the Chinese Government to the Ultimatum of the Japanese Government, delivered to the Japanese Minister by the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the 8th of May, 1915. On the 7th of this month, at three o’clock p. m., the Chinese Government received an Ultimatum from the Japa- nese Government together with an Explanatory Note of seven articles. The Ultimatum concluded with the hope that the Chinese Government by six o’clock p. m. on the 9th of May, will give a satisfactory reply, and it is hereby declared that if no satisfactory reply is received before or at the specified time, the Japanese Government will take steps she may deem necessary. The Chinese Government, with a view to preserving the peace of the Far East, hereby accepts, with the exception of those five articles of Group V. postponed for later negotiation, all the articles of Groups I, II, III, and IV, and the exchange of notes in connection with Fukien Province in Group V as contained in the revised proposals presented on the 26th of April, and in accordance with the Explana- tory Note of seven articles accompanying the Ultimatum of the Japanese Government with the hope that thereby all the outstanding questions are settled, so that the cordial 566 APPENDIX XII 567 relationship between the two countries may be further consolidated. The Japanese Minister is hereby requested to appoint a day to call at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make the literary improvement of the text and sign the Agreement as soon as possible. APPENDIX XIII CHINESE DYNASTIES NO. DATE DURATION OF RULERS I. Hia ■ B. C. 2205-1766. . . . . .439 years. . — 17 2. Shang ■ B. C. 1766-1122. . . . 28 3. Chow .B. C. 1 122-255 34 4. Tsin . B. C. 255-206 2 5. Han ■ B. C. 206-A. D. 25. . .231 3'ears. . . 14 6. East Han . A. D. 25-22 1 . . 196 years. . .... 12 7. After Han ■ A. D. 221-264 . .43 years. . . .... 2 8. Tsin . A. D. 264-322 . .58 years. . . 4 9. East Tsin .A. D. 322-419 .... II 10. Sung • A. D. 420-478 . . 58 years . . . 8 II. Tsi .A. D. 479-502 5 12. Liang .A. D. 502-556 . . 54 years . . . 4 13. Chin •A. D. 557-589 . . 32 years. . . . 5 14. Sui ■ A. D. 589-619 . . 30 years . . . 3 15. Tang . A. D. 620-907 .... 20 16. After Liang ■ A. D. 907-923 . . 16 years. . . .... 2 17. After Tang .A. D. 923-936 . . 13 years. . . 4 ik After Tsin .A. D. 936-946 . . 10 years. . . .... 2 19. After Han ■A. D. 947-951 . . 4 years .... 2 20. After Chow • A. D. 951-960 . . 9 years .... 3 21. Sung .A. D. 960-1127 . . . . . . 167 years . . 9 22. South Sung .A. D. 1127-1280. . . . . 153 years. . 9 23. Yuen .A. D. 1280-1368 . . . . - 88 vears . . . .... 0 (the Mongol dynasty) 24. Ming • A. D. 1368-1644. . . . .276 years. . .... 16 25. Tsing or Manchu .A. D. 1644-1911 . . . . .267 years. . .... 10 668 APPENDIX XIV OUTLINE OF CHINESE HISTORY Hia Dynasty — B. C. 2205-1766 B. C. 2205 — Yu the Great takes the throne. He was so interested in his people’s welfare that on occasion he was interrupted three times while washing and had to bundle up his hair to respond to calls for his advice. And on another occasion he was interrupted ten times during his meal and responded each time to his people’s wants. He punished I-ti, the inventor of sweet spirits, because he feared drink would prove dangerous to posterity. He had metal money cast to redeem children sold by their parents because of the famine. B. C. 1996 — Six barbarian nations made their submission. The five titles of nobility were first used. Feudalism. B. C. 1877 — was cast into swords. B. C. 1766 — Hia dynasty disappears through corruption. Shang Dynasty — B. C. 1766-1122 B. C. 1760 — The emperor confesses his faults to heaven because of the drought. This is the beginning of the imperial usurpation of the worship of heaven. B. C. 1637 — Reforms inaugurated : the aged, the sick, and those in trouble cared for. Carriages were also made at this time. B. C. 1293 — Notice of the first war with the Huns. These wars continue down to the present time. B. C. 1154 — First notice of the ivory chopsticks. B. C. 1123 — The Shang dynasty disappears through cor- ruption. 569 570 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Chow Dynasty — B. C. 1 122-255 B. C. 1122 — The emperor Wu reforms taxation, prescribes a land tax of one tenth of the produce of every family having one hundred moil — equal to about fifteen acres of land. The emperor also established schools, admis- sion to which was open to all upon equal terms. B. C. 1120 — Sacrifices to one hundred gods — a clear recog- nition of polytheism. B. C. mo — A compass with the needle pointing south was presented to an envoy from Tongkin who had brought presents to the emperor. The compass is said to have been invented B. C. 2700, but we have no reliable evi- dence of its use until A. D. 1122 or A. D. 1287. See Chap. III. It is still made in China so that the needle points south. B. C. 1103 — A mint established, and round coins with square holes in the center were cast. This is the present shape of the Chinese cash — coins of about one tenth of a cent in value. B. C. 952 — Lu’s essay on criminal punishments published. He advocates a money payment for all crimes. Chinese judges have been noted for their prostitution of criminal laws in return for bribes. B. C. 897 — Yangtze and Han Rivers frozen and a terrible hail storm kills horses and cattle. B. C. 894 — The feudal lords became so powerful that the emperor was obliged to do them honor. B. C. 816 — The emperor declined to perform the ancient rite of plowing. This rite was observed down to the fall of the Manchu dynasty in order to show that farm- ing is honorable. B. C. 806 — The emperor having arisen late for several mornings, the Empress Kiang Hou begged to be pun- APPENDIX XIV 5/1 ished for his neglect of business, on the ground that the fault must be hers. It has been customary down to the present time for the ruler to begin business at 3 to 4 A. M. B. C. 785 — Tso Ju protested to the emperor against his sentiments in regard to Tu Pe, a just man. On the emperor executing Tu Pe, Tso Ju committed suicide — the first case reported of the common Chinese practice of killing oneself in the presence of or on the premises of another who has sinned. This is the strongest evi- dence one can give of the justice of his case. Besides, the Chinese believe that the spirit of the deceased will haunt the place where the suicide takes place, and punish the owner of the property for his ill deeds. B. C. 686 — First notice of evaporation of sea water to obtain salt. B. C. 621 — At Duke Muh’s death, 177 persons were buried alive with him — the first record of this brutal custom. The people feeling compassion for the victims, com- posed the ode found in the Shih Ching, or Book of Poetry, i, 2, 6. B. C. 594 — Ground rent was doubled, raising the tax to one fifth of the produce of the land. B. C. 551 — Confucius was born in Chang Ping district, state of Lu, at a small town now called Chiifu — a few miles south of Taianfu. Taianfu is on the railway between Nanking and Tientsin. Confucius died B. C. 478. B. C. 540 — Some knowledge of botany, of human anatomy, and of medicine. B. C. 372 — Mencius born at Tsou, in state of Lu, a few miles south of Chiifu. Mencius died B. C. 289. B. C. 321 — An ivory bedstead worth 1,000 pieces of silver 572 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION offered the envoy from another country as a present, but declined. B. C. 255 — Chow dynasty disappears through corruption and violence. Tsin Dynasty — B. C. 255-206 B. C. 244 — A crushing defeat of the Huns; 100,000 horse- men killed. B. C. 243 — Locust pestilence and a great famine. Literary honors were now openly sold. A literary degree was offered for 133 pounds of grain to relieve the famine stricken. The sale of literary degrees by the state was a fruitful source of corruption down to 1905. B. C. 221 — Wang Pan, the Napoleon of China, succeeded in abolishing feudalism and uniting all the states of China under himself. He combined the titles of the three great sovereigns and the five great emperors of antiquity into one title, Hwang-ti, which he now assumed for himself, calling himself, Shi Hwang-ti. B. C. 214 — Shi Hwang-ti built the Great Wall, or at least brought it to a conclusion; employing his army for over ten years in the task. The wall is, including ex- tensions, 2,700 miles long, and is still standing, though it has been repaired and in places rebuilt since it was originally erected. As against horsemen armed with bows and arrows and spears, it is quite as valuable for a defense and vastly more lasting than are our modern navies. Shi Hwang-ti ordered all the ancient books burned except those of medicine, agriculture, and divination. He did this first, because he did not like to have scholars appealing to the Classics for precedents in condemna- tion of his tyrannical practices; and, second, because he wanted to redate all Chinese history from his own APPENDIX XIV 573 reig^. He buried alive four hundred scholars for attempting to conceal the Classics, including the ancient history of China, and thus save them from destruction. B. C. 207 — The Tsin dynasty perished. Han Dynasty — B. C. 206-A. D. 25 B. C. 202 — The first poll tax of 120 cash, or about twenty cents, gold, per head on all men between the ages of fifteen and twenty-six. B. C. 180 — Overflow of the Yangtze and the Han Rivers. B. C. 168 — The Yellow River broke its hanks and flooded Honan and Shantung. B. C. 156 — The size of the bamboo used for flogging was fixed at a length of five feet, one inch in diameter at the handle, and half an inch at the end, with the further prescription that the knots must be removed. B. C. 149 — Great earthquake, with reports of hailstones twenty inches in circumference. B. C. 147 — Distillation of spirits prohibited. B. C. 145 — Ssu-ma Ch’ien born, author of valuable his- torical records. B. C. 143 — Earthquakes for twenty-three days. B. C. 136 — Professors in the Five Classics appointed. This shows that Shi Hwang-ti did not succeed in destroying all the copies of the Classics. B. C. 129 — First registration of transport wagons. Huns beaten back by use of war chariots. B. C. 123 — Honors sold. Also a pardon for crimes sold. B. C. 122 — Chang K’ien returned from a long mission to other countries, bringing to China the walnut, the knotted bamboo, hemp, and the grape, and also the art of making wine. B. C. 1 18 — Taxation reformed. A uniform tax of five per cent was imposed on all property without exemption. 574 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Self-valuation of property was ordered, and false esti- mates were punished with confiscation; the informer receiving one half of the confiscated property — another fruitful source of corruption. B. C. lOo — Su Wu sent on a mission to the Huns and was imprisoned for nineteen years. He remained faithful to China, and on his escape and return was made minister of foreign affairs. Lectures on the Classics were inaugurated and good scholars promoted. B. C. 6 1 — Tibet was subdued. B. C. 54 — First notice of granaries for the storing of grain. B. C. 51 — Portraits of eleven meritorious statesmen were placed in Unicorn Hall, which had been built as a hall in which to store away prohibited books. Confucianists were appointed to lecture on the Five Classics. 1,000 students or more are reported as in attendance on the lectures. B. C. 28 — The Yellow River embankments were mended by bamboo baskets filled with stone — a favorite method of controlling water to this day. B. C. 26 — Liu Hiang was commissioned to revise the books, and for this purpose collected valuable books from all possible sources. B. C. 16 — Liu Fliang published his Account of Famous Women. B. C. 8 — Kung Kie, the thirteenth descendant of Confucius, was ennobled as a prince. B. C. 7 — Experts on the Yellow River report three plans for controlling it: first, the best plan is to lead the water to the sea; second, a good plan is to divide the water and carry it over all the land by canals; third, the worst plan is to rai.se the banks higher. This shows that Chinese engineers were at work upon the same APPENDIX XIV 575 problem then which modern engineers are now work- ing upon in China. There is a proverb in China said to date 2,000 years B. C. still inscribed upon a stone monument at the head of the Min River in Szechwan, to the effect, “Dig deep the ditch ; keep low the dykes.” B. C. I — Tung Hien was degraded and killed himself, and his property, amounting to “4,300,000,000,” is con- fiscated. The record does not tell whether this amount refers to taels or cash, or pieces of gold, but it is the first recorded case of a practice quite frequent in China of making a charge against a wealthy man, procuring his death and confiscating his property. East Han Dynasty — A. D. 25-221 A. D. 39 — Statistics ordered of all arable land, and of all inhabitants. A. D. 56 — Tai Shan, a mountain in Shantung, is referred to. This mountain had been worshiped for countless generations before Christ. The great emperor Shi Hwang-ti had worshiped here about B. C. 200. It is still a sacred mountain and large bands of pilgrims visit it every spring for purposes of worship. Perhaps it is the oldest sacred mountain with continuous wor- ship on the earth. We have seen stones said to have been taken from this mountain as far south as the Fukien Province, and as far west as the Szechwan Province. A. D. 60 — Lady Ma made empress. She was fond of learn- ing and negligent in dress. A. D. 61-67 — The emperor, having heard that the true religion had been discovered in the west, sent learned men to bring it to China. After a seven years’ search, they returned to China with Buddhism. Is it possible that a report of Christ had reached China? What 5/6 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION might have been the effect had these messengers suc- ceeded in reaching western Asia and brought back a letter from Saint Paul telling the Chinese of the true Christ ! A. D. 72 — In order to placate the advocates of Confucius against Buddhism, the emperor visited the home of Confucius and appointed six princes who had been able to repeat the Classics in his presence, to rule over certain provinces. A. D. 132-143 — Competitive examinations in Family Law in the preparation of official papers and in morals, and official duties were added. This system was continued down to its abolition in 1905. We have seen the old examination stalls in Peking, Nanking, Foochow, Chengtu, and other cities as they were being torn down to give place to modern schools for Western learning. A. D, 159 — Liang Ki, a high official, was executed and his property, amounting to “300,000,000,” was confiscated. This was another example of the political corruption in existence at that time. A. D. 165 — The emperor had a temple built to Lao Tzu at Lunghwa, in Kiangsi, and appointed the chief Taoist to be “Heaven’s Teacher.” The office is still continued. This was the official establishment of Taoism along with Confucianism as one of the religions of China. The emperor completed the recognition of Taoism as a state religion by sacrificing in person to Lao Tzu in 166. Later, Buddhism was also recognized as a state religion, but this recognition of Buddhism has frequently been withdrawn and the Buddhists have suffered severe and long continued persecutions in China. A. D. 175 — The Five Classics were cut in stone. Over 1,000 chariots arrived daily with scholars to inspect APl^ENDJX XIV 577 them. Possibly these are the Stone Drum Classics still kept in Peking. A. D. 177 — Ling Ti made appointments to all civil offices dependent on passing the government examinations. A. D. 178 — Offices bought and sold at a fixed price, but only those holding degrees could purchase them. A. D. 201 — Death of Chao Ki, author of the best commen- tary on Mencius. A. D. 219 — Kuan Yii, the famous general, was beheaded. Later he became the god of war, and probably is the most famous god in the Chinese calendar. After Han Dynasty — A. D. 221-264 A. D. 226 — Women admitted to official life, but the principle did not become established. A. D. 236-238 — Silver coins of the value of 500 and 1,000 cash were minted. A. D. 248 — A young widow being urged by her father to marry, refused and cut ofif her ears to save herself from a second marriage. Being urged again, she cut off her nose. Later, she was greatly honored. Public arches in China can be erected only on a permit from the emperor, but many arches all over the nation have been erected to widows who declined a second mar- riage. A. D. 256 — Wang Siang showed filial piety by melting ice with his body that he might catch carp for his mother. Later, as an official, he greatly transformed the people. Filial piety is a virtue greatly esteemed in China. A. D. 262 — The emperor Chi Kang and the Club of Seven became enamored of chess, Taoism, and wine. The emperor drank and played chess while his mother was dying until he consumed two gallons of liquor. He was murdered for his sins. 578 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION Tsin Dynasty — A. D. 264-322 A. D. 268 — Ssu-ma Yen, the emperor, wore plain dress three years, mourning his mother’s death. He is one of the twenty-four examples of filial piety. A. D. 285 — Caesarian operation is performed. A. D. 301 — A first recorded observation of sun spots. Eastern Tsin Dynasty — A. D. 322-419 A. D. 335 — Shih Hu, who had murdered his king and usurped the throne, favored Buddhism and permitted the Chinese to become Buddhist monks. A. D. 347 — The salt wells of Tzeliutsing in Szechwan were discovered at a depth of some 800 feet and also natural gas was discovered and used for evaporation of salt water. A. D. 350 — Introduction and cultivation of the tea plant, though tea is said to have been used in the time of Con- fucius, B. C. 551-478. A. D. 389 — The emperor and his ministers gave themselves up to debauchery, their associates being monks and nuns. Li Liao, of Shantung, petitioned to have the temple of Confucius repaired, but the emperor did not give him an answer. The emperor, while drunk, was suffocated by his favorite concubine because he had told her that she was now thirty years old and that he intended to displace her with another woman. A. D. 399 — Fa Hien, the famous Buddhist, started on his journey to India, returning in 414. A. D. 405 — Kumarajiva translated over three hundred Buddhist books. Several thousand priests were con- stantly now in meditation in the temples. From the higher dignitaries down to the people all adopted Buddhism. APPENDIX XIV 579 Sung Dynasty — A. D, 420-478 Internal dissensions developed and there was a division of the empire between the north and the south. Each of seven states assumed sovereign power. A. D. 438 — Four kinds of learning were now recognized: 'I'aoism, history, literature, and Confucianism. A. I). 446 — Buddhist i)riests of Changan entertained im- perial officers. These officers noticed weapons hanging in the monastery and reported the fact to the king, who disliked the Buddhists. He ordered the monastery searched. On discovering wine and women in the monastery, he ordered all the priests of the kingdom killed and their books burned. The heir apparent warned the Buddhists and many escaped, but the temples and pagodas were destroyed. A. D. 460 — The emperor plowed the consecrated field, and the empress inspected the silk worms in honor of in- dustry. A. D. 471 — The emperor had a splendid Buddhist temple built, for which he claimed merit. A high officer said to him : “It was built by compelling people to sell their children and pawn their wives to procure the money for you. What merit is there in that?” The emperor was moved by the criticism and had the temple torn down. A. D. 473 — The head of the descendants of Confucius of the twenty-eighth generation was honored by a princely title. Tsi Dynasty — A. D. 479-502 A. D. 479 — The Emperor Kao despised precious things, and said that if he could reign for ten years, gold and mud would have the same value. He died after only four years’ reign. 580 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION A. D. 483 — The state or kingdom of Wei forbade marriage between people of the same family name. This law, which has spread throughout the empire, and is to a considerable extent observed to this day, has prevented intermarriages within the clan and has contributed much to preserve the Chinese race. A. D. 484 — Fan Chen-sheng became a teacher of material- ism. The spirit is a quality of the body as sharpness is a quality of the knife. The spirit disappears with the body as sharpness disappears with the knife. Ma- terialism has a strong hold on Chinese philosophy. A. D. 487 — Kao Yiin, governor of Hien-yang, died in his ninety-eighth year. He had served under five kings of Wei without reproach; was charitable, quiet, and fond of books; instructed men in what is good; was diligent and impartial; not favoring his own relations and not forgetting old obligations. He is mentioned as the model Chinese official. A. D. 492 — The kingdom of Wei restores sacrifice to Yao, Shun, Yii, the Duke of Chow and Confucius. A. D. 495 — The king of Wei sacrificed to Confucius, pro- moted the head of his family, had his grave repaired and a stone tablet erected. The kingdom of Wei pro- hibited foreign goods being introduced from the north ; regulated measures and weights, and collected rare books. A. D. 495 — A high school for children of nobles and four lower schools at Lo-yang, the new capital, were opened. In the kingdom of Wei, officials were allowed four years’ leave of absence for mourning for parents. This custom often prevails to this day. In Tsi, another state, the removal of all gold and silver ornaments from horses and carriages was decreed. While the Chinese, like most people under Oriental despotism. APPENDIX XIV 581 usually have been forced to conceal their wealth, never- theless, like most human beings, they are fond of dis- play when it is safe for them to make a display; and nine tenths of the finest teams and carriages seen in Shanghai to-day are owned by the Chinese. A. D. 496 — The law of responsibility of the whole family if one meml^er is found g^uilty of a crime was abolished in Wei. Despite this effort to establish individual instead of family responsibility for crime, nevertheless the family in a large measure has been held responsible for any crime committed by any member of the family down to the establishment of the Republic. Liang Dynasty — A. D. 502-556 The Emperor Wu had two boxes put in a public place. When officials wished to say something to him, but dared not do so openly, they put their accusation against him in the wooden box. When the people had complaints against the officials they put their accusations in the stone box. A. D. 503 — Ki Fan’s father being falsely accused and con- demned to death, the fifteen-year-old son offered to die in his stead. The emperor, on examining the boy and finding that he was moved by filial devotion, pardoned the father. A. D. 505 — Professors of the Five Classics were appointed and schools established in the provinces and prefec- tural cities. The first temple to Confucius in Liang was built. In WTi Buddhism was much favored. Over 3,000 monks arrived from Turkestan. Over 13,000 temples for Buddhism were erected in the state of Wei between 509 and 512 A. D. A. D. 517 — The official manufacturers of Liang were for- bidden to weave figures of genii, birds, and beasts in cloth, because these figures were often cut in cutting 582 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION the cloth. Animal sacrifices at the ancestral tablets were also prohibited and vegetable ones substituted — a further proof of the triumph of Buddhism. A. D. 518 — A monk was sent to Turkestan for Buddhist books and brought back 170. A. D. 518 — In favor of Confucianism, the kingdom of Wei repaired the Classics which had been cut in stone. A. D. 520 — ^Arrival of Bodhidharma, the famous Buddhist, at Canton. A. D. 523 — Iron money coined in Liang. A. D. 539 — Paper and pencils were placed at the palace gates of Wei inviting suggestions for the improvement of the government. Tai, of West Wei, urged purity of mind, extension of education, development of all resources of the state, engagement of men qualified for office, mingling of judgment with mercy, equaliza- tion of taxation and service. The Chinese excel in these general proposals of reform. A. D. 545 — Emperor Liang, of a neighboring state, adopted Buddhist mode of living on rice and soup, wearing only plain clothing, using only one hat in three years. He was so mild to criminals that murders were com- mitted in open daylight. He lectured on Buddhism and issued an imperial decree forbidding the deprecia- tion of paper money, despite which decree it depreciated to sixty-five per cent of silver. A. D. 550 — First record of organization of militia. Mili- tary instruction given to farmers at intervals of work- ing on land. A. D. 554 — The emperor lectured on Lao Tzu. The state of Wei sent 50,000 soldiers against the emperor. He continued lecturing until traitors opened the west gate of Liang and the invading troops poured in. The emperor then ordered fire set to the library of 140,000 APPENDIX XIV 583 books, saying he had read 10,000 of them and they had not saved him from disorder, hence learning was useless. A. D. 555 — The emperor of Tsi, wishing to unite Taoism and Buddhism, after a learned discussion in his pres- ence, decided for Buddhism and ordered the Taoists to shave their heads. All complied save five, who were executed; but the union did not last. Chin Dynasty — A. D. 557-589 A. D. 574 — The Emperor Wu, of the state of Chow, fixed the order of religious precedence, namely, Confucian- ism, Taoism, Buddhism. Later, he forbade Taoism and Buddhism, had their scriptures, temples, shrines, and images destroyed throughout his state, and dedi- cated a temple to the “Unification of the Religions of the Sages.” Five years later Taoism and Buddhism revived. A. D. 581 — The color of garments was now legally fixed. Imperial yellow for the royal family dates from this law. Sui Dynasty — A. D. 589-619 This dynasty began by a union of North and South China. Nanking was captured and the new capital was at Chang-an. The division of the empire between the north and south has occurred several times in Chinese history. A. D. 595 — All people were disarmed; all the military weapons being collected in the royal arsenal. A. D. 596-^A law passed forbidding artisans and mer- chants to hold office, permitting only scholars and farmers to be officeholders. Later the soldiers were placed below the artisans and the order of precedence has been : scholars, farmers, merchants, artisans, servants and slaves (including soldiers). 584 CHINA; AN INTERPRETATION A. D. 603 — Wang Tung, of Shansi, wrote a book of twelve chapters on peace. The emperor failed to accept the book. Wang Tung then taught school and gained many disciples and later was canonized. The Chinese appreciate peace above war. A. D. 605 — More than 1,000,000 people were compelled to labor in building palaces. There was a great increase in imperial luxury. Theatricals lasting a month and running from nightfall to dawn with 18,000 actors were established. Over 2,000,000 people were com- pelled to labor digging canals and another million people in building walls in Shansi to keep out the northern hordes. Imperial luxury and vice now caused the downfall of the dynasty (in A. D. 619). A. D. 606 — The doctor’s degree was added to the two literary degrees already existing. A. D. 609 — Census showed 8,700,000 householders: 17,000,000 people. People were again forbidden to carry arms. T’ang Dynasty — A. D. 620-907 Kao Tsu, founder of the dynasty, said, “As Wu, of Liang, perished of Buddhism, and Yuan Chou, of Taoism, I will take warning and devote myself to Confucianism. Confucianism is as necessary to the Chinese as wings to the bird or water to the fish.” The best scholars lectured and superintended the people and Kung Ying-tah advised the emperor to listen to un- pleasant admonitions. The emperor promised to think over each matter three times before giving an answer. Also Lady Chang Sun, the empress, loved learning, propriety, and economy, but never made any reply to political ques- tions. T’ai Tsung, also named Shih-min, the second son of Tao Tsung, when he was eighteen years old, raised an APPENDIX XIV 5^5 army and put down opposition to his father. He was the real founder of the T’ang dynasty. Twelve years later the father resigned the throne in T’ai Tsung’s favor, and the latter ruled twenty-three years. A. D. 620 — The cash pieces which had been made of leather and pasteboard, were now replaced with coin cash, and the characters, T’ung Pao, that is, current money, which they still retain, were stamped upon them. An official accepted presents of silk. The emperor brought him into court and presented him with ten large parcels that he might no more be tempted to accept bribes. The official was greatly humiliated. The empress, wife of T’ai Tsung, led the ladies of the palace and outside the palace in superintending the manufacture of silk. T’ai Tsung regarded the tears of the concubines and sent 3,000 of them back to their homes. He relieved the famine stricken and redeemed the children whom their parents had sold because of the famine. On being told that he was supreme and had nothing to fear, he answered : Above, I fear God’s inspection. Below, the observation of all the officials. Wei Cheng replied, “This is the essence of perfect government, if one heeds it to the end.” Later on, Wei Cheng warned the emperor of some fault and the emperor ordered him executed. On learning of the incident, the empress donned court dress and called at once upon the emperor; and on being asked why she came in such state, she replied: “To congratulate you upon having such a servant as Wei Cheng. You have demanded that all men speak the truth to you; and Wei Cheng always obeys.” The emperor was pleased, 586 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION and spared Wei Cheng’s life. Many years later, when Wei Cheng died, the emperor had him buried with great honor, saying : “Men use brass mirrors to arrange their dress correctly; some ancient men are mirrors to mark our progress or recession. In Wei Cheng’s death I have lost my mirror.” The emperor pitied the families of a number of prisoners condemned to death and permitted them to go home on parole to help through the harvest time. After harvest they all returned to suffer the death penalty, and the emperor pardoned them all — 390 persons. A. D. 627 — A stringent decree limiting political office to those holding literary degrees and limiting the number of degrees each year to one per cent of the candidates. A. D. 632 — The ministers requested an imperial thank offering to T’ai Shan, the sacred mountain of the Taoists. The emperor refused to make the offering on the ground that Taoism was superstition. Later the empress fell ill. She had been economical, chari- table, and fond of books, and had taught these virtues to the children. During her illness the crown prince petitioned her to pardon criminals — a Buddhist meritorious work. She replied : “Buddhism and Taoism are heresies gnawing the vitals of the state. Pardon is a function of the state and should not be trifled with. The emperor does not practice these superstitions. How should I, a woman, cause him to do such things? Life and death are predestined and are not affected by our human wisdom.” On death approaching, she asked the emperor to make the funeral so simple as not to burden the people. (This contrasts very favorably with the funeral of the late empress dowager, which cost $5,000,000, gold). She APPENDIX XIV 587 urged the emperor to guard himself against flatterers, not to exact from the people compulsory service, and to give up his hunting trips. She left a compilation of thirty books, or, perhaps better, thirty chapters, on woman’s accomplishments and failures from ancient times. With such a mother and such a wife we need not wonder at T’ai Tsung’s greatness. A. D. 634 — The emperor T’ai Tsung ajjpointed thirteen men to visit every part of the empire to represent him in person. They were to ascertain the grievances of the people and to devise means of relief, to prepare embankments for the river, etc. A. D. 636 — The emperor permitted Nestorian missionaries to settle in the capital. The only proof of their in- fluence in China is the Nestorian tablet now found at Sianfu, Shensi. A Buddhist priest claimed in the presence of the emperor that without touching people he had caused them to die instantly. Fu Yih had collected all the objections against Buddhism in ten books, or chapters. The emperor commanded him to try his art on Fu Yih. Fu Yih felt nothing, but tbe priest was so humiliated that he fell down and expired. Another Buddhist was claiming to the people that he could crack anything with his teeth and was securing much patronage. Fu Yih sent his son to this priest with an antelope’s horn on which the priest tried his teeth in vain. On the crown prince planning a rebellion, the em- peror reduced him to the rank of the common people, and selected his ninth son as heir apparent. He spent much time in teaching this son. On the son sitting down to eat rice, the emperor remarked, “Know the toil of sowing and reaping and you will always have rice.” On the son mounting a horse, the emperor 588 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION remarked, “Know his power and do not exhaust his strength, and you may always ride.” On the son stepping into a boat to row one day, the emperor said, “The ruler is the boat, the people are the waters which bear it up, but which sometimes upset the boat.” On seeing the prince resting one day under a tree which was being straightened by cords fastened to stakes, T’ai Tsung said, “As a tree yielding to the line becomes straight, so a ruler yielding to good advice becomes a saint.” The emperor wrote a book on imperial duties for the crown prince’s guidance. A. D. 643 — The Greek Emperor Theodosius sent a mission to China. On an unfortunate war breaking out be- tween China and Korea, the emperor said, “If Wei Cheng had lived, he would never have permitted this.” A. D. 650 — T’ai Tsung died, and his ninth son, Kao Tsung, came to the throne. A. D. 652 — The census showed a population of 3,800,000 households, as compared with 8,700,000 in A. D. 609. Probably it embraced only a portion of the empire. A. D. 654 — Kao Tsung raised one of his father’s concu- bines to the position of prime favorite. She was now nineteen years old and had become a nun since T’ai Tsung’s death. The empress encouraged the emperor’s love for her in order to supplant another favorite whom the empress disliked. This concubine, under the title of Lady Wu, gave birth to a girl baby. The empress on calling and seeing the child decided to have it brought up, although it was only a girl. As soon as the empress had left the chamber Lady Wu suffocated the baby, and on the emperor calling told him the empress had put the child to death. Where- upon the empress was degraded and Lady Wu elevated to her place. Lady Wu, as empress, had the dowager APPENDIX XIV 589 empress and also the prime favorite of the emperor thrown into prison. The emperor feeling his old attachment for them both reviving, passed in front of the dungeon gate and promised soon to place them in a prison where they could see the sun and moon. On hearing this promise, the Empress Wu had their hands and feet cut off and preserved in a wine jar for the emperor. They both died a few days later and were then beheaded at the order of the empress, that their spirits might suffer mutilation in the next world. The empress now provided numerous favorites for the emperor, who gave himself up more and more to pleasure, and began to attend business on alternate days. On suffering from inflammation of the eyes, the emperor commanded the empress to attend to affairs of state, which she did with far more ability than he. A. D. 664 — Ten years after the emperor had elevated the Empress VVu as prime favorite, he began to realize her despotism, and secretly conspired with the prime minister for her removal. But the empress, having the reins in her own hands, and having spies on all the emperor’s plans, on an entirely different accusation had the prime minister executed and his family ban- ished. She then took the prime minister’s place and transacted all the business of the emperor, sitting be- hind a screen and conversing with the other ministers, just as the late empress dowager did during the earlier years of her regency in all conferences with her min- isters. When her own son, the Crown Prince Hung, reached twenty-five years of age and there was a general feeling that he should assume the reins which his father had laid down, he died suddenly, supposedly of poison, and another crown prince was selected. 590 CHINA: AN INTERPRETATION A. D. 680 — The Empress Wu had the Crown Prince Hsien degraded to the level of the common people and Chih elevated in his stead. A. D. 683 — Kao Tsung, the nominal emperor over whom the Empress Wu really had reigned since 654, died. A. D. 684 — The Empress Wu, after ruling thirty years, surrendered the reins to the Crown Prince Chih. Two months later the empress dowager resumed the throne and put the crown prince in prison, and continued to reign until A. D. 705, that is, for fifty-one years. She changed the dynastic title, the colors to be worn, and the official names. She altered the New Year, taking the eleventh month as the first month. She suppressed three rebellions against her, executed the prominent members of the houses leading in the re- bellion, and had several prime ministers and other high dignitaries executed. A. D. 690 — The Empress Wu ordered all graduates holding the bachelor’s degree to come to the capital for their further examinations. A. D. 702 — The Empress Wu recognized men who had completed certain courses in military art as graduates, and conferred degrees upon them. This added to her power, but was discontinued soon after her death. A. D. 705 — The empress surrendered the reins of govern- ment to Chung Tsung, who had been displaced in 684. A little later she died at the age of eighty-one. A. D. 706 — An imperial edict caused the salaries of teachers to be paid by the scholars, rather than by the state. This was a radical change in the educational system of China. A. D. 705-762 — Li Po, China’s greatest poet, lived. A. D. 729 — The number of doctor’s degrees was fixed at one hundred per year and remained at that limit. This APPENDIX XIV 591 led to this degree being given, not to all who passed the scholastic examinations, but to the one hundred who passed the examinations and at the same time were able to pay a considerable sum for the degree. The minister, Chang Kai-cheng, said that so long as he continued to minister, he had no fear of want, and his observation of sons whose fathers had saved wealth at court for them to spend led him to think this not the best course for his own sons. He died poor, but honest, and greatly loved. A. D. 733 — The Emperor Huan Tsung Ming was so checked in feasting by his premier that he began to look thin. His friends advised him to change Han Hui, the premier, d'he emperor replied, “While I grow lean, the empire is growing fat. I employ Hui for the empire and not for my pleasure.” A. D. 733 — The census showed 7,000,000 families: 45,400,- 000 persons: 5.82 persons in each family. A. D. 738 — The emperor caused schools to be opened in all cities and towns in the empire. A. D. 740 — The empire was divided into 1,573