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^ China's ^ 
 Open Door 
 
 A Sketch of Chinese Life 
 and History i^ ^ 
 
 By ROUNSE VELLE WILDMAN, M.A. 
 
 Consul General of the United States at Hong Kong, 
 Author of ''Tales of Malayan Coast,'" etc. ^ ^ ^ 
 
 With an Introduction by *' 
 
 Charles Denby ' 
 
 Former U.S. Mmister to China. 
 
 > ILL USTRA TED ^ 
 
 Boston: Lothrop Publishing Compa 
 
 ny 
 
38567 
 
 Library of Gon^.r«s« 
 
 AUG 25 1900 
 
 SECCMP COfV. 
 
 Odive.fld t<i 
 
 ORDER DIVISION, 
 SEP 6 1900 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1900, 
 
 B Y 
 
 LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 74311 
 
 ^.^ 
 
 s^^^ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEH PAGE 
 
 I. A Word at the Open Door 1 
 
 II. As TO THE Proper Eeading op Chinese His- 
 tory 4 
 
 III. Erom Euh-hi to Confucius 42 
 
 IV. From the Tsin to the Tang Dynasties . . 63 
 V. From Wu the Empress to the Last of the 
 
 Mings 80 
 
 VI. The Rise of the Manchu Dynasty .... 115 
 
 VII. From Chien Lung to Hienfung 136 
 
 VIII. From the Taiping Rebellion to the Chufoo 
 
 Convention 160 
 
 IX. Tung Chi and the Regency 184 
 
 /X. The Reign op Kwang Su 205 
 
 XL The Commercial Outlook 216 
 
 XII. Canton, the Typical City 228 
 
 XIII.^Peking, the Capital City 270 
 
 XIV. The Boxer Uprising 301 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 FACING 
 
 Li Hung Chang Frontispiece 
 
 As Old as China. The Wheelbarrow a Mode of 
 
 Travel in China in Use for Ages 12 
 
 Confucian Temple. Hall of Classics. Imperial 
 
 Pavilion. Forbidden City, Peking 54 
 
 Great Wall of China Looking North-east . . . 116 
 
 Street Scene in Tientsin 150 
 
 Panorama op Hong Kong 170 
 
 Street in the Concession, Shanghai 190 
 
 The Typical Chinese City, Canton on the Pearl. 
 '*The Streetless City stretches away with its 
 Maze of Shipping, broken Here and There by 
 THE Towering Pawn-Shops and the Open Spaces 
 
 about Yamens and Temples " 230 
 
 The Cangue : A Form of Chinese Punishment. "It 
 IS the Absence of Nerves that enables the 
 Chinese to endure Pain as Well as Toil . . 266 
 Camel Train. Outside the Peking Wall. Mili- 
 tary Gate, showing Moat 274 
 
 The Examination Halls, Peking, where the Best 
 Student is esteemed the Greatest Man in 
 
 China 294 
 
 A Bird's-Eye View from the Gulf of Pechili to 
 Peking. Showing the Route of the Relief 
 Expedition of 1900 310 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THIS book is a fit and much needed suc- 
 cessor to the " Middle Kingdom," by 
 Doctor S. S. Williams. As a digest of 
 information touching China, the " Middle King- 
 dom" must always rank first among the books 
 which treat of that empire. Next to it this book 
 will take its place in literature. 
 
 Splendid as Williams's history is, the student 
 sometimes complains of dryness; but no such 
 charge can be made against the accomplished au- 
 thor of this book, to whom experience in many 
 forms of writing has taught the lesson that the 
 first requisite of success is to please the reader. 
 In this, Mr. Wildman has preeminently succeeded. 
 This book is written in pure English. It is clear 
 and concise in language, easy to understand, and 
 opens up vistas of information which, until now, 
 have been unknown to the general reader. At 
 the beginning the keynote is struck — the author 
 knows his subject. One sees plainly that he has 
 not drawn his description from books or from the 
 
viii INTR OB UCTION, 
 
 chance observations of the hurrying tourist, but 
 from the passing of many clays among the Chinese, 
 and the watching, during many years, their actual 
 life and the political phases of the imperial gov- 
 ernment. The author's own sound declaration is 
 that to understand Chinese history you must know 
 the people. Knowing them, he has built up, stej) 
 by step, a succinct history of China from its early 
 days down to the ujirisal of the " Boxers." I shall 
 not undertake in this introduction to review, page 
 by page, the contents of this volume, but simply 
 to draw attention to the starting-point and the 
 successive stages of historic lore which, in admira^ 
 ble sequence, are brought to our attention. 
 
 At the beginning it is asserted that the charac- 
 teristics and peculiarities of the Chinese must be 
 understood in order to judge them aright, and then 
 follows a succi]ict, but complete description of 
 these characteristics. Lying at the bottom of 
 Chinese character is respect for "face." The for- 
 eign resident of China knows that he must not 
 reprove his " boy " before strangers, that he must 
 not unjustly punish him. Once, on one of our 
 men-of-war, when a servant, as the other servants 
 believed, was wrongfully discharged, every China- 
 man aboard the ship left. The author illustrates 
 this underlying principle by many examples, and 
 
INTRODUCTION, ix 
 
 he carries his observance into the highest realms 
 of governmental polity. I well remember that 
 the members of the Tsung Li Yamen complained 
 that some foreign representative made them lose 
 " face " by pounding on the table and bawling at 
 them. The portion of the book which discusses 
 " face " is somewhat new in its treatment, and 
 should be carefully considered, because it fur- 
 nishes an explanation of many events in Chinese 
 liistory wliich, before, were obscure. 
 
 To the Chinese, as Mr. Wildman intimates, 
 " face " takes the place of patriotism. The dis- 
 cussion of politics, except in the secret societies, 
 has been an unknown art in China. The struggle 
 for existence has been too intense to waste time 
 on the doings of the mandarins or the foreigners. 
 Well does the author say that, in place of patriot- 
 ism, you find " untiring industry, marvelous econ- 
 omy, filial piety, and a calm respect for law." 
 
 Americans are the most wasteful people in the 
 world. I look out now from my window over 
 thousands and thousands of acres on which the 
 tall corn is waving its silken tassel. When Oc- 
 tober comes the harvesters will drive wagons 
 along the rows, and they will pull the ears only, 
 and leave the shuck, the fodder, and the stack un- 
 touched. Cattle will be turned in to feed on 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 these during the winter, but they will destroy 
 more than they eat. In China each blade of grass 
 is uprooted and put to some use. At Swatow 
 once there were many refugees, Christians, who 
 had refused to contribute to the fund for the gods 
 and the temples. The missionaries were paying 
 the adults for their support a Mexican dollar a 
 month — then about seventy-five cents of our 
 money — and it sufficed. But the author has told 
 of this better than I can. 
 
 The dress, the manners, the customs, of the 
 Chinese are described with a master's hand. On 
 this plan of picturing the common every-day 
 doings of his countrymen Macaulay wrote his 
 history. 
 
 Ancestral worship — the fundamental principle 
 of Chinese policy — is well and forcibly explained. 
 Chinese conservatism, which has held China fixed 
 as the northern star, while the nations around her 
 have tottered and fallen, is thoroughly elucidated. 
 
 Having pictured the Chinaman as he is, the 
 author takes up the history of China from the re- 
 motest period, and brings it down to the present 
 time. It is not necessary for me to follow him 
 through the various dynasties whose chronicles 
 are touched on sufficiently to fill out the great 
 picture of China. From the reign of Fuh-hi, 2852 
 
INTR OD UCTION, xi 
 
 B. c, the contemporaneous history of China com- 
 menced, and thenceforward the historical records 
 are complete. The author pays admirable tribute 
 to Confucius. Nowhere is there a more correct 
 estimate of the character of the sage. Through 
 the great invasion of the Mongols, who conquered 
 China in 1276, and the conquest of the Manchus 
 in 1644, the book goes on, reading like the pages 
 of a historical romance. Names that you have 
 barely heard in your life, for instance, those of 
 Kublai Khan, Marco Polo, the Chaus and the 
 Hans, stand out here in interesting portrayal. It 
 is wonderful what a mass of information has 
 been collected in this book. Incidentally we learn 
 about Burmah, Korea, Siam, Tonquin, Thibet, 
 Japan, in fact the whole of Asia. It cannot be 
 expected that I should agree with everything that 
 the author says ; but as I am not reviewing his 
 book, I do not feel called upon to specify the 
 points wherein I differ with him. They are not 
 many. He treats, I think, the missionaries rather 
 cavalierly, and does not give them as a class the 
 credit they deserve. It is strongly brought out 
 in this book that China has never lost its indi- 
 viduality. Indeed, the Chinese have absorbed 
 their conquerors. Nominally the Manchu dynasty 
 reigns to-day; but the fate of China will be deter- 
 
xii INTR OB UCTION, 
 
 mined by the people, and, excepting twenty mil- 
 lions of Manchus, they are Chinese. 
 
 On the opium question the author is lenient. 
 It will not do to compare opium with alcohol. 
 The drug is always simply brutalizing, and dele- 
 terious. All things are either good or bad, 
 and the use of opium is unquestionably bad. 
 It is the curse of China. I cannot too highly 
 commend the author's history of what may be 
 called our own times in China — say from 1842 
 down to 1900. A correct and most interesting 
 account is given of a period which has been 
 treated with accuracy by Williams, but to whose 
 treatment Mr. Wildman has added the touches of 
 glowing and sparkling style. He has brought 
 out many new facts, and his chronology of events 
 is perfect. In the sweep of this panoramic book, 
 we come at last to the reign of Hienfeng, the 
 Taiping Rebellion, the making of the treaties of 
 1857, the advance on Peking in 1859, the re- 
 pulse of the allies at Taku, the renewal of the 
 attack in 1860, the taking of Peking, the rati- 
 fication of the treaties, the induction of China 
 into the family of nations, and the outbreak of 
 1900. A fund of anecdote and character paint- 
 ing is found in these pages, much of which is 
 absolutely new. Alas, in some respects, books 
 
INTRODUCTION, xlil 
 
 about China will have to be rewritten! Japan 
 "turned a new leaf " when she taught the sleeping 
 giant what modern fire-arms could accomplish. 
 Mr. Wildman describes Eastern diplomacy with 
 many touches of satire, but recent events have 
 changed its tone. New men are coming on the 
 stage ; and if China is not to be partitioned, she 
 will demand the rights which international law 
 insures ; then there will be no more pictures of 
 vacillation, evasion, trickery, but a stand-up fight 
 for justice, in which the conscience of the world 
 will be at her back. 
 
 Books on China are greatly confined to disqui- 
 sitions. The " tenderfoot " seems driven to ad- 
 vising China. He sees at a glance how necessary 
 are schools, railroads, trained soldiers, and espe- 
 cially is he conscious of the bad morality of the 
 Chinese officials. When a gentleman, who wanted 
 to sell something, once gave me a splendid 
 essay, showing up all Chinese corruptions, and 
 asked me to translate it and send it to the 
 Yamen, I inquired whether, if he wanted to sell 
 locomotives in England, he would prepare an 
 elaborate attack on the House of Lords, and 
 primogeniture, and the Prince of Wales and all 
 the officials. He said he did not think he would, 
 and then I asked him why he did this thing 
 
xiv INTR OB UCTION, 
 
 in China. He did not have any satisfactory an- 
 swer. 
 
 Mr. Wildman has not fallen into this error. 
 The book is valuable, because it tells you accu- 
 rately, with dates, things you know, and many 
 things that you do not know. From 1860 to the 
 summer of 1900 the history is minutely accurate. 
 The old, spectacular, historic Li stands out in his 
 well-knoAvn lineaments, and the Semiramis of 
 China, the Empress-Regent Tzi Tsu, fills some 
 pages of description. The treatment of Korea, 
 the episode mth France, the Japanese war, are 
 all told of, with many side-lights which illumine 
 the bare facts. At the last we have the account 
 of the seizure of Chinese territory by Germany, 
 Russia, England, and France, and a luminous 
 recital of the conduct of our Government touch- 
 ing the " Open Door," and we are brought down 
 to the beginning of the "Boxer" movement. 
 With this uprisal for a text, some future writer 
 will unravel the tangled skein of the Chinese 
 situation. 
 
 Mr. Wildman's position as consul at Hong- 
 kong has given him great facilities to acquire 
 knowledge as to trade, and the steps necessary 
 to secure it. His chapter on that subject will be 
 worth the price of this book to the merchant. 
 
INTR OD UCTION. xv 
 
 Trade is a field which the ordinary tourist leaves 
 severely alone. There is more competition in 
 China than in almost any land on the globe. 
 The syndicates of many nations are on the ground, 
 and, since the appearance of the Germans in the 
 arena, prices are cut to the lowest figure. China 
 is overrun with articles marked, " Made in Ger- 
 many ; " but goods of English and American make 
 excel them in quality. Labels are counterfeited, 
 but I always found the Chinese officials ready to 
 arrest and punish the offenders. There was, at 
 Tientsin, a notable case involving the putting of 
 " Indian Head " labels on cotton cloth made in 
 China. 
 
 One of the most readable and most accurate 
 chapters in the book is the one on Canton. This 
 bewildering bazaar city is described in the most 
 pleasing style. It is a vast show-shop, where 
 silverware, jewelry, articles in ivory, embroideries, 
 rare furniture, everything that the mind can con- 
 ceive of, is made under your very eye. You may 
 stand in a street six feet wide, and watch the 
 evolution under the workman's hand of the most 
 precious curios, and when they are finished you 
 can buy them at reasonable prices. 
 
 Canton is the most interesting city in China, or, 
 perhaps, in its own realm of the manufacture of 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION, 
 
 objects of art, in the world. It is the typical city 
 of the empire as Peking is its metropolis. A 
 chapter on the capital city of China, supplied at 
 Mr. Wildman's request, embodies my own study 
 of Peking, and will, it is hoped, fall in line with 
 the other descriptive matter. 
 
 This book is a splendid production. It does 
 honor to the learning, the faculty of composition, 
 and the indefatigable industry of the author. 
 
 (1/k.a.^^J^ Gb 
 
 «^ 
 
 
Chinas Open Door. 
 I. 
 
 A WORD AT THE OPEN BOOR. 
 
 CHINESE HISTORY becomes interesting 
 when you know, or think you know, the 
 Chinese. Even a superficial acquaintance 
 explains many things in their national records that 
 on first introduction strikes one as both inane and 
 impossible. Chinese history cannot be compared 
 with that of other nations any more than you can 
 parallel the character of the Chinese with that of 
 any contemporary race. It is a repetition of it- 
 self, many times repeated. The same causes have 
 produced the same effects for four thousand years. 
 The causes lie in the character of the Chinese, and 
 are seemingly unchangeable. The Chinamen of 
 3000 B.C. are the identical Chinamen that greeted 
 us at the opening of the Treaty Ports. A story 
 like Mark Twain's delightful " A Yankee in 
 King Arthur's Court " would be impossible from 
 
2 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 a Cliinese standpoint. If Confucius had returned 
 to China a thousand years after his death, he 
 would have found everything substantially as he 
 left it. The greatest change in Chinese life was 
 wrought by Confucius himself. He remodeled 
 the entire system of thought, and gave his country- 
 men an intellectual life, — a feat that, to one who 
 has lived among the Chinese and daily experienced 
 their inertia, suspicion, and conservatism, seems 
 little short of the miraculous. 
 
 It is not necessary, however, to personally know 
 the Chinese to admire and marvel at their history 
 when taken as a grand result, an accomplished 
 fact. Since the dawn of history China has been 
 a civilized and religious nation with a written his- 
 tory. She has had a continuous national life, and 
 has never been driven from her " Garden of 
 Eden." She has had wars as sanguinary, as ad- 
 mirably conducted, and of as great magnitude, as 
 any of the nations have had from Egypt to Amer- 
 ica. Her arms have generally been successful; 
 but if she were conquered it meant the absorption 
 of her conquerors. There have been good kings 
 and bad kings in tiresome rotation; there have 
 been famines and floods ; but there has been no per- 
 manent decay or death in her national life up to 
 the coming of the European. And who knows 
 
A WORD AT THE BOOR, 3 
 
 but that the " break up of China " will be but 
 another case of Chinese history repeating itself, 
 and that she will absorb the white man as fast as 
 he gains admission to her walled cities, and so 
 establish within the next century — and what is 
 a century to Cliina ! — a new dynasty that will 
 insure her existence as a nation for another thou- 
 sand years. 
 
 Why have not other nations of the past discov- 
 ered the secret of China's everlasting life, and 
 modeled their own upon it? It is because the 
 secret lives in every Chinaman's face, in his every 
 act, a secret only to those who will not see. 
 The Egyptian, the Persian, and the Greek would 
 have to be born a Chinaman in order to take ad- 
 vantage of this — the so-styled secret ; they would 
 have to possess fully the Chinese character, which 
 is as different from their own in every point of 
 contact as is the atmosphere of Mars from that of 
 the earth. 
 
 If Chinese character can be given an individu- 
 ality and pictured so that the reader will know 
 and see the Chinaman as we know and see him in 
 China, then Chinese history will have a throb and 
 Chinese life a fascination. We will be standing 
 before China's slowly opening door with one foot 
 within the threshold. 
 
CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 11. 
 
 AS TO THE PROPER READING OF 
 CHINESE HISTORY, 
 
 THE Westerner must assume a new view 
 in attempting to understand the his- 
 tory of China. He must first know of 
 Chinese peculiarities and characteristics, and this, 
 of itself, is a new study. For instance, to the 
 Occidental the performance of saving " Face " 
 is a comedy. We attend its rehearsal on the 
 street and in our own compounds until its plot 
 becomes so familiar that it fails to arrest our 
 attention unless we happen to remember that the 
 impassioned actors are giving us an object lesson 
 that typifies one of the all-controlling features of 
 Chinese life. When there is bad blood between 
 Ah Ming our "boy" and Chung the '' Cookee " they 
 do not come immediately to blows, which would 
 be dangerous. They go into the street, and 
 commence to revile each other and each other's 
 ancestors at the top of their voices. As a crowd 
 collects they grow more intense, and every minute 
 
''SAVING face:* 5 
 
 threaten to spring at each other's throat. When 
 they have worked themselves up to a pitch of 
 maniacal delirium that promises apoplexy, two 
 men step out of the crowd, and grasp the boy and 
 the cookee by the arm. Both go through a fierce 
 theati'ical struggle for freedom. Then they turn the 
 phials of their wrath on their peacemakers, and to 
 the simple on-looker it would seem that the keep- 
 ers of peace would be killed for their pains. In 
 the meantime Ming and his peacemaker, and 
 Chung and his, are some rods apart, and separated 
 by an interested crowd. Then with a final appal- 
 ling burst they tear away from their guardians, 
 and depart calmly on their separate " pidgins." 
 They have let their bad blood preserve their "face," 
 and, save for mutual hoarseness, are unhurt. Time 
 and again I have watched one of these theatrical 
 exhibitions. In the gathering crowd will often be 
 one or more native policemen. No one smiles, 
 unless some mishap occurs, then every one will 
 scream with laughter. No one thinks of interfer- 
 ing until the right moment, and every one knows 
 exactly what the end will be. It is purely a 
 forensic contest. A boat-woman whose husband 
 has corrected her in the morning and put her in a 
 temper, will v/ait until he is out of sight, and then 
 go to the most crowded spot along the wharves. 
 
6 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 ascend a pile of lumber, and commence to revile 
 her daughter-in-law, who is not present, or any 
 member of the crowd who may address a scoffing 
 word to her. She will go on for an hour, jesticu- 
 lating, running through the entire gamut of the 
 Delsarte school, until the audience leave, or it is 
 time for her to get back to her boat. She has 
 asserted her rights to the free speech which her 
 husband denied her, and said all the things to the 
 world at large that she would like to have said 
 to him. Her " face " is saved. The saving of 
 face starts at the Pink Palace at Peking, and goes 
 all through Chinese life. It has changed history, 
 wrecked dynasties, remade religions, and caused a 
 multitude of law-suits. Its complexities and rami- 
 fications are beyond the comprehension of the 
 Westerner. An Occidental synonym might be 
 prestige, in its commonest definition. A China- 
 man who loses his face loses his credit, his stand- 
 ing, his prestige among his fellows, and becomes 
 the laughing-stock of the meanest coolie. In 
 1796 Lord Macartney was sent to Peking by the 
 British government to try and open diplomatic 
 intercourse. The Emperor Chien Lung feared to 
 refuse to receive the ambassador ; but he saved his 
 face before his people by flying over the vessel on 
 which the noble lord ascended the Peiho, a flag, 
 
''FACE'' IN CHINESE HISTORY. 7 
 
 which read in Chinese " Tribute Bearer from the 
 Country of England." In June, 1873, the Em- 
 peror Tung Chih, to the gratification of the for- 
 eign ministers, graciously condescended to reoeive 
 them in audience. It was looked upon for the 
 moment as a triumph of Western diplomacy and 
 firmness until it was discovered that Frederick E. 
 Low, the American minister, and the ministers 
 for England, France, Russia, Netherlands, and 
 Japan, had been received by the Son of Heaven in 
 the Pavilion of Purple Light, where his majesty re- 
 ceived the envoys of tributary states. Again the 
 Chinese face had been saved. The suicide of gal- 
 lant Admiral Ting, after the occupation of Port Ar- 
 thur, was but the last of a long succession of like 
 cases of saving face by means of death. This char- 
 acteristic is not confined to individuals ; it governs 
 the attitude of one village or clan towards another, 
 and the strife that takes place to preserve the bal- 
 ance of face often becomes a vendetta that lasts for 
 generations. The history of China when read in 
 the light of a knowledge of this national charac- 
 teristic will reveal the reason for many acts that 
 before seemed without sense or rhyme. 
 
 It must be borne in mind, however, that this 
 struggle to preserve face is nt>t to be confounded 
 with patriotism or love of country. There is no 
 
8 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 National Face that the 400,000,000 of China are 
 sworn to protect with their Kves. With them it 
 is every man for himself, and the country for it- 
 self. I will wager that the Japanese-Chinese war, 
 a historical fact, is not known to one-tenth of the 
 population of China ; and if they did know of it, 
 they would not feel any more interest in it than 
 did those who were supposed to have taken an 
 active part in the campaign. Public spirit is ab- 
 solutely wanting. In its place is a deep-seated in- 
 difference, that is tempered with a calm respect for 
 law and power. The law may be bad and the 
 power tyrannical, but that is no business of those 
 who have to obey. The life of China has been pre- 
 served through the centuries by moral rather than 
 physical forces. Early in 1898, just after Russia 
 had occupied Port Arthur, Germany Kia Chou, 
 England Wei Hai Wai, and France Kwang 
 Chowan, and it looked as though the dismember- 
 ment of China was at hand, a delegation of rich 
 merchants from Canton waited upon me by a pre- 
 vious appointment, and proposed to buy from the 
 viceroy of the Two Kwangs, and from the indi- 
 vidual owners, all the property on the Honam side 
 of Canton, build wharves, reclaim the waste land, 
 and then remove all their big mercantile interests 
 there. In fact, they proposed to create a rival to 
 
LACK OF PATRIOTISM, 9 
 
 Canton, and then cede it to the United States if 
 we would give it the protection of our flag. If 
 we deemed it not feasible to go into inland China, 
 they further proposed to buy a large island adja- 
 cent to Hong Kong and make it their emporium. 
 In reply to my many questions they showed no 
 love foi their own flag, or interest in the " break- 
 up" of China, further than it affected their per- 
 sons. 
 
 I was in San Francisco during the Chinese- 
 Japanese War. The little colony of Japanese in 
 that city raised a patriotic fund, and offered their 
 services to their fatherland, while *' Chinatown," 
 numbering over 70,000 souls and representing 
 many millions of capital, did nothing nor made 
 any pretensions. The Chinaman pays his taxes, 
 and submits to all the "squeezes," and rightly 
 considers it as so much money lost, as it never 
 reappears in roads, canals, or public buildings. 
 He does not even have police protection or jus- 
 tice for it. There is no such thing as politics 
 in the empire outside the court, where it is noth- 
 ing more than intrigue. Appointments to office 
 are either the result of literary examinations or 
 court favoritism. Even the claim of a success- 
 ful candidate at a triennial examination has to 
 be backed by a substantial kumshaw at Peking 
 
10 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 before he obtains the coveted official appoint- 
 ment. The salaries of all officials in Cliina are 
 merely nominal, and in themselves would not be 
 worth the endeavor of an honest man to obtain. 
 The government is in a sense patriarchal, and 
 like all patriarchs is supposed to be old enough, 
 wise enough, and strong enough to do without 
 the advice of its children. In the war of 1860 
 between England and China, the invading army 
 employed Chinese not only for carrying baggage 
 and throwing up intrenchments, but a corps of 
 several thousand strong was carefully drilled to 
 plant scaling-ladders and handle ammunition ; and 
 at the storming of the Taku forts it showed un- 
 expected bravery and an exultant pride in the 
 success of its new master. Patriotism in its na- 
 tive land was an unknown quantity, while rations 
 and good pay were something that every China- 
 man could understand. Curiously enough Chi- 
 nese officialdom did not look upon the members 
 of this corps as actual traitors, and the only pun- 
 ishment they received was to have their queus 
 cut off. The Chinese government itself, the mo- 
 ment the war was over, turned around and begged 
 of their conquerors the loan of a number of Eng- 
 lish officers to drill their men so that they would 
 equal this corj)s of, what the world would style. 
 
ECONOMY A SCIENCE. 11 
 
 traitors and renegades. When Knblai Khan was 
 strugglmg for the conquest of China, he found his 
 progress stopped by the strongly fortified city of 
 Siang Yang on the bank of the Han River. His 
 general, Ashu, soon discovered that its capture 
 without the aid of ships would be impossible. 
 He set about the construction of a fleet of war- 
 junks. The Mogul soldiers were, however, not 
 sailors ; and proclamations were posted all over the 
 enemy's country, offering good wages and good 
 rewards for men who were able to manage ships. 
 More than 70,00 Chinese responded, and enlisted 
 to fight their own fatherland under the banners 
 of its most inveterate enemy. 
 
 China has no national airl 
 
 The very absence of patriotism shows again that 
 comparisons with China are only possible by con- 
 trast, and that patriotism is not necessary to in- 
 sure the existence of a nation. There are other 
 characteristics that take its place, among which 
 are untiring industry, marvelous economy, filial 
 piety, and, as has been before said, a calm respect 
 for law. No Occidental can comprehend the full 
 significance of Chinese economy. Economy to the 
 Chinese is more than a moral principle. It is an 
 art and a science that has been perfected through 
 the centuries. They realize better than we that the 
 
12 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 Lord made nothing without a purpose, and they 
 have discovered what we have not — the purpose. 
 The animal and vegetable kingdoms are as open 
 books to the most ignorant villagers. Every weed 
 has its use, and no part of the animal goes to 
 waste. Two cents a day is a fair estimate per 
 head of what it costs to feed 390,000,000 of 
 China's 400,000,000. Rice, beans, garden vege- 
 tables, supplemented with any kind of fish, make 
 up their daily diet; and as simple as this is, 
 often ten mouths have to be fed from a little 
 plat of ground the size of a New England farm- 
 yard, and the water with which to irrigate it 
 brought from a long distance. Again, the soil 
 has to be often literally made, and when made, 
 held in place by embankments for fear that dur- 
 ing the rainy season it will be washed over on a 
 neighbor's land. They rake the seas with the 
 same untiring thoroughness with which they cul- 
 tivate the land ; and I often wonder when I see 
 them returning with a catch of fish — none of 
 which are larger than a corkscrew — if any ever 
 escape to become respectable in size. The mo- 
 ment the tide goes out — no matter what the hour 
 — the muddy ocean reaches are swarming with 
 (lelvers for mussels, crabs, and seaweed. Men, 
 v/omen, and children, each armed with a board 
 
UNCHANGEABLENESS OF CHINA. 13 
 
 skate, that will bear the weight of one leg while 
 they propel themselves over the mud with the 
 other, explore every inch of space for anything 
 that can be eaten. I have watched them on a 
 cold, bitter morning thus gleaning, the women 
 carrying their month-old babies on their backs by 
 the side of their bags of sea-plunder. The chilling 
 water was up to the children's bare feet, and a 
 wind was blowing in shore that made me turn 
 back on my bicycle, and ride a mile to get warm. 
 A pagoda stood against the sky above a bunch of 
 low-spreading banyans, and a little colony of junks 
 swung idly on the incoming tide, their great mat- 
 ting sails slowly drying in the early morning sun. 
 It was a picture for the artist and the political 
 economist. The grinding industry and dwarfing 
 economy of it all was, however, horribly revolting. 
 If any one benefited by these hardships, in this 
 generation or the next, there would be some hope 
 for the betterment of the race ; but the Chinese 
 coolie lives and dies by rule as his ancestors have 
 been doing for six thousand years. If all our mis- 
 sionaries in all our treaty ports could teach them, 
 by precept or example, that cleanliness is next to 
 Godliness, they would do more for China than even 
 Confucius did. They would bring about a reform 
 in the lives of Chinamen and in the body politic that 
 
14 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 would mean the opening of China's ports to West- 
 ern civihzation and Western trade. As long as 
 the Chinese are content to live in huts with their 
 pigs and their fowls, and sleep and eat in their 
 own filth, it is hard to open their eyes to the de- 
 sirability of a clean heart or of American-made 
 prints. I have been in country districts of China 
 that were almost idealic in their beauty; every 
 inch of cultivatable land was blooming with gen- 
 erous crops, dotted at intervals with workers, their 
 backs bent over a paddy-field, and on the lands of 
 the foot-hills which were non-productive stood the 
 stone huts of the population. From a distance 
 the houses looked substantial, clean, and inviting. 
 A group of a half-dozen would be sheltered by the 
 branches of a guard of massive trees. The whole 
 scene was charming; but, as you drew near, the 
 beauty of the place faded away into a picture of 
 such unnecessary uncle anliness and squalor, that 
 you were conquered by the usual disgust. There 
 was no reason for it, as all about there were hun- 
 dreds of dry acres, and scores of clumps of trees. 
 
 The land could be had rent free, and the soil is 
 healthy ; and yet they would all huddle together, 
 — men, children, pigs, and fowls, with possibly 
 a shaggy China pony and a half dozen mangy 
 curs. Under these conditions it is not long: be- 
 
NEGLECT OF SANITARY LAWS, 15 
 
 fore even a sanitarium would become a pest-hole. 
 I have been in a mandarin's palace that cost 
 a lac of dollars, and had him point out to me 
 with pride his artificial fish-pond, supremely un- 
 conscious that a dead hen and a decayed cat 
 were floating on its surface among the lily pads 
 and lotus blooms. In the great central hall — 
 the hall of his ancestors — he pointed out price- 
 less stone pictures, thousand-year-old vases, and 
 exquisite black-wood carvings, while I held my 
 nose over a pool of malarious filth that was oozing 
 from under the steps ten feet away. The result 
 is plague, smallpox, and enteric fever. In Hong 
 Kong it is a fight day by day to keep the Chinese 
 houses in any thing like a sanitary condition. 
 Chinese who have lived a dozen years under 
 British laws, and Chinese who were born under 
 them, and have seen each recurring scourge of 
 the plague, and are fully aware that it breeds in 
 filth, yet practice every deception to relieve them- 
 selves of the " house-to-house " brigade. They 
 know that the plague seldom attacks Europeans, 
 and never invades the clean European residential 
 districts. They know the efficacy of chloride of 
 lime, of whitewash, and of pure water, and still 
 every day the English Magistrate's Court is 
 crowded with Chinese who have been trying to 
 
16 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 evade the simple sanitary laws of the colony. If 
 a Chinaman is taken with the plague the fact is 
 concealed from the authorities, and the sick man 
 is smuggled on a Canton boat, and conveyed to 
 his native village, where, to his great satisfac- 
 tion, he is pei:mitted to die like a dog. He has 
 thus saved his Hong Kong domicile from fumiga- 
 tion and lime-washing, and has reduced the cost 
 of his funeral expenses by taking himself to his 
 family burial lot. The fact that plague germs 
 are in the house, and that the lack of fumigation 
 may cause the death of his sorrowing wife and 
 children, is neither considered by the living nor 
 the dead, as it conflicts with their system of 
 economy. 
 
 Comparisons are odious surely as between the 
 Chinese and any other nation. It is the old 
 proposition of " teaching your grandmother to 
 suck eggs." The Chinese have no idea of our 
 standard of comfort. We wear a hat in all sea- 
 sons of the year. They ask why we should wear 
 a hat any more in summer than heavy gloves. 
 If the sun is too hot and you are delicate, there 
 is always the umbrella ; if it is too cold, there is 
 always the hood. Ah Choy, the consular shroff, 
 goes down to the Chinese gold-shop to change 
 our gold coin into silver, in the heat of the day. 
 
AH CHOW THE CONSERVATIVE. 17 
 
 The thermometer registers 100°. I do not believe 
 he feels it, but if the sun gets in his old eyes he 
 holds up his fan. His poll is cleanly shaven 
 every morning, so there is no hair to protect his 
 shining skull. At first I never expected to see 
 him return alive from one of these expeditions. 
 I wear a cork helmet and an umbrella, but since, 
 I have discovered that the only time he ever pro- 
 tects his head is when it rains. He may wear a 
 rimless cap in the office or house to do some one 
 honor, but never in the street. After thirty-five 
 years' association with the Europeans of Hong 
 Kong, Ah Choy still wears cotton clothes, sleeps 
 on a wooden pillow, eats with chop-sticks, uses 
 paper-soled shoes, and continues to be just as 
 uncomfortable as any native of the Sun On dis- 
 trict who has never been in an English colony, 
 or an American consulate. It is this absolute 
 absence of any standard of comparison between 
 the Chinese and the American that makes it im- 
 possible to hold him up to scorn. When the 
 child starts in life wearing a pair of bifurcated 
 bags filled with sand in the place of diapers, one 
 cannot but despair of ever teaching the parents 
 that " cleanliness is next to godhness " in their 
 homes, even if you could dismiss for the time 
 their inherent ideas of economy. In discussing 
 
18 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the economies of the Chinese, there is no place 
 where you can stop. After eleven years of ex- 
 perience I am amazed every day at some new 
 example. Nothing is lost. Every animal is eaten, 
 regardless of the cause of his demise. The sar- 
 dine and fruit cans that we extravagantly throw 
 into the dump are born again as tin cups and 
 cooking utensils. The weed that cannot be eaten 
 is used as fuel to cook the weed that may be 
 edible. In the autumn the leaves of trees are 
 gathered by children who are too young to labor, 
 and pounded into bricks, and dried for their winter 
 fuel. Even the exploded firecrackers that are 
 used at Chinese New Year and on religious festi- 
 vals are collected for the same purpose. If they 
 burn any oil at night, it is simply a taper sus- 
 pended in a tumbler of peanut-oil and water. 
 
 It may be put down as an axiom that there are 
 no idle people in China. A visitor in Canton or 
 Peking may be struck with many cases of coolies 
 or shopkeepers sleeping in the street or in their 
 stalls regardless of the deafening babble that sur- 
 rounds them. It is not idleness, however ; it is a 
 habit, that is responsible for much of the endur- 
 ance of the people. 
 
 A coolie is sent with a load of soy or fish 
 from one part of the city to another. He may 
 
CHINESE WITHOUT '' NERVES r 19 
 
 have been twelve hours struggling under its ex- 
 cessive load through the congested alleys. When 
 he arrives at his destination, and his burden has 
 to be weighed, measured, and fought over, and 
 haggled for, all of which is no business of his, 
 he squats in an unoccupied space, and goes im- 
 mediately to sleep. It may be for ten minutes, 
 or it may be for an hour. There is very little 
 difference between day and night in Canton. 
 The deep hum of its million workers never ceases. 
 The Chinese sleep when they have nothing else to 
 do ; and they sleep the sleep of the just where a 
 well-bred European dog would not be able to get 
 a *' cat-nap." They can sleep or work in any 
 position, and keep it up for hours at a time. A 
 nervous Chinaman I have never seen, and an ex- 
 hibition of *' nerves " among either gender is 
 unknown. He is never known to take exercise 
 for the sake of exercise. My shroff, or cashier, 
 Ah Choy, has been sitting, bent over a little desk, 
 for thirty years, making out consular invoices. 
 He handles columns of figures, running up into 
 the millions, on his abacus, making the most deli- 
 cate calculations, while a jabbering, pushing, spit- 
 ting mob of coolie runners from the big hongs 
 crowd his elbows. He works calmly on, day after 
 day, in the same cramped position, on the same 
 
20 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 uncomfortable bamboo stool, utterly unconscious 
 of his surroundings, never losing his temper, and 
 seldom making a mistake. I know he never took 
 a walk for any purpose other than to save chair- 
 hire, and yet in the four years of my term of 
 office he has never been away from the consulate 
 for a day on acount of sickness. Shortly after I 
 arrived a wave of pity went over me for Ah Choy ; 
 and I spoke to his superior, the interpreter, about 
 his cramped position and long hours of service ; 
 suggested that the Government could afford a 
 respectable office-chair and that the consulate 
 closed officially at five o'clock, p.m. I even inti- 
 mated that Ah Choy had better take the balance 
 of the day for exercise and rest. Interpreter 
 Chinn smiled, and promised to speak to Ah Choy. 
 Choy thanked me, but put it all down as an idio- 
 sincrasy of his new chief. This ended my mis- 
 sionary labors in my own office. Why should he 
 walk when the Government paid for two coolies 
 to do his walking for him ? Why should he take 
 a stated hour to rest when he could sleep at odd 
 minutes with his head cramped down sidewise 
 across a pile of invoices in a position that would 
 strangle a man with " nerves." It is the absence 
 of nerves that enables the Chinese to endure pain 
 as well as toil. Every missionary doctor or hos- 
 
REASON OF TORTURES. 21 
 
 pital surgeon who has worked araong the Chinese 
 relates incidents of operations that have been per- 
 formed without the use of chloroform that are 
 hardly conceivable. Yet in almost every case the 
 Chinaman seemed to experience little pain, and to 
 recover almost immediately. No nation in the 
 world has invented such tortures as the Chinese. 
 Simple punishment, such as confinement with hard 
 labor diversified with twenty strokes of the bam- 
 boo before each meal, would be considered a kind- 
 ness by the coolies so long as the " chow " or food 
 was equal to the poorest of our prison fares. This 
 absence of nerves and ability to suffer is a God- 
 given gift, and makes the Chinese equal to an 
 existence that would blot out the European civili- 
 zation in two generations. One cannot but won- 
 der if, in the struggle for the possession of the 
 earth that is now taking place, the white man 
 of " nerves "may not in the end go down before 
 the yellow man without " nerves." 
 
 If to the American the thought that there is no 
 pubKc spirit, no love of country, no patriotism, 
 among the Chinese is abhorrent, what must the 
 Chinaman, the follower of Confucius, feel when 
 he is told that there is no such thing as filial piety, 
 as defined by his classics, in America ? It is little 
 wonder we are looked upon as " Barbarians " when 
 
22 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 the Chinese are told that, when our sons grow up, 
 they leave the roof-tree, go out into the world, 
 marry, have families without consulting any one, 
 go to distant countries without the parents' con- 
 sent, are not responsible for their father's debts or 
 deeds ; their wives do not become the servants 
 of their husband's mother ; that there is no three- 
 year term of mourning, etc. ; for any one in China 
 can tell you that, " of the hundred virtues, filial 
 conduct is the chief ; that a defect of any virtue 
 when traced to its root is a lack of filial piety." 
 Broadly speaking, filial piety takes the place of 
 patriotism. The worship of ancestors calls upon 
 the descendants to protect, worship, and visit the 
 tombs of the ancestors. It requires that the par- 
 ents should be served while they live, and be wor- 
 shiped when dead. It makes sacred any soil in 
 which the dead rests. One of the most dangerous 
 mobs that ever occurred in Singapore, while I was 
 there, was caused by the British authorities legis- 
 lating to remove a Chinese burial-ground for mu- 
 nicipal purposes. The government was to do it 
 at its own expense ; but this did not meet the ob- 
 jection, for no one in Singapore knew who lay in 
 hundreds of the graves. A son, however, in Aus- 
 tralia, Borneo, or America knew; and w^hen he 
 returned in one year or three to worship at the 
 
FILIAL PIETT. 23 
 
 tomb of his father, or possibly to convey the ashes 
 to his ancestral temple in Honam, how was he to 
 identify his dead among the hundreds that were 
 removed ? His " face " would be lost, his luck 
 gone, his ancestors angry. A wealthy Chinese 
 merchant from Chicago, who spoke English and 
 had lived since 1882 in the United States, came 
 into my office one morning to see if I could aid 
 him to get his father out of prison in Wuchow. 
 After a long conversation I discovered that some 
 returning Chinaman from Chicago had boasted to 
 the Wuchow mandarin of the wealth of his old 
 schoolfellow in Chicago. The mandarin was evi- 
 dently envious ; so, when one of the numerous 
 clan fights occurred in which several onlookers 
 were killed, he ordered that the father and brother 
 of the Chicago Chinaman should be imprisoned for 
 complicity in the murder. They were, however, 
 notified that on the payment of one thousand taels 
 they would be released. My informer had imme- 
 diately sent the money from Chicago, but it had 
 had no other effect than a summons from the 
 mandarin to appear before him to answer the 
 charge of having incited the murder. He dared 
 neither refuse the summons nor appear in the man- 
 darin's Yamen. In the first instance all his family 
 would be executed, and he would not be permitted 
 
24 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 to worship, or to have his body deposited in the 
 ancestral temple ; and in the second instance he 
 was perfectly sure he would never be allowed to 
 leave the Yamen until he had been " squeezed " 
 of every cash, and then the chances were that his 
 sacrifices would avail him little. This case is but 
 a sample one of dozens that have come under my 
 observation, and is a fair example of the tremen- 
 dous hold that Chinese officialdom has upon the 
 people through this mistaken idea of filial piety. 
 For three thousand years of Chinese history offi- 
 cials were supposed to be promoted in government 
 service for their filial piety and the purity of their 
 characters. Mencius ruled that " There are three 
 things which are unfilial, and to have no posterity 
 is the greatest of them." Hence the custom of 
 child marriages comes naturally, and is followed 
 by the custom of divorce and concubinage when a 
 wife fails to present her husband with a son. A 
 discharged sailor of Dewey's flagship was married 
 in my presence to a comely Chinese girl. He left 
 her a few months later, and the young wife came 
 to me with her sad tale. She kept mentioning 
 her children, and asking how she was to provide 
 for them, as they were large enough to go to 
 school. At last it occurred to me that it was 
 strange that she should be the mother of full- 
 
THE WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS, 25 
 
 grown children, and I asked her if she had been 
 married before. She replied quite unconcernedly 
 in the negative. In my position of father confessor 
 I inquired " How you catchy children?" She an- 
 swered, " My buy two piecy boy long time." It 
 seemed that the girl had not married until she 
 was twenty years of age. Having practically 
 given up all hope of marriage, she had bought two 
 baby boys and adopted them, as she naively ex- 
 plained : " No got son, how can get chow when 
 my get old." The boys were her insurance policy 
 for this life and her hold on the next, for she was 
 preserving tlie line of her ancestors. She, like 
 thousands of others, had no particular means with 
 which to provide for the babies when she adopted 
 them, and now she had still less; yet some how she 
 would struggle along until her boys are grown, 
 and then the heaviest yoke in China would fall on 
 their shoulders, and they would have to take up 
 the burden of filial piety in all its ramifications. 
 The worship of ancestors is the true religion of 
 China, and is to a greater extent responsible for 
 the uninterrupted progress of China's national 
 life than any other one thing. It chains the gene- 
 rations of to-day to the generations of the Shun 
 dynasty. It creates a fatherland of tombs that 
 never releases its sons, and calls them from New 
 
26 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 York, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, and from my servants' 
 quarters in Hong Kong, to render the same obei- 
 sance to the shade of the dead as the worshiper 
 expects from his son when his bones rest in the 
 ancestral temple. 
 
 The famous general, Chau Pau, was sent by 
 the Emperor Ling Ti, in A. d. 177, to reduce the 
 fierce Sienpi. On the march his mother was 
 seized ; and when the two armies confronted each 
 other, the Sienpi placed the old lady in the front 
 rank, and threatened to murder her unless the son 
 submitted. Chau Pau had to chose between his 
 emperor and country and his mother. His loyalty 
 to the emperor prevailed, and his mother was bar- 
 barously murdered before his very eyes. Chau 
 Pau won the battle that followed, but he had lost 
 all hope of happiness in the next world. He died 
 shortly afterwards of grief and horror at his posi- 
 tion, saying " If I had betrayed my country, I 
 should have been disloyal. I have been the cause, 
 however, of my mother's death, and so I have 
 been unfilial. I bartered my soul for the applause 
 of my king." Nearly seven hundred years later, 
 during the Tang dynasty, a man was tried for the 
 murder of a man who had killed his father. The 
 judge decided : " If we put him to death, there is 
 the danger that we shall do a grievous injury to the 
 
CONSERVATISM INGRAINED. 27 
 
 filial sentiment in men, and deter them from doing 
 any thing to avenge the wrongs done to their 
 parents. On the other hand, if he is not punished, 
 we shall encourage violent acts in the community, 
 and men will be taking the law into their own 
 hands, and filling society with bloodshed." The 
 case was compromised by the filial murderer's 
 banishment, and thus the teachings of the Con- 
 fucian classics were reconciled to the laws of the 
 land. 
 
 The Chinese may be styled a religious people. 
 In a large way they recognize a supreme being ; 
 but, as has been said, ancestral worship has blotted 
 out the face of God, and made gods of dead rela- 
 tives. 
 
 We use the term conservative and conservatism 
 in America, but until you live in China they have 
 no real significance. Chinese conservatism means 
 that everything is done by rule, and in most in- 
 stances the rule is from two thousand to six thou- 
 sand years old ; hence it is hallowed by age and 
 association. You will not be long in China before 
 you discover that your ways and the ways of 
 China do not run along parallel lines. On the 
 first day of November all your servants go from 
 white into blue clothes. Ask the reason, and you 
 are informed that cold weather has come, although 
 
28 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the thermometer may stand 85° in the shade, or it 
 may be that it has been cold enough for grate-fires 
 for ten days. On the first of May the blue is dis- 
 carded for white, and hot weather has arrived in 
 spite of your own winter clothes. The head of 
 the house offered our laundryman fifty cents a 
 month extra if he would sprinkle her clothes with 
 his hands instead of with his mouth. He ac- 
 cepted the fifty cents gladly, but continued his 
 good old ways. An offer of one dollar a month 
 had no better effect. Since the Spanish- American 
 War American mercantile firms have sent out 
 their agents to try and capture a portion of the 
 presumably large trade of China. The Chinese 
 merchants received them politely, and gave them 
 permission to consign any and all goods they 
 wished to on commission. It made no difference 
 whether the goods were steam-engines or curling- 
 irons ; they would be received if the freight were 
 prepaid, but as for actually buying the things, or 
 helping to introduce any new American product 
 or invention, that was not to be thought of. It 
 was not long before the ambitious American 
 exporter discovered that he must either open 
 his own agency, or give up all hopes of entering 
 the field. Chinese conservatism they found was 
 an unsurmountable barrier. The literary man 
 
CONSERVATISM IN LITERATURE, 29 
 
 ranks all other professions in China ; but, unlike 
 our literary men, he is very seldom a producer of 
 original literature. He is merely a student of the 
 classics. Conservatism in literature is even more 
 pronounced than in trade. The writings of Con- 
 fucius and Mencius, commentaries on them, the 
 book of historical documents, the " Shoo King," or 
 " Book of History," are the same to-day as they 
 were five hundred years before Christ, when Con- 
 fucius made them to please his own fancy. They 
 comprise the curriculum of the universities, and 
 the winner of the Bachelor of Arts Degree at the 
 time of Christ would still be able to earn his 
 degree at the triennial examinations at Canton or 
 Peking to-day. Yet one has no right to laugh at 
 a conservatism in literature that has moulded a 
 race and built up a system of government that 
 has lived to see the civihzation of Egypt, Greece, 
 and Rome decay. You never hear of a "lost 
 art " in China. It took a complete overturning of 
 China, and changed the dynasty, to introduce the 
 queue, and it will take a revolution and a change 
 of dynasty to abolish it. The American firm that 
 wrote me they were sending out a representa- 
 tive " to introduce their superior table cutlery " 
 did not realize that their representative should be 
 accompanied by a line of battle-ships and an army 
 
30 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 of invasion. When the knife and fork supplant 
 the chopsticks, a new dynasty will sit on the 
 dragon throne, and China will have entered upon 
 a new chapter of its history. Mahomet might 
 have made Mahommedanism the state religion of 
 China with the aid of the cimeter, but once es- 
 tablished it would require the modern missionary 
 with a maxim gun to displace it. Christ has 
 commanded that we shall go forth to preach his 
 gospel to all the world. The Christian mission- 
 ary in China has to fight ^vith Chinese conserva- 
 tism rather than Chinese infidelism or paganism. 
 Buddhism came to China by royal invitation, and 
 soon made a place for itself by the side of Taoism; 
 and the two religions ran along side by side 
 on the most friendly terms. The Chinaman is 
 entirely impartial in his choice of religions. If 
 his prayers are not answered in the Buddhist 
 temple he will simply step across the street and 
 burn twice as many joss-sticks and paper prayers 
 in a taoist. With all their superstition, their run- 
 ning after strange gods and ancestral worsliip, the 
 Chinese believe in a Supreme Being, and their 
 history from mythical and legendary periods is 
 filled with noble examples of self-sacrifice and 
 religious fervor, many of which parallel the acts 
 of the Old Testament kings. Tang, who ruled 
 
EXAMPLES OF SELF-SACRIFICE, 31 
 
 1776 years B.C., delivered his nation from a most 
 grievous drought by offering himself as a sacrifice 
 to the Supreme Being if his people might be 
 saved. After praying all night in a mulberry 
 grove his faith was rewarded, and a copious rain 
 fell for hundreds of miles over the dying country. 
 In memory of God's goodness he composed, like 
 the old Israelite kings, an ode of thanksgiving, 
 which is known as " The Great Salvation." The 
 Emperor Kung (b. c. 1401-1373) removed his 
 entire capital from Kingtai in Chihli to Yin, 
 a town north of the Yellow River in Honam, 
 because the country was not prospering, and 
 righteousness was declining, and he Avished to 
 commence over again, and seek purity on virgin 
 soil. Wu Yih, the emperor who first introduced 
 idols as well as the worship of mountains and 
 streams, was struck dead by a shaft of Hghtning 
 while hunting ; and all historians agree that it was 
 a just punishment by Heaven. The introduction 
 of western medicine, in spite of its ability to 
 recommend itself by cures which to the Chinese 
 looked like miracles, finds itself defeated by 
 this selfsame hide-bound conservatism. In Hong 
 Kong the enlightened Chinese merchants have 
 established a hospital in which the patients can 
 choose between Chinese and Western science, and 
 
32 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 be treated by either free of expense. Yet not five 
 per cent of the inmates will permit an English 
 doctor to treat them, even after the Chinese doctor 
 has given them up. Sir Henry Blake, the gov- 
 ernor of this colony, said in November, 1899, at 
 the laying of the foundation stone of the woman's 
 ward : " The record of the Tung Wah Hospital 
 shows that the proportion of cures effected by 
 western methods over Chinese is fifty per cent." 
 
 My "Number One Boy" was looking very sad 
 one morning as he served our breakfast. The 
 mistress asked him if he were sick. "No," he 
 replied in Pidgin English, " my wife he die two 
 hours." By further questioning, we found that 
 the Chinese doctor had given his wife up, and 
 that he was expecting every moment to be notified 
 of her death. The consular surgeon went imme- 
 diately to the bedside of the dying woman, and 
 found that she was suffering from a simple stric- 
 ture of the bladder, and that the Chinese M.D. 
 had been dosing her with Ginsing tea and other 
 nostrums that were only hastening the end. An 
 ordinary surgical operation relieved her, and in a 
 few days she was as well as ever. We congratu- 
 lated ourselves that we had at last made one con- 
 vert to Western science, as the " boy " was most 
 grateful and complimentary. A few months later 
 
NEVER CHANGING FASHIONS, 33 
 
 the same boy announced that his baby, a dear 
 little tot, was about to die, and that the Chinese 
 doctor had given it up. We were disgusted, and 
 told the boy what we thought, — among other 
 things, declaring that he was little better than a 
 murderer. The child was not too far gone to be 
 saved by earthly aid, and the education of science 
 triumphed again. 
 
 The fashion in mandarin's clothes and insignia 
 was introduced by Topa in a.d. 404, and the 
 fashion has never changed. King Topa might 
 imagine himself in his own court should he return 
 to-day. The civil mandarin of the first rank is 
 known now, as then, by the square embroidered 
 patch on the back and front of his robe, bearing 
 the cunningly worked figure of a Manchurian 
 crane, and by the red coral knob on the top of his 
 cap; the military mandarin by the unicorn and 
 coral knob, and so on down to the tenth or lowest 
 mandarin rank. The fashion in the clothes of 
 the now dominant Anglo-Saxon race has somewhat 
 modified since 404, as has its religion and its social 
 ceremonial ! 
 
 An American going to France studies and 
 strives to master French rules of ceremony and 
 politeness. He may not approve of or see the 
 sense in all that is required of him ; but when he 
 
34 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 is amoJi.g Romans, if he has common sense, he 
 strives to do as the Romans do. A foreigner, 
 however, never takes the trouble to acquaint him- 
 self with Chinese social procedure. It is not 
 necessary or possible to know the three hundred 
 rules of ceremony or the three thousand rules of 
 behavior that are laid down in the classics ; but 
 a few general principles would save us from much 
 of the scorn that is attached to the term " bar- 
 barian," and go far toward lubricating the hinges of 
 the " open door." The punctilio of the Spaniard 
 is yet in its childhood as compared to the code of 
 hoary China. Every act of daily life is governed 
 by well-established forms. I fear that there is little 
 sincerity or heart in many of them; but at the 
 same time, when the Spaniard tells you that his 
 house, and all that it contains, is yours, it never 
 occurs to you to actually dispossess him. A 
 Chinese merchant comes to the consulate to ask 
 for information, and brings you a box of cigars 
 as a present or as an acknowledgment of the 
 trouble he has placed you to. The cigars are 
 Manilas, of the cheapest quality. He is per- 
 fectly aware that you will never smoke one of 
 them ; he would not himself ; but he expects you 
 to accept them. You had no right to expect 
 anything, as what you did was part of your day's 
 
DEFECT OF CHINESE CHARACTER. 35 
 
 work; but he has done the polite thing, and re- 
 lieved himself of all obligations to you. At a 
 wedding the friends of the groom will send bas- 
 kets of impossible cakes or the smallest dried 
 ducks, or half of a pig that has died of disease. 
 The recipient is bound by all the ceremonials of 
 polite behavior to accept them and look grateful, 
 but both parties know that the gifts will be thrown 
 to the beggars as soon as the groom has taken 
 the bride to his home. When calling upon a 
 Chinese mandarin, it is your fault if you do not 
 know that it is time to go when the tea is handed 
 round. If you are not aware that it is a mark of 
 disrespect for your servants to come into your 
 presence with their queues twisted about their 
 heads, so much the worse for you. 
 
 A Chinaman is intensely curious, but at the 
 same time he " minds his own business." In Amer- 
 ica, minding one's business is considered a virtue ; 
 but in China it is one of the defects of the 
 Chinese character, personal and national. The 
 Chinaman is absolutely lacking in sympathy, 
 charity, and is utterly indifferent as to the fate 
 of his neighbor, the neighboring city, or any- 
 thing in the body politic that does not actually 
 touch him. The history of China is filled with 
 examples of disasters, brought on by this un- 
 
36 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 sympathetic system of minding one's own busi- 
 ness. It has made every rebellion possible, and 
 been a great factor in the overthrow of dynasties. 
 It encourages piracy, and protects dishonest offi- 
 cials. What is somebody's business is nobody's. 
 A general raises the standard of revolt and cap- 
 tures a city. A city ten miles removed looks on 
 with absolute indifference to the horrors of the oc- 
 cupation, knowing full well that its turn will come 
 next, and also that if the two cities had united 
 their forces they could have put down the rebels. 
 With his reenforcements the victor moves on the 
 next city in his way, and so on until he is master 
 of an entire province. The adjoining province 
 minds its own business ; and when the rebel has 
 perfected all his plans, he marches into it, and re- 
 duces it city by city. It is not until his power 
 has become formidable that the throne deigns to 
 notice him ; and then, if he cannot be bought off 
 with a dukedom or secretly assassinated, a battle 
 is fought that generally decides in one day the 
 fate of the dynasty. The Taiping rebellion could 
 have been crushed in its infancy, had it been 
 any one's business to have done so. When the 
 Chinese fleet surrendered to the Japanese after 
 the battle of Yalu, one of the Chinese men-of- 
 war asked to be exempted from the surrender as 
 
''MINDING ONES BUS IN ESS r 37 
 
 it belonged to the Southern division, and was in 
 the fight by mistake, which was literally none of 
 its business. A Chinaman snatched the watch of 
 a Portuguese in Glenealy Road, two minutes' walk 
 from the consular building. There were dozens 
 of coolies passing at the time ; but no one inter- 
 fered, and the thief paid no more attention to 
 them than if they were wooden images. The 
 victim heard one of the onlookers remark as he 
 was passing, " That was a Bold thing to do ! " In 
 crossing the Johore Straits I saw a sampan upset, 
 and the occupant, who could not swim, slowly 
 drown in the presence of a half-dozen passing 
 sampans. Of course there are always other rea- 
 sons than that of " minding one's business." 
 Chinese reasons are many, and not always clear 
 to the Occidental. The rescuer might have been 
 interfering with fate, or the man might have 
 wanted to die, and the rescuer would have become 
 responsible for his support during the rest of his 
 natural life. 
 
 The struggle for existence is too intense, too 
 real, for one man to devote any time or sympathy 
 to the business or sorrows of another. From the 
 throne to the hovel it is always a question of the 
 survival of the fittest. The weak perish, and do 
 so resignedly. It is fate. Outside of the imperial 
 
38 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 circle, there is no such thing as politics in the 
 empire. The voice of the people is nothing, 
 simply because the people will not raise their 
 voice. They are in a sense as cruel to themselves 
 as they are to one another. The triennial exam- 
 inations at Canton are public exhibitions of the en- 
 durance, conservatism, and cruelty of the Chinese 
 to themselves. Boys twenty years of age and old 
 men of ninety are huddled together in a thousand 
 stone cells or stalls not fit for a cow, eating, sleep- 
 ing, or working on cold or hot, wet or burning 
 stones as the case may be, cramped and uncom- 
 fortable, taxing their mental and physical endu- 
 rance to the breaking limit ; coming out haggard, 
 disheveled, many prostrated, and some as corpses, 
 a pitiful expose of the lack of human kindness 
 in their characters. The " prize-man " may later 
 become viceroy of Canton, but he does nothing to 
 better the condition of the examination hall. He 
 suffered, let others do the same. This cruel in- 
 difference on the other hand has been of the 
 greatest protection to travelers and missionaries 
 in China. As a general proposition, the mission- 
 aries have been left too much to themselves by 
 the surrounding population to make success in 
 their profession possible. Missionaries have been 
 massacred and missions burned, but nine times 
 
LACK OF SYMPATHY, 39 
 
 out of ten it has been on account of some form 
 of insane fear rather than from pure cruelty. 
 The Chinese have been told that missionaries eat 
 children or dissect them, or that their presence is 
 responsible for a flood, a famine, or a plague. In 
 California I have seen all the Chinese driven out 
 of a town by a civilized mob, because they worked 
 cheaper and lived cheaper than the members of 
 the mob. White men are never stoned or de- 
 ported in China for commercial reasons. Last 
 year the viceroy of the Two Kwangs forbade the 
 importation of kerosene-oil in the West River 
 district, and for a time killed the industry. The 
 crops failed that year, and the farmers believed 
 that the soil had been poisoned by the spilling of 
 the new barbarian oil on the ground. The entire 
 population went back to the use of peanut-oil ; 
 but they soon realized the difference by compari- 
 son, and now kerosene-oil has obtained a foot> 
 hold from which it can never be dislodged. 
 
 The Chinese have a remarkable sense of humor, 
 even if it takes a cruel form. Ask a Chinaman 
 the best of two roads to a town and he will 
 invariably recommend the worst and longest, and 
 consider it a good joke. A workman falls from 
 a bamboo scaffold and breaks his leg. Immedi- 
 ately every other workman will stop and laugh, 
 
40 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 as though it were the best joke of the season. 
 Lieutenant Kirkpatrick Brice, who was of Gen- 
 eral Parsons's party in surveying the line of the 
 Canton-Hankow Railway, told me that when they 
 stopped at a village at night the natives gath- 
 ered round by the hundred interfering with their 
 work and movements ; they soon found that it 
 was dangerous to try to drive them back, but, 
 instead, one of their party would suddenly seize 
 upon one of the villagers, and pitch him into 
 a mud-hole or a stream. This would cause a 
 tremendous laugh, and afterwards every one w^as 
 good-natured. A deformed Chinaman is the sub- 
 ject of endless jokes and ceaseless mirth. The 
 colliding of two Chinese rickshaws is a standing 
 joke in the Treaty Ports ; while a hawker being 
 led to jail by his queue becomes a target for all 
 the wits along the entire route. The lamenta- 
 tions of Jeremiah would have been impossible in 
 China. They would have been preserved as an 
 example, by some humorous Confucius, of his 
 nation's superior method of ridiculing someone 
 else's misery. 
 
 To one who has lived in China for ten years 
 or more there is practically no limit to an article 
 dealing with the character of the Chinese. One 
 thought suggests another until the entire book is 
 
CHINESE PECULIARITIES. il 
 
 too short to chronicle what one sees around him 
 from day to day. Whoever attempts to write 
 a chapter on Chinese peculiarities can feel per- 
 fectly certain that it will be skipped by the 
 old residents of China, with the comment that it 
 is superficial ; and the writer's only hope is that 
 this brief essay will, in some measure, form as an 
 introduction of China to a nation that is rapidly 
 becoming one of the great factors in international 
 diplomacy. 
 
42 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 III. 
 
 FROM FUH-HI TO CONFUCIUS. 
 
 [2852 B.C. TO 478 B.C.] 
 
 THERE is an indefiniteness regarding the 
 first thousand years of Chinese history 
 that 1 fear has proven a temptation 
 that most tellers of China's story could not resist. 
 Even the exemplary Confucius was unable to 
 withstand the opportunity to create out of this 
 legendary period a few chapters from which he 
 could point a moral and adorn a tale. The 
 Chinese historical writers knew the full value of 
 having their "novel" open so as to catch the 
 public attention. The emperors, Yau and Shun, 
 who reigned from B.C. 2356-2205 are as familiar 
 personages in the daily conversation of every 
 Chinese school-boy as are Washington and Lincoln 
 in that of the Americans. Their deeds and lives 
 stand out as shining examples to emperors and 
 peasants. They were blessed with every virtue, 
 and were credited with the highest administrative 
 abilities. They " never told a lie," and as far as 
 
THE FOUNDERS OF CHINA, 43 
 
 we know they never made a mistake. They may 
 be considered historically the founders of the 
 Empire of China, as they are so accepted by 
 Chinese historians. Yet outside of the mere fact 
 that these two worthies actually lived and ruled 
 wisely, they are both the clever creations of Con- 
 fucius and his distinguished disciple Mencius. 
 Confucius was a worshiper of ancestors ; and as 
 long as he had the opportunity of fitting out his 
 nation with ancestors, it is certainly commendable 
 that he gave them such respectable ones. In 
 doing so he also gave his people a " Golden Age," 
 and quite properly placed it so far back that no 
 one outside of China could dispute it, and no one 
 in China would dare. 
 
 Following in the footsteps of Confucius, I think 
 it only fair to start the sons of Shem from the 
 rich basin of the Euphrates, the mother of all 
 races, and allow them to gradually work northeast 
 to the richer basin of the Yellow River. Like the 
 Chaldeans and the Israelites they were a pastoral 
 people ; but as they found the country preempted 
 by " squatters " of other races, which necessitated 
 fierce wars, they were soon forced to cultivate the 
 soil ; and three thousand years before Christ we 
 find records of the weaving of garments from flax, 
 the planting of mulberry-trees, and the establish- 
 
44 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 ment of fairs where the farmers could congregate 
 and barter. 
 
 The period which barbarian historians have pro- 
 fanely styled the mythical commenced with the 
 hewing out of the earth and the heavens by the 
 hard-working, but very homely god, Pan-ku. He 
 is the hero of the Chinese cosmogony; and his 
 statue, which is to be found in every Chinese 
 home, represents him with an ax in one hand and 
 a chisel in the other striking at the dome above. 
 Three dynasties followed, each reigning for eighteen 
 thousand years, and each of these labored to de- 
 velop Pan-ku's masterpiece and make it habitable. 
 
 Contemporaneous history of China commences 
 with the reign of Fuh-hi, 2852 B.C. Thereafter 
 the kings were men, and the mythical developed 
 into the legendary. The fables of this early period 
 are not as cleverly pictured as those of corre- 
 sponding periods in Egyptian, Greek, or Eoman 
 history, but they are characteristically as interest- 
 ing, and in many particulars strangely similar. 
 Fuh-hi instituted the laws of marriage, taught men 
 how to fish with nets and to rear domestic animals. 
 He invented the lute and the lyre that his people 
 might be charmed with music, and so enabled them 
 to bear more cheerfully the burdens of life. He 
 established family names, and devised the system of 
 
THE GREAT TU. 45 
 
 writing by Chinese characters. His modesty for- 
 bade him to claim any credit for these beneficial 
 inventions, and he gave full glory for them to a 
 dragon-horse that came from out the Yellow River 
 bearing a scroll on its back. Hence to this day 
 the imperial insignia is the dragon, and the im- 
 perial throne is known as the " dragon throne." 
 
 It is pleasant to hnger over the records of the 
 kings that succeeded Fuh-hi, as the good they did 
 has lived after them, and the evil has been buried 
 in their tombs. They worked singly for the up- 
 building of their people, and whatever evil acts are 
 recorded of them serve only the more vividly to 
 bring out the disinterestedness of their lives. Dur- 
 ing the reign of the Great Yu (b.c. 2205-2197) 
 occurred the tremendous overflow of China's sor- 
 row, the Yellow River, of which Yu recorded "how 
 destructive are the waters of the inundation. They 
 envelop the mountains, and rise higher than the 
 hills, and they threaten the very heavens, so the 
 people complain." This is a description which 
 the vast stream has lived up to ever since. The 
 discovery of the manufacture of wines caused this 
 old sage to remark after he recovered from the 
 effects of his first spree : " The days will come 
 when some of my successors through drinking this 
 will cause infinite sorrow to the nation." Where- 
 
46 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 upon he promptly banished the unfortunate discov- 
 erer from the country as a dangerous character. 
 
 Whether it was the too frequent use of this new- 
 found drink, or simply despair of ever being able 
 to Hve up to the high standard set by Yu, it is 
 sufficient to know that his sixteen successors 
 degenerated with mathematical precision. Had 
 the succession to the throne remained as before the 
 death of Yu, a reward to the most distinguished 
 and best quahfied man, without regard to rank or 
 family, it is possible that the dynasty of Hsai 
 would still be on the dragon throne. As Yau 
 chose Shun, one of the people, to succeed him, so 
 Yu desired that his place be taken by Yih, a man 
 of vast ability and probity ; but the feudal princes 
 voted to place Ki, the son of Yu, on the throne, 
 and the hereditary principle was established. 
 
 In spite of the cruelty and debauchery of Yu's 
 successors the people did not rebel. It remained, 
 however, for a woman, Meihi, wife of the Emperor 
 Kwei (B.C. 1818-1766), to pile on the straw that 
 broke the camel's back. Meihi, the peerless, was 
 the daughter of the chief of Shih. Her beauty was 
 of the queenly type that conquered men's minds 
 and their passions also. She seldom smiled, but 
 when she did it was with a purpose ; and no man 
 could stand before the longing that possessed 
 
MEIHI, THE PEERLESS. 47 
 
 him. The soldier was ready to die to win one 
 more smile, one more glance, from the veiled eyes. 
 The student forgot his books, and considered them 
 worthless, as they revealed no; icharm whereby he 
 might win one sign from the parted lips. Yet 
 morally Meihi was more base than Cleopatra. 
 She loved no man ; she used all ; and she wrecked 
 a dynasty. 
 
 The emperor was her slave. He built her a 
 palace of jade, onyx, and gold, surrounded it with 
 splendid gardens, filled with every costly flower 
 and shrub and rare animal that his empire con- 
 tained. There were grottos and dells, artificial 
 lakes and waterfalls, baths of scented waters, 
 bits of wild forest in which spotted deer roamed 
 and birds from all climes sung. The orgies 
 of this fairy-land filled the nation with dis- 
 gust. At night the trees would be lighted, a 
 lake filled with wine, shrubbery hung with confec- 
 tions, and thousands of naked, dissolute men and 
 women would sport about the grounds, dance to 
 the lyre and the lute, or rush into the lake of 
 wine, and drink until drunk or drowned. Because 
 the prince of Shang remonstrated, the emperor 
 built an underground palace, where for a month 
 at a time his dissolute court would disappear, and 
 indulge in the wildest debauchery. Finding words 
 
48 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 and warnings vain, Tang, the prince of Shang, re- 
 sorted to sterner methods, and placed the crown 
 on his own brow, thereby founding the Shang 
 dynasty, which ruled for over six hundred years 
 (B.C. 1766-1122), and which, curiously enough, 
 was wrecked by a woman under almost similar 
 circumstances to those just narrated. 
 
 The virtuous Tang was succeeded by twenty- 
 eight emperors, who, with two exceptions, tried to 
 excel each other in cruelty and wickedness. One 
 of them, Wu Yih, has the distinction of introdu- 
 cing idols (B.C. 1199-1194) into China. He did 
 this to show his utter unbelief in God and all 
 religion. Then, to show his contempt for these 
 figures of wood and clay, he ordered the bonzes 
 to fight with them to prove that the gods whose 
 counterfeit presentment they were could not pro- 
 tect themselves. 
 
 The Nemesis of the Shang dynasty was Taki, 
 the companion of the last emperor. Chow Sin, and 
 the most beautiful woman in Chinese history 
 since Meihi. If the historical accounts are true, 
 Takai exceeded Meihi both in beauty and general 
 wickedness. She was more than licentious, — she 
 was cruel for the pleasure it gave her. She was 
 Cleopatra, Lucretia Borgia, and Catharine in one. 
 Her beauty was so great that when it was ordered 
 
TAKI AND THE STAG TOWER, 49 
 
 that she should pay the penalty of her sins, no 
 one could be found who could stand up before her 
 eyes and carry out the sentence. The victorious 
 General Fa sent soldier after soldier to her prison ; 
 but each returned, declaring that he could not raise 
 his hand to disfigure such divine beauty. Fa was 
 afraid to trust himself, and at length dispatched 
 an aged councilor, who covered his own face, and 
 dealt the fatal blow. The popular belief through- 
 out China to-day is, that she was a human incar- 
 nation of a wolf-demon. Many of the licentious 
 songs of the Chinese are reputed to have been 
 composed for Taki. The emperor built for her 
 the famous " Stag Tower," which afterwards be- 
 came his funeral pyre. It took seven years to 
 erect the Stag Tower, which was more than a 
 mile square, and was surrounded by a vast park. 
 He built other palaces, that taxed the empire 
 to the very limit, and in the building of which 
 thousands of lives were sacrificed through over- 
 work and privation. Watching the workmen in 
 one of the parks, the empress noticed that in 
 fording an artificial stream of cold spring water 
 the young men seemed to feel the cold more 
 than the old. Taki argued that the reason for 
 this was that the young men had more marrow in 
 their bones. The emperor was not convinced ; and 
 
50 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 to satisfy himself he ordered his guards to seize a 
 number of both young and old and break their 
 legs so that his doubts might be at rest. All the 
 orgies of Meihi were imitated and exaggerated by 
 this precious couple. 
 
 The punishment for such crimes and abuse of 
 power was not only death, but the loss of throne ; 
 and as the end of every Chinese dynasty has been 
 brought about through the cruelty or weakness of 
 its representatives, so the inauguration of each 
 new dynasty has for a time meant reforms and 
 good times. The founder of the Chow dynast}^ 
 (b. c. 1122-255) ranks with the great founders 
 of the Hai and Shang dynasties. The Emperor 
 Wu Wang, the first of the Chows, if on the 
 dragon throne to-day, would settle the perplexed 
 question of China's future. With a man of 
 his caliber, activity, and honesty at the helm 
 backed by a united empire, there would be little 
 need for international interference. One of the 
 sages has remarked that the king is the dish, 
 and the people the water ; if the dish is round so 
 will the water be. Wu Wang found the nation 
 in much worse straits than Kwangsu, the present 
 emperor, found it when he mounted the throne. 
 The people, however, soon discovered that Wu 
 Wang was honest in his reforms, and that his laws 
 
THE FIRST OF THE CHOWS, 51 
 
 were for the great as well as for the small ; and 
 they united to hold up his hands and second 
 every act. Wu, like William the Conqueror, es- 
 tablished the feudal system in China by dividing 
 his kingdom among his lieutenants, and bestowing 
 upon them titles of nobility. He subdivided these 
 estates into allotments on which ten families 
 should reside, and to meet the expenses of the 
 empire put in force the tithing-system. He estab- 
 lished free schools, built homes for the aged and 
 infirm, and carried out reforms with a firm but just 
 hand in every department of his vast empire. 
 His fame spread beyond his dominions, and em- 
 bassies from Korea and Cochin-China waited upon 
 him, and the wild tribes of Tartary and the fron- 
 tier sent him tribute. 
 
 In sweeping the augean stables of the last of 
 the Shang kings, Wu accomplished what is con- 
 sidered, in the case of the present dynasty, impos- 
 sible, by the concert of civilized nations. He 
 proved that the dwarfed and stunted tree of 
 national life could be made to blossom and bear 
 good fruit if intelligently and patiently watered 
 and nurtured. China's history is forever repeating 
 itself, and it is possible that the regeneration of the 
 China of to-day will come from within rather than 
 from without. Fortunately for the nation Wu 
 
52 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 was succeeded by an able son, who for tliirty-eight 
 years worked with his famous uncle, the great 
 duke of Chow, to carry on and finish the work of 
 his illustrious father. Wu, however, made one 
 great fatal mistake, in the establishment of the 
 feudal system ; a mistake which in China, as in 
 Europe, has caused more bloodshed, oppression, 
 and misery, than any other one institution in the 
 world's history. It created an excuse for wars that 
 had not before existed, distracted and disruptured 
 the empire, destroyed what little national patriotism 
 there was, and quadrupled the taxation of the people. 
 Emperor after emperor was forced to enter into 
 treaties and compacts with his own vassals in 
 order to save his throne from the grasp of some 
 ambitious vassal, or he was forced to sit quietly 
 by while the great dukes of Chow or Tsin or 
 Sung made unrighteous wars on a weaker duke 
 or princeling, or hj force major absorbed his terri- 
 tory and confiscated his revenues. From time to 
 time there would be a strong emperor like Chau 
 Sing who would reduce the factious and rebellious 
 princes to a state of masked submission, but it 
 was a fight, veiled or otherwise, that only ended 
 with the death of one or other of the contestants. 
 There were centuries when the emperor of China 
 was merely a man and a name, whom the powerful 
 
FEUDALISM IN CHINA. 63 
 
 princes indifferently tolerated, and whose title they 
 would protect or attack as it suited their interests. 
 Following the reign of Mu (B.C. 1001-946), to 
 whom belongs the honor of further debasing the 
 morals of the people by introducing a regular scale 
 of prices for crimes in the place of the penal code, 
 the feudal princes, who styled themselves kings, 
 became the real power, and the empire was little 
 more than a confederacy of loosely bound states. 
 
 The feudal times of Europe were reproduced in 
 China ; and the great lords raised up and threw 
 down emperors, took the reins of power into their 
 own hands, and made the history of the epoch the 
 narration of their own petty quarrels and bicker- 
 ings. In China as in Europe feudalism developed 
 great captains and daring robber-barons. It created 
 a so-called age of chivalry, but ground down the 
 common people, fostered ignorance, and hindered 
 progress. One of the heroic characters of this age 
 was the duke of Shau, who, when the cruelties of 
 the Emperor Li caused the people to rise in rebel- 
 lion and demand the life of the crown prince as 
 penalty for his father's crimes, took his OAvn son 
 and heir, dressed him in royal robes, and delivered 
 him to the mob, who tore him to pieces believing 
 him to be the heir apparent. Li employed a wizard 
 to point out persons in his court and on the street 
 
54 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 who spoke disrespectfully of him behind his hack. 
 Every denunciation meant death. The people 
 were reduced to such a state of terror that they 
 dared not address each other on the merest subject, 
 and almost universal silence reigned at the capital. 
 The emperor sneeringly remarked to the Duke of 
 Shau, " I have stopped the profane talk of my 
 people, and given them a lesson in good manners." 
 
 " You have only dammed up the words in their 
 hearts," he replied, " and that is a dangerous thing 
 even for a king to do ; when the waters of a river 
 are obstructed, they will by and by carry every 
 thing before them." 
 
 In the midst of times like those of which Men- 
 cius writes, "the Royal Ordinances are violated, 
 the people are oppressed, and the supplies of food 
 and drink flow away like water," Confucius was 
 born. His birth in the year B.C. 551, was the 
 most momentous event in all Chinese history, as 
 the birth of Christ was the most momentous event 
 in the history of the world. I would not presume 
 to compare the works and teachings of Confucius 
 with those of Christ, neither can there be any just 
 comparison between Confucius and Mahomet. 
 Like Moses and Solon, Confucius was a lawgiver ; 
 and yet he was more than a mere lawgiver; he 
 was a practical philosopher of the Benjamin 
 
CONFUCIUS. 55 
 
 Franklin type, a greater leader than Peter the 
 Hermit, and a teacher second only to Christ. 
 Beyond a few fabulous stories about his birth, 
 there is nothing mythical or legendary in the life 
 of Confucius. His is the one strong, masterful 
 figure in Chinese history, that stands out clear-cut 
 and distinct against a vast background of medi- 
 ocracy and of mythical heroes. His words cannot 
 be judged by our standards, — for their influence 
 appears out of all proportion to our interpretation, 
 — but must be respected in the light of the won- 
 derful changes for the better they have wrought in 
 Chinese life and character. It is almost impos- 
 sible to select from the books of Confucius quota- 
 tions expressing to the Chinese all that the Bible 
 does to us, or that commend themselves to our minds 
 as either simply instructive or deeply profound. 
 Personally I prefer "Poor Richard's Almanac," 
 which only proves the utter hopelessness of recon- 
 ciling Chinese methods of thought to American 
 standards. " Virtue," he teaches, " is the basis of 
 good government." All nations admit this axiom, 
 but the question has always been as to how virtue 
 is to be cultivated. " Virtue," Confucius adds, 
 "consists, first, in procuring for the people the 
 things necessary for their sustenance . . . the 
 ruler must also think of rendering them virtuous. 
 
56 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 and of preserving them from whatever can injure 
 hfe and health." As to the duty of the people he 
 says: 
 
 " The services of love and reverence to parents 
 when alive, and those of grief and sorrow for 
 them when dead, these completely discharge the 
 fmidamental duty of living men." He saw a 
 woman weeping by the roadside, and sent a dis- 
 ciple to ascertain the cause. " You weep," said 
 the messenger, " as if you had experienced sorrow 
 upon sorrow." " I have," said the woman. " My 
 father-in-law was killed here by a tiger, and my 
 husband also, and now my son has met the same 
 fate." " Why, then, do you not move from this 
 place ? " asked Confucius. " Because here there is 
 no oppressive government," answered the woman. 
 Turning to his disciples, Confucius remarked: 
 " ]My children, remember this, oppressive govern- 
 ment is fiercer than a tiger." A very natural 
 deduction, and one that commends itself to the 
 experience of every Chinaman who has been un- 
 fortunate enough to get into a magistrate's yamen. 
 Confucius had himself been a magistrate, and 
 knew whereof he talked. As a magistrate, he re- 
 formed not only the entire judiciary of his state, 
 but introduced most drastic moral reforms, and 
 made laws in reference to both the living and the 
 
REFORMER AND DIPLOMAT. 57 
 
 dead. He arranged that the dependent aged 
 should be cared for, and that all labor should be 
 allotted according to the physical strength of the 
 workers — the weaklings might braid mats, while 
 the strong carried bricks — so all men labored 
 according to their capacities and strength. He 
 ordered that men and women in walking on the 
 public roads should take different sides, so that 
 there should be no promiscuous mingling of the 
 sexes. He decreed that valuables that might 
 have been dropped by the way should not be 
 picked up by the passer-by, but be left to be found 
 by the owner. He would not permit bad work or 
 shoddy materials to be exposed for sale in the 
 market, and reduced the burdensome and lavish 
 expenditure at funerals. His reforms proved so 
 efficacious that other magistrates imitated him, 
 and after one year Confucius was promoted to 
 minister of justice to the Duke Ting. Not only 
 as a reformer and administrator did Confucius 
 shine, but he showed the highest diplomatic abil- 
 ity. He averted a war between the rival states of 
 Lu and Tsi, stopped numerous internecine out- 
 breaks, and made it impossible for ambitious man- 
 darins to raise the standard of revolt by issuing 
 an order that no yamen should contain coats of 
 mail, and that the walls of numerous turbulent 
 
58 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 cities should be reduced in height. Later, as 
 prime minister, he exercised almost royal powers, 
 and made the Dukedom of Lu the model and envy 
 of the entire empire. Unfortunately, Confucius 
 was not a god, nor even a king ; and it was not 
 long before his patron, the Duke Ting, grew tired 
 of being good, and the ungrateful people became 
 weary of the golden rule. The old rival state of 
 Tsi decided to tempt the virtue of the model 
 duke, and sent him as a present eighty beautiful 
 women and one hundred and twenty blooded 
 horses. Confucius vainly urged his duke to re- 
 fuse the gift, and subsequently Confucius resigned 
 his office, and retired from court. Thereafter he 
 devoted himself to compiling, editing, and annotat- 
 ing the literature of China, and of writing out at 
 length his own teachings and pliilosophies. He 
 died in B.C. 478, a natural death — a happiness 
 that rarely came to a public man of the times. A 
 cup of poison or a silk cord, with the compliments 
 of the duke or king, was the usual end of nearly 
 if not quite all the famous statesmen of China to 
 within the last three hundred years. 
 
 Confucius was a sensible, practical, brainy, 
 hard-working statesman and scholar, — a statement 
 that cannot be applied to the long line of empe- 
 rors that insisted on deifying him. He did not 
 
CONFUCIUS, 59 
 
 strive to build up a religion, or to pose as a god 
 or the prophet of a god. Confucianism became 
 one of the mighty religions of the earth through 
 neither the wish nor the fault of the man from 
 whom it derived its name. It became a religion 
 because Confucian philosophy was so much higher, 
 nobler, and purer than the teachings of Buddha 
 or Laotze. The common people understood Con- 
 fucius as the fishermen of Galilee understood 
 Jesus, and they saw that Confucius practiced 
 what he preached. It was a most natural evolu- 
 tion whereby Confucius became a god and his 
 written words a religion, although he himself did 
 not recognize the existence of a living God, and 
 his teachings contained no hint of a future life, 
 either in heaven or in hell. When asked his 
 opinion of death he said, " How can one know 
 death when one does not know life ? " 
 
 " The teaching of Confucianism on human duty," 
 says Dr. Legge, "is wonderful and admirable." 
 It is not perfect, indeed ; " but on the last three 
 of the four things which Confucius delighted to 
 teach — letters, ethics, devotion of soul, and truth- 
 fulness — his utterances are in harmony with both 
 the law and the gospel." " No people," says Mr. 
 Medhurst, " whether of ancient or modern times, 
 has possessed a sacred literature so completely ex- 
 
60 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 empt as the Chinese from licentious descriptions 
 and from every offensive expression. There is 
 not a single sentence in the whole of the Sacred 
 Books and their annotations that may not be read 
 aloud in every family circle. Again, in every 
 other non-Christian country, idolatry has been 
 associated with human sacrifices and with the 
 deification of vice, accompanied by licentious rites 
 and orgies. No sign of all tliis exists in China." 
 
 Beautiful as are these tributes, they might with 
 equal justice be applied to Emerson's " Essays." 
 Both philosophers recognized the practical utility 
 of the golden rule as a national policy, but neither 
 promised anything further, or tried to direct any- 
 thing beyond the mind and heart. Confucius 
 made no promises, like the Bible, of future re- 
 ward for doing good, or held up glittering prizes 
 like Mahomet. He was only a teacher, and taught 
 as best he could the doctrine of sympathy and 
 benevolence, whereby man might live righteously 
 in this present life, be at peace mth his neighbors, 
 and enjoy the happiness of a good conscience. 
 He wrote only of what he knew, or of what he or 
 others had experienced. He had nothing to say 
 of miracles, superstitions, or manifestations, as did 
 the early writers of the Roman Christian church. 
 When questioned regarding supernaturalism, he 
 
THE HOLD OF CONFUCIANISM, 61 
 
 replied : " A superior man does not talk about 
 mysterious powers and supernatural spirits." 
 Confucius, however, believed in good and evil 
 spirits, like all the great scholars of his age, al- 
 though he would not teach or talk of them. He 
 exactly predicted his own death, because of a 
 report that a unicorn had been caught during a 
 hunting expedition of the duke, which he con- 
 sidered an evil omen. 
 
 The wonder of Confucianism is the hold that 
 it has taken on the Chinese race, and on all other 
 races that have come directly under its influence. 
 Even the barbaric Mongols from the wild steppes 
 became easy converts ; and seven hundred years 
 after his death we find the immediate successor of 
 the grea,t Kublai Khan issuing an edict to hold 
 the memory of Confucius in the highest rever- 
 ence, while the next Mongol emperor ordered that 
 the Confucian classic on " Filial Piety " should 
 be translated into the Mongol language. 
 
 To-day the child in China learns his characters 
 from the Confucian classics, and the old man dies 
 with a volume in his hand. The consular inter- 
 preter is a graduate of Yale, and has lived for ten 
 years in the United States ; and yet his little son 
 of eight has a private tutor, who comes every day 
 to instruct him in the writings of the master. 
 
62 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 He will learn English later, but nothing must 
 interfere in his being thoroughly grounded in the 
 Confucian classics. 
 
 I may be repeating myself, but I cannot help 
 impressing upon the minds of American students 
 that as Shakspere is the greatest of English 
 writers, so Confucius is pre-eminently the greatest 
 writer of another civilization ; that he was no pre- 
 tender or sham, or even revolutionist, — he was 
 simply one of the great actual characters of 
 history, and is no more mythological than his 
 contemporaries in the religious and philosophical 
 revival that was at the time sweeping over the 
 pagan world, led by Pythagoras in Greece, Eze- 
 kiel and Daniel among the Jews, Gautama in 
 India, and Zoroaster in Persia. America and Eu- 
 rope will become better acquainted with China 
 and Chinese history in the next generation, and 
 then Confucius will be better understood and 
 honored for himself rather than for the so-called 
 religion of which he was unwittingly the founder. 
 
THE TSIN BTNJSTT. 63 
 
 IV. 
 
 FROM THE TSIN TO THE TANG 
 DYNASTIES. 
 
 [255 B.C. TO 656 A.D.] 
 
 THE example and repeated warnings of 
 Confucius did not save the Chow dynasty. 
 It had become too debased, too licentious, 
 and too effeminate to do more than carry on court 
 intrigue, and plot its own destruction. It, however, 
 will forever remain famous as having produced the 
 three greatest minds in Chinese history, — Laotze 
 (B.C. 604), the founder of the Taoist philosophy; 
 Mencius (B.C. 371), who as a writer and thinker 
 stands only second to Confucius; and Confucius. 
 Around these are grouped a list of distinguished 
 names in war, diplomacy, and literature, whose 
 deeds are still sung, and whose words are still 
 honored. 
 
 There is little of interest in the records of the 
 short-lived Tsin dynasty (b.c. 255-206). Its 
 doings were but a repetition of the acts of the last 
 of the Sungs, — rebellions, murders, court cabals, 
 
64 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 and wars along the frontier. The Emperor Chung 
 shocked the court ceremonial of his age by taking 
 to himself the editorial " AVe " and " Us " in speak- 
 ing of himseK; and when it was pointed out to 
 him that none of his famous predecessors had arro- 
 gated such pompous titles, he modestly replied 
 that he considered his virtues and achievements 
 equal to any three of the quondam sitters on the 
 dragon throne, and consequently it was only right 
 that he should address himself in the plural. Be- 
 cause the scholars persisted in drawing invidious 
 comparisons between himself and the illustrious 
 Yau and Shun, and proved their comparisons by 
 quotations from Confucius and Mencius, Chung 
 issued an order that all the classical works in the 
 empire should be burned ; that if two scholars 
 were found talking together about the classics they 
 were to be put to death ; and that if they were 
 heard expressing their belief that the ancient 
 books and customs were superior to those of to- 
 day, they and their families were to be executed. 
 Soon after, finding that the scholars had not im- 
 plicitly obeyed his orders, he decreed that four 
 hundred and sixty of the most eminent be decapi- 
 tated as a gentle reminder, — an example of press 
 censorship that leaves the newspaper men of the 
 Spanish- American war something to be thankful 
 
THE ''JACKSON'' OF CHINA. 65 
 
 fori Chung, or as he called himself, Hwang-ti, 
 was a hot-headed, sturdy ruler of the General Jack- 
 son type. He believed that the way " to resume 
 specie payments was to resume ; " and when the 
 Tartars became extremely troublesome on the 
 northern borders it occurred to him that it would 
 be less worry and expense to employ his army to 
 erect a wall along the entire frontier than to deci- 
 mate it in meeting the hardy Huns in the field. 
 The wall was completed in five years. It is fifteen 
 hundred miles long, and broad enough for six 
 horsemen to ride abreast. As the builder of the 
 great wall, which has been accounted one of the 
 seven wonders of the world, Chung has written 
 his name by the side of the architects of the pyra- 
 mids and the hanging gardens of Babylon. 
 
 With all his intellect and superb force of char- 
 acter, Chung had his weak points, but he was strong 
 even in them. He had no desire to mount the 
 dragon chariot, and become a guest on high, and 
 he therefore prosecuted the search for an elixir of 
 life with a fierce determination that was worthy of a 
 better cause. He took all kinds of decoctions, and 
 must have been a gold-mine to all the quacks and 
 priests in his dominion. The only result was that 
 Chung commenced to see visions, and discovered 
 his nerves. He called a consultation of doctors; 
 
66 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 and they decided that he was pursued by malig- 
 nant spirits, and that he must arrange to spend his 
 nights so that no one should know in what part of 
 his palace he intended to sleep. Chung did not 
 believe in half-measures ; so he built a palace of 
 a thousand bedrooms, one for each wife, with a 
 great central hall that would seat ten thousand 
 persons. Seven hundred thousand criminals and 
 prisoners were employed in its erection. The 
 scheme worked splendidly, and Chung was able 
 to evade his ghostly pursuers by this game of hide 
 and seek. Unfortunately, however, he grew over- 
 bold in time, and took a tour through his kingdom, 
 during which he became a guest on high in spite 
 of his costly precautions. 
 
 It is to be regretted that none of the vast palaces 
 and mausoleums of which we have record were 
 not allowed to remain like the pyramids of Egypt. 
 Each dynasty or, often, each new emperor signal- 
 ized its or his advent to the throne by destroying 
 all the buildings and monuments of his predeces- 
 sors. It was done as a protest against the extrava- 
 gance of a former reign, and as a promise for the 
 future. The son and successor of Chung built a 
 palace under ground for the reception of his 
 father's body. It was luxurious in the extreme, 
 and adorned with gold, silver, and precious stones. 
 
THE HAN DTNASTT, 67 
 
 When completed several hundreds of the most 
 beautiful of Chung's concubines and their atten- 
 dants were buried with the royal corpse. The 
 building of this vast mausoleum was the last straw 
 that broke the people's back, and the first act of 
 the rebel who overthrew the Tsin dynasty was to 
 plunder and burn both the palace and the tomb. 
 
 The famous Han dynasty, that directed the des- 
 tiny of 400,000,000 people for 427 years (b.c. 
 20G-A.D. 221), came into royal power through 
 bloodshed and crime, and went out in murder, 
 rebellion, and weakness. The details of each 
 reign are sickening, and a description of the in- 
 human cruelties becomes nauseating. It is char- 
 acteristic that the court historian should have 
 dwelt so largely on his nation's crimes, and seemed 
 to gloat and revel in the record of blood and 
 misery. It is only incidentally that we learn of 
 worthy deeds, great inventions, and kindly actions. 
 The one glaring picture that is held up to view is 
 always Nero and the Inquisition. Yet if we give 
 one look and pass on, there are other pictures that 
 shed a luster on the Han dynasty that saves one 
 from entirely forgetting that the Chinese are 
 human after all. 
 
 The action of the Emperor Chung was repudi- 
 ated, and the edict against literature was removed. 
 
68 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 From secure places of hiding came treasured copies 
 of the classics, and from the memories of the old 
 literati were written down the sayings of Confucius 
 and Mencius. The impetus thus given to litera- 
 ture not only reproduced the ancient, but created 
 a new school ; and from nothing the Imperial 
 Library in the next two hundred years amassed 
 3,123 works on the classics, 2,705 on philosophy, 
 and 1,383 on poetry. In B.C. 179, the emperor, 
 Wun Ti, established two royal mints, and fixed the 
 value of the coins. In a succeeding reign the first 
 property tax was promulgated, and everyone was 
 required to submit an estimate of the value of his 
 worldly possessions, and pay into the treasury five 
 per cent. The art of making paper from bamboo 
 was discovered at the end of the first century, A.D., 
 which was quickly followed by the invention of 
 ink. To a Han belongs the credit of having intro- 
 duced his people to Buddhism, and of making it the 
 court religion. Jesus Christ had been dead sixty- 
 five years when the emperor Ming Ti sent ambas- 
 sadors to India in search of a new religion. There 
 was no pretense at conversion, no arguments ad- 
 vanced, no reasons given why all should pin their 
 faith on the new god Fo which the embassy dis- 
 covered. Ming Ti treated the subject in the same 
 offhand manner with which lie revised the criminal 
 
MING TI SEEKS A NEW RELIGION. 69 
 
 law by making it possible to commute capital 
 crimes by money payments. The doctrine of the 
 transmigration of souls amused him, as the scale 
 of rewards and punishments pleased his ministers, 
 and appealed to the popular imagination as it 
 promised a future life. So by a word it was done. 
 Had his ambassadors gone farther, and reached 
 Judea, the same flippant words would have made 
 the gentle teachings of Jesus Christ the religion of 
 China, — a thought so tremendous in its possibili- 
 ties that it makes one stagger to consider it. What 
 would have been the history of China, the history 
 of Asia, the history of the world to-day had some 
 traveler told the emperor the story of the miracle 
 of turning water into wine, or of the loaves and 
 fishes, before he had heard of the Indian sage? 
 What would Christianity have done for the 
 Chinese ? 
 
 In war and diplomacy the Hans left an enviable 
 record. They penetrated and subdued the nations 
 up to the shores of the Caspian Sea. Cochin 
 China and the now famous Liaotung peninsula 
 were reduced to feudatories, Yunnan was added 
 to the empire, and diplomatic relations were 
 established with Turkestan and Arabia. 
 
 Weak as was the last Han, there was still no 
 man strong enough, by himself, to succeed him. 
 
70 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 The dragon throne was a glittering prize that 
 danced before the eyes of each great feudal lord, 
 and brought about a fierce contest that lasted for 
 forty-three years. Like the War of the Roses 
 and the Thirty Years' War, "the War of the 
 Three Kingdoms " is the unfailing inspiration 
 for poet and story-teller. It is a period full of 
 romance and heroism and hard fighting and great 
 generalship, that reminds one of the stories of 
 the Iliad, and of King Arthur and the knights of 
 the Round Table. There were Chinese Glaucuses 
 and Diomeds, Hectors and Ajaxes, and the Chroni- 
 cles of Froissart, and curiously enough literature 
 walked hand in hand with war. It was a golden 
 age for the literati, as the deeds of leaders and 
 heroes furnished them with stirring themes and 
 abmidant materials. The names of the great 
 rival generals, Chu Kuliang and Szemai, are to 
 the Chinese what that of Richard Coeur de Lion 
 is to the English, and Sobieski to the Poles. One 
 incident of their picturesque careers has been the 
 inspiration of as many poems and stories as Eng- 
 lish writers have found in the wanderings of 
 Robert Bruce. Szemai had utterly defeated and 
 cut up Chu Kuliang's army, and forced him to 
 take refuge in the walled city of Hanchung, with 
 only three followers. The great general was, 
 
CHU KULIJNG AND SZEMAL 71 
 
 however, equal to the occasion. As his rival's 
 armies appeared before the walls he ordered the 
 four gates of the city to be thrown open, while he 
 calmly took a position on a tower over the most 
 conspicuous of them, and began to play the guitar. 
 As the enemy appeared they heard with amaze- 
 ment the music, saw the open gates, and looked 
 in vain for the sentinels. Szemai came personally 
 to examine the strange sight, and listened wonder- 
 struck, to hear his crafty old foe sing joyfully 
 to the accompaniment of his instrument. " He 
 seems too happy, does that man," said Szemai, 
 *' for our comfort, and he evidently has some deep- 
 laid scheme in his brain by which he means to 
 bring disaster upon us all." And rather than 
 risk his freshly won laurels he hastily retreated 
 from before Chu Kuliang and his guitar. 
 
 A nephew of the great Szemai ended the age of 
 chivalry and blood, brought the three kingdoms 
 under one head, and established the Western Tsin 
 dynasty (a.d. 265-317). The new emperor 
 established the Salic Law, declaring that, " women 
 should not reign, nor take any part in public 
 matters." A good law, no doubt, as Chinese his- 
 torians aver, but one that the son of Wu Ti found 
 as impossible to put into force as did Adam in the 
 garden, or Antony in Egypt. 
 
72 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 An embassy from the Roman emperor, Theodo- 
 sius, arrived during the reign of Wu Ti, and the 
 making of cloth from cotton was introduced. 
 The Eastern Tsin dynasty broke down from sheer 
 weakness. It produced but one great man, and 
 he became the founder of the Sung dynasty. 
 Added to the usual rebellions which distracted 
 every dynasty, the incursions of Tartars, and 
 " Outer Barbarians," — as all outsiders from the 
 earliest days have been styled, — became more fre- 
 quent and disastrous during the Sungs. Shau Ti, 
 the second ruler of the Sungs, built a wall six 
 hundred miles in length to protect his northern 
 borders, — one of those stupendous undertakings 
 that only the Chinese would project and carry 
 out. 
 
 It is told that, during the wars that the Sungs 
 waged on one of their great feudatory kings, 
 the supplies of the royal army were cut off, and a 
 retreat was ordered in the face of a victorious 
 enemy. The retreat was rapidly becoming a 
 panic, and it was only a question of days when 
 the great army of veterans would become hunted 
 fuo-itives in the wilds of Honan. To avert this 
 calamity General Tautsi resorted to a thoroughly 
 Chinese stratagem. During one night he kept 
 his half -famished soldiers carrying sand in baskets, 
 
A MILITARY STRATEGIST, 73 
 
 and heaping it up by the roadside. As each man 
 went by the officer in charge the number of loads 
 he had carried was called out. The sound of 
 their voices and the regular tread of the workers 
 could be heard in the camp of the king of Wei, 
 but no one could guess what it all meant. Spies 
 were sent out ; but the night was dark, and 
 although they could more distmctly hear the 
 calling of numbers and the incessant tramp of 
 many feet, they could not satisfy the uneasiness 
 of Wei. Just before dawn the Sung general 
 ordered that the great heaps of sand be sprinkled 
 with a thin covering of rice. When the sun 
 broke out, and the Wei men saw the vast heaps of 
 rice in the opposite camp, they were struck with 
 amazement and chagrin. They believed that 
 large stores of provisions, and no doubt reenforce- 
 ments, had arrived from the capital; and as always 
 with the Chinese a suspicion immediately becomes 
 a fact, the starving Sung army was allowed to 
 escape unmolested. 
 
 This is but one of the many incidents that are 
 related of the gallant career of the statesman and 
 soldier, Tautsi. His fame spread far beyond the 
 borders of China, and he was feared by barbarians 
 as well as by his master's unruly vassals. It is 
 typical, however, of the Chinese character that he 
 
74 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 went the way of all servants of the state whose 
 services called for extraordinary rewards — mur- 
 dered in cold blood for fear that he might possibly 
 aspire to the Royal Yellow. It was as fatal for a 
 general to win a battle as it was for him to lose 
 it. In one case he aroused his master's fear, in 
 the other his wrath. 
 
 The short-lived Tsi dynasty (a.d. 479-502) 
 was wrecked by a woman. Panfei, the mistress 
 of the Emperor Tung Hwun, the fourth and last 
 of the line, was celebrated for exquisite grace 
 and beauty. For her the emperor built a palace 
 to rival in splendor anything that had preceded 
 it. The walls were rendered perpetually fragrant 
 by a plaster impregnated with musk. The floors 
 were covered with the most costly designs. One 
 room was paved with golden lilies, which was re- 
 sponsible for the artificial cramping of the feet of 
 the women of China. As Panfei danced before 
 the emperor, he was so charmed with her grace 
 that he exclaimed, " See, every step she takes 
 makes a lily to grow," so ever after the small foot 
 was styled the " Golden Lily." There is a true 
 saying in China that, " Every pair of golden lilies 
 costs a jar of tears." Tung Hwun lived and 
 loved, and was murdered by an outraged populace, 
 over-taxed in order that his proud beauty might 
 
DEPLORABLE DESPOTS. 75 
 
 outshine Meihi, Taki, and all the beautiful throne 
 records of former dynasties. 
 
 The fate of Panfei, however, had little effect on 
 the morals of the three dynasties that followed. 
 For one hundred and sixteen years, to 618 A.D., 
 there is little that can be recorded, except a repe- 
 tition of the deplorable phases of Chinese court 
 history, with which the reader is already too 
 familiar. One ruler deliberately set fire to the 
 royal library of one hundred and forty thousand 
 books, on the approach of an enemy, because " all 
 my reading and study have availed me nothing 
 ... in the hour of my extremity." Another built 
 a wall three hundred miles in length, extending 
 from Chihli to Shansi, in which two million people 
 were engaged ; and for his amusement he organ- 
 ized a gigantic debating society between the 
 priests of the Taoist and Buddhist faiths. Being 
 in the chair, he decided that the Buddhists had 
 the best of the argument, and thereupon ordered 
 the Taoists, on pain of death, to shave their heads 
 and become bonzes. Preferring to lose their hair 
 to their necks, they all cheerfully complied, and 
 the emperor and the barber wrought an instanta- 
 neous conversion. Another emperor was known 
 as the " Merry Monarch," and lived the life of a 
 Haroun-al-Raschid. They had a beggars' village 
 
76 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 built in the royal gardens, where the mendicants 
 of the city were at liberty to take up their abode 
 at night. His majesty, dressed in rags, and like 
 the meanest of them, wandered through the streets 
 of the capital with his straw wallet, the beggar's 
 badge. He would also make his rounds among 
 the mandarins in the palace, and ladies of the 
 royal household. Whoever gave him alms he 
 would reward and surprise with high official posi- 
 tion or costly presents, after he had thrown off 
 the disguise. In a.d. 852 yellow was adopted 
 as the royal color by the Emperor Kautsu, the 
 founder of the Sui dynasty, and the one strong 
 character of the period. To the successor of 
 Kautsu belongs the reputation of building the 
 vast canal system of China, of being a patron of 
 art and literature, and of being the most reckless 
 and wildly extravagant emperor that ever occupied 
 the dragon throne. Wang Ti lived a short life 
 and a merry one ; no expenditure appalled him, 
 and no sacrifice of blood and treasure deterred 
 him from following to the very end any of his 
 fancies. Even the building of the canal system, 
 that has made his name famous, was a whim for 
 the gratification of his own pleasures. He wished 
 to visit all the prominent cities of the empire in 
 the most comfortable and luxurious way. He 
 
IFANG TVS GRAND CANALS, 77 
 
 ordered that canals be immediately dug from the 
 river Pien, a branch of the Han, in Hupeh, to the 
 river Sz, a short stream in Shantung; another 
 from Sz to communicate with the river Hwai, and 
 that the existing water-courses be widened. At 
 the same time he ordered built forty thousand 
 *' dragon boats " for the accommodation of his 
 three thousand concubines and immediate court. 
 The canals were not mere ditches, but magnificent 
 examples of both engineering and artistic skill — 
 nothing was left unfinished to offend the critical 
 eye of the dandy. They were one hundred and 
 twenty feet wide, lined with cut stone, with paved 
 roads on either side, shaded by full-grown trees. 
 Taskmasters drove the laborers day and night, 
 and of the million men employed it is stated that 
 over forty per cent died. In the first royal jour- 
 ney from Lohyang, the capital, to Nanking, the 
 procession of boats extended for over sixty miles, 
 and eighty thousand soldiers were detailed to drag 
 them. The royal barge was two hundred feet 
 long and forty feet high, with four decks. Every 
 district through which they passed was levied 
 upon for provisions to support this immense host 
 in transit. The magnificent pageant swept through 
 the empire for eight months, the wonder and ruin 
 of all who came within its reach. The vast pal- 
 
7S CHIN.rS OPEN DOOR. 
 
 aces, gardens, towns, artificial lakes and mountains, 
 that Wang Ti the niagniticent built in the short 
 twelve years of his reign were, according to the 
 custom of the times, destroyed by his successor ; 
 but the canals remained a blessinqf to the descend- 
 ants of the laborei's who had died in tlieir con- 
 struction. Nebuchadnezzar, the Pharaohs, Xero, 
 and Louis XIV. were but feeble imitators of this? 
 royal Chinese spendthrift. Cleopatra's barge and 
 Babylon's hanging gardens were duplicated on a 
 magnificent scale by Yang Ti. He had a godlike 
 genius for spending money. In his palace garden, 
 which was so great that it contained an artificial 
 lake three miles wide, and three artificial islands 
 one htmdred feet high, the flowering shrubs and 
 trees were kept in perpetual bloom by skilled 
 workmen, who renewed every fallen flower with 
 such exquisite imitation in silk and satin that no 
 one could tell the natural from the artificial at a 
 short distance. After his death, it was discovered 
 that he had used up all the precious metals in tlie 
 empire, and that money was so scarce that pieces 
 of leather and paper, with their values stamped 
 upon them, had to be used in trade. He took his 
 dethronement with the same gay nonchalance with 
 which he had sat upon the throne. To his queen 
 he said, " Jov and sorrow both come to everv man. 
 
A ROYAL CHESTERFIELD. 79 
 
 Lot us, then, \^/ay c/dch as it co^rJf^s, and make the 
 best of ]ilV. we earj ; " and of his princely execu- 
 tioners }je asked — politely disinterestedly — 
 " VVliat sin liave I comrnitt^^d that you wish U) 
 take away my life?" "Sin," they replied, "why, 
 what sin is there tljat you liave not heen guilty 
 of?" *' VViiat you say may be true," answered 
 the royal Chesterfield ; " hand me the silken cord. 
 I have had more pleasure in my life than you can 
 have at my death." 
 
80 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 V. 
 
 FROM WU THE EMPRESS TO THE 
 LAST OF THE MINGS, 
 
 [A.D. 656 TO A. D. 1644.] 
 
 THE house of Tang opened a new era in 
 the history of China, and marked the close 
 of what might be styled " The Middle 
 Ages.*' It has appropriately been called the Au- 
 gustan age of Chinese literature. Each emperor 
 strove to outdo his predecessors in the fostering of 
 scholars and the education of the gentry. Great 
 libraries were established, schools sprang up, and 
 in the place of eunuchs and concubines, poets, essay- 
 ists, and historians thronged the successive courts. 
 "The complete poems of the Tang dynasty" will be 
 found in the home of every well-to-do Chinaman of 
 to-day. The writings of Confucius were annotated 
 and popularized ; and in 740 that deathless teacher 
 was raised to the rank of a prince, and his statue 
 placed above that of the famous Duke of Chow. 
 The sixth emperor of the Tangs founded Hanlin 
 
THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF CHINA. 81 
 
 College (a.d. 755), the great post-graduate uni- 
 versity of China. From its fellows most of the 
 ministers of state have been chosen. At the time 
 when scholars, princes, artists, priests, musicians, 
 players of chess, actors, etc., were competing for its 
 degrees and honors, Europe was just emerging from 
 the barbarism into which she had been plunged by 
 the conquest of the Gothic tribes. England was 
 divided among Saxon princes, and France was in 
 the rude state which preceded the reign of Charle- 
 magne. The Emperor Kau Tsu ordered an ex- 
 amination of all temples and nunneries, and turned 
 out to earn their own living fully a hundred thou- 
 sand inmates who had been luxuriating in idleness 
 and immorality, while Teh Tsung sent home a 
 thousand ladies of his harem in order to lighten 
 the burdens of state. War was almost continu- 
 ously carried on with the so-called barbarians on 
 the frontiers, in which the Chinese arms were 
 generally successful, and large additions of terri- 
 tory were made. 
 
 The attention of Europe was called to China 
 during this dynasty by two celebrated Arab traders, 
 whose descriptions of Chinese life might pass for 
 pen pictures of the country to-day. They men- 
 tioned the copper money, the rice-wine, and the use 
 of tea as a beverage. They were followed by 
 
82 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 envoys from the pope, who found that the Nes- 
 torian Christians had already been in the field. 
 The most remarkable character on the throne, if 
 not the strongest, was the Empress Wu, whose 
 antecedents and career are almost paralleled by that 
 of the present empress dowager. Although never 
 officially on the dragon throne, Wu ruled China 
 with a rod of iron for fifty-four years (656-710). 
 She permitted no one to stand in her way, and the 
 four emperors who came within her "sphere of in- 
 fluence " were mere puppets in her hands. She 
 was cruel and immoral, and added to the subtle 
 craft of a woman the intellect of a statesman. She 
 made her name known and feared to the remotest 
 corners of the empire, and avenged every outbreak 
 with a merciless hand. The Kitans and Turco- 
 mans soon learned to dread the length and strength 
 of her arm. She reluctantly resigned the reins of 
 power at the age of eighty, and is known in 
 Chinese history by the title of " Wu, the Equal of 
 Heaven." The present Empress Dowager Tsu Tsi, 
 who has ruled China for forty years on much the 
 same lines as her predecessor, will no doubt be 
 satisfied with the more modest title of " The Equal 
 of Wu." Four of the later Tang emperors died 
 from the effects of experimenting with " elixirs of 
 immortality," and it would have been little loss to 
 
''THE MEN OF TANCr 83 
 
 the nation's history had the last half-dozen been 
 troubled with the same laudable desire to live 
 *' ten thousand years ten thousand." To be styled 
 one of " The men of Tang " is considered a title 
 of honor ; but the dynasty, with all its glories, went 
 out in weakness and disgrace, as all the dynasties 
 have, and as all probably will so long as China is a 
 nation. 
 
 The last of the proud Tangs " voluntarily " 
 resigned the " Yellow " to the murderer of his own 
 father ; and a period of fifty years succeeded, in 
 which the great princes disputed the right of each 
 fresh usurper, and a state of turmoil existed similar 
 to that of three centuries before, when the Tsin 
 dynasty was overthrown. Five different families 
 were represented on the throne by thirteen em- 
 perors — an unlucky number, for most of them died 
 unwilHngly. The only event of note that occurred 
 during these turbulent times was the discovery of 
 the art of printing, five hundred years before it 
 was known in Europe. It is very probable that 
 printing from blocks was in use long prior to this 
 date ; but it is not until 932 that the Chinese his- 
 torian incidentally mentions that the nine classics 
 were printed by imperial order from wooden blocks, 
 and sold to the public. It is curious that it was 
 not thought of sufficient interest to record either 
 
84 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the inventor's name or to claim the invention :^r 
 the Emperor Ming Tsung. Under the last but 
 one of the rulers of the " five dynasties " there 
 was a great scarcity of copper money, owing to the 
 unprecedented casting of idols and statues to 
 ancestors. The emperor ordered, to the horror of 
 the priests, that these idols should be sent to the 
 royal mint to be re-born as the root of all evil. A 
 deputation protested against such liberties being 
 taken with their gods. His majesty listened 
 quietly and replied, " The man that does right and 
 benefits his fellow men is a true reverencer of the 
 idols. The gods have the good of mankind at 
 heart, and therefore they will be quite willing to 
 have their images broken up. For myself, if my 
 death would bring happiness to my people, I 
 would wilHngly give up my life for them." 
 
 Shih Tsung lived up to his noble sentiments, 
 and died after a severe campaign against the 
 hardy Khitans. He was unable, however, to save 
 his throne for his son, or to effectually crush these 
 warlike adventurers, who were destined for a time 
 to become the balance of power in the civil wars 
 during the Sung dynasty. In 982, during the 
 reign of the second Sung, a deputation from a 
 " barbarian ■ ' tribe appeared, that were later to 
 sweep the Chinese, the Khitans, and the more 
 
A CHINESE REFORMER. 85 
 
 warlike Kins before them, and become the actual 
 rulers of the empire. These were the Mongols. 
 They came to acknowledge the supremacy of 
 China, and they stayed to overthrow it. 
 
 China has never lacked for reformers or at- 
 tempted reforms. As all reforms are pure experi- 
 ments, the clever theories of plausible ministers 
 found pliable material to experiment on among 
 the patient hordes of the Coolie class. They bore 
 with the royal reformers, though much like the 
 Scotchman who was " willing to be convinced, but 
 would like to see the man who could convince 
 him." The so-called reforms, however, usually 
 ended in great suffering for the benefited, with 
 the net result that another fine theory had gone 
 wrong. 
 
 Wang Ngan, the prime minister of the Emperor 
 Shen Tsung (1068-1086), was a typical repre- 
 sentative of the Chinese reformer. Some of his 
 acts read like a page out of modern history. He 
 had a commission appointed to tour the country 
 districts, and report on the nature of the soil and 
 the condition of crops, so that he could legislate 
 for the farmer, and alleviate his condition willy 
 nilly. In the summer of 1069 he promulgated his 
 first interesting reform, by proposing that the entire 
 commerce of the country should be carried on by 
 
86 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the state, so that the people would have nothing 
 to do but produce. The national taxes were to be 
 paid in produce ; and the government was to buy 
 the surplus, and transport it to sections of the 
 country where it would be most in demand. The 
 middle man and money lender were immediately 
 wiped out, as predicted by Wang; but in their 
 place sprang up an army of officials, who were 
 charged with the carrying out of this gigantic 
 undertaking. The country swarmed with them ; 
 and the poor farmers had to entertain them befit- 
 ting their rank, and properly bribe them to obtain 
 a good price for the produce. More and more of the 
 yield of the empire was consumed in taxes, until at 
 last the surplus was hardly worth selling, and it 
 was clearly obvious that the reform needed reform- 
 ing. But like the modern professional reformer, 
 Wang was equal to the occasion. If the agricultur- 
 ists had lost money by his first attempt to make 
 them rich, he was now prepared to advance them 
 money against their crops, which was to be repaid 
 twice a year at the modest interest of twenty-four 
 percent. He modified this later by making a State 
 Loan, compulsory both to rich and poor, at the 
 slightly increased rate of thirty-three and a third 
 per cent per annum. This reform came harder at 
 first on the rich than on the poor, as the poor 
 
WANG AND THE REFORMERS. 87 
 
 borrowed with no hope of repaying ; but when a 
 drought came the officials, who were bound to de- 
 liver or pay into the treasury the interests on their 
 loans, found that there were no crops upon which 
 to levy, and began to torture the people ; then all 
 classes united in a wail of lamentation, that reached 
 even the dragon throne. The reform was con- 
 sequently suspended, whereupon heavy rains fell 
 throughout the empire. Nothing daunted, Wang 
 produced from his sleeve another reform that came 
 near being the last straw. This was styled the 
 " Military Enrollment Act," which divided the 
 people of the empire into divisions of ten families, 
 something after the old Jewish law. All able- 
 bodied men were to continue their labor, and at 
 the same time hold themselves in readiness for an 
 instant call. Like the man who called wolf when 
 there was no wolf, practice summons, or false calls 
 became so frequent that able-bodied men by the 
 thousands voluntarily maimed themselves, and even 
 cut off their arms and legs so as not to be subject 
 to the whim of the great reformer. Wang went on 
 with a whole series of reforms, more or less ingen- 
 ious, which are interesting to the reader rather than 
 to the sufferer. If the American would-be reformer, 
 with a bright new idea upon which he wishes to 
 experiment, will study the history of China, the 
 
88 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 chances are that he will find that his particular 
 pet reform has been thoroughly tried a thousand 
 years before he discovered it. Wang was a firm 
 believer in himself. In 1074 the Khitans sent 
 ambassadors, and demanded the cession of two 
 hundred li of Chinese territory. Wang consid- 
 ered this very bad taste on the part of the bar- 
 barians, but advised compliance ; " for," he argued, 
 " when my reforms commence to work they will 
 make the nation strong, and we shall demand it 
 back again with large additions." Wang's faith, 
 however, did not move the mountain; and the first 
 act of the famous Empress Kau, on the death of 
 the Emperor Shen Tsung, was to dismiss Wang 
 from office, and reform his reforms. 
 
 The last one hundred and seventy-five years of 
 the Sung dynasty were filled with wars mthin and 
 without. The hardy Khitan Tartars went down 
 before their more hardy relatives, the Khin Tartars ; 
 and they in t-urn were thoroughly subjugated by 
 the Mongol Tartars under the lead of their famous 
 khans, Genghis and Kublai. To the world at 
 large there are not more than five names in all 
 Chinese history that come easily to the lips, — 
 these two great khans, Confucius, Mencius, and 
 Li Hung Chang ; and they belong to the world's 
 pantheon of history-makers. Genghis easily ranks 
 
GENGHIS THE MONGOL. 89 
 
 with Alexander and Napoleon, and the territories 
 he overran and conquered were greater than the 
 combined areas and population of the empires of 
 Alexander and Napoleon. His life is one of the 
 great historical romances of the world's story, and 
 a romance in which the chief actor never permits 
 the interest to flag. As leader of the Mongol 
 Tartars he swept everything from the Danube to 
 the Pacific, from the unbroken ice of the arctic to 
 the snow-peaks of the Himalayas, and might, with 
 much more right than Alexander, have sighed for 
 more worlds to conquer. It is noteworthy that of 
 all the races with which he battled, from Cracow 
 to Peking, — embracing forty conquered kingdoms, 
 — the only nation which withstood his consum- 
 mate generalship was the Chinese. One cannot 
 but wonder what would have been the fate of 
 Alexander the Great had he been told, when he 
 stood on the banks of the Indus, sorrowing be- 
 cause the world was so small, that there was an 
 empire north of his greater than Persia, and more 
 warlike and richer than India. Genghis, " the 
 curse of God," died at the age of sixty-six, in 
 1227, and bequeathed the conquest of the Manchus 
 to his son. Okkodai was a worthy successor of a 
 great father. He organized his armies for the 
 conquest of China with ability and energy, and 
 
90 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 laid siege to Kaif ungf u — the Kin capital, a 
 city of 11,200,000 inhabitants. The investment 
 lasted for three months ; and so great were the 
 numbers and resources wdthin, that it is a ques- 
 tion if the Mongols could have reduced it had the 
 Kin general been worthy of his foUoAvers. With 
 an offer to surrender he sent to the Mongol gen- 
 eral five hundred ladies of his king's court and 
 thirty-seven of the royal chariots. The peace 
 offering, however, did not touch the stern nature 
 of Okkodai, as repeated efforts of the Chinese to 
 reach the great Genghis, through woman's charms, 
 had failed in the past. He gave one look at the 
 assemblage of beauty, and ordered it and the entire 
 city to be put to the sword. The Tartar states- 
 man and the prime minister for both Genghis and 
 Okkodai, — the wise Yeh-lu-chu-tsai, — hearing of 
 the savage order, argued with the khan, " The 
 land must have people on it, for if there are no 
 inhabitants in the country it becomes valueless to 
 the sovereign." His counsel prevailed, and China 
 was saved from the most gigantic massacre in the 
 annals of the world. 
 
 The capture of Kaifungfu, with its incalculable 
 wealth, its vast stores and magnificent buildings, 
 practically ended the Kin djniasty, and obliterated 
 from history a remarkable race, who from begin- 
 
THE MONGOL CONQUEST. 91 
 
 nings almost as humble as a tribe of North Ameri- 
 can Indians, had gradually risen to such might 
 that they had conquered the warlike Khitans, and 
 so completely possessed the northern part of China, 
 that the Chinese, with all their vast resources and 
 their almost unlimited command of soldiers, had 
 not been able to wrest it from them. 
 
 The Mongols were now free to turn their entire 
 attention to the tottering Chinese throne. To 
 Okkadai, as to Genghis, it seemed like an over- 
 ripe fruit, that was to be had for the picking ; but 
 the Mongol soon found that he was not dealing 
 with the Russian or the Persian, but with a race 
 that knew neither defeat nor despair. It was not 
 for him to give the coup de grace to the Sungs. 
 In their decay they held on for sixty years ; and, 
 had there been any unity of purpose or apprecia- 
 tion of events, it is questionable if even Kubiai, 
 the mighty grandson of the mighty Genghis, 
 would have succeeded. The armies of the Sungs 
 fought well only when they were attacked. The 
 court was full of intrigues, and the national policy 
 was weak and wavering. One figurehead followed 
 another in rapid succession, and the different capi- 
 tal cities were evacuated as the enemy advanced. 
 Kubiai and his great generals, Ashu, Alihaiyai, 
 and Bayan, pressed steadily on. They never 
 
92 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 wavered in their purpose, they held every advan- 
 tage, and neither Chinese valor nor Sung diplo- 
 macy could check their course. To the sitters on 
 the dragon throne the iron khan became the 
 very impersonation of fate. To bring the two 
 years' siege of the great city of Fanching in Hupeh 
 to a conclusion, Kublai sent to Persia for guns 
 heavier than had ever been used in China, that 
 threw stones weighing over one hundred and fifty 
 pounds. Yuchang, Hanyang, Hankow, Cliiaho- 
 how, and Nanking fell in rapid succession; and 
 in 1276 the Mongols took the capital, Hangchow, 
 with the emperor, his mother, his queen, and the 
 royal household, and made the brothers of the 
 captured emperor fugitives, the elder of whom, 
 however, was proclaimed emperor, with his new 
 capital at Foochou. 
 
 The duel was nearing an end. For four years 
 the royal standard of the Sungs was driven from 
 place to place until the last emperor, Ti Ping, was 
 cornered at the seaport of Yaishan. The Chinese 
 force, consisting of fifty thousand veterans and one 
 thousand war-junks, under their famous general 
 Chang Shih-kieh, were closely blockaded by an 
 overwhelming force. The death struggle lasted 
 for a month, and the Chinese fought like rats in a 
 trap, desperately but without hope. The fate of 
 
THE BATTLE OF TAISHAN. 93 
 
 the empire was decided by a tremendous land and 
 sea attack, in which the Chinese were utterly 
 defeated, and the whole of their fleet captured 
 with the exception of sixteen junks with which 
 their gallant general managed to break through 
 the lines. When the prime minister saw that the 
 day was lost, he took the young emperor on his 
 back, and sprang into the sea. The body of Ti 
 Ping was afterwards picked up, and honorably 
 buried by the Mongol general. Over one hun- 
 dred thousand Chinese and Mongols were killed 
 in this last heroic defense of the boy emperor, and 
 the dynasty that had ruled China for three hun- 
 dred and twenty years, and next to the Chow 
 was the most famous in its annals, ended in a 
 glorious defeat. A Chinese historian of the 
 Sungs said they "gained the empire by the 
 sword and kept it by kindness. Their good- 
 ness to the people was not tinged enough 
 with severity, and so the kingdom was snatched 
 from them. Still, through it the empire was main- 
 tained for one hundred and fifty years after it 
 seemed to have slipped from their grasp ; and it 
 caused such men as Chang Shih-kieh and Wen 
 Tien-siang to cling to them to the very last, and 
 finally to give their very lives for them." 
 
 The adventures of the loyal Chang Shih-kieh 
 
94 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 after the battle of Yaishan were in keeping with 
 the great name he has made in Chinese history* 
 With his sixteen junks he hastened to Wang- 
 chow to inquire of the queen dowager if there 
 remained any princes of the royal blood under 
 whose standard the war could be still carried on. 
 But the mother's heart was broken ; and she fol- 
 lowed the example of the last of her sons, and 
 threw herself into the sea. Chang was unwilling 
 to give up ; he , sailed to Cambodia and appealed 
 to its king for troops and money ; but finding him- 
 self an unwelcome visitor, he turned northward 
 hoping to seize Canton. As his little squadron 
 was nearing the coast, signs of an approaching 
 typhoon caused the men to clamor that he should 
 put into a near-by harbor and there land. Instead, 
 he ascended a platform high up one of the masts of 
 the flagship, and burned incense to heaven, and 
 testified : '' 1 have served the house of Chau to the 
 utmost of my ability; when one emperor disap- 
 peared I set up another, and he also has perished ; 
 and now to-day I meet this great storm ; surely it 
 must be the will of heaven that the Sung dynasty 
 should perish." So he bravely met his end in one 
 of those fierce and terrible ty^Dhoons that haunt 
 the China seas. 
 
 It was near the end of the Sung dynasty, and 
 
MARCO POLO, 95 
 
 about the time that Edward I. returned to Eng- 
 land from the Holy Land, that Marco Polo visited 
 the court of Kublai Khan, and gave the European 
 world the first authentic account of this great un- 
 known empire, and during the reign of Mangu, 
 Kublai's successor, Catholic missionaries presented 
 themselves at court, and made brief record of 
 what they did and saw. Marco Polo's account 
 of the pomp and splendor of the Mongol court, of 
 the annual feasts and national holidays, of the in- 
 dustries and advanced civilization, filled Europe 
 with wonder, and demonstrated how little the 
 Chinese historians appreciated the true greatness 
 of their nation and the nations that surrounded 
 them. Even Europe did not realize the signifi- 
 cance of Polo's story, or more justly speaking 
 discovery. He told them of the use of bank- 
 notes, but it took Europe four centuries to under- 
 stand their value to trade. Instead of stealing 
 China's brains, Europe only coveted her money, a 
 mistake which Kublai did not make in the case of 
 Marco Polo, for he made the Westerner his con- 
 fidant, and drew upon him for European ideas and 
 methods. He carefully sifted the wheat from the 
 chaff, and planted it in fertile soil. Polo was a 
 man of ability and action, and Kublai was quick 
 to appreciate him. He dispatched him over his 
 
96 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 empire in the capacity of a licenced critic, knowing 
 that Polo, with his unprejudiced eyes, could find 
 many administrative and political faults that were 
 damaging the welfare of the people but were 
 hallowed by age and custom. He was a most suc- 
 cessful critic ; for in liis extended travels through 
 the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, Szechuan, and 
 Yunnan he corrected a vast number of abuses, and 
 caused the removal of a number of corrupt officials, 
 yet he managed to please alike the emperor, the 
 Mandarins, and the people. As a reward he was 
 appointed governor of the city of Yangchow, and 
 might have become the viceroy of his province 
 had he been willing to have remained in China ; 
 but after three years of gubernatorial power he 
 grew homesick, and requested leave of absence to 
 visit Venice. Kublai had no desire to lose so 
 valuable a servant, and declined to grant his wish. 
 Later, however, it happened that the khan sent 
 him in charge of a young woman, the bride elect 
 of his great-grandson, Arghun Khan of Persia. 
 The Mongols were entirely unaccustomed to the 
 sea, and in the choice of ambassadors it was Hob- 
 son's choice. Marco Polo, his father, and his uncle 
 started out on their hazardous undertaking in 
 1292, and after a three years' voyage they de- 
 livered the bride to the anxious groom. If we are 
 
KUBLJI KHAN. 97 
 
 to read between the lines in Marco's narrative, it 
 is doubtful if she gave more than an unwilling 
 hand to her royal spouse. 
 
 Marco Polo's life and adventures in China are 
 as interesting reading as the account of a trip to 
 the moon could possibly be to-day. China, as 
 late as 1300, was almost as much of a terra in- 
 cognito as the continent of America was when 
 Columbus landed on its shores. His narrative is 
 the first view of China through European eyes ; 
 and, unfortunately, it was considered at the time 
 a fairy story rather than a sober recount of facts. 
 Marco Polo's career in this unknown empire forci- 
 bly reminds one of Mark Twain's humorous ad- 
 ventures of a Yankee in the court of King Arthur, 
 Sith the difference that Marco came in contact 
 fth a civilization that was in many respects su- 
 perior to his own, and with a ruler who, other than 
 being a feudal baron, was a statesman, a soldier, 
 and a patron of literature. As Genghis had found 
 it impossible to subdue the Chinese, his more 
 famous successor and grandson, Kublai, had to 
 acknowledge his inabihty to annex the Japanese 
 Islands. Two great expeditions met with most 
 disastrous defeat ; and the ruler of Asia and half 
 of Europe recognized that, however victorious his 
 veterans were on land, they were useless on the 
 
98 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 sea. In religious matters Kublai was absolutely 
 impartial. His subjects, Mongol or Chinese, were 
 permitted freedom of worship as long as their faith 
 was moral; and as for himseK he worshiped by 
 turns in Buddhist, Confucian, and Mohammedan 
 temples; Marco Polo tells us that he likewise 
 favored the Christian religion. As for the Tao- 
 ists, they were so openly corrupt and fraudulent that 
 Kublai ordered a public examination to ascertain 
 whether there was any truth in their writings on 
 geomancy, necromancy, and astrology. As a result 
 of which he ordered that all their books be 
 burned, save one classic — " The Tau-teh, or Way 
 of Virtue." Kublai's religious attitude might have 
 been simply a matter of state policy ; but even so, 
 it did much to consolidate his power for the 
 benefit of his family, which was the aim of his 
 life. The khan profited by the experience of his 
 many unfortunate predecessors, and acknowledged 
 the fatality of wasting the resources of the empire 
 on court orgies, great retinues of dependants and 
 concubines. Instead, he built the Grand Canal 
 (1282-1289), which connected Canton with Pe- 
 king, and also a system of splendid post^roads, 
 that were not only a lasting benefit to the people, 
 but of great strategic value. 
 
 Once a year Kublai took a vacation, and es- 
 
THE LAST OF THE MONGOLS 99 
 
 caped the hot climate of the lowlands and the 
 enervating ceremonials of court life by a hunting 
 expedition on the cool, bracing steppes of Tartary. 
 He was a fearless hunter and a most skillful 
 hawker; and he kept his muscles hardened and 
 his health unimpaired to the day of his death, at 
 the age of eighty-three, in 1224. He was suc- 
 ceeded by his grandson, Timur, who inherited an 
 empire that extended from the China Sea and the 
 Indies to the northern extremity of Siberia, and 
 from the eastern shores of Asia to the frontiers 
 of Poland — the most magnificent heritage that 
 ever fell to man. 
 
 For seventy-three years the Mongols ruled 
 China; but the successors of Kublai lacked his 
 knowledge of men and measures ; and their at- 
 tempts to trample out Chinese customs, and de- 
 prive them of their share in the government of 
 the country, soon alienated the friends made by 
 the founder of the Yuen dynasty; the country 
 was quickly filled with rebellion, and the court 
 with intrigue and corruption. Shunti, the ninth 
 and last of the Mongols, reigned from 1331 to 
 1366. He left the actual administration of gov- 
 ernment to his ministers, and gave himself up to 
 the joys of doing nothing gracefully. He even 
 neglected the annual hunt, and was a typical 
 
 l.«rc. 
 
100 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 sample of the usual end of a dynasty. The logi- 
 cal time seemed to have arrived for the overthrow 
 of the Tartars, and all that the sporadic rebellion 
 needed was a leader to make it succeed. 
 
 In the province of Nanking the son of a poor 
 laborer, who had taken priestly vows, was watch- 
 ing the trend of events from his monastery cell. 
 He soon realized what the Chinese lacked, and 
 made up his mind that he was the man chosen by 
 God to deliver the country from its oppressors. 
 Casting aside his cowl for the sword, he sprang 
 into the breach, and organized a rebelhon that 
 swept every thing before him. With Nanking as 
 his capital, he gradually stripped the Mongol em- 
 peror of his possessions, until he was able to 
 march into Peking practically unopposed. He de- 
 clared himself emperor, under the title of Taitsu, 
 in 1368. Shunti fled to Tartary, the home of his 
 great ancestors, and the Ming dynasty (1368- 
 1644) was ushered in. 
 
 Like the founders of each successive dynasty, 
 Taitsu, or Hung Wu as he was better known in 
 history, was a strong man and an eminent ruler. 
 He had not only to effectually crush the Tartar 
 power, quell local disturbances, but what was 
 more serious, replace Tartar laws and customs 
 with the original Chinese. On the whole he was 
 
THE MINGS. 101 
 
 successful. He commenced in the orthodox way 
 of razing the most magnificent buildings of his 
 predecessors, reducing the size of his harem, and 
 cutting down all unnecessary expenses. He en- 
 couraged education, and made literary degrees 
 essential to official promotion instead of military 
 renown as under Mongol rule. He reestablished 
 Hanlin College, and made it in fact what it is in 
 name to-day, the Oxford of China. He decreed 
 that women should no longer become priestesses 
 to Buddha and that no man should take monastic 
 vows under the age of forty. Hung Wu reigned 
 thirty-one years ; and although the last few years 
 were tarnished by unjust and savage acts, the 
 glory of his name is safe in Chinese annals. 
 There is no fixed rule of primogeniture among 
 the Chinese. An emperor is supposed to know 
 more about the ability and character of his several 
 sons and grandsons than any one else, and he is 
 left perfectly free to choose his successor. This 
 practice, as proven by the history of China, has 
 little to recommend it, as the choice is either made 
 in the emperor's dotage, or is forced upon him by 
 intriguing ministers or concubines. The founder 
 of the Ming Dynasty, instead of securing the 
 stability of his own house by nominating his war- 
 rior son, the Prince of Yen, succumbed to the 
 
102 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 cabals of his court, and chose his sixteen-year-old 
 grandson, Hwei Ti, his successor. There are 
 only two ways to the throne in China, revolution 
 or birth coupled with luck ; but the favorite way 
 to reach royal power has always been the securing 
 of the appointment of children to the royal yel- 
 low. The mother then is' doubly empress : she 
 commands the king through her motherhood, and 
 the people by means of her regency. The boy 
 emperor is as much her slave as his meanest 
 subject. The Prince of Yen, however, had no in- 
 tention of seeing the throne go uncontested to his 
 young nephew, and he himself become the subject 
 of his sister-in-law. The young emperor was no 
 match for the fearless soldier; and within four 
 years Peking was in the hands of Yen, the queen 
 cremated in her own palace, and the boy emperor 
 a refugee in a Buddhist monastery in Yunnan, 
 where for forty years he remained undiscovered. 
 A weakness for writing poetry, however, caused 
 his recognition ; and he was transferred to Peking, 
 where he died a state prisoner. It is unfortunate 
 that his poetry was not equal to his theme ; for 
 the glories and miseries of his own strange career 
 supplied a subject that with skillful handling might 
 have made his name imperishable, and would have 
 been of untold value to the historian. 
 
TAMERLANE. 103 
 
 The Prince of Yen, who took the name Yunglo, 
 changed the seat of government from Nanking to 
 Peking. In spite of his early cruelties and bar- 
 barous reprisals, he was, on the whole, a strong 
 character, and his country prospered at home and 
 abroad. He has left, however, the reputation for 
 great moderation and justice in administering the 
 affairs of government. In the field he was always 
 the soldier, grim and unforgiving. The Tartars 
 learned to fear his northern marches, and he 
 added Tonquin and Cochin China to the empire. 
 Under his direction a commission was appointed 
 to comj^ile the first encyclopaedia of literature. 
 It was completed in 1407, and consisted of 22,877 
 books, besides a table of contents which filled sixty 
 volumes. Two years previous died the most 
 dangerous enemy of the dynasty, the Tartar Khan 
 Timour, or Tamerlane (" Timur the Lame "), 
 whose conquests almost equaled those of the 
 resistless Genghiz. He was at the time of his 
 death organizing a vast army for the reconquest of 
 China, and it is questionable whether Yunglo the 
 Ming emperor would have been able to withstand 
 his hardy legions and consummate generalship. 
 
 Timour is to-day a greater hero in Mongol eyes 
 than either of his two great predecessors. About 
 the fire, when a dozen Mongols are gathered to- 
 
104 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 gether on the wild steppes, their bards still sing 
 his praises — 
 
 "We live in our vast plains tranquil and peaceful as sheep, 
 
 yet our 
 Hearts are fervent and full of life ; the memory of the golden 
 
 age of 
 Timour is ever present to our minds. "Where is the chief who 
 
 is to place 
 Himself at our head, and render us once more great warriors ? 
 O great Timour, will thy divine soul soon revive ? 
 Return, return ; we await thee, O Timour ! " 
 
 Timour's death relieved China forever from fear 
 of Tartar subjugation, but never during the entire 
 Ming dynasty was the nation free from £he ravages 
 of these daring freebooters. They were often suc- 
 cessful, and at one time slaughtered over a hundred 
 thousand soldiers, and captured the Chinese Em- 
 peror Changtung. While the Chinese were 
 battling with their hereditary enemies, and the 
 history of the vast empire was doing little more 
 than sluggishly repeating itself, Columbus was 
 discovering America, and the Portuguese were 
 rounding the Cape of Good Hope. Rafael Pres- 
 tello, a lieutenant of Albuquerque, landed, in 
 1516, at the mouth of the Canton River, a few 
 mil 38 from the present site of Hong Kong. His 
 was the distinction of first flying a European flag 
 in Chinese waters. Prestello, however, was more 
 
A PORTUGUESE INVASION. 105 
 
 modest than his contemporary Spanish, Portu- 
 guese, and English discoverers in America, and 
 failed to take possession of all the countries washed 
 by the ocean that lapped the coast in the name of 
 his august sovereign. It was a momentous 
 theatrical opportunity lost. With perfect impunity 
 he might have unfurled the Lusitanian banner on 
 Chinese soil, raised his trusted blade above the 
 damp plumes of his helmet, and laid claim to an 
 empire greater than all Europe, and containing 
 more wealth than the newly discovered Indies. 
 Instead of writing himself immortal, Prestello 
 sailed calmly back to Malacca and simply reported 
 favorably on the prospective trade opportunities 
 of the new land. This led to the dispatch of 
 Perez de Andrade for Canton with a squadron of 
 eight vessels. His arrival and subsequent trading 
 operations were of much more importance to China 
 in European eyes than it was to the Chinese, in 
 fact his arrival is not even noted in Chinese his- 
 tory. The behavior of himself and his nationals 
 was such that the new comers were rightfully 
 styled " foreign devils " — a term of opprobrium 
 that is still applied to all foreigners. They rifled 
 tombs, invaded temples, robbed, pirated, and acted 
 upon the same lines as did Cortez in Mexico and 
 Pizarro in Peru ; but unfortunately for them they 
 
106 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 soon found that they were dealing with a race that 
 knew how to treat "Tartars," and the pirate 
 Andrade was arrested, and beheaded at Peking by 
 the order of the Emperor Chiaching. Four hun- 
 dred years of commerce and intercourse with 
 European nations have not been sufficient to correct 
 the impression of foreigners that was obtained from 
 these early Portuguese '* navigators." The career 
 of Fernan Mendez Pinto richly merits the castiga- 
 tion it received from the pens of Cervantes and 
 Congreve. These Christian pirates virtually closed 
 the door in China; and it has taken four centuries, 
 with an expense of millions of treasure and 
 thousands of lives to force it open ever so little. 
 It certainly seems like a judgment that little 
 Macao, with its shallow harbor, should represent 
 all that Portugal realized from its vast primal 
 opportunities. The Chinese empire was not ori- 
 ginally a hermit nation. It was never a seafaring 
 one; it had for centuries carried on free trade 
 with all the nations that touched its frontiers, 
 and would have welcomed the European trader 
 and enriched him had he but come honestly, and 
 respected the laws and customs he found. An 
 empire of four hundred millions, trained in war, 
 and inured to every form of military service, was 
 no mark for a few shiploads of piratical adven- 
 
MACAO 107 
 
 turers. The Chinese promptly punished them for 
 their misdeeds ; and the Portuguese embassy of 
 1520 was sent under custody from Peking to 
 Canton, where Perez, its chief, was thrown into 
 prison, and ultimately disappeared. The Portu- 
 guese government did not resent this high-handed 
 act, and as a result the numerous foreign embassies 
 that humbly knocked at the gates of the " Pink 
 City " were treated with contempt and cruelty. 
 
 The Portuguese were permitted to exist on the 
 rocky peninsula of Macao, much as a pariah dog is 
 tolerated at the back-door. It was not until 1887 
 that Macao was formally recognized as Portuguese 
 territory by China, or more than forty years after 
 the occupation of Hong Kong by the British. 
 To-day the beautiful old city, which resembles a 
 page out of the Spain of Columbus, is hardly 
 more than a health resort for the busy merchants 
 of the near-by British colony. The modern steamer 
 cannot get within three miles of its picturesque 
 roadstead, and the grotto of the poet Camoens 
 and the fantan tables are of more profit than its 
 custom-house. In all these centuries it has not 
 added one acre of ground to its holdings, and the 
 ancient wall across the narrow sandy isthmus still 
 separates the vegetating civilization of Portugal 
 from the vegetating civilization of China. 
 
108 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 It may be that there were good Portuguese in 
 China besides the famous missionary Xavier and 
 Michael Roger, but if so they suffered for the 
 iniquities of their compatriots. It was not until 
 the great Ricci, missionary, scholar, and clock- 
 maker, arrived in 1582 that any foreigner was per- 
 mitted to enter the walls of Peking. Spanish 
 missionaries from Manila attempted without suc- 
 cess to impress the Chinese with the falsity of their 
 native religious belief ; but after one visit they gave 
 the project up, and returned to their more congenial 
 field. They found it quite a different thing to 
 convert a nation by argument than to convert 
 them at the point of the sword. They Avere 
 unable to put into operation in China the revival 
 methods practiced by the holy Catholic church 
 in South America, Mexico, and the Philippine 
 Islands. If we are to judge from results in com- 
 paring the condition of the Chinese with the 
 Filipinos of to-day it is perhaps fortunate that 
 the Spanish missionaries did not obtain a foothold 
 in the Celestial empire. If there be any choice I 
 prefer an honest pagan to a lying Christian ; for it 
 was not long before the Spanish in the Philippines 
 gave the Chinese an object lesson that must have 
 made them smile at the white man's creed of 
 " Peace on earth, and good will towards men." 
 
THE MISSIONARIES, 109 
 
 For no other reason save the Spanish fear 
 that too many Chinese were settling in their 
 ishinds, they ordered a general massacre of the 
 unoffending settlers, and slaughtered over twenty 
 thousand of them at one . time. It is little to be 
 wondered at that in the face of the action of the 
 so-styled Christian Spanish, and so-called Christian 
 Portuguese in Malacca, that even the brilliant John 
 Adam Schall, who was revered by the Ming- 
 emperors for his astronomical learning, made little 
 headway in enlisting converts. From 1628 to the 
 day of his death in prison, 1666, Schall worked 
 with untiring zeal for his faith, and never missed 
 an opportunity to preach the word to all who 
 would listen. " Why do you so much trouble 
 yourselves," the Emperor Kangsi asked him, 
 " about a world which you have never entered ? " 
 and intimated that he had better devote his time 
 to " making friends with the mammon of unright- 
 eousness." Under the leadership of such men as 
 Ricci and Schall the Catholics would have made 
 some permanent progress had the different reli- 
 gious bodies been content to work together for the 
 general good ; but this seemed impossible. Jesuits 
 and Dominicans quarreled openly, and spent their 
 opportunities in undermining each other's efforts, 
 until Kangsi seemed justified in asking them to 
 
110 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 make-up their own minds as to their own teachings 
 before trying to become teachers. 
 
 China has always been a favorite ground for 
 missionary endeavor. Save at exceptional periods 
 the perils of life and health are no greater 
 in China than in other sections of the earth, 
 while the pleasure and comfort of living is im- 
 mensely superior to most parts of Africa, to 
 the Western territories of the United States, or 
 the frozen regions of the arctic. Missionaries 
 of all denominations live in well-built houses, 
 and are waited upon by native servants who 
 are learning the English language. They take 
 trips home every two or three years, at one- 
 half the regular passenger rates, and manage to 
 lay aside a little money. Their own children are 
 often educated at the expense of their home 
 societies, but the great difficulty to their progress 
 has always been an inability to live contentedly 
 with one another. They can make friends with 
 the Chinese, but for members of two rival mis- 
 sionary bodies to mix seems impossible. Even 
 while writing this book I had a case reported to 
 me from Swatow, where the quarrel between the 
 Protestant American missionaries and the Chinese 
 French missionaries had become so intense that 
 we considered the advisability of sending a war- 
 
SCOUTS OF CIVILIZATION. Ill 
 
 ship to Swatow and asking Minister Conger 
 to lay the case before the Tsung li Yumen, 
 or foreign office of China. When the missionary, 
 like Ricci, devotes himself to translating works 
 on Western science into Chinese, or like Schall 
 rearranges the Imperial Calendar, and instructs 
 the literati in the use of geometrical and 
 astronomical instruments, or like the modern 
 medical missionary sets a leg or preaches 
 sanitary law, then the missionary soon makes 
 a place for himself, and the amount of good 
 he can do is only limited by his ability for 
 hard labor. Such men are the scouts of civiliza- 
 tion, the " drummers " of commerce, and deserve 
 every encouragement and help ; but there is a 
 class of missionary that spoils the field, and brings 
 contempt upon the nation sending them forth to 
 Christianize. They are forever quarreling with 
 the Chinese, thinking more of standing on " treaty 
 rights " than of obtaining the good- will of the 
 people about them, insisting on erecting a 
 chapel on ground that is sacred to some 
 ancestral temple, trampling upon old customs, 
 appealing for protection, and sending up, through 
 missionary journals, long wails over their trials 
 and hardships. Every American and British con- 
 sul in China can supply dozens of cases on both 
 
112 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 sides of the shield to verify my experience, but 
 we have long since found that it is useless to 
 publish them. We can only hope that the de- 
 voted labors of the many earnest men will tri- 
 umph in the end, and that Christianity will be a 
 mighty factor in settling the vexed Chinese ques- 
 tion. 
 
 In 1566 Chiaching became a guest on high in 
 spite of his vain attempt to obtain immortality by 
 means of elixirs and Taoist charms. His life had 
 not been so agreeable that one would think he 
 would have wished to perpetuate it. His reign 
 of forty-five years was filled with domestic out- 
 breaks and wars with the Mongols and Japanese, 
 the latter of whom at one time were so successful 
 that they held Ningpo, Shanghai, and Soochow. 
 Although Chiaching effectually defeated the 
 Japanese in 1563, neither he nor his successors 
 were able to free the coast from their periodical 
 visitations ; and in 1592 a force under the com- 
 mand of the famous leader and subsequent Sho- 
 gun Hideyoshi invaded Korea and captured Seoul. 
 In spite of their successes they were not destined 
 to obtain any firm foothold on the continent, and 
 retired to their islands much as they did in 1894, 
 for diplomatic reasons. In fact, there are many 
 acts and movements in the Japanese invasion of 
 
THE LAST OF THE MINGS. 113 
 
 Korea in 1592 that closely resemble their descent 
 three hundred years later. 
 
 The reigns of the last three Ming sovereigns, 
 from 1573 to 1644, were mainly taken up with 
 their combats with the rising Manchu tribes. It 
 was during this period that the Dutch made their 
 appearance by way of Formosa. They took pos- 
 session of the Pescadores, and landed at Amoy, 
 from whence they penetrated as far as Chang 
 Chow and Halting. The Dutch at the time were 
 at war with both the Spanish and Portuguese ; 
 their trading-ships went heavily armed, and sailed 
 as much for prizes as for trade. They defeated 
 the Portuguese armament, captured Malacca and 
 the Spice Islands, and in 1622 made an attack on 
 Macao. Being repulsed, with the loss of their 
 admiral, they returned to the Pescadores in a 
 frame of mind that led easily to a quarrel with 
 the Chinese ; and in the engagements that subse- 
 quently took place on the mainland, they were 
 invariably worsted, and eventually compelled to 
 retreat to Formosa. Like their predecessors the 
 Portuguese, they left a bad impression on the 
 Chinese mind, and by their rapacity and cruelty 
 missed an opportunity of making Holland a world 
 power. 
 
 In 1596 Queen Elizabeth dispatched a small 
 
114 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 fleet under Benjamin Wood, with letters to the 
 emperor of China, but they never reached their 
 destination; and not another attempt was made 
 until 1637, when Captain Weddell succeeded in 
 reaching Macao. The expedition, however, came 
 to nothing through the jealousy of the Portuguese 
 and the Jesuit missionaries, who egged on the 
 Chinese to drive the English ship from the coast. 
 The Chinese fired without warning, and were well 
 punished by the sturdy old mariner ; but although 
 the Chinese were compelled to permit Weddell to 
 purchase full cargoes for his squadron, the out- 
 look was not promising ; and this fact, combined 
 with the great hazards to shipping, because of 
 the civil wars in England and the war with 
 Holland, stopped all commercial ventures for a 
 quarter of a century. 
 
THE MANCHU BTNASTT. 115 
 
 VL 
 
 THE RISE OF THE MANCHU 
 DTNASTT. 
 
 [A. D. 1676-1722.] 
 
 CHINA has never for a moment, in its long 
 and eventful history, lost its individuality. 
 The so-called conquest of the empire by 
 Tartars, Mongols, and Manchus proved in the end 
 to be little more than a forced infusion of new 
 blood into the old and worn-out life. The Man- 
 chus, like the Mongols, the Kins, and the Khitans, 
 came from the north. China's great walls are on 
 the northern frontier, and all her great battles 
 have been fought on the line between the empire 
 as it exists to-day and Manchurian Siberia. The 
 bones of countless armies lie on both sides of this 
 shifting line ; and the Great Wall might stand as 
 the most gigantic gravestone in history. China 
 has never been successfully invaded from the 
 south. Russia is to-day in the north, France on 
 the southern frontier. Russia is advancing on the 
 line of Kublai Khan and Nurhachu, and who will 
 
116 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 dare to predict what the next few years will 
 develop ? 
 
 Nurhachu was the Kublai Khan of the new 
 power which to-day rules the destinies of the 
 empire. Like Kublai he welded into a centralized 
 power all the scattered tribes of his race who 
 covered the territories from the Great Wall to the 
 Amoor, but unlike Kublai he himself never sat on 
 the coveted throne. His ambition probably would 
 have been satisfied with the recognized leadership 
 of his own people, had not the Chinese emperor, 
 Wanli, interfered by supporting a rival chief. 
 His first engagement with the dreaded imperial 
 troops taught him the superiority of his own 
 veterans, and aroused him to the fullness of his 
 own genius. He boldly entered the Liaotung 
 peninsula, and signally defeated an army of a 
 hundred thousand. After successfully crushing 
 one army after another he made Moukden his 
 capital, where he died the following year, 1626, 
 in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 
 
 So far the rise of the Manchus had been much 
 like the rise of the Mongols, — a small army of 
 veterans, led by a soldier of ability with a clearly 
 defined object, was advancing with unerring step 
 through a half-hearted, badly organized, and poorly 
 commanded mob. The Chinese emperor seemed 
 
INTRODUCTION OF THE ^UEUE. 117 
 
 to feel that fate was crowding him ; and when the 
 Portuguese envoy from Macao offered to come to 
 his rescue with two hundred arquebusiers, he 
 gladly accepted the loan. The two hundred men 
 who were to succor an army of two hundred thou- 
 sand marched across the empire from Macao to 
 Peking, and were there told by Wanli, who had 
 for the moment recovered from his " funk," that 
 they might leave their guns and return, which 
 they did at their own expense, and without a 
 thank you. One cannot but speculate as to what 
 would have been the result had Texeira's little 
 force been allowed to go to the front. It was not 
 until two centuries later that China again ac- 
 cepted the loan of a foreign force to save the 
 royal descendants of Nurhachu from the rebel- 
 lious Taipings. Chinese historians incidentally 
 note that it was the custom of the Chinese in- 
 habitants of conquered ■cities to shave their heads 
 in token of submission to their new masters. 
 This is the first mention of the now universal 
 custom of the wearing of the queue by the 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 Nurhachu was succeeded by his fourth son, 
 Tientsung, who at once undertook the conquest of 
 Korea, and in 1629, at the head of over a hundred 
 thousand men, began the victorious march into 
 
118 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 China, which ended disastrously before the very 
 walls of Peking. The last of the Mings, Chwang 
 Lich Ti, was, however, fated, although he did sur- 
 vive the Manchu chief, Tientsung, and compelled 
 him to retire into Mongolia. Two formidable re- 
 bellions, headed by two powerful leaders, Li and 
 Chang, were distracting the provinces. Li practi- 
 cally reduced the great states of Shensi, Shansi, 
 and Honam, and felt himself of enough importance 
 in 1644 to proclaim himself emperor of China, 
 and organize a government. From Tung Wan, Li 
 marched on Peking, capturing all the important 
 cities on the way. The emperor made no deter- 
 mined stand ; and after a feeble attempt to escape 
 he hanged himself by his own girdle to a tree, 
 leaving behind a pathetic note : " My virtue is 
 small, and therefore I have incurred the anger of 
 heaven, and so the rebels have captured my 
 capital. Let them disfigure my corpse, but don't 
 let them kill one of my people." The tree on 
 which he hanged himself was afterwards loaded 
 with chains in token of the crime it had com- 
 mitted in being instrumental to the death of a 
 son of heaven. 
 
 Among the court officials who hastened to pay 
 their homage to the usurper was Wu, the father 
 of the celebrated imperial general, Wu Sankwei, 
 
THE BEAUTIFUL SLAVE GIRL. 119 
 
 who commanded the impregnable fortress of Ning- 
 yuen, which had defied the power of all the armies 
 of the Manchus, and had saved Peking from both 
 Nurhachu and Tientsung. The son Wu, with an 
 army of veterans, was on his way to the capital 
 when Peking fell, when he received a letter from 
 his father urging him to submit to Li. Sankwei 
 was on the point of obeying his father's com- 
 mands, and about to tender his allegiance to Li, 
 when he heard that a beautiful slave-girl belonging 
 to him had been seized, and presented to one of Li's 
 officers. Sankwei loved the girl ; and in his love 
 he forgot filial obedience, his own future, and the 
 safety of his family. This slave-girl, who is his- 
 torically nameless, gave the present dynasty its 
 throne. But for her the Manchus would have 
 remained to this day a league of scattered tribes 
 of malcontents on the frontier of China. Sank- 
 wei never saw her again; but he burned on her 
 grave a dynasty, a city, and gave a vast empire to 
 a small body of foreigners. The queue that every 
 Chinaman wears might justly be claimed as a 
 badge of mourning for the beautiful slave-girl of 
 the general, Sankwei. In his grief and anger he 
 wrote two letters that sealed the fate of Li and 
 of Chinese nationality — one upbraiding his father 
 for not protecting his mistress, the other to Dor- 
 
120 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 gun, the Manchu regent, inviting him to join him 
 in the subjugation of the empire. The Manchus 
 did not hesitate, but pushed their army forward 
 by forced marches to a junction with Sankwei. Li, 
 astonished at the turn of affairs, and determined 
 to crush the man who dared dispute his title, 
 advanced rapidly with tAvo hundred thousand 
 picked infantry and twenty thousand cavalry. In 
 the front line he marched the aged father of Sank- 
 wei, who by all decrees of Confucius, Sankwei 
 was bound to obey, even to the sacrifice of his 
 own life and honor. The father not only ordered, 
 but pleaded with him to submit ; but the vision of 
 the outraged girl steeled the heart of his son, and 
 he stood helpless while his father was murdered 
 before his eyes. The battle that followed was 
 one of the most fiercely contested as well as one 
 of the most noted in history. Sankwei was out- 
 matched and outnumbered, but not outgeneraled. 
 He fought with his troops like the very spirit of 
 the fearful storm that raged during the battle ; 
 but in spite of his terrific charges he would have 
 been compelled to confess defeat, had not the 
 Manchu advance guard of twenty thousand vet- 
 eran cavalry thrown themselves into the breach 
 with a rush that was irresistible. The fight, 
 which commenced as a duel, ended in a slaughter. 
 
SANKWEFS REVENGE. 121 
 
 For fourteen miles Sankwei pursued the usurper's 
 disorganized forces, and butchered them by the 
 hundreds. Li stayed in Peking long enough to 
 strip the palace of its treasures, and to merci- 
 lessly execute all the family of Wu, and set fire 
 to the government buildings. Sankwei, however, 
 was close on his heels. He left the empire to the 
 Manchus, the sacking of the city to the troops, 
 and the bodies of liis family unburied ; but he 
 swept on, tireless, remorseless, bent solely on re- 
 venge. His mistress was dead, his father mur- 
 dered, his family obliterated, but Li still lived. 
 Battle succeeded battle. Li, deserted by liis fol- 
 lowers, hunted like a mad dog, with all doors 
 shut to him, and even the necessities of life be- 
 coming impossible, was killed by the rustics whom 
 he was plundering for food ; and Sankwei arrived 
 only to claim the corpse of the rebel and murderer 
 who for a few hours had dared to sit on the 
 sacred dragon throne. 
 
 Leaving Sankwei to avenge the death of his 
 mistress, Dorgun entered Peking, in January, 
 1644. He proclaimed his youthful charge emperor, 
 and issued a proclamation to the people assuring 
 them that he had come to deliver them, and that 
 they might return to their daily avocations in 
 peace. He did not, however, offer to restore the 
 
122 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 throne to its rightful owners, the Mings, but sent 
 post haste for his six-year-old nephew, and for- 
 mally transferred the Manchu capital from Mouk- 
 den to Peking. The young lord, who adopted 
 the title of Shunchih, arrived in October, and 
 with his advent the Manchu or Tsing dynasty 
 came into being. 
 
 Shunchih reigned eighteen years (1644 to 1662), 
 during which time he completely crushed the 
 Mings, and was able to hand his throne over to 
 his successor, free from all incumbrances and 
 claimants. His first act was to dismiss the eu- 
 nuchs from all posts of honor, and debar them for 
 all time from participating in affairs of state. 
 While the official class and the common people 
 about Peking accepted Manchu rule gladly, the 
 southern districts of the empire remained true to 
 the legitimate, if dissolute, Mings. Fu Wang, an 
 ignorant, drunken grandson of Wanli, was pro- 
 claimed emperor at Nanking, and Shih Kofa, a 
 man of incorruptible virtue and great influence, 
 undertook the hopeless task of winning back his 
 throne for him. Dorgun first tried to open nego- 
 tiations, with this grand old man. He pointed out 
 the impossibility of ever reinstating the worn-out 
 Mings in the affection of the people, and offered 
 amnesty to all, and great honors to Shih, if he 
 
THE MANCHU CONQUEST. 123 
 
 would give up the struggle. But it was all in 
 vain, and the. regent ordered his armies to advance. 
 The Manchus were uniformly successful; city 
 after city fell, the brave Shih lost his life at the 
 fall of Hangchow, and within a year from the 
 commencement of hostilities Nanking was in their 
 power, and Fu Wang was a prisoner. It need 
 hardly be recorded that Fu Wang was not long 
 called upon to endure this disgrace. He was exe- 
 cuted with the usual neatness and dispatch. Fu 
 Wang's successor had the pleasure of being called 
 emperor for three days, during which time he dis- 
 tinguished himself by opening the gates of Hang 
 Chow to the enemy. Tang Wang, a descendant 
 of Hung Wu, in the ninth generation, next at- 
 tempted the imperial role without success ; and 
 after losing Ningpo, Shanghai, Wenchow, and 
 Taichow, he fell into the hands of the conquerors 
 with the usual unpleasant result. 
 
 Probably the most famous character of this 
 period was Koxinga, variously styled pirate, pa- 
 triot, admiral, and king. On the ascension of 
 Kwei Wang to the so-called throne, Koxinga, who 
 was in command of the fleets as well as sole pro- 
 prietor, became the main hope of the falling cause. 
 Koxinga was the son of Admiral Chang, whose 
 career made a fitting prelude to the more remark- 
 
124 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 able one of his son. Chang was a native of 
 Fuhkin, and in early life professed Christianity 
 to the Catholic missionaries. He was sent to 
 Macao, and from there went to Manila, and later 
 to Japan, in which last clime he married a Japan- 
 ese. Koxinga was the fruit of this union. Chang's 
 next move was not exactly in hne with his reli- 
 gious training. He induced a relative of his wife 
 to intrust him with a rich cargo for the Chinese 
 market. The proceeds of the sale of this ship and 
 cargo, which he promptly appropriated, enabled 
 Chang to fit out a fleet of piratical junks. By 
 Bkillful management he amassed a colossal fortune, 
 and became such a power that the Emperor Shun- 
 chih conferred on him the rank of admiral, and 
 kept him an honored but unwilling guest at Pe- 
 king. The son, Koxinga, declined with thanks 
 the emperor's invitation to join his father in his 
 gilded cage, and assuming command of the fleet, 
 which had grown to over a thousand war-junks, 
 repaired to the Pescadores and espoused the Ming 
 cause. He was, however, as expensive an ally 
 as he was a troublesome enemy. The Manchus 
 could not meet him on the sea, and never knew 
 when he was going to strike on the coast. Shun- 
 chih gave up the attempt to guard his great coast- 
 line, and issued an edict commanding the natives 
 
CHINA'S NEGATIVE POLICY, 125 
 
 of the littoral provinces to retire four leagues in- 
 land. The order was carried out to the letter, 
 although it turned fishermen into agriculturists, 
 and changed the diet of several millions of people- 
 It furnishes a curious example of China's historic 
 negative policy. 
 
 The cause of the Mings under the leadership of 
 Kwei Wang prospered for a time, and Canton fell 
 into his hands; but his successes were only momen- 
 tary, as the relentless Wu Sankwei never for a mo- 
 ment gave him a breathing-spell. After a series 
 of hard-fought battles the Ming was driven through 
 the provinces of Kw^eichow and Yunnan, and was 
 forced to beg the protection of the Idng of Bur- 
 mah. Had it not been for the murdered slave- 
 girl he would have been permitted to remain 
 there; but Sankwei paid no attention to his pa- 
 thetic letter, reminding him of the honors he had 
 received from the last of the Ming emperors, and 
 begging for his life, but demanded from the king 
 of Burmah his immediate surrender. The king 
 was easily terrified by the famous general, and 
 handed over the prince and his entire family. 
 Despairing of his life, Kwei Wang strangled him- 
 self with a silken cord, in May, 1652, thereby 
 once again cheating Sankwei of his vengeance. 
 
 In 1656 the Russian Emperor Alexis, the 
 
126 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 father of Peter the Great, sent an embassy to 
 China, with a view to establishing commercial rela- 
 tions. The Russians, however, were not prepared 
 " to do in Rome as the Romans do," and positively 
 refused to perform the kotow before the Manchu 
 emperor, a ceremony which is the equivalent to an 
 acknowledgment of vassalage, and consists in 
 making nine prostrations, touching the ground 
 each time with the forehead. The Russians were 
 dismissed. Shortly after the Dutch sent a similar 
 embassy. Profiting by the example of the Rus- 
 sians, the Dutch submitted to whatever was re- 
 quired. The Chinese emperors hold their levees 
 at daybreak; and the ambassadors were huddled 
 into a cold outer apartment in their court dresses, 
 and forced to rub shoulders throughout the night 
 with the tributary envoy of a prince of the south- 
 ern Tartars, in a long crimson sheepskin coat, 
 great boots, bare arms, and cap surmounted with 
 a horse-tail ; with an ambassador of a Mongol 
 khan in a blue dress covered with embroidery ; a 
 representative of the Grand Lama, in yellow robe, 
 cardinal's hat and beads ; a Korean and a Bur- 
 mese. The Dutch made the kotow with the rest, 
 and delivered their presents. In payment for 
 their debasement they received a letter from the 
 emperor, which read : " You have asked leave to 
 
KANGHSI AND KOXINGA. 127 
 
 come to trade in my country; but as your country 
 is so far distant, and the winds on the east coast 
 so boisterous and so dangerous to your ships, if 
 you do think fit to send hither, I desire that it 
 may be bat once every eight years, and no more 
 than one hundred men in a company, twenty of 
 whom may come up to the place where I keep my 
 court." 
 
 Shunchih died a natural death, and was suc- 
 ceeded by his second son, Kanghsi, one of the 
 greatest of Chinese monarchs. He was eight 
 years old when he ascended the throne ; and the 
 first problem that confronted him was the suppres- 
 sion of the pirate king, Koxinga. In 1663 a 
 combined naval attack of Chinese and Dutch had 
 made untenable Amoy, his last stronghold on the 
 mainland; so Koxinga embarked an army of 
 twenty thousand soldiers, and sailed for Formosa, 
 where he was joined by large numbers of Ming 
 emigres. He demanded the surrender of the 
 Dutch forts. A series of desperate battles fol- 
 lowed, in which the Dutch were worsted, and 
 compelled to retire to their colonies in Java. 
 Koxinga assumed the sovereignty, and was recog- 
 nized by Europeans as king of Formosa. He was 
 not content, however, to reign quietly, but kept 
 up his descents on the maritime provinces of 
 
128 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 China, an finally, irritated by the conduct of his 
 son, he became mad and died, at the age of thirty- 
 eight, from self-inflicted injuries. His demise 
 closed the career of the premier pirate of all his- 
 tory. He was succeeded by his unfilial son, 
 Ching Chin, who continued his father's policy of 
 ravaging the coast. The Chinese fully realized 
 that they were no match for the veteran pirate, 
 and gave up the struggle when they deserted the 
 coasi>line. On the other hand, the pirates were 
 never able to maintain an equal fight on land. 
 Formosa is an extremely fertile island, and had 
 Ching Chin's followers been willing to become 
 agriculturists, the line of Koxinga might have 
 become the recognized reigning house ; but 
 unable to resist a call to arms which promised 
 plunder, the Formosan king threw in his lot with 
 the famous general and prince, Wu Sankwei, in a 
 rebellion that might have wrecked the Manchu 
 dynasty had Sankwei lived to direct it. Right- 
 fully or wrongfully, Kanghsi did not feel secure 
 on the throne that Sankwei had won for his father, 
 so long as that veteran general had such tremen- 
 dous power in the empire. He was the prince 
 viceroy of the great provinces of Kweichow and 
 Yunnan, besides possessing the prestige of being 
 the most able general in Chinese history. Broad- 
 
SANKWEVS DEFIANCE, 129 
 
 minded and generous as was the emperor, it 
 may have been impossible for his Chinese mind 
 to free itself of the suspicion that he would never 
 be first in the eyes of his subjects while Sankwei 
 lived. Kano^hsi first asked for a son of Sankwei 
 to reside in court. This request was instantly 
 complied with. Next, the emperor invited the 
 prince to present himself at the capital. Sankwei 
 diplomatically pleaded old age, and begged the 
 emperor to accept his compliments and excuse. 
 The emperor foolishly pressed the point, and or- 
 dered a commission to report on the condition of 
 Sankwei's health. The martial spirit of the old 
 lion was aroused at the insult ; and he turned on 
 the commission : " Tell your master, whom I made 
 emperor, that I will come to Peking, but it will be 
 at the head of eighty thousand veterans." Sank- 
 wei knew how to strike, and to strike hard. He 
 organized his viceroyalty into a separate state, and 
 in 1674 all of Southern China fell an easy prey to 
 his superb military genius. Kanghsi realized his 
 mistake, and tried to open negotiations ; but, un- 
 fortunately, in the meantime Sankwei's son at 
 Peking had been beheaded by imperial order, and 
 the stern old general scorned his advances. How- 
 ever, the emperor was a foeman worthy of Sank- 
 wei's steel ; and although, like Napoleon, Sankwei 
 
130 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 was always victorious when he led in person, the 
 Manchu forces were able to hold his generals in 
 check, and the Formosan king was unable to make 
 any headway on land. Still, it was not until the 
 death of Sankwei, from paralysis, in October, 1678, 
 that the Manchu dynasty could feel that it was 
 finally in possession of the empire. For three years 
 more the fighting continued, but it was ineffective. 
 Kanghsi tarnished his fame by having the body 
 of Sankwei disinterred, and his bones scattered 
 through the provinces, and by issuing a decree 
 debarring forever his descendants from entering 
 literary examinations or becoming mandarins. 
 Kanghsi missed the great opportunity of his reign 
 to ennoble his name forevermore, by erecting a 
 temple of honor to the grand old general and to 
 the dead slave-girl who had placed his family on 
 the throne. 
 
 With the suppression of the rebellion Kanghsi 
 decided to crush the Formosan pirates, so called, 
 who, during the rebelHon, had possessed themselves 
 of the cities of Amoy and Halting. A force of 
 thirty thousand men and three hundred ships dis- 
 lodged Ching Chin, and compelled him to retire 
 once more to his island capital, where he died six 
 months later. In July, 1683, the Chinese fleet 
 set out for Formosa, and the fate of the buccaneer 
 
TOLERANCE TO MISSIONARIES. 131 
 
 kingdom was decided in a desperate two days' 
 land and naval battle. The Manchus were suc- 
 cessful ; and although Koshwang, the Formosan 
 king, might have held out indefinitely, and have 
 tired the invaders out by carrying on a guerilla 
 warfare, he preferred the title of duke and a life 
 pension with a residence in Peking to a precarious 
 existence in the mountains. Thus ended the 
 record of the greatest and most successful purely 
 piratical adventure in history, with the possible 
 exceptions of the Cortez expedition in Mexico and 
 that of Pizarro in Peru. Its fate is an example 
 of the impossibility of building up an independent, 
 self-respecting nation from its criminal classes. 
 
 The missionaries played a rather important role 
 during the long reign of Kanghsi. The emperor, 
 personally, had a perfect contempt for all reli- 
 gions ; but he was absolutely tolerant, and in spite 
 of the opposition of his officials he permitted 
 freedom of worship, but forbade proselyting. 
 "As we do not restrain the lamas of Tartary," 
 he said, " or the bonzes of China, from building 
 temples and burning incense, we cannot refuse 
 these having their own churches, and publicly 
 teaching their religion, especially as nothing has 
 been alleged against it as contrary to law. Were 
 we not to do this, we should contradict ourselves. 
 
132 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 We hold, therefore, that they may biiild temples 
 to the Lord of Heaven, and maintain them wher- 
 ever they will; and that those who honor them 
 may freely resort to them to burn incense and to 
 observe the rites usual to Christianity." Pere 
 Verbiest, a Dutch priest, who was famous for his 
 scientific and philosophic learning, was employed 
 to revise the Chinese calendar, and discovered 
 that it was an entire month too fast. He was 
 made president of the Astronomical Board, while 
 two Jesuit missionaries, Gerbillon and Pereira, 
 stood equally as high in the emperor's confidence, 
 and in 1689 had the honor of concluding China's 
 first treaty with a European power. They might 
 have done their religion a vast amount of future 
 good had they been more careful of the treatment 
 of the corrupt officialdom around them ; but they 
 believed that it was their mission to expose fraud 
 in high places as well as low ; and in the end they 
 made so many powerful enemies that the mis- 
 sionaries who followed them, and who w^ere not 
 great savants, were made to suffer for their im- 
 politic acts. It was also unfortunate that the 
 different Catholic orders could not live in harmony 
 with each other. They quarreled so fiercely over 
 the proper Chinese character for the name of God, 
 that the viceroy of Canton, in 1716, petitioned 
 
CHINESE CANNONS. 133 
 
 the emperor that he might be empowered to forbid 
 them to live in his province. The story of the 
 disputes of the rival orders is very interesting 
 from a scholastic point of view, but they were 
 responsible for the almost utter wreck of the 
 Roman Catholic missions in China. 
 
 The invasion of Galdan, the chief of the 
 Eleuths, a Kalmuck tribe, with a formidable force, 
 determined Kanghsi to settle forever the status of 
 his troublesome neighbors beyond the great wall ; 
 and the larger part of the years from 1680 to his 
 death in 1723 were filled with battles with these 
 hardy adventurers. Galdan, the greatest of the 
 Central Asian leaders, was eventually driven to 
 suicide ; and his successor, Tseh Wang Putan, 
 who was made chief by Kanghsi, was afterwards 
 dethroned, with the loss of all his territory. It 
 was in these sanguinary wars that cannon first 
 came into use, and they were quite as effective 
 against the wild fighters of Tartary as they after- 
 wards became against the savage warriors of North 
 America. 
 
 Kanghsi died near the close of 1722, of a cold 
 contracted while hunting. He had reigned sixty- 
 one years, and he left a name in Chinese history 
 that ranks him alongside of the great Yau and 
 Shun. He was a man of great natural ability, a 
 
134 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 wise ruler, and a distinguished scholar. His dic- 
 tionary is still the standard one of China, and his 
 " Sixteen Maxims " is part of the course of study- 
 in every Chinese school. During his reign a 
 regular trade in tea sprang up, and in 1699 a 
 factory was established in Canton. In 1703, over 
 one hundred thousand pounds of tea were ex- 
 ported from Canton, and in 1715 the trade had 
 become so well established that a regular line of 
 British tea-ships was placed in commission. Quite 
 a foreign settlement sprang up on 'the Honan side 
 of Canton, and large fortunes were made, in spite 
 of the jealousy and persecution of the Chinese 
 officials. The little colony complained bitterly of 
 its precarious situation and the humiliations it had 
 to stand ; but as long as the trade was so lucrative 
 the European nations temporized with the Chinese 
 rather than risk the possible breaking off of com- 
 mercial relations. In the end, however, commerce 
 had to pay dearly for its early weakness and 
 timidity. 
 
 Yungching, the fourth son of Kanghsi, suc- 
 ceeded to the throne. His rule of fourteen years 
 was uneventful, save for the usual number of 
 rebellions and the annual picnic excursions of the 
 Tartars into the northern provinces. The quar- 
 reling Catholic missionaries were formally banished 
 
A DIPLOMATIC TRIUMPH, 135 
 
 from the empire, and more than three hundred 
 churches were destroyed. In 1727 Portugal sent 
 an envoy to Peking, which, as usual, resulted in 
 nothing. The same year a Russian embassy was 
 more successful, in so far as they obtained per- 
 mission for a number of their young men to reside 
 in Peking to study the language, and that Count 
 Sava managed to place his credentials directly in 
 the august hands of the emperor rather than on 
 the table before the throne. At the time this was 
 considered a great diplomatic triumph; and as 
 petty as it may seem, it may be looked upon as 
 one of the steps that led to China's eventual recog- 
 nition of the equality of all nations. The last 
 step in this whimsical procession towards the 
 throne was taken last year by Prince Henry of 
 Prussia, when his personal call on the Emperor 
 of China was returned in person by the Son of 
 Heaven. 
 
136 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 VII. 
 
 FROM CHI EN LUNG TO HIENFUNG. 
 
 [A.D. 1735-A.D. 1851.] 
 
 WHEN Chien Lung ascended the throne 
 in 1735 at the age of twenty-five, he 
 made a public vow that, " should he, 
 like his illustrious grandfather Kanghsi, be per- 
 mitted to complete the sixtieth year of his reign, 
 he would show his gratitude to Heaven by resign- 
 ing the crown to his heir, as an acknowledgment 
 that he had been favored to the full extent of his 
 wishes." Not one person who was present at the 
 Hall of Imperial Ancestors when the vow was 
 made, lived to see it fulfilled ; but it was thus 
 kept to the very hour and minute, and it is the 
 only example in Chinese history where a monarch 
 voluntarily laid down the royal yellow. 
 
 It was not in longevity alone that Chien Lung 
 resembled his great sire. He was a strong char- 
 acter, a great ruler, and a patron of education. 
 His reign was disturbed with rebellions and foreign 
 
RETURN OF THE TOURGOTS, 137 
 
 wars ; but the rebellions were not aimed at his 
 administration, and the wars with Nepal, Burma, 
 and Turkestan were not of his seeking, although 
 he never turned aside when once engaged until he 
 was indisputably master of the field. He was 
 harsh with the Catholics, but, as he said, no more 
 so than the Catholics would be with the mission- 
 aries of the Grand Lama of Thibet, should he 
 send them to Europe to proselyte and stir up 
 strife. His court and table were always open to 
 missionaries of ability ; and Jesuits like Castiglione 
 and Attiret, who were artists and skilled workers, 
 were treated with the greatest distinction. One 
 of the most remarkable and romantic incidents of 
 his long reign was the return of the self-exiled 
 tribe of Tourgots from the steppes of the Kirghez 
 in Russia, where they had fled to be free from 
 early Mongol invasion. The return of this tribe 
 of six hundred thousand people to their father- 
 land in 1772 is a most thrilling story, as told by 
 De Quincey in his " The Flight of a Tartar 
 Tribe." 
 
 In his war with the Gurkhas of Nepal, it seems 
 that the British in India made a demonstration 
 that very much aided and gratified the Chinese, 
 and the British Government thought this a good 
 time to try to obtain some concessions that would 
 
138 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 relieve the deplorable situation at Canton. Lord 
 Macartney, late governor of Madras, at the head 
 of an imposing suite, and carrying an entire ship- 
 load of presents, arrived at Canton in 1793. He 
 was received by the Chinese with the greatest dis- 
 tinction, and by the governors of all the cities on 
 his way to Peking. His reception at the capital 
 and at the emperor's summer palace at Jehol was 
 most flattering ; although the fact that the flag on 
 the vessel on which he voyaged up the Peiho bore 
 the legend, " Tribute-Bearer from the country of 
 England," marred the joy of the occasion. 
 
 All English histories of China devote more 
 space to a narrative of the account of this mission 
 than they do to the rest of the sixty years' reign 
 of Chien Lung ; but other than being a most gor- 
 geous picnic excursion for Macartney, and a vast 
 expense to the English government, not one single 
 thing was gained, commercially or diplomatically. 
 Macartney was dismissed with sweetly bland con- 
 tempt, and his vast array of presents were ac- 
 cepted in the same spirit that Chinese emperors 
 had been accepting presents from tributary states 
 since the days of Shun and Yau. Europe was 
 still valuing China at its own estimate ; and it is 
 curious how small an excuse in the beginning of 
 1800 would lead to war in Europe, and yet what 
 
A GREAT EMPIRE, 139 
 
 gross insults the same nations would submit to 
 from this haughty Asiatic empire. 
 
 In 1796 Chien Lung abdicated on his diamond 
 anniversary, although he had three years yet to 
 live, long enough to discover that he had made a 
 great mistake in his estimate of the character of 
 his son and successor, Chiaching. For the first 
 time in Chinese history an emperor was able to 
 turn over to his successor an empire that was at 
 absolute peace, although its boundaries extended 
 from the northern steppes of Mongolia to Cochin 
 China, and from Formosa to Nepal. 
 
 It is a wise father that knows his own son, and 
 Chiaching was not long in demonstrating this 
 axiom. He evidently believed that the Tsing 
 dynasty had made such a reputation for ability and 
 virtue during the reign of its three sovereigns 
 that it would permit him to enjoy life with per- 
 fect safety and as he saw fit. He surrounded him- 
 self with actors, bon vivants, and flatterers, and 
 throwing all questions of ceremonial etiquette to 
 the winds, made wine, women and song, the con- 
 trolling influences of his court. His orgies did 
 not rival those of many of his predecessors in 
 magnificence or costly outlay ; but he was always 
 the buffoon, and never the king, and he even car- 
 ried his comedians with him when he offered 
 
140 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 sacrifices at the temples of heaven and earth. 
 Sung, one of his ministers, dared to point out to 
 his royal master the disastrous effect it would 
 have upon the nation if its high priest made 
 sport of the holy of holies. The only impression 
 this reproof made was a peremptory summons for 
 Sung to appear in court, and state what punish- 
 ment he deserved. "A slow and ignominious 
 death," which meant quartering, replied the stout- 
 hearted old statesman, who evidently thought that 
 as long as he must die, he might as well ask 
 for the worst. " Choose again," thundered the 
 astonished emperor. " Let me be beheaded," 
 was the answer. Chiaching paused for a moment 
 in deep thought, and a third time put the ques- 
 tion. This time Sung's face beamed with joy, for 
 he believed that he was to be permitted to die an 
 honorable death ; and he almost shouted in his 
 relief, " Let me be strangled." Immediately the 
 emperor dismissed the brave courtier, and made 
 him governor of the province of Hi, or Chinese 
 Siberia, where he could exercise his great talents 
 in battlino- with the frontier marauders rather than 
 with the emperor's shortcomings. 
 
 It is sad to chronicle that Sung's reproof had 
 no effect. With such a state of affairs in court, it 
 is little wonder that rebellion and insurrection 
 
THE PIRATE INVASION, 141 
 
 sprang up throughout the empire. China has 
 always been a fertile soil for the growth of secret 
 societies. Their object is primarily purely philan- 
 thropic ; but in a time like the present reign, when 
 the official class was given free license to squeeze 
 the people, they became a theater for ambitious 
 schemers and the base for a revolution. 
 
 The insurrection of the White Lily sect swept 
 the provinces of Honan, Shensi, Kansu, and Sze- 
 chuan, costing thousands of lives, the greatest suf- 
 fering, and an outlay of over a hundred million 
 taels. Naturally piracy took advantage of this 
 season of terror and the weakness of the central 
 government, to scour the seas, and ravage the coast- 
 towns. At one time their force was estimated at 
 seventy thousand men, with eighteen hundred 
 junks ; and their chief, Chai, made for himself a 
 name almost as terrible as that of the great 
 Koxinga. The imperial navy was so helpless that 
 the emperor had to petition the despised English 
 in Canton to send the war-ship *' Mercury " to 
 safeguard the transport of the Siamese tribute 
 from Bangkok to the imperial coffers. The 
 European tea-ships gained nothing, however, by 
 this action, and not only had to protect them- 
 selves from the pirates, but had to submit to all 
 the petty exactions of the imperial guard-ships. 
 
142 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 In 1802 the English occupied Macao to protect 
 it from seizure by the French; and again in 1808 
 Admiral Drury landed a force to assist the Portu- 
 guese in case the French made the threatened de- 
 scent; and yet in spite of the obligations which 
 both the Chinese and the Portuguese willingly 
 placed themselves under to the English, both na- 
 tions vehemently protested and threatened when 
 H. M. S. " Doris " brought in 1814 the American 
 sailing-ship '' Hunter " into Macao as a prize. The 
 Chinese even threatened to shut up the port of 
 Macao to foreign trade unless the English took 
 their men-of-war off the coast. 
 
 The Russians were no more fortunate in their 
 attempts to open a door into China. In 1805 a 
 Russian embassy reached the great wall, when 
 they were informed that they might save them- 
 selves the trouble of journeying farther unless 
 they intended to do the kotow. Count Goloyken 
 declined, and immediately retraced his long and 
 toilsome journey. In 1816 George the Third, not 
 satisfied with the result of the Macartney picnic, 
 decided to try once more, and dispatched Lord 
 Amherst at the head of another one. Immediately 
 on the arrival of Amherst the question of " to 
 kotow, or not to kotow " was raised ; and as 
 Amherst was firm in his refusal, he also had to 
 
SUFINENESS OF ENGLAND, 143 
 
 turn back without gazing on the countenance of 
 the Son of Heaven. As England did not resent 
 the failure of the Macartney expedition, the Chi- 
 nese did not think it worth while to be even polite 
 to Amherst; and as the historian of the expedi- 
 tion puts it, the embassy was treated with " brutal 
 rudeness and insulting demeanor." When it is re- 
 membered that England at this time had won the 
 battle of Waterloo, and was mistress of the seas, 
 one cannot but wonder at her supineness in deal- 
 ing with the licentious Peking court. Chiaching 
 died in 1820, at the age of sixty-one, mourned by 
 none, and execrated by all. It is remarkable that 
 the consequences of his reign were not more 
 serious, and that more sanguinary outbreaks did 
 not occur, as the imperial power was little stronger 
 than that of one of the great viceroys. 
 
 The one natural human act of Chiaching's career 
 was his choice of his own son, Taokwang, as his 
 successor. The choice was in the nature of a 
 reward. In 1813 the palace was invaded by a 
 band of armed men bent on the assassination of 
 the emperor. The attempt would have been suc- 
 cessful but for young Taokwang, who sprang to 
 his father's rescue, and in a hand-to-hand fight 
 killed two of the leaders, while a relative shot a 
 third. The emperor thus describes the affair: 
 
144 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 ** My imperial second son seized a matchlock, and 
 shot two of them. For this deliverance I am 
 indebted to the energies of my second son." 
 
 In one particular the reign is famous in China's 
 long history, as during it the official class learned 
 more surprising tilings than are found in the phi- 
 losophy of Confucius. It was an iconoclastic era, 
 in which the most revered idols were ruthlessly 
 broken by the despised " outer barbarian." To 
 the horror of the " Son of Heaven" he discovered 
 that the sons of earth not only dared to dispute 
 his preeminence on this globe, but were prepared 
 to assert their equality. The hermit nation was 
 forced into the world, and the " tributary nation " 
 fiction and the kotow bugbear were swept into 
 limbo without regard to their hoary antiquity or 
 eminent respectability. The outer barbarian 
 proved to be a veritable bull in a China shop. 
 Taokwang went on to the dread throne of the cen- 
 turies, actually believing himself to be the king of 
 kings, and the most awe-inspiring object on earth ; 
 he died a much wiser but sadder man, with his 
 throne at the mercy of a few English frigates, and 
 his august self the sport of a thousand English 
 soldiers. Taokwang might well have believed that 
 " after me the deluge ; " for no man in all history 
 ever took a fall from such a height in so brief a 
 
TAOKWANG'S SURPRISE. 145 
 
 time ; and the joke of it was that with Taokwang 
 it was so unexpected, and so contrary to the teach- 
 ings of the classics, that he really never understood 
 what had happened to him up to the day of his 
 death. No comic opera was ever half so enter- 
 taining as his career. 
 
 The first years of the new emperor's reign were 
 disturbed by wars with the tributary tribes of 
 Turkestan, with the Miautze, — the highlanders of 
 China, — and with the Formosans, in all of which 
 the Chinese were successful, in spite of the fact 
 that justice was on the side of the rebels. Until 
 April, 1834, all commercial intercourse between 
 England and China had been through the East 
 India Company; and while the position of the 
 virtual rulers of all India was most humiliating in 
 China, still their wrongs were strictly individual, 
 and not national ones. This state of affairs was 
 not satisfactory to the merchants ; and on the ex- 
 piration of the East India Company's charter, they 
 insisted on holding the home government respon- 
 sible for the redress of their injuries, rather than 
 their late employers. To meet this new condition of 
 affairs, and to provide for an official representative, 
 the English government sent out in 1834 Lord 
 Napier as chief superintendent of trade. Napier 
 refused to communicate with the viceroy through 
 
146 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the usuax lorm of petition, but insisted that his 
 credentials be received as they were written and 
 prepared under the direction of his queen. He 
 proceeded to Canton without asking for a passport 
 at Macao, where he remained three months with- 
 out being officially recognized further than being 
 officially expelled in August, 1834. As a hint to 
 hasten his departure, all trade was suspended with 
 British subjects, Chinese servants were withdrawn 
 from the European settlement, and an embargo 
 placed on provisions. After a hundred years of 
 humiliation, the British at last made up their 
 minds to resent this last insult, and the British 
 frigates " Imogene " and " Andromache " were 
 ordered to Canton. On the way up the river they 
 silenced the supposedly impregnable Bogue forts 
 with about as much difficulty as they would have 
 experienced in knocking down a Malayan stockade. 
 With the frigate's guns covering the factories 
 at Honan, life and property for the time were safe, 
 but trade was dead, and provisions were scarce ; 
 and Lord Napier, believing that discretion was the 
 better part of valor, withdrew to Macao, and the 
 impertinent frigates were ordered down stream, or 
 as the mandarins boastfully expressed it in a 
 memorial to the emperor, the " barbarian eye " 
 (Napier) has been driven out, and the two war- 
 
NO OPIUM TRADE. 147 
 
 ships " dragged over the shallows and expelled." 
 Napier died at Macao shortly after his arrival ; and 
 the diplomatic victory for the moment remained 
 with the Chinese, who were openly boastful, and 
 despised the English for sacrificing their honor to 
 protect their trade. But they only dimly appre- 
 ciated the true character of the men with whom 
 they were dealing ; and Confucius had neglected 
 to include among his stories the tale of the last 
 straw that broke the camel's back. 
 
 The Chinese government, however, had two 
 complaints against the foreign trade in China 
 which they brought forward with more or less 
 show of reason. They complained of the vast 
 amount of silver that was lost to the empire con- 
 sequent upon the trade with Europe, which 
 amounted to over sixty million taels annually, 
 and also of the illicit trade in opium, "foreign 
 dirt, which was fast growing to vast proportions." 
 
 One of the so-called crimes which has been laid 
 at Britain's door was this forcing of opium upon 
 China. It is a long story, and both sides have 
 been ably handled by eminent writers ; but after a 
 careful study of all the causes that led to the first 
 and second wars in China, and the opening of the 
 treaty ports, I think that England stood strictly 
 within her rights, and that opium was only an 
 
148 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 incident rather than the cause of the final clash. 
 Had the Chinese been in earnest in their desire to 
 prohibit the importation of opium from India, 
 they would have forbidden the cultivation of 
 poppy in their own provinces. 
 
 While I am an enemy of any drug or liquor that 
 destroys manhood, I must assert that opium is less 
 harmful to the Chinese than alcohol is to the Anglo- 
 Saxon ; a pipe of opium taken after a hard day's 
 work seems to be beneficial rather than destruc- 
 tive. The opium trade was a problem which cost 
 the British government quite as many sleepless 
 nights as it did the Chinese. Lord Palmerston 
 and all the members of liis cabinet thoroughly dis- 
 approved of it, and officially let it be known that 
 English subjects carried it on at their own risk. 
 It had, however, become so mixed up with legiti- 
 mate trade that any drastic measures for its sup- 
 pression would cause great hardships, and bring 
 ruin to many of the pioneer English hongs in 
 China. If the English government persisted in 
 driving their own people out of business, it simply 
 meant that the Dutch, French, and Americans 
 would become their heirs. Sir G. Robinson, who 
 succeeded Davis as superintendent of trade, be- 
 came so exasperated at his inability to satisfy 
 either the Chinese or his own people, that in 
 
SUPERINTENDENT OF TRADE. 149 
 
 February, 1836, he wrote Lord Palmerston sug- 
 gesting that the growth of the poppy should be 
 discontinued m India. The failure of the English 
 to keep opium out of China is about similar to 
 our attempts to keep " fire-water " from the 
 American Indians. 
 
 In 1836 Captain Elliot, R.N., was appointed 
 superintendent of trade ; and although he was a 
 much stronger and more able man than his prede- 
 cessors, he weakly consented to petition to the 
 viceroy for permission to reside outside of Canton, 
 thus for the time surrendering the point which 
 had caused Lord Napier's downfall. The viceroy 
 rightfully considered this as a great diplomatic 
 victory, after England had demonstrated her supe- 
 riority in war, and in his dispatch to the emperor 
 said that the troubles with the barbarians were 
 over, and that, as an inferior race, they would 
 henceforth meekly occupy the position which they 
 ought to be content to accept. In the meantime 
 the opium question had caused much wrangling 
 in the Peking cabinet. Some were for legalizing 
 the drug, others were for its total exclusion. In 
 1839 the anti-opium party became supreme, and 
 Lin was appointed with full powers to suppress 
 the traffic. Eight days after his arrival in Canton 
 (March 18, 1839) Lin ordered that all opium in 
 
150 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 the foreign factories should be delivered to him. 
 Following up his order, he surrounded the foreign 
 god owns with his braves, lined the water-front 
 with war-junks, and ordered the Chinese servants 
 to again withdraw from the service of the barbari- 
 ans. By the 4th of May, there being no alter- 
 native, 20,283 chests of opium were handed over 
 to Lin ; but every concession made by the Euro- 
 peans for the sake of trade only brought with it 
 fresh humiliation. After obtaining the opium 
 and partially destroying it, the wily Lin over- 
 reached himself in demanding that sixteen of the 
 leading merchants should be turned over to him for 
 punishment for having engaged in illegal trade. 
 
 The English declined, and left Canton in a 
 body for jNlacao. Here, however, they found that 
 they were unwelcome guests ; and on the 26th 
 August, 1839, they, with all they possessed, de- 
 parted for the rocky, inhospitable, pirate-invested 
 island of Hong Kong. This was, however, going 
 a step farther than Lin had intended, as he had 
 no wish to actually lose the lucrative English 
 trade. He promptly entered into negotiations 
 with Elliot for the return of the obstinate barba- 
 rians to Canton, where it would be easier for 
 him to " squeeze " them to his heart's content. 
 The English were foolishly about to consent to 
 
BATTLE OF CHUNPL 151 
 
 return, when Lin again overreached himself by 
 insisting that the English merchants should sign 
 a bond consenting to come under Chinese law, 
 and to be tried and punished by it. On receipt 
 of Elliot's refusal, he and his fugitive colony were 
 ordered to leave Chinese soil within three days. 
 Having nowhere to go, they decided to once more 
 appeal to arms. An engagement took place be- 
 tween Lin's fleet of war-junks and fire-ships and 
 H. B. M.'s " Volage " and " Hyacinth " on Novem- 
 ber 3, 1839, at Chunpi, in which the Chinese were 
 badly worsted. Lin was in no way shocked at 
 the result, but immediately placed a price upon 
 Elliot's head. By this time the English govern- 
 ment at home had discovered that if it ever in- 
 tended to do anything to protect its interests in 
 China, it must commence at once or give up the 
 struggle. 
 
 In 1841 Sir Gordon Bremer blockaded Canton, 
 occupied Tinghai on the island of Chusan, and 
 then proceeded to the mouth of the Peiho, where 
 Captain Elliot was met by Kishen, the imperial 
 commissioner, who was successful in inducing the 
 fleet to return to Canton. Here the talk con- 
 tinued for six weeks with no result, until on the 
 6th of January, 1841, Elliot grew tired of the 
 diplomatic delays, and did the only thing that 
 
152 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 Chinese statesmen understand — sent an ultima- 
 tum, and demanded an answer within twelve 
 hours. No reply being received, the English 
 ships opened fire on the forts at Chuenti and 
 Taikoh, reducing both places in an hour, and in- 
 flicting a loss of five hundred killed and two hun- 
 dred wounded, and the destruction of sixteen 
 war-.junks. This proceeding was a great shock to 
 the Canton officials ; and they made haste to enter 
 into a treaty whereby Hong Kong was ceded to 
 the English, six million dollars paid for the opium 
 destroyed, and they graciously condescended to 
 recognize English officials on terms of equality. 
 Canton was also to become an open treaty port. 
 
 When the Son of Heaven heard of this treaty 
 he was thunderstruck. Kishen was promptly 
 arrested, and carried a prisoner to Peking. The 
 treaty was disavowed, and fifty thousand dollars 
 was placed on the heads of Captain Elliot, Sir 
 Gordon Bremer, and Mr. Morrison. This time 
 the English did not hesitate. They stormed and 
 took the famous Bogue forts, and the guns of 
 the squadron were trained on the city of Canton. 
 This was going too far ; and rather than have the 
 match touched to them, the Chinese officials were 
 willing that their august sovereign should be 
 thunderstruck the second time. Another treaty 
 
THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 153 
 
 was entered into ; but it soon became clear to the 
 English that the maintenance of peace was impos- 
 sible until the Chinese were thoroughly con- 
 vinced of the superiority of the European methods 
 of making war. What had taken place in Canton 
 most profoundly shocked his majesty, but he 
 ascribed the defeat of the Chinese to the inca- 
 pacity of his leaders ; then, Canton was a long 
 way from Peking, and the impression made by 
 the foreigners was not near enough at home. To 
 correct this fault the British fleet sailed north- 
 ward on August 21, 1842, taking Amoy on the 
 way, and retaking Tinghai. They next reduced 
 Chenhai, to the great surprise of Viceroy Yukien, 
 and occupied Ningpo without firing a shot. The 
 emperor and his hide-bound cabinet were begin- 
 ning to grow nervous ; but it was not until 
 Wusung and Shanghai had fallen chat Taokwang 
 commenced to think seriously of effectually crush- 
 ing the impertinent barbarians. 
 
 On the 3d August the fleet started up the 
 Yangtse-Kiang for the ancient capital of Nan 
 king, and on the 9th the debarkation of troops 
 began. The imperial commissioners, Ilipu, Kiying, 
 and Niukien, seeing that the game was up, asked J 
 for an armistice ; and another treaty was signed 
 which was genuine, and the first war with China 
 
154 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 came to an end. This treaty of August 29, 1842, 
 opened to the world the great ports of Canton, 
 Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai; gave 
 Hong Kong to the British, along with a war in- 
 demnity of $20,000,000. 
 
 On July 3, 1844, a treaty of peace, amity, and 
 commerce was concluded between the United 
 States and China by Caleb Gushing for the United 
 States, and Tsiyeng, "of the imperial house, a vice- 
 guardian of the heir apparent, governor-general of 
 the two Kwangs, and superintendent-general of 
 the trade and foreign intercourse of the five ports," 
 on the part of China. The treaty was, however, 
 not signed without the usual attempt of evasion 
 and procrastination. When Mr. Cushing arrived 
 in February, 1844, on the United States ship 
 " Brandywine," he took up his residence in Macao. 
 He was at once informed, in a most solemn and 
 impressive manner, that he would on no account 
 be allowed to proceed to Peking, as the United 
 States had never yet sent tribute to the Son of 
 Heaven, and could not therefore be included 
 among the tributary states. 
 
 This impertinence came a little late; and al- 
 though negotiations were impeded by a riot, in 
 which an American killed a Chinaman, the treaty 
 was finally concluded without the United States 
 
FOREIGN RELATIONS. 155 
 
 having to acknowledge the superiority of the Chi- 
 nese emperor. However, on account of the bad 
 blood that had arisen over the matter, President 
 Tyler conceded the withdrawal of Mr. Gushing, 
 who left Macao for the United States on August 
 27, 1844. 
 
 He was succeeded by Alexander H. Everett, 
 who was taken ill on the way, and returned imme- 
 diately to the United States. During his absence, 
 Commander James Biddle, U. S. Navy, and Peter 
 Parker, were in charge of the legation. Mr, 
 Everett returned to China in October, 1846, and 
 remained until June, 1847. Mr. Parker was again 
 in charge of the legation, from that date until the 
 arrival of Mr. John W. Davis, August 24, 1848. 
 In 1844 United States consulates were established 
 at Hong Kong and Canton, with Thomas W. Wal- 
 dron and Paul S. Forbes respectively as consuls. 
 
 On October 23, 1844, a treaty was signed be- 
 tween China and France, similar to those en- 
 tered into by England and the United States. 
 The Chinese officials at Canton, however, did not 
 take kindly to the provisions of these treaties, and 
 mobs and murders were quite the order of the 
 day. The Bogue forts had to be, for the third 
 time, reduced. It is worth recording here, that in 
 July, 1844, a Chinese mob at Canton would have 
 
156 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 burned the foreign factories, but for the interfer- 
 ence of the American frigate " St. Louis," which 
 went to their relief from Whampoa, — a port of 
 call distant fifteen miles from Canton. The Eng- 
 lish at the time had a strong fleet at Hong Kong, 
 but for some reason they took no interest in these 
 repeated calls for protection from the Canton mer- 
 chants. However, before the death of Taokwang, 
 in 1850, the empire had begun to accommodate 
 itself to the new state of affairs, and the " foreign 
 devils " had made themselves quite at home within 
 the five treaty ports. 
 
 From this date on, China may be considered as 
 belonging to the sisterhood of nations, and her 
 history a part of the world's history. Although 
 from an international point of view the most inter- 
 esting event of Taokwang's reign w^as the strug- 
 gle that led up to the opening of the treaty ports, 
 it must not be understood that it was free from in- 
 ternal rebellions, secret societies, insurrections, and 
 court cabals. In fact, the seeds of the great 
 Taiping rebellion, that shook the empire to its 
 very center, were sown and nurtured during the 
 last years of his reign. The murder of the gover- 
 nor of Macao, M. Amaral, which was incited by 
 the Canton viceroy, was the means of losing to 
 China the suzerainty of the Portuguese colony. 
 
AMERICAN COMMERCE. 157 
 
 The American trade to China commenced 
 shortly after the Revolutionary War. The first 
 recorded facts regarding it date from the season 
 of 178^-1785, at which time two American ships, 
 the "Empress of China," John Green, master, with 
 Major Samuel Shaw of Boston, late aide-de-camp 
 to General Knox, as supercargo, and the " Pallas," 
 which was consigned to Robert Morris, one of 
 the signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
 were loaded at Canton for the United States. 
 Among the other cargo they carried 880,100 
 pounds of tea. The next season there was only 
 one vessel at Canton, which exported 695,000 
 pounds of tea. In 1786-1787 there were six 
 ships engaged in the trade ; viz., " Hope," " Ex- 
 periment," " Grand Turk," " Jenny," " Washing- 
 ton," and " Asia," which carried tea to the extent 
 of 1,181,860 pounds. 
 
 During the season of 1832-1833 there were 
 fifty-nine American ships at Canton. The car- 
 goes they brought are rather interesting, as they 
 show to a certain extent what demand had devel- 
 oped among the Chinese for American goods. 
 The principal items were quicksilver, lead, iron, 
 copper, tin-plates, opium, ginseng, rice, broad- 
 cloth, camlets, chintzes, cambrics, velvets, bomba- 
 zettes, fancy handkerchiefs, Hnen, cotton drilling. 
 
158 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 yarn, and prints, sea-otter, fox anc! seal skins, 
 pearl shells, sandalwood, cochineal, music-boxes, 
 clocks, and watches. If we add to this list 
 American flour and kerosene oil, it will cover all 
 our exports to the China of to-day. Evidently 
 these early Boston merchants had a keen eye for 
 Chinese peculiarities, and, unlike many of our mod- 
 ern merchants, did not waste their time and money 
 in trying to sell them something they did not 
 want. 
 
 The growth of trade between the United States 
 and Canton was steady and encouraging. In 
 1805 American sailing-vessels brought into the 
 country $5,326,358 worth of American goods, 
 and bought $5,127,000 worth of tea, silk, camphor, 
 etc. In 1833 these imports had increased to 
 18,362,971, and the exports to America to $8,372,- 
 175. Mr. Forbes remained consul at Canton 
 until 1855, when he was succeeded by Oliver H. 
 Perry of Massachusetts. 
 
 It is interesting to note in this connection that 
 the first official commercial trade report on China 
 that was ever submitted to the United States 
 Congress was written by Major Shaw, the talented 
 supercargo of the " Empress of China." His ship 
 arrived in New York, ]\Iay 11, 1785, and shortly 
 after Shaw addressed an able and very interesting 
 
THE SHAW TREATY. 159 
 
 history of the voyage to John Jay, secretary of 
 state, and an earnest worker for American develop- 
 ment. Mr. Jay laid the Shaw treaty before Con- 
 gress, and that body resolved : " That Congress 
 feels a peculiar satisfaction in the successful issue 
 of this first effort of the citizens of America to 
 establish a direct trade with China, which does so 
 much honor to its undertakers and conductors." 
 
160 CHIN J' S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 FROM THE TAIPING REBELLION 
 TO THE CHUFOO CONVENTION. 
 
 [A.D. 1857 -A.D. 1876.] 
 
 WHEN Hienfung came to the throne he 
 found himseK confronted with pro- 
 bably the last of the old-fashioned 
 rebellions that will ever devastate all China. 
 To-day all parts of the empire are connected 
 by the telegraph, steamers force the currents 
 of the swiftest rivers, and a small body of 
 ill-paid imperial troops, with modern arms in 
 their hands, would soon, if they did not decide 
 to join hands with the rebels, quiet a mob of 
 peasantry armed with scythes and gingalls. 
 Before the introduction of the telegraph a 
 leader like Hung Hsiutsuan, the " Heavenly 
 King " of the Taipings, could collect about him a 
 few thousand malcontents, swoop down on a city, 
 add it to his force, and continue without much 
 opposition until one or more provinces and an 
 army of 200,000 men stood at his back, before 
 
THE TAIPING REBELLION, 161 
 
 the imperial ears at Peking had received a hint as 
 to the disturbance. It will be noted that nearly 
 all Chinese rebellions originate in a frontier or 
 remote province. The neighborhood of Canton 
 has always been a fertile germinating ground. The 
 raison d'etre for a rebellion is always plunder ; the 
 excuse, reform, and the overthrow of the ruling 
 dynasty. 
 
 The Taipings' cry was, " Down with the Tar- 
 tar." Their platform was " purity " ; and their 
 leader professed to be a Christian, and to receive 
 revelations direct from God. He called his sect 
 the " Association of the Almighty." Starting in 
 the neighborhood of Canton, the rebels occupied 
 the cities of Lienchow, Yunganchow, and Nanking. 
 The Viceroy Yeh of Canton was thoroughly 
 alarmed, and prepared for a vigorous defense ; but 
 Hung feared to risk a set-back, and marched from 
 Kwangtung province into Hunan, and on March 
 8, 1853, established himself in Nanking, which 
 he made his capital. Hung proclaimed himself 
 emperor, and by the same authority created five 
 of his chiefs princes of the new Taiping dynasty. 
 The luxury of the palaces of Nanking proved too 
 much for this son of the soil and fanatical dreamer, 
 and as a factor in the subsequent events he was 
 lost. Two months later a force was dispatched 
 
162 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 to storm Peking, for without possession of the 
 imperial city no rebel king could stand before his 
 followers as a king in anything more than name. 
 It was a perilous undertaking, and Hung and his 
 generals ought to have been contented with one- 
 half of the empire. The distance was over one 
 thousand miles ; and even if the imperial troops 
 were paralyzed with fear, there were great rivers 
 to ford and mountains to cross without pontoon- 
 trains, engineer corps, or commissariat. 
 
 The march was a daring one, yet it reflects 
 more discredit on the imperial forces than on the 
 invaders. In six months' time the rebels had 
 traversed four provinces, taken twenty-six cities, 
 subsisted on the enemy, and finally intrenched 
 themselves near Tientsin, within a hundred miles 
 of Peking. Here, however, they found their 
 Capua, and seemed to lose all desire to possess 
 the capital. For two years this vast army gave 
 itself up to raids and wholesale robberies, at the 
 end of which time it drifted back to Nanking a 
 disorganized mass. It was at this time that the 
 now celebrated statesman, Li Hung Chang, first 
 came on the scene as colonel of a volunteer regi- 
 ment. He did not, however, have an opportunity 
 to make a reputation as a soldier. 
 
 Not satisfied with the lessons that had been 
 
ALLIES ENTER PEKING, 163 
 
 taught them by the first real contest with West- 
 ern arms, or deterred by the victorious march of 
 the Taipings, China rushed blindly into a war 
 with England and France that revealed to the 
 world all her rottenness and sham. 
 
 The day the allies entered Peking, and put the 
 torch to the emperor's palace, the carefully built up 
 prestige of China departed ; from her high estate 
 she fell to the level of her tributary nations of 
 Korea, Burma, and Turkestan. For two hundred 
 years she had treated the Occidentals as the dirt 
 under her feet, and had looked upon all the earth 
 as little more than barbarian frontiers. As in her 
 previous wars with the Kins, the Khitans, and the 
 Mongols, the Son of Heaven was not permitted to 
 be disturbed in his fancied security until his 
 sacred person was in actual momentary danger; 
 and then, as usual, he ignominiously fled, and per- 
 mitted events to take their own course. The 
 English soon discovered that taking and retaking 
 the defenses of Canton, the occupation of small 
 tracts of territory like Hong Kong Island, or the 
 placing of a ransom on the provincial capital itself, 
 made little impression on the imperial court, and 
 if they ever expected to be fully recognized as an 
 equal, and be protected in trade, the final battle 
 must be fought in Peking itself ; so in 1856 and 
 
164 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 1857, when the Viceroy Yeh of Canton, under in- 
 structions from the Peking government, inaugur- 
 ated a high-handed and brutal pohcy in his dealings 
 with the foreign merchants, the British govern- 
 ment did not rest with the capture of the Bogue 
 forts, the occupation of Canton, and the banish- 
 ment of the haughty Yeh. The time had come 
 when China must be forced to enter into a treaty 
 that forever safeguarded the rights of all foreign- 
 ers, or fight. Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, repre- 
 senting the English and French forces, addressed 
 a letter to Yu, the first member of the Privy 
 Council, demanding that a commission should 
 meet at Shanghai to discuss conditions of peace. 
 
 Mr. William B. Reed, American minister, and 
 his Russian colleague, wrote the council in the 
 same line. The reply was, as might be expected, 
 evasive and unsatisfactory. The British fleet, 
 early in May, 1857, under the command of Ad- 
 miral Sir Michael Seymour, proceeded to the 
 Peiho, reduced the Taku forts, and anchored be- 
 fore Tientsin. The ease with which the impreg- 
 nable Taku forts had been knocked to pieces by 
 the English guns caused great consternation in 
 Peking ; and the emperor made haste to conclude 
 a treaty with Lord Elgin, whereby the English 
 were permitted to have a resident minister in 
 
BOMBARDMENT OF TAKU. 1G5 
 
 Peking, the ports of Newchwang, Tengchow, 
 Formosa, Swatow, and Kienchow were opened, 
 and the opium traffic was legalized. The treaty 
 was signed on June 26, 1857. The United States, 
 France, and Russia completed similar treaties im- 
 mediately after. 
 
 The Chinese, however, considered that the treaty 
 had been wrung from them by force, and its ratifi- 
 cation was evaded and delayed. In Canton mobs 
 were incited to murder foreigners, and a reward 
 of thirty thousand dollars was placed on the head 
 of the British consul, Harry Parks. As a last 
 resource, the wily Celestial tried to induce the 
 English and French to have their treaties ratified 
 at Shanghai instead of at Peking; but Messrs. 
 Bruce and Bourboulon declined, and ordered their 
 allied forces to assemble off the mouth of the 
 Peiho. The Chinese, finding that evasion was no 
 longer possible, determined once more to try their 
 fortunes on the battlefield. The allies soon dis- 
 covered that, while they had been making useless 
 treaties, the enemy had been working day and 
 night on the defenses of Taku, and blocking the 
 river with massive booms, iron stakes, and rafts. 
 On the night of June 23, 1859, one of the booms 
 was blown up ; and the next day the British fleet, 
 under Admiral Hope, attempted to force the pas- 
 
166 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 sage, while a force of six hundred marines and 
 engineers stormed the forts. Both attacks were 
 unsuccessful, and the British were repulsed with 
 very severe losses. It was during this engage- 
 ment that the now famous phrase, *' blood is 
 thicker than water," was born. The American 
 commodore, Tatnal, was present at the engage- 
 ment ; and seeing that the battle was going badly 
 for the English, and that their gunboats were 
 being rapidly disabled by the heavy fire from the 
 forts, was unable to stand calmly by and see the 
 men of his own flesh and blood mowed down. 
 He ordered his flagship to tow the English boats 
 into action, and to remain under fire as long as 
 there was anyone to rescue. When called upon 
 for an explanation of his conduct, he replied that 
 " blood was thicker than water." 
 
 The initial success of the Chinese was the very 
 worst thing that could have happened to them. It 
 convinced them that their former reverses had 
 been simply the result of bad leadership, and con- 
 firmed them in their determination to repudiate 
 the treaty. Mr. John E. Ward, who in 1859 had 
 succeeded Mr. Reed as American minister, was 
 invited by the governor-general of Chihli to come 
 to Pehtang, who promised to send him in safety 
 to Peking, where the ratifying of the treaty could 
 
MR, WARD'S TRIAL, 167 
 
 be discussed. The viceroy was as good as his 
 word as far as sending him to Peking was con- 
 cerned ; but it was done only to amuse the people 
 along the route by making a spectacle of one of 
 the hated barbarians. Not a word was said re- 
 garding the ratification of the treaty; and after 
 being made grave sport of by the imperial com- 
 missioner at Peking, he was returned " right side 
 up with care," to Pehtang, where he foolishly con- 
 sented to ratify the treaty on August 16, 1859. 
 
 It was a weak and unnecessary concession 
 on his part, as he should have stood out with 
 the English and French plenipotentiaries, and 
 ordered, if necessary, the American squadron to 
 join with the allies in forcing the Celestials to 
 abide by the strict letter of the law. A ridiculous 
 rumor, illustrated by appropriate pictures, respect- 
 ing this journey, was circulated in Paris, to the 
 effect that Mr. Ward and his party were conducted 
 from the coast in an immense box, or traveling- 
 chamber, drawn over land by oxen, and then put 
 on a raft to be towed up the river and imperial 
 canal as far as the gate of the capital. Fortu- 
 nately for the future of trade in China, the Eng- 
 lish and French ministers would not submit to the 
 indignities enjoyed by Mr. Ward ; and in March, 
 1860, the English minister, Bruce, presented an 
 
168 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 ultimatum, demanding reparation for the treacher- 
 ous attack at Taku, and an immediate fulfillment 
 of the treaty. The ultimatum only provoked a 
 sneer from Peking; and by August 12 of the 
 same year a force of thirteen thousand English, 
 under Sir Hope Grant, seven thousand French, 
 commanded by General Montauban, and two thou- 
 sand five hundred Cantonese Coolies, advanced 
 from the land side on the Taku forts. 
 
 The attack was without precedent in Chinese 
 military science, — certainly it was only the fair 
 thing for the barbarians to attack as they had 
 before, on the river front. The Chinese general, 
 Sankolinsin, was thunderstruck when he saw the 
 allied force on land, and marching rapidly on the 
 undefended side of his forts ; but like a good Chi- 
 nese general he immediately wrote his imperial 
 kinsman and master that the barbarians had landed 
 with his full knowledge and consent, as he wished 
 to entice them away from their ships, and then 
 overwhelm them. The Son of Heaven readily saw 
 the astuteness of the scheme, and Sankolinsin 
 might have won a peacock feather and a yellow 
 jacket had the last part of his plan of campaign 
 worked as well as the first. Unfortunately for him, 
 however, he did not take the allies into his confi- 
 dence ; and they, not understanding his wily strat- 
 
CAPTURE OF TIENTSIN. 169 
 
 Qgj^ never stopped in their march until the Taku 
 forts were in their hands. The battle was a stub- 
 bornly contested one, the Chinese standing to 
 their guns manfully, even after their officers had 
 deserted. The allies occupied Tientsin, and de- 
 clined to receive any overtures from the imperial 
 commissioners as long as the Cliinese forces were 
 preparing to resist their advance to the capital. 
 
 On the 9th of September the allies left Tientsin 
 for Tungchow ; and on the way they were met by 
 Tsai, prince of I, who was most convincing in his 
 protestations that the Son of Heaven was anxious 
 for an honorable peace. Unfortunately again for 
 Chinese diplomacy, Consul Parkes, on an early 
 morning ride, discovered that the troops of the 
 amusing Sankolinsin were so disposed in ambush 
 that they would be able to fire upon the allies' 
 next proposed camp from three sides. Parkes dis- 
 patched his companion, Loch, to warn Sir Hope 
 Grant, while he hurried to the quarters of the 
 Prmce of I to demand an explanation. His 
 temerity cost liim his liberty and nearly his life ; 
 and the Chinese forces, throwing off all pretenses 
 of peace, fought the battle of Changchiawan, in 
 wliich they suffered a crushing defeat. Sankolin- 
 sin made a last stand at Palichiao on September 
 21, but he was not able to turn the allies from 
 
170 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 Peking. In the meantime the emperor had fled 
 to Jehol, and left his brother, Prince Kung, in 
 command. Kung informed Elgin and Gros that 
 he had full power to conclude a treaty, and asked 
 for an armistice. The commissioners, however, 
 had had quite enough of Chinese diplomacy, and 
 declined to cease hostilities until Consul Parkes 
 and his associates were released. No answer was 
 made ; and the order was given to march on Peking, 
 and occupy the emperor's summer palace, Yuen- 
 Ming- Yuen. This had the desired effect, as far as 
 such of the prisoners were concerned, as had been 
 fortunate enough to live through the hardships, 
 brutality, and tortures of their prisons. 
 
 The sight of the sufferings of the survivors 
 of the original thirty aroused such indignatioa 
 throughout the allied army that the commissioners 
 in addition to the one hundred thousand pounds 
 that they demanded as an indemnity for the fam- 
 ilies of the murdered men, decided to destroy the 
 beautiful summer palace. This was done after 
 the occupation of Peking. The game was now 
 entirely in the hands of the allies ; and it is hardly 
 necessary to state that the Tientsin treaty was 
 ratified within the sacred walls of Peking, in spite 
 of the theatrical raving of the imperial coward at 
 Jehol. A convention was also signed whereby 
 
CESSION OF HONG KONG. 171 
 
 China paid eight million taels for war expenses, 
 and ceded to Great Britain the Kowloon coast- 
 line, directly opposite to Hong Kong. The Eng- 
 lish were entirely too modest in their demands in 
 this cession. Had they taken ten times as much 
 territory on the mainland, it would have saved 
 them much future trouble. The size of the ces- 
 sion, however, was controlled by the range of the 
 cannon of 1860, the best of which would carry 
 little farther than across the strait which separates 
 the mainland from the island of Hong Kong. 
 
 With this narrow strip added to the colony, the 
 English military experts of the time announced 
 that Hong Kong was strategically secure. Less 
 than twenty years after, it was discovered that 
 Hong Kong was at the mercy of the modern 
 guns of a fleet lying perfectly protected by 
 a range of intervening mountains seven miles 
 distant. The result was that England was forced 
 in 1898 to ask, or rather demand, the lease of an 
 additional area of territory embracing Mir's and 
 Deep Bays. Any demand for territory after the 
 fall of Peking would have been speedily met by 
 the emperor, and England might have added half 
 the delta of the Pearl River to her list of colonial 
 possessions. Even in the cession of the last four 
 hundred square miles England erred in taking 
 
172 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 either too little or too much. For military pur- 
 poses half the territory would have been sufficient, 
 and easily defended; for agricultural purposes, 
 two hundred square miles additional would have 
 made the new territory self-supporting. However, 
 the Englishman is a thorough-going colonist, and 
 a believer in " good roads;" and the ink was hardly 
 dry on the so-called lease before a small army of 
 Chinese coolies were cutting a great turnpike 
 through the very heart of the sterile peninsula, 
 and the forestry department was planting trees by 
 the thousands over the barren red hills. In April, 
 1898, my big tug-boat, the " Fame," was nearly 
 wrecked in trying to carry dispatches to Dewey's 
 fleet, which lay in Chinese waters but seven miles 
 away as the crow flies, but fifty miles by sea. 
 Within three months after the occupation of this 
 mountainous, roadless stretch of land, I rode my 
 bicycle in an hour to the shore of Mir's Bay, over 
 a broad macadamized road. Yet we refuse to 
 take advantage of England's colonial experiencQ 
 in solving our troubles in the Philippines. 
 
 In passing upon Russia's course in Chma from 
 the same date (1860) no like hesitancy or lack of 
 policy can be laid at her door. From the day 
 when she obtained her foothold on the uninhabited 
 steppes between Usuri and the ocean, she never 
 
RUSSIAN EXPANSION. 173 
 
 wavered in her iinmistakable determination to 
 obtain an open seaport on the Pacific. In the be- 
 ginning Russia may not have appreciated the 
 wealth and possibilities of the land that she was 
 absorbing from year to year, but that was a 
 question that she could well afford to leave for 
 future investigation. She expanded on the line of 
 least resistance, and all was fish that came to her 
 net. Neither did Russia worry herself regarding 
 the populating or improving of these vast tracts, 
 and until twenty years ago the land remained as 
 she found it. Her clearly defined poHcy has 
 always been to never look a gift-horse in the 
 mouth, and to thankfully receive every thing that 
 came her way. The freedom of the serf, which at 
 the time was looked upon as the harmless fad of 
 an amiable emperor, supplied the wanting popula- 
 tion. The freed peasantry of Russia eagerly ac- 
 cepted government aid to get away from their 
 former masters, and the traditions of their old 
 land of bondage ; and in a surprisingly short time 
 they transformed Siberia from a penal colony 
 to a prosperous dependency that is fast becoming 
 to the empire what Australia is to Great Britain. 
 The net result of this onward policy to-day is 
 the practically completed trans-Siberian railway 
 and the acquisition of Port Arthur and Tailewan ; 
 
174 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 to-morrow it may be Peking and the Yangtsze 
 valley. Great Britain, Germany, and France lease 
 a few hundred square miles each ; and while they 
 are arguing over the terms, Russia quietly extends 
 her frontiers to cover half the province. 
 
 The fortunes of the Taipings rose and fell from 
 year to year. They were at high tide in 1860 ; and 
 the Manchus, despairing of ever regaining their 
 sway, appealed to the foreigners with whom they 
 had lately been at war to come to their assistance. 
 At the suggestion of Li Hung Chang, now viceroy, 
 the Chinese merchants of Shanghai organized 
 themselves into a patriotic association, raised a 
 fund, and engaged two Americans, Ward and 
 Burgevine, to form a foreign legion, for the protec- 
 tion of the city, and conduct operations against the 
 rebels. Under the able leadership of Ward, the 
 "ever victorious army " of four hundred adven- 
 turers, of all nationalities, captured a number of 
 cities, and obtained as their reward a large amount 
 of plunder ; but in spite of high pay and rich 
 pickings. Ward found it necessary to lead every 
 attack in person in order to make his rabble fight ; 
 and in the storming of the city of Tzuki he was 
 mortally wounded. He was succeeded by his 
 lieutenant, Burgevine, who made war upon the 
 
"CHINESE GORDONr 175 
 
 purse of the patriotic association rather than upon 
 the common enemy, and ended by being dismissed 
 from his command before he had fought a battle. 
 "^^e was replaced by Major Gordon, who was lent 
 by the British general, Stavely, and new life was 
 given to the discordant element of the ever vic- 
 torious army. Gordon's first point of attack was 
 Fushan, which fell an easy prey, and brought about 
 the capitulation of Changshu. Li Hung Chang 
 was naturally delighted with his allies, and the 
 emperor conferred upon Gordon the rank of 
 general in the Chinese service, a distinction of 
 which Li would like to have relieved him a little 
 later, in company with his head. 
 
 The capture of Taitsang and Kunshan opened 
 the way to the important city of Soochow. On a 
 promise from Gordon that all the lives of the rebel 
 commanders would be spared, the city capitulated. 
 Li, however, paid no attention to his subordinate's 
 plighted word, and had them all promptly exe- 
 cuted. When the report of Li's bloodthirsty 
 treachery was brought to Gordon, he was so 
 enraged that he grasped a rifle, and started for 
 head-quarters. Li, however, did not await his call, 
 and precipitately decamped before Gordon arrived. 
 Gordon was not a philosopher, and not being 
 willing to overlook Li's act as an interesting 
 
176 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 Chinese characteristic, sent in his resignation. I 
 thought of this episode in Li's checkered career as 
 I talked with the famous Chinaman one day in 
 Hong Kong, when he was on his way to Canton 
 to act as viceroy of the Two Kwangs. Li had 
 been descanting for an hour upon the injustice we 
 were doing his countrymen by excluding them 
 from the Philippines. His last words to me were, 
 " Tell General Otis that Li Hung Chang asks him 
 to be kind to the Chinese." I could not but 
 smile at the pathos in his voice in the light of his 
 history. 
 
 For the fall of Soochow, Li received from the 
 emperor the " yellow jacket " that he lost at the 
 close of the late Japanese war. He was also 
 ordered to hand Gordon ten thousand taels and 
 the military button of the first rank. Li did as 
 ordered, and his envoys were received by Gordon 
 with a walking-stick, and Avere soundly thrashed out 
 of his tent. Li humbled himself, and begged 
 Gordon to consider his resignation. In a short 
 campaign Gordon reduced the Taiping king, and 
 stripped him of all his possessions save Nanking. 
 The imperial army under Tseng Kwofan, the 
 father of the late Marquis Tseng, who afterwards 
 represented China at the court of St. James, took 
 that city by assault. The " heavenly king " 
 
LI HUNG CHANG. 177 
 
 poisoned himself with gold leaf, and his heir was 
 beheaded in an attempt to escape. The great 
 Taiping rebellion was at an end, but China had 
 learned nothing. Li disbanded the ever victorious 
 army in June, 1864, in spite of Gordon's protest; 
 and when the Japanese war broke out they were 
 as absolutely unprepared to meet the conditions as 
 though they were still living in the pastoral age. 
 
 Li's name as a statesman was made by General 
 Grant, who stated that Li and Bismarck were the 
 two greatest minds that he met during his trip 
 round the world. Li, however, has never shown 
 any great ability save as a " trimmer." To-day 
 as viceroy of Canton he is not able to suppress 
 the petty piracy on the West River, but looks to 
 England for police protection for his inland trade, 
 and plays fast and loose with promises of protec- 
 tion to imprisoned ministers and beleaguered for- 
 eigners. It is small wonder that for the safety of 
 the legations shut up in Peking the British govern- 
 ment seriously considered holding the crafty old 
 viceroy as hostage in Shanghai for the safety of 
 the fugitives in Peking. 
 
 The Chinese have added the bust of Marco Polo 
 to their pantheon of five hundred idols in Can- 
 ton, but alongside of Confucius and Polo they 
 should place Gordon and Ward. The present dy- 
 
178 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 nasty owes more to these last men than they can 
 ever repay, although during their lifetime they 
 tried systematically to detract from their glory, 
 and rob them of all credit. Ward gave up his life 
 in their cause, and Gordon refused the proposal of 
 Burgevine to turn the "ever victorious army" 
 against the imperialists, and acting with the Taip- 
 ings grasp the tottering throne for themselves. 
 They could have done it, and Gordon knew it 
 when he was tempted. Burgevine knew the 
 Chinese character better than Gordon, and did not 
 permit any qualms of conscience to stand in his 
 way. Had Gordon consented, the entire Chinese 
 problem would have been solved without the aid 
 of the so-called diplomacy of the western nations. 
 Gordon declined, and died a dog's death in Khar- 
 toom. Li lived to profit by Gordon's honesty 
 and generosity. 
 
 Hienfung did not return to Peking after the 
 ratification of the Tientsin Treaty. He was too 
 badly upset by the impertinence of the barbarians ; 
 and although strongly urged by Prince Kung to 
 do so, he remained at Jehol until his death, on 
 August 22, 1861. As his heir was only six years 
 old. Prince Kung, who had come to an understand- 
 ing with the empress, was left practically supreme 
 in the conduct of affairs, although he formed a 
 
CHINESE "DIPLOMACrr 179 
 
 Council of Regency, in which he was associated 
 with the two empress dowagers, — the widow of 
 Hienfung, and the mother of the young emperor, 
 — a concubine, but the ruling power in China 
 in 1900. 
 
 Until the young emperor, Tung Chih, reached 
 his sixteenth birthday, all questions as to the 
 right of foreign ministers to be received by the 
 emperor, according to the terms of the treaty, 
 were foolishly held in abeyance. The war of 
 1860 had taught the Chinese that they were 
 powerless in the hands of the barbarians ; and yet 
 before the ink was dry on the treaty, secret in- 
 structions were issued to the provincial govern- 
 ment to disregard it as far as possible, especially 
 the clause that, " the Chinese authorities shall at 
 all times afford the fullest protection to the 
 persons and property of British subjects." In 
 diplomacy the Oriental has always, in the begin- 
 ning, been more than a match for the Occidental. 
 Metternich or Talleyrand might have met Li Hung 
 Chang, or the smooth oily talkers of Aguinaldo's 
 cabinet, on equal terms, but I doubt it. The 
 Oriental's idea of diplomacy is to fool his adver- 
 sary for the time being, regardless of the future. 
 The Chinaman goes through life trying to fool 
 his God with simple devices, and to draw the 
 
180 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 wool over the eyes of his superiors. There is 
 only one kind of diplomacy that either the 
 Chinese or the Filipino understands, and that 
 is brute force. You may temper it mth justice, 
 but the force must be plainly in evidence. Sweet 
 words and assurances of esteem are not believed 
 by the Orientals, and are accepted as an indis- 
 putable evidence of weakness. This phase of 
 diplomacy is unexpected and childlike, and it 
 does not take the Occidental diplomat long to 
 value it at its real worthj but by the time he 
 comes to understand the Oriental, he is with- 
 drawn, and a successor arrives who has to com- 
 mence in the Kindergarten class, much to the 
 delight of his interested opponents. 
 
 The real reason for the establishment of the 
 Tsung li Yamen, or Foreign Office, was to provide 
 an air-cushion against which the missiles thrown 
 by the foreign ministers at the " August Lofty 
 One," would be received with the least amount 
 of friction. It is the same to-day in the Philip- 
 pine Islands. Each new general or commission 
 cannot believe that the Filipino is as black as 
 he is painted by those who know him best, or that 
 he is an absolute stranger to the truth, and his 
 argument commences on that basis. By the time 
 he finds that he has been making a fool of him- 
 
JNSON BURLINGAME, 181 
 
 self, and that the sweet-spoken little Filipino is 
 as unconverted as ever, his tenure of office ex- 
 pires, or he resigns, and goes home in disgust. 
 
 It was right in line with this class of diplomacy 
 that Prince Kung, in 1867, persuaded Mr. Anson 
 Burlingame, the United States Minister at Peking, 
 to resign, and accept a mission to all Europe, 
 whose object really was to tell the world how 
 foolish it was to expect the Chinese to carry 
 out to the letter the obnoxious Tientsin Treaty, 
 and also to inform Europe how wise, generous, 
 and high-spirited the dear Chinese really were, and 
 how sadly they were misunderstood. He was also 
 to promise that if they were left alone they would, 
 of their own sweet will, do far more to improve 
 friendly relations than if they were continually 
 brow-beaten and made to live up to their promises. 
 Mr. Burlingame was a man of much eloquence 
 and great enthusiasm, and was fast making con- 
 verts in high places, when in June, 1870, the 
 terrible Tientsin massacre occurred, which was so 
 revolting in its details that what little progress 
 the mission had made was irretrievably lost. On 
 account of a rumor that children were put to 
 death in the French Foundling Hospital, for the 
 sake of their eyes, which were made into opium, 
 a mob burned the hospital, outraged and mur- 
 
182 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 dered the Sisters of Mercy, burned the French 
 Consulate, shot the consul, and murdered in the 
 most cruel manner eighteen Frenchmen and two 
 Russians. 
 
 One would think after paying for this outrage 
 an indemnity of half a million dollars, and send- 
 ing an embassy to France to make a public 
 apology, that the Chinese authorities at least 
 would have published in their Official Gazette 
 the fact that foreign Sisters of Mercy did not 
 manufacture opium out of children's eyes. And 
 yet, strange as it may seem, they took exactly 
 the opposite course, and encouraged the fanati- 
 cism of the common people. This attitude re- 
 sulted in the deplorable murder of Mr. INIargary, 
 of the British consular service, on February 20, 
 1875, at Momein. With the full consent of the 
 Chinese authorities, and supplied with proper 
 passports, Mr. Margary and Colonel Brown were 
 traveling through Yunnan, reporting on the trade 
 possibilities of the country after the ravages of 
 the recent Mohammedan rebellion. Their mission 
 was distinctly a peaceful one, and they were 
 neither spies nor were they accused of being such. 
 Their murder was the simple outburst of the 
 fanaticism of the Chinese ; and had the latter been 
 Apaches, instead of a " refined, intelligent, and 
 
THE CHEFOO CONVENTION. 183 
 
 civilized nation," according to Mr. Anson Bur- 
 lingame, they could not have behaved in a more 
 barbarous manner. British remonstrances were 
 met by the Peking officials with prevarications 
 and delays; and it was not until Sir Thomas 
 Wade lowered the Legation Flag, and started to 
 leave the country, that the Tsung li Yamen awoke 
 to the idea that their bluff was about to be 
 called. Further than this, the mother of Tung 
 Chi had no desire to once more flee from Peking 
 to escape the guns of the hated foreigner. Li 
 Hung Chang was dispatched in hot haste to over- 
 take Wade, and come to an understanding at 
 any cost. 
 
 The results of the Chefoo Convention were 
 the sending of a Chinese minister to England, the 
 settlement of compensation for the murder, the 
 opening of four new ocean treaty ports, and 
 six on the Yangtsze. Again had history re- 
 peated itself, and the Chinese had shown that 
 they understood the nature of an ultimatum, even 
 if they could not appreciate the benefits of West- 
 ern civilization. 
 
184 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 IX. 
 
 TUNG CHI AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 [A.D. 1876 -A.D. 1898.] 
 
 THE marriage of Tung Chi, on October 
 16, 1872, to Aluteh, and the attain- 
 ment of his majority on February 23, 
 1873, was looked upon as a favorable occasion 
 for the pressing of the audience question by the 
 resident foreign ministers. After considerable 
 pressure, the long delayed event took place ; 
 and on the 29th of June, 1873, the American 
 minister, Mr. Frederick F. Low, and the ministers 
 for Germany, France, England, and Japan, were 
 graciously admitted to the celestial presence. 
 The ceremony, however, was largely discounted 
 by the fact that they were received in the " Pavil- 
 ion of Purple Light," outside the palace where the 
 envoys of tributary states had deposited their 
 offerings from time immemorial. In order to save 
 the august " Face," a report was disseminated 
 throughout the provinces that Sir Thomas Wade, 
 
THE ''DOOR'' SLOIVLT OPENS. 185 
 
 the British minister, was so overcome with fear in 
 the presence of the Son of Heaven that he fell 
 down speechless and trembling on being addressed 
 by the emperor. However, the door was being 
 forced slowly open, although in a way that was 
 not always creditable to the Europeans. 
 
 The year 1873 saw the suppression of the Mo- 
 hammedan rebellion in Kansuh, and the stamping 
 oiit of the terrible Panthay uprising in Yunnan. 
 The following year complications occurred in For- 
 mosa with the Japanese because of the murder 
 of fifty-four Japanese sailors by the Formosans. 
 Unable to obtain satisfaction from the Chinese, the 
 Japanese landed a force in Formosa, and war would 
 have immediatelv followed but for the arbitration 
 of Sir Thomas Wade. 
 
 Tung Chi did not live long to enjoy his lease of 
 supreme power. He showed a disposition to ex- 
 ercise the imperial prerogative of doing as he 
 pleased, and died conveniently of the small-pox on 
 the 12th of January, 1875. The only person who 
 now stood between the empress mother, Tsu Tsi, 
 and her ambition was Aluteh and her unborn cliild. 
 But Fate, which, as has often been said, is under 
 government control in China, interposed, and the 
 girl widow was saved many years of persecution 
 by a premature death. Knowing how necessary 
 
186 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 it was to the success of Tsu Tsi's policy that the 
 young empress should die, no one was surprised, 
 and no inconvenient questions were asked. 
 
 The transfer of the imperial yellow from the 
 shoulders of one royal puppet to another created 
 historically a new reign ; otherwise it was an event 
 without significance in Peking. The old triumvi- 
 rate had simply chosen a new figure-head for the 
 Junk of State. The officers, the crew, and the pilot 
 were the same. So sure were the two empress- 
 dowagers that Aluteh would die of a "broken 
 heart" before the dehvery of her unborn child, 
 that they did not even wait for the event to take 
 place, but without regard to time-honored customs 
 chose Tung Chi's successor. The three-year old 
 son of Prince Chun, a younger brother of Prince 
 Kung, was raised to the unenviable position, and 
 given the ironical title of Kwang Su, — "brilliant 
 succession." Having now guaranteed the perma- 
 nency of the Regency by this successful coup d 'Stat 
 for another term of years, Tsu Tsi felt that she 
 was fully capable of conducting the affairs of state 
 without the aid of her dowager consort. So, as 
 might have been expected, that August Lady died 
 in 1881 of heart failure, " which nobody can deny," 
 and the ex-concubine of Hienfung became the su- 
 preme director of the empire, and as such made a 
 
RISE OF TSU TSL 187 
 
 place for herself in history by the side of the great 
 Empress Wu. Tsu Tsi's favorite, Li Hung Chang, 
 was at once put in training to succeed Prince 
 Kung; and in July, 1884, the trouble with France 
 in Tonking furnished an opportunity to dispose of 
 the veteran statesman. 
 
 Li's elevation was contrary to precedent, as the 
 post had always been filled by a Manchu ; but Tsu 
 Tsi could not be expected to respect the customs 
 of a nation that permitted itself to be ruled by a 
 woman of her character and antecedents. She even 
 called Prince Chun, the father of the emperor, to 
 serve under Li as first minister of state, although 
 according to ancestral rites a father cannot take 
 orders from his son. Prince Chun accepted the 
 post; but instead of playing the docile subject of 
 the royal dummy, he asserted his rights as a father 
 and an ancestor, and acquired an influence for 
 good over the half-grown boy. In this he was 
 assisted by the Marquis Tseng, who had just re- 
 turned from the Court of St. James with his head 
 filled with nineteenth century ideas. Together 
 they schemed to woo the boy from the corrupting 
 influences of the dowager and Li, and through him 
 to inaugurate a more enlightened pohcy in China. 
 The fashion of sending a dangerous noble his silken 
 cord had become unfashionable in China since the 
 
188 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 arrival of the barbarians ; but the fashion of djdng 
 of " broken heart " and " heart failure " served the 
 same purpose. In 1890 Marquis Tseng, in the 
 prime of life, and while in splendid health, died, 
 and a few months later Prince Chun passed away. 
 The power of the Dowager Empress was not 
 again questioned, until the shock of the Japanese 
 war loosened for a time her grasp upon the throne. 
 A year after the placing of Kwang Su on the 
 throne, the government found itself face to face 
 with a Mohammedan rebellion. The inhabitants 
 of Turkestan had never been happy in their vas- 
 salage, and since the last abortive attempt in 1825 
 to obtain their independence under the leadership 
 of Jehangir, a descendant of their royal line, the 
 people had been preparing for another trial. A son 
 of Jehangir had headed a rebellion, and with the aid 
 of his able general, Yakoob Khan, driven the Chi- 
 nese out of Khokand, and for a time re-established 
 his line. But in 1866 Yakoob deposed his king, 
 and placed the crown on his own brow, and became 
 known as " The Champion Father." He subdued 
 Western Kashgaria, reduced the neighboring 
 tribes, and created for himself an empire that bade 
 fair to be permanent. The Russians, pretending 
 to believe that the imperial troops were not able 
 to re-assert their sovereignty over this section, 
 
THE ''CHAMPION FATHERr 189 
 
 served notice on the Chinese government that they 
 intended to occupy the trade routes until such 
 time as China was able to protect them. A Rus- 
 sian force seized Kuldja and its tributary country, 
 and held it until 1881, when it was surrendered to 
 China, with the exception of a strip of territory on 
 tiie extreme western boundary of the provmce of 
 Hi. She also exacted the payment of a war indem- 
 nity of 9,000,000 roubles. 
 
 Yakoob Khan's example was followed by the 
 Dunganis tribe of eastern Turkestan, which over- 
 ran the Tienshan mountains, and flowed into the 
 provinces of Kansuh and Shensi. These uninter- 
 rupted successes aroused the imperial government 
 to the seriousness of the situation, and General 
 Tso was dispatched with a big force to try and 
 save western China to the empire. By the end of 
 1876 he had driven the Dunganis out of China, 
 and practically ended the rebelhon. The *' Cham- 
 pion Father " did not await the Chinese attack, 
 but advanced with his entire force, nearly a thou- 
 sand miles, to meet Tso. He was completely de- 
 feated for his pains in two battles. He escaped 
 to Korla, where he died in May, 1877. With his 
 demise his empire came to an end. Tso was re- 
 warded with the viceroyalty of the two Kiang 
 provinces. 
 
190 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 China has from time immemorial been subject 
 to famines, and the cause has usually been too 
 much or too little water; but until the famine of 
 1878, during which some 8,000,000 died, their 
 full significance had never been brought to the 
 notice of America and Europe. For four years 
 no rain had fallen in the Provinces of Shansi and 
 Shensi, and the raising of the commonest necessi- 
 ties of life was impossible. Li Hung Chang was 
 deputed by the regents to take charge of the dying 
 millions, and subscription papers were circulated 
 all over the world. The foreign relief committee 
 in Shanghai raised 204,560 taels, a portion of 
 which it is to be hoped reached the masses, al- 
 though peculation among the distributers was rife. 
 
 In 1881 the emperor gave Korea formal permis- 
 sion to contract treaties with foreign countries. 
 Admiral Shufeldt, on the part of the United 
 States, had, however, already entered into a treaty 
 of peace, amity, and commerce with Korea, in 
 1882 ; Japan, in 1876 ; and England, in 1883. 
 China hoped by this concession to place Korea on 
 such a basis that by means of treaties she could 
 in a measure enter the family of nations, and be 
 freed from all danger of Russian aggression. The 
 United States so far recognized Korea as to ac- 
 credit Lucius H. Foote as minister to that coun- 
 
WAR WITH FRANCE. 191 
 
 try. In 1885 the Koreans made an attack on the 
 Japanese legation, and drove them out of the 
 country. Japan promptly demanded an apology 
 and indemnity ; and an agreement was entered 
 into between China and Japan that neither should 
 send troops to Korea without first informing the 
 other : a ridiculous engagement that led to seri- 
 ous consequences. 
 
 China had barely escaped a war with Japan 
 over one of her feudatory states, when she was 
 plunged into a war with France over another. 
 For fully a century France had looked upon 
 Annam as within her " sphere of influence," and 
 French missionaries had been working among the 
 Annamese with indifferent success. In 1858 
 France seized Saigon, and made it her base for 
 commercial operations in Cochin China. It was 
 not long before complications arose between the 
 invaders and the suzerain states, and in 1882 the 
 French decided definitely to annex Tongkin. 
 The capital town of Hanoi was captured, and 
 the important towns of Sontay and Bacinh in- 
 vested. Li Hung Chang urged the regents to 
 make peace with France, and he was empowered 
 to confer with Captain Fournier of the French 
 navy. A treaty was entered into that only lacked 
 the date as to when it should go into effect to make 
 
192 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 it perfect. As it was, the French troops tried to 
 take possession of Langson, and precipitated an 
 engagement with the Chinese, in which the French 
 were badly defeated. This led to the reopening 
 of hostilities. No one will ever know whether 
 the omission of the necessary date in the treaty 
 was an oversight, or another sample of Chinese 
 diplomacy. General Negrier captured Langson on 
 February 13, 1885, and Admiral Courbet unsuc- 
 cessfully bombarded Kelung on the northern 
 coast of Formosa, after which he sailed for Foo- 
 chow, where he utter destroyed the Chinese fleet. 
 Returning to Formosa the French admiral suc- 
 ceeded, after five attempts, in reducing Kelung, 
 and later occupied the Pescadores. In Tongking 
 the French land forces were able to make but little 
 headway against the Black Flags, and the war 
 degenerated into a guerilla campaign. By this 
 time both sides were thoroughly tired of the war. 
 It had cost China 60,000,000 taels, and the loss of 
 her Foochow fleet, and had been a heavy drain on 
 the French treasury. A treaty was signed on 
 June 9, 1885, that gave France the sovereignty of 
 Tongking. 
 
 The year after this treaty, China lost another 
 feudatory by the occupation of upper Burmah by 
 Great Britain; and on March 17, 1890, China's 
 
RECEPTION OF FOREIGNERS. 193 
 
 back door was crowded open by the establishment 
 of a trade route from India into Thibet. 
 
 In 1884 Kwang Su was married to a daughter 
 of the dowager empress's brother, and the foreign 
 ministers took advantage of the occasion to press 
 the audience question with the usual result, that 
 in 1891 they were again graciously received by 
 the Son of Heaven in the Palace of Tributary Na- 
 tions. It was for the last time, however ; as, im- 
 mediately afterwards, the diplomatic corps passed 
 resolutions to forego the ceremony rather than 
 submit to the indignity. This was exactly the 
 show of firmness that the Chinese needed; and 
 in the following year, when the Austrian min- 
 ister came to present his credentials, he was 
 received in one of the minoi halls of the pal- 
 ace itself, as a little later was the British repre- 
 sentative. The question, however, settled itself 
 on the conclusion of the Japanese war, with a 
 suddenness that would have been tragic had it not 
 been laughable. For two hundred years Western 
 diplomacy had exhausted itself in its endeavors to 
 be recognized ; but when it became a matter of 
 .personal interest to the Chinese, the long coveted 
 privilege was granted without the asking. China 
 at last condescended to recognize the equality of 
 all nations at a time when she was inferior even to 
 
194 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 her former tributary states. In May, 1898, Prince 
 Henry of Prussia was received by the emperor 
 standing, and had his call returned ; and I would 
 not be surprised to be told by the next distin- 
 guished globe trotter that while " doing " Peking, 
 he had been invited to drink tea with the August 
 and only Son of Heaven. . -- 
 
 A war between China and Japan was inevitable. 
 Their hatred of each other was of no sudden 
 growth, but had been cultivated for centuries. On 
 the Chinese side it was an outspoken contempt 
 for the " dwarfs " ; on the Japanese it was a settled 
 determination to avenge a long series of insult and 
 impositions. The Chinese sent troops into Korea 
 in 1894, without notifying Japan according to the 
 treaty of May, 1895. The Japanese were pre- 
 pared, and promptly resented this last ins alt by 
 sending five thousand men under General Oshima 
 to the mainland. The empress rather welcomed 
 the prospect of war, as a successful one would add 
 luster to her sixtieth birthday, which she was pre- 
 paring to celebrate with unparalleled magnificence 
 in the fall of the year. The entire empire was 
 " invited " to contribute generously to the fete ; 
 and up to the outbreak of the war, tribute and 
 presents from all the provinces were on their way 
 to Peking. It was her intention to make her 
 
TFAR WITH JAPAN, 195 
 
 birthday the most remarkable celebration of its 
 kind in the long history of the empire. Li Hung 
 Chang realized that China was not prepared for a 
 war ; but Tsu Tsi was determined to chastise " the 
 insolent pygmies," and at the same time become 
 the Semiramis of China. 
 
 The Japanese quietly held their ground; and 
 on the 25th of July, one of their cruisers, 
 the " Nanawa," encountered the chartered English 
 transport " Kowshing," carrying eleven thousand 
 Chinese troops, and safeguarded by two men- 
 of-war approaching the Korean coast. Here, 
 again, was an example of a contemptuous 
 breach of the treaty of China. The captain 
 of the '* Nanawa " did not hesitate ; and in less 
 than an hour one of the Chinese men-of-war 
 was a wreck, and the " Kowshing " had gone to 
 the bottom with its human freight. On August 
 1, 1894, war was formally declared; and the 
 Chinese had the bad taste to refer in their royal 
 proclamation to the Japanese as *'the Dwarfs." 
 Both sides dispatched large reenforcements to 
 Korea ; and the first encounter at Asam, in Korea, 
 was the first of a series of brilliant victories that 
 placed Japan among the first-class powers of the 
 world. At Pingyang, on September 15, the 
 Chinese were defeated with a loss of over six 
 
196 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 thousand men, and large quantities of arms and 
 provisions were captured. Ttie remnants of their 
 demoralized army fled to the north, plundering 
 and terrorizing the very people whom they were 
 supposed to protect from a merciless invader. 
 Two days later the Japanese and Chinese fleets 
 encountered each other at the mouth of the Yalu 
 River. Each fleet consisted of twelve ships, 
 although the Chinese was supplemented with six 
 torpedo boats. The Chinese admiral, Ting, 
 steamed out of the harbor ; and boldly engaged the 
 enemy. The battle began about ten o'clock in 
 the morning and lasted for six hours. It will 
 always be historical, as being the first general 
 naval battle between modern fleets. Ting was a 
 brave man, and fought his ships well ; but he was 
 outmaneuvered by the swifter Japanese cruisers, 
 and at the end of the engagement he had lost five 
 of his ships, and the balance were in full flight. 
 The Japanese were so badly punished that they 
 were unable to follow up their victory, and Ting 
 took the remnant of his fleet into Port Arthur. 
 With the Chinese fleet placed on the defensive, 
 the Japanese had simply the disorganized Chinese 
 land forces to deal with. Count Cayama arrived at 
 Kinchow (October 24), thirty-four miles south of 
 Port Arthur, and Marshal Yamagata hurried 
 
CAPTURE OF PORT ARTHUR, 197 
 
 northward with his victorious army, occupied 
 Wiju, crossed the Yalu, joined forces with General 
 Nodzu, and on the 25th of October signally de- 
 feated the Chinese at Hushan. On the 5th and 
 6th of November, Kinchow and Talienwan sur- 
 rendered to Oyama, and so opened the door to 
 Port Arthur. Port Arthur, which was supposed 
 to be, and should have been, impregnable to a land 
 attack, was carried by assault on the 21st of No- 
 vember, with a loss to the invaders of only four 
 hundred men. The news was received all over 
 the world with unbounded astonishment. Nature 
 had fortified the fort, and Li Hung Chang had 
 spent large sums in filling it with the most modern 
 guns. Nothing but the most arrant cowardice or 
 unpatriotic treachery can explain its surrender. 
 
 Oyama did not rest on his laurels, but immedi- 
 ately marched north into Manchuria, capturing 
 Fuchow and Kaipingchow. The old empress 
 by this time had all the glory of a foreign war 
 that she cared for ; and on the advice of Li Hung 
 Chang two foolish attempts were made to turn the 
 war into diplomatic channels by dispatching un- 
 accredited peace embassies to Japan. Quite 
 rightly no attention was paid to them by the 
 Japanese ; and the invaders advanced on Wei-hai- 
 wei, which was guarded by what was left of 
 
198 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 Ting's fleet. The fortress surrendered, and its 
 guns were turned on the Chinese ships, while the 
 Japanese fleet under Admiral Ito blocked the har- 
 bor entrance. On February 7 Ting realized that 
 his cause was hopeless. He signified his intention 
 to surrender, and then committed suicide. He 
 was the only great character on the Chinese side 
 during the shameful war, and had he lived he 
 would have paid for his bravery with his life in 
 Peking. Ito sent his remains in a Japanese man- 
 of-war to Chefoo — awarding the just tribute of 
 an honorable enemy to a brave man. 
 
 The Dowager Empress was now thoroughly 
 frightened. As the concubine of Hienfung, she 
 had accompanied him in exile to Jehol in 1860, 
 and she had no desire to repeat the journey after 
 her thirty years of supreme pov/er. She ordered 
 her favorite Li Hung Chang to proceed to Japan 
 mth full plenipotentiary powers, and to conclude 
 a treaty at any cost. Li told Colonel Charles 
 Denby, the American minister, that he had a pre- 
 sentiment that he would never return alive ; and 
 his presentiment was so far verified by an attempt 
 on his life by a crazy Japanese. He was shot in 
 the face, and will carry the ugly scar to his grave. 
 On October 17 a treaty of peace was signed by 
 the contracting powers, whereby the Liatung 
 
TREATY WITH JAPAN. 199 
 
 Peninsula, including Port Arthur, Formosa, and 
 the Pescadores, was ceded to Japan, and a war 
 indemnity of two hundred million taels was 
 awarded. Although there was a strong party in 
 Peking that protested against the ratification of 
 the humiliating terms, the emperor signed it on 
 May 8, and gave as an excuse his filial love and 
 tender solicitude for the Dowager Empress, " the 
 venerable lady who, if hostilities were renewed, 
 and Peking threatened by the Japanese, would 
 have to seek refuge in flight, and have been ex- 
 posed once more to the hardships of a long and 
 arduous journey." 
 
 Russia, Germany, and France, for purely selfish 
 motives, remonstrated so strongly against the 
 cession of Liatung, that the Japanese foolishly 
 withdrew, accepting in lieu a further indemnity 
 of thirty million taels. Japan had to occupy 
 Formosa by force of arms, and has virtually had 
 to hold it ever since by the same means ; but the 
 war was closed, and the nations involved were left 
 to accommodate themselves to their new condi- 
 tions. 
 
 It soon became apparent why China's three 
 European friends did not want Japan to have a 
 foothold on the continent. Russia showed her 
 hand first by seizing Port Arthur, although Count 
 
200 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 Mouravieff had positively assured the British 
 government that the presence of Russian war- 
 ships in Port Arthur in December, 1897, was due 
 solely to the convenience of wintering there. It 
 is now an open secret that the Russian admiral 
 had orders to retire from Port Arthur, should Sir 
 Claude INIacdonald, the British minister, decline to 
 believe the fairy tale, and order a British fleet to 
 the same convenient winter resort. Russia, in 
 addition, demanded the right to build the Siberian 
 railway through Manchuria to Vladivostock, with 
 a branch line to Kirin Mukden and Port Arthur. 
 France required, as her quid pro quo^ the con- 
 struction of a railway to meet the French railway 
 on the frontier, and so join Tongking with Nanning 
 on the West River, thereby tapping the provinces 
 of Yunnan and Szechuen. She also demanded 
 the lease of Kwangchow on the Lienchow Penin- 
 sula, opposite the Island of Hainan. Germany 
 first asked certain mining and financial privileges ; 
 and later, as a lesson to China that the lives of her 
 missionaries must be respected. Admiral Von 
 Diedrichs steamed into Kiaochow Bay, on the 
 Shangtung coast, and forcibly " leased " the har- 
 bor, village, and neighboring coast. Russia ob- 
 tained Port Arthur and Talienwan, on the same 
 liberal terms ; and England, horror-stricken at the 
 
LEASES AND LAND GRABS. 201 
 
 reckless way in which her rivals hustled the 
 dread Son of Heaven, made a grab for Wei-hai-wei 
 and the lease of the Kowloon Peninsula opposite 
 Hong Kong. 
 
 The partition of China stopped with these 
 " leases," although Italy occupied, and then asked 
 for, Samun Bay. After she had surveyed the 
 harbor, Italy found that she had drawn a blank ; 
 the Italian minister at Peking was relieved, and 
 the successor of the great Roman empire smothered 
 her desire for Chinese colonies. 
 
 The outbreak of the Spanish-American war in 
 1898 drew the attention of the world from Cliina, 
 and gave her for a short time a " lease " of what 
 she needed very much — life. The coming of the 
 Americans to the Phihppines introduced a new 
 element into the Chinese question that was puz- 
 zling, and the powers desisted for a time until they 
 had taken our measure. The trip of Lord Charles 
 Beresford through China in 1899, and his subse- 
 quent visit to Washington, aroused the United 
 States to the necessity of protecting our trade 
 interest in China by insisting on an " open door." 
 
 On September 6, 1899, secretary John Hay com- 
 municated with the United States representatives 
 in Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan, 
 notifying them of the desire of the United States 
 
202 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 relative to the " open door " policy. Ambassador 
 Choate's note to the British government succinctly 
 expressed the attitude of America. 
 
 He said: "The president understands that it is 
 the settled policy and purpose of Great Britain not 
 to use any privilege received from China to exclude 
 any commercial rivals. The United States gov- 
 ernment cannot conceal their apprehensions of the 
 danger of complication arising between the treaty 
 powers which may imperil the rights assured to the 
 United States by treaty. The United States hope 
 to retain China as an open market for the world's 
 commerce, to remove dangerous sources of inter- 
 national irritation, and thereby hasten united 
 action by the powers at Peking to promote ad- 
 ministrative reforms so greatly needed for strength- 
 ening the imperial government, and maintaining 
 the integrity of China, in which the United States 
 beheve the whole western world is alike concerned. 
 The United States believe that such a result would 
 be greatly aided and advanced by declarations on 
 the part of the powers claiming spheres in China, 
 respecting their intentions with regard to the 
 treatment of foreign trade and commerce in those 
 spheres ; and the United States consider that the 
 present is a very favorable moment for informing 
 Great Britain of the desire of the United States 
 
THE "OPEN BOORr 203 
 
 that Great Britain should make a declaration on 
 her own part, and lend her powerful support in the 
 effort to obtain from each power having spheres a 
 declaration to the effect that it will in no wise in- 
 terfere with any treaty port or any vested interest 
 within any so-called sphere of interest or leased 
 territory that it may have in China ; that the 
 Chinese treaty tariff of the time being shall apply 
 to all merchandise landed at or shipped to all 
 such ports as are within such sphere, unless 
 they be free ports, no matter to what nationality 
 they may belong, and that duties so leviable shall 
 be collected by the Chinese government ; that the 
 power approached will levy no higher harbor dues 
 on vessels of another nationality frequenting any 
 port in such sphere than shall be levied on vessels 
 of its own nationality, nor any higher railroad 
 charges over lines built, controlled, or operated in 
 its sphere on merchandise belonging to citizens or 
 subjects of other nationalities than are levied on 
 similar merchandise belonging to its own citizens." 
 All the nations replied favorably ; and on March 
 20, 1900, Colonel Hay was able to notify the 
 United States representatives abroad that the 
 powers addressed had accepted, and that he would 
 consider their consent final and definite. The 
 result of the negotiations may be considered a 
 
204 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 diplomatic triumph for America ; as Great Britain, 
 Russia, Germany, and France have been at a vast 
 expense of blood and treasure in opening China's 
 door, and the expense of keeping it open is no 
 small figure. The policing of the inland rivers, 
 the maintaining of consuls wherever there is hope 
 of trade, the exploring of possible trade routes, and 
 the support of cruisers to guarantee life and 
 property along the coast, represent an outlay in 
 which the United States does not share, but by 
 this agreement hopes to benefit. 
 
 Before the Spanish-American war the powers 
 would have laughed at such a one-sided proposi- 
 tion ; but at this time, when no one knows what a 
 day may bring forth, the powers have a right to 
 feel that the victory is theirs in so much as they 
 have made the United States a party to the future, 
 and at the same time forced her to acknowledge 
 and overlook the crimes of the past. An upris- 
 ing, a rebellion, a palace intrigue, that endangers 
 trade or life, means that the United States must 
 send troops up the Peiho and constitute itself one 
 of the policemen of China. With a base at Manila 
 we are in a position to fulfill our part of the con- 
 tract, but 1 fear that time may convince us that 
 we have married in haste to repent at leisure. 
 The "Boxer " rebellion, so-called, is but a foretaste. 
 
THE REIGN OF KWANG SU, 205 
 
 X. 
 
 THE REIGN OF KWANG SU, 
 
 [A. D. 1898 TO A. B. 1900.] 
 
 1 
 
 "^HE result of the Japanese war was a bitter 
 blow to the pride of the old empress and 
 her favorite, Li Hung Chang. For the 
 time it completely dethroned the " petticoat gov- 
 ernment," and gave Kwang Su a chance to put 
 into practice some of the lessons he had learned 
 from his unfortunate father and the Marquis 
 Tseng. He surrounded himself with men of lib- 
 eral education and modern ideas, chief among 
 whom was a Cantonese, Kang-Yu-Wei, who is 
 known for his learning, both in western literature 
 and in the classics, as the " Modern Sage." He 
 was appointed Secretary of the Tsung-li-Yamen. 
 
 The court squabbles between the young em- 
 peror and the old empress came to a cUmax 
 immediately after the seizure of Kiaochow; and 
 on the February following all the world knew that 
 Kwang Su was the real ruler of China, and that 
 
206 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 the long-looked-for Europeanizing of the coun- 
 try was to commence. The vermillion pencil did 
 not hesitate. Edict after edict appeared in its 
 sacred color which threatened to do for China 
 what had already been accomplished in Japan. 
 No useless custom or absurd ceremony, no matter 
 how hallowed by age, escaped its editing ; and 
 while the literati held up their hands in horror, all 
 the world laughed. 
 
 Kwang Su deserves a place in history as the 
 prize iconoclast. He sent a cold shiver down the 
 spine of the literati by declaring that a man's fit- 
 ness for office should not depend upon his ability 
 to write a poem, or upon the elegance of his pen- 
 manship. He suggested that there were other 
 qualifications for office that would be taken into 
 consideration other than a parrot-like acquaintance 
 with the classics. He ordered the establishment 
 of a university for the study of western science in 
 Peking, and a board of translation for the publica- 
 tion of western books in the Chinese language. A 
 thorough reorganization of the army was proposed ; 
 and young Manchus were urged to travel abroad, 
 and learn foreign manners and customs. Liberal 
 newspapers were started, and by an edict over six 
 thousand officials who were holding sinecures at 
 Peking were turned out of office. During Sep- 
 
THE COUP D'ETAT. 207 
 
 tember, 1898, every day brought forth a new and 
 startling edict regarding railways, mines, news- 
 papers, manufactories ; and strangely enough, the 
 young emperor over-reached himself in his enthu- 
 siasm, by proposing to issue an edict forbidding 
 the pigtail, and substituting European for native 
 dress. This was too much. The literati argued 
 that at the rate at which the emperor was going, 
 it might be expected that he would do away with 
 chop-sticks, and inaugurate daily baths. In truth 
 the royal informer had gone too fast. In a few 
 months he had managed to array against liimself 
 the corrupt bureaucracy, the peculating army, 
 the hide-bound literati, and lastly, he had fright- 
 ened the common people. Leading and directing 
 all these antagonistic elements was the crafty old 
 empress dowager and her equally crafty hench- 
 man, Li Hung Chang. 
 
 A catastrophe was inevitable ; and on the 21st 
 of September, 1898, the world was given to 
 understand that a coup d'etat had taken place in 
 Peking, and that the empress dowager had once 
 more resumed the control of the government. 
 Shortly afterwards, as might have been expected, 
 ifc was noted in the Peking Gazette that the em- 
 peror was seriously ill, and for a time it was 
 thought he was dead. The foreign legations ten- 
 
208 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 dered the services of their physicians ; and the 
 British minister was instructed to inform, " She 
 who must be obeyed," that the premature death 
 of the emperor would create a bad impression in 
 Europe and America, and might lead to complica- 
 tions. Kwang Su recovered immediately. 
 
 Experience had taught Tsu Tsi nothing, and 
 she came back into power worse than when she 
 went out. Adversity had hardened her, and she 
 was burning for revenge. At once she went to 
 the extreme in her frantic efforts to stamp out the 
 seeds of reform, and bring to death the reformers. 
 Whenever she had them in her power she exe- 
 cuted them without mercy; and in June, 1900, 
 her minister in Washington, who had been given a 
 degree of LL.D. by one of our foolish colleges, re- 
 reported against certain Chinese merchants in the 
 United States, whose only crimes were their sign- 
 ing of a petition humbly praying that their empe- 
 ror die not of " a broken heart." The wives and 
 families in China of these men were imprisoned 
 and robbed because of this show of patriotism on 
 the part of their husbands in Chicago and San 
 Francisco. If the " Boxer " rebellion, which soon 
 after broke out and laid waste the country be_ 
 tween Tientsin and Peking, were to be successful, 
 it would be no more than the old empress should 
 
WILES OF THE DOWAGER, 209 
 
 expect if she would ever stop to consider herself 
 as others see her. Kang Wu Wei escaped from 
 Peking, and was conveyed to Hong Kong in a 
 British man-of-war. Shortly afterwards he pro- 
 ceeded to Singapore, where he ran less danger 
 of being kidnapped into Chinese territory. 
 
 It took but a few days to undo all that Kwang 
 Su had attempted ; and the implacable old woman 
 and her faithful man " Friday," were speedily try- 
 ing to make themselves believe that they were 
 living in the days of the Empress Wu. In order 
 to close the eyes of the foreign legation at Peking, 
 or, what was more important, their mouths, Tsu 
 Tsi had the supreme assurance to '' graciously " 
 consent to receive the wives of the ministers in, 
 audience. It is regrettable to record that the 
 w^omen invited accepted with alacrity, and that a 
 big social fight was made to obtain invitations for 
 the wives of the secretaries of the legations as 
 well. The old empress, however, would not in- 
 clude them, as her game was to receive through 
 the wives of the foreign ministers a recognition 
 as the real ruler of China. To have made it a 
 social event would have destroyed the object 
 aimed at. She who was a usurper, in the very 
 face of the fact that Kwang Su's wife was the 
 actual empress of China, must have laughed in her 
 
210 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 sleeve, and regretted that it was not as easy to 
 defeat the hated barbarians in war as it was in 
 diplomacy. 
 
 Yet with all her assurances and smiles, the 
 dowager had never forgiven Kwang Su for the 
 shock his twentieth century ideas had given her. 
 She was biding her time, and carefully preparing 
 for her palace coup d'etat. Early in January, 
 1900, Li Hung Chang was dispatched to Canton 
 as viceroy of the two Kwangs — because he was 
 too famiharly known to the Western countries 
 to look well as a party to an old-fashioned court 
 murder. On January 24, 1900, the news was 
 flashed from Peking that Kwang Su had resigned 
 his crown, and that Put Sing, the infant son of 
 Prince Tuan, had been recognized in his place. 
 A storm of disapproval shook the empire. A few 
 days later the report was sent out that Kwang Su 
 had died. In this the old dowager had overreached 
 herself. If she had simply started the report in 
 order to feel the public pulse, and ascertain how her 
 subjects would accept the death of the emperor, 
 the result must have startled her more than the 
 Japanese war. Even the inert mass of the Chinese 
 empire was for the moment galvanized into what 
 looked like opposition. The foreign ministers, or 
 at least those representing the cause of order — 
 
PERSECUTION OF FOREIGNERS, 211 
 
 America (Mr. Edwin H. Conger), Great Britain, 
 and Germany, whose services are sometimes useful 
 when France or Russia asks a little too much, 
 protested; and petitions, very humbly worded 
 indeed, but not altogether despised, came rumbling 
 in from the provinces, and from the Chinese in 
 America and Australia. Li Hung Chang, with 
 his characteristic instinct for evasion, would not 
 declare himself one way or the other ; and for the 
 instant affairs looked very black. Nominally the 
 young emperor still sat on the dishonored throne 
 of his ancestors ; but everything was being done 
 to lower his prestige, and to treat him as a mere 
 intruder and usurper, — a course which the empress 
 dowager failed to perceive would not relieve her 
 from the pressure of Western civilization, but 
 was actually hastening the dissolution of the em- 
 pire. 
 
 Outrages on subjects of powerful states, though 
 at the time they may seem a glorious assertion of 
 independence, and may for a while go unpunished, 
 have in the end proved bad policy. Yet China has 
 never learned by experience. Outrages of this 
 sort led to the first war of 1842 and the opening 
 of the five ports. A renewal of those outrages 
 brought about the second and third wars, and the 
 opening of the northern and Yangtsze ports. 
 
212 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 The massacres in Szechuen and Fulikin called for 
 still further demands, and the attempts to oust 
 the Japanese from Korea only ended in the loss of 
 Formosa and Shing King. Outrages in Shantung 
 brought the Germans ; and this led to the military 
 occupation by Russia of Manchuria and Liaotung, 
 the cession of Weihaiwei and Kowloon to England, 
 and, as a counterpoise, of Kwangchow to France. 
 All these events happened within the lifetime 
 of the empress dowager, and should have been 
 enough to have taught her sufficient wisdom to 
 dissuade her from continuing so losing a game. 
 There seems, however, to attend the old age of 
 nations, as of individuals, a period of dotage, 
 when old habits become tyrants, and reason grows 
 too feeble to arrest the inevitable decay. When 
 China was young and vigorous her envoys and 
 ships were to be found all over Asia. She carried 
 her trade even as far as Zanzibar and the east 
 coast of Africa, and met on equal terms the Arab 
 merchant, then the great trader of the world. 
 She had then no pro- nor anti-foreign party, and 
 the wayfarer from abroad was hospitably received 
 in her ports. While such is the aspect of China 
 towards foreign nations, at home the present 
 pretense of government is insidiously sapping the 
 foundations of law and order. It has been un- 
 
THE MOB IN CHINA. 213 
 
 ceasingly fanning the flame of dissatisfaction. 
 The mob in China, like that in every other coun- 
 try, cares for nothing but plunder ; and it is easy 
 to direct its fury against the foreigner, whether it 
 be the Jew in Russia or the missionary in China. 
 
 In the metropolitan province itself men like 
 Generalissimo Junglu and Kangyi have been at 
 work for years fomenting trouble, but it is in 
 Shantung and Kwangtung that the effects of such 
 teachings are most seriously felt. The chiefs of 
 the present " Boxer " uprising are nothing more 
 than disciples of the empress's favorites. They 
 forget, however, that with the first taste for blood 
 the mob changes from the willing tool into a wild, 
 unthinking beast. A ruler like Li Hung Chang 
 might be expected to have learned the first prin- 
 ciples of settled government ; but affairs have 
 proceeded so far that Kwangtung broke in a blaze 
 of rebellion, and all authority was openly defied. 
 Piracy was everywhere ; and even the presence of 
 English river gunboats on the West River, above 
 Canton, had little if any effect. It needed 
 measures stronger than the old viceroy cared to 
 incur the expense of to restore his province 
 to anything Kke order. Twelve years ago the 
 province of Shantung v/as probably the most 
 contented of the eighteen. To-day, owing to the 
 
214 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 example set in Peking, it is a hotbed of factions, 
 and the Imperial Government is openly defied. 
 As a result, one foreigner (Rev. Mr. Brooks) has 
 been barbarously murdered ; and every mail brings 
 reports of the kilHng or persecuting of mission- 
 aries, prospectors, and railway surveyors. 
 
 Unfortunately China, in her long political career, 
 has never evolved any self-acting check on mis- 
 rule r and the sole remedy has ever been rebellion 
 or conquest. A nation has the government it best 
 deserves. If China were worthy of a good gov- 
 ernment it would have it. Such was the deliber- 
 ate statement of General Gordon on returning 
 from his last visit to Peking. The position of 
 affaire in Peking has not altered for the better 
 since then, and to-day is not very unlike what 
 it was in the last days of the Mings, when 
 the progress of the Manchu arms was fostered 
 more by treachery than by prowess. This state- 
 ment practically brings Chinese history up to 
 date of the " Boxer " uprising. Beyond that, 
 in spite of all the half -known but dramatic hap- 
 penings, is little more than prophecy ; and while it 
 is perfectly safe to predict the future of China by 
 her past, there is no value in such predictions, and 
 very little of interest. Half the books that are 
 being written on China to-day are made up of the 
 
THE ''SICK MAN OF ASIAr 215 
 
 prophetic visions of some distinguished traveler, 
 who has lived a few months or a year in her 
 open treaty ports. As the " sick man of Asia," 
 China has been blessed with a host of doctors, 
 and one can safely predict that their prescriptions 
 will certainly either kill or cure. 
 
216 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 XL 
 
 THE COMMERCIAL OUTLOOK, 
 
 E 
 
 ■^ VERY writer on Chinese conditions de- 
 votes at least one chapter to the comroer- 
 ^ cial outlook as he sees it, or to pointing 
 out the openings for American goods in the Ori- 
 ental market. For years our efficient consuls along 
 the Yellow Sea have been filling the " Consular 
 Reports " with the result of their careful study 
 and investigations of the subject. Dr. Morrison, 
 the famous commissioner of the London " Times " 
 at Peking, has gone over the question again and 
 again, and returned officials have delivered hun- 
 dreds of lectures before chambers of commerce 
 and boards of trade in America. During the past 
 three years, I have written enough on this subject 
 to fill many chapters, and all of us have said or 
 written more or less the same tiling. 
 
 Trade in China is not to be picked up like gold 
 nuggets in the Klondike. The Chinese will need 
 
TRADE IN CHINA. 217 
 
 to be educated to the use of American prints and 
 labor-saving machinery, just as their taste was 
 cultivated for Indian opium, before we can sell 
 them the products of our looms and rolling-mills. 
 The American house that sends an agent out here 
 with a box of samples, and expects to work up a 
 business that will demand the services of a fleet of 
 steamships, on the mere investment of a ticket 
 from San Francisco to Hong Kong, will be sadly 
 discouraged with the results. In this story of the 
 history of China, I hope I have impressed the 
 reader with at least one Chinese characteristic, — 
 conservativeness. It is all very well to deal in 
 big round figures, and to make glittering promises 
 as to future trade possibilities ; but judging the 
 future by the past, it will be some years before we 
 can persuade the Chinaman to discard the chop- 
 sticks for the knife and fork, or his cheap, comfort- 
 able dress for New England shoddy. In three 
 hundred years of intercourse with Europe and 
 America, we have been able to introduce three 
 articles, — opium, kerosene, and flour, — although 
 there is at present a very respectable trade done 
 in steel and prints. 
 
 There is no possible way of carrying the Chi- 
 nese market by storm. It must be studied, nursed, 
 and coaxed. The rich Chinese appreciate Pari- 
 
218 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 sian novelties and jewelry, and are large buyers 
 of music-boxes, mechanical toys, phonographs, 
 fancy watches, ornamental clocks, etc. ; but they 
 have an utter contempt for American beds or 
 steam-drills. In order to sell carriages, the Chi- 
 nese must first be taught the advantages of good 
 roads. It is not because of a lack of example 
 that they do not build them ; but they have been 
 able to get along very well for three thousand 
 years without them, and unless they are forced to 
 construct them, they will probably continue in the 
 good old way. The splendid roads that the Eng- 
 lish are building in the new Kowloon territory- 
 run flush up to the Chinese quarter, but not an 
 inch farther. 
 
 The commercial conversion of China will be 
 much easier to accomplish than its religious con- 
 version ; but it cannot be brought about by a flood 
 of circulars in the English language, or by flowery 
 editorials in the American newspapers. So far, 
 the Americans have not taken hold of the trade 
 problem in a sensible, determined manner ; and I 
 do not believe that we ever will, until the time 
 arrives when we must have a foreign market for 
 our surplus productions. To-day prices are so 
 high in America, both for manufactured articles 
 and for labor, that there is little or no incentive 
 
FOREIGN MISCONCEPTIONS. 219 
 
 to compete for the Chinese market against the 
 English and Germans. 
 
 Our chambers of commerce urge the building of 
 gigantic trunk-lines from one end of China to the 
 other, as though it were a simple proposition 
 that required only money ; and they naturally 
 urge that China will, of course, be delighted to 
 have any country or syndicate expend ^100,000,000 
 for their benefit. They forget, however, that every 
 concession to build a railroad, to navigate a ship 
 in the inland waters, or to even buy Chinese pro- 
 ducts, has been obtained at the muzzle of the 
 gun. The history of the little railroad from 
 Wusung to Shanghai, a distance of twelve miles, 
 is an object lesson in Chinese appreciation of 
 Western efforts to introduce Western methods. 
 The completion of the enterprise in 1875 was 
 heralded all over Europe as the entering wedge 
 into the Chinese markets. During its building 
 the Chinese officials did not object, as they did 
 not realize what was taking place ; but as soon as 
 the train began to run, then they understood what 
 the foreigners meant by an " entering wedge." A 
 Chinaman was found who, for a small sum to his 
 family, was willing to throw himself under the 
 wheels of the cars. The Literati immediately de- 
 manded a life for a life ; the minds of the vil- 
 
220 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 lagers were filled with the absurd tale that the 
 noise of the engine disturbed the " Fuiigsui," or 
 spirits of the air ; and, crazed with fear, they cre- 
 ated such a series of disturbances that the only 
 way out was to sell the railroad to the Chinese 
 government, who immediately tore up the rails, 
 and obliterated the roadbed. 
 
 There have been two short lines built in China 
 since ; but the only successful railroad building is 
 done by the Russians, and they are backed by the 
 entire force of the Russian army and navy. Con- 
 fucius has warned his countrymen against new 
 devices from abroad, and the people will have to 
 be educated away from Confucianism before they 
 will of their own notion take kindly to railroads 
 in China. The English made the usual mistake 
 in submitting to the prejudices of the Chinese. 
 Had Sir Thomas Wade insisted on the integrity of 
 the little Wusung line, and a gunboat stationed 
 off Shanghai, Confucius's maxim would have been 
 cast into limbo, and railroads would to-day spider- 
 web China from end to end. 
 
 While we have been idly dreaming of railroad 
 building and scrambling for mining concessions in 
 the unopened empire, the Germans have come 
 into the field, gone to work intelligently, and 
 created a market for themselves. It is a peculiar 
 
ADVERTISING AND SAMPLES. 221 
 
 market, and not one that they themselves prob- 
 ably expected to find ; but it was the outgrowth 
 of the wants of the people. For example, they 
 saw that they could soon create a demand for 
 cheap lamps. The Chinese were quick to recog- 
 nize the benefits of American kerosene ; and the 
 Standard Oil Company might have doubled their 
 export if they had years ago given away one 
 hundred thousand cheap tin lamps like those the 
 Germans are now selling for from fifty cents to 
 one dollar and a half (Mexicans). 
 
 The advertising of Chinese goods by the Chinese 
 is, whenever possible, done by free distribution of 
 samples. A drug-store opens in Canton, and starts 
 out to sell the same old panacea under a new name. 
 The first year they may spend ten thousand dollars 
 (Mexicans) in the distribution of samples. In fact, 
 they really invest all their capital in this kind of 
 advertising. Their stock is almost worth nothing, 
 but I know of drug-firms in Canton that could 
 sell their sign-boards (trade-marks) for one hun- 
 dred thousand taels at any time, who commenced 
 in this way a few years ago. The Chinese never 
 buy without first testing; and if the article is 
 satisfactory, it requires an earthquake to turn 
 them to a rival article ; not even a big saving in 
 price will do it. A number of years ago the 
 
222 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 " eagle brand " of American milk became popular 
 among the Chinese of Canton and Hong Kong. 
 To-day it is manufactured in Canton by the thou° 
 sands — the milk, label, trade-mark, all, being coun- 
 terfeited. The milk is diluted and poor ; but the 
 Chinese keep on buying, because of the " eagle " 
 on the label. 
 
 The Germans are supplying the Chinese with 
 lamps, cheap tools, buttons, glass, jewelry, thread, 
 queuestrings, watches, powder, and guns. A lead- 
 ing firm in Hong Kong offered to place an order 
 for fifty thousand dollars' worth of powder with 
 any American firm that would sell as good and 
 cheap a gunpowder as the Germans. I took sam- 
 ples, and sent them on to Cahfornia, and obtained 
 samples and prices in return. The quality of the 
 American powder was all right, but the price 
 was twenty per cent too high. The manufacturer 
 wanted protection prices in a free port. We for- 
 get in America that, if we wish to sell in these 
 markets, we have got to compete with free-trade 
 countries and with free-trade prices. For which 
 reason, I repeat, we will not do much more than 
 talk, until we get to the point of needing a foreign 
 market to absorb our surplus. As yet the Ameri- 
 can merchants are not in earnest ; and the talk of 
 our doing in the next five years a trade with China 
 
COMMERCIAL COMMISSIONS. 223 
 
 amounting to two hundred and fifty million dol- 
 lars a year sounds well, but it is sheer nonsense. 
 
 The report of a commercial commission will not 
 contain anything that has not been said and resaid 
 by the consuls of all nations during the past ten 
 years, or more than was lately reported by the 
 commission from the Philadelphia Museum. If 
 any commission is to be sent to China, it should 
 be a political one, a committee from Congress, 
 whose recommendations would be accepted in 
 America, and whose opinion would be feared in 
 China. Lord Charles Beresford's mission, al- 
 though not political, was accepted as such by the 
 Chinese ; and his voice in parliament was re- 
 spectfully listened to, and his advice followed. 
 On two occasions — -once on his outward, and 
 once on his return trip — I went carefully over 
 with him the results of his investigations; and 
 his summing up of the entire trade situation was 
 simply what every foreigner knows in China, — 
 " the fear of the warship is the beginning of 
 trade." 
 
 You can't sell goods if the Chinese won't look 
 at them. The West River, from Canton to Nan- 
 king, was opened to foreign trade three years ago ; 
 but the Chinese have hedged it around with so 
 many petty restrictions, and permitted it to be- 
 
224 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 come the haunt of pirates, that, so far, they have 
 been able to defeat the object of the treaty. The 
 British are forced to keep three gunboats patrol- 
 ling the three hundred miles between Canton and 
 Wuchow, in order to protect what little trade they 
 have. In the early part of 1898 the officials 
 found that the people were consuming large quan- 
 tities of American kerosene oil, and that the busi- 
 ness had so grown that a small American steamer 
 was daring to make regular trips between Hong 
 Kong and Wuchow. The Chinese could not, 
 under the treaty, forbid the import of foreign 
 goods, so they caused it to be known that if any 
 of the oil w^as spilled on the ground it would 
 ruin the crop. A panic ensued among the rus- 
 tics ; and to allay the excitement, the viceroy was 
 asked to prohibit the importation of oil as a war 
 measure. For a time the people returned to the 
 candle-wick, dipped in a saucer of peanut oil; 
 but the contrast was too great ; and as there had 
 been no failure of crops, they so clamored for 
 kerosene that the edict was revoked. 
 
 About the same time the Italian consul, who 
 was a merchant-consul of Hong Kong, established 
 an agency for the sale of all kinds of Italian goods 
 in Wuchow. His consular title protected his go- 
 down; and the first year, while he was getting 
 
POSITION OF IMPORTERS, 225 
 
 established, and really losing money, no oppo- 
 sition was shown to his enterprise. The end of 
 the second year found him opening a lucrative 
 trade witii a net profit for the year of seventeen 
 thousand dollars (Mexicans). Immediately petty 
 persecutions of all kinds commenced. At the 
 beginning of the third year the head of the firm 
 resigned his consular functions, whereupon a para- 
 graph appeared in the Chinese papers of Hong 
 Kong, that he had been dismissed from office in 
 disgrace, and warning all Chinese against doing 
 business with him. The article, as was afterwards 
 proven in the Hong Kong courts, was inspired by 
 the Wuchow officials, thoroughly frightened the 
 Chinese, and the Italian house was compelled to 
 take up its agency. A suit was brought in the 
 Hong Kong Supreme Court for Ubel, and a judg- 
 ment was awarded the ItaKan. 
 
 These examples might be multiplied by hun- 
 dreds, but they go to show the position Chinese 
 take toward foreign imports. They are not stand- 
 ing with outstretched hands praying for our canned 
 asparagus and our high silk hats, as our news- 
 papers and orators picture, nor will junketing 
 commissions bring about a desire for them. The 
 best advice I can give to merchants who honestly 
 wish to compete for China's trade, is to imitate 
 
226 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 the methods of the old-established English and 
 German firms. Gunboats, earnestness, diplomacy, 
 will give us our place in the Chinese market. 
 
 Li Hung Chang grew very pathetic in picturing 
 the sorrows we are causing his people by exclud- 
 ing them from America, and especially the Philip- 
 pine Islands, forgetting or ignoring the fact that 
 China is a sealed nation to the American. There 
 are seventy thousand Chinese in San Francisco 
 alone, against three thousand whites of all nation- 
 alities, in all China outside of the treaty ports. 
 Let Li open his country to the world, and then he 
 may talk of " invidious distinctions." The life of 
 a foreigner is unsafe ten miles from Canton, and 
 yet the viceroy dwelt with sad emphasis on the 
 woes of a few laundrymen who were snow-balled 
 in San Francisco by some children during the one 
 fall of snow of the year. During my call on the 
 prefect of Fatshan, a city of two millions, twenty 
 miles from Canton, I was guarded by one hundred 
 and fifty soldiers armed with mausers, and the 
 viceroy heaved a big sigh of relief when I re- 
 turned to Canton alive and uninjured. 
 
 China should not be permitted to continue a 
 hermit nation in this twentieth century. If the 
 concert of nations agrees to preserve its integrity, 
 let them first force open the door, and then nail it 
 
LET IN THE SUNLIGHT, 227 
 
 back to the wall, so that the pure sunlight of modern 
 civilization can pour in. Then, and not until 
 then, will the boasted " open-door " policy mean 
 anything, and all trade will have a fair field 
 without fear or favor. 
 
228 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 XIL 
 
 CANTON, THE TYPICAL CITY, 
 
 CANTON in China — the China of to-day 
 and the China of a thousand years. The 
 post-office address of Hong Kong is 
 "China;" but it is no more the real thing than 
 is Singapore or " Chinatown " in San Francisco. 
 
 I had read of Canton with its crowded streets ; 
 I had heard of Canton with its smells, with its 
 execution ground, its pagoda, its yamens, and of 
 shameen ; but who can describe Canton as it is ? 
 No one — not even the kodak. Yet this wonderful 
 city is less than a hundred miles up the broad 
 Pearl from Hong Kong and English civilization. 
 Thousands of tourists visit it yearly, and a hue of 
 Mississippi passenger steamers daily ply between 
 the two antagonistic civilizations. 
 
 We boarded one evening one of the big side- 
 wheelers, that had come up from New Orleans, 
 around the Horn ; we were prepared to be disap- 
 
THE APPROACH TO CANTON. 229 
 
 pointed, to be disgusted, to put up with whatever 
 came in our way, but we did not dare hope for 
 either amusement or instruction. We thought 
 we knew what to expect. 
 
 The evening sun was lying full in the mouth of 
 the sulphur channel as we boarded the big side- 
 wheeler, " Honan," and slowly worked ahead 
 among a wilderness of junks and house-boats. 
 The evening gun heralded the approach of less 
 gorgeous color in the channel ahead, and lights 
 began to flicker in the fishing- villages on either 
 hand. We drew out our chairs to the deck and 
 enjoyed it all, — the soft night breeze laden now 
 and again with puffs of burning joss-sticks, the 
 purpling twilight full of strange moving objects, 
 the islands like huge jade-stones floating upon 
 a faintly moonlit sea, and the sense that with 
 each churn of the twin-wheels we were drawing 
 nearer the heart of the least understood empire on 
 earth. Here we were on the other side of the 
 ball, just as we imagined we would be in our school^ 
 days should we dig a well straight down, down, 
 until we struck daylight, quite the same as the 
 irreverent oil-prospector in Pennsylvania painted 
 above his derrick, " We're going to drill till we 
 strike oil, hell, or China." In our geographies 
 there was a wood-cut of a Chinese mandarin, in 
 
230 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 flowing robes, walking sedately by the side of 
 two naked coolies carrying boxes of tea on a pole 
 between them. It had been my ambition as a boy, 
 to slip up behind that mandarin, and snip off his 
 luxuriant queue with a pair of scissors. 
 
 As we steamed into the entrance of the great 
 river the famous Bogue forts loomed above us on 
 either hand. For centuries they awed the navies 
 of the Western World; but after Captain Elliot 
 had dropped a few hundred pounds of British iron 
 into their midst, they lost their invulnerable char- 
 acter, and became but mild sport in the hands of 
 of succeeding fleets. American engineers and 
 American cannon could give them back their de- 
 parted prowess, and again their ramparts would 
 command the entrance to the fertile plains of the 
 Kwang-tung province. The old walls of brick and 
 mortar that have been thrice battered, ramble up 
 and down the precipitous sides of the hills, and 
 preserve the pictures queness of the Bogue, and 
 recall the days of the East India Company. 
 
 Here and there a fine six- or nine-storied pagoda 
 rises above the interminable fields of rice, as use- 
 less as the ramparts of the Bogue, but answering 
 the same purpose. They were originally erected 
 as an abode for the spirits of the air, but once 
 finished they were left for the spirits to do their 
 
RIVER LIFE, 231 
 
 own cleaning and housekeeping. The ones we in- 
 vaded in Canton had not been set to rights since 
 the days of the Ming dynasty. Our first surprise 
 came when we were within a few miles of Canton. 
 We flattered ourselves that we had seen high-class 
 river-life in Japan, Shanghai, and Hong Kong ; 
 but here again our pride went before a fall. We 
 entered a wilderness of boats, the homes of three 
 hundred thousand people, — streets of boats and 
 miles of boats. Sampans, express-boats, flower- 
 boats, junks, fish-boats, house-boats, and man- 
 wheel-boats. We never tired of watching these 
 last. They were big wedge-shaped cargo lorchas, 
 fifty or more feet long. Across the stern swung a 
 great paddle-wheel, which was worked by forty or 
 fifty naked slaves on a treadmill. The workers 
 are locked in a cage ; and like the prisoners on 
 the treadmills they could only keep on walking, 
 walking, mile after mile — sometimes one way, 
 sometimes the other, as came the word of com- 
 mand. It was wonderful how they dodged here 
 and there, forward and backward, elbowing down 
 a long lane of boats, and backing up to a wharf. 
 A mandarin man- wheel-boat dashed by with a 
 clash of gongs and a salvo of yells. Yellow and 
 red dragon flags bedecked it, and through the open 
 bull's-eye windows we caught a glimpse of black- 
 
232 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 wood and Chinese gilding, stone pictures, paper 
 screens. Ranged along the bank were the flower- 
 boats, ornately carved and resplendent in green 
 and gold, — the homes of women who are not per- 
 mitted to live within the city walls. 
 
 Nearly everything in the Hong Kong market 
 comes from Canton. As we stood on the deck of 
 the " Honan " watching the river life, we noticed 
 nearing us below a line of boats, deep sunk in 
 the water. In a moment they were fastened to 
 the steamer, the flooring of each thrown back, ex- 
 posing as many floating fish-ponds. There were 
 live fish of all sizes and all shapes, from the min- 
 now-like whitebait to big red fellows that required 
 all the agility and strength of their captors to 
 manage. Each boat was divided in three com- 
 partments. Then commenced a scene of well- 
 ordered confusion. The naked coolies stood waist 
 deep in the chaos of struggling, writhing fish, fill- 
 ing basket after basket, pitching it to their mates 
 in the bow, who in turn tossed it to the coolies 
 above, and from there into a tank of fresh water. 
 The fish arrived eight hours later a little seasick 
 and shopworn, but alive for tlie Hong Kong- 
 market. 
 
 From a distance, or from a point of vantage. 
 Canton is one vast sea of roofs. Not a street, and 
 
TEN-STORIED PAWNSHOPS. 233 
 
 only here and there a clump of trees, break the 
 endless glaze of its tiled roofs. The only objects 
 that rise above the expanse are the great ten-sto- 
 ried square granite pawnshops, — veritable strong- 
 holds where the rich deposit their jewels and 
 clothing, and the poor sell their precious bits of 
 jade. They are warehouses and pawnshops in 
 one, and are protected from mobs by guards on 
 the roof armed with gigantic syringes and buckets 
 of vitriol. 
 
 I dread to invade Canton with the pen, as I 
 must confess I feared the first plunge into it with 
 my chair. My description must fall as far short 
 of the reality as my wildest imagination did of the 
 maelstrom that I found myself in, fifty steps from 
 the Shameen gate. 
 
 When we speak of " narrow streets," the com- 
 parison that comes to the mind is some of the old 
 cow-paths of Boston, the alleys or lanes off Cheap- 
 side and the Strand in London, or possibly the 
 Juden-Stras^e of Frankfort, or some Continental 
 city. I was prepared for narrow streets ; but I 
 had no idea that when our chair crossed the little 
 bridge through the guarded iron gates that pro- 
 tect Shameen, the little island refuge of the Euro- 
 peans, and entered what seemed to be the door of 
 a house, that I was traversing a hona fide street. 
 
234 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 The chair was a few inches wider than my body, 
 and yet I had to keep my elbows close to my 
 sides to keep them out of the shops on either 
 side. Mark Twain has remarked that you could 
 not throw a brick-bat in Rome without breaking 
 a church window; but in Canton you have to 
 choose your place to knock the ashes off your 
 cigar, or they will alight in a dish of soy or dried 
 duck on the one hand, or a pile of wonderfully 
 wrought silk embroidery on the other. The shops 
 have no windows or doors. From your chair you 
 can pick their goods up on either side. Once in 
 a while a sickly pencil of sunlight finds its way 
 down through the little space above our heads, 
 more seldom a breath of fresh air. Lacquered 
 signs vidth golden legends hang downward bearing 
 the mottoes or trade-marks of the shops, — " Ever- 
 lasting Love," " Benevolence and Love," " Ten 
 Thousand-fold Peace," " Thousand Beatitudes," 
 "The Saluting Dragon," "The Dragon is Re- 
 pose," etc., — legends meant to entice the buyers, 
 and blind the spirits to the words that are said 
 and the things that are done within. The Chi- 
 nese credit their gods with the attributes of men. 
 I say gods, for Chinese, whether they are styled 
 Buddhist or Taoist, are as pantheistic as the old 
 Greeks. They have gods for all wants ; and a new 
 
SIGNBOARDS. 235 
 
 one is born to suit any new demand. A China- 
 man will lay as clever plans to cheat or fool some 
 particular god as to blind the eyes of a rival firm. 
 When the typhoon signal is up on the Kowloon 
 peninsula across from Hong Kong, dozens of little 
 paper junks will be thrown overboard to float 
 gayly away on the crest of the wave. It is to 
 fool the god of the storm into thinking each tiny 
 counterfeit presentment is the original ; so he will 
 satisfy his wrath on it while the master of the 
 real junk sails safely away, laughing slyly at the 
 impotent lashing of the tricked monster. 
 
 These Canton sign-boards hang down as thick 
 as stalactites, and keep one eternally dodging as 
 you go swiftly along the streets. At points the 
 so-called lanes open up to a width of six feet, wide 
 enough for two chairs to pass ; but usually in one 
 street the chairs all go in the same direction, 
 while in a parallel one they go in the other. The 
 thousands of pedestrians hug the side walls as we 
 pass, or crowd into an open shop. 
 
 If we wish to turn about, it is necessary to in- 
 vade one of these shops with our chairs, and swing 
 it carefully around ; and if we wish to stop, our 
 coolies, with great shouting and gesticulating, halt 
 the always onward procession while we descend ; 
 then our chairs go on a block or more to an open 
 
236 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 space where they can be clear of the marchers. 
 The fronts of the silver and silk shops are pro- 
 tected by heavy wooden bars set in the sill and 
 lintel like stancheons in a cattle stable. One of 
 these is removed to admit us, and put quickly back 
 in place. A *' sea of upturned faces," is jammed 
 against and between the bars, and watches every 
 movement. The shops are all alike, from the en- 
 trance, possibly ten feet by ten with joss altar in 
 the rear ; but in the larger shops you pass back of 
 the altar, and enter the real show-rooms, large, 
 roomy, and cool, away from the awful din of the 
 congested street. There is nothing to see, — every- 
 thing neatly folded, and placed away in locked 
 cupboards. You ask for silk, embroideries, fur, 
 silver, ivory, jade, and a door opens, and you are 
 deluged with the wealth of the Idngs, and at such 
 ridiculous prices that you spend every cent. In 
 some of the shops you go up two and three stories 
 into sunlit rooms, full of beautiful Canton ware, 
 rare Kienlung vases, crackle-jars, fire-color porce- 
 lain josses, china dragons. 
 
 It is the 'street-life however, that is the most 
 fascinating, the most appalling. Thousands of 
 dried ducks, looking as though they had gone 
 through a letter-press, hang above your head for 
 a mile. Restaurants, butcher-shops, silk-stores, 
 
STREET LIFE, 237 
 
 blacksmiths' shops, bamboo-workers, blackwood 
 furniture " go-downs," shoe-marts, image-makers, 
 ivory-carvers, book-stalls, jade-stone rooms, second- 
 hand-clothes houses, rattan-factories, and every- 
 thing rub shoulders, and carry on business in 
 peace of mind and a tremendous noise. Crowds 
 follow you everywhere for miles. Be-di-aggled, 
 dirty, red-coated soldiers of the viceroy or Tartar 
 general's yamen desert their posts to join the 
 procession. Our coolies go swiftly on, yelling 
 and expostulating, sometimes seemingly to their 
 own destruction, in the " camel's eye " of the old 
 walls, sometimes through a crowd that it would 
 not seem that a respectable fly would attempt, but 
 always on, for it is our only salvation. 
 
 It gives one the horrors to think of being de- 
 serted in the heart of the city. You could wander 
 until the gray hairs came, without ever finding 
 your way out. There is no such thing as a straight 
 line, or a chance to take your bearing from the 
 sun. It is a bedlam, a babel, a chaos, a lunatic 
 asylum, in one, and yet everyone is going sedately 
 about on his own business. The first day I said 
 I could wander forever through these wonderful 
 thoroughfares ; the second day my ears ached, and 
 my brain was dizzy. I was glad to return to the 
 European city of refuge, Shameen. 
 
238 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 Shameen is an artificial oval island, a half a 
 mile long and some three hundred yards in 
 breadth. It is made up of the English and French 
 concessions. Its south bund bounds the harbor, 
 and a deep stone-lined canal separates it from the 
 city. Two iron bridges with heavy gates connect 
 it with the mainland, and a guard of Chinese 
 soldiers protect it night and day. No Chinaman, 
 unless he has a pass, is allowed to cross ; at six 
 o'clock every night, and again at nine the heavy 
 gong beats ; there is a blare of trumpets ; a 
 cannon fires ; the gates are closed, and the for- 
 eingner lies down to sleep as safe as though he 
 were in Hong Kong or New York. The little 
 settlement is as beautiful as a suburb on the 
 Hudson, — broad walks shaded with Banyan-trees, 
 pretty gardens, broad tennis-courts, a bicycle 
 track, and handsome brick houses, make one forget 
 China. The trees are full of wild pigeons and 
 ring-doves, thrushes and blackbirds; and the air is 
 melodious with the twittering of the fungilla, and 
 the whistle of the bittern, while sparrows flutter 
 from covert to covert. The history of Shameen 
 is the history of Canton for the past two hundred 
 years, and in a large measure the history of Hong 
 Kong. But what was once a prison is now a de- 
 lightful park, a preserve for our own race. 
 
THE GODS' ACCOUNT-BOOK. 239 
 
 In spite of appearances we soon found that we 
 were not wandering aimlessly through this inter- 
 minable network of streets. We had begun to 
 think that the sights of Canton were kingfisher 
 workers, rice-paper studios, and a maze of smells, 
 when our chairs were set down before some pon- 
 derous gates that swung in the wind, and (so 
 they were labeled) protected from the rain a col- 
 lection of the halt and the blind. 
 
 The cold weather was coming on, and with it 
 the season of Chinese New Year, and the beggars 
 were swarming in from the country districts. A 
 few rods along the wall sat a coolie with a bag 
 the size of a flour-sack, full of copper cash, tied 
 up in bunches of ten. A line of beggars had 
 formed before him, and as they passed he put into 
 each outstretched hand one of the bunches. He 
 was one of the retainers of a rich merchant or 
 mandarin, who was desirous of " laying up benevo- 
 lence for himself." He cared nothing for the 
 beggars, and might the next hour trample them 
 down with his horse ; but the Chinese believe 
 that their gods keep an account-book with debit 
 and credit sides. Every good act counterbalances 
 a bad one, so in the winter months they lay in a 
 stock of credits for the year's use by distributing 
 " cash " and rice to the beggars. Every Chinaman 
 
240 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 keeps a ledger on his own account, for fear the 
 god will overlook a good deed or so ; and when 
 he discovers his credits running low, he sends out 
 a runner to a temple gate to lay up more merit. 
 There is where a kodak would have been useful. 
 The little comedy made us forget for the moment 
 that we were standing at the dragon gate of the 
 world famed " Examination Hall " of Canton, 
 where the triennial examinations for the degree of 
 bachelor of arts take place. Next to Peking 
 this was the greatest university in the world ; 
 more students meet within its courts and stone 
 cells than in the halls and corridors of Harvard, 
 Yale, Oxford, and all the big universities of 
 America and England put together. Within its 
 precincts issues affecting, in a greater or less de- 
 gree, the destinies of the empire are determined. 
 Every male, rich or poor, humble or great, may 
 try, at the expense of the state, for the coveted 
 degree of " Ku-yan " (A.B.). Among the twenty 
 thousand are striplings and their fathers, boys of 
 eighteen and sires of eighty. 
 
 There are no dormitories to the university. 
 The student may study wherever he listeth, at the 
 viceroy's literary club, or in the hovel, and come 
 up for his examination whenever he feels qualified. 
 He may try as often as he chooses, but the rewards 
 
THE EXAMINATION HALL. 241 
 
 are glittering enough to cause everyone of the thou- 
 sands of stone cells that line the broad granite 
 boulevard to be taken. The successful candidates 
 are given government employment, while the 
 three highest are, in addition to rank and position, 
 awarded settled incomes, so that they are free to 
 continue their studies if they do not care for 
 political preferment. There is no progression, no 
 advancement, nothing modern in this university. 
 The themes and questions are from the classics, 
 the same to-day as a hundred years ago, the same 
 as five hundred. The honor man, who for the 
 time being is greater than the viceroy, knows the 
 " Confucian Analects," " The Doctrine of the 
 Man," the book of " Mencius " the "■ Ti King," by 
 heart ; he is able to locate and bound the route of 
 Confucius' travels, and explain the superstitions 
 of the stars ; but he never heard of New York, nor 
 has the faintest idea of the law of gravitation or 
 the physical geography of the earth. The chances 
 are, if he came from the interior of China, that he 
 is ignorant of the opium war, the Japanese war, 
 and fondly believes that all kings are still paying 
 homage to his emperor. 
 
 A high stone wall incloses the university, from 
 the dragon gate to the quarter of the examiners ; 
 and from the yamen of the viceroy stretches a 
 
242 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 broad stone causeway, at right angles to which 
 are closely packed streets or lanes of small open 
 brick-built cells, measuring five and a half feet 
 long, three feet eight inches broad, by six feet 
 high. In these cells, which contain a bare wooden 
 bench on the one side and a shelf on the other, 
 the student must stay night and day, for from 
 two to three weeks, writing on his themes, and 
 answering questions. He is allowed to come out 
 upon the central promenade three times a day to 
 cook rice and get water ; but most of the students 
 bring their provisions already cooked, so as to 
 save time. 
 
 The examinations take place in the fall; the 
 weather is hot, the air from the surrounding city 
 fetid ; twenty thousand men are crowded in a space 
 like cattle in a stable ; and every day one to a dozen 
 workers break down, and have to be carried out- 
 side the gates. There are always a number of 
 deaths, and the strain and the heat require 
 physical staying qualities as well as mental. 
 
 The viceroy's temporary yamen is spacious, but 
 far from attractive when unused. We wandered 
 about as freely as the trains of beggars and pariah 
 dogs would permit, and we had to accept on faith 
 the statement of our scrofulous cicerone, that the 
 yamen was very gorgeous during examination time. 
 
THE TAMEN, 243 
 
 All the public buildings in China are erected 
 with the idea that they are to last forever, and 
 that any repairs or house-cleaning, beyond the re- 
 newal of the oiled paper of the windows, is a sin- 
 ful extravagance. Nothing but fire could ever 
 clean Canton. 
 
 We stopped before the yamen of the Tartar 
 major-general. The street here was a httle broader, 
 and before the palace-gate were heaps of offal and 
 refuse on which a corps of red-coated brigands 
 were gambling and quarreling. We entered, 
 stepping over an old hag who was skinning a cat, 
 entered a dirty court-yard inhabited by beggars, 
 soldiers, and smells, through another gate into an 
 inner court, around which were a row of offices 
 for minor officials. We were allowed to go no 
 farther. A mandarin came out from beyond the 
 inner court, immaculately dressed in flowing silk 
 skirts, and passed us by without bestowing a 
 glance in our direction. Our mob of begging fol- 
 lowers opened for him to pass, but gave him no 
 more attention than he gave us. 
 
 The yamen was typical of the empire. A 
 British army officer who was with the army that 
 captured Peking, and entered the emperor's palace 
 in the " Pink City," told me that he expected at 
 last to see something of the magnificence that 
 
244 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 rumor claimed surrounded the sacred person of 
 the emperor. He found the same dirt, squalor, 
 disorganization, and lack of even the comforts, on 
 a grand scale, that he liad grown familiar with in 
 the yamens and temples of Canton and Nanking. 
 The Chinese lay out their palaces on a magnifi- 
 cent scale. They take acres of ground in the 
 heart of a city where there is no ground to spare for 
 respectable streets. The eaves, angles, and corners 
 are filled with the most expensive and most " ar- 
 tistic " porcelain gargoyles, josses, holy men, and 
 devils. Whole scenes from the life of Buddha, in 
 beautiful " five-colored ' porcelain, fill the sides of 
 the wall. Court scenes, bits in Nirvanah, corners 
 in heaven, peeps into hell, are pictured with the 
 wonderful exactness of detail, and scrupulous 
 nicety as to finish, that distinguish the Chinese 
 artist. The gates of the yamen are wonderfully 
 and fearfully carved, and heroic-sized gods, look- 
 ing the picture of the giant in " Jack-and-the- 
 Beanstalk," grin at you from either side. Every- 
 thing is done that money, labor, and Chinese taste 
 can accomplish ; and then these princely yamens, 
 in every instance, are left to go to decay, the courts 
 to become a dumping-ground for the inmates, the 
 garden to be used for the same purpose, until 
 everything becomes so filthy that an American 
 
THE LITERART CLUB, 245 
 
 would not make butter from cows stabled within 
 the viceregal precincts. 
 
 The strange thing is, that of all classes, the 
 Chinese seem to be utterly unconscious of the in- 
 congruity of it all. At the viceroy's " Literary 
 Club " or the Public Library, where the students 
 are supposed to read and study for the examina- 
 tions, we stood on the veranda above an artisti- 
 cally designed bevy of miniature lakes and moun- 
 tains. Our guide, who for twenty-five years had 
 been interpreter of the U. S. Consulate, pointed 
 out with great zest the materials of which the 
 mountains, grottos, and caves were made, as having 
 been brought over one thousand miles on the backs 
 of coolies from a sacred mountain in western China, 
 — he claimed that each stone was worth its weight 
 in silver, — (it was lava) ; he called our attention 
 to other things, but he never once noticed that 
 in the shallow water that was so expensively 
 framed was a dead dog, a cart-load of empty cans, 
 broken jars, and a thick covering of oily green 
 slime. The fact that the money had been spent 
 on these acres of rambling buildings was enough. 
 We did not find one student or reader ; but this did 
 not surprise us, as we never found a worshiper in 
 any of the temples in all China. 
 
 The temples are in no way comparable to those 
 
246 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 of Japan. They are simply vast collections of 
 courts and quarters for the priests. The central 
 temple is decorated about its eaves in the same 
 style as the yamens. There is no pretense of 
 architectural decoration or beauty ; the floors are 
 of hard-beaten earth or flagstones, usually covered 
 with drying mats or paper; the images of Buddha 
 and the rest — usually gigantic in size, and covered 
 with goldleaf, — are arranged round the walls, 
 with here and there a punk-stick burning before 
 a favorite. The priests are almost as ragged, just 
 as dirty, and greater beggars than the professionals 
 that crowd about the gates. As you go about their 
 damp, dimly lighted strongholds, they follow you 
 closely with an always outstretched dirty palm. 
 There is practically no religion in China. If a 
 Chinaman is in trouble, or needs help or " face," 
 he goes to the nearest temple, and prays to any one 
 of the five hundred idols that has the best reputa- 
 tion. If his petition is not answered, he tries an- 
 other, and so on — Buddists and Taoists, or even 
 the gilded image of INIarco Polo, it is all the same 
 to him. If his prayer is finally answered, he be- 
 comes, for the time being, a patron of the temple 
 of that particular god. Yet everyone studies the 
 Confucius classics from childhood, and quotes 
 their beautiful epigrams on all occasions. 
 
THE EMPEROR'S TEMPLE. 247 
 
 Chin Sine, our enthusiastic guide, realized at 
 last that we were tired of his temples ; and when 
 the mistress positively refused to enter " The 
 Temple of the God of Literature " he begged 
 earnestly that for the good name of the great city, 
 we should see " The Emperor's Temple or Ten 
 Thousand Years Palace." Against our better 
 judgment we weakly consented. I hate to explore 
 a city, and then have some one exclaim, when I am 
 on the other side of the world, " Did you see the 
 Emperor's Temple at Canton ? " "We came to the 
 usual brick wall lined with beggars and mandarins' 
 servants " laying up merit," and the usual monu- 
 mental arch, which the guide-books style "grand" 
 and " lofty," with the usual iron-studded gates, 
 aswing, and the usual dead dog. Within the 
 gates is an open field of some two acres, where 
 the retinue wait once a year, on New Year's Day, 
 and pray, while the local representative of the 
 " Son of Heaven " prostates himself before the 
 carved facsimile of the dragon throne. The court 
 is overgrown with weeds, and strewn with empty 
 cans, and the royal altar is of the flimsiest painted 
 wood. The insignia and standards of royalty that 
 flank this pretentious erection are such as would 
 cast ridicule on a cheap Chinese theatrical com- 
 pany. Even the celebrated tablet that bears the 
 
248 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 inscription " May the Emperor reign ten thousand 
 years, ten thousand times ten thousand years," is 
 no improvement on the millions of sign-boards 
 among which we had been dodging during the 
 past few days. " Everything," " very big," I 
 assured Chue Sine, and he departed satisfied. 
 We went to no more temples. 
 
 Our chair stopped before an open space, some 
 twenty-five yards by ten yards, right in the heart 
 of the city. It was open to the sky only ; the 
 ground was covered with rude earthenware ves- 
 sels drying in the sun. One of the potters rushed 
 forward, motioning us frantically to follow him 
 in preference to any of his co-laborers. We did 
 so, stepping over the half-baked clay pots. From 
 underneath a 'pile of rubbish he brought forth a 
 skull, which he displayed with one hand, while the 
 other was outstretched for the usual " cumshaw." 
 
 " What is this all about ? " I inquired of my in- 
 terpreter, who was smiling blandly from among a 
 body-guard of naked clay workmen. I noted the 
 low sheds, the open street, the unobstructed use 
 of ground that must be worth a thousand dollars 
 an inch, for so lowly a purpose, and made up my 
 mind that I was about to stumble upon one more 
 strange freak of the Chinese character. '* It is 
 
THE EXECUTION GROUND. 249 
 
 the execution ground," he replied, amazed at my 
 lacking perspicuity. 
 
 The execution ground is the most world-wide 
 famous spot in Canton, the place of horrible 
 tales and bloody deeds. I had pictured a Gol- 
 gotha, a place of skulls, a sickening Black Hole, 
 flocks of vultures, and herds of rats, and had been 
 steeling my nerves all day. 
 
 I found a potter's field, and one skull whose 
 genuineness I doubted. It was another disen- 
 chantment ; and yet the spot on which we stood, 
 this little open lot in the heart of Canton, had 
 drunk more blood than any other one spot in the 
 world ; had felt the pressure of the knees of 
 more victims than were killed in the Napoleonic 
 wars. 
 
 As we stood we were liable to be the unwilling 
 witness of one or more executions. There is no 
 set time ; the criminals never know the hour or 
 the minute; neither does the tourist. The victims 
 are taken from their prison cell in baskets, and 
 dumped on this, their last spot among the living. 
 With their hands pinioned, they are made to 
 kneel and bend their heads — side by side in a 
 long row. The presiding mandarin enters the 
 open, preceded by a small table covered with red. 
 The kneelers are not kept long in suspense. At 
 
250 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 a word from the official the naked executionei 
 commences at one end of the waiting line, and 
 with his sword mows off the bended necks, as the 
 small boy with a switch plays havoc in a meadow 
 of buttercups. 
 
 If the Chinese were good Catholics, they would 
 cross themselves whenever they passed this spot ; 
 and if ghosts of the departed haunt the place 
 of their death, every breath of air must have con- 
 tained millions of their spirits. 
 
 When the haughty Viceroy Yeh found that his 
 soldiers, his cannon, his fire-ships, his fleet of 
 junks, were as tilings of paper in the hands of the 
 allies without the walls, his savage soul thirsted 
 for blood. If he could not have the blood of the 
 English, he would have blood ; so all that Christ- 
 mas day of 1859, and every day after, until a Brit- 
 ish marine laid impious hands on his queue, as he 
 was vainly trying to scale the wall of his own 
 yamen, he watched the heads of kneeling lines of 
 his own soldiers fall under the hands of his gigan- 
 tic, tireless butcher, until the sandy soil refused to 
 drink more blood, and the streets ran red. 
 
 In the corner of the field were several wooden 
 crosses, to be used for the milder forms of execu- 
 tion, such as strangulation, and *' Ling Chi," or 
 cutting into a thousand pieces. 
 
THE WATER CLOCK, 251 
 
 By this time the crowd had wedged in about 
 us until there was no room for our earthly bodies, 
 or for the souls of the departed ; and there was 
 much murmuring because we did not bribe the 
 head jailer to arrange for an execution. I gave 
 the curator of the clay skull one hundred cash, 
 and we escaped without stepping on any of the 
 pottery. 
 
 Not so very far from the execution ground — 
 but just how far it would be impossible to state, 
 except from the vantage point of a balloon — a big 
 tower straddles a bazar-like thoroughfare, and a 
 winding line of rough stone steps leads two stories 
 to the Water Clock, or Clepsydra. It is running 
 to-day as it has for five hundred years, and with- 
 out a big bulletin board announces the time o' 
 day. 
 
 On the inner door was a notice that showed 
 that the keeper realized that the ancient time- 
 piece was a medium of " squeeze." 
 
 " If every body who enter" 
 " this room to see pour out " 
 " leakies of copper pots " 
 " ought to pay us ten cents." 
 
 We paid the ten cents after a vigorous protest 
 from Chue Sine, the interpreter, and entered a 
 dark room which held three copper vessels, placed 
 
252 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 one above the other on a step-like a platform. In 
 the bottom vessel is a float with an indicator scale 
 passing through it, which, as the water fills the 
 lower vessel, rises and shows the time The small 
 holes in each pot were just large enough to allow 
 one drop of water to escape each second. From 
 the balcony of the tower we could look out on to 
 the sea of roofs of the streetless city — roofs so 
 etherial that the wonder is how they withstand a 
 vigorous rainstorm. 
 
 We left the viceroy's yamen a little after noon. 
 I incidentally mentioned to Chue that we would 
 be unable to do any more sight-seeing until we 
 had partaken of some one's hospitality. The 
 idea was accepted favorably, and our chairs were 
 headed toward a flight of steps a quarter of a mile 
 or so in length, and a hill where we were informed 
 was a pagoda. In our American eyes it was only 
 right that we should relieve our bearers by climb- 
 the steps, but Chue preferred to ride ; he ex- 
 plained that his trousers were stuffed with goose- 
 feathers, and it was not comfortable to get unduly 
 warm. The distance traversed from the moment 
 we left the foot of the hill until we reached the 
 gates of the big red " Five-storied Pagoda " was 
 ground reserved for military purposes for so called 
 defense. Fifty years ago the allies proved conclu- 
 
THE FIVE STORIED PAGODA. 253 
 
 sively that the Chinese military science was obso- 
 lete ; that their walls, hills, pagodas, smooth-bore 
 cannons, belonged to the period of the siege of 
 Constantinople ; and yet to-day these hills within 
 the walls, embracing acres of the only desirable 
 residential plots in Canton, are still kept inviolate 
 by the command of some emperor of the Ming 
 dynasty. The defenses of Hong Kong are only 
 one hundred miles away ; they have had no more 
 effect on the science of Chinese warfare than have 
 the three hundred years of missionary labor on 
 Chinese ideas of life and religion. 
 
 The pagoda is untenanted save in the fifth 
 story, where a Chinaman has two small tables and 
 a box of tea. Chue Sine had provided us with a 
 lunch from the hotel, and we added it to our host's 
 tea. We paid ten Canton cents each for the use 
 of the rickety table and a much-used table-cloth, 
 and five cents more for a cup of tea made as an 
 infusion and not a decoction ; but we paid nothing 
 for the view, and it was worth the price of the 
 pagoda. The pagoda itself is situated directly on 
 the top of the wall — a shining mark for barbarian 
 cannon. Directly below us, within the military 
 reservation, is the government powder factory, 
 directly in. line with all the shells that missed the 
 pagoda. Whenever the mill accumulates a stock 
 
254 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 of powder that excels the demand, and there is 
 danger of the mill being closed, the balance of 
 trade is brought their way by the aid of a match. 
 There have been two explosions within the last 
 six months. 
 
 The streetless city stretched away to the banks 
 of the Pearl, with its maze of shipping, broken 
 here and there by the towering pawnshops, and 
 the open space about yamens and temples. With- 
 out the walls the country is brown and hilly, and 
 as destitute of population as though every soul 
 demanded the protection of the crumbling walls, 
 whose ponderous gates are still closed at six 
 o'clock each night with a fanfar of trumpets. 
 For two hundred years this warlike ceremony, ac- 
 companied as it was with a show of such sublime 
 confidence and high-bred arrogance, impressed 
 and awed England and France. Even when the 
 allies came over the brown hills with scaling-lad- 
 ders and hand grenades, the chiefs of the city sat 
 where we were drinking tea, and smiled at the 
 inward-rushing band. They did not even pity 
 them, they were beneath pity. Directly below, 
 at regular intervals, were the cannon that were 
 only waiting the match to eat them up. Sud- 
 denly the Foreign Devils were over the walls, and 
 swarming up the steps of the pagoda. The ar- 
 
ANCIENT DEFENSES. 255 
 
 tillery had gone off, but no one happened to be 
 within range. Afterwards the Tartar general, 
 apologizing for his defeat, explained to Peking that 
 the barbarians did not fight fair. They came in 
 long, thin lines, at regular distances, half way 
 between each cannon; and as the cannon were 
 stationary, and could only be fired straight ahead, 
 and as the barbarians kept out of range, no one 
 was hurt. We laughed as we walked along the 
 wall past one ancient gun after another. It was 
 all so simple and ingenious, — this expecting an 
 enemy to stand up before the mouths of the old 
 pieces. The walls, however, are really impressive, 
 broad enough for a carriage to drive on their top ; 
 and if they were at Newport or on the Riveira 
 they would become a famous promenade. There 
 are lots of good building material in them ; and 
 some day, when the utilitarians agree to capture 
 Canton, it will go to make a city worthy of so 
 great a population. 
 
 Our pagoda was only five stories high, and 
 quite a youngster in point of years. Five hundred 
 years does not count for much in China. Later 
 we visited the most perfect of all pagodas in Can- 
 ton, — " The Flowery Pagoda," — which was nine 
 stories, some three hundred feet high, and dates 
 back fourteen hundred years. Each story repre- 
 
256 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 sents a Buddhist heaven ; and had it not been for 
 the quarreling of our chair-coolies over the rem- 
 nants of our lunch, and the yelping of a band of 
 half-starved dogs without the walls, our " fifth 
 heaven" would have been as delightful a place to 
 spend an hour and eat our tiffin in as any well- 
 regulated heathen heaven. Chue was telling us 
 about his sickness. He was well now ; and he 
 ascribed his cure to " Deerhorn " and " Ginseng." 
 The medicines he had already shown us in a 
 native shop. " I take three hundred dollars' worth 
 of deerhorn and drink nine hundred dollars' 
 worth of ginseng; now I well." One deerhorn 
 of the best quality had cost him four hundred 
 and fifty dollars, and one ounce of Manchuria 
 ginseng, shaped like a man, a hundred dollars. 
 I advised him to try cow's horn next time, and 
 catnip tea, but there was no shaking his belief in 
 the Chinese materia medica, including horned 
 toads, peppermint-oil, orange-peel, and tigers' 
 teeth, although otherwise he was a good Chris- 
 tian. I asked Chue how he became a Christian. 
 " I know very nice man in Australia ; he my 
 friend ; he tell me Jesus come to earth to save 
 me ; I believe him, so I Christian." 
 
 The Jews and Canton are strangers. The Chi- 
 naman leaves no pickings for vultures, rats, or 
 
CANTONESE ECONOMY. 257 
 
 even Jews. The " chosen people " are easily 
 beaten at their own game by the humblest shop- 
 keeper, — the hardest workers and closest eaters 
 on earth. No scrap or beast is despised in their 
 system of economy; and their day contains 
 twenty-four working-hours with no artificial divis- 
 ion as to periods of rest. The sounds of toil and 
 barter go on all night without seeming diminu- 
 tion. Our chair coolies sleep while we eat our 
 tiffin, or wander about the '' City of the Dead," 
 or invade the dank shadows of a mouldy temple ; 
 sleep sitting or lying with the innocence of babes, 
 and the cheerful knowledge that they had nothing 
 on worth stealing, while we pay for their time, so 
 making double w^ages. When tiffin was finished 
 they quarreled for the ends of crusts and the rich 
 man's crumbs, not that they were hungry, but it 
 was part of their inborn system of economy. 
 
 Although a self-confessed Christian, Chue could 
 not understand the mistress's repugnance to dogs 
 as an article of diet. Even she had to confess 
 later that they did not look half bad as they 
 hung skinned and quartered on the walls along 
 the street of the butchers, with only the bushy 
 tips of their tails left to distinguish them from 
 the sheep. There should be no " New World's " 
 prejudice to dogs' meat. We went to a Chinese 
 
258 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 dinner, and enjoyed sharks' fins, birds' nests, and 
 fungus, and a dish that was called minced quail, 
 but which my communicative host told me later 
 on was an expensive breed of dog that came from 
 North China. We ate the menu to its sweet end, 
 and agreed with him when he naively admitted 
 that " European fare might be more substantial, 
 but for flavor he preferred his own." Sharks' 
 fins and birds' nests are expensive ; one dollar a 
 pound for the first, and five dollars for the last, 
 would be considered a luxury by the frequenters 
 of Delmonico's ; but the very fact that their 
 consumption is exclusively Chinese makes them, 
 nationally, an economy, gives employment to thou- 
 sands of people, relieves the demand, and thus 
 cheapens beef and horse, the beasts of burden. 
 
 We started out one morning to visit the " City 
 of the Dead," the " Leper Village," and the mint. 
 It is an hour's ride from the Shameen Gate to the 
 door of the mint, outside the walls, within sight 
 of the " Five-Storied Pagoda." As we jogged at 
 a dog-trot through the maze of streets, we re- 
 peatedly passed through the city walls. The dis- 
 used gates are swung open ; and in their roomy 
 arches peddlers, itinerant restauranters, merchants, 
 and sewing-women sit. Above each gate is a fine 
 
CHAMBER OVER THE GATE, 259 
 
 airy room, that faces both ways, and overlooks the 
 sea of roofs. The breeze that we never feel flut- 
 ters the bamboo curtains of the muUioned win- 
 dows ; and the face of a woman of wealth peers 
 downward, and watches our progress with amused 
 wonder. I got in the habit of looking for these 
 " Chambers over the Gate," and speculating as to 
 their occupants. I asked Chue. He glanced up at 
 some red signs covered with gilt Chinese charac- 
 ters that stood in an umbrella stand by the side of 
 the window, and replied, '* Velly large mandarin ; 
 have three-bar flag." 
 
 It was to a chamber over the gate that David 
 came to weep for Absalom. I understand it now. 
 In the courts and rooms of David's ''yamen," he 
 was alone, and his grief ever before him. Those 
 that came to him put on the long face that is sup- 
 posed to accompany sympathy — all knew his loss, 
 and all took pains that he should not forget it. 
 He went to the chamber over the gate where he 
 could see the workers, the merrymakers — the 
 life of his nation ; where he could watch tourists 
 from Canton and Cairo and Carthage, struofo-ling- 
 with unaccustomed sights and uncatalogued smells 
 below ; where he could smile, then laugh, and at 
 last forget "my son Absalom." The orientalism 
 of the Bible is forced upon one all over Asia. 
 
260 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 The " Chamber over the Gate " in my boyhood, 
 pictures was a very forbidding kind of a prison, 
 and the story of the " Blind leading the Blind " 
 a most questionable undertaking. In Canton, we 
 were continually running upon lines of blind beg- 
 gars in single file, from the narrowness of the 
 streets, each with one hand on the other's shoul- 
 ders, the other holding a long slim staff, uniting 
 in a kind of blind lock-step. A lone blind beg- 
 gar would soon be knocked down and run over, 
 and it was easy to pass him by without giving 
 alms ; but six women made a procession that 
 merited consideration, whatever your intentions 
 might be. 
 
 " The Blind leading the Blind ! " how it brings 
 up bits of long-forgotten sermons in the old white 
 " meetin'-house," and the lucid explanation of the 
 good old " elder," who had about as much idea of 
 the real significance of the full orientalism of the 
 picture as the thin front row of squirming young- 
 sters had of the moral of his lesson. We vaguely 
 wondered why the blind didn't go arm in arm, ten 
 abreast if necessary : no one would ever run over 
 them in the dusty, oak-shaded streets of Whites- 
 ville. 
 
 The "Money Changers in the Temple ! " Here 
 they were in Canton, hundreds of them, with their 
 
BIBLICAL ORIENTALISM. 261 
 
 little stands, that you could knock over with your 
 smallest finger, and send their piles of copper-cash 
 rolling into the crowds under the pedestals of the 
 gods, as were the tables upset in Jerusalem. Not 
 plate glass and marble-countered banks demol- 
 ished as I had fondly dreamed on that front row. 
 So, too, the well-known picture of the " Last Sup- 
 per " that to-day adorns the '' spare "-room walls 
 of so many country homes is as impossible as it 
 is absurd. Tables have never been popular for 
 dining-purposes in Asia Minor, or knives and forks 
 in common use. 
 
 I never tired of these excursions through the 
 century-old life of this typical city of the Chinese 
 empire. One day we invaded a magistrate's ya- 
 men, and became interested spectators of the trial 
 of four miserable coolies for piracy and murder. 
 In this city of two million inhabitants, there are 
 but two magistrate's yamens, and they only hold 
 court in the afternoon, a condition which speaks 
 well for the general behavior of the people among 
 themselves. There is nothing imposing in a 
 Chinese court ; and the description of one is a de- 
 scription of all of those to-day, and for the past 
 thousand years. It is a low, one-storied building 
 with grotesquely carved gates under a red-tiled 
 roof that is surmounted with porcelain dragons. 
 
262 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 The gates, however, are only opened for an official 
 who has the right to enter the presence of the 
 magistrate in liis sedan chair. On either side of 
 the big doors are the usual small ones for small 
 people. Once through them, you come upon an 
 open court with a stagnant pool in its center, or a 
 neglected shrub. On either side of this court are 
 the so-called offices of the yamen runners, four 
 feet by six, with windows of oiled paper. Another 
 pair of ponderous wooden gates, carved with green 
 and blue gods, bars your entrance ; but there are 
 the usual side portals open. 
 
 No one questions you, or interferes with your 
 progress ; although you have a feeling that you 
 are doing a bold thing, and taking your life in 
 your hand. You soon find, however, that you are 
 actually approaching a court of justice which is, as 
 it should be, open to all the world. The magis- 
 trate's room would probably seat two hundred 
 people if chairs were provided ; but there are only 
 three of these articles in the room, and they stand 
 behind a common kitchen table covered with 
 turkey-red calico, a yard of which had also been 
 thrown over each of the chairs. The place is about 
 as cheerful as a stable, and a trifle cleaner than a 
 hen-coop. On the walls hang an array of whips, 
 bamboo rods, iron instruments of all sorts, chains, 
 
COURTS JNB PRISONS. 263 
 
 and the cangue. There are no pretenses of order 
 or decorum. To the right and left, facing the 
 table, passages lead off to the cells where the 
 witnesses and the prisoners are awaiting trial, all 
 huddled together in their filth. 
 
 Prisons in China are not places of punishment, 
 but of detention, which amounts to the same thing. 
 They are hell-holes, where an innocent man charged 
 with the crime of alleged disrespect to his ances- 
 tors is squeezed of every cash before he can get 
 before the magistrate for trial. Even then, on the 
 bare suspicion that he is holding a bit of property 
 back, he is tortured until in sheer physical 
 anguish he is glad to confess to a crime that 
 he never committed. 
 
 China is a country without lawyers, and without 
 juries. So in theory at least, it is not necessary 
 for a man to plead pauperism to get before a 
 court. In practice, however, the yamen is filled 
 with a species of lawyers called " searchers," who 
 aid the judge to find "a punishment to fit the 
 crime," by citing some similar case in the court 
 records of the Sung or Ming dynasties. It hardly 
 need be said that in a list of decisions covering 
 two thousand years, the searchers, if well paid by 
 the defendant, can dig up a precedent which 
 would justify the magistrate in dismissing the case. 
 
264 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 In the rear of the red-covered table were the 
 private offices of the officials of the yamen. 
 While waiting, we had settled ourselves comfort- 
 ably in the straight-backed magisterial chairs, and 
 watched the rapidly collecting throng. A clerk 
 placed some papers, a Chinese pen, and a pot of 
 red and black India ink on the table. There was 
 a stir about the door that led to the cells, then, 
 marching to the cheerful accompaniment of 
 chains, five manacled half-naked coolies were 
 driven into the center of the court, and made to 
 kneel before the table with their foreheads on the 
 floor. There they remained until the magistrate 
 entered quietly the stage door on the right, and 
 spoke to them. No oath was administered ; for 
 perjury is not a crime in China, as it is taken for 
 granted that every man will lie as long as it will 
 benefit him. The prisoners answered as they 
 knelt, and in spite of their gaunt, haggard appear- 
 ance, seemed to be quite cheerful under the cross- 
 examination. They were charged with having, in 
 company with others, robbed a junk up the West 
 River, and of having beaten to death a native cus- 
 toms' watcher who in a weak moment had tried to 
 make them divide their booty with him. There 
 was no order in the court ; and the spectators, as 
 did we ourselves, crowded upon the prisoners, stood 
 
DETECTING OLD OFFENDERS, 265 
 
 behind the judge, or took any place of vantage we 
 chose. After a few questions, the magistrate, who 
 carried on his quiet fire of questions as though 
 there was no one witliin a hundred miles, arose, 
 and passed around to the front of the table. The 
 prisoners evidently understood the situation, as 
 one after the other calmly held up the palms of 
 his hands. The magistrate examined them criti- 
 cally, and said a few words to the clerk, who im- 
 mediately entered them on the records of the 
 court. Our conjecture was, " He is a palmist, 
 and is reading their character ; " but when he 
 ordered his runners to raise their shirts so that he 
 might examine their backs, his actions became per- 
 fectly clear and reasonable ; he was looking for the 
 marks of the bamboo. It simplified matters greatly 
 to know whether they were old offenders or not. 
 
 The jailer and executioner stood over them, 
 evidently impatiently waiting for the word to 
 apply the bamboo, in order to freshen their mem- 
 ories or hasten their confession. He was a per- 
 fect stage villain, with an enormous nose, which 
 hung down to his chin like a great pear. He 
 was proud of the muscles of his arms, and kept 
 shoving back his loose sleeves. A few weeks be- 
 fore one of our party had seen him behead nine 
 men without missing a stroke on any one of them. 
 
266 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 The magistrate seemed a trifle nervous at our 
 presence, although we tried to impress him with 
 the idea that we were merely globe-trotters. 1 
 heard one of his clerks whisper to him our names ; 
 and shortly after the case was remanded, and the 
 magistrate took French leave of the court. The 
 Chinese are becoming sensitive of the criticism of 
 the foreign devils. We possibly saved the cul- 
 prits for the time from a bambooing, or possibly 
 being strung up by the thumbs, but we certainly 
 did consign them for another week to the living 
 death of a Chinese prison. 
 
 We met a man in one of the narrow streets 
 wearing a stock, or cangue, on each side of which 
 were pasted printed notices informing all the 
 world that he was a thief, and had been caught in 
 the act. One hand was tied behind him ; and in 
 the other he held a bell, which he rang continu- 
 ously to attract attention to himself. A policeman 
 followed, who from time to time beat him with a 
 bamboo. If some of our high-toned bank wreck- 
 ers were driven up and down Wall Street in this 
 fashion, at least one style of crime would become 
 unpopular. 
 
 It was some time before I ventured into the 
 studio of a portrait painter. I had learned to 
 credit the Chinese with great imitative skill in 
 
THE CANGUE : A FORM OF CHINESE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 " It is the absence of nerves that enables the Chinese to endnre patn as well as toil."' 
 
IMITATIVE SKILL, 267 
 
 many ways. They could take a suit of my best 
 home-made clothes, and copy it exactly for one- 
 tenth of what I had paid for the original, and at 
 the same time use the best English and Scotch 
 material, but I did not expect much from them in 
 a purely artistic line. I was not impressed with 
 their attempts to paint from living sitters. The 
 result was too much like " the old Masters ; " but 
 their copying in oil, engravings and photographs, 
 on ivory were well done. The portrait of George 
 Washington which they did for me from an old yel- 
 low frontispiece in the " Constitution of the United 
 States " would have done Trumbull or Stuart 
 credit. It was four feet by three, and the charge 
 was three dollars gold. There was no excuse for 
 being over critical at that price ; and then I " skied 
 it," so that it showed up at least three hundred 
 dollars' worth. 
 
 The Chinese artist belongs strictly to the 
 " Purist School." He believes in detail, and 
 maintains that the value of his painting lies in 
 the fact that it shows things as they are ; he 
 leaves nothing to the imagination. In the picture 
 Yee Cheong did for me of the city and island of 
 Hong Kong, painted presumably from a boat in 
 the harbor, he insisted on marking in the zigzag line 
 of the tramway that runs to the peak. I pointed 
 
268 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 out to Yee Cheong, who reminded me of the dean 
 of the art department of my Alma Mater, that 
 from his presumptive view point it was impos- 
 sible to see the tram-car line, and that from no 
 point in Hong Kong was it possible to see its 
 entire course. He was imperturbable. 
 
 " Picture no belong Hong Kong side, spose no 
 got tram-car," he declared. " Spose you take 
 picture Melican side. Melican man say Yee 
 Cheong no savvy pidgin." 
 
 I continued the discussion. I complimented 
 the painting, which was good, and I felt I had 
 convinced him. 
 
 " Can do," he asserted. *' Spose you no wanchee 
 tram-car, my no putty, Yee Cheong no putty he 
 chop picture. Maskee." 
 
 So the discussion ended. Yee filled in the 
 mist-colored mountains as I ordered, faint and 
 indistinct, etched here and there with higher 
 lights or deeper shadows, just as I had seen 
 it from day to day in all its changeableness. 
 There was no white line zigzagging up its side, 
 marking the course of the little railway of which 
 Englishmen and Chinamen are both so proud ; 
 but " Maskee ! " Yee Cheong did not honor the 
 canvas with his name. 
 
 " Maskee " expressed Yee Cheong's opinion of 
 
''MASKEEr 269 
 
 my stubbornness. I was an outer barbarian, 
 *' Maskee " — never mind. " I don't care, let it 
 pass," and the subject was dismissed. Maskee 
 expresses a volume. It is the refuge of the China- 
 man. It closes and begins conversation, or it is 
 an entire conversation in itself. 
 
270 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 XIIL 
 
 PEKING, THE CAPITAL CITT. 
 
 [This chapter on Peking was written, at Mr, Wildman's request, by 
 the Hon. Charles Denhy, for years resident in Peking, and minister of 
 the United States at the court of the Emperor of China.] 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED divine, who had hved 
 many years in China, once told me that 
 on a visit to New York he was requested 
 to deliver a lecture on Chinese subjects. He ac- 
 cordingly prepared an elaborate discourse, and was 
 very much surprised to find that the most of his 
 audience left, and those who remained seemed to 
 be exceedingly bored. After a little while he was 
 again invited to lecture. That time he did not 
 write a line nor make the least preparation. He 
 got on his feet, and he told exactly what he per- 
 sonally knew, without ornament or effort. The 
 life he had led, the people he had met, the scenes 
 in which he had taken part, were described, and 
 the audience was delighted. He had an ovation. 
 On the few occasions that it has fallen to my 
 
LIFE IN PEKING. 271 
 
 lot to speak of China, I have profited by this ex- 
 perience with good results ; and if my readers will 
 pardon me, there will be in this chapter no pecu- 
 liar diplomatic disquisition, but simply an account 
 of Peking as it was from 1885 to 1898. 
 
 It may be well to preserve the flavor of a 
 description which, possibly, no new man may here- 
 after be able to write. The old charming dehoTi- 
 naire life, the country life in a city of a million 
 people, the friendliness of Prince Kung, uncle of 
 the emperor, and Prince Ching, cousin of the em- 
 peror, and of Li Hung Chang, and, possibly, the 
 scholarly companionship of Sir Robert Hart, will 
 never be resumed. Prince Kung, for many years 
 head of the Tsung li Yamen, or foreign office, is 
 dead. The gallant, the genial, the unassuming 
 Prince Ching was reported as badly wounded while 
 defending the beleaguered foreigners of the lega- 
 tions. Sir Robert Hart, the scholar, the benefactor 
 of China, the son of the Irish miller, whose an- 
 cestors were ennobled for three generations, was 
 among those reported dead ; wliile Li Hung Chang 
 is in the sere and yellow leaf, seventy-eight years 
 old, decrepit, and distrusted by the foreigner as 
 well as the native. The empress, too, with a name 
 so long that I can hardly write it, Tszehi Toanyu 
 Kangi Chaoyu Chuangcheng Shokung Chinhien 
 
272 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 Chungsih, has changed her nature. From 1861 
 to 1889 she ruled China strongly but kindly; and 
 beneath her sway a fair degree of peace and quiet- 
 ness prevailed all over the empire, and particularly 
 at Peking. What may happen now lies beyond 
 human ken ; but the life I am going to picture 
 will, in all probability, not recur again. 
 
 In 1885, in September, we went up the muddy 
 Peiho from Tientsin to Tungchow in a house-boat 
 drawn by men. Many a mile we walked along 
 the tow-path through the flat fields from which 
 the crops had been gathered. The river wound 
 about Hke a ram's horn, and we could beat the 
 boat for hours. We passed by great fleets of 
 cargo-boats, bearing the tribute rice to Peking, 
 which often were tied to the banks, which were 
 crowded with the boatmen and their women and 
 children. I am reminded that we saw a curious 
 thing. Men were drawing water from the river, 
 and pouring it over the rice in the holds of the 
 boats. I asked what in the world that process 
 meant ; and I was told that it was done to make 
 the rice weigh more than it would if it were dry, 
 so as to get more pay for the transportation. 
 Thus early I was initiated into the mystery of 
 " China as she is." 
 
 At Tungchow, a hundred and twenty miles 
 
JPPROACHIHG PEKING. 273 
 
 up, and fourteen miles from Peking, we were 
 met by chairs and ponies, and started for the 
 capital. Between Tungchow and Peking there 
 is a stone road. It was paved at some remote 
 period with heavy blocks of stone, but very many 
 of them have sunk out of sight. The mind of 
 man cannot conceive the torture of riding over 
 that road in a springless cart. I did it once, 
 and I have not feared purgatory any more. 
 
 On this occasion we traveled over a country 
 road parallel with the stone road. I call it a road 
 by courtesy, but the roads in China are mere 
 tracks made by the wear of centuries. As we 
 were in chairs borne by men, of course we were 
 not incommoded by roughness or inequalities. 
 By degrees it became apparent that we were 
 approaching a great city. There were files of 
 donkeys bearing fat Chinamen ; wheelbaiTows 
 with passengers balancing themselves on either 
 side ; great wagons with teams of three, four, six, 
 seven horses, hitched in the most curious manner, 
 some by ropes tied around the axles. Occasion- 
 ally there would be a mule, a horse, and a donkey 
 inscrutably hitched together, but all doing their 
 work. There were bearers, too, carrying enor- 
 mous burdens, sometimes alone, and sometimes a 
 dozen bearing one load. There were mule-litters, 
 
274 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 one mule in the shafts in front, and one behind ; 
 and there were almost innumerable strings of 
 camels plodding slowly along, each camel attached 
 to the one before him by a string through his 
 nose, while on the head one the driver slept as 
 happily as he would have done in a bed. Usually 
 there is one driver for six camels. Mounted cav- 
 aliers there were too, some on high-paced ambling 
 mules, others on rough Mongolian ponies, many 
 wearing official hats made of straw and garnished 
 with red horsehair. 
 
 Little attention was paid by these underlings 
 to the foreigner as they passed him. And so 
 we went on feeling each moment that we were 
 Hearing the quaint city which was to be our home 
 for thirteen years. Close to the bank of the 
 grand canal, looking at the great barges which 
 convey merchandise between the locks — there 
 being a separate fleet for each reach, because boats 
 are not let down from one level to another — 
 finally we came in view of the walls surrounding 
 the city. It was the beautiful, splendid autumn 
 of North China. The rain had quit falling in 
 August; there would be no more until the follow- 
 ing July. It was delightful to breathe the pure, 
 invigorating air, and every object was distinct 
 and clear. 
 
UP THE PEIHO. 275 
 
 The first sight of the city wall is absorbing by 
 its strangeness and its evident antiquity. One 
 has to remember that the wall is more than three 
 hundred years old, that it was not intended to 
 resist artillery, but was meant to keep out the 
 raiders who harried the Chinese. On the outer 
 side of the wall one notices towers here and there, 
 which are locations for sentries. These towers 
 extend from Peking to the Great Wall of China, 
 and when the enemy came his presence was 
 heralded to the capital by burning wolf's dung on 
 the top of these towers. As the stranger sees the 
 wall for the first time, there is a weird beauty 
 about it that comes from its height, and strength, 
 and its antique gracefulness. The crenelated 
 parapets, the bastions succeeding each other along 
 its whole length, its gates, two-storied, with em- 
 brasures and wooden cannon, the encientes around 
 the gates, are all novel, and somehow all fit in 
 with the half-naked donkey drivers, the quaintly 
 dressed riders, and the camels. 
 
 There are two cities at Peking, the Tartar and 
 the Chinese. The Chinese city is south of its 
 more pretentious neighbor, and its northern wall 
 is for a considerable space the southern wall of 
 the imperial city. The wall around the Manchu 
 city is fifty feet high, forty feet wide at the top, 
 
276 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 and sixty at the bottom. It is riveted with 
 heavy bricks set in cement, which is now as hard 
 as stone, and the interior is of earth. The wall 
 around the Chinese city is thirty feet high, twenty- 
 five feet thick at the bottom, and fifteen at the 
 top. The whole circumference is about twenty- 
 five miles, of which sixteen are around the Tartar 
 city. This wall is, or was, a godsend to the 
 foreigner. No Chinese was allowed to go upon 
 it; but the foreigner, by paying a small fee, could 
 walk up an esplanade, and go entirely around if 
 he pleased. Sometimes parties were made up to 
 drink tea on the wall, and many a pleasant after- 
 noon has been spent there. Along the sides grow 
 trees of considerable size ; and the walk on top is 
 invaded by small bushes, its use by the foreigners 
 not being sufficient to keep down the vegetation. 
 One passes through a gate in the Chinese city, 
 travels along a road under the wall for a mile, and 
 enters one of the great nine gates which give en- 
 trance to the Tartar city. Under the archway the 
 tide of travel has flowed until deep ruts are worn 
 in the stone pavement. A great street stretches 
 out before us, the principal business street — the 
 Hattamen street as the foreigners call it, because 
 the gate is named Hattamen. All the gates are 
 closed at nightfall, and thereafter until morning 
 
THE FENGS UL 277 
 
 are opened only once, at three o'clock, for the high 
 officials to enter. It was on the Hattamen that 
 Baron Ketteler was murdered. The houses are 
 of one story, copying the Tartar tent, and the 
 signs on the streets hang perpendicularly. No 
 two houses are on the same hue. One always 
 projects farther out, or is set farther in than its 
 neighbor. The object of this is to deflect the 
 bad spirits, who are not able to turn a corner. 
 For this reason little clay dogs are put on the 
 ridges of the houses, — sometimes a dozen of them 
 in single file, — which drive away or catch the bad 
 spirits. Feng-sui — literally wind and water, a 
 geomantic principle — cuts a great figure in China, 
 and no man builds a house without niaking sure of 
 compliance with its dictates. When foreigners 
 have sometimes disregarded the Feng-sui, riots 
 resulted. 
 
 In ancient times there was a sewerage system, 
 traces of which are visible ; but it has long since 
 gone to decay, and now the sides of the streets are 
 receptacles for all species of offal. It is curious 
 that the scions of the politest nation in the 
 world use the streets — the sidewalks if there 
 are any — for the basest and commonest purposes. 
 Slush is dipped from the cesspools, and thrown 
 on the streets to keep down the dust ; and the 
 
278 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 alkali so generated is offensive both to eyes and 
 nose. After going a few steps on the street 
 of the Hattamen, one comes to Legation Street, as 
 the 'foreignei'S call it, but which the Chinese name 
 " the Street of the Subject Nations." 
 
 One great and unfortunate difference is to be 
 noted between Peking and the ports at which 
 foreigners have concessions. At the ports, such 
 as Shanghai, Hankow, Shameen, and other places, 
 tracts of land have been set apart for the foreigners, 
 and on these elegant cities have grown up. There 
 are few handsomer cities than the foreign city of 
 Shanghai. Tientsin is a charming place, with its 
 public gardens, its town hall, recreation ground, 
 electric light, gas, water-works, improved streets, 
 and a bund on the river. Shameen is on an island 
 in the Pearl River, and is as pretty a spot as one 
 ever saw. In these concessions the foreigners live, 
 each one owing allegiance to his own country, and 
 responsible to her laws civilly and criminally ; but 
 as municipalities the towns are the most perfect 
 specimens of republics that exist in the world. 
 They embody exactly the principles of squatter 
 sovereignty, except that the formality must be 
 complied with of having the municipal regulations 
 approved by the ministers of the treat}^ powers. 
 China has absolutely no control over these con- 
 
THE LEGATIONS, 279 
 
 cessions. Her legal writs do not run in their 
 limits. The senior consul must countersign all 
 warrants. An offender against law must be tried 
 by his own consul. In Shanghai the power of 
 China to arrest Japanese accused of being spies 
 was gravely contested. 
 
 These little cities and towns are imperiums in 
 imperio — they are oases in the vast desert of 
 Oriental surroundings. In them the elegances of 
 life prevail. There are hotels, banks, theaters, 
 clubs, — all the paraphernalia with which the 
 Westerner surrounds himself to procure some 
 consolation for his exile. Nowhere in the world 
 more than in the far East is the pursuit of 
 recreation so strenuously followed. The best 
 rider, the champion golf-player, the expert rower, 
 are heroes. To own a stud of ponies for the 
 races is a patent of nobility, and to be the pos- 
 sessor of a house-boat is an honorable distinction. 
 These places remind the American of the old 
 life in the South during the existence of slavery. 
 An overflow of willing servants, a superabun- 
 dance of riding-horses, chairs for every guest, 
 hospitality without limit, characterize all the 
 localities occupied by the foreigner. I have not 
 space here to describe the kindness, the good 
 feeling, the hearty welcome, which attend the 
 
280 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 coming of a guest. All the charming entertain- 
 ment that refinement, courtesy, and elegance can 
 provide is lavished on the stranger. 
 
 But in Peldng there is no concession. It is 
 curious that the allies, when they took Peking, 
 did not seize a portion of the city for the use of 
 the legations. It could easily have been done 
 without harm to anybody. There are many spots 
 in Peking well suited to the establishment of a 
 foreign city. If this plan had been pursued, 
 there would have been long ago at Peking an 
 elegant quarter where a beautiful object lesson 
 would have been displayed to the Chinese. A 
 minor Paris, Berlin, or Washington would have 
 furnished a charming, and possibly a safe, resi- 
 dence for the foreigner. As it is, the legation 
 houses are set down in the midst of the native 
 dwellings. Adjoining my legation was a shop 
 where straw was kept for sale, and the stacks 
 were higher than our houses ; and when they 
 caught fire, it required many hours' work to pre- 
 vent our buildings from being burned up. The 
 yamen promised me to require this man to lower 
 his stacks, but when I saw them last they ^^ere 
 nearly as high as ever. One hundred feet from 
 my legation, a butcher slaughtered a dozen sheep 
 a day in the street. We had to make a circuit 
 
MISUSE OF THE STREETS. 281 
 
 to the middle of the street to avoid treading on 
 the carcasses. 
 
 While China is the most autocratic country in 
 the world, it is at the same time the most demo- 
 cratic. Through its length and breadth the people 
 rule. They do not hesitate to drag a magistrate 
 from his seat, and cuff and beat him; and when 
 there is a drouth the gods are put out in the sun 
 to let them see how they enjoy it, and when it 
 rains too long the . same gods are lashed with 
 whips in order to secure dry weather. 
 
 So at Peking everybody uses the space in front 
 of his store or dwelling as he pleases, without the 
 slightest regard to the comfort of the general pub- 
 lic. Great logs of wood are sawed on the streets. 
 Booths are erected occupying half the width of 
 some of the streets. Temporary houses are put 
 up for funerals. All kinds of peddlers occupy 
 every coign of vantage. The barber plies his trade 
 wherever he can find a place to set down the box he 
 carries, and on which his customer sits. The tables 
 of the tea-shops take up all the sidewalk. The 
 streets are public latrines, and the slops are all 
 emptied into them. The walls are besmeared with 
 filthy advertisements. Here and there localities 
 are used for spreading out and drying manure. 
 There was a notable one of these places nearly 
 
282 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 behind the German legation which poisoned the 
 air for blocks around. Herr Von Brandt, the 
 German minister, strongly attacked this nuisance. 
 He received many promises, but the pile remains 
 there yet. The chief use of the space outside of 
 the city wall is to dry manure. When one com- 
 plains of the horrid sights which are perennially 
 in view, one is told that it is " old " Chinese cus- 
 tom. I am afraid to say that Peking is the dirtiest 
 city in the world, because there is Constantinople; 
 but my opinion is that Peking is the filthiest of 
 the world's cities. In the street exactly in front 
 of Li Hung Chang's quarters there was a great 
 cesspool into which all the offal of his large house- 
 hold was emptied every day. 
 
 Peking everywhere gives signs of decay. The 
 great Boards where the public business is done 
 resemble the stable-yards of a country inn. The 
 streets are unpaved and rarely worked. Before 
 the emperor goes out on the street a thin cover- 
 ing of yellow dirt is deposited on it, and this 
 is all the work that is done. In the center of the 
 broad streets — and there are many broad streets 
 in Peking — there is a raised embankment of 
 earth, on which, during the heavy rains, the carts 
 travel. When the deluge comes in July the city 
 is a vast lake. Tradition tells of several people 
 
PEKING SOCIETT. 283 
 
 who have been drowned in the streets by the over- 
 turning of carts. Around Sir Robert Hart's fine 
 place there comes in the wet season a vast lake 
 which submerges streets and yards. One summer 
 Sir Robert picked up in his grounds four fish half 
 a foot long. It is a marvel where they came from. 
 In these days the otherwise endless rounds of din- 
 ners ceases. Locomotion becomes practically im- 
 possible. 
 
 Peking society is composed of the members of 
 the diplomatic corps, of the imperial maritime 
 customs, and of the few other foreigners, such as 
 the bankers, who reside in the city. To these 
 must be added the professors of the Tungwan or 
 Imperial College, 
 
 By an ingenious fiction the members of the 
 diplomatic body constitute one family. It must 
 be said that, in general, perfect harmony has pre- 
 vailed in Peking. During a few years, recently, 
 international rivalry to secure concessions and 
 the seizures of the territory of China have pro- 
 duced some friction in social circles ; but during 
 my stay no body of people was ever more har- 
 monious than were we. There was boundless 
 hospitality, absolute equality, and a graceful cos- 
 mopolitan refinement. Every man's position and 
 his income were known. His place was fixed as 
 
284 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 by the laws of the Medes and Persians. Every 
 minister ranked according to his arrival at Peking ; 
 the oldest in time was the dean. The ladies took 
 rank according to that of their husbands. On 
 very rare occasions you might place a colleague at 
 table below his proper seat, but etiquette required 
 that you should secure his consent. There was 
 once nearly a duel because a secretary was put 
 below an interpreter. The secretary was ordered 
 to Hayti to avoid bloodshed. Before my time a 
 minister left the table because an inferior was 
 placed above him. I vainly tried on one occasion 
 to induce one of my colleagues to put an American 
 senator's wife above the doyenne, who was also 
 an American. He said the rules must be com- 
 plied with, the doyenne must have the first place. 
 After all that may be said, this etiquette is a neces- 
 sity where the people of a dozen nationalities 
 meet together. How else could the complex 
 questions of social intercourse be settled ? 
 
 Apart, however, from formal occasions, it must 
 be said that no attention was paid to personal rank. 
 The princes, the counts, the barons and baronets, 
 — of whom there were many, — were simple 
 human entities in the merry round of picnics, 
 balls, races, tennis, theatricals, which succeed each 
 other continuously at Peking. I remember that 
 
ETI^ETTE OF THE LEGATIONS 285 
 
 one evening at the British legation I saw poor 
 Baron Ketteler — who was recently killed — ac- 
 coutred like a strong man, lift up with great exer- 
 tion two big weights marked live thousand pounds 
 apiece ; and a little while later the son of the Brit- 
 ish minister picked them both up, and carried them 
 in one hand off the stage. With such fooleries, 
 but also with much fine music and many charming 
 vaudevilles, the time of the winters was passed. 
 
 Absolute freedom of intercourse exists among the 
 legation people. You can drop in on a colleague 
 at all hours. The ladies are intimate and friendly. 
 Cut oft' from the world as we were from the 
 middle of December to the middle of March, it 
 was a test of good-fellowship to do something for 
 the general entertainment. There was the club 
 with a membership of forty, which changed every 
 year. Of course there was a bar-room, a billiard- 
 room, a tennis-court, a reading-room, and library. 
 Here whist reigned in the early hours, sometimes 
 to be superseded by poker later. At the whist- 
 table the youngest British student was the equal 
 of the oldest diplomat if he played as good a 
 game. The wife of a Russian prince danced with 
 a newly arrived recruit of the imperial maritime 
 customs. Let it be said here that Sir Robert 
 Hart selected the members of the indoor staff of 
 
286 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 the customs with great care. They were mostly 
 graduates of colleges, and some of them bore the 
 most distinguished names in Europe. In the 
 general they were accomplished young gentlemen, 
 who spoke all languages, and plaj^ed all musical 
 instruments. They were absolutely equals in 
 society of the secretaries and attaches, except, of 
 course, at formal dinners. I wonder if in the 
 cataclysm of China this fine institution is to go 
 down. 
 
 Twice a year there were two days racing four 
 miles from Peking. These were gala days for na- 
 tives as well as for foreigners. The members of 
 the Tsung li Yamen came themselves, or sent their 
 secretaries. For miles around countless hordes of 
 Chinese came and surrounded the track. There 
 were none but gentleman riders. Several weeks 
 were spent in training, and all the temples around 
 the track were utilized as lodges. This prelimi- 
 nary exercise, and the cessation from alcoholic 
 drinks and high living made necessary by it, were 
 the best part of the performances. On these oc- 
 casions there was a tiffin each day, on wliich there 
 was toasting, and speaking, and unlimited fun. At 
 the track there was no rank. The stewards ranked 
 the ministers, and set the pace for the hilarity. 
 Imagine now if you can that the countless Cliinese 
 
GALA DATS, 287 
 
 who came to see the races, and wrangled and bet, 
 and enjoyed their own games and refreshments, 
 and were as friendly as could be, have burned the 
 grand stand, and destroyed the stables, and ruined 
 the track! At the last there was always a 
 race in which the mafoos — hostlers — were the 
 riders. They selected the best horses their masters 
 had, and they rode like monkeys. Each horse knew 
 his rider because he had trained him, and horse and 
 man did their best to win the prize of silver dol- 
 lars. From the on-looking myriads of Chinese, 
 vociferous acclamations hailed the winner in the 
 race. 
 
 The life in Peking was not, however, all sport, 
 though no doubt it predominated. . There were 
 serious societies, devised for sober and scholarly 
 people. The missionaries had monthly meetings 
 of a literary society, at which papers were read 
 on many interesting subjects, and discussion fol- 
 lowed. When such men as Doctors Martin, Blod- 
 gett, Owen, Sheffield, Lowry, Goodrich, and many 
 others rose to elucidate some historical or eco- 
 nomic question the hearer was well repaid for the 
 listening. These gentlemen knew China as they 
 knew their Bible, by heart. They had passed 
 twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years in the study of its 
 language and history. Intercourse with men of 
 
288 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 all nationalities had made them broad and lib- 
 eral, while study and the tuition of others had 
 sharpened their naturally fine intellects. As writ- 
 ers of books, as teachers, as missionaries, these 
 people will rank in the forefront of the benefactors 
 of the human race. Alas — is this class to die 
 out? Are the sweetness, the gentleness, the self- 
 sacrificing spirit of the missionary, and his learn- 
 ing, to be lost to the world? 
 
 Besides the Missionary Society was the Asiatic 
 Society, which was opened to the scholars of 
 all nations. Here ministers, secretaries, attaches 
 and interpreters met with the commissioners of 
 the customs, the missionaries, the bankers, and 
 the promoters, all equal, and contributing some- 
 thing to the general knowledge. When one was 
 not a sinalogue, and could not talk of the destruc- 
 tion of the books by an ancient emperor, or of 
 hieroglyphics found in an old temple, or the poet- 
 ry of China, or the examination system, or other 
 purely Chinese topics, he might read an essay on 
 European art or literature or history. The use 
 of no language was forbidden, though usually 
 English or French was the spoken tongue. The 
 society was a branch of the Asiatic Association 
 of London. Some of its papers would have done 
 honor to its parent. At the last accounts there 
 
THE HILLS. 289 
 
 were many members of this association be- 
 leaguered in the British Legation, and, no doubt, 
 death has ere this claimed some of them. Among 
 them was the great teacher and author. Dr. W. 
 A. P. Martin, the foremost American in the far 
 East. 
 
 In the summer the diplomatic people, the mis- 
 sionaries, and the families of the members of the 
 customs, scatter to the hills. Twelve miles west 
 of Peking the mountains rise from the flat plains. 
 One of these peaks is three thousand feet high. 
 On one spur eight temples are situated. This 
 spur is about fourteen hundred feet high ; and on 
 its precipitous sides are niched, amid groves of 
 old trees, the charming resorts of the foreigners. 
 Third from the bottom is the American temple, 
 which has housed the legation from the time of 
 Burlingame, 1863, to the present. Its Chinese 
 name is Sanshanan, which means " Temple of 
 the Three Hills." When Anson Burlingame was 
 installed there. Sir Frederick Bruce, brother of 
 Lord Elgin, occupied the temple, which is about 
 fifty yards above it, called the " Temple of the 
 Spirit Light." It has a fine pagoda, and a spring 
 of delicious water. On one occasion the two 
 ministers and their families ascended a rocky 
 eminence near by, on whose side appears the 
 
290 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 strong resemblance of a great tiger. Burlingame 
 got on a huge rock, and delivered a speech replete 
 with wit, humor, and historic lore, in which he 
 particularly extolled the Bruces, from him of 
 Bannockburn — the lion-hearted — to Elgin, who 
 made the treaty of 1861 with China. As he 
 finished he named the spur on which they stood 
 Mount Bruce ; and this name has among the 
 foreigners superseded the Chinese name, and re- 
 mains in use to-day. Dr. Martin, who was pres- 
 ent, records this event. Not to be outdone in 
 politeness, Bruce named another adjoining moun- 
 tain Mount Burlingame. One may regret that 
 the foreigner does not even leave to the Chinese 
 the names of his hills ; but little do the gay rev- 
 elers at the temples care for the memories of a 
 decadent race. 
 
 The general name for the hills — Patachu — 
 the " Eight Great Places," remains ; and the 
 Chinese still call the two peaks, one the " Tiger's 
 Head," and the other '' Green Mountain." The 
 temples all have names, — one the " Temple of 
 Long Repose," and the highest of all the " Pearl 
 Grotto." The hills are part of two great ranges, 
 one fringing the Mongolian plateau, the other 
 bounding the highlands of the west, and extending 
 south for four hundred miles to the Yellow River. 
 
LIFE AT THE HILLS. 291 
 
 It would take too much space to describe 
 summer life at the hills. Etiquette is thrown 
 aside. The closest intimacy prevails. Picnics, 
 moonlight suppers, music, trips to places of in- 
 terest, were the order of the day. Latterly 
 Great Britain built a fine summer house close 
 to the temples, which is reported to have been 
 burned, but one cannot as yet credit any news 
 from China. Lest the hills might be accounted 
 an actual paradise, it is proper to record some 
 of their defects. The gnat and mosquito were 
 very bad, and occasional scorpions were to be 
 found. Not on Patachu, but at a temple a little 
 distance away, the second secretary of the Russian 
 legation one summer killed by actual count one 
 hundred and fifty-seven scorpions. From the 
 hills one sees, eight miles away, the Luckachow 
 bridge, which Marco Polo described in the eleventh 
 century, and which is unchanged, except that 
 two spans have been added to it. 
 
 Let us remark, in passing, that this Italian gen- 
 tleman, tourist, and " promotor," was reported to 
 be the greatest liar the world ever produced, 
 except Baron Munchausen ; but so far as I or 
 others have traced his career in his valuable book, 
 it has been found to be absolutely truthful. At 
 aU events, both Munchausen and Polo have been 
 
292 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 thrown in the shade by recent performances of 
 Shanghai newsmongers. 
 
 To the Chinese, Peking is Peiching, the north- 
 ern capital. For the sight-seer there are not many 
 places of peculiar interest to visit. The Chinese 
 are chary of allowing either their own people or 
 strangers to penetrate into places of the greatest 
 interest. The Temple of Heaven, for instance, is 
 closed ; and except one dare-devil lieutenant in our 
 navy, and Prince Henry of Prussia, nobody got 
 into it while 1 was at Peking. The marble bridge 
 also was a place of great resort for several years 
 after 1885 ; but the empress-regent closed up the 
 avenue to it, and no one has seen this beautiful 
 structure for a long time. 
 
 It has always seemed to me that the chief charm 
 of foreign travel was looking at the va et le vient 
 of the people, — the contemplation of street-life, 
 whether on the Strand, or the Champs Elysees, or 
 the six-feet-wide streets of Canton. At Peking 
 one sees representatives of all nationalities, — the 
 foreign diplomats of many countries, the Manchu, 
 the Mongolian, the Korean, the men from Turke- 
 stan and Thibet, Hi, Burmah, Siam, East India, 
 and everywhere in the far East. Monks of all 
 faiths, and speaking all tongues, are there, from 
 the Buddhist fanatic parading with an iron spike 
 
COSMOPOLITAN PEKING, 293 
 
 stuck through his cheek, or sitting in a box 
 studded with sharp nails, to a bishop of the Eng- 
 lish church, in pumps and silk stockings. One 
 sees every species of costume, and all kinds of 
 mounts, from a camel to a donkey. The tea-shops 
 with their placards, " Don't talk about public 
 affairs ; " the Moslem mosques, the great stores 
 with their open fronts, the eating, the drinking, 
 the cooking in the streets, are things which always 
 seem new. 
 
 Among the things that it is " the correct thing " 
 to see at Peking are the temples t)f Confucius, the 
 Observatory, and the Examination Hall. The place 
 of most importance, the Temple of Heaven, can only 
 be seen from the southern wall ; and the view is 
 from a considerable distance. Often and often 
 these places have been described, yet every gleaner 
 is supposed to gather something of interest. Is it 
 not curious that China should have so few remains 
 of human art or labor that are worthy of descrip- 
 tion? Almost the only relics of great antiquity 
 are the series of stone drums in the Confucian 
 temple. According to Williams they were dis- 
 covered about A.D. 600, in the environs of the 
 ancient capital of the Chau dynasty, and have 
 been kept in Peking since 1126. " They are 
 irregularly shaped pillars," he says, "from eighteen 
 
294 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 to thirty-five inches high and about twenty-eight 
 inches across. The inscriptions are much worn, 
 but enough remains to show that they commem- 
 orate a great hunt of Suen Wang (B.C. 827) in 
 the region where they were found." 
 
 The scholars of the world will take off their 
 hats reverently in the plain hall, eighty-four feet 
 long, with a roof supported by pillars forty feet 
 high, covering the single room, which is old and 
 unkempt, cheerless, unornamented, but redolent 
 with the savor of intellectual immortality. The 
 great teacher struck the bottom rock underlying 
 all human creeds. Four hundred years before 
 Christ he gave to the world the golden rule : " Do 
 ye not unto others what ye would not they should 
 do unto you." At a missionary society meeting 
 at Peking, I heard the members argue for several 
 hours which was the better rule, this or the words 
 of Christ : " Do ye unto others what ye would 
 they should do unto you ; " and to the credit of 
 these world's representatives of religious thought, 
 be it said that they voted by a large majority that 
 there was no difference in the phrases. 
 
 The simplicity of the temple increases our 
 respect for the great agnostic who pretended 
 not to tell of the mysteries of the furture life 
 because he said, " We do not know this life, how 
 
THE EXAMINATION HALL. 2<J5 
 
 can we know the other ? " The dust of ages on 
 the floor, the ceiling, and the tablets do not 
 obscure the fame of the founder of Chinese ethics, 
 the model philosopher, the moralist, whose teach- 
 ing was so pure that the Christian is driven to the 
 wild assertion that his followers learned the golden 
 rule after Christ had uttered it, and then incorpo- 
 rated it into his writings. Suppose they did. 
 The offense pardons itself, for never did immortal 
 phrase find a more appropriate setting than did 
 this word talisman of humanity in the utterances 
 of him who stands to-day the moral monitor of his 
 race. Well might Confucius have said, " Homo 
 sum et nihil humanum me alienum puto." "I am 
 a man, and nothing that is human is indifferent to 
 me." 
 
 The " Examination Hall " teaches profound 
 lessons to the student of history. Here every 
 third year come the graduates of the provincial 
 examinations to contest for the degrees which 
 place their winners on the lowest round of the 
 ladder of official place. The buildings are great 
 sheds, divided into eleven thousand compartments, 
 about six feet high, three feet broad, and six feet 
 deep, in which old and young, high and low, pass 
 three days writing essays on which their fate de- 
 pends. It is not unusual for men of eighty to be 
 
296 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 among the number, and three generations have 
 been at the same time represented in the attend- 
 ance. On this system of competitive examination 
 rests to a great extent the permanence of China. 
 In the Taiping Rebellion in which twenty millions 
 of people lost their lives, not one of the literati of 
 this institution was found among the rebels. As 
 you go down the coast of China you see towers 
 here and there, and you are told that they were 
 erected to commemorate the fact that a boy of 
 that town carried off the honors at Peking. At 
 the Confucian temple at Nanking the main gate 
 opens only for the emperor and the graduates of 
 the examinations. It is a festival in his home 
 village when the hero returns, and loyalty to the 
 throne pervades all his kin and friends. Flimsy 
 writers, who visit Peking, hear stray stories pro- 
 claiming that fraud and corruption dominate the 
 literary proceedings ; but in fact China guards with 
 the utmost jealousy every part of the examina- 
 tions, and any official who connived at any decep- 
 tion would lose his head. The system is the 
 jewel of her constitution ; and, if it were extended 
 to cover the elements of modern teaching, it would 
 be the model for the Avorld's education. How 
 hard it is for this ancient nation to get her dues at 
 the hands of ignorant, sensational, flighty book- 
 
OBSERVATORT. 297 
 
 makers! A residence of a few days, or even 
 hours, in China Iciys the foundation for a great 
 book in which the hapless people are derided be- 
 cause they are not like Western people. I be- 
 seech the world to go back to Williams, Martin, 
 Edkins, Blodgett, Wildman, — real synalogues — 
 most of whom lived a generation in the country 
 which they describe. 
 
 Everybody goes to see the Observatory. It is 
 not far from Legation Street. It adjoins the 
 city wall. No use is made of it now. It was 
 established by the Jesuit Fathers more than three 
 hundred years ago, and the great King Louis XIV. 
 sent to it a celestial globe and an azimuth. In 
 the court-yard below are curious disused instru- 
 ments; and above are sidereal globes and triangles, 
 and other things whose names even are unknown. 
 There is no telescope. There was a clepsydra, or 
 water-clock, but it has been dry many a year. In 
 fact, in another place a professor of the Tungwen 
 college has a tower, and a telescope, and there 
 the astronomical work goes on in modern style 
 and effect. 
 
 I might mention other places in Peking, but I 
 am threshing old straw. There is the Drum 
 Tower, where the curfew sounded until the 
 stranger came ; and the Lama Temple, where 
 
298 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 Henry Norman was mobbed; the big trees, some 
 interesting Buddliist and Taoist temples, the 
 French, Russian, and English cemeteries, the 
 Hanlin Academy, and the six public Boards. 
 
 To write of all these would require a book, and 
 books on China bid fair to become as common as 
 leaves in Vallembrosa. 
 
 Inside the Tartar city is the imperial city. It 
 is open to the world. In it is a great Catholic 
 cathedral, the Teitang. Inside the imperial city 
 is The Forbidden City where the *' solitary man " 
 lives. His life is laborious. At one o'clock in 
 the morning he commences to receive his high 
 officials and others who are required to have 
 audience. The members of the Grand Council, 
 which is the real governing body of China, go in 
 to see the emperor first in the morning. They 
 are permitted to have cushions on which they 
 kneel during the time that they are in his pres- 
 ence. Then, come to wait on him, members of 
 the Tsung li Yamen, and after that officials of 
 other degrees of rank. All these are required to 
 kneel on the bare floor. I have been told, how- 
 ever, that many of those who have audience have 
 cushions concealed under their flowing robes on 
 which they kneel. 
 
 As the temperature in Peking during the win- 
 
THE IMPERIAL CITY. 299 
 
 ter is very low, and heavy furs are universally 
 worn, the walk from the palace-gate to the house 
 itself, which is about three-quarters of a mile, is 
 very laborious for the old men who have to take 
 it. This exposure was the cause of the death of 
 Marquis Tseng. 
 
 For the first time in the history of China an 
 audience was granted to the foreign ministers in 
 the precincts of the Forbidden City in 1894. The 
 audience took place in the hall of literary glory. 
 The occasion was the attainment of sixty years 
 of age by the Empress Dowager, in whose honor 
 autograph letters had been written by the chiefs 
 of states of all the treaty powers. Thus ended 
 the long contest for a complete recognition of the 
 equality of the powers with China. When it 
 began a " kotow " was demanded. When it 
 ended, the foreign representatives stood on the 
 raised dais by the table behind which the emperor 
 sat. I prophesy that before long the dean of the 
 diplomatic corps will lead the empress — the wife 
 of Kwang Su — in a stately dance in a hall in the 
 Forbidden City to the airs played by Sousa's band. 
 By degrees foreign methods will have been 
 pounded into China, and then what — we will 
 have killed the goose that laid the golden ^<gg ! 
 As an equal and active member of the family 
 
300 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 of nations her rigj-hts will be the same as ours. 
 She will exclude whom she pleases, as we exclude 
 her people now. She will forbid foreign ships to 
 sail on her rivers, as do we. She will try Ameri- 
 cans in her own courts, as we try Chinese in ours. 
 But worst of all, she will become a protection 
 country as we have become ore. Her almost 
 inappreciable tariff of five per cent will assume 
 vast proportions, and away will go our markets. 
 In the Chinese matter let us follow Talleyrand's 
 advice and go slow. The greatest diplomatist is 
 he who does as little as he can. 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 301 
 
 XIV. 
 
 T^ 
 
 THE BOXER UPRISING, 
 
 [A.D. 1900.] 
 
 HE world stood aghast in the midsummer 
 _ of 1900 at the tidings from China. In- 
 
 -*^ formation, more or less reliable, was 
 flashed across the sea that told of riot and mas- 
 sacre, and that hinted at tragedies even worse 
 than these. In the closing year of the nineteenth 
 century Occident and Orient seemed drawing 
 toward a mighty and bloody struggle. 
 
 The " Boxers," of which mention was made 
 in preceding chapters, were proclaimed to be the 
 cause of this uprising. It was more than the out- 
 break of a fanatical and murderous secret society, 
 however ; it was the protest of conservatism against 
 progress, of isolation against absorption, of China 
 undivided against Europe and her " spheres of 
 influence," concessions and " leased " ports. It 
 was, indeed, the cry of " China for the Chinese ! " 
 that grew finally into the murderous slogan ''Death 
 to Foreigners ! " 
 
302 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 The numbers of the foreigners in China had 
 been rapidly increasing, Over twenty thousand 
 foreign residents had found homes or business 
 opportunities in the empire, outside of the leased 
 ports ; and the introduction of foreign methods and 
 foreign aggressiveness was not esteemed a benefit 
 by a people whose ways and manners are so 
 absolutely at variance with those of the " outside 
 barbarians," for which they have no better or 
 more expressive term than "foreign devils." 
 
 Chief among these protesting Orientals were the 
 members of the secret society which called itself 
 Yi-Ho-Chuan, which being translated means, the 
 Fists of Righteous Harmony, or Fists Clenched in 
 Righteous Harmony to drive out the Western 
 Invader. The boxer fights with clediched fists ; 
 therefore, to this secret society, pledged to the 
 strenuous and forcible extermination of the un- 
 desired foreigner, has been given in English the 
 simple title of " the Boxers." 
 
 China is a land of secret societies, even as 
 America is a land of clubs and fraternal organizar 
 tions. Of these societies the oldest is the Triad, 
 sometimes called the Hung League, or the Heaven 
 and Earth Society, having for its symbol, or badge, 
 a triangle. Out of this society of the Triad, the 
 Boxers sprang ; and as many of the secret soci- 
 
THE BOXERS. 303 
 
 eties of China have for their main objects antago- 
 nism to the imperial house, reform in governmental 
 methods and resistance to foreign aggression, the 
 chief desires which united the Boxers were secret 
 and open resistance to the dynasty in power, the 
 expulsion of the Manchu rulers of the land, the 
 *' removal " by edict or force of all foreigners, and 
 the establishment of a purely Chinese dynasty 
 upon the dragon throne. 
 
 The Boxers are, therefore, not simply a rabble, 
 sprung from the mobs or masses of China's dis- 
 contents and malcontents. They are but one factor 
 in a mighty nation which finds the world forcing 
 its way through the open door, and seeks to pro- 
 test against and resist intrusion. 
 
 " The foreigners must go ! " is the cry of the 
 Boxers; and to compel this withdrawal of the 
 " outside barbarians " the Boxers and the great 
 conservative element of the Chinese that sympa- 
 thizes with this anti-foreign movement, suddenly 
 finds itself in arms against the world. 
 
 Chinese diplomacy claims everything and admits 
 nothing. The ruling power that fills the dragon 
 throne, the mysterious dowager empress and the 
 boy emperor, Kwang Su, protested, as the anti- 
 foreign element began to assert itself in 1900, 
 that the movement was not countenanced by the 
 
304 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 throne, but was indeed a rebellious utterance 
 against the imperial will. 
 
 Gradually, however, the Boxer disturbance grew 
 into an uprising. Taking its start in the province 
 of Shantung, where the British and Germans had 
 obtained footholds on the land in the concessions 
 of Kiao-chau and Wei-Hai-Wei to the wrath and 
 despair of all China, the hostility of the Boxers 
 displayed itself in anti-foreign and anti-Christian 
 riots, endangering the missionaries and their con- 
 verts, destroying missions and school-buildings, 
 and finally breaking out into open and cruel 
 massacre. 
 
 North China was drawn into the movement. 
 The Boxers grew in the size and strength of their 
 organization ; and instead of being, as the viceroy 
 Li Hung Chang declared, " a rabble led away by 
 fanaticism and anti-Christian feehng," the Boxers 
 pushed from murder and plunder to organized and 
 aggressive assaults upon all foreigners and foreign 
 property. Officials, nobles, viceroys, and princes 
 were in sympathy with, or actually in the leader- 
 ship of, the uprising; and even the remarkable 
 woman who for years has dominated and shaped 
 events in China was the unavowed, but evident 
 protector and instigator of China's uprising against 
 the hated foreigner. 
 
THE UPRISING OF 1900. 305 
 
 In May, 1900, the turbulence and persecutions 
 of the Boxers became too pronounced to be longer 
 permitted by the outside world. Commercial, 
 political, and religious interests in the empire 
 were so seriously jeopardized and threatened, that 
 the great European powers addressed a joint note 
 of protest and demand to the Tsun-li-Yamen, or 
 foreign office, of the Chinese government. 
 
 But the "foreign office" of China is a diplo- 
 matic body which, as usual, denies everything, 
 promises much, and does nothing that is expected 
 of it. The protest of the powers, through their 
 ministers, met with such indifference and absence 
 of action, that the representatives of the Powers 
 decided on a " demonstration " in the harbor of 
 Taku. This was that seaport of Peking, where, 
 in 1857, the adobe forts which the natives con- 
 sidered impregnable had been battered to pieces 
 by the guns of the British navy. 
 
 Great Britain and Russia, France and Germany, 
 Italy, Japan, and the United States, dispatched to 
 the port of Taku one or more of their warships 
 nearest at hand, and prepared to enforce the 
 demands already made, that China take instant 
 measures to suppress the Boxer society, and pro- 
 vide guaranties for the protection of foreign sub- 
 jects and citizens in China. 
 
 cy 
 
306 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 When this was not done — or, rather, when the 
 halting promises of the diplomats of China's for- 
 eign office were shown to be but a mockery of 
 action — the allied naval forces at Taku drew from 
 each of the warships a detail of sailors and marines 
 and dispatched them to Peking as additional 
 guards for the foreign ministers, ambassadors, and 
 officials on duty at the court of Pekin. 
 
 Naturally resenting this show of force, and re- 
 garding the whole matter from an altogether 
 different standpoint from that occupied by Euro- 
 peans, the Chinese government objected even 
 while seeming to assent to the methods of the 
 foreigners ; but the people, especially those favor- 
 able to the Boxers, or stirred to anger by their 
 endeavors, raised the alarm that the "foreign 
 devils " were preparing to invade the empire, and 
 proceeded to register their protests in blood and 
 plunder. 
 
 China is the land of convservatism ; but, as her 
 story shows, discord and rebellion have perpetually 
 smothered beneath her conversatism only to 
 break out into revolution, upheaval, and dynastic 
 changes. 
 
 Into this tendency toward revolt, there came, 
 through years of contact with another civilization, 
 a growing element which sought to force China 
 
FOR THE RELIEF OF PEKING. 307 
 
 out of her generations of conservatism, and bring 
 her into step with the enlightened nations of the 
 world. A powerful reform party, itself in a 
 measure a secret society, was organized, and the 
 best, most intelligent, and most progressive among 
 the Chinese at home and abroad were enrolled as 
 members. This reform party sought especially to 
 free the young emperor from the domination and 
 control of the despotic empress dowager, and 
 place China in the same advanced line that Japan 
 had taken, and which the young emperor had once 
 attempted to occupy. Naturally, the imperious 
 old dowager, a very Empress Wu in methods, 
 craft, and energy, resented this blow at her power, 
 and, becoming more reactionary than ever in her 
 antagonism to new ideas and reform leaders, per- 
 secuted, punished, or expelled them from the 
 empire. 
 
 The growing number of Christian converts 
 among the Chinese was viewed with alarm by the 
 reactionary party, the imperial government, and 
 the restless champions of '' China for the Chinese," 
 such as composed the Boxer society. The more 
 Christian converts made, the closer was China 
 drawn towards the reform party, and especially 
 toward those " foreign devils " who were gradu- 
 ally forcing their way into China, occupying strips 
 
308 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 of territory, and becoming more and more firmly 
 established on Chinese soil. 
 
 The outbreaks against the missions and the 
 converts which in May, 1900, precipitated the 
 Boxer trouble, and led to complications with 
 the representatives of foreign powers in China, in- 
 creased in intensity, as success in rioting and mas- 
 sacre led to new outbreaks. Although indications 
 of this turbulence had been numerous, few among 
 the foreign residents of China had any inkling of 
 what was in store for them, though some of them 
 discovered the gathering cloud, and sought to give 
 warning. 
 
 But the Boxer disturbance, begun in an obscure 
 way, was found to appeal to the masses by its 
 successful harrying of the foreigners ; it appealed 
 to the ruling classes by the possibilities it opened 
 for successful resistance to these same foreigners 
 and their final expulsion or extermination. The 
 government of China, while assuring the foreign 
 ministers, first, that the Boxers were but a rabble 
 who need not be feared, and, later, that they would 
 at once be suppressed, secretly countenanced the 
 riotous disturbers, and, as usual, while promising 
 one thing did quite another. 
 
 When, at last, the foreign representatives 
 united for the protection of their respective inter- 
 
DUPLICITY OF GOVERNMENT 309 
 
 ests and countrymen in China, and the naval 
 demonstration was made at Taku, and when, a 
 few days after, the guards about the legations in 
 Peking were strengthened by details from the war- 
 ships, the Chinese of the northern provinces 
 became more inflamed against the " outside barba- 
 rians," and breathed out " threatenings and slaugh- 
 ter " against missionaries, ministers, and marines. 
 
 All that was needed for the uprising of the 
 Boxers and their sympathizers was a capable 
 leader. Matters were fast developing that would 
 bring such a leader to the front. Missionaries 
 and railway engineers — pioneers of civilization — 
 were threatened, attacked, and obliged to fight or 
 flee ; refugees hastened to the coast ; ■ more than a 
 thousand Europeans and Americans were gathered 
 within the walls of Peking, under the protection of 
 the legations ; and when an open conflict south of 
 Peking, between Boxers and a detail of Cossacks 
 marcliing to the relief of certain imperiled Belgian 
 refugees at Pao Ting Fu, led to more excited con- 
 ditions among the natives of the provinces along 
 the Yellow Sea, the consuls at the treaty port of 
 Tientsin announced to the admirals at Taku that 
 the situation was most alarming, and the " Pow- 
 ers " decided to take further steps to protect their 
 interests and subjects in China. 
 
310 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 The rage of the Boxers and their riotous con- 
 tingent was especially directed against the rail- 
 ways, which were slowly but surely stretcliing out 
 lines of civilization across the great empire. 
 Rails were torn up, stations wrecked, and supplies 
 destroyed ; and when at last the chief line of com- 
 munication between the capital and the sea, be- 
 tween Peking, and Tientsin, was cut, the naval 
 forces of the foreign powers in the harbor of Taku 
 determined that something must be done at once. 
 Two thousand marines and blue-jackets drafted 
 from the various warships were placed under the 
 command of the senior naval officer. Admiral Sey- 
 mour of the British navy; and on June 10th this 
 international column marched out of Tientsin 
 on the way to Peking to repair the railway, and 
 then march to the relief of the foreigners and the 
 legations who were practically imprisoned in the 
 capital. 
 
 This was taken by the Chinese as an open 
 defiance. Rioters became fighting-men, and the 
 expedition under the lead of Seymour was speed- 
 ily surrounded by an overwhelming force. Its 
 communications with the coast were cut, and for 
 days not only the ministers and foreigners in 
 Peking, but Admiral Seymour and his little com- 
 mand, were completely lost, while only vague and 
 
»(>«>/»«/*»» o/ M*>0;?»//< 
 
 li h Of fh^hin 
 
 A BIRirS EVE VIEW 
 FROM THE GULF OF PE CHILI TO PEKIN. 
 
 Showing the route of the Relief Expedition of iqoo. 
 
SETMOUR'S ADVANCE. 311 
 
 terrible ruraors as to their fate shook the nerves 
 of two continents. 
 
 Thereupon the powers, angered at the indiffer- 
 ence of the Chinese government toward its treaty- 
 stipulations, and believing that some base of oper- 
 ations was necessary if a conflict with the riotous 
 elements in China was necessary, determined to 
 make the harbor of Taku such a base. They 
 demanded of the Chinese commander of the forts 
 at Taku the temporary possession of his defenses, 
 which was of course refused ; and the refusal was 
 emphasized by the guns of the forts firing upon 
 the foreign warships. This was startlingly like 
 war ; but the powers were not at war with China, 
 for the Chinese government still repudiated the 
 Boxers, and promised their suppression and pun- 
 ishment. To attack the forts at Taku would be 
 to lift the trouble out of a riotous disturbance to 
 an actual conflict; and certain of the international 
 naval commanders, especially Admiral Kempff of 
 the American navy, did not feel that their orders 
 from home authorized them " to initiate any act of 
 war with a country with which my country is at 
 peace." 
 
 Events proved the wisdom of Admiral Kempff's 
 course ; but the other commanders decided against 
 him, and on the 17th of June the foreign warships 
 
312 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR. 
 
 attacked the mud forts of Taku and after a bom- 
 bardment of six hours, silenced, captured, and 
 occupied them. 
 
 It was a victory for the international fleet, but 
 it had disastrous results. The boom of the for- 
 eign guns at the mouth of the Pei-Ho River 
 changed the condition of things at once. Behind 
 the adobe walls of Taku were trained artillerists 
 and foreign drilled soldiers of the Chinese army ; 
 the attack had been upon government property ; 
 and it was, as Admiral Kempff declared, an act 
 of war. 
 
 It had that effect upon China ; for even while 
 the government with characteristic unreliability 
 protested and promised, it also hurried troops into 
 the disturbed section. A Chinese army gathered 
 about Peking; a Chinese army marched toward 
 Tientsin ; and the legations and refugees at 
 Peking as well as Admiral Seymour's relief col- 
 umn, were placed in still greater danger. 
 
 IMore than this, the bombardm.ent of the Taku 
 forts brought to the front a leader for the Chinese 
 forces, — the Manchu prince, Tuan, athlete, rough- 
 rider, and frontier fighter, a bitter hater of all for- 
 eigners, and a member of the Boxer society. 
 
 He speedily became not only the head and 
 leader of the Boxers, but the dominant power at 
 
GATHERING OF CHINESE ARMY. 313 
 
 Peking, overshadowing not only the timid and bull- 
 dozed emperor, but the strenuous empress as well. 
 A great Chinese army of experienced and foreign-, 
 drilled fighting-men gathered for the defense of 
 the capital and the extermination of the "foreign 
 devils," and the Chinese situation commanded the 
 attention of the world. 
 
 The extermination of the " foreign devils " 
 seemed but a matter of time and quick action. 
 For while the powers hesitated over a policy 
 which might jeopardize the interests that were 
 jealously guarded against each other as well as 
 against China, and feared that individual or joint 
 action even, might be bad for commercial and 
 political interests, Admiral Seymour's hard-fight- 
 ing allies were endeavoring to force their way to 
 the relief of the refugees in Peking. 
 
 " A great foreign army is marching on Peking," 
 the Boxers and the Imperial troops alike declared; 
 and looking upon Admiral Seymour's force as the 
 advance of the great army of invasion, they pre- 
 pared to surround, defeat, and exterminate it. 
 
 They accomplished the first two plans ; but it 
 is not easy even for a great Chinese army to ex- 
 terminate a well-led, well-drilled force of allied 
 fighters, selected from the fleets of Great Britain, 
 Russia, Germany, France, the United States, Italy, 
 
314 CHINA'S OPEN BOOR, 
 
 Austria, and Japan. Day after day the little army 
 was attacked ; day after day they fought off their 
 assailants. With communications cut, the rail- 
 ways destroyed, provisions running out, the sick 
 and wounded becoming each day an increasing 
 obstacle to advance, and with a host of aroused, 
 revengeful, determined, and relentless Chinese en- 
 circhng and pressing upon them, the allies found 
 advance in face of such odds impossible, and when 
 within twenty-three miles of Peking they deter- 
 mined to withdraw. 
 
 Retreat was now almost as hard as advance ; 
 but, fighting step by step, they slowly fell back 
 toward Tientsin, and, capturing the imperial 
 arsenal above that city, found there sufficient store 
 of rice and ammunition to hold out against tlie 
 besiegers until a relief force of Americans and 
 Russians, undismayed by a first repulse, forced 
 their way through the Chinese hosts, and relieved 
 the beleagured relief column. 
 
 This relieving the relief force which could not 
 relieve Peking left the endangered foreigners with- 
 in the walls of the capital in still greater peril ; 
 for the attempt of the allies aroused the Chinese 
 to fresh anger, and the thousand or more refugees 
 were practically imj)risoned within the *' com- 
 pounds " of the legations, from which communi- 
 
ANTI-FOREIGN MOVEMENT. 315 
 
 cation with the outside world was absolutely 
 denied them. 
 
 Meantime reinforcements to the International 
 forces in and about Tientsin swelled the allied 
 army. Fourteen thousand troops had already been 
 landed ; and additional soldiers and seamen, with 
 warships and supply sliips, were dispatched to the 
 harbor of Taku. 
 
 The Chinese also were massing for resistance ; 
 and Prince Tuan, in command at Peking, with 
 his soldiers and Boxers quickly invested Tien- 
 tsin. A force of fully a hundred thousand men 
 controlled the country about Tientsin, most of 
 them well drilled, and supplied with all the arms 
 and implements of modern warfare. Inflamed by 
 these preparations for conflict, all Northern China 
 fraternized with the Boxers ; and proclamations 
 calling upon all loyal Chinamen to expel the 
 foreigners were posted throughout the northern 
 provinces. The treaty ports were threatened, 
 refugees crowded the foreign settlements, and de- 
 struction and riot were everywhere imminent. 
 The anti-foreign movement extended south and 
 west ; it broke away from the control of the crafty 
 dowager empress, who had abetted and wished to 
 direct it, and the influence of Prince Tuan over- 
 topped all others. 
 
316 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR, 
 
 / It was clear that the Chinese forces in and 
 about the native portion of the city of Tientsin 
 must be assaulted at once, if the " loss of pres- 
 tige " resulting from the defeat of Seymour's at^ 
 tempted relief expedition were to be overcome. 
 
 --The allies acted at once. Three desperate at- 
 tempts at assault on the native city, and against 
 the Chinese troops, were made on Monday, Wednes- 
 day, and Friday, the ninth, eleventh, and thir- 
 teenth of July. The Chinese were beaten at the 
 arsenal and at the railway station ; but when, on 
 Friday, the thirteenth, seven thousand allies 
 stormed the walls of the native city held by 
 twenty thousand Chinese armed with rifled and 
 machine guns, the allies were repulsed with heavy 
 loss; and the disaster was only retrieved by a 
 second desperate assault when, on the 17th of 
 July, a breach was made in the walls. Through 
 this the allies charged, and carried the defenses by 
 storm, driving out the routed Chinese, and occu- 
 pying the native city and its fortifications. 
 
 The fall of Tientsin was a double victory for 
 the allies. It secured and protected their base of 
 operations and concentration, and restored the 
 prestige of their arms, which the Chinese, first 
 victorious, seemed to have destroyed. At once, 
 as reinforcements began to arrive, dispatched, by 
 
FALL OF TIENTSIN. 817 
 
 the several governments, an army was concen- 
 trated for the march on Peking through a country 
 held by a rapidly increasing Chinese army com- 
 manded by Prince Tuan, and determined to arrest 
 and drive back the foreign invasion. 
 y Meantime the world waited for tidings from 
 Peking, where the ambassadors and ministers of the 
 great powers, and the refugees from beyond the 
 gates, were crowded within the walls of the lega- 
 tions, besieged by a relentless host of Boxers and 
 Imperial troops. Tidings came, but none were 
 reliable. Direct information from the beleaguered 
 " legationers " could not be obtained ; and the 
 news that came through Chinese sources was as 
 conflicting as it was terrible. Details of horrible 
 massacres, assurances of absolute safety, stories of 
 determined resistance, and tales of decimation by 
 attack and starvation, pressed closely upon each 
 other until none knew what to believe, the hope- 
 ful hoping, the despondent desponding. After 
 disheartening delays, and in the face of home op- 
 position, the allied army at last moved forward 
 toward Peking ; and at daybreak on the fifth of 
 August, sixteen thousand of them defeated, at 
 Peitsang, ten miles from Tientsin, a great Chi- 
 nese army, which disputed the foreign advance. 
 On the sixth of August, Yangtsun, the second 
 
318 CHINA'S OPEN DOOR. 
 
 station on the way to Peking, was captured by the 
 allies, and the Chinese showed signs of breaking 
 before the advance of the International columns. 
 
 A victory is for the Chinese the strongest of 
 all arguments. If the advance on the capital 
 prove victorious the end is not far off; but the 
 fate of the imprisoned ones in Peking is still in 
 doubt; and the dreadful mystery remains a mys- 
 tery even as this book goes to press, although the 
 indications point to lying Chinese rumors and the 
 pluck of the *' legationers." 
 
 But victory is no easy task. Even the battles 
 at Peitsang and Yangtsun were won by the In- 
 ternational forces at heavy cost ; and the allies, 
 pressing forward in the advance on Peking, pledged 
 to punish and avenge, must face a vast army of 
 disciplined and undisciplined Chinese troops 
 massed before the closed door that conceals the 
 fearful mystery of Peking. 
 
 Thus the world waits expectant, while China^ 
 so often desolated and so often overrun, yet never 
 conquered or controlled, rouses herself for the 
 final conflict between the forces of conservatism 
 and civilization which, through blood and ven- 
 geance, through diplomacy and death, rages around 
 the oftrassaulted, desperately defended portal of 
 China's Open Door. 
 
As Talked in the Sanctum 
 
 By ROUNSEVELLE WILDMAN, U.S. Consul- 
 General at Hong Kong; author of ** Tales of the 
 Malayan Coast/* etc. I2mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.00 
 
 MR WILDMAN was at one time editor of a 
 prominent magazine on the Pacific coast. He 
 here presents, in a charming and attractive volume, 
 the talks on men and things that occupied himself 
 and his friends — the Contributor, the Poet, the 
 Reader, the Parson, the Office Boy and others as, 
 day by day, they met to discuss, dissect and talk over 
 the world and its happenings as these appeared to 
 the " Senate " of the editor's sanctum. It is a book 
 that will be found at once entertaining, amusing, 
 suggestive, philosophic and delightfully real. 
 
 Tales of the Malayan Coast 
 
 By ROUNSEVELLE WILDMAN, Consul-General 
 of the United States at Hong Kong. One volume, 
 J2mo, illustrated by Henry Sandham, $1.00 
 
 A NOTABLE collection of Malayan stories and 
 sketches reproducing both the atmosphere and 
 flavor of the Orient, and emphasized also by a dash 
 of American earnestness and vigor. The book is 
 dedicated by permission to Admiral George Dewey, 
 Mr. Wildman's "friend and hero." 
 
Eben Holden. 
 
 A Tale of the North Country. 
 
 By IRVING BACHELLER, author of '' A Master 
 of Silence/^ I2mot cloth, gilt top, rough edges. $1.50. 
 
 A REFRESHING story of the "plain people" of 
 country and town. The " North Country " is the 
 farm-land of St, Lawrence County in Northern New 
 York. Uncle Eb, — hero, " hired-man " and border phil- 
 anthropist — is a lover of animals, of nature and of all 
 creation. The scene shifts to New York in war time, 
 and the story of the rout at Bull Run is unsurpassed in 
 realism. Altogether it is one of the brightest and most 
 popular of recent books, for it appeals to that love of 
 mingling sentiment and humor that all men and women 
 like. 
 
 The Last of the Flatboats. 
 
 A Story of the Mississippi and its Inter- 
 esting Family of Rivers. 
 
 By GEORGE GARY EGGLESTON, author of 
 '*The Wreck of the Redbird." J2mo, cloth, illus- 
 trated by Charlotte Harding. $1.50. 
 
 THE story of five western boys who take a flatboat 
 on a venture to New Orleans. They are bright, 
 apt, and intelligent young fellows, and find fun, 
 adventure, and profit in their scheme. This book is an 
 absolute storehouse of mid-west facts, but it is also 
 full of action, manliness, endeavor, and adventure. 
 
 LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY, . . BOSTON. 
 
 H 79 831 
 

 
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