{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_41878/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_41878","id":"gutenberg_41878","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41878","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Religion/Spirituality","China","Missions -- China"],"text":"[Illustration: Cover]\n\n\n\n\n\n[Frontispiece: Railway Map of China]\n\n\n\n\n\n  CHANGING CHINA\n\n\n  BY THE REV.\n  LORD WILLIAM GASCOYNE-CECIL\n\n\n  ASSISTED BY\n  LADY FLORENCE CECIL\n\n\n\n  NEW YORK\n  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY\n  1912\n\n\n\n\n{iii}\n\nPREFACE\n\nOur interest in China was first aroused by a letter from an old\nschool-fellow, Arthur Polhill, who, with heroic self-denial, has spent\nthe best part of his life in China as a missionary.  Subsequently I\njoined the China Emergency Committee, who in 1907 invited us to go out\nto the Shanghai Centenary Conference.  That visit led naturally to a\ntour in China, Korea, and Japan.  When we returned we found that great\ninterest was being felt at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in\nthe movement in the Far East; a Committee was formed to study the whole\nquestion, which accepted provisionally the idea of encouraging the\nfoundation of a Western University.  Before finally accepting the idea\nit was felt that some one ought to go to the mission centres of China\nand find out the opinions of the missionaries working on the field, and\nat the same time sound the Chinese Government and see whether it would\nbe favourable to the scheme.  As a result of these deliberations, the\nCommittee asked us in 1909 to go out again, this time on behalf of the\nUnited Universities Scheme.  On our return it was suggested that if we\nput our report into the form of a book it might possibly excite\ninterest in the whole question, especially in the University scheme.\nWe were deeply impressed with two great facts--the greatness of the\nneed of Western education from a Christian standpoint and the vital\nimportance of immediate action.\n\n{iv}\n\nNot only did we seek information from English and American but also\nfrom French and Italian missions as occasion offered.  We tested and\ncompared this information by the information we got from that most\nenlightened and able body of men who form the consular body in China.\nWe are especially grateful to Sir John Jordan, by whose great\ndiplomatic skill both the position of England and the goodwill of the\nChinese are maintained.\n\nIt would be impossible even to record the names of all with whom we\nconversed, but our thanks are especially due to the following friends,\nnot only for their generous hospitality, but also for the patient and\nkind way in which they instructed us in the many difficult aspects of\nthe Chinese problem:--\n\nSir John and Lady Jordan, British Legation, Peking.  H.E. the late\nChang-Chih-Tung.  H.E. the late Prince Ito.  H.E. Tong-Shao-Yi.  H.E.\nTuan-Fang.  H.E. Liang-Ten-Sen.  Sir Robert Hart.  Sir Walter and Lady\nHillier.  Sir Robert and Lady Breedon.  Dr. Aspland of Peking.  Dr. and\nMrs. Avison of Seoul.  Dr. and Mrs. Baird of Pyeng-Yang.  Bishop and\nMrs. Bashford of Peking.  Mr. Blair of Pyeng-Yang.  M. et Mme.\nBoissonnas, French Legation, Peking.  Mr. Bondfield of Shanghai.  Miss\nBonnell of Shanghai.  Mr. and Mrs. Bonsey of Hankow.  Dr. and Mrs.\nBooth of Hankow.  Miss Brierley of Wuchang.  Bishop Cassels of West\nChina.  Mr. U. K. Cheng of Nanking.  Dr. and Mrs. Christie of Mukden.\nMr. Chun Bing-Hun of Shanghai.  Mr. and Mrs. Clarke of Newchwang.  Dr.\nCochrane of Peking.  Consul-General and Mrs. Cockburn, late of Seoul.\nMiss Corbett of Peking.  Mr. Deans of Ichang.  Mr. and Mrs. Deeming of\nHan-Yang.  Dr. Du Bose of Soochow.  Mr. Ede of Shanghai.  Mr. and Mrs.\nArnold Foster of Wuchang.  Consul-General and Mrs. Fraser of Hankow.\nMr. and Mrs. Gage of Changsha.  Dr. and Mrs. Gibb of Peking.  Dr. and\nMrs. Gillieson of Hankow.  Dr. Glenton of Wuchang.  Bishop and Mrs.\nGraves of Jessfield, Shanghai.  Dr. and {v} Mrs. Hawks Pott of\nJessfield, Shanghai.  Consul and Mrs. Hewlett of Changsha.  Mr.\nHollander of Hankow.  Mr. and Mrs. Hoste of the C.I.M.  Dr. Huntley of\nHan-Yang.  Mr. and Mrs. Jackson of Wuchang.  Monseigneur Jarlin,\nPe-T'ang, Peking.  Dr. Griffith John of Hankow.  Miss Joynt of\nHangchow.  The late Miss Keane of Shanghai.  Dr. and Mrs. Keller of\nChangsha.  Consul and Mrs. King of Nanking.  Dr. and Mrs. Lavington\nHart of Tientsin.  Mr. M. T. Liang of Mukden.  Mr. and Mrs. Littell of\nHankow.  Dr. and Mrs. Lowry of Peking.  Mr. and Mrs. MacIntosh of\nTientsin.  Dr. and Mrs. Macklin of Nanking.  Dr. Macleod of Shanghai.\nDr. and Mrs. Main of Hangchow.  Consul-General and Miss Mansfield, late\nof Canton.  Dr. Martin of Peking.  Mr. and Mrs. Meigs of Nanking.  Miss\nMiner of Peking.  Archdeacon and Mrs. Moule of Ningpo.  Mr.\nMun-Yew-Chung of Shanghai.  Dr. and Mrs. Murray of Peking.  Mr. Norris\nof Peking.  Mr. Oberg of Shanghai.  Miss Phelps of Hankow.  Mr. Arthur\nPolhill of the C.I.M.  Miss Porter of Peking.  Bishop Price of Fukien.\nDeaconess Ransome of Peking.  M. et Mme. Ratard, French Consulate,\nShanghai.  Mr. Ready of Changsha.  Dr. and Mrs. Gilbert Reid of\nShanghai.  Dr. Timothy Richard of Shanghai.  Mr. and Mrs. Ricketts of\nShan-hai-kwan.  Mr. and Mrs. Ridgley of Wuchang.  Bishop and Mrs. Roots\nof Hankow.  Dr. and Mrs. Ross of Mukden.  Miss Russell of Peking.\nBishop Scott of North China.  Mrs. Scranton of Seoul.  Mr. and Mrs.\nSedgwick of Tientsin.  Mr. Shen-Tun-Lo of Shanghai.  Mr. and Mrs.\nSherman of Hankow.  Mr. and Mrs. Smalley of Shanghai.  Mr. and Mrs.\nSparham of Hankow.  Mr. Sprent of Newchwang.  Mr. Squire of Ichang.  Mr\nand Mrs. Stockman of Ichang.  Mr. and Mrs. Symons of Shanghai.  Taotai\nJ. C. Tong of Shanghai.  Taotai S. T. Ts\u00eang of Nanking.  Mr. James\nTsong of Wuchang.  Mr. and Mrs. Turley of Mukden.  Bishop Turner of\nKorea.  Mr. and Mrs. Upward of Hankow.  Dean and Mrs. Walker of\nShanghai.  Miss Wambold of Seoul.  Consul-General Sir Pelham and Miss\nWarren of Shanghai.  Mr. Warren of Changsha.  Mr. Watson of Mukden.\nDr. and Mrs. Weir of Chemulpo.  Dr. and Mrs. Wells of Pyeng-Yang.\nConsul and Mrs. Willis of Mukden.  Mr. and Mrs. Wilson of Changsha.\nMr. Yih-Ming-Tsah of Shanghai.  P\u00e8re Recteur of Ziccawei, Shanghai, and\nmany others.\n\n{vi}\n\nThe following books were consulted:--\n\nAmong the Mongols: by James Gilmour, M.A.  Annuaire Calendri\u00e8re pour\n1909.  Appeal, An: by H. E. T'ang-K'ai-Sun.  Buddhism in China: by Rev.\nS. Beal.  Catholic Church in China, The: by Rev. Bertram Wolferstan,\nS.J.  Catholic Encyclop\u00e6dia of Missions.  Century of Missions in China:\nby D. MacGillivray.  China and the Allies: by A. Henry Savage Landor.\nChina in Transformation: by A. R. Colquhoun.  China's Book of Martyrs:\nby Luella Miner.  China's Only Hope: an Appeal by her greatest Viceroy,\nChang-Chih-Tung.  Chin-Chin: by Tcheng-Ki-Tong.  Chinese\nCharacteristics: by Dr. Arthur Smith.  Chinese Classics, The: Legge's\nTranslation.  Chinese Empire, The: by Marshall Broomhall.  Chinese\nShi-King: by Jennings.  Chinese, The: by J. S. Thomson.  Development of\nReligion in Japan: by Knox.  Diplomatic and Consular Reports,\n1905-1908.  Early Chinese History: by H. J. Allen.  Educational\nConquest of the Far East, The: by Lewis.  Education in the Far East: by\nThwing.  Embassy to China: by Lord M'Cartney.  Four Books, The:\nAnonymous.  Griffith John: by R. Wardlaw Thompson.  John Chinaman: by\nE. H. Parker.  History of China, The: by Boulger.  Indiscreet Letters\nfrom Peking: by Putnam Weale.  Les Missions Catholiques Fran\u00e7aises aux\nXIX. Si\u00e8cle: by P\u00e8re J. B. Piolet, S.J.  Life and Works of Mencius: by\nLegge.  Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, edited by\nMarshall Broomhall.  Mission in China, A: by Soothill.  Mission Methods\nin Manchuria: by John Ross, D.D.  New China and Old: by Archdeacon\nMoule.  Original Religion of China: by John Ross, D.D.  Pastor Hsi: by\nMrs. Taylor.  Railway Enterprise in China: by P. H. Kent.  Religions in\nChina: by Edkins.  Religious System of China: by J. J. M. de Groot,\nvol. v.  Sidelights on Chinese Life: by MacGowan.  Taoist Tests.\nThings Chinese: by J. Dyer Ball.  Troubles de Chine, Les: par Raoul\nAllier.  Uplift of China, The: by Arthur Smith.\n\n\n\n\n{vii}\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHINA IN TRANSITION\n\nCHAP.                                                      PAGE\n\n     I. WHAT HAS AWAKENED CHINA? . . . . . . . . . . . . .    3\n    II. WHAT CHINA MEANS TO THE WORLD  . . . . . . . . . .   20\n   III. ORIENTAL AND OCCIDENTAL  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   36\n    IV. FOREIGN RELATIONS OF CHINA . . . . . . . . . . . .   44\n     V. CHINESE CIVILISATION--ITS WEAK SIDE  . . . . . . .   56\n    VI. CHINESE CIVILISATION--ITS GOOD SIDE  . . . . . . .   70\n   VII. RAILWAYS AND RIVERS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   80\n  VIII. THE CITIES OF CHINA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   95\n    IX. OPIUM  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  107\n     X. THE WOMEN'S QUESTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  121\n    XI. CHINESE ARCHITECTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  137\n\n\nRELIGIONS OF CHINA AND THE MISSIONARY\n\n   XII. RELIGIONS IN CHINA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  147\n  XIII. CONFUCIAN PHILOSOPHY AND WESTERN CULTURE . . . . .  163\n   XIV. INTERVIEW AT NANKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  172\n    XV. ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN CHINA . . . . . . . . .  183\n   XVI. OTHER MISSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  198\n  XVII. THE EFFECT OF WESTERN LITERATURE IN CHINA  . . . .  207\n XVIII. MEDICAL MISSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  220\n   XIX. MOVEMENT IN KOREA AND MANCHURIA  . . . . . . . . .  232\n    XX. THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA  . . . . . . .  242\n\n\nTHE NEW AND THE OLD LEARNING\n\n   XXI. EDUCATION, CHIEFLY MISSIONARY  . . . . . . . . . .  253\n  XXII. GOVERNMENT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM  . . . . . . . . . .  266\n XXIII. THE SAME IN PRACTICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  279\n  XXIV. DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF EDUCATION . . . . . . .  293\n   XXV. THE NEED OF A UNIVERSITY EXPLAINED . . . . . . . .  305\n  XXVI. THE NEED OF A UNIVERSITY EXPLAINED (continued) . .  317\n XXVII. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  325\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nWILL RUSSIA BE REPRESENTED ON THE MISSION FIELD? . . . . .  329\n\nINDEX  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  337\n\n\n\n\n{3}\n\nCHINA IN TRANSITION\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nWHAT HAS AWAKENED CHINA?\n\nFor centuries China has been the land that never moved.  It had a\npolitical history full of wars and bloodshed, of intrigue and murder;\nperiods of prosperity and enlightenment; periods of darkness and\ndesolation; but the country remained essentially the same country.\nThere might be some small alteration in its customs, but China was\ndistinctly unprogressive.  And everybody who knew China ten or fifteen\nyears ago was prepared to prophesy that it would continue to remain\nunprogressive.\n\nMany a missionary speaks of the China that he used to know as a very\ndifferent land from the China of to-day.  It used to be a sort of Rip\nVan Winkle land that had slept a thousand years, and showed every sign\nof remaining asleep for another thousand.  Mrs. Arnold Foster told us\nthat when she first came to Wuchang she used to see the soldiers\ndressed medi\u00e6vally, learning to make faces to inspire terror in the\nhearts of the adversary.  Monseigneur Jarlin, the head of the French\nmission in Peking, described the China of olden times by saying that in\nhis young days all Chinamen had a rooted contempt for everything\nWestern.  Theirs was the {4} only civilised land.  The West was the\nland of barbarism.  Now, he added, the positions are reversed; every\nChinaman despises China, and is convinced that from the West comes the\nlight of civilisation.  Arch-deacon Moule tells how he sailed out to\nChina in a sailing ship, and found a land absolutely indifferent to the\nexistence of the West--more ignorant of the West than the West was of\nthe East, and that, when he was young, was saying a great deal; and now\nhe finds himself in a land that has telephones and motor cars and takes\nan active interest in flying machines.\n\nChina has fundamentally altered.  She used to be absolutely the most\nconservative land in the world.  Now she is a land which is seeing so\nmany radical changes, that a missionary said, when I asked him a\nquestion about China, \"You must not rely on me, for I left China three\nmonths ago, so that what I say may be out of date.\"\n\nChina is now progressive; yes, young China believes intensely in\nprogress, with an optimistic spirit which reminds the onlooker more of\nthe French pre-Revolution spirit than of anything else.  And this\nintense belief in progress shows itself at every turn; the Yamen runner\nhas become a policeman, towns are having the benefit of water-works,\nschools are being opened everywhere, railways cover the land.  One may\nwell ask what has accomplished this change, what has awakened China?\n\nPerhaps, like many other great events in history, {5} this change of\nopinion in China should be attributed to more than one cause.  There\nare two chief causes.  One may be small, but it is not insignificant;\nthe other is certainly great and obvious.  The less appreciated factor\nthat is causing the regeneration of China is Christianity; the larger\nand more obvious factor is the new national movement.\n\nThe cause of the new national movement was the sense of humiliation\nbrought about by political events culminating in the battle of Mukden,\nwhere a flagrant act of insolent contempt for the laws of neutrality\nwas felt all the more deeply because China had to submit to that which\nshe was powerless to resist.\n\nThe events of the last few years are so well known that I must ask the\nindulgence of the reader in recapitulating them.  China, confident in\nthe number of her people, which reached to a quarter of the world's\npopulation, attempted to assert her rights of suzerainty over Korea\nagainst Japan.  She had not realised then that Japan was no longer an\nEastern power, where knights with two-handed swords did deeds of valour\nand won for themselves everlasting renown.  And when at Ping-yang the\narmies met, the Chinese General ascended a hill that he might direct\nthe armies of the Celestial Empire with a fan.  He conceived the battle\nto be merely a small affair, where a fan could be seen by all the\nofficers engaged.  The result was, of course, that the German-trained\nJapanese army had a very easy victory.  The war ended in the taking of\nPort Arthur by the Japanese, {6} and China was in the humiliating\nposition of having to appeal to Western countries to secure her\nterritory.\n\nSo far, however, the sting of her humiliation gave to China a sense of\nresentment against all foreigners, rather than a sense of repentance\nfor her own shortcomings, and the missionaries found hostility to their\nwork in every part of China.  That hostility resulted in the murder of\ntwo German Roman Catholic missionaries in Shantung.  The well-known\naction of Germany in demanding a cession of territory as a punishment\nfor this murder may have been a good stroke of policy, but it has\nbrought but little honour either to Germany or to Christianity.  In\nfact it may be regarded as a most regrettable action from a missionary\npoint of view, for it convinced the Chinese that the missionary was but\na part of the civil administration of a hostile country, and that if\nChina was to be preserved from the foreigner, missionaries must be\ninduced to leave the country.  A deep feeling of national resentment\nspread over the land, which was encouraged by some in authority.  The\ndirect connection between Government patronage of the anti-foreign\nmovement and the German occupation of Kiauchau can be deduced from the\nfact that the Governor who was responsible for the awful murders in\nShansi had been Governor of Shantung when Germany took Kiauchau.\n\nThe result of this bitter feeling was the creation of a secret and\npatriotic society which concealed the nature of its propaganda under a\nname with a double {7} meaning.  The Boxer Society was, as its name\nsuggests, apparently an athletic society--a society which had for its\nobject the encouragement of the art of self-defence.  But the name had\nanother signification.  Its real object, as a Chinaman explained to me,\nwas to \"knock the heads of the foreigners off.\"  It was a religious as\nwell as a political movement, however.  It had its prophets, who did\nwonders or were thought to do them, and its disciples were believed to\nbe invulnerable to any Western weapon.  It protested against the\nmovement towards Western ideas, which it regarded as immoral; it\ncondemned and destroyed everything Western, from straw hats and\ncigarettes to mission houses and railways; its disciples believed that\nthe spirits that defend China were angry at the introduction of Western\nthings, that they were withholding the rain so necessary to the light\nloess land of that district, and that the only way they could be\npropitiated was by the sacrifice of a Western life or by the\ndestruction of a Western building.  One of the things that precipitated\nthe siege of Peking was the apparent success of such an action.  In\npursuance of their faith, the Boxers set a light to the rail-head\nstation of the half-made Hankow-Peking railway, a place called\nPao-ting-fu; the station was a mere wooden barrack, and blazed up\nmerrily with an imposing column of smoke; hardly had the smoke reached\nthe heavens, when the sky was overcast with heavy thunder-clouds, and\nin a short time the thirsty land received the long-wished-for rain, and\nthe Boxer {8} prophets pointed with sinister effect to the heavenly\nconfirmation of their doctrine.\n\nIt is necessary to remind the reader of the religious aspect of\nBoxerdom, so that he shall realise what its fall meant to many Chinese.\nReally their faith in it was wonderful.  A Boxer, for instance, at the\nsiege of Peking walked composedly in front of the Legation, waving his\nsword and performing mystic signs; the soldiers first of one then of\nanother Legation fired on him with no effect; probably his coolness put\nout their aim.  Another example of their credulity was told me at\nNewchwang.  The Russians had occupied Newchwang, and, _more suo_, were\npacifying it; they were shooting all the Boxers on whom they could lay\nhands, and, I am afraid, a great number who were not Boxers.  They\nchained one of these fanatics to a stone seat with the intention of\nexecuting him; but they thought they might get some useful information\nout of him, so they asked an Englishman who spoke Chinese perfectly to\nmake inquiries of him, giving him authority to offer a respite as a\nreward.  He went to the prisoner, and sitting down by him, tried to\ninduce him to save his life by giving information, but he was met by a\ncontemptuous refusal; and when he pointed out that the firing party was\nthere, the misguided man merely said, \"I am a Boxer, and their bullets\ncannot hurt me.\"  Another minute, of course, proved his error.  But his\nfirmness showed the reality of his conviction.\n\nSometimes this fanaticism had curious results.  {9} A Boxer prophet\nassured the village that no works of the West could hurt him, no bullet\ncould harm him, no train could crush him.  As a railway ran near the\nvillage, he and all the inhabitants adjourned thither to put his\ninvulnerability to the test.  The daily train came puffing along, as\nthe Boxer, waving his sword, stood right in its path.  The driver was a\nEuropean, and seeing some one on the line, pulled up his train to avoid\nrunning over him.  The Boxer pointed to the train triumphantly, and the\nastonished villagers became Boxers.  There was, however, a sceptic who\nrefused to believe, so next day they repaired again to the line, and\nthe Boxer again made his passes and uttered his charms.  Alas for him!\nthis time the driver was a Chinaman, and he was not going to stop his\nmaster's train because a coolie fellow got in the way, so he put on\nfull steam and cut him to pieces, and the village deserted the Boxer\nfaith to a man.\n\nWith the relief of Peking, the Boxer Society fell; but the popular view\nwas not that Boxer teaching was false, but that the spirits behind\nWestern religion were stronger than those behind Boxerdom.  So one of\nthe immediate results of the fall of the Boxers was to establish the\nspiritual prestige of Christianity; the second result was to inspire\nthe Chinese with a respect for the military power of the foreigner.\nThe Boxers had failed, the foreign powers had taken Peking, the Son of\nHeaven had become a fugitive; all this was gall and {10} wormwood to\nthe Chinaman.  The sack of Peking was especially felt, both because of\nthe wanton destruction that was committed--one informant told me he saw\na vase worth \u00a3200 smashed into a thousand atoms by a drunken\nsoldier--and because the enlightened Chinese knew very well that no\ncivilised city is sacked at the present time, and that they were being\ntreated as no other race is now treated.\n\nYet the old spirit of pride prevented them learning completely the full\ntruth.  The thinking Chinaman was still disposed to attribute the\nvictory of the West to the superior fighting powers of Western men.  A\nChinese gentleman, explaining the fear his people have of Europeans,\nsaid, \"They regard you as tigers.\"  The troops who sacked Peking were\nto the thinking Chinaman but another example of the well-known truth,\nthat those nearer the savage state fight better than civilised men, and\nreally, considering the behaviour of some of the European troops, no\nsurprise can be felt at this conclusion; it needed another lesson to\nmake them finally and thoroughly realise the superiority of our\ncivilisation.\n\nThe bitterness of their next humiliation made them ready to learn as\nthey had never been before in the whole of their history, and events\nprovided them with teachers who taught them that the cause of this\nhumiliation was their refusal to accept Western ideas, and that if they\nwould maintain {11} their independence they must learn the art of war\nfrom their conquerors.\n\nAfter the siege of Peking came the Russo-Japanese war.  The Russians\nhad long been known and feared by the Chinese; they were to the Chinese\nmind the embodiment of the warlike and blood-thirsty spirit of the\nWest; they were hated for their cruelty and feared for their prowess.\nThe awful story of the massacre of Blagovestchensk in 1900 was still\npresent to the popular mind.  The story was this.  The Amur divides\nChina from Siberia.  When the Boxer movement broke out the Russians\nrequired all the Chinese to go to their side of the river; but with\nsinister intent, they removed all the boats, so that no one could\ncross.  The Chinese pointed this out, and the respectable merchants of\nthe town presented a petition saying they were ready to obey the\nRussian Government in everything, but without the boats they could not\ndo so; but the Russians insisted that boats or no boats, they must\ncross the Amur; they protested, but in vain; a half-circle was formed\nround them by the soldiery, and the whole Chinese population of the\ncity was driven into the river at the point of the bayonet.\n\nThe Japanese were also well known to the Chinese; they had been till\nlately, when the Western movement had altered everything in Japan,\ntheir pupils in civilisation.  The Japanese believed in Confucius, used\nChinese characters, worshipped in Buddhist temples, sacrificed to\nancestors, in fact {12} were in Chinese estimation a civilised race,\nthough inferior of course to themselves.\n\nWhen these two antagonists met in Manchuria, the war could not fail to\nmake a deep impression on China.  To begin with, it was an insult\nsurpassing that of the sack of Peking to the Chinese _amour propre_, to\nhave the war carried on in Manchuria.  Russia and Japan were disputing\nover Korea, and both nations were at peace with China.  Russia might\nhave invaded Japan; Japan might have invaded Russia, or both might have\nmet in Korea, but what they did was to select a province of a neutral\nState and decide that there should be the scene of conflict.  What made\nthis more striking was that they agreed to respect the neutrality of\nthe rest of China; in fact they selected their battle-ground with the\nsame equanimity as if China and her national rights did not exist.\n\nBut the deepest impression made on the Chinese was by the victory of\nthe Eastern over the Western.  The Japanese demonstrated that there was\nno essential inferiority of the East to the West, and that when an\nEastern race adopted Western military methods it proved itself superior\nto the most powerful of the Western races.  This was the lesson the\nbattle of Mukden taught the Chinese, and which convinced the\nanti-foreign party in China, that however much they might hate the\nforeigner, they must adopt Western methods if they would retain their\nindependence.  The result was that the progressive and {13}\nanti-foreign parties found themselves at one.  Both agreed that Western\nideas were necessary.  The first, because they believed in Western\nprogress; the second, because they felt that the only way to preserve\nChina from the hated foreigner was to learn the secret of his military\npower.  The first thing to be done was to study Western education, and\nthen they could hope to hold their own against the Western races, as\nJapan had more than held her own against the Russians.\n\nI believe the battle of Mukden will prove one of the turning points in\nthe history of the world.  Few of us have any conception of the\nbitterness of the humiliation of China.  People speak of Russia as\nhaving been humiliated, but my experience is that the Russians looked\nat the whole question as a colonial war in which a bungling Government\nembroiled their country--a war which, if it demonstrated the incapacity\nof their officers, proved the courage of their soldiers.  But the\nhumiliation of China was intense.  When one remembers the position that\nthe Emperor occupies in China; when one also remembers the reverential\nfeeling that exists towards ancestors, one realises what it must have\nmeant to the Chinaman that the site of the tombs of their Emperors\nshould have been the scene of that titanic struggle between the East\nand the West.  But the result of that humiliation was to burn in the\nlesson that Japan had taken the right course, and that, however hateful\nwere {14} Western ways, they were a necessity, and that every lover of\nChina must do his best to introduce them into the Empire.\n\nOf course there are many Chinamen--nay, I should think a vast\nmajority--who intend to preserve to China the essential points of the\nConfucian civilisation; they mean to accept Western ideas only in so\nfar as they are necessary to struggle against the West.  Some, no\ndoubt, definitely admire the West, but most are anxious for a\ncompromise; they want to preserve China with its customs, with its\nessential thought, but to strengthen it by foreign knowledge and a\nforeign military system.  The exact degree of what should be preserved\nin China and what should be destroyed and replaced by Western\ninnovations, differs according to the age and the temperament of the\nthinkers, but the principle is most generally accepted--Western thought\nmust be grafted on to Eastern civilisation.  When we remember the size\nof China, we may well ask ourselves what effect this policy will have\non the rest of the world.  We have at present a period of reflection,\nfor how long we cannot tell.  The task of welding East and West into\none whole is in practice proving difficult, and at present failure is\nvery often the result; but with Japan as a successful example, and with\nthe threat of national extinction and foreign domination before them,\nthe Chinese can never give up the effort; and whatever the exact result\nmay be, I think one may assert {15} without rashness that not only will\nit fundamentally alter the whole of China, but through China affect the\nwhole world.\n\nWhile detailing the causes which have created the national movement\nwhich is now inducing China to make every effort to perfect her\ndefences against foreign aggressions, we must not forget that the\nawakening of China has a higher side, and one which we can attribute\ndirectly and indirectly to Christianity.  The influence of Christianity\ncan be traced back to the seventh century when missions of Nestorian\nChristians came to Thibet and China; they left behind them, it is true,\nno converts, but their influence was probably felt through the power\nthat Lamaism had had over a great part of the Eastern world.  A learned\nJapanese, discussing this subject, said that no one could study Lamaism\nand Buddhism without realising how intimately it had been in touch with\nsome form of Christianity.  Later on the great Roman Catholic missions,\ninitiated by St. Francis Xavier in the thirteenth century, began to\nwork in China, and have slowly but surely raised up a large population\nwho have been Christians for many generations.  Their missions were\ninterrupted by persecutions, but with varying and lately increasing\nsuccess they have maintained themselves ever since.  In 1807 the\npioneer of Protestant missions, Dr. Morrison, began his work and the\ntranslation of the Bible into Chinese.  The work increased, his mission\nwas followed by other missions, which pursued {16} a policy even more\ninfluential in altering the opinion of China; not only did they with\ngreat heroism preach the Gospel in every province of China, but they\ntook two actions which have affected China in a very special degree.\n\nFirst the American missions made the very greatest effort to get hold\nof intelligent Chinese men, both Christian and non-Christian, to teach\nthem Western knowledge, so that they might understand how intimately\nChristianity was connected with Christian thought.  The result of their\nefforts has been that there are a considerable number of enlightened\nChinese gentry who are either Christians or who have a great sympathy\nwith the Christian side of Western civilisation.  Sometimes they\neducated these men in China, sometimes they induced them to go to\nAmerica for their education; and there they were brought into contact\nwith the intense, yet rather narrow, New England Christianity.  I had\nthe honour of meeting many of these men in China, and I was convinced\nthat they have no small part in her awakening.\n\nThe English and American missionaries, under the leadership of Dr.\nWilliamson, inaugurated a second policy, which has had far-reaching\nresults in causing the changes in China.  The Christian Literature\nSociety was started to supply the Chinese with translations of the best\nWestern literature.  They were followed by Chinese imitators who were\nalso Christians, and who founded a Chinese Commercial {17} Press.\nThese two bodies have given to China a vast amount of Western\nliterature, the first on philanthropic lines with the definite\nintention of spreading Christianity, the second on a commercial basis\nbut with the intention of presenting to their fellow-countrymen the\npurer and more beautiful side of Western thought.  The publications of\nthese two bodies reach, I am told, to every educated man in China.  If\nthe humiliations of public events made the Chinese willing to study\nWestern civilisation, it was these men who afforded them the means of\nstudying and understanding the best side of that civilisation.\n\nBut perhaps those who have done most to give the Chinese a proper\nconception of Christianity are the Bible Societies, especially the\nBritish and Foreign Bible Society.  Ever since, with the optimism of\nfaith, the translation of the Scriptures by Dr. Morrison was published\nin 1814, they have been scattering the Christian Scriptures throughout\nthe whole of China, from Mongolia to Tonkin, and I am told that those\nScriptures are read by men in the highest positions and with the most\nconservative antecedents in the whole empire.  It cannot be doubted\nthat the indirect fruit of their work has been very great indeed.\nChina has, through the agencies of these bodies, been brought into\nclose contact with Christian thought, and has at last realised the true\nnature of our religion.\n\nLastly, there has been the influence of those who {18} died for the\nChristian faith during the many persecutions to which Christianity has\nbeen exposed, and which culminated in the Boxer persecution.  If\nGermany, by her action in Shantung, put before China a false and most\nrepellent view of Christianity, the heroic sufferings of the martyred\nmissionaries, both yellow and white, presented Christianity to a\nwondering world in its purest aspect.  After those thousands of\nChristians had suffered in Shan-si, the Home bodies, especially the\nChina Inland Mission, refused to take any compensation for the blood\nthat had been shed in the cause of the Gospel.  The Chinese were then\nconvinced that the German presentation of Christianity was not the only\none; if Germany could look on Christianity only as a stalking horse\nbehind which she could creep up to her prey, the English-speaking races\nhad a holier ideal to teach and one which was more consonant with the\nwords of the Founder of our religion.  The sufferings of the Christians\nwere intense, their heroism was great, but the result has been\ncommensurate with their efforts, and an awakening China looks to our\ncountries, not solely to teach her the art of war and of killing men,\nbut also to teach her the great thoughts and the great religion which\nhas before her very eyes proved capable of producing such noble men and\nwomen.\n\nThe awakening of China has two aspects.  From one aspect China is\nawakening to the value of the science and the arts of the West; from\nthe other {19} China is awakening to the fact that there is in the West\na power which comes from goodness, and that goodness has its root in\nChristian faith.  It is this twofold aspect of the awakening of China\nwhich is so important to bear in mind, for if she is to share in our\ncivilisation in the future, it is both our duty and our interest to see\nthat this great world-movement is encouraged to develop on its higher\nside.\n\n\n\n\n{20}\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nWHAT CHINA MEANS TO THE WORLD\n\nThe day is past when any one in Europe, whether Christian or\nnon-Christian, can be indifferent to what is happening in China.  The\nChristian has indeed been for a long time alive to the importance of\nthese developments, but the ordinary citizen with no strong religious\nviews has usually neither displayed nor felt any interest in a country\nseparated from us by so many miles and by such an untraversable gulf in\nthought and language.  If the Christian has urged the importance of\nChinese missions, his neighbours have answered by asking him why he\ncannot leave the Chinese to themselves and to their own religion.\nWhatever justice the opponent of missions in times past may have\nthought he had for this view, he cannot now maintain that the Chinese\nquestion is one which may be put on one side by any thoughtful man.\nThe movements of this vast mass of humanity, amounting to a quarter of\nthe population of the world, cannot but fail to have a very real and\nvital effect on the whole civilised world.\n\nThe revolution that is affecting China brings Europe and America into\nclose contact with a {21} country equal to Europe in size, and not far\ninferior in productive power.  A few years ago China was so far away\nthat except as an outlet for trade it had little interest for people\nhere.  The voyage occupied many months and was esteemed a hazardous\njourney, owing to the dangerous coasts and typhoons of the China seas.\nNow a train-de-luxe conveys the traveller in a fortnight across Asia to\nPeking, and if the accommodation on the Chinese part of the railway is\nnot altogether luxurious, the traveller remembers that it is far\nsuperior to that on the first railways opened in our own land.  The\njourney is of course tedious, but the fact that business men in the\nnorth of China are talking of always spending their summer holidays in\nEngland, will show how close China is now to Europe.  It is no\nexaggeration to say that in reckoning distance by the time it takes to\ncomplete the journey, China is nearer to England than London was to\nScotland in the days of Dr. Johnson, while in point of comfort and\nconvenience there is no comparison.  The journey from London to Peking\nis far easier at the present day than the journey from London to\nEdinburgh in the days of Johnson's famous trip to the Hebrides.\n\nIf in this way we are getting closer to China, we are still more\ngrowing closer in thought.  No longer can we speak of a gulf that\nseparates us from China.  Every year English is becoming more and more\nthe language of educated men in {22} East; even though we cannot read\ntheir books, they are reading ours either in translations or in the\noriginal.  Japan has set the example of having English taught\nuniversally in her high schools, and now China is following her\nexample.  A foreigner, talking about Esperanto, remarked: \"What would\nbe the use of making an universal language?  English, at any rate in\nthe East, is the universal language.\"  That barbarous patois, \"pidgin\"\nor business English, lives still in China.  It consists of English\nroots, enlarged by the addition of Portuguese words, put into Chinese\nidiom and pronounced Chinese fashion.  But \"pidgin\" English is fast\ngiving way to pure English, spoken most commonly with a marked American\naccent.\n\nIf this growing proximity of China compels the attention of the\ncivilised world, the virgin wealth of her mineral resources and the\ncheapness of her labour have excited the cupidity of the Western\ncapitalist, and it is daily more obvious that China must become the\ncentre of international politics, therefore the extent to which she\nwill affect the rest of the world should be a matter for careful\nconsideration.  India, it will be urged, has long been in contact with\nEurope, and the effect on Europe is small.  Why should there be any\ndifference when another Oriental race comes in close proximity with\nEurope?  Putting on one side the fact that India has, both in trade and\nin politics, had a very great effect on England, it can be answered\nthat there is an essential difference between the {23} brown\ninhabitants of India and the yellow race.  The former are, through\nreligion or custom, unable to accommodate themselves to the conditions\nof Western civilisation; the latter have shown themselves such adepts\nat accepting Western life that they have excelled the white man, to his\ngreat annoyance, in his own civilisation.  The Chinaman, who is\nforbidden to enter America, Australia, and South Africa, is refused\nadmittance, not because he has been untried or because he has been\ntried and found wanting, but because he has been tried in the three\ncontinents and found by all who have tried him eminently efficient--so\nefficient that if he were allowed to continue in those countries, he\nwould soon render the presence of the white settler unnecessary.  He\nhas been tried in three just balances and been found of such value that\nthe white voter is unanimous in demanding his exclusion.  But even the\nmost aggressive Chinese exclusionist can scarcely hope to exclude him\nfrom his own country, and the Chinaman who stays at home is probably a\nbetter man than the Chinaman who goes abroad.\n\nWestern civilisation may be expected to grow with equal rapidity in\nChina as it has in Japan.  Obviously Japan is the precedent that China\nwill follow rather than India, whether Hindu or Mohammedan.\n\nA few years ago a man would have been classed as an eccentric who dared\nforetell that Russia would be defeated by Japan.  When Japan talked\nabout going to war with Russia, Russia laughed.  Who {24} can tell how\nwe shall speak of China a few years hence?  For Japan after all is only\nthe same size in population as Great Britain, but China is eight times\nas large.\n\nThere are three ways in which China may affect Europe.  Militarily, she\nmay menace her by her enormous armies enlisted from her vast\npopulation.  Commercially, she may afford an outlet for our trade far\ngreater than we possess at the present time, and perhaps be a\ncompetitor in trade and a place where the capital of Europe will be\ninvested.  Morally, she may either depress or elevate our social\nmorals.  Perhaps the reader may be inclined to smile at the idea of\nChina being in a higher moral condition than Europe, so as to be able\nto react on her beneficially, but stranger things have happened; and if\nEurope follows the example of France in deterioration, and China\ncontinues to advance with the same rapidity, China might easily excel\nEurope in morals.\n\nLet us first deal with the question from the military point of view.\nThe military authorities who know the Chinese seem to be equally\ndivided in opinion; many are confident that they are an unwarlike race,\nothers maintain and bring evidence to prove that under competent\nofficers they have great military qualities.\n\nA few years ago, for instance, the development of the military power of\nChina was regarded as a possible danger to the world, and especially to\nEngland or Russia.  It was pointed out that China might easily {25}\ndescend with a huge army on to India in the distant future, or she\nmight turn her arms northward and conquer the wide districts of\nSiberia.  Now the popular view is the reverse, and the military power\nof China is regarded as a thing incapable of great development.  A\nJapanese diplomatist with whom we discussed the question ridiculed the\nidea of the yellow peril and smiled at the suggestion that China could\never be a nation great in war.  Certainly her present military power\ncan be safely ignored except in Manchuria; whether that power is\ncapable of development is a moot point.  Believers in the war-like\npossibilities of China point out that as a matter of fact China is by\nright of conquest suzerain to such warlike races as the Tibetans and\nthe Ghurkas, and that her empire reaches as far as Turkestan.  In\nanswer it is urged that the victors were not the Chinese, but the\nconquerors and present rulers of the Chinese, the northern Manchus;\nwho, till they were absorbed by Chinese civilisation, spoke a different\nlanguage and wrote a different character.\n\nThe Manchus are far from being extinct, though through years of sensual\nindulgence they have lost their virility; but the discipline of\nreligion or the call of a national emergency might restore the war-like\nqualities of the race.  It was only in 1792 that the Chinese, under\nSund Fo, defeated the Ghurkas, and we must allow that a race who could\ndefeat these gallant soldiers must be skilled and brave in war.  On the\nother hand I was assured that the Manchus, {26} so far from showing any\ncourage in the war with Japan, were the first to flee, and that they\ndiffer in nothing from the Chinese except that they are pensioners and\nride horses.  Those who disbelieve in the courage of the Chinese say\nthe Chinese never had any courage except of a passive order; that they\nwould endure suffering against any race on earth, and that their whole\nhistory tells that tale; that they have been subject in turn to the\nMongols, the Kins, and the Manchus; and that the period of the Ming\ndynasty when they were free, was only because the Mongols had reduced\nevery nation within many thousands of miles to subjection, and then\nthey themselves had fallen a prey, not to the Chinese arms directly,\nbut to the enervating and destructive effects of Chinese civilisation\nwhich rendered them absolutely unable to fight.\n\nThose who argue in this way point to that great feature of Chinese\nscenery, the fortified wall.  That Great Wall of China, climbing hill\nand dale, was built to keep the northern and warlike tribes from\nharrying the peace-loving and industrious Chinaman.  Behind that wall\nlie nothing but fortress after fortress; every city is walled, and\nthose walls tell their own tale.  A warlike race never dwells in walled\ncities.  When the traveller enters Japan after visiting China, the\nfirst thing which strikes him is the absence of walled cities.  The\nvillages and towns lie along the roads as they do in our own country\ninstead of clustering behind the tall and gloomy walls of China.  {27}\nAgain, those who say the Chinese will never fight, point out that they\nhave never been able to reduce two savage races right in their midst,\nthe Maios and Lolos.  One devoted missionary who had spent many years\nof his life in the thankless task of attempting to approach these\nsavage Lolos, gave us an interesting account of the relation between\nthe Lolos and the Chinese which certainly does not show that the\nChinese have much military skill.  The Lolos are a sort of Highland\ncaterans who live in the mountains in the west of China, and from time\nto time raid the peace-loving Chinese villages.  The Chinese then\nretaliate by organising a large force, who advance on the Lolo country\nand burn their villages.  The Lolos rarely offer any direct resistance,\nas they realise they are hopelessly outnumbered, but take an\nopportunity to raid another village and to slaughter hundreds of\ndefenceless Chinese.  If the forces are anything like equal, the Lolos\nwill fight, and even sometimes when the forces are wholly unequal.  On\none occasion seven Lolos and two women put to flight three hundred\nChinese soldiers, killing forty and wounding many more.  The Chinese\nconsequently live in considerable fear of those Highland barbarians,\nwhose fierce yells and savage onslaught produce absolute panic in their\ntroops.\n\nOfficers who have commanded Chinese troops seem generally to believe in\ntheir capabilities.  Gordon, for instance, spoke in the highest terms\nof the soldiers who formed his \"ever victorious army,\" and the {28}\nEnglish officers who commanded the Weihaiwei regiment and those who\ncommanded the Chinese volunteers at the siege of Peking spoke equally\nwell of their men.  It is reported that the Chinese soldiers at the\nsiege of Tientsin would carry the wounded back out of the range of fire\nwhen no European soldiers could be found ready to perform this\ndangerous task, but of this story I could find no first-hand\nconfirmation.  But whether the Chinese in times to come will develop an\nefficient army or whether they do not, the most competent judges affirm\nthat Chinese military greatness will always make for peace; that they\nwill never wage a war of aggression; and that, so far from being a\nmenace to the world, they will prove to be a security for the world's\npeace in the Far East.  In fact it is the continuance of China's\nmilitary weakness rather than the growth of her military power which is\nmost likely to disturb the political atmosphere.  China is far too rich\na prize to be safe if unguarded, and the acquisition of her wealth will\nalways prove a temptation to her needy neighbours.\n\nThe integrity of the Chinese empire is for many reasons a most\ndesirable thing, and that integrity can best be maintained by an\nincrease of China's military power.\n\nOne of the reasons why this is so much to be desired is from the\ncommercial effect which China may have on the rest of the world.  If\nthe vast masses of her singularly excellent workmen are to be exploited\nby powers who have no thought for either {29} hers or the world's\nwelfare; if the sweated den of the alien is a menace to the healthy\nconditions of the working man in London; if the policy of such\nphilanthropists as Lord Shaftesbury has been at all beneficial to the\nworld at large, the sudden introduction of hundreds of thousands of\nill-paid but efficient working men to the great Western market will\nhave a deleterious effect on the social conditions of the civilised\nworld.  It is obviously far more simple to bring the factories to China\nthan to bring the Chinaman to the factories, and this will be freely\ndone if ever the flag of the foreigner waves over China.  The great\nadvantages that China can offer of cheap labour, cheap coal and cheap\ncarriage, coupled with the security of a European flag, will have the\neffect of attracting to China a very large number of the world's\nindustries.  If this is done gradually, so that the internal market in\nChina increases proportionally, this will not result in any evil to\nother nations.  China will share in the wealth of the world, and will\nbe at once a large producer and a large consumer; but if before Western\ncivilisation has been assimilated by the working classes Western\nfactories are extensively started in China the result will be one of\nthose dislocations of social conditions which we include under the name\nof sweating.\n\nWestern conditions of labour in Western countries may be deemed by some\nto be hard, but no one can doubt that if Western conditions of labour\nwere forced on a population which did not understand them, they {30}\nwould have a tendency to become definitely oppressive.  The Chinese\ncoolie will, I fear, be as little able to maintain his ground against\nthe foreign contractor supported by the arms of a foreign power, as the\nCongo native is to maintain his rights against his Belgian oppressor;\nand unless Western powers have the humanity and wisdom to resist those\nof their own nations who will clamour to make money out of Chinese\nlabour, Western dominance in China is not to be desired by Western\nwage-earners.\n\n[Illustration: HANKOW, THE CHICAGO OF CHINA.  RIVER AT LOW WATER, 600\nMILES FROM THE SEA.  HAN-YANG IRONWORKS]\n\nOne of the most impressive sights in China is the Han-yang Ironworks.\nThey employ three thousand men, and are owned by a body of Chinese\ncapitalists.  They have found it worth while to triple their plant\nwithin the last two or three years, and one can hardly wonder when one\nrealises that, though the labourers are paid a very high rate according\nto Chinese scale, they only get sixpence a day, and even allowing that\nit requires three Chinamen to do the work of one Englishman, which is a\nhigher proportion than is generally claimed, obviously there is a very\nlarge margin of profit to be made by the owners of the works.  It is\nworthy of note that the Chinese have been unable at present to produce\nany native engineers; sixteen Europeans of various nationalities manage\nand control the works, though they are owned by Chinese, but the\nskilled work is all done by Chinese.  For instance, we saw a man\nstraightening the rails with a steam hammer; it was very skilled work,\nand I was told he was making 7d. or {31} 8d. a day.  If any social\nreformer, if any one interested in the condition of the working\nclasses, has time to consider this question and to escape from that\nparochial mind which so distorts the importance of things, he will see\nthat the conditions of the working classes in Europe will depend to a\ngreater degree on the proper development of the social conditions of\nChina than on any factor at home.  To put it briefly, if the fourth of\nthe labour of this world is living under sweating conditions, the other\nthree-fourths may consider themselves lucky if their income is not cut\ndown by 25 per cent.\n\nOn the other hand, if the development of China is allowed to pursue its\nnormal course, and education and enlightenment are encouraged to\nproceed by equal steps with material well-being, the commercial\nconditions of China, so far from being injurious, will prove beneficial\nto the world at large.  The internal market, for one thing, will tend\nto keep pace with China's productions.  If China exports, she will also\nimport; the volume of trade will no doubt be enormously increased, and\nthat trade will bring prosperity to China and to those other countries\nwho are trading with her.  Her people will gradually grow accustomed to\nWestern conditions, and, if China maintains her independence, those\nconditions will not be allowed to become too onerous to the poorer\nclasses.  The wealth of another country does not injure her neighbours;\nit is rather her poverty which injures them.  There is always the\ndanger that the poorer country {32} will drain the capital from the\nricher country, and that a rich country becomes harsh to a poor country\nin the same way that the creditor is harsh to the debtor; certainly it\nwould be most undesirable if a sudden industrial expansion in China\nparalysed many industrial undertakings in England by depriving them of\nthe capital they needed for enlargement, and it would be equally\nundesirable to have any industrial undertaking in China controlled by a\nBoard of Directors in London, whose one object was to increase their\ndividends, and who were ignorant of and therefore indifferent to the\ninjury that might be incidentally done to the welfare of thousands of\nChinese who fell under their power.\n\nAnd this brings me to the third point of how China may affect the rest\nof the world.  She may, and most probably will, degrade the moral tone\nof Europe.  On the other hand, it will be quite possible that she may\nact as a moral tonic.  We scarcely realise the nature of the chains\nthat bind one part of our civilisation to another.  To hear men talk,\none would suppose that the great factors in the government of mankind\nare the laws and regulations made by kings and popular assemblies; but\na deeper inquiry must show that it is only the smaller part of a man's\nlife that is controlled by law, the greater part is controlled by\ncustom or fashion which is enforced, to use the technical term, by the\nsanction of public opinion.  Consider, for instance, the customs of\ndress, or of manners, or the hours we keep, or the way we {33} refer to\nthings, or even our very thoughts--they are all subject to this power;\nthe State does not generally command any particular dress, yet there is\na large and increasing measure of uniformity in dress.  You may go from\nAsia to America, from Vancouver to Vladivostock, and you will see\nuniformity in the rules of dress.  This uniformity is all the more\nremarkable, because its laws, instead of being fixed and stationary,\nare constantly altered; indeed, in comparison with the power of\nfashion, the powers of the greatest autocrat or of the most efficient\npublic office are as nothing.  The autocrat may give an order; the\npublic office, with its endless clerks and forms, with its miles of\nred-tape, may try to see that order carried out; but may quite possibly\nfail.  But fashion, issuing her capricious orders, has no office, no\nclerks, no printed forms that have to be filled up to secure obedience,\nyet her subjects yield such willing service that they seek for\ninformation from every quarter as to the nature of her commands, and\nwhen they know them, they count neither money nor comfort to be of\nimportance compared with obedience to their mistress.  The world, while\nit wonders at its own submission, enlarges or reduces its clothes,\nalters its head-gear, and further, will even change its manners, its\nspeech, and its thoughts.  The latest fashion-book is but the\nexaggeration of a world-power; the same power that compels women to\ntighten their skirts and widen their hats, makes their husbands talk\nabout socialism and observe Empire Day.  The power of fashion lies in\n{34} this, that while every one obeys, no one is conscious of any\ndifficulty in obeying; the chains with which fashion binds this world\nmay be so strong that the strongest nature cannot break them, yet they\nare so light that the most sensitive natures are not conscious of their\nrestraint.\n\nBut this great power of fashion has its limits, and those are the\nlimits of our civilisation.  The mandate of the dressmaker may reach\nfrom Siberia to Peru, but it has no power in Mohammedan, Hindu, or\nConfucian lands; the Turkish lady still veils her face, the Hindu still\nadheres to his caste, the Confucian up to this moment still preserves\nhis queue and his blue robe, but if China accepts our civilisation this\nmust change.  The modern Chinaman dresses in Western fashion; the loose\nflowing garment of China acts as a sort of barometer by which the\nextent of European pressure can be tested; up-country they are as loose\nas ever, but in Shanghai, wherever Chinese dress is still preserved, it\nhas grown tight.  A change typical of what may happen if the union\nbetween the civilisations takes place without any guidance may now be\nseen in the streets of Shanghai; the dress of the women is shaped in\nthe Chinese fashion, they wear the traditional coat and trousers, but\nthe cut of those garments offends both East and West alike by their\ngreat exiguity.\n\nEvery one would allow that Western fashions, or, at any rate, men's\nfashions, must to a great extent affect China, but there is a deeper\nthought beyond; {35} Western fashions will not merely affect Chinese\ndress, but they will also affect Chinese thought, and when they have\nincorporated Chinese thought into Western civilisation, when the\nconquest is complete and China and the West are one, a reaction will\ntake place, and that which has subdued China to the yoke of Western\nfashion will give in its turn power to China to control the Western\nworld.  Without suggesting for a moment that Peking fashions will take\nthe place of Paris fashions, or that the Englishman will grow a queue,\nI do suggest that there are many precedents in history for expecting\nthat such a moral force as the Chinese reverence for parents, or such\nan immoral position as the Chinese contempt for the working-man, will\nnot be without its effect on the Western world.  Again and again it has\nbeen pointed out by both missionary and Government official, that so\ngreat is the power of China, that she brings into subjugation to her\nthought any one who is long resident in her country.  If it should\nhappen that the Western world should neglect the Chinaman when it has\nthe opportunity of teaching and directing him, longing as he is to\nlearn about Western civilisation, the punishment of the West will be\nthat she will, in years to come, be influenced for evil by the power of\nthe great Celestial Empire.  If, on the other hand, the East should\nturn towards Christianity, and, taught by Christianity, should learn to\nlive a higher life, the example of her faith and of her morality will\nin years to come react beneficially on the Western world.\n\n\n\n\n{36}\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nORIENTAL AND OCCIDENTAL\n\nThe West cannot either by right or through self-interest ignore the\nproblem that China has to solve.  From being the most conservative\ncountry in the world, she has become a country in which there is rapid\nchange.  The whole civilisation of this vast country of 400,000,000 is\nbecoming fundamentally altered by the importation into it of ideas and\nthoughts which are not native to her, and which have been created by a\nsystem of religion and by a history belonging to nations very different\nto herself.  The full difficulty does not present itself till after\nsome thought.  The problem is quite different from that which has been\nbefore mankind in other parts of the world.  China is trying to accept\nWestern civilisation, but there is a danger that it will be without\nChristianity.  I know that many Europeans living in Tientsin and\nShanghai, who give but little thought to the problems before them,\nsomewhat vaguely hope that in the near future China will become a\nEuropean nation; but a little consideration must convince everybody\nthat this is impossible.  We have also already shown that China is\nquite determined--in fact, she has no alternative--not to {37} remain\nthe old conservative country that lives on ancient traditions, that\nlooks back two thousand years for all teaching in the arts of\ngovernment.\n\nIf China, therefore, is neither to become Western nor to remain what\nshe is, of necessity she will have to blend the two civilisations\ntogether and to take a part from each.  The Chinese themselves, with a\nsanguineness for which they have no warrant, are quite certain that\nthis is an easy matter.  They tell the inquirer that they have\nconsidered it well, and that they see their way completely through it.\nThey intend to select from Europe only those things that are\nadvantageous to the race, and they expect to have no difficulty in\nweaving these incongruous elements into their own very complete system\nof thought.  Statesmen seriously say that three or four months' extra\nstudy will enable the educated Chinaman to learn all that is necessary\nof Western civilisation, and then those who have acquired this\nknowledge can return to China and teach their fellow-countrymen; and it\nis impossible to convince the Chinese that the uniting together of two\ndifferent webs of thought is a matter of extreme difficulty, and, it\nmay be added, of extreme risk.  The pleasing dream that you can\narbitrarily select the good points of West and East and weave them into\none is the very reverse of the truth.  What naturally happens is the\nvery opposite.  There is a tendency to preserve that which is bad and\nnot that which is good in two different systems of thought when they\nare united into one.  The reason {38} probably is that as the bad has\nits common origin in the wickedness of human nature, it belongs to both\nsystems of thought, and therefore both the Chinaman and the Western\nmeet on common ground when they meet in vice or vileness.  On the other\nhand, the virtues of both are the result of moral cultivation resting\non authorities which are not recognised by either.  Therefore the\ntendency is to waive all moral obligations as resting on controverted\ngrounds.  Whatever may be the cause, the result is obvious--the\nWesternised Oriental, unless a Christian, is as a rule only one shade\nbetter than the Orientalised Western.\n\nWhile the careless thinker hopes generally that good will come out of\nthe union of the two, he is as a rule terrified lest there should be\nany tendency to mingle Western with Eastern thought in any one of whom\nhe is fond.  A leading man at Tientsin, extolling the healthy climate\nof the place, related how he had kept his children there ever since\nthey were born.  His friend from home, ignorant of life in a Chinese\nport, said in an appreciative way, \"How nice it must be for your\nchildren to be able to speak Chinese; I suppose you encourage them to\nlearn it?\"  The dweller in China turned on him in anger and said,\n\"Thank God, my children do not know one word of Chinese; I would send\nthem home to-morrow if I caught them learning a single sentence.\"  This\nenthusiasm for ignorance of the language of a great nation is\nextraordinarily difficult to understand until the danger of the mixture\nof Eastern and Western thought {39} is realised.  Experience has taught\nthose who have lived in China that it is only a few that can come\nunscathed through the terrible trial of having to live in two moral\natmospheres.\n\nOne of the most striking books that has ever been written is\n\"Indiscreet Letters from Peking.\"  The book is marvellous in the power\nit has of bringing before the eyes of its reader those awful scenes\nduring the siege of Peking, but it is far more wonderful in the\ncharacter that it imputes to the hypothetical narrator--a character\ntypical of a man who is equally at home in England and in China; and in\nthat character is portrayed a true but curiously unpleasant picture of\nthe characteristics of both races.  The narrator has the courage of a\nlion; he is absolutely without any sense of honour.  He fires at an\nadversary under the flag of truce.  He misuses a Manchu woman who in\nthe horrors of the sack throws herself on his mercy.  He connives at\nthe breaking of a solemnly pledged word of honour by a soldier.  The\ncharacter is not overdrawn; characters such as these are common in a\nmixed world, and it is natural that English people should fear that\ntheir children should grow up so unutterably vile.  But if the\nEnglishman fears for his child, ought he to ignore the welfare of the\ncountry in which he lives, and can we pass over this whole problem as\nsomething that does not concern us; for what he fears for his child\nwill happen to the whole Chinese nation.\n\nThe blending together of the East and the West {40} may be accomplished\nwith the ease which the Chinaman expects--but not in the way in which\nhe or anybody else could wish--it may be accomplished by the\neradication of all that is good in either race, on the common ground of\nvice and sin and evil and cruelty; unless, indeed, the efforts of those\nwho are now labouring to weave together that which is good in both\ncivilisations are supported.  The difficulty of preserving the good\npoints and high qualities of Chinese thought is only equalled by the\ndifficulty of introducing the splendid traditions of the West and\ngrafting them on to the Chinese stock.  What success has followed the\nefforts of those who are thus labouring is rather to be credited to the\nintensity of their efforts, to their single-hearted purpose, to their\nready self-denial, than to the ease or simplicity of their task.\n\nNo man of any feeling or any conscience could pass indifferently by a\nsingle individual eating the berries of a deadly plant, unconscious\nthat they were poison.  What shall be said, then, if we allow, not only\none individual but a fourth of the population of the world, to eat of a\ndeadly poison which must deprive them of all happiness and of life,\nwhich must condemn them by millions to the misery of the very blackest\ndarkness, where the only motives known are selfishness, lust, pride,\nand cruelty, for this is what certainly will happen to China if she\naccepts the materialism of the West.\n\nWestern thought is very powerful.  The way it has dominated the forces\nof nature gives it a great {41} prestige.  As the Chinaman learns about\nsteam and electricity, about the telephone, the flying machine, radium,\nand a thousand more Western inventions, he cannot fail to be impressed,\nhe must admit that these people have knowledge.  Do not for a moment\nimagine that, after such an illumination, he will be able to go back to\nthe works of Confucius and learn again the old maxims, many of which\nare antipathetic to Western thought--yes, even more incongruous to\nWestern than they are to Christian thought.  How will he, for instance,\nread Confucius' condemnation of war when the Japanese and Germans and\nRussians are shouting into his ears, \"By war ye shall live and by war\nalone.\"\n\nIn an interview I had with that great statesman, Tong-Shao-Yi, he said,\n\"We respect Confucius because he has never taught any man to err.\"\nUnlike the teaching of Christianity, Confucius preaches that the test\nof truth is worldly success, and therefore by that test his preaching\nwill be tried and found wanting by the materialist.  The materialist\nwill say, if Confucius never taught men to err, how is it that the\nWestern nations who are ignorant of his teaching have succeeded, and\nthat China, who outnumbers them greatly, and who after years of\neducation and training and of following faithfully his teaching, has\nfailed?  How is it, they will ask, that she is so powerless, that were\nit not for European jealousies she could not stand a day before the\nleast warlike of these Western nations?  The Confucian {42} will\nanswer, \"He taught us to despise war, and that is why we are weak.\"\nThe materialist will certainly retort, \"So he has taught you to err.\"\nConfucianism must fall before Western materialism.  I do not speak of\nBuddhism, for that is falling so quickly that its influence may be said\nto be almost gone.  China will be left stripped of religion, robbed of\nher old ideas, and not clothed with new ones, wandering into all the\nmisery and humiliation that vice and sin can bring upon mankind, till\nthe curse of her millions in misery will go out against the harsh\nunfeeling West, who could leave her thus blind and helpless without a\nguide.\n\nThe call is great.  Those who have knowledge have no right to keep it\nto themselves.  The Christian and the Confucian agree in this, as they\ndo in much else, that all knowledge must be shared.  One of the\npurposes of this book is to arouse my readers to the importance of\ntaking some action.  Had they had an opportunity of going to China and\nseeing things for themselves, I would only have asked them to think;\nbut as there are many who have not had that opportunity, I would try\nand show them the transitional condition through which China is\npassing, the danger of that condition ending in disaster, a disaster\nwide as the world itself.  I hope to show them what is being done at\nthe present time to lead the Chinese empire into safe paths, and to\nilluminate her with the highest knowledge of the West.  Many efforts\nhave been made, and there has been much success.  I {43} am glad to\ntestify publicly to the heroic and self-denying character of the\nmissions, but those who are most successful are those who frankly say\nChina can never be led by aliens.\n\nNo race loves the alien, and the further away the alien is in blood and\nlanguage the less he is loved; therefore the Chinese above all races\nare least fitted to be led by the European, as they differ from him in\nmost racial characteristics.  If they are to be led by their own race,\ntheir own race must be fit to lead them.  They must have leaders who\nunderstand the whole of Western knowledge, and will be able to take\nwhat is true and leave what is false.  A Japanese thinker said the\nother day, \"Our people have made a great mistake--they have taken the\nfalse and left the true part of Western thought.\"  Let us hope that\nChina may be preserved from such an error, that she may learn Western\nknowledge so thoroughly and so well that she may be able to distinguish\nthe good from the bad, the beautiful from the vile in our system of\nthought.\n\n\n\n\n{44}\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nFOREIGN RELATIONS OF CHINA\n\nIt is impossible to study any Chinese question and ignore the relations\nof China with foreign powers.  They are always curious and generally\nunique.  Certainly any one who goes to China for the purpose of\nstudying the mission question cannot but be struck at the extraordinary\ntreaty rights possessed by missionaries.  In most countries the teacher\nof religion has no peculiar rights.  He is, alas! more often bullied\nthan favoured by the modern State, even if that State should profess\nitself well inclined towards religion.  Therefore one would naturally\nexpect in China, where Christianity is reputed to be disliked, that\nthose who teach it would have to contend with every form of disability\nthat a hostile State could inflict.\n\nA feeling of marvel comes over the mind when one realises that in this\nland of contradictions the persecuted missionary enjoys quite peculiar\nprivileges.  The ordinary foreigner cannot, for instance, travel in\nChina except by the courtesy of the Government--a courtesy, indeed,\nwhich is never refused; but a missionary may travel freely.  The\nordinary foreigner has no right to stay in any {45} town in China with\nthe exception of the treaty ports; a missionary may stay where he\nlikes.  The ordinary man cannot buy land; the missionary has a right to\npurchase land for the purpose of teaching Christianity.\n\nSo it came about, when we were in China, that His Majesty's Consul,\nwith all the might of England at his back, was unable to buy a suitable\nsite to erect a house where he could bring his wife.  He was living in\na temple, and temples in China are not very comfortable.  I should\nexplain to the uninitiated that every Buddhist temple has guest-rooms\nattached to it--Chinese rooms largely composed of wooden screens; and\nthese temples are let out as residences by a people whose faith has\nless hold upon their affections than their purse.  Now, ladies are not\nas a rule prepared to live in a house with paper partitions in a\nclimate where the winters are extremely cold; so the Consul asked a\nmissionary to buy a piece of land on which he could erect a suitable\nhouse, and he had almost succeeded when the Chinese Government found\nout that the land was not to be used for missionary purposes and\nrefused to allow the sale.  This does seem a strange situation when one\nremembers that had that Consul resigned his appointment and joined a\nmissionary body, he could have bought the land and settled his wife\ncomfortably in four solid stone walls, but because he was England's\nrepresentative and not a missionary he had to shiver between wood and\n{46} paper screens, and this in a country which is supposed to hate\nmissionaries.\n\nThe explanation of this curious situation is really twofold.  First,\nthe hatred that the official bears for the missionary is not of such an\nintense character as to induce him to offer a very strenuous resistance\nto the missionaries who desire to buy land; and secondly, missionaries\nhave peculiar and special rights secured to them by a series of\ntreaties among the most curious in the history of diplomacy.\n\nIn 1844 the Americans got by treaty a right to the free exercise of the\nChristian religion in the open ports.  This right, sufficiently\nremarkable in itself, has often been stipulated by a State for its own\nnationals resident in a foreign country, but I doubt if it has ever\nbefore been known for a country to insist on the right of preaching a\nreligion to somebody else's citizens.  This was obviously an\ninterference of the sovereign rights of China.\n\nIt was pushed even further in 1860.  The French and English had just\ncompleted the sack of the \"Summer Palace,\" and whatever the justice or\nthe injustice of the war may have been, China had tasted her first\ngreat lesson of humiliation from the hand of Western powers, and was in\nno condition to resist any of their demands.  The English and the\nFrench made treaties, most of them concerned with commercial and\nmilitary matters with which it is not necessary to trouble the reader,\nand the French had a condition which was quite reasonable, that the\n{47} Chinese should restore all the buildings that had been destroyed\nin the late troubles; the wording of the clause was so vague that it\ncould be made to apply, and did apply, to any building which had been\ndestroyed at any previous time in the history of China, but the most\nremarkable part of the clause needs further explanation.  The French\nhad as their interpreter a very able Jesuit, P\u00e8re Delamarre, and as the\nFrench Minister could not read Chinese, he had to trust his interpreter\nwith regard to the Chinese version, and this man inserted into the\ntreaty two other provisions, one securing that Christians should have a\nright to the free exercise of their religion all over China, and the\nother that French missionaries should have the right to rent land in\nall the provinces in the empire and to buy and construct houses.  When\nthis pious fraud was discovered, the French Minister thought it would\ndo no good to denounce his interpreter, and therefore the treaty was\ntreated by the French as binding and never questioned by the Chinese;\nthe other powers profited by it under the \"most favoured nation\" clause.\n\nThe Roman Catholics a few years later pushed the wording of this treaty\nto its uttermost.  Their missions had been at work for 150 years or\nmore, and they could prove a great number of confiscations which had to\nbe made good by the Chinese.  Just at that time in France Napoleon III.\nwas trying to establish a doubtful title by the help of the Pope, {48}\nand it was his policy to push in every way the interests of the Roman\nCatholics.  China had felt the weight of European armies and she was\nunable to resist these claims, and so it came about that the very\ncountry which now is the centre of free thought was the means of\nforcing Christianity upon the Chinese through fear of her armed power.\n\nCan you be surprised at the answer I got when I asked a Chinese\nstatesman, who I knew was sympathetic with the teaching of\nChristianity, why China, who had always professed, and to a very great\nextent had practised tolerance, should persecute Christianity?  His\nreply was, the Chinese did not hate Christianity, and were indeed\ntolerant of missions, but they still disliked them, because\nChristianity is the religion of the military races, and they had a\nhistorical tradition that the advance of Christianity was connected\nwith war.\n\nThis bad reputation has been intensified by the action of the Germans.\nNo reasonable man can condemn the Germans for wishing to enlarge and\ndevelop their trade.  We can understand the patriotic German saying\nthat it was the duty of Germany to establish good government in\nShantung, but it is very hard to understand how any one can defend the\ntaking of Kiauchau on the ground that certain German missionaries had\nbeen murdered.  The taking of Kiauchau by the Germans has completed the\nwork begun by the French.  Christianity and the foreign relations of\nChina are {49} inextricably mixed up, and every Chinaman, believed till\nlately that Christianity was the religion which has led foreign nations\nto enter his land.  \"First the missionary, then the trader, lastly the\ngunboat,\" has been too often the order of advance.  I am happy to be\nable to say that the Americans and the English have made great efforts\nto dissociate themselves from this evil, and have tried to avoid any\nappearance of such a connection.  I was told that in Shansi, owing to\nthe indemnity for the murders of missionaries being retained to China\nand spent on founding a University instead of being accepted by the\nmissions, Protestant missions are very popular.  \"You have only to say\nyou are an English clergyman,\" said my Chinese informant, \"and every\ndoor will be open to you.\"\n\nThe present aspect of foreign affairs has tended to destroy the\nunfortunate connection between Christianity and foreign aggression.\nThe two great powers whose armies have met in Manchuria have neither of\nthem any interest in missions.  Russia has never had any missions in\nChina.  She forbade them, I understand, because they were likely to\nembroil her in unnecessary wars.  Japan, of course, has none.  The\nGermans, who made the murder of missionaries the reason of aggression,\nhave not many missionaries in China belonging to their nationality.\nChina, therefore, is coming to look upon Christianity as not quite so\ndangerous a thing as it seemed when it was essentially the religion of\nthe French and of the English {50} whose armies and navies then held\nChina in fear.  Still the political situation cannot but have great\ninterest to the missionary.  Even while he rejoices that the foreign\nrelations of China and his work are not so intimately connected as they\nused to be, he must ask himself, what will the result to my work be, if\nin the great world struggle Japan or Russia should dominate?  At\npresent he fears Japan more than Russia; and his fears are shared, but\nfor other reasons, by the Chinese.\n\nThe wildest and most ambitious schemes are accredited to Japan, I\ncannot say with how much truth.  Her purse is empty, but she has far\nmore courage and skill in war than most nations.  If she possessed even\none part of China she might add to her wealth to such an extent that no\nrace could dare to oppose her, while if she governed China, her armies,\nsupported by the wealth of that mighty empire, might threaten the\nstability of Europe.  She is reported to have two regiments working as\nprivate individuals in Fukien, and to be prepared to seize the province\nin case of any disorder.  The fact that there are many Japanese in the\nprovince, and that all the Japanese are trained soldiers, gives some\ncloak to this suggestion.  The Fukienese speak a different dialect to\nthe rest of China, and they have a natural geographical frontier, which\nwould enable the Japanese to maintain themselves there if they were\nonce established.\n\nAgain, the recent events have shown that they are preparing to exercise\nsovereign rights over Chinese {51} territory in Manchuria.  On the\nother hand, Russia is arming; she is double-tracking the railway from\nSt. Petersburg to Irkutsk, and she is getting ready again for a\nstruggle in Manchuria; the gossip among the officers there is that\nthere is to be a war; the Russians do not for a moment regard\nthemselves as defeated; they think of the late campaign merely as an\n\"unfortunate incident.\"\n\nBut the most important development in Russian policy is the proposed\nrailway across Mongolia which will give Russia an entrance to the west\nof China and into Peking.  It is hard to see how, if an advance were\nmade along that line, Japan could in any way resist Russia; the whole\nbreadth of China would lie between them.  Meanwhile the Germans of the\neast have perfected a railway system which converts Kiauchau from being\nan out-of-the-way place which no one cared about, to a door into the\nvery heart of China.  In commercial circles in China it is reported\nthat the Commandant of the Tientsin garrison suggested that the object\nof the building of the German Fleet was not so much to conquer England\nas to ensure that Germany should be able to maintain her position in\nthe Far East and make full use of Kiauchau as a way by which her armies\nmight enter China.  When one looks at the map and sees how China is\nsurrounded by these powers, and how they are pressing upon her, one\nrealises why the Chinese are feeling that Western education is an\nabsolute necessity, and that if they are to maintain their {52}\nindependence they must understand the arts of war.  A great Viceroy was\nreported to have said that he frankly expected China to be conquered,\nand to learn from her conquerors the Western arts which would in turn\nenable her to dominate the West; for this has been her history in the\npast, that may be her history in the future, and I think that the\nnations, who propose to conquer her, will do wisely if they consider\nwhat might be the result of her influence on them.\n\nChina is trying to defend herself by building a navy and creating an\narmy.  The navy is rather an _op\u00e9ra bouffe_ concern; every now and then\nshe talks of having ships; the representatives of all the shipbuilders\nof the world fly to Peking and try in every way to induce China to buy\na fleet which they offer to provide at the very shortest notice, but at\npresent she has none.  She has, as a practical step, created a training\nschool of officers.  It consists only of some 140 men, and is taught by\ntwo British officers lent her by our navy.  They said that there was\nthe greatest difficulty in getting the Chinese to be practical; they\ninduced the Government at last to put an old ship at their disposal.\nFor a long time this was refused, and when it was granted it was\nregarded as a most wonderful and original departure.  The Chinese way\nof training naval officers would have been to have instructed them on\nliterary subjects, and to encourage them to write essays and poems on\nthe sea.  To take them out on {53} the Yangtsze in a ship and actually\nto show them how a ship was managed, was a wholly new idea, but one of\nwhich they approve under the impulse of the modern fashion of doing\nthings in accordance with Western traditions.\n\nAs to the army, its exterior is certainly not prepossessing; far and\naway the most efficient part of it has been created by Yuan-Shi-Kei in\nManchuria, and the Chinese are very anxious to show it to the passing\ntraveller.  Both times when we passed through Manchuria, on every\nstation were armed guards, and in one case they were inspected by a\nGeneral who was travelling in our train.  He was saluted by the\nofficers in charge in Chinese fashion, which is a modified form of a\nkow-tow, and consists to all intents and purposes of a curtsey.  It had\na distinctly funny appearance to see the officers in charge of the\nguards curtseying as we steamed into the stations.  Down at Nanking the\narmy was far less smart--in fact, it had the appearance of being a very\ndisorderly rabble; I understand when the Empress died it was regarded\nas such a danger that those in authority put the broad Yangtsze between\nthem and a possible mutiny.\n\nThe real danger to China as regards foreign relations is that her bad\nfinance or her own want of discipline may bring about a state of\ninternal disorder which may compel the interference of foreign powers.\nLast year this nearly did happen.  Two regiments mutinied and seized a\ntown on the {54} Yangtsze; they stopped all communications with the\noutside world, and to all intents and purposes were in a fair way to\ncommence a rebellion.  Close by them were several other regiments who\nmight be expected to throw in their lot with them, and the position was\nvery critical.  The missionaries inside the town were in fear of their\nlives, and with difficulty managed to communicate with the British\nConsul and to tell him of their plight.  He ordered a gunboat to go\ndown, and the presence of the gunboat intimidated the mutineers.  At\nthe same time the Governor of the city showed remarkable courage in\ngoing round the town pacifying the mob.  The authorities were able to\nmove in two other regiments, who had no sympathy with the mutiny.  The\nmutineers were disarmed and the incident closed.  But such an incident\nmay occur at any moment.  The condition of the country is such that\nanywhere a rising may occur, and the fire once alight may be hard to\nextinguish; the result of the conflagration must be that the powers\nmust enter to secure the safety of their nationals.\n\nAltogether poor China is in a dangerous position in regard to her\nforeign relations; all round her echoes the cry, \"You must reform or\ndisappear.\"  Every railway that is made, every loan that is floated,\nevery trade that is opened up, bring to China increased\nresponsibilities in her foreign relations.  If she by her good\ngovernment and readiness to reform can show that she is able to\nmaintain {55} order in her own land, and to give to foreigners an equal\nsecurity to that they have in any other country, her empire may endure\nfor many hundred years; but if she be found wanting at the present time\nand the corruption of her officials renders her unable to maintain\norder in her country or to fulfil her financial obligations, a new\nphase in Chinese history will be reached, which will, I believe, be of\nextraordinary danger to Europe; China will yield to the military might\nof the West only to rise again to dominate those who dominated her.\n\nThe missionary who looks at these dark clouds which surround China, the\nland of his adoption, feels that there is only one course to take,\nnamely, the course that he is taking, to try and build up in China a\nhigh tone of morality, founded on religion, which may enable her to\naccept necessary reforms and to put herself abreast of other nations.\n\n\n\n\n{56}\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nCHINESE CIVILISATION--ITS WEAK SIDE\n\nI do not suppose that we can have any conception of the amount of\nsuffering which goes on at the present time in China.  The first time\nwe were in China I had the honour of meeting a Mr. Ede, who had just\nreturned from distributing food in a famine-stricken district, and his\ndescription was truly terrible; the young men had walked away and found\nwork in other districts, but the old people and the children had to\nremain.  What had caused the famine in this case was characteristic of\nunreformed China; \"China's sorrow,\" the river Hoang-ho, had done what\nit is ever doing, that is, it had flooded a district.  When you pass\nover it, it looks most innocuous.  It is wholly unable, as a rule, to\nfill its own vast bed, which is covered with delightful sands,\nreminding one more than anything else of the sea-shore at low tide; but\nthis sand is what makes it dangerous, for it is not good heavy English\nsand, but a light sand which is called \"loess,\" and when the river\ncomes down in a flood--that is to say, when they have rainy weather in\nThibet or the sun shines unduly on Himalayan snows--this sand is\ncarried along with the water, {57} and it is asserted indeed that the\nriver consists more of sand than of water; as the river slackens the\nsand is deposited and the bed is filled up, with the result that the\nnext flood, taking the Chinese unawares, overflows its banks and\nreduces a huge district to poverty; they cannot sow their fields\nbecause they cannot see them.  Of course the authorities should not be\ntaken by surprise and the banks should be made up, and canals should be\ncut to take away the water in case of a flood; an enlightened Chinese\nengineer assured me he had a scheme for raising the level of huge\ndistricts of China by using this peculiar character of the Hoang-ho and\nturning its sand and water flood on to bare places, and he asserted\nthat the results were most wonderfully successful, and that districts\nwhich were unfertile before, when well washed and covered up with this\nloess, became fertile.  Still, however beneficial a flood may be to the\nland in the end, its immediate result is to starve the population who\nare flooded out, for they have no reserves of food.\n\nIn the case already referred to, the country was a long time under\nwater, because a canal which should have drained it away was not kept\nclear.  The money had been paid, but, as often happens in China, the\nwork had not been done.  The action that the authorities took was\ncharacteristic of Chinese government.  China possesses the system of\ninternal custom-houses--a system which the wildest advocate of Tariff\nReform would hardly like {58} to see introduced into Europe; these\ncustom-houses are called \"Likin,\" and are a source at once of a great\ndeal of profit to the provinces and of irritation to all traders.  The\nChinese used these custom-houses to engineer a corner in rice by which\nthe area of scarcity of food was enormously increased and several\nofficials amassed considerable sums of money; by the law of China it is\nillegal to export rice even from one province to another; this law was\nput in force, and the rice supply was cut off; at the same time early\nin the famine certain rich men bought up rice freely, with the result\nthat it rose to a very high figure, so that round the area of famine\nand desolation there was an area of scarcity and shortage.\n\nA large amount of food from all parts of the world was sent by the\nfamine funds, but it was very difficult to induce the officials to\nallow the food to enter the famine district.  They were filled with all\nsorts of scruples.  They were afraid, for instance, that the steamers\ntowing the barges full of food on a canal which had not before been\nopened for steamers, might excite the hostility of the population; they\nwere courteous, they were diplomatic, but they were obstructive; and so\nit came about that while there was a famine in one district of China,\nin the other districts there was a very heavy surplus, of which they\nhad difficulty in disposing.  All this did not create the slightest\nsurprise in those who knew China.  When the story was told {59} us all\nthe old Chinese hands merely said, \"How like China,\" or \"Just like\nthem.\"  This was our first insight into what the civilisation of China\nmeans, and therefore for the first time we realised the problem that is\nbefore the world--the problem which missionaries, with great devotion,\nare trying to solve.\n\nChinese civilisation is not, as many people imagine it to be, a mere\ncourtesy title for a state in reality only a degree off barbarism.\nMany of my humbler parishioners, for instance, when we left for China,\nranked the Chinese as something very near cannibals, and I do not think\nthey would have been in the least surprised to hear that we had been\nroasted and eaten by the natives.  The Chinese have perhaps a greater\nright to be called civilised than we have on this side of the world;\ntheir civilisation dates from eras we are accustomed to call Biblical.\nConfucius and Ezra represent contemporaneous ideas--ideas that are not\nwholly different in thought.  While on the other side of the globe\ncivilisation has been handed from nation to nation, and a civilised\nrace has become barbarous and a barbarous race civilised, the Chinese,\nwithout making any very great advance, have steadily proceeded along a\npath of progress, and at the present time they possess a very carefully\norganised system of society.  On paper the whole thing is perfect: the\nEmperor at the top, the Viceroys over each province, under them the\nPrefectures, and so down to the village community {60} in the country\nor the trade guild in the town.  The system of government is so perfect\nthat they claim that they are able to discover any individual wanted\namong those 400,000,000 of Chinese, unless his disguise is very\nperfect.  When we were chatting over the revolutionaries and talking\nabout a certain doctor dodging in and out of China at the risk of his\nlife, I said that I wondered that there was any difficulty at all for a\nman who was bred in the country wandering where he liked, and I was\nassured that such was the organisation of the Chinese Government that\nthey could lay hands even in the remotest village on anybody if they\nrequired him, and that the only way a revolutionary could hope to\nescape arrest was by a most perfect and complete disguise.\n\nWith this splendid organisation is joined great solidarity.  The\nChinese race are essentially one.  If it were your duty to look through\nreports coming from China, as it has been mine, the first thing that\nwould strike you would be its essential oneness; you will not find more\ndifference between different parts of China than there is between\nEngland and Ireland.  I do not for a moment mean to say that there are\nno differences between the Chinese--that would be untrue; but you will\nnot find such a difference as one might expect from the diversity of\ngeographical conditions.  The civilisation is essentially similar.  It\nis a civilisation with great merits.  The population is sober,\nindustrious, and perhaps I might add honest, {61} all lovers of China\nwill certainly agree; but if you are writing, as I am, to people who\nhave never been out of England, I think you will have to qualify the\nphrase with some such a one as \"honest as compared with other\nOrientals,\" or \"honest when contrasted with the Japanese.\"\n\nThey are also extremely obedient; their idea of the respect which\nshould be paid to authority far exceeds that which prevails on this\nside of the globe.  I think we may add with truth that great numbers of\nthem are very loyal to their employers.  But when this much has been\nsaid, the dark side of their civilisation must be added--it is\nessentially corrupt and cruel; the ideas of honour, purity, mercy are\nbut too little understood.  Missionaries assured us that there was no\nword for purity that could be applied to a man, while the same word\nstands for honesty and stupidity.\n\nYet this nation is in many ways well fitted for the mechanical age in\nwhich we live.  What the owner of the factory wants is an industrious,\nsober, and obedient man, and he does not want, or at least does not\nrealise that he wants, an honourable, pure, and merciful man.  The\nChinaman will be in his element in the factory; the long hours of\nmonotonous toil will not be unpleasant to him; he is always sober--in\nfact, he is by nature and culture the ideal factory hand; and yet this\nis what constitutes his danger.  He will tend to introduce into Europe\nthe vices which are now desolating his own country, unless, indeed,\n{62} the European teacher can help him to eradicate those vices.\n\nI have given you some idea of his corruption by the story told at the\nbeginning of this chapter, but we heard many others all to the same\neffect.  We went up the Yangtsze in one of the China Merchants' boats\nwith an old Swedish captain who liked the Chinese and rather disliked\nthe missionaries, so his evidence was not biassed by any wish to prove\nthat our civilisation was more perfect than that of the Chinese.  We\nasked him why it was that he being a European should be captain of a\nship that was owned by Chinese, and largely used by them.  He told us\nthat the Chinese merchants had once tried to have a Chinese captain,\nbut the moment the ship reached the first port of the Yangtsze, the\ncustom officers were on board rummaging here and rummaging there.  Very\nsoon a large amount of contraband was found on the ship, put there with\nthe knowledge of the captain.  The consequence was the ship was fined\nand delayed.  They tried Chinese captains again and again with the same\nresult, and so they have been reduced to employ Europeans to secure\nhonourable officers.  He, however, had to confess that the Chinese\ndistrusted the sobriety of the European officers, and assured us that\nthe old comprador on board, one of whose duties apparently was to look\nafter the passengers and take their tickets, was in reality a spy on\nthem.\n\nPerhaps the best instance of the corruption of the {63} Chinese is\ntheir action with regard to the currency.  In the good old days the\ncurrency of China was the silver shoe or ingot, which had no exact\nweight, and had therefore to be weighed at every transaction.  Below\nthat was the copper currency, which had no fixed relation to the silver\ncurrency, but only the relation of copper to silver.  A copper cash,\ntherefore, represented only its actual value in copper.  It was\nnaturally a most unwieldy coin.  The old books of travel in China give\nlamentable pictures of the traveller riding about with huge strings of\ncopper cash almost crushing him with their weight.  When the whites\nbegan to trade in China they introduced the Mexican dollar with its\nsubsidiary coinage, and this was the common currency in all the ports\nuntil a few years ago; but when the Chinese began to Westernise they\nconsidered it inconsistent with their dignity not to have a coinage of\ntheir own.  Led by the Japanese, and assisted by several firms whose\nspeciality was the erection of mints and mintage machinery, they\nstarted mints all over the country, and they have kept these mints busy\nwith the most _funeste_ results.  To begin with, they coined a dollar\nin imitation of the Mexican dollar, but even in this the mints did not\nagree.  Some dollars are very light, some slightly below value, and\nsome are nearly true.  The first experience of the traveller is that he\npossesses in his pocket a set of coins which no one will accept, except\nat a great reduction.  But the muddle goes further than that.  It was\nvery profitable coining light coins, {64} but it was still more\nprofitable to do so in the lower denominations.  The Chinese thought,\nor chose to think, that it did not matter what the intrinsic value of a\n10-cent piece was as long as you wrote on it 10 cents.  They have no\nbank or post-office where you have a legal right to get a dollar for\nten 10-cent pieces, and the result therefore of recklessly coining the\nbase 10-cent pieces has been not only to depreciate it with regard to\nthe dollar, but to make it an uncertain value, so that you must go to\nthe money exchangers almost every morning and ask for the rate of\nexchange between the dollar and the small silver pieces.\n\nOf course at every step on this downward path the officials concerned\nmade a great deal of money; their next step was to deal with the copper\ncoin in the same way, so now there is no fixed relation between the\ncopper coinage and the silver coinage, nor between the large copper and\nthe small, and this is still further confusing, as the provinces having\ndifferent mints have dollars of different values.  And now I hear that\nthey have begun to make money by debasing the old silver shoe coinage,\nwhich, though it is sold by weight, used to have a certain standard of\npurity, and they have issued cash which have no intrinsic value at all,\nand that do not represent the fraction of a coin having any intrinsic\nvalue.  The result of this currency \"Rake's Progress\" has been to\nproduce what corruption always does produce--widespread poverty.\nEverybody cheats.  The stationmasters {65} along the line assure the\nEuropean superintendents that the fares are always paid in the most\ndebased coinage, and it is very hard to deny the probability of this.\nBut of course the stationmasters take care if any coin comes to their\nhand which is not debased to do a bit of exchange on their own account.\n\nIf Chinese civilisation is corrupt, it is also cruel, not with the wild\ntempestuous cruelty of the savage, but with the cruelty of the\ncivilised man who at once uses human suffering as the best engine for\nhuman government, and never cares to cure it unless he has some\npecuniary object in view.  The Chinese are inured to pain, and some\npeople argue that they do not feel it to the same degree as Western\nnations.  No doubt the sensation of pain is intensified in people of\nhighly developed nervous organisation, and the Chinese have a nervous\norganisation of a very quiescent kind.  I remember, when we first\nlanded at Hong-Kong, being struck by a Chinaman who had chosen as his\nbed for his midday siesta an ordinary piece of granite curbing; and as\nyou go along in the train every freight car that you pass has some one\nsleeping on it to protect it from robbery, and a truck of coals or a\nload of stone is obviously regarded as a most comfortable\nresting-place.  Some of the doctors maintained that this was the case\nthroughout their nervous system--they were insensitive to pain; others\nsaid that pain, like everything else, is a thing to which you can get\naccustomed, and that pain has played so large a part in their lives\nthat they are {66} accustomed to it, and are not therefore afraid of\nit.  Take, for instance, the foot-binding of the women; every family in\nChina must be accustomed to hear the sobs and cries of the little girls\nas they are going through the first stages of foot-binding.  Or take\nagain the public flogging; all the working classes of China must be\nquite accustomed to the idea that men are flogged for certain offences\ntill their flesh is of the consistency of a jelly.  A doctor,\ndescribing the state in which men are brought into the hospital after\nsuch floggings, said that it was a difficult matter to avoid\nmortification setting in, and it was only with very careful treatment\nthat they could be cured, the whole flesh having to slough away, being\nabsolutely crushed and battered.\n\nYet this strange people are so indifferent to these horrors, that even\nthose who suffer will laugh amidst their sufferings.  We were told the\nfollowing tale, whether true or not I cannot say.  A man was being\nbambooed for an offence, and astonished the officials by laughing all\nthe time; the more he was flogged the harder he laughed, till at last\nthose who were punishing him stopped to ask him the reason of his\nmirth.  \"You have got the wrong man,\" he said.  It is always a comfort\nto have a keen sense of humour.\n\nI do not think there is anything more awful than the descriptions one\nhas as to the indifference to suffering that is displayed by the\naverage Chinaman.  I remember a story told me by a sailor.  As a ship\n{67} was being loaded, a man, obviously on the verge of death, came and\nasked for work, but failed to get it.  Shortly after he was seen\nhanging about the ship, and at night they found him lying between some\nbales.  He was turned out, but he constantly crept back, first to one\nplace, then to another, till at last the sailor came to know his face\nquite well.  One day, as the sailor went ashore, he was attracted by a\nlittle crowd looking at something, and this proved to be the poor\nfellow in his death struggle, lying in a gutter of water.  He called\nthe attention of a Chinese policeman to him.  The Chinese policeman\nexplained that he would move him when he was dead, as he had orders to\nremove all corpses, but that he could not move him while he was alive.\n\nDr. Macklin of Nanking told us story after story of the way in which\nthe Chinese would leave people in a dying condition on the road.  A\nlittle time ago he had ridden into an old temple, and there he saw a\nman apparently asleep, but on looking at him more closely, he saw that\nhis eyes were wide open and that the flies were walking right across\nhis eyeballs, showing that he was quite insensitive.  He called to one\nor two men and asked them to help him to carry this poor sufferer to\nsome house near, but they could not or would not find a house to keep\nhim in; and so in the end Dr. Macklin determined to take him straight\nback to Nanking, which he did.  There he administered a very heavy dose\nof quinine hypodermically, with the result that the man soon showed\n{68} signs of returning consciousness.  It was a case of malignant\nmalaria, and had he not been found by Dr. Macklin, the man must have\nbeen eaten by wild dogs or have died from the disease; as it was he\nrecovered, and proved to be a hard-working young farmer who was in\nsearch of work, as his home had been ruined by a local failure of\ncrops.  He had apparently contracted malaria, and owing to his poor and\nill-nourished condition it had gone hardly with him.\n\n[Illustration: CHINESE CIVILISATION: ITS BAD SIDE--AN OLD BEGGAR.  ITS\nGOOD SIDE--A GARDEN]\n\nBut story after story was told us always to the same effect--that the\nquality of mercy is not highly esteemed by the Chinese.  The appeal the\nbeggar makes to you as he runs after you is the old Buddhist appeal,\nwhich after all is essentially selfish, as he beseeches you \"to acquire\nmerit\" by helping him; we must remember that even this reason for mercy\nis despised by the gentry and literati of China as essentially\nbelonging to Buddhism.  Perhaps the most lurid stories that we heard\nwere up river.  One came from the country of the Lolos.  The Chinese\nwere going out to fight the Lolos, and the missionary saw them carrying\na handsome young man bound on a plank so that he could not move--so\nbound that his head was thrown back.  After certain ceremonies they cut\nthe man's throat, and scattered the blood on the flags; it was a sort\nof human sacrifice.  Another story we heard from some devoted\nFranciscan Sisters up at Ichang.  They assured us that if a mother\nfound her children {69} weakly, and she lost one or two, she would make\nup her mind that the reason they were ill was because an evil spirit\nhad a grudge against her.  She would then take one of her remaining\nchildren, and, in the hope of propitiating the evil spirit, she would\nburn that child alive.  We could not believe this story was true; but\nthat evening we saw some hard-working Presbyterian ladies, common-sense\nefficient Scotchwomen, and they assured us that it was quite true.\n\n\n\n\n{70}\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nCHINESE CIVILISATION--ITS GOOD SIDE\n\nIt would give a very false idea of the Chinese if great stress were not\nlaid on the good side of their civilisation.  They have many fine\nqualities, and in more than one point they are superior to the nominal\nChristianity of some Western countries.  The first thing perhaps that\nstrikes a foreigner when he is brought into contact with the Chinese is\ntheir great courtesy; their literati are such gentlefolk.  Even the\nless cultured people have most refined manners; no one is ever rude;\nand one of the things they cannot understand is how we can esteem a\nrough, frank, honest man.  There is a case when they would not appoint\na certain Englishman to a commercial post, preferring a man of far less\nattainments and of much shorter service, because the former was rude.\nThat was enough.  It was no use telling them that his honesty was above\nsuspicion, that he was a reliable business man, that he was very hard\nworking, that he had many years of hard service behind him; they\nallowed all this freely, but they shrugged their shoulders and said,\n\"The truth is, he is such a rude fellow, and he will give such very\ngreat offence by his bad manners,\" so they would not have him.\n\n{71}\n\nWhen a visitor enters a Yamen, he realises that his manners must be\nthose of a most polished diplomat.  Before him walks a servant, holding\naloft his visiting card.  One really ought to have special Chinese\ncards printed on beautiful sheets of red paper with queer-looking\ncharacters on them setting forth one's rank and name.  However, in\nthese days of admiration of the West, our poor little white cards are\nconsidered adequate.  The Viceroy or official meets the visitor,\nenthusiastically shaking his own hands--the Chinese salutation--and\nbowing low; the particular door at which he meets his guest marks the\namount of respect he wishes to pay him, and is therefore of some\nimportance.  In my case, when my host was favourable to higher\neducation, I was received in the outer court.  At every door there was\na polite contest as to who should go through it first, and at last we\nfound ourselves in a room where tea, dessert, champagne, and cigarettes\nwere offered, although of the two latter I was unworthy.  Then began\nthe conversation.  I found less stiffness once I had explained that I\ncame to gather opinions about a scheme for education.  After the\nstately interview was over there was an equally ceremonious\nleave-taking.\n\nThough the methods of the Chinese in doing business may be exasperating\nto a Western whose time is money and who wants them to come to some\nimmediate decision, they are invariably delightful and courteous in all\ntheir negotiations.  This courtesy is all the direct result of\nConfucian teaching.  Stress is {72} laid there on courteous behaviour,\nperhaps even to a degree which may strike the Western traveller as\nabsurd.  This courtesy, I understand, extends even to those of lower\ndegree.  Your servant in speaking to another calls him brother, and\nnothing makes the servant despise his master so much as seeing him lose\nhis temper: it is to his mind a mark of our savagery.\n\nThe Chinese have higher virtues than courtesy.  They are essentially\nindustrious.  You have only to look at a Chinaman's garden to realise\nthe extent to which he possesses this quality.  I am certain that those\npeople who are proud of the culture of their kitchen gardens would be\nsurprised and ashamed if they could compare them with those of a\nChinaman.  One passes garden after garden with rows of plants placed at\neven distances and every plant exactly the right distance in those\nrows, with never a weed to be seen all over the whole plot.  Again in\nhandicraft there is the same industry; you buy Chinese embroidery for a\nsong in such a place as Changsha.  No one will tell you that Chinamen\never object to length of hours; they are ideal men for work that needs\ncare and accuracy.\n\nAgain they are very patient.  A monotonous task is not at all\nunpleasing to them.  An acute French observer used the word\n_routini\u00e8re_ in describing this characteristic.  Even in intellectual\nwork this liking for monotonous repetition will show itself.  One of\nthe doctors told us that he had the very greatest {73} difficulty in\ninducing his pupils not to perpetuate his most casual gestures when he\nwas demonstrating.  For instance, when teaching bacteriology, quite\nunconsciously he might from time to time put an instrument down on the\ntable, and just touch it again.  Months after he would find one of his\npupils when doing the same experiment repeating every gesture he had\naccidentally made with careful imitation.  It was clear that the\nstudent had monotonously continued to practice these gestures for no\nother reason but that he had seen his master make them.  All those\nwords which our writers on social subjects are so fond of inditing\nagainst the modern factory system have no meaning to the Chinaman.\nThose complaints about long hours at mechanical work rendering the\nworker little better than a machine are doubtless true of the white\nrace, but are quite beside the point as applied to the Chinese.  If the\nChinaman is well paid in the factory he will prefer rather than\notherwise that the work should be mechanical; he will not mind if the\nhours are long.\n\nAgain, he is cheerful and contented under very adverse circumstances.\nWhen we were being rowed in a native boat up the Yangtsze, and the men\nwere straining every nerve against the current, while they were chilled\nby a drizzling rain, there was never a word of discontent; they were\nalways cheerful and bright, good-tempered and merry.\n\nTheir highest quality is obedience, which is the result of their\nConfucian culture.  The central virtue {74} of that teaching is\nobedience to parents, and they hold that doctrine to a degree which to\nthe Western mind seems exaggerated.  One of the grown-up sons of a\nChinese clergyman did something which he considered unbecoming in a\nChristian; to the surprise of the missionary, he did not hesitate to\nadminister a sound thrashing to his son, which the young man took\nwithout the slightest resistance, and in this action the clergyman was\nsupported by the public opinion of the congregation.  This quality\ngives to China its great power, and it is one of the points in which\nthere is the greatest divergence between the teaching of the West and\nof the East.  Every Chinaman points out to you how little Westerns care\nfor their parents.  I remember a Chinese gentleman explaining in a\npatronising way to the other Chinese that, strange though it seemed, he\nknew it as a fact that one of the commandments of our religion really\nwas that we should honour our parents.\n\nWere it not for this principle of obedience which is implanted in the\nmind of every Chinaman, the government of China would scarcely endure\nfor a day; but he is taught from his earliest youth to obey his father,\nnot as we teach in the West because the child is unable to think and\nunderstand, so that obedience to parents is a virtue which must fall\ninto disuse as knowledge increases, but as an absolute duty, a duty\nequally incumbent on a man of forty as on a child of four.  This\nprinciple is extended to that of civil government; the local {75}\nofficial is in their quaint phrase \"the father and mother of his\npeople,\" and the obedience to parents taught in childhood is therefore\nextended to those who govern.  No Chinaman has any doubt but that the\nfirst duty of man is obedience to authority.  Let us hope these\nqualities will ever endure.\n\nWhat may happen, and, alas, I am afraid, is at the present moment\nhappening, is that the two civilisations may be so blended together\nthat the qualities of each may be lost and its peculiar virtues\ndestroyed while its characteristic vices are preserved.  The great\nqualities of obedience to parents, of courtesy to strangers, are being\nforgotten.  The Chinaman educated in the States is rude and abrupt; he\nfancies that it is Western and business-like.  Every Chinese gentleman\nto whom I talked, allowed that one of the worst results of Western\nteaching had been that a Westernised Chinaman was less obedient and\nrespectful to his parents.  On the other hand, the Westernised Chinaman\ndoes not acquire the peculiar virtues of the Englishman.\n\nThe superficial Chinese thinker wants China to learn only the material\nside of our civilisation, to profit by our mechanical excellence\nwithout learning anything of our ethics.  His view is that the West is\nimmoral but wealthy; he regards Europe as the place where there is no\nprinciple excepting money-worship, and therefore he argues that if you\nwould Westernise China you must despise morality and seek for money.\nChang-Chih-Tung voiced this thought when he said, {76} \"Western\neducation is practical, Chinese education is moral.\"  If you try to\nargue with a thoughtless Chinaman who has perhaps never left China, and\nwhose only experience of Western life is what he has seen in a treaty\nport, you will find that it is hard to convince him that Western\neducation produces a high moral tone.  After all we may, to a certain\nextent, be to blame for their want of appreciation of the morality of\nthe West, for too often we show to the Chinese a very degraded side of\nour civilisation; and though I do not think that Shanghai at the\npresent merits the term that was applied to it fifty years ago of being\na \"moral sink,\" yet undoubtedly the treaty ports, both by their\nconstitution and by their geographical position, collect very\nunpleasant specimens of white civilisation.  There are a certain number\nof men who spend a great part of their existence being deported from\nShanghai to Hong-Kong, and from Hong-Kong to Shanghai.\n\nOne of the comedies in the tragedy of the extinction of the\nindependence of Korea is illustrative of this point.  The Emperor of\nKorea heard that the Western races were far more trustworthy than those\nof the East, and so fearing assassination after the murder of the\nQueen, he determined to enrol a corps of Europeans as a body-guard; he\nsent over officers to Shanghai with orders to enlist Europeans.\nUnfortunately for himself he did not take the precaution of sending\nwith them any Western to help in the selection of the men.  To Korean\neyes all Westerns {77} look alike, and as they were offering good pay,\nthey soon had their corps complete; they returned to Seoul, and the\ncorps was installed with suitable uniforms, and, alas, rifles and\nammunition.  The moment the corps was paid, the greater bulk of them\ngot drunk, and for the next few hours Seoul was distinctly an\nundesirable place of residence, filled with drunken men of all\nnationalities shouting and shrieking and firing loaded rifles\nrecklessly in every direction.  The poor Emperor trembled as he looked\nfrom his palace windows at his body-guard out on the drink, and he made\nup his mind that it would be better to take a reasonable chance of\nassassination by the Japanese than to risk the danger of being guarded\nby this inebriate troop of Westerns.  With the help of the Consul the\nbody-guard when sober were returned to Shanghai, and let us trust the\nChinese heard the story and were convinced that in accepting Western\ncivilisation they must be careful to avoid accepting the vices of the\nWest.\n\nAt Changsha I heard a similar story, but with a tragic side, which one\nfelt exonerated the Chinese for being rather incredulous as to the\nmorality of our civilisation.  Changsha, I should explain, is reputed\none of the most bigoted cities in China; even at the present moment\nwhite women are advised not to walk through the streets.  The Hunanese\nhave a bold independent character, which makes them rather hostile to\nany foreigner or to foreign ways, and I am afraid that the story I am\ngoing to repeat will have {78} confirmed them in their conviction that\nforeigners are undesirable.  Two white men belonging to one of the\nSouth European races--Greeks, I think--settled themselves down in\ndefiance of treaty rights in Changsha, and at once opened a gambling\nhell.  Very soon they taught the Chinese, who are as a race very\naddicted to gambling, new and most pernicious forms of that hateful\nvice.  The Governor complained to the Consul; the Consul sent his\nofficer down, accompanied by the police, to arrest the Greeks; the\nPrivate Secretary to the Governor informed the Consul of the tragedy\nthat followed.  The Consular officer warned the Greeks that they must\ngive up their gambling establishment and go back to Hankow.  They said\nthey would not.  He told them that if they refused he would arrest\nthem, take them to the boat, and send them down by force to Hankow.\nThey still refused, and he advanced, upon which one of the Greeks shot\nthe officer dead.  The Chinese police after their manner vanished,\nwhile the Governor's Private Secretary, according to his own account,\nspent most of the time of the interview under the table.  The Greeks,\nseeing the coast clear, and realising that vengeance must come, took to\nthe open country.  The Chinese were told to arrest them if they could.\nOf course they had no difficulty in finding them, but to arrest them\nwas a different matter.  They mobilised two or three regiments, and\nsurrounding the house in which the Greeks had taken refuge, they kept\non firing at long range till they judged, from there being no signs of\nlife, that they {79} must have killed them.  They then carried off the\nbodies, but thought it better to describe the incident in an official\ndocument as a case of suicide from fear of arrest, lest they should be\nheld responsible for the death of these murderers.  The next Greeks\nthat came up the river were sent down with a guard of forty men, and so\nterrified were the Chinese that they had to put them first-class, as no\nChinese would have dared to have travelled with them.\n\nThere were several other stories told at Changsha to the same effect.\nThe European that the Chinaman sees in that sort of place is too often\none of those worthless men who has found his own country impossible to\nlive in, and who hopes that his vices and crimes may escape unnoticed\nin distant China.  Can one wonder that the Chinese are liable to\nmisunderstand the West, and were it not for the saintly life of many\nmissionaries, the high character and strict justice of our\nConsuls--yes, and the admirable discipline and management of such great\nundertakings as that of Butterfield and Swire--the evil would be\nincurable; but though there are many specimens of the bad, there are\nalso not a few men who by their lives have testified before the Chinese\nto the greatness of our social and moral traditions and to the religion\nby which they are inspired.\n\n\n\n\n{80}\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nRAILWAYS AND RIVERS\n\nThe rivers and railways of China form a very marked contrast.  The\nrivers represent the old means of communication, the railways the new,\nand the comparison between the river and the railway enables the\ntraveller to compare new with old China and to realise the great\nchanges that are taking place there and the transitional character of\nthe phase through which the country is now passing.\n\nAncient China, as compared to ancient Europe, was a most progressive\ncountry, a very essential point to remember when we have to consider\nwhat will be the attitude of the Chinese with regard to modern\nprogress.  Theoretically they have always been progressive; practically\nthey have passed through an age of progress and reached the other side.\nThat age of progress improved very much their means of communication.\nChina is naturally well endowed with rivers, and those rivers were\ninfinitely extended by a system of canals.  Of these the Grand Canal is\nthe most perfect example.  The traveller cannot sail along the Grand\nCanal and look at the masonry walls of that great work, or the high\nbridges that span it, without realising that in its time it was one\n{81} of the greatest works the world had ever seen.  That canal,\ntypical of modern China, is now in disrepair, but the spirit of the men\nwho built it is not gone; it is the same spirit that now welcomes\nrailways all over China.\n\nThe greatest of China's natural waterways is the Yangtsze-Kiang; it\ncuts right through the centre of China from the sea to Chungking and\nfurther; it has many important tributaries, which lead through great\nlakes and afford a very useful means of communication to vast districts\nin Central China.\n\nAlong that great river for six hundred miles, ships of the largest size\ncan sail in the summer; battleships, though not of the largest class,\ncan ascend to Hankow.  Beyond Hankow the river is much shallower, and\ncommunication with Ichang is often interrupted in the winter by want of\nwater.  A thousand miles from the sea begin those wonderful gorges of\nthe Yangtsze which are among the greatest wonders of the world.\n\nUp to Ichang, the Yangtsze is still a big, rather dull yellow river, a\nvastly overgrown Thames, a mass of sandbanks, running through almost\nconsistently uninteresting country; but after that thousand miles, it\ndevelops into a sort of huge Rhine.  The river is still yellow, but it\nruns through green mountains and grey rocks.  At times it swirls along\nwith an oily surface dented here and there by whirlpools which tell of\nsome sunken rock; at other times the grey rocks creep closer together\nand the yellow {82} Yangtsze foams itself white in its effort to\nsqueeze through the narrow opening left.  In quieter reaches of the\nriver a house-boat or luban can be rowed or sailed.  The rowing is\nrather jerky, the sailing delightful, and so the advance of the\ntraveller is pleasant and uneventful; but when the boat reaches the\nrapids, the only way to get her through is by towing.\n\nThere is a temptation always to delay putting men ashore to tow--a\ntemptation which ended in our house-boat being bumped upon a rock.\n\nOur captain (we call him \"lowdah\" in China) had cleverly devised, by\ncreeping along the side of the river under shelter of projecting rocks\nand then by dodging round the points, everybody shrieking and yelling\nas they strained at the oar, to avoid the necessity of towing; but a\nmore malign whirlpool than the rest twisted us round till the oars on\none side of the boat could not row because they were fouled on the\nrocks, and then another twisted us sideways on to a submerged rock, and\nthere the current held us till the police-boat the Chinese Government\nsupplies to foreign travellers kindly took our rope ashore and we were\nhauled off without apparently having suffered any damage.\n\nThese police-boats, or \"red boats,\" are a great feature in travelling\non the Yangtsze.  They add enormously, to begin with, to the artistic\neffect, as they are furnished with an art-blue sail, which would\nrejoice the heart of an artist, but the nervous traveller {83} regards\nthem with feelings of a warmer nature than those their \u00e6sthetic effect\nwould arouse.  They guarantee, if not the safety of boats and goods, at\nleast the safety of his person amidst the terrible rapids of the river.\nIf his boat should be wrecked and his goods become the property of the\nfishes, he knows that the \"red boat\" will dart into the rapids, and\nowing to its peculiar construction and the skill of the boatmen, will\nbe able to rescue and return him, a washed and grateful traveller, to\nIchang.\n\nThe excitement of passing the rapids is intense.  It is a pleasurable\nsensation when you watch from the shore some one else passing through\nthem; it is more exciting but less pleasurable to be on the boat itself\nat that moment.  The excitement is largely a question of the size of\nthe boat, whence the wisdom of taking a small boat even if it is less\ncomfortable.  To watch an eighty-ton junk being hauled through a narrow\npassage of foaming water is intensely thrilling.  It is a matter of\ngreat difficulty owing to the rocky nature both of the channel and the\nshore.\n\nThe Yangtsze rises and falls some hundreds of feet in the year, and at\nlow water the banks are a mass of rough rocks which remind one more of\nthe sea than of a river.  The men who tow are called trackers, and they\nhave to climb over these rocks tugging and straining at the rope while\na certain number of them, stripped to nudity, try to keep the rope\nclear of the rocks which constantly entangle it both on shore and in\nthe water.  It is splendid to {84} watch these men as they bound from\nrock to rock to disengage the rope from some projecting point, or as,\nleaping into the stream, they swim across to isolated rocks and\nextricate it from all sorts of impossible situations.  Meanwhile the\njunk creeps up inch by inch, at times standing almost still while the\nwater surges past her and makes a wave at her bow which would not\nmisbecome a torpedo-destroyer in full steam.  Woe betide the junk if\nthe rope should foul and break in spite of the efforts of these men,\nfor then she would be at the mercy of the current, and if it should so\nhappen that there was no wind, the mariners on board have no command\nover her, and she must drift as chance will guide her till quieter\nwater is reached.  Of course if there is a wind they can haul up their\nsail, and then, though they will descend backwards down the stream,\nthey will do it with dignity and safety.  We passed a junk doing this.\nHer rope had apparently broken, her huge sails were set to a stiff\nbreeze; as you watched her by the water she seemed to be sailing at a\ngood rate forwards; as you watched her by the land she was travelling a\ngood steady pace down stream.  If she cannot hoist her sail because the\nwind is unfavourable, then she will rush back, inadequately guided by\nthree huge strange-looking oars.  The one at the bow, worked by six\nmen, can twist her round like a teetotum, so that as she dashes down\nstream, the captain can select which part of her shall bump against the\nsubmerged rocks, which after all is but a poor {85} privilege, when you\nremember that eighty tons of woodwork banged against massive granite\nrock must be resolved into its constituent boards, whatever part of it\nstrikes the rock first.  The two other oars are even less helpful.\nWith eight men at each, they can propel the boat at the rate of about\nthree miles an hour; but what use is that when the stream is bearing\nthe junk to destruction at twenty miles an hour.  If the rope breaks,\nit is rather a question of good luck than good guidance.  If there is\nno rock in the way, the junk happily sails down and is brought up in\nthe quieter waters below the rapids.  If there is a rock in the way,\nthe junk arrives at the end of the rapid in a condition which would\nplease firewood collectors but no one else.  Those of the crew who can\nswim get ashore, and those who cannot are either picked up by the \"red\nboat,\" or if there is not one there, they disappear; their bodies are\nrecovered several days later lower down the river.  From a Chinese\npoint of view this is all a small matter; what is important is that a\njunk containing a valuable cargo has been lost.  So frequent have been\nthese losses that five per cent. insurance is demanded for cargoes\ngoing above Ichang.\n\n[Illustration: GORGES OF THE YANGTSZE: AN AWKWARD MOMENT.  JUNK\nNEGOTIATING RAPIDS.  (Notice coils of bamboo rope)]\n\nPerhaps I ought to say one word about the rope on which the safety of\nthe junk depends.  It is made of plaited bamboo, which is\nextraordinarily light, and does not fray, though it is so stiff that it\nbehaves like a wire rope.  Its great lightness {86} allows of the use\nof ropes of enormous length.  I do not think it is an exaggeration to\nsay that some of them are a quarter of a mile long.  They are very\nstrong, and therefore can be of wonderfully narrow diameter, but\napparently they last but a short time, and every boat is furnished with\ncoil after coil of bamboo rope ready for all emergencies.  A horrible\naccident happens when owing to bad steering the trackers are pulled\nback off the narrow ledges cut into the face of the precipices, which\nat times border the river, so that they fall into the rapid.\n\nThey are an attractive body of men, these trackers.  They leap over the\nmost incredible chasms in the rocks, they climb like cats up the\nprecipices, they pull like devils, while one master encourages them by\nbeating a drum on board the junk, and another belabours them on shore\nwith a bit of bamboo rope, which makes an excellent substitute for a\nbirch rod, and yet withal they are cheerful.  When it rains or snows\nthey are wet through; when the sun is hot--and remember the Yangtsze is\nin the same latitude as North Africa--they expose their bent backs to\nthe scorching sun; yet apparently they never grumble, but they wile\naway the hours of their labour with cheerful song.  When they row or\npull easily, the song is a weird antiphonal chant--it seems to be\nsometimes a solo and a chorus, sometimes two equally balanced choruses;\nbut when the work becomes hard, the song changes into a wild snarl and\nthey laugh a savage laugh as they strain and sweat to the {87}\nuttermost.  I will complete their description by saying that their\nviews of decency are those of Adam before the Fall, and that they\npreserve their strength by a diet of rice and beans with a handful of\ncabbages as a relish.  At night they sleep on the deck of the junk on\ntheir rough Chinese bedding with only a mat roofing to keep the rain\noff them.  And as I watched their cheerful demeanour, I felt more\nconvinced than ever that the natural virtues of the Chinese are of the\nvery highest order.\n\nPerhaps I ought to say one word about the beauty of the gorges.  I\nthink in two points they excel.  First, in the height of the massive\ncliffs, through which the Yangtsze has cut its way like a knife; the\nsize of the river and the size of the cliffs are so much in proportion\nthat the eagle circling above the gorge looks like a swallow, and the\ncrowd of trackers appears as a disturbed ant colony.  The other way in\nwhich the gorges excel in beauty is in colouring; at one point\nespecially it was most remarkable--the rocks were red, the mountains\nwhen we saw them were purple, and the purple and red harmonising with\nthe fresh green foliage of early summer and the deep yellow of the\nriver, made a rich combination of tints in the landscape which could\nhardly be surpassed.  It is typical of the state in which China is at\nthe present day that a scheme should be on foot for building a railway\nwhich no doubt will render the gorges of the Yangtsze a silent highway,\nand, instead of hearing the wild song of the tracker or the savage\nbeating of the tom-tom, {88} the lonely eagle will circle above a\nsilent river on which the fisherman's bark alone will sail in the\nfuture.\n\nFor all schemes to tame the wild and fierce Yangtsze are clearly\nimpossible.  The river rises and falls more than a hundred feet with\ngreat rapidity, and no human hand could ever throw a dam across this\nmass of surging water.  Possibly it might be used as a source of power\nfor electrical work, but it is far more probable that the smaller\nrivers which fall into the Yangtsze will be chosen for that purpose.\nThis district may be a tourist resort, and dwellers in the plains of\nChina may seek coolness and beauty on one of the crags that overhang\nthe river; the modern hotel may perch itself beside the ancient\nBuddhist temple; but the days of the river as a great commercial route\nof China are numbered as soon as the railway linking far-western\nSzechuan to the rest of China is completed.  One wild scheme proposes\nthat the railway should come from Russia straight down from Szechuan,\nin which case more than probably Szechuan will fall completely under\nthe influence of the Russian Government.\n\nOne of the results of Westernising China must be to produce an\nindustrial revolution.  All those men, for instance, who make a living\nby leaping from crag to crag, from rock to rock, and swimming,\nstruggling, rowing in that river Yangtsze will find their living gone.\nBut not only will the railway make many poor who had a competence, but\nit must make many rich {89} who before were poor.  In this case, for\ninstance, all those commodities which are now extremely dear in\nSzechuan, because of the cost of transit, will fall in price, and there\nwill be a period when there will be a wide margin of profit between the\ncost of importation and the conventional price the people are used to\npay, and those who live by trade will grow rich.\n\nWhat has happened in the West must also happen in the East.  The\nintroduction of steam did not make the official classes or even the\nworking classes immediately rich.  The people who immediately profited\nby improved means of production and communication were the great middle\nclass; afterwards as the working class realised that the margin of\nprofit would allow of larger wages, they compelled the masters to share\nthese advantages with them.  So it will probably happen in China.  With\nthe railway will come a rich middle class who will be a factor of\ngrowing importance in future China.\n\nA great contrast between the Yangtsze and its wild gorges is the great\ntrunk line from Peking to Canton which runs at right angles through the\nYangtsze north and south, and must make Hankow, the place where it\ncrosses the Yangtsze, one of the greatest cities in the whole world.\nThe railway is only completed as far as Hankow.  It runs from Peking\nright across the plains of China, which are so desolate in the spring\nand so fertile in the summer, and which depend for their fertility on\nthe July rains.  At every station a great Chinese inn is erected--that\n{90} is to say, a big courtyard with rooms round.  At first, of course,\ntrade was small; the Chinese village community has but little that it\nwants either to buy or sell; each community is to a great extent\nself-supporting.  A farmer reckoned, I was told by a Chinese official,\nthat if he had made 30s. a year, he had done well.  That does not mean\nthat he lived on 30s. a year, though in a country where men are paid\nthreepence a day, one would almost have been ready to believe it; but\nit means that he had fifteen dollars a year to spend on things outside\nhis daily food.  His farm supplies him with food and drink and his\nvicious luxury, opium; his women make his clothes; it only remains for\nhim to buy material for the clothes and the little extras that they\ncannot make, besides salt.  He pays for the few things that he has\nbought, probably with the opium he produces, or in Manchuria with\nbeans; but the trade has been of microscopical dimensions owing to the\ndifficulties of transit.\n\nWhen the railway is made he finds at the railway inn the Chinese\nmerchant ready to buy and sell anything that he on his part is ready to\ntrade.  At first, such things as sewing cotton and cigarettes are the\nthings that are traded against silk or opium, and then comes Chinese\nmedicine and mineral oil, and so trade begins, and soon the Chinese inn\nbecomes a market-place, and the railways begin carrying goods.\n\nOf course the full development of the railway system must depend on the\nfeeding lines and in what {91} we had in Europe before the railway\nsystem, and what the Chinese have not got, the feeding roads.  In\nManchuria--for China, like England, is more go-ahead in the north than\nin the south--they are already moving in this direction.  The Russian\nrailways, possessed now by the Japanese, are very busy carrying beans\nto Dalny, and soon the Japanese lines from Mukden to Antung will be\nequally busy, and the line from Mukden to Tientsin also will carry this\ncrop.  What they are now considering at Mukden is how they can arrange\na feeding system of light railways, by which a bigger area of ground\ncan be brought within reach of the railway system.  To give some idea\nof the energy and progressive character of the officials in those\nparts, I may mention that they are already making inquiries as to the\nmono-rail system for such railways.\n\nThe Chinese have made up their minds to welcome railways, and though\nthey would far prefer railways to be built with Chinese capital, they\nare of necessity compelled to accept European capital, since their\nfellow-countrymen want very high interest for their money.  The Germans\nhave taken very full advantage of the Chinese desire for railways, and\nhave linked Kiauchau with the railway system of China.\n\nThe effect of all this must be very far reaching.  To begin with, it\nwill alter the influence of foreign powers.  As the railway service is\ncompleted, Kiauchau will become a very much more important centre than\nit is now.  If a railway that links Peking to Nanking, {92} or, to be\naccurate, to a town on the Yangtsze opposite to Nanking, is cut by a\nrailway from Kiauchau, the result will be that Kiauchau will become the\nnearest ice-free port for an enormous district of China.  This cannot\nfail to strengthen the German influence, and the German influence is\nconnected, as we have already explained, too much with that political\nside of missions which has caused them to be distrusted by peace-loving\nChinese.  The Chinese will ask themselves, will there not soon be a\nmissionary incident which will justify a further aggression by Germany\nalong the railway, which lies so handy for a military advance, and they\nwill be suspicious of any German missionary effort in that quarter.\n\nBut the effect of the railways is much more far reaching than any\ncasual advantage that it may give to various powers, whether it be to\nGermany in Shantung, or to Russia or Japan in Manchuria, or to France\nin Yunnan, or to Russia in Szechuan.  It will have two main effects.\nFirst and foremost it must place the whole of China in the same\nposition that Shanghai and Tientsin occupy at the present moment--that\nis, it must make the whole of China a mixture of Eastern and Western\ncivilisation.  It may be urged that the rivers of China have already\nbeen the means of bringing East and West into close contact with one\nanother, and yet that China remains still a separate and different\ncountry to the treaty ports.\n\n{93}\n\nThe answer is, firstly, that it is comparatively only a short time\nsince the river has been opened to foreign trade, and that a great\nadvance has been made in the treaty ports, so much so that a man in the\ncustoms service living by the gorges of the Yangtsze described the\ndifference between the treaty ports and the rest of China by saying, \"A\nman who has only seen Shanghai and Hankow has never seen China.\"\nSecondly, a railway has a great educational effect.  When a railway is\nfirst opened the Chinese crowd to see it; they get in the way of the\nengine, they are run over, they accuse it of malign powers, and then\nthey come to the conclusion that it is after all only a machine, and\nthey take readily to travelling by rail.\n\nFor instance, the railway from Tientsin up to Manchuria has already\ncompletely altered the conditions of culture in the north.  It has\nenabled a large number of labourers to migrate every year to cultivate\nthe fertile but icy districts of Manchuria, so that it is quite a sight\nto see truck-load after truck-load of farm labourers travelling like\ncattle, going up from the south to the districts of the north at the\nrate of three dollars for a twenty-two hours' journey.\n\nNot only does the railway carry the Tientsin labourer in a truck to the\nManchurian beanfield, but it also carries first-class the Chinese\nmerchant who will buy the crop of beans to the advantage of the farmer\nand to his own greater advantage.  The {94} Chinese are rich in\ntraders, and such an opportunity would never be allowed to pass.  Every\nyear will produce a greater number of wealthy Chinese merchants, many\nof them very ignorant both of Western and Eastern knowledge, but\nprobably some of them owning a respect for that knowledge whose lack\nthey have felt in proportion to their own ignorance, for there is no\nman more inclined as a class to endow educational institutions than he\nwho in his youth has felt the need of them.\n\nChina now needs help to found a University teaching Western knowledge.\nOnce it is formed, there is every reason to believe that it will be\nendowed by the same class that has endowed similar institutions in our\nown country.\n\n\n\n\n{95}\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE CITIES Of CHINA\n\nNowhere is the transitional period through which China is passing more\nobvious than in the cities of China; many towns are still completely\nChinese, but as you approach the ports you find more and more Western\ndevelopment.  The contrast between towns is extremely marked.  Shanghai\nor Tientsin are Western towns and centres of civilisation; the\ndifference between them and such towns as Hangchow or Ichang is very\ngreat.  The true Chinese city is not without its beauty--in fact, in\nmany ways it is a beautiful and wonderful place.  But to appreciate it\neyes only are wanted, and a nose is a misfortune.  The streets are\nextremely narrow passages, which are bordered on either side by most\nattractive shops, particularly in the main street.  The stranger longs\nto stop and buy things as he goes along, but the difficulty is that it\ntakes so much time; he must either be prepared to pay twice the value\nof the things he wants, or to spend hours in negotiation.  There is one\ncurious exception to this rule; the silk guild at Shanghai does not\nallow its members to bargain, and therefore in the silk shop the real\nprice is told at once.\n\n{96}\n\nThe shopkeepers are charming, and there are numbers of\nsalesmen--salesmen who do not mind taking any amount of trouble to\nplease.  It is delightful, if insidious, to go into those shops; and\none can well believe that if a Chinese silk shop were opened in London,\nand silk sold at Chinese prices, the shop would have plenty of\ncustomers.  The quality of Chinese silk far exceeds that of the silks\nof the West.  A Chinese gentleman mentioned as an example of this\nsuperiority that one of his gowns was made of French silk, and that it\nwas torn and spoilt after two or three years; but that he had had gowns\nof Chinese silk for twenty years or more which were quite as good as on\nthe day he bought them, and that he had only put them on one side\nbecause the fashions in men's garments change in China as they do\nelsewhere for ladies.  The same gentleman related many interesting\nthings about the silk trade.  The quality of the silk is determined by\nthe silk guild.  This is much more like the guilds in medi\u00e6val Europe\nthan anything that we have nowadays, and that is why China is not\nexporting more silk than she is at present.  These silk guilds to a\ncertain extent prevent the Chinese catering for European customers, as\nthey will not allow or at any rate encourage the production of silks\nthat would take on the European market.  The West has many faults as\nwell as many virtues, and one of its faults is that it no longer cares\nfor articles of sterling value, which last long and for which a high\nprice must be paid, {97} but it delights in attractive articles of poor\nquality at a low price.  It is to be feared that the West may spoil\nsome of China's great products as she has spoilt the great arts and\nproductions of India.\n\nBut to return to Chinese streets.  Next the silk shop will be the\nsilver shop.  Here again the work is admirable.  At such a place as\nKiukiang you can spend an hour or more bargaining, and watching the\nwonderful skill of the silversmiths as they turn out beautiful silver\nornaments.  It is pleasant to wander along and to look into the shops\nand see the strange things that are for sale--fish of many kinds in one\nshop, rice and grain in another, strange vegetables, little bits of\npork, flattened ducks; or to glance at the clothes and the coats hung\nout, many of them of brilliant colours.  The signs over the shops and\nthe names of the merchants are a feature in themselves, illuminated as\nthey are in vivid hues of red and gold, in those wonderful characters\nso full of mystery to the foreigner.\n\nIn a native city up-country the traveller is practically forced to go\nthrough the city in a chair.  There are no wheel conveyances except\nwheelbarrows, and, except where there are Manchus, horses are quite\nunknown.  Walking is profoundly unpleasant for a European, for as he\nwalks along he is constantly jostled by porters carrying loads of goods\non a bamboo across their shoulders; or cries are heard, and a Chinese\nMandarin is carried past shoulder high, leaning forward looking out of\nhis {98} chair perhaps with a smile, of contempt for the foreigner who\ncan so demean himself as to go on foot like a common coolie; or perhaps\nit is a lady with her chair closely covered in and only a glimpse to be\nseen of a rouged and powdered face, for the Chinese women paint to\nexcess, as part of their ordinary toilette.  Next comes the\nwater-carrier hurrying past with his two buckets of water; or perhaps\nit is some malodorous burden which makes a Western long to be deprived\nof the sense of smell.  But in a chair a ride through a Chinese town is\ndelightful; the chair-coolies push past foot-passengers who accept\ntheir buffets with the greatest equanimity, and from a comparatively\nelevated position the traveller can look down on the crowd.\n\nBut when the Chinese city is near a port, all this begins to change.\nThe chair is replaced by the ricksha, and though in many ways it is\nless comfortable than a chair, the ricksha is after all the beginning\nof the rule of the West, being a labour-saving machine.  One coolie or\ntwo at the most can drag a man quickly and easily where with a chair\nthree or four bearers would be needed.  Outside the old town will be\nbuilt the new native town, and the new native town is built on European\nlines, with comparatively wide streets.  In a treaty port the completed\nspecimen of the transitional stage through which all China is passing\nis to be seen.  Shanghai is a most delightful town, although it seems\ncommonplace to those who live there, but {99} to a stranger it is a\nplace full of contradictions and eccentricities.  The first thing that\nstrikes one in Shanghai is that none of the natives know any of the\nnames of the streets.  It is true they are written up in large letters\nboth in English and in Chinese; but as not one of the coolies can read,\nthey have not the very slightest idea that that is the name of the\nstreet--they call it quite a different name; and as they speak a\ndifferent language both to that of the educated Chinaman and to the\nEnglishman, there is no reason why they should ever learn the names\ngiven by them.  The habitual way of directing a ricksha coolie is by a\nsort of pantomime, and there is always a great element of uncertainty\nas to whether he will get to his destination even with the oldest\nresident unless he knows the way himself.  I arrived at Tientsin and\ntried to go and see Dr. Lavington Hart, whose college is known all over\nChina, I may say all over the world, but the Chinese porter was quite\nunable to make the coolie understand where it was, and so we wandered\nabout for some time till the coolie got tired and put me down opposite\nwhat fortunately turned out to be the house of a Japanese gentleman.  I\nentered the house, and was surprised that the Chinese servant who met\nme did not altogether seem to expect me; but as he could not speak\nEnglish and I could not speak Chinese, it was impossible to inquire if\nanything was wrong.  I was just wondering why Dr. Hart should live in a\nJapanese house, {100} when the door opened and a Japanese gentleman\nwalked in.  Fortunately for me he spoke both Chinese and English well;\nso after explanations I was again sent on my road, and found Dr.\nLavington Hart waiting dinner for me, and wondering how I had got lost.\nHe then told me that I should have asked not for his college but for\nthe hospital opposite, and that I should have asked not for the street\nbut for the Chinese name of the doctor of the hospital who had been\ndead ten or fifteen years.\n\nThere is a moral in all this: it shows the state of confusion that\nexists in small as well as in large things.  I asked several Englishmen\nwhy they did not accept the native names of the streets; their answer\nwas that the coolies could not read them; and when I suggested that\ncommon sense would expect that the coolies' names should be taken for\nthe streets, for after all that is how most of the streets in England\nwere originally named, the suggestion met with no approval.  These\nsmall matters show what a great gulf there is between the thoughts of\nthe two races.  If the coolies had been Italians or Germans or\nRussians, their names would have been accepted, or they would have been\ncompelled to learn the new names.\n\nAnother example of the difficulty of carrying on the details of city\nlife is afforded by a common spectacle at Shanghai.  In the crowded\nstreets you see a little crowd of policemen.  The group consists of\nthree splendid men, typical of three different {101} civilisations.\nFirst there is the English policeman; next to him is a black-bearded\nman, bigger than the first, a Sikh, every gesture and action revealing\nthe martial characteristics of his race; then a Chinaman completes the\ngroup, blue-coated and wearing a queue and a round Chinese hat as a\nsign of office.  The traveller wonders why this trio is needed till he\nsees them in action.  A motor car rushes down one road, a ricksha comes\ndown another, and a Chinese wheelbarrow with six women sitting on it\nslowly progresses down a third.  All three conveyances are controlled\nby Chinamen, and when they meet, all shout and shriek at the top of\ntheir voices; no one keeps the rule of the road, with the probable\nresult that the wheelbarrow is upset, the ricksha is forced against the\nwall, and the motor car pulled up dead.  Then the police force comes\ninto action.  The Chinese policeman objurgates vociferously and makes\nsignals indifferently to everybody; the Sikh policeman at once begins\nto thrash the Chinese coolie; meanwhile the English policeman at last\ngets the traffic on the right side of the road, quiets his\nsubordinates, sees justice done, and restores order.  Possibly if the\nmatter had been left to the Chinese policeman, he would have arranged\nit in the end; the traffic in Peking was controlled entirely by Chinese\npolicemen and was fairly well managed.\n\nThere is an extraordinary example of the want of consideration for the\nfeelings of the Chinese to {102} be seen in the public gardens at\nShanghai.  There stands a notice which contains, among several\nregulations, first, that \"no dogs or bicycles shall be admitted\";\nsecondly, that \"no Chinese shall be admitted except servants in\nattendance on foreigners.\"  Considering that the land is Chinese soil,\none cannot but wonder that any one who had dealings with the Chinese\nshould allow so ill-mannered a notice to be put up.  No Chinese\ngentleman would object for a moment if the notice had been to the\neffect that unclean persons and beggars should be excluded from the\ngardens; but to exclude the cultured Chinese merchant who is every whit\nas clean as his Western neighbour, or to exclude the respectable people\nof the middle class whose orderly behaviour is beyond suspicion, is as\nunreasonable as it is regrettable.\n\nAgain, the Shanghai municipality has no Chinese representatives upon\nit, though the great bulk of the population is Chinese, with the result\nthat from time to time they come across Chinese prejudices and quite\nunnecessarily irritate the population which they govern.  The Chinese\nhave a principle that a woman shall be publicly punished only for\nadultery and open shameless theft; her \"face\" or dignity must be\npreserved; and therefore she should never be made to answer for her\noffences in open court, her husband or her father being held\nresponsible for her behaviour and for her punishment.  The right way of\ndealing with any woman who is charged with an offence is to do as we do\nin England with regard to children, to summon {103} not her but those\nresponsible for her behaviour.  I was assured by a Chinese official\nthat the trouble which culminated in the Shanghai riots originated from\ndisregard of this principle.  The refusal of the Shanghai municipality\nto have Chinese representatives upon it is the more remarkable, as I\nwas informed at Hong-Kong that they have such representatives, and find\nthem most useful in assisting in the government of the Chinese.  It is\nnot surprising that Shanghai is a town to which it is diplomatic to\nmake no reference in conversation with a Chinese gentleman.\n\nThere is more to be said for the mistrust of the Chinese Post-office\nand for the continuation of the curious system by which each nation has\nits own post-office.  Nothing is more annoying to the traveller in\nShanghai than the trouble he has to get his letters.  If it should so\nhappen that he has correspondents in many countries, he has to go to\nevery one of the many post-offices in Shanghai, and they are situated\nin different parts of the town and in places very difficult to find.\nThere is the Imperial Chinese Post-office, to which he first repairs,\nand where he will find letters from any correspondent in China; then\nwith the greatest difficulty he reaches the English Post-office; after\nwhich he remembers that some of his friends may be on a holiday in\nFrance, therefore he must go to the French Post-office, and so on.\nWhen he asks why the Chinese Post-office cannot be trusted, he is told\nthat the Chinese themselves will not trust their {104} post-office\nunless there be a European official in control, and that the old\nChinese system by which letters are forwarded by private companies\nstill continues in many parts of China, although they possess branches\nof the Imperial Chinese Post-office.  Still the traveller wearily\nthinks at the end of his day's journey that without undue trust in\nanother nationality, or any loss of national prestige, an International\nPost-office might be arranged in a town like Shanghai, with its vast\ntravelling population.\n\nShanghai with its mixture of races, with its national antipathies and\njealousies, is indeed one of the most attractive but strangest towns in\nthe whole world.  Every race meets there; and as one wanders down the\nNanking road, one never tires of watching the nationalities which\nthrong that thoroughfare.  There walks a tall bearded Russian, a fat\nGerman, jostling perhaps a tiny Japanese officer, whose whole air shows\nthat he regards himself as a member of the conquering race that has\ncheckmated the vast power of Europe; there are sleek Chinese in Western\ncarriages, and there are thin Americans in Eastern rickshas; the motor\ncycle rushes past, nearly colliding with a closely-curtained chair\nbearing a Chinese lady of rank, or a splendid Indian in a yellow silk\ncoat is struck in the face by the hat of a Frenchman, who finds the\npavements of Shanghai too narrow for his sweeping salute; one hears\nguttural German alternating with Cockney slang; Parisian toilettes are\nseen next half-naked coolies; a couple of sailors on {105} a tandem\ncycle almost upset two Japanese beauties as they shuffle along with\ntheir toes turned in; a grey gowned Buddhist priest elbows a bearded\nRoman missionary; a Russian shop where patriotism rather than love of\ngain induces the owners to conceal the nature of their wares by\nemploying the Russian alphabet overhead, stands opposite a Japanese\nshop which, in not too perfect English, assures the wide world that\ntheir heads can be cut cheaply; an English lady looks askance at the\ntightness of her Chinese sister's nether garments, while the Chinese\nsister wonders how the white race can tolerate the indecency that\nallows a woman to show her shape and wear transparent sleeves.\n\nYes, Shanghai on a spring afternoon is a most interesting place; and\nyet as you turn your eyes to the river and catch sight of the dark grey\nwarship, you realise that beneath all this peace and busy commerce lies\nthe fear of the grim realities of war.  China may assimilate the\nadjuncts of Western life, but she will never welcome the Western.  The\nracial gulf that divides them is far too deep.  It may be temporarily\nbridged by the heroism of a missionary; the enthusiasm of Christianity\nmay make those who embrace it brothers; but the feeling of love will\nnot extend one inch beyond the influence of religion; and those who\nponder on the future as they watch the many-hued crowd that passes must\ngrow more and more sure that the future of China lies with the Chinese\nalone; and however much as a race they may {106} be willing to learn\nfrom the West, they will as a race be led only by their own people.\nThe Westerner may be employed; Western teaching may be learnt; Western\ngarments may be worn; but, as a Chinese professor said, \"The wearer\nwill be a Chinaman all the same.\"\n\n\n\n\n{107}\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nOPIUM\n\nThere was one marked difference in the cities of China as we saw them\nin our two visits, and this was the change that had taken place in the\nmatter of opium-smoking.  Opium-smoking in 1907 was such a common vice\nthat you could see men smoking it at the doors of their houses.  In\n1909 opium-smoking hid itself, and those that smoked, smoked secretly,\nor at any rate less ostentatiously.  I doubt whether so great an\nalteration has taken place in any country, certainly not of late years.\n\nEach race has its peculiar vice; in fact, we may go further than that,\nwe may say that it is a remarkable fact that the great bulk of mankind\ninsists on taking some form of poison; in fact, it is only a minute\nminority which wholly abstains from this practice.  The poisons used by\nmankind have different effects and have a different degree of toxic\npower, but the reason they are used is because in some way they\nstimulate or soothe the nervous system.  Opium, alcohol, tobacco, tea,\ncoffee, hashish, are examples of this widespread habit of humanity; but\nthese different drugs have the most different effects on the welfare of\nman.  Some seem to be wholly {108} innocuous if not beneficial, and\nothers seem to be absolutely pernicious and to do nothing but evil; and\nfurther than that, one may say that a different preparation of the same\ndrug or a different way of taking it produces differing results.  A\nstill more curious thing is that though all mankind is agreed in taking\nsome poison, there is a marked, racial tendency to accept one\nparticular poison and to detest others, and at times it seems as if the\nhabit of taking one was sufficient to prevent another having any\nattraction.\n\nAs we went to China we passed through the Suez Canal, and heard what a\ncurse hashish was in Egypt, and how the Egyptian Government had\nendeavoured to secure total prohibition of the use of this obnoxious\ndrug, a course which was impossible owing to the great amount of\nsmuggling that was facilitated by the wide deserts that surround Egypt.\n\nWhen we arrived at Saigon (we were travelling by the French mail) we\nfirst came in contact with the terrible vice of the Chinese.  A French\nlady was pointed out to us by a doctor, and he asked us to observe the\nodd glassy look of her eyes, the intense suavity of her manner and the\ncontempt which she evinced for truth, and he told us that these were\nall symptoms of the vice of opium-smoking that she had contracted from\nassociation with the Annamites.  The French for some mysterious reason\nseem more prone to acquire this vice than do our own countrymen, for\nthough in 1907 it was rife in South China, {109} no one ever suggested\nthat any English smoked opium at Hong-Kong.\n\nAs we went up to Canton crowds of people were smoking opium on the\nChinese deck, and when we wandered round they had no objection to our\nstanding watching the lazy process of dipping the needle into the\ntreacle-like mixture, turning it round till a bead was formed, then\nputting it into the lamp to light and thence transferring it to the\nopium pipe, when after three whiffs or so the process had to be begun\nagain.\n\nThe first effect of opium-smoking is to make a man intelligent and\namiable.  It is for this reason that opium-smoking--so the Chinese\nexplained to us--is used largely in business.  When business is\ndifficult, and you cannot get three or four men to agree, the opium\npipe is brought out, and after two or three whiffs the cantankerous\npeople are reasonable, and the people whose dignity is hurt are\nforgiving, and business is easily and rapidly transacted.  The next\nstage of smoking is stupidity.  As you watch an opium-smoker in that\ncondition he nods amiably at you with a rather imbecile look.  The last\nstage is one of heavy senseless sleep.  The habitual opium-smoker\nrarely passes the first stage, and its apparently beneficial influence\nconstitutes its danger.  Each man says to himself: \"I will never take\nit to excess; I will merely use it and not abuse it; it makes life\nsweet to me and business easy.\"\n\nI have always thought that those who condemn {110} opium have a\ntendency to prove too much in their argument.  If it could be shown\nthat the effects of opium-taking were invariably pernicious, it would\nbe very hard to see how the vice could take such a hold as it has taken\non the Chinese race; if the young men regularly saw that the older men\nwere brought to inanity and death by the use of opium, they would\nthemselves be terrified of contracting the vice, and it would not have\nspread as rapidly as it has done.  The vice is essentially modern.\nOpium has only been grown in China for about seventy or eighty years,\nand it has only been imported in large quantities for a scarcely longer\nperiod of time.  An inhabitant of Shansi told us that though every one\nsmoked opium, and it was a terrible curse, his father remembered its\nintroduction.  Opium is certainly deleterious to the moral fibre of a\nrace, and in many cases it produces death and misery; but there are a\ncertain number of cases where no obvious evil effects follow from its\nconsumption--cases when as a rule a man is well-nourished, for it acts\nmost deleteriously on a man's powers of digestion.  Men who have good\nfood can better tolerate the effects of the drug, so a mission doctor\nexplained, and their comparative immunity tempts others to follow their\nexample.  Men do not see at once the evil that will result, and so its\nuse has spread by leaps and bounds.  The Chinese Government have always\ntheoretically resisted it, but their action has been hampered by their\nnot being permitted to {111} prohibit its importation.  For many years\nthe pro-opium party in China used those treaty obligations by which\nChina was bound to permit the importation of opium as a reason for\nstopping any efforts to extirpate the vice in the country.  Not only\nwere there always a great number of people in high places addicted to\nthe vice, who were naturally unwilling to remove from themselves the\nopportunity of its gratification, but also there was a vast number of\npeople who rapidly acquired a great pecuniary interest both in the\nmaintenance and extension of this trade.\n\nUnfortunately for humanity, opium was not only very injurious but\nextremely portable, and it therefore formed in a country where means of\ncommunication are bad a very useful article of exchange.  The peasant\nfarmer will grow most things on his little farm which he and his family\nconsume--in most respects they will be a self-supporting community--but\nthere must be a certain number of things which they will need to buy,\nand for which they must give something in exchange; that something must\nbe portable.  In many cases the only way of bringing your goods to the\nmarket is by carrying them on your own back.  Opium, alas, forms, in\nsoils which it suits, a most remunerative crop.  The whole product of\nseveral fields can be carried quite easily on a man's back and can be\nsent down to the market, where it will find a ready sale, and the\nresult of that sale will be invested in articles of which the farmer\nand his family have need.\n\n{112}\n\nNot only the farmer, but the trader, both Chinese and European, find it\na most profitable source of trade.  It was hard, and it is hard, to\npersuade the European trader that it is injurious to China, and to\nunderstand the reason we must turn back to the thought which was\nsuggested at the beginning of the chapter, namely, that it is very\ndoubtful whether the English race has any natural desire for the vice,\nwhile it is most patent that the Chinese have a peculiar national\ntendency towards this form of dissipation.  When people have no desire\nfor an intoxicant themselves, it is hard to persuade them that others\nmay have a desire which may be beyond all power of restraint.  The\ntrading class mixes but little socially with the Chinese, and the\npeople with whom they are brought in contact are very generally\npecuniarily interested in the opium trade, and therefore they have\nneither the evidence of the Chinese nor of their own temptation to\nconvince them of the insidious and dangerous character of this vice to\nthe Chinese race.\n\nThe English race has long been conversant with opium.  In the form of\nlaudanum it used to be sold freely in the eastern counties.  I have\nheard people describe years ago how the old women from the fen round\nLowestoffe, or the marshes as they are there called, would call on\nmarket day at the chemist for their regular supply of laudanum, which\nthey would take in quantities sufficient to make any ordinary person go\nfast asleep.  It was used there, as it is used in many {113} countries,\nas a prophylactic against ague.  The doctors now deny that it has any\nbeneficial effect, but the people in the eastern counties used to think\ndifferently.  But when I was a curate at Yarmouth I could find no\ntraces of this vice; it had apparently been exterminated not by any\nsocial reform or moral movement, but by the superior attraction of\nalcohol; and in my day Yarmouth and the district round was terribly\naddicted to the national vice of intemperance.  I noticed the same\nthing in Shanghai.  The English know opium; most of them have out of\ncuriosity tried a pipe; and they describe the effects as trifling or\nvery unpleasant.  One man said that he felt as if all his bones were a\njelly; another that he felt as if he was floating between heaven and\nearth; a third that he found no pleasure in it at all, but that he had\na \"filthy headache\" next day.  On the other hand, if you go into the\nShanghai Club you can see at once what is the attractive vice to the\nEuropean at Shanghai; the whole of one side of the entrance hall was\nnothing more than the bar of an overgrown public-house.  You will hear\nstory after story which tells the same old tale that alcohol,\nespecially in its strongest form, is the greatest pleasure and the\nworst danger to the Englishman abroad as at home.\n\nIf opium is unattractive to the white man, on the other hand alcohol is\nequally unattractive to the yellow man; in fact, their relative\nposition is much the same.  The yellow man has known of alcohol from\nthe very earliest ages.  Dr. Ross quotes the {114} second ode of the\nBook of Poetry as showing how well known drunkenness was to the\nChinese: \"Before they drank too much, they were dignified and grave;\nbut with too much drink their dignity changed to indecency, their\ngravity to rudeness; the fact is, that when they have become drunk they\nlose all sense of order.  When the guests have drunk too much, they\nshout, they brawl, they upset the orderly arrangement of the dishes,\nthey dance about unsteadily, their caps are set awry and threaten to\nfall off, they dance about and do not know when to stop.  Had they gone\nout before drinking so deeply, both host and guest would have been\nhappier.  Drinking gives real happiness only when it is taken in\nmoderation according to propriety.\"\n\nDrunkenness seems to have been extirpated from China by the same\nprocess that laudanum-taking was from the eastern counties, namely, it\nhas given way before the more entrancing vice of opium-smoking.  I was\nassured that the Tibetans do not share with the Chinese this preference\nfor opium, and this is all the more remarkable because from their\ngeographical position they have always been in close contact with\nIndia, which is apparently the home of the opium vice, but they have\nadhered steadily to the vice of drunkenness.  The Chinese have free\ntrade in drink; they have no licensing laws; any one may sell alcohol\nat any time of the day, in any place they like; and yet alcohol has so\nfew votaries that you will scarcely see a drunken man from one end of\nChina to another.\n\n{115}\n\nIf the English commercial world is incredulous to the danger of opium\nto the Chinaman, not so the Chinese world.  People will tell you that\nOrientals love to agree with you in whatever you say, but I heard a\nBritish Vice-consul flatly contradicted by a Chinese official when the\nVice-consul expressed a doubt as to the danger of the vice, and I must\nsay the Chinese disputant supported his contradiction with an argument\nwhich seemed to me perfectly unanswerable.  He said: \"Look at the\nJapanese; they are impartial spectators of the vice of alcoholism and\nopium-smoking; they are conversant with the worst forms of alcoholism\nthat white men can show them.  It is well known that white sailors are\ngreat offenders in this respect.  Every port in Japan knows what it is\nto see a drunken sailor finding his way to his ship.  They are equally\nconversant with the vice of opium-smoking.  They have intimate contact\nwith the Chinese; they know both the recent origin of this vice and its\nterrible ravages; and what do they do?  Do they forbid both vices\nequally?  No; they are so convinced that opium is so much more\ndangerous than alcohol, that they will not allow it to be introduced\ninto their country for smoking purposes, and the smuggler is liable to\nfive years' penal servitude.  But the vice of alcoholism they treat as\nsomething which, though harmful, can never threaten their national\nexistence.\"\n\nPerhaps we who have suffered much more from the vice of alcoholism than\nof opium-smoking may be {116} inclined to think that while the Japanese\nare right in the opium question, they are acting imprudently in\nallowing alcoholism to gain such a hold on their people; but whether\nthey are right or wrong, there can be no doubt that the Chinese\nofficial had justice on his side when he pointed out that to the\nJapanese mind the evils that opium-smoking had done to China were of a\nmost serious character.\n\nHis Excellency Tang-K'ai-Sun spoke the Chinese mind when, in an\neloquent speech at the Shanghai Conference, he told of the awful\ndesolation that opium was bringing to his land.  But it is unnecessary\nto quote the opinion of individual Chinamen; they are practically\nunanimous on this subject.  One has only got to point to what China has\ndone to show two things.  First, that the curse of opium-smoking was\nfar greater and more horrible than anything that we have experienced on\nthis side of the globe; next, that there is latent in the Chinese\ncharacter a vigour and an energy which, when it is called into action,\ndespises all obstacles and acts so efficiently as to leave the world\nlost in astonishment.  Realise what China has done.  China is addicted\nto a vice which has a far greater hold upon her than alcoholism has\nupon us; she determines that within ten years that vice is to cease.\nThe production of the poppy is to be diminished till none is produced;\nopium-smokers are to be held up to public scorn; opium dens--which are\nreally the equivalent of our public-houses--are to be closed; all\nofficials who take {117} opium are to be turned out of Government\nemploy; the only exception that is made is for old men, and that\nexception was quite unavoidable.  So vigorous was the action of the\nGovernment that men who have for forty or fifty years of their lives\ntaken opium, tried to give it up; the result was in several cases that\nthey were unable to support the physical strain; a great illness, even\ndeath, ensued; and so the edict was relaxed; men over sixty were\nallowed to continue smoking.  When all this was published, every one\nsmiled.  They argued that China was trying to do the impossible.  A\nvice like opium-smoking may be extirpated, but only after years of\nstruggle.  A generation must come and a generation must go before opium\nor any similar vice shows appreciable diminution.\n\nWe ourselves have not been unsuccessful in struggling against the vice\nof alcoholism; but consider the number of years since Father Mathew\nfirst spoke against drink.  England may be growing sober, but it is by\nslow if steady degrees.  But China hopes to accomplish in ten years\nwhat has taken England so many patient years of toil to effect\npartially.  The idea that China could do this was regarded by most\nWesterns as almost laughable.  In 1907, when the edict was first put\nforth, all those we met in China held this view; even missionaries,\nwhile they gave every credit to the Government for what it intended,\nshook their heads and foretold disappointment.  We noticed as we passed\nalong that {118} wonderful line that links Hankow to Peking and Peking\nto Harbin in 1907 that the country was beautiful with the white and\npink crops of poppy, till at times one might imagine that the\ntransformation scene of a London theatre was before us rather than the\nland of China, and remembering what we had been told, we also\nconfidently expected failure to the edict which requires the\ndestruction of so many miles of this pernicious if beautiful crop.\n\nIn 1909, when we again traversed the same country, we could not see a\nsingle poppy flower; not only so, but we made every effort to see if we\ncould find a field.  We went for a twenty mile walk at Ichang through\nthe country, where no one could have expected a foreigner to come, and\nwe only found one tiny patch of poppy, and one in which the ruthless\nhand of the law had rooted up the growing crop.  As we went up the\nGorges of the Yangtsze we scanned with a strong glass the hillside, and\nnever once on those glorious mountains did we see any sign of opium\ncultivation.  We asked about the officials; not only was the Government\nenforcing the law that officials must give up opium-smoking, but they\nwere taking a more effectual action; they were requiring all those who\nwere going to be officials to spend some time under supervision, to\nensure that they should not be opium-smokers.  Could any Western power\nhope to accomplish such a feat?  Would the most extreme temperance\nreformer suggest that all public-houses should be closed, that the\namount of barley {119} should be diminished every year till within ten\nyears none should be grown, and that all the Government officials, from\nthe Prime Minister downwards, should become total abstainers within\nthat period?  The reason of this vigorous action of China and its\npresent success is to be attributed to two things: first, to the\nterrible and very real national fear that this vice will destroy the\nnation, as it has destroyed countless families and individuals;\nsecondly, to the vast store of energy which enables China to accept new\nideas and act vigorously on them.\n\nThe great revolution of thought that is going on has called forth this\nvigour.  The China of yesterday was _fain\u00e9ant_ and unprogressive.  The\nChina that is emerging out of this revolution of thought is energetic,\nthough possibly unpractical.  The old traditions of Government are not\nlost, and they wait but for the man and the hour to enable China to act\nas vigorously as she has done in time past.  Her action in this opium\nquestion may be ill-considered in some details; it may even fail; but\nit has shown the world that China is in earnest, and that she can act\nwith a vigour which will cause wonder and envy on this side of the\nworld.  Every missionary reports that even high officials are coming\nasking to be cured of the opium habit.  The missionaries have founded\nrefuges where they receive and cure those who are ready to submit to\nthe terrible ordeal, for their suffering is intense.  Many quack cures\nare advertised.  Some are definitely pernicious; for instance, the\n{120} morphia syringe has become a common article for sale in some\nparts of China.  Some few may be beneficial.  There is no doubt that\nthe movement against opium is a great national movement, and is not the\nresult of the action of any small or fanatical party.  What China has\ndone proves that this is so.\n\nLet me close the chapter by a quotation from the ablest of the foreign\nrepresentatives at Peking, Sir John Jordan.  Writing to Sir Edward\nGrey, he says: \"It is true that the Chinese Government have in recent\nyears effected some far-reaching changes, of which the abolition of the\nold examination system is perhaps the most striking instance; but to\nsweep away in a decade habits which have been the growth of at least a\ncentury, and which have gained a firm hold upon 8,000,000 of the adult\npopulation of the empire, is a task which has, I imagine, been rarely\nattempted with success in the course of history; and the attempt, it\nmust be remembered, is to be made at a time when the Central Government\nhas largely lost the power to impose its will upon the provinces.  The\nauthors of the movement are, however, confident of success, and China\nwill deserve and doubtless receive much sympathy in any serious effort\nshe may make to stamp out the evil.\"\n\n\n\n\n{121}\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE WOMEN'S QUESTION\n\nThe desire for radical change is never so much to be dreaded as when it\nattacks the home life of a nation.  That quiet life so often hidden\naway because of its very sacredness by the Eastern races is like\neverything else in China disturbed by the introduction of Western\ncivilisation, and in no other part of human life will its two different\nsides be more apparent.  Western civilisation without Christianity will\ndestroy the home life as it destroys most Eastern things it touches,\nand will do little to construct a new life to take the place of the one\nit destroys.  The Japanese complain that Western civilisation has\ndestroyed both the modesty and the religion of their women, and\nChristianity has not yet been able to any great extent to reconstruct\non the basis of true religion new ideals of feminine life.  Therefore\nthe Chinese, with all their enthusiasm for Western culture, are looking\na little nervously at what they see has happened in Japan.  They say\nthat their home life is not now unbeautiful; even those who are\ndisposed to admit that the life of the Western woman is founded on\nhigher ideals than their own will not allow that their national home\nlife deserves unmixed {122} condemnation.  Everybody agrees that the\nwanton destruction of the laws which govern women's life in China may\nhave a terrible result when Western civilisation is unwisely\nintroduced, especially if it is made to appear to be a civilisation\nwithout religion.  The missionaries see in this crisis the necessity\nfor vigorous action; while thankful for the movement, they realise the\nresponsibility it puts upon Christians to see that that movement is\nwisely directed.  In the memorial from the Centenary Conference at\nShanghai in 1907 to the Home Churches, they say:--\n\n\"The changed attitude of China towards female education and the place\nof woman, lays upon us great responsibilities.  The uplifting of woman\nis a first need in the moral regeneration of a people, and one of the\nthings in which Christianity has a totally different ideal from that\nwhich the religions of China have encouraged.  The present change of\nnational sentiment on the subject is one of the indirect but none the\nless striking changes that the slow but steady dissemination of\nChristian ideas in China during the past century has led to.  Let it be\nremembered, however, that it requires the Christian motive power to\nmake it successful and fruitful.\"\n\nIt is somewhat difficult to obtain information from the Chinese\nthemselves as to the position of women.  They are very averse to\ndiscussing the subject; in fact, it is not even regarded as good\nmanners for a man to ask after the health of his most intimate friend's\nwife; and all the information that we could {123} get had for the most\npart to be obtained by Lady Florence Cecil through feminine sources.\nWe may generally state, however, that the position of women in China is\nneither so low as that which they occupy in India or among the\nMohammedans, neither is it in any degree so high as the position of\nwomen in Western lands.  The woman is completely subject to the man;\ntill she marries she is subject to her father, when she is married she\nis subject to her husband, and if her husband dies she is then subject\nto her son, and rarely re-marries.  These are called the three\nobediences.  She is not educated as a rule, because both public opinion\nand Chinese philosophy regard her as mentally far inferior to the man.\nWe shall explain later on how in Chinese thought everything is divided\ninto a good and an evil principle--a Yang and a Yin.  The woman is\ndistinctly Yin.  She is therefore necessary to man, but at the same\ntime inferior.\n\nAgain, with regard to the question of polygamy, her position is an\nintermediate one between the avowed polygamy of Moslem countries and\nthe ill-maintained monogamy of many a Latin country.  In Hong-Kong the\nposition was explained by a Chinaman to me thus: that when a woman grew\nold it was regarded as her duty to provide a secondary wife for her\nhusband's pleasure and as a companion for herself--a companion with a\nsense of servitude in it.  If this was done in an orderly manner, it\nwas absolutely approved by Chinese public opinion.  If, {124} on the\nother hand, the husband, ignoring the wife's rights, should choose a\nsecondary wife for himself and set her up in another house, his\nattitude would be regarded as distinctly doubtful by the respectable\nChinese.  In the same way if an official were appointed to a distant\npost he would probably not think of imposing upon his wife with her\ndeformed feet the pain and discomfort of a long journey; he would most\nlikely take a natural-footed woman, who will be for that reason a\nslave; in fact, one gentleman went so far as to say that he thought\nthat the squeezed feet had a great deal to do with this institution of\na secondary wife, because he noted that the secondary wives of all the\nofficials when they were travelling were natural-footed women.\n\nThe secondary wife would be rarely a woman of good class; it is allowed\nto be an inferior position.  On the other hand, if she bears her\nhusband a son, and that son is recognised, all that son's relations,\nand therefore all his mother's relations, become relations of the\nfather.\n\nThe curious tangle which such a position begets when brought into\ncontact with the Christian idea is exemplified in this story.  A rich\nChinaman had three wives.  By his lawful wife he had nine children; by\nthe other two he had none; but his second wife was a woman of very\nstrong character, and she was brought in touch with the missionaries by\nthe Chinese wife of a European.  She apparently ruled the house with a\nkindly rule to which all the others {125} bowed.  She did everything in\nan energetic and vigorous way, and she studied Christianity till she\nwas convinced of its truth, and then she demanded baptism.  There was a\ngreat difficulty; she must leave her husband before she could be\nbaptized.  After considerable delay she accepted the condition, but\nresistance came, not alone from the man, but from the other two wives.\nThey could not possibly get on without her; they were like sisters; and\nshe must be allowed to return to the house.  She refused, though the\npressure was extreme.  The man said that he had promised his ancestors\nthat none of his children should be Christians, and that his own mother\nwould not forgive him; but the woman held firm, and at last she was\nbaptized.  Her face was beautiful to behold while she was accepting\nChristianity and renouncing all that made life sweet to her.  The\nhusband was so moved by her fortitude that he signed a paper promising\nnot to molest her, and yet to support her apart, so that she should not\nbe in any need.\n\nAt the Shanghai Conference there were, curious to relate, many women\nwho wished the Christian body to recognise existing polygamy among the\nChinese.  A sentence of the resolution proposed was that \"secondary\nwives may be admitted to membership if obviously true Christians.\"  Mr.\nArnold Foster resisted the inclusion of these words, and they were\nlost.  No doubt the Conference was wise in taking this line.  It is\nmost essential to maintain the purity {126} of the home life, and the\ndifficulty that arises from secondary wives desiring to join the\nChristian Church can never be a very important one, as the vast\nmajority of Chinese are monogamous.\n\nA serious evil this custom creates is that of female slavery.  Both in\nJapan and China one of the awful penalties of poverty is that a man is\nsometimes forced to sell his female children.  These little girls are\nbought by prudent Chinamen, first to be servants to their own wives and\nthen to act as secondary wives to their sons to prevent them going\nelsewhere.  Sometimes they are kidnapped by men who make a regular\nbusiness of this cruel traffic.  Stories are told of boat-loads of\nthese children being brought down the Yangtsze, concealed below the\ndeck and terrorised to keep them quiet by one of their number being\nkilled before their eyes.  On one occasion a missionary suddenly saw a\nhand thrust through the planks of the deck, and on investigation he\ndiscovered a dozen children hidden below, and as it turned out they had\nbeen kidnapped, not bought, he was able to get them released.  These\nslaves are the absolute property of their owners, and many are the\ntales told of the cruel and neglectful treatment to which they are\nsubjected.  In Shanghai the Chinese police will report such cases, and\nin consequence the ladies of the settlement have founded an admirable\ninstitution to which they can be brought.  The Slave Refuge deserves\nall support.  There the little girls are taught and cared for, and\nhelped to {127} forget the terrible experiences some of them have gone\nthrough.  Sad to relate, many of them have to be taken first to the\nhospital to be cured from the effects of the ill-treatment they have\nreceived.  One poor little thing went into convulsions when a fire was\nlit in the ward; it was difficult to understand the reason, but when it\nhappened again and the poor child uttered incoherent appeals for mercy,\nit was discovered that she thought the fire was lit to heat opium\nneedles with which to torture her.  Her system was too shattered for\nrecovery, but many others get quite well and form a pleasing sight at\nwork and play in the bright cheerful Refuge, with the happy elasticity\nof youth forgetting the injuries which in some cases have left on them\npermanent scars.  But I fear the system of slavery continues very\ncommonly all over China, and such a philanthropic effort as the\nShanghai Slave Refuge can touch but a very small proportion of them.\nProbably when the little slaves are destined to be wives to their\nmistresses' sons they are treated less cruelly, and though employed as\nhousehold drudges, do not live actively unhappy lives.\n\nWithout stating that women as a whole are miserable, I think it would\nbe no exaggeration to say that they are infinitely less happy than\ntheir Western sisters.  Many of the national customs militate against\ntheir happiness.  The custom of child betrothal, for instance, condemns\na woman to live completely subject to a man for whom she perhaps {128}\nhas the greatest natural antipathy.  Stories are told of brides\ncommitting suicide rather than leave their father's house to be married\nto men for whom they feel no affection; yet as a whole they accept\ntheir position, and a Chinese woman has neither the will nor the power\nto be untrue to her husband.\n\nAgain, the rule of the husband's mother is very often extremely harsh;\nthe child-wife is little better than her drudge.  On the other hand,\nwhen a woman grows older, her position is one of considerable strength.\nI was assured that they take a keen interest in the management of their\nhusbands' properties, and often show themselves excellent business\nwomen.  The position which the late Empress of China acquired shows\nthat women's position is the very reverse of inferior when dignified by\nage.\n\nAnd now before all this woman's world glitters Western civilisation;\nthe greater dignity which is accorded therein to women is envied and\nthe laws which restrain her are misunderstood.  The Chinese women hear\nstories of Western life.  At first such strange perversions are\nbelieved as that in the West women rule.  One missionary explained that\nthis absurd figment came from the rule of the late Queen; another\nattributed it to the custom men have when travelling in China of\nwalking while their wives remained in the carrying chair.  To the\nChinaman such a course admits of but one explanation: the {129} woman\nmust be greater than the man because she is carried while he walks.\n\nAgain, in Western China they learnt through their local press that\ngirls and boys received a similar education in England, and they\nconcluded that the dress must be also similar, and the missionaries\nwere more amused than scandalised at seeing a Government girls' school\nturned out in boys' clothes.  It was explained to us that this was far\nfrom being an uncommon custom in China; slave-girls who have been\nbrought up with natural feet are habitually dressed as boys, and it is\ncommon now for fathers of small daughters with unbound feet to avoid\nthe unpleasant taunts of the ignorant by allowing their daughters while\nthey are children to wear boys' clothes.\n\nStill on the whole the desire for imitation of the West has been very\nbeneficial to the women of China, especially in this matter of\nfoot-binding.  This disgusting custom is going out of fashion among the\nenlightened and educated classes; two or three Chinese gentlemen\nassured us that this was so; and in a place like Shanghai, where the\nWestern movement is very strong, the number of women with unbound feet\nis quite remarkable; the greater number of them naturally have had\ntheir feet bound, and as feet bound from infancy never become quite\nnormal, they still have something of the tottering walk which used to\nbe the admiration of every Chinaman; in fact, this tottering walk is\npreserved as a piece of {130} affectation.  A lady told us that even\nher Christian girls' school was not above such a feminine weakness.  As\nthey walked to Church they would step out with the swinging stride that\nregular gymnastic exercises and a most comfortable dress have\nencouraged; suddenly the lady would see the whole of her school struck\nwith a sort of paralysis which made them exchange their easy gait for\nthe \"tottering-lily\" walk of the Chinese small-footed women.  The cause\nis that the boys' school has just come into sight.  I fear it must be\nadmitted that foot-binding continues to be practised in the interior\namongst the poorer women, who cling to the custom for fear of ridicule.\n\nThe most beneficial effect of the admiration of the West is the earnest\ndesire that it has given to Chinese women for education.  So keen is\nthis desire that even married women will become children again and take\ntheir position in the class.  Husbands who have received Western\neducation are most anxious that their wives should share somewhat in\ntheir interests.\n\nLady Florence could see over girls' schools where a man's visit would\nnot have been acceptable, so she visited many of all varieties,\nincluding two at Peking of a rather unusual description.  One of them\nwas carried on by a Manchu lady of high position, connected with a\ngreat Manchu prince.  Her attitude generally towards the forward\nwomen's movement offends her family, as she lectures publicly on topics\nof the time.  {131} Her school is small, and, alas, not very efficient,\nshe having fallen into the usual fallacy amongst the Chinese of\nbelieving that a Japanese instructress must of necessity be efficient.\nStill her desire to give education to the children of the poor is\nworthy of nothing but commendation.  She looked most impressive, being\na fine big handsome woman, attired in the Manchu long robe with the\nornate Manchu head-dress.  The second school my wife saw was managed by\nanother Manchu lady, and it seemed more orderly and more successful\nthan the other.  These two schools testified to a desire to improve the\nstatus of women.  My wife visited many other schools, some belonging to\nmissions of various denominations, which attracted the daughters and\neven the wives of upper-class men, who mixed quite happily with girls\nof lower degree, being all united in a fervent desire for education,\nthe ruling desire now in China among women of all classes.\n\nThis desire for education is a great opportunity for the missionaries,\nand they appeal most eloquently in the message from which we have\nalready quoted for help from their sisters in England.  \"We need more\nschools for girls and more consecrated and highly trained women\ncompetent to conduct such schools and gradually to give higher and\nhigher instruction in them.  We need more training schools, also, for\nChinese women, to fit them to work among their sisters, and we need\neducated Christian ladies from our homelands for Zenana work in the\nhouses of the {132} well-to-do.  Such work would have been impossible a\nfew years ago; now the visits of such workers would in many cases be\ncordially welcomed by Chinese ladies, and frequently they would be\nreturned, for the seclusion of women in China is not at all as strict\nas it is in India.  This, so far, has been a comparatively unworked\nsphere of usefulness in China, but it is one full of promise and of\ngracious opportunity in the present.\"\n\nThe difficulty of education is in one way increased and in another way\ndecreased by the ignorance which many women have of reading the Chinese\ncharacters.  A new system has been invented by which Chinese can be\nwritten in our letters as pronounced.  This is called by the rather\nuncouth name of \"Romanised.\"  At the Shanghai Conference we were told\nwonderful stories of the incredibly short space of time in which women\nlearnt to read by this system.  A woman of sixty-seven learnt in two\nmonths; while one lady asserted that she had taught a boy to read\nbetween Friday and Wednesday, I may add inclusive.  This extraordinary\nachievement is not quite so impossible as it would be with our more\ncomplicated languages.  The Chinese have extremely few sounds, and\ntheir language is monosyllabic in formation.  However, we do not ask\nour readers to accept this as the normal rate of education; still the\nthing is worth mentioning, because it is possibly the beginning of a\ngreat movement which may alter the whole of education in the Far East.\nThe extreme ease with {133} which Chinese can be written in our letters\nmay induce some daring spirit to advocate it as a system fitted for the\neducation of the poor, though this is at present quite improbable.\n\nA far darker side to the introduction of Western ways is the gradual\nnaturalisation of the social evils of the West.  Lady Florence had the\nprivilege of seeing some of the rescue work undertaken by devoted\nmissionary ladies in Shanghai.  Being an open port, this town, in\ncommon, I believe, with the other semi-Westernised ports in China,\nbears a very bad character as regards purity of morals.  The advent of\nthe foreigner has done nothing but harm in this respect.  Wonderful and\nhorrible though it may seem, the vice-mart exists in the ports mainly\nin connection with the foreigners, who appear to have shown the way to\nthe Chinese.  There is a street in Shanghai, the Foochow Road, where\nterrible scandals occur almost openly; signs whose intention is veiled\nto the outsider by his ignorance of Chinese characters, boldly\nadvertise the merits of various houses and their inmates.  Formerly\nthese wretched girls were even paraded in open chairs, but this has\nbeen stopped, though they are still carried about in closed chairs.\nThe scenes in this street as night falls are a sad witness to the ill\neffect of Western ideas without Christianity.  It must never be\nforgotten that the victims of this condition of things are literally\nvictims.  They have no choice in the matter.  They are sold by their\nparents, even by their husbands, {134} into their terrible position;\nand though some may live a life of luxury, most of them are cruelly\ntreated, beaten, tortured to prevent flight, and, as is proved by their\nsubsequent conduct, they regard the life with absolute loathing.\n\nInspired by profound pity for these poor creatures, these excellent\nladies started a Refuge for them with a receiving-house in the very\nmidst of this locality of ill-fame.  To this haven the poor things\noften flee even in the middle of the night, facing the unknown,\nundeterred by rumours of the evil intentions of the foreigners put\nabout by their owners, rather than endure longer the life of\ndegradation and misery to which they have been condemned.  The\nmissionaries receive them and pass them on to the \"Door of Hope,\" the\nappropriately named Refuge, which restores them to hope and peace and\nhappiness.  There were to be seen some eighty young women living a\nhard-working simple life, contented and merry, and apparently never\nregretting for one moment the fine clothes and lazy luxury which many\nof them had renounced.  The ladies teach them useful arts, instruct\nthem in Christianity, and fit them for wives to Chinese Christians who\nwill be good to them, and, understanding well that their former life\nwas involuntary, are glad to have wives with a modicum of education.\nThe ladies will allow non-Christians to mate with non-Christians, if of\ngood character; but they will not permit any of their rescued flock to\nbecome secondary wives.  {135} Two things are remarkable in this work\nof almost divine compassion--a relapse is practically unknown; and it\nis the Chinese who are most helpful in encouraging it--more so than\nforeigners; the Chinese often themselves suggest the \"Door of Hope\" to\nthese girls, and help in police cases to save them from their brutal\nowners.\n\nThe risk that China runs at this moment in the home-life is the same as\nthe risk that she is running in every other department of her national\nexistence.  If the materialist side of Western civilisation is the one\nthat is the most apparent, it is scarcely possible that it will fail to\ndo great damage to her home-life.  A thoughtful Chinaman, talking about\nthe whole question, argued in favour of a complete acceptance of\nWestern ideas.  He was afraid of a half measure.  He said that there\nwas no question that women in the West are restrained by a mass of\nconventions of whose value they are perhaps unconscious, but which are\nvery apparent to those who have been brought up in a different\ncivilisation.  It is the existence of these conventions that makes\ntheir liberty possible.  If the Chinese are to accept Western\ncivilisation for their women, and he regarded this as inevitable, they\nmust learn the conventions; and therefore his solution to the problem\nwas that Chinese girls should be brought to England and brought up as\nEnglish girls.\n\nBut many missionaries plead for the opposite policy.  They say: \"Let us\npreserve what is good in the Chinese home-life, let Christianity\npermeate {136} that life and make it beautiful, but do not destroy it.\nThe Chinese home-life fits the Chinese race.  The Westernised\nChinawoman will combine the errors of both civilisations and the\nvirtues of neither.\"\n\nWithout giving an opinion on this very vexed question, we may express a\nhope that a policy of prudence and moderation will govern the action of\nthose who are concerned with women's education, for the degree of\nalteration which may be necessary in women's life to make them fitted\nto receive Western civilisation will be a matter rather of experiment\nthan of theory.  At any rate let Christianity precede any large\nalterations, for Christianity alone can make the life of a Western\nwoman intelligible and consistent to her Eastern sister.\n\n\n\n\n{137}\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nCHINESE ARCHITECTURE\n\nAmong the many ways a nation has of expressing its thoughts and of\nshowing its individuality, none is more valuable to mankind in general\nthan its art.\n\nPerhaps it can be said that every civilised nation has contributed to\nthe common stock of art, and certainly China has done her share.  The\nporcelain which is called after her name testifies to her pre-eminence\nin ceramic art, and should make Westerns cautious in expressing their\ncontempt for a race which is generally acknowledged to be the\noriginator of this industry.  I will not attempt to express an opinion\nabout the mysteries of this art, except to regret that the name of the\ncountry should be so attached to this product of her skill as\nconstantly to cause confusion.  When my friend Archdeacon Moule\npublished his interesting book on \"New China and Old,\" a lady wrote to\nhim to say that she did not care for new china, but as she was a\ncollector of old china, she would much like to read his book.\n\nChina has contributed to other forms of art as well.  Her embroideries\nand her lacquer work are well known; her ivory carving and silver work\nhave found a place in every collection.  Her art, as we {138} might\nexpect from a race which has been under artificial conditions of\ncivilisation for many years, is distinctly artificial.  In it you can\nsee the spirit of a race who for many centuries have been taught to\ncontrol themselves and to avoid the natural expression of their\nfeelings.  If it is artificial in form, it is pleasing in colour and\nsuperb in workmanship.  There are few who will not agree that every\neffort should be made to preserve these arts from being injured by a\nfalse admiration of Western models.  The only possible exception being\nmodern embroideries, which might be considerably improved if more\nharmonious colours were blended together.\n\nChina excels in another art, though her excellence is not admitted\neither by the foreign resident or even by the native student.  In\ncertain forms of architecture she is unequalled.  Yet when the\nWesterner comes to China he glories in bringing with him Western\narchitecture, indifferent as to whether it is suited to the climatic\nconditions or is in itself beautiful.  Take, for instance, the English\nchurches of China.  Could any form of architecture be less suited to a\ncountry like China, where the sun is frequently oppressively hot, than\nGothic architecture?  The large windows, the pointed arch, and the\nweak, open, high-pitched roof may be suitable in a country like ours\nwhich has little sunlight, and where a wet drifting snow will often\nforce an entrance into the best-designed roof; but in a country like\nChina, where the sun is the chief difficulty, some construction {139}\nshould be preferred which renders a heavy and heat-proof roof possible.\nIf antipathy to the Chinese necessitated a Western type of building,\nItalian or even Romanesque architecture might be selected, and a\nbuilding with a massive roof supported on solid arches might resist the\nrays of the sun.  But why not accept the Chinese architecture as\neminently fitted for the climate?\n\nIf Christianity is to be assimilated by China and become part of their\nnational existence, the buildings in which it is proclaimed should be\nessentially national.  The intention of the Christian should be written\nclearly on the face of every landscape where the new and beautiful\nChinese building rises up for the religion which is, as we maintain, as\nessentially fitted for the Chinese as it is for the English.  We do not\nworship in a Roman basilica, but in the buildings that the northern\narchitects have devised as suitable, both for Christian worship and for\nour climate.  The new Chinese churches need not be replicas of the\nChinese temples; the object of the building is different, therefore the\nbuilding should differ, but there are many other forms in which it is\npossible for the architect to express in Chinese architecture the\neternal truths of Christianity.\n\nAgain, why are all the schools and colleges erected on Western\npatterns.  The Chinese are used to and prefer their own architecture,\nand from a sanitary point of view I hardly think it is inferior.  The\naverage Westerner in China has but one idea, and {140} that is that the\nChinese must become like a Western nation or must remain untouched by\nWestern civilisation.  He absolutely refuses the suggestion that the\narchitecture of China can be altered to suit modern conditions.\n\nIt is said that the thoughts of all nations are written in their\narchitecture; that you can see the nobility of the Middle Ages in the\nGothic cathedral, or the fulness of the thought of the Renaissance in\nthe Palladian facade; certainly on the modern Chinese town the story of\ntheir change of thought is being rapidly written, perhaps with truth,\nbut certainly not with beauty.  The Western man absolutely despising\nall things Chinese refuses to erect any building which preserves even a\ndetail of the national architecture; the Westernising Chinaman in\nfaithful imitation erects Western buildings, but with this difference;\nwhereas the buildings of the Western have some beauty--for instance,\nthe cathedral at Shanghai is a noble building and the Pe-T'ang at\nPeking would not disgrace an Italian town, even the bankers' palaces at\nHankow are not unworthy dwellings for merchant princes--the Chinese\nimitations of these Western buildings have but little beauty to commend\nthem, and as far as I could understand they are really less serviceable\nthan a true Chinese building.\n\nNo European resident in China will ever allow that Chinese buildings\nare either beautiful or useful, and if any one suggests that a Western\nhouse shall {141} be built in the Chinese style the suggestion is\nscouted as absurd; yet the British Legation at Peking is an old Chinese\npalace, and no one who has seen it ever doubts that it is one of the\nmost beautiful buildings in the whole of China, and if this building\nhas been found fitting for His Majesty's Representative, surely some\nsuch building might serve for others of less high station.\n\nAs to the spiritual ideals in Chinese architecture, who can doubt them\nwhen they look at some of the pagodas that the reverence of Buddhism\nhas produced.  These pagodas tell in every line of a nation that would\nreach up above mere utilitarianism to higher thoughts.  The uselessness\nof the pagoda which so often annoys the practical Englishman is one of\nits chief merits.  It stands there in all its beauty pleading with\nmankind for a love of beauty for its own sake and a belief in a\nbeautiful spirit world.  The whole of Buddhist thought is intimately\nconnected with the love of beauty.  When a Chinese gentleman was asked\nif the Chinese had any love of beauty, he said: \"You will notice that\ntheir temples are always built in beautiful spots, so that they who\nworship in them should satisfy their love of beauty.\"\n\nEven if the pagoda is merely regarded as a thing to bring luck to a\ntown, it still merits admiration, for there must be something fine in a\nrace that believes a beautiful thing can bring the blessing of the\nheavenly bodies on the earth.  No one can {142} study the details of\nany of these pagodas without being confident that those who erected\nthem had as their main object the erection of a beautiful building.\n\nOr again, take the Temple of Heaven.  Is there any monument in the\nwhole world that has more feeling of beauty about it?  The white altar\nlying uncovered testifies to the fundamental faith of the Chinese that\nthere is a God in heaven who dwelleth not in temples made with hands,\nwhile the detail of the carving, though showing a certain sameness, yet\nindicates their belief that God must love beauty.  To see the white\nAltar of Heaven together with the blue-roofed Temple beyond on some\nsunny day when the flowers are blooming and the dark green of the pine\ngrove is in strong contrast with the light green of the spring herbage,\nis one of those visions of beauty which make a man dream and dream\nagain of the noble future that may be before a race which has its\nholiest places in such lovely surroundings.\n\nAs most of the readers of this book may never have seen a Chinese\nbuilding, perhaps it should be described.  The architecture of the\nChinese differs from that of the West in almost every detail.  A\nChinese town is a town without chimneys, and yet the absence of those\nchimneys which Renaissance architects made such a feature of domestic\narchitecture is never missed, for Chinese roofs are curved and\ndecorated with quaint figures; they are often {143} coloured, bright\nyellow if the building is an imperial building, or bright blue or blue\nand green with yellow lines, as taste may direct.  Common houses have\nnot such ornate roofs, but I am speaking of the houses which have some\nclaim to architectural excellence.  This great roof is carried directly\non pillars, so that it is possible to have a Chinese house without\nwalls, and these wall-less houses are most suitable to a country where\nthe summer is hot.  The massive character of the roof prevents the heat\nof the sun penetrating, and the absence of walls allows of a free\ncurrent of air; if there are walls they are generally wooden screens\nfilled in with paper, and the effect in some old Chinese houses is very\nlovely.\n\nFor winter weather these houses seem cold to us, but the Chinese have\nalways believed in the open-air policy.  They never heat their houses;\nthey rely either on warm clothing or on a flue-heated bed at night; and\nas they are as a race very subject to consumption, probably this policy\nis one which is best suited to their constitutions.  At any rate it\nseems strange that while we in England are advocating open-air schools,\nopen-air cures, and sleeping with the window open, in China Western\ninfluence should be destroying the admiration for a splendid form of\narchitecture, the characteristic of which was that while it was of\ngreat beauty, it also shielded the inmates from the intense heat of\nsummer and gave them ample fresh air.\n\nWhen some Chinese literati were questioned {144} about this\narchitecture they freely confessed that they preferred their native\nbuildings, but they seemed to think that a Western school could not be\nefficient unless it was held in a Western building.  Missionaries and\nothers being questioned on this point maintained that Western houses\nwere in the end the cheapest, but the Chinese would not allow this.\nThey said that a Chinese house would cost far more than a Western house\nif it were beautifully adorned with carving, but if it was built simply\nit would work out at less cost.\n\nChinese architecture is obviously a construction which lends itself to\nthe use of iron.  A Chinese building with iron substituted for wood\nwould look as well, for they always paint their wood; this ought to be\na very cheap form of construction in a land which is going to produce\niron at a very low rate.  The truth is that it is neither a question of\ncost nor of efficiency which makes the Chinese architecture despised;\nit is part of the great movement which expresses itself in stone and\nbrick--a movement which is tending to bring the Eastern countries into\nmisery--a movement which is planting in the East all that is\ncommonplace, all that is hideous in the West, and that is destroying\nall that is beautiful in the East both in thought and colour and form.\nIt is the counterpart of the movement which is destroying the faith of\nthe Eastern nations and is only substituting the materialism which has\ndegraded the West.\n\n\n\n\n{147}\n\nRELIGIONS OF CHINA AND THE MISSIONARY\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nRELIGIONS IN CHINA\n\nThe real power of a race lies in its religion; other motives inevitably\ntend to egotism, disorganisation, and national death, and China is no\nexception to the rule; the strength and the weakness of China lies in\nher religion and in its absence.  There are few nations who set less\nstore by the outward observance of religion and yet there are few\nnations with a greater belief in the supernatural.  On the one hand,\nthe temples are deserted or turned into schools, and the Chinese are\nbelieved to have no other motives than self-interest.  On the other\nhand, the whole of Chinese life turns round the relation of man to the\nspirit of his ancestors and to the spiritual world, and the Chinaman\nobviously believes that a man's soul is immortal and that its welfare\nhas the very closest connection with the welfare of his descendant.\n\nThe commercial man will tell you that the Chinese are\nmaterialists--people who have no faith; and yet with glorious\ninconsistency he will explain that the difficulty of using Chinese\nlabour abroad is that even the commonest coolie demands that his body\nshall be repatriated and shall lie in some place which will not hinder\nhis son doing filial {148} worship to his spirit.  The whole question\nof what the race believes is rendered more difficult of comprehension\nto a Westerner by the confused nature of that belief, and is\ncomplicated by the characteristic of the Chinese of mixing all\nreligions together regardless of their natural incongruity.  It is\nhoped that the reader will bear this in mind during the following\nexplanation.\n\nThe religions of China are usually classed as three.  Not three\nwell-marked religions in our sense of the word, but three elements\nwhich tend to merge into a common religion.  There are separate\nreligions.  A large number of Chinese, for instance, are Mohammedan,\nand they neither marry nor are given in marriage to the other Chinese;\nthere is a very small Jewish community; and there is also a native\nGreek Christian village still tolerated by the Chinese, which was\ntransplanted from Siberia as the result of a Chinese conquest in the\ndays of Peter the Great; there are a quarter of a million Christians\nconverted by non-Roman missions, besides a million belonging to the\nRoman Catholic Communion.  But Christianity, Judaism, and Mohammedanism\nput all together, form but a small part of the Chinese community, and\nthe greater part of China believes, according to all orthodox\nexpositors, in three religions--Buddhism, Taoism, and what is termed\nConfucianism.\n\nThis conglomerate of three religions consists in its turn of composite\nfaiths.  Buddhism in China is not like the Buddhism of Ceylon with its\nagnostic {149} teaching.  Buddhism is divided into two great\ndivisions--the \"greater vehicle\" and the \"lesser vehicle.\"  The \"lesser\nvehicle\" is known to the world as pure Buddhism; the \"greater vehicle\"\ncontains many sects, all of which claim that the revelation extended to\nGautama was only a partial revelation, and that the truth has been more\nfully revealed to those who succeeded him.  This is called Lamaism, and\nin China has incorporated much of the idolatry which it supplanted and\nperhaps some of the Nestorian Christianity which succeeded it; in fact,\nthe Buddhist temple in China is nothing more than an idol temple.\nBuddha of Gautama is always the principal idol; he is represented calm\nand without thought or trouble; he sits, the embodiment of peace and\nrest; but though he may be the first in the Buddhist temple, he is far\nfrom being alone; close behind him in popular estimation come two other\ndeities, Amita and Kwannin.  Amita, Amitobha or O-mi-to, is held by\nsome to be the father of Kwannin, and is at once a guardian of the\nWestern Paradise and the personification of purity; to this wholly\nmythical personage is attributed such virtue that the mere repetition\nof his name will secure salvation.  In Japan a sect holds that every\nBuddhist law can be broken with immunity as long as there is faith in\nAmita.  In China such statements are made as this: to follow the strict\nlaw of Buddhism is to climb to heaven as a fly crawls up the wall, but\nto attain Salvation by repeating {150} the name O-mi-to is like sailing\nheavenwards in a boat with wind and tide behind, at the pace of a\nhundred li an hour.  There is a general agreement that adherence to the\nstrict Buddhist law of chastity, honesty, truth, temperance, abstinence\nfrom anger and serenity of mind, is an ideal which is impossible at any\nrate for the laity.  But the exact method of escaping this burden\ndiffers in various sects.  The most popular is by a \"saving faith\" in\nAmita.\n\nIf the origin of this deity can be attributed to the personification of\na spirit of purity, the origin of the next, Kwannin, is probably from\nsome source outside Buddhism.  She is the goddess of mercy, but\nwhatever her origin, she at present represents the remnants of either\nthe Nestorian or the medi\u00e6val Roman teaching.  In Peking they have a\ncurious image of her which any one might mistake for a Madonna, the\ntruth being that there was at one time an intimate contact between\nChristianity and Buddhism, when many of the externals of the Christian\nreligion and some of its doctrines were transplanted.  The Buddhist\ntemple with its altar in the centre looks strangely like a Christian\nchurch, and the Buddhist monks and nuns, with their rosaries and their\nregular hours for chanting and service, recall the Roman Catholic\nservices; the picture of the Buddhist hell which stands in the great\nMongol temple at Peking reminds one of a scene from Dante's Inferno,\nand among the many things the Buddhists borrow from Christian sources\n{151} are these two ideas, embodied in two idols, the goddess of mercy\nwho intercedes for mankind, and the god of faith in whom the worshipper\nshould put all trust and confidence.  Besides these gods there are the\ngod of war and the god of good-fellowship, probably taken from old\nheathen sources.  Again, there are hundreds of Buddhas, or as we should\ncall them, \"saints,\" whose position is somewhere between human and\ndivine, much the same position that the saints occupy in the mind of a\nNeapolitan peasant.\n\nAfter Buddhism comes Taoism.  Taoism is again a conglomerate faith.\nTechnically it is the faith of Laotze, who was an opponent and a\ncontemporary of Confucius.  He taught a dualism which reminds the\nWesterner of the doctrine of the Manichees.  Again, Western and Eastern\nthought have been confused; Manichees are known to have existed in\nChina, and whether Manich\u00e6ism originally came from the East or whether\nsubsequently Chinese thought has been affected by Manich\u00e6ism is hard to\ndecide.  At any rate, Laotze did not claim that his teaching was\noriginal; he was merely the prophet of an established school of\nthought.  The greater part of China follows his rival and despises\nLaotze's teaching, yet the dualism that he taught is part of the\nessential faith of China, and a part which is most opposed to all that\nis good.  He taught that good and evil were essentially divided, were\nhalves, as it were, of one whole.  He called them the \"Yang\" and the\n\"Yin\"--terms {152} which are in no way confined to the few disciples\nwho now follow him.  This division between good and evil makes up the\nmystery of the world--light and darkness, heaven and earth, male and\nfemale, each couple makes up one whole divided between good and evil;\nand so the world beyond is peopled with good and evil spirits, the\n\"Yang\" and the \"Yin.\"  Obviously such a faith has all the evil which we\nrecognise in Manich\u00e6ism, and its practical disadvantages are very\ngreat.  For instance, the inferior position of women is defended as\ninevitable; they are \"Yin.\"  No mine must be sunk or cutting made for\nfear of angering the earth spirits, for as man is as essentially a part\nof the world as the earth, those earth spirits will avenge themselves\nupon him.  Even such great men and such good Confucianists as His\nExcellency the late Chang-Chih-Tung are not insensitive to such a\nsuperstition.  The town over which he ruled was divided by a steep\ngravel hill.  A Western engineer recommended that this hill should be\ncut through to facilitate access from one part of the town to the\nother, and the Viceroy, ever ready to accept new and Western ideas of\npractical advantage, immediately ordered the suggestion to be carried\nout.  Shortly afterwards a large wen developed on his neck, and,\narguing that an evil spirit of the earth, who had originally made the\ngravel hill, was so angered at the destruction of it that he determined\nto re-make it on the neck of the offender, the Governor had the cutting\nfilled up, and there it stands to this very day, a {153} witness of the\nevil influence that an evil religion can have on the greatest men of a\nnation.  Taoism has now but few adherents, and yet there are many\nTaoist priests, since these priests are regarded as particularly\nefficient in dealing with the evil spirits in whom Taoism believes so\nfully.\n\nThe third religion is generally called Confucianism, and this may\neasily lead to a great misunderstanding, for under the term\nConfucianism two very different things are included.  First, a belief\nin the philosophy of Confucius.  This for the most part is outside what\nwe are accustomed to call religion, and we shall have occasion to deal\nwith it later on.  Secondly, and more commonly, the spiritual beliefs\nof those who call themselves Confucians, and who, owing to his silence\non religion, have to find other authorities for their faith.  Sometimes\nthey claim that their faith was the same as the faith of Confucius,\nthat the background of his philosophy was the religion that they\nbelieve, but more commonly they accept it without any question.  This\nreligion is commonly mixed up both with Buddhism and with Taoism, but\nits essential doctrine is very distinct and has great weight in China,\nnamely, that the spirits of men who are dead live and have influence\nover the lives of their descendants.  I was told by a Chinese Christian\nthat a religious Chinaman of the lower class never goes out without\nburning a stick of incense to the tablet of his father, and no one can\ngo through Chinese towns without being impressed by the number of\npeople who in that {154} poor country are kept hard at work\nmanufacturing mock money to be burnt for the use of parents and\nancestors.\n\nThe missionaries find that this doctrine is the hardest doctrine for\nChristianity to assail; and there are not a few who, despairing of\nsuccess, suggest that the position must be turned, and ancestor worship\nmust be Christianised and accepted as an essential part of a man's\nbelief.  The logical Western mind immediately wants to know what is\nbehind the ancestor; if an ancestor is to have power he can only have\nit, says the logical Westerner, by being in contact with some higher\npower.  One of the greatest missionaries that China possesses answers\nthis difficulty by saying that the Chinese mind is not the Western\nmind; that he does not concern himself very much with remote\nspeculation; he has not that itching longing to use the word \"why,\"\nwhich is at once the glory and the difficulty of the Western mind, and\ntherefore he looks at the spiritual world much as he looks at the\nearthly world; the man immediately over him in the town is the\nmagistrate, and, to use the Chinese phrase, \"is the father and mother\nof his people,\" and so over him in spiritual things is his father and\ngrandfather.  Behind the magistrate there is in his distant thought the\nprefect--the head of the prefecture or Fu town--a being who only comes\ninto his village life when there is trouble and difficulty; he comes to\npunish, rarely to reward, and so behind his father and grandfather in\n{155} the spiritual world are the great clan leaders whom he worships\nat regular intervals with the rest of his clan.  In civil government\nthere are in a distant background a Viceroy with awful powers and awful\nmajesty, and an Emperor whose very name is so divine that he scarcely\nlikes to use it; and behind the clan leaders are many beings borrowed\nfrom Buddhism, relics of old idolatry, muddled up with Taoism; and in\nthe dim and distant background is the Supreme Being--the Supreme Being\nWho rewards the just and punishes the unjust, Who can in no way be\ndeceived, Who refuses the rain to the sinner and makes the land\ndesolate, Who has power to dethrone the earthly Emperor and to place\nChina under a foreign domination.  This great and awful power is,\nhowever, so far distant that the average Chinaman thinks but little\nabout Him.\n\nThe Temple of Heaven at Peking is the beautiful shrine of this Supreme\nBeing.  Here once a year, after spending a night fasting, the Emperor,\nas the father of his nation, worships the great God who made heaven and\nearth.  The chief feature of this worship is that it is performed in\nthe open air on a beautiful marble dais.  No place in China is quite so\nlovely; it is the fitting shrine of the beautiful faith of China's most\nglorious days, a faith which though dormant is not dead.  The traveller\nwho stands there should remember that the worship which is here\nperformed is as old as the date of the patriarchs and not un-akin to\ntheir religious {156} ideals; and if there are some things which are\nnot sympathetic to the Christian idea, they are subordinate.  In the\nmain it is the worship of the One True Being.\n\nThis faith has no right to be called Confucian.  There is great doubt\nabout the faith of Confucius.  He is silent about religion, or he\nrefers to it only indirectly; it is no part of his teaching; but his\nindirect references to it apparently express a belief in a Supreme\nBeing whom he calls \"Heaven,\" a Supreme Being who has an influence on\nhuman affairs.  He also recognises ancestor worship, but with such a\ndubious phrase that many Chinese and English scholars have doubted his\nmeaning.  Neither is this the faith of all the leading Confucianists in\nChina, many of whom are professedly agnostics in matters of religion,\nand follow the teaching of Chu; but it is the faith, the ill-understood\nfaith, of the great multitude of thinking and non-thinking Chinamen,\nand it is looked upon as the State religion of China.  Its power over\nChina is universal and yet insecure.\n\nMany ages ago it was partially defeated by the more logical and more\nsympathetic faith of Buddhism.  The fight was bitter, the persecutions\nwere cruel, but Buddhism conquered.  Now Buddhism fails.  With its\nfailure a vast mass of superstition, kept alive by the sacrifice to the\nancestor, once more rises up and stands right in the path of\nprogress--right in the way of civilisation.  It was superstition that\nmoved the Boxer, and this it was that lost credit when {157} Boxerdom\nfailed.  Story after story is told of the influence of this incoherent\nbut vital mass of religion.  The junk will dart across the bows of your\nsteamer; there will be much whistling, reversing of engines, peremptory\ncommands in English, abuse in Chinese; and when you inquire why the\nlowdah of the junk risked his cargo, perhaps his life, and put the\nsteamer and its passengers in a state of excitement, if not in\njeopardy, the answer is that every junk lowdah is afraid of the evil\nspirit that is following him, and if he crosses the steamer's bow he\nexpects that the evil spirit, seeing a more worthy quarry, will neglect\nhim and follow the steamer.  The head of the Shanghai Telephone Company\ntells how he is not uncommonly met by some sleek well-to-do Chinaman\nwho is most distressed because the shadow of a telephone pole falls\nover his door, so that as he goes out he passes beneath it, and that\nwill bring bad luck.  The houses in China stand unconformably with the\nroad, because a certain aspect is lucky; a cracker is exploded to\nfrighten the evil spirits away, and so on through tales innumerable.\n\nThe world around is full of evil spirits to the Chinaman.  Every\nvillage has the witch doctor who is learned in the ways of these evil\nspirits.  Diabolical possession is as present with them as ever it was\nin Bible times.  Your hard-headed commercial man smiles when he relates\nthese stories, incredulous that there can be any foundation for them;\nbut those who have dwelt among the Chinese take much the same line\n{158} about these stories as we do about spiritualism.  Much is folly,\nmore is fraud; but behind both the folly and the fraud there is a\nmysterious reality.  The faith of the masses of China in the spiritual\nworld has never been encouraged by its philosophers.  It owes its\nvitality to the fact that, as with us, so with them, manifestations of\npowers beyond this world are real if ill-comprehended, and connected\ntoo often with man's evil side.  The Psychical Research Society will do\nwell to inquire closely into many of these phenomena.  Nothing\nconvinced me of the reality of this belief more than the line that was\ntaken by one of our English missionaries.  He was speaking of\ndiabolical possession, and he related the same story which one has\nheard so often that a man suddenly spoke as another personality; and\nthen he added, \"I realised that it was not he who was speaking to me,\nbut the evil spirit within him;\" and he went on, \"I was afraid to speak\nto him, because if you speak to those who are possessed with an evil\nspirit, the evil spirit will take possession of you.\"  It was strange\nto hear such a testimony to the reality of diabolical possession from\nan Englishman, but you will hear it from every Chinaman.  Those who\nhave read \"Pastor Hsi\" will remember how firm was his belief in such\npossession.\n\nAgainst all this mass of the evil world the Chinaman has but one\ndefence: his father and his ancestor belong to that world and they will\ndefend him; and so the ancestor cult is intimately connected with this\n{159} belief in evil spirits.  If the father does not bestir himself\nthe son may come to harm--in fact, the main part of a Chinaman's\nreligious idea centres round ancestor worship; and there is no such\nawful moment in a Christian convert's life as when he is required to\ndestroy the tablet of his ancestors.  A Confucianist cannot understand\nthe missionary position; to his mind contempt for the ancestor only\nmeans a deep and spiritual scepticism, an absence of all faith in the\nsupernatural, a negation of all sense of duty.  A missionary recounted\na story illustrative of this difficulty.  He was travelling up-country\nin China, and his road lay along the same way down which a well-to-do\nmerchant was travelling, and as they journeyed on side by side and met\nevery night at the inns at which they put up, he noticed that the\nChinaman eyed him askance; but as the missionary spoke Chinese well,\nand as travellers have many little wants which another traveller can\nsupply, it was not unnatural that in spite of the mistrust manifested\nby the Chinaman they should fall gradually into more intimate converse.\nOne night as they were sitting at an inn the Chinaman said to the\nmissionary, \"Do you know I thought you were a Christian, but I see you\nare a good fellow.\"  The missionary assured him that he was a\nChristian, and did not deny that he was a good fellow.  He felt,\nhowever, that there was some obstacle in the Chinaman's mind that kept\nthem still apart, and as they journeyed on from day to day and had\ngrown more intimate, the Chinaman said, \"You know {160} people do tell\nsuch lies that one cannot believe a word they say.\"  The missionary\nassented to this general proposition as true of all the world, but\nasked for a more immediate application.  The Chinaman continued: \"Well,\nI hope you will not be offended if I tell you the lies they tell about\nyou--lies that I am afraid I believed till I met you and could see what\na good fellow you are.  They say--\" but he broke off.  \"Pardon me, it\nis such a horrible accusation that I do not like to repeat it, even\nthough I know that it is untrue.\"  The missionary pressed him to tell\nwhat this accusation was, and the Chinaman continued apologetically, \"I\nknow that it is such a lie that I am ashamed that my people should tell\nsuch lies, but they do say that you Christians actually teach men to\nbreak up the tablet on which their father's name is written;\" and the\nmissionary realised all at once the depth of the conviction of the\nChinaman and the wide gulf that separated him from Christianity.  And\nso many and many a person who knows China best confidently asserts that\nChristianity will never become the religion of China till it permits\nand recognises this ancestral worship.\n\nBut now a new factor has entered into this problem.  Western\nmaterialism is spreading its malign influence over China; the educated\nclasses of Japan boldly profess that they have long since ceased to\nbelieve in any religion, and they are calling upon China with great\neffect to follow their example, and so the position changes altogether.\nAncestor worship, {161} with all its accompanying superstition, tends\nto disappear where Western knowledge is taught.  The Boxers were not\nuntrue prophets when they told their people that they or Western\ncivilisation, as they knew it, must leave China, and that they could\nnot co-exist.  The position is surely one that must excite the very\ndeepest interest.  It is scarcely conceivable that a race so deeply\nconvinced of the realities of the spiritual world will, as a whole,\naccept the belief that there are no spirits.  It is equally\ninconceivable that with modern Western education the people shall\nbelieve in the spirit that follows the junk, or in the spirit that is\nangered by a mining operation.  The religious sentiment of China will,\nas it were, be turned out of doors by Western knowledge.  There will be\na terrible moment when, with all the insolence of youth, the young man\nrefuses to believe in God or in a devil, and rushes into every wild\nanarchical and socialistic scheme to satisfy his craving for action.\n\nIt is a terrible moment, and one which one sees rapidly developing in\nJapan and among the Westernised Chinese; but beyond that terrible\nperiod there dawns a brighter day when China will reassert its natural\nsentiment and will accept Christianity as the only reasonable religion\nthat is consonant with modern science and a belief in the spiritual\nworld.  The question of policy that needs solving is whether it is wise\nin the face of this great Western unbelieving movement to treat respect\nfor {162} ancestors too drastically.  Western education must remove its\nobjectionable features and Christianity might accept the modified form\nof this belief which is not wholly inconsistent with the doctrine of\nthe resurrection of the dead.\n\n\n\n\n{163}\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nCONFUCIAN PHILOSOPHY AND WESTERN CULTURE\n\nIt is not realised in the West how much the modern movement in Japan\nowes its power and vitality to a native movement which welcomed change.\nIn Japan Buddhism had failed, the one school of Confucianism which\nbelieved in change was dominant, and therefore it was a comparatively\neasy matter to introduce the extensive changes of Western civilisation.\nThere was no religion with roots deeply entwined in the hearts of the\npeople to oppose such a change.  Shintoism had not yet been\nrediscovered and established, and it consisted merely of a mass of\nsuperstition, without any literature or organisation.  Thus it was the\ncombination of these facts, with the threatening attitude of Western\npowers, which made all the prophecies of men who knew the East untrue.\nNo one understood the vital power of the movement in Japan.  If, thirty\nyears ago, some one had written a book to prove that Japan would one\nday defeat Russia, people would have laughed at the suggestion, and the\nauthority of people who had lived in the East all their lives would\nhave been quoted to prove that an Eastern race could never fully accept\nWestern civilisation.  The prophets were misled by {164} the precedent\nof India and Turkey.  The Western civilisation is met there by\nreligions whose tenets are opposed to Western thought, and as long as\nthose religions hold, Western views will make but small progress; but\nin Japan there was no such religion, and in China to-day there is no\nsuch religion.  The Buddhism of China, like the Buddhism of Japan, may\nsatisfy the cravings for spiritual religion of the uneducated and the\nignorant; but the thinkers of both races--the statesmen, the writers,\nthe leaders--are uninfluenced by Buddhism.  Taoism has contributed to\nthe thought and superstition of China, but is in no way now an\nimportant factor in her development; the philosophy of Confucius is the\none vital force in the land.\n\nIts doctrines are in no way opposed to our civilisation; it teaches\nmainly that a man must be sincere to his own higher nature; it has a\nprofound belief in the greatness of human nature, and a very inadequate\nexplanation, therefore, of the failures of that nature.  That man must\nbe sincere, so that the full beauty of his nature may appear, is one of\nits main tenets, and that this beautiful thing must be decorated with\nknowledge is a natural corollary.  It undertakes the reform of the\nworld, by convincing the ruler of his duty, and through him compelling\nthe ruled to tread the right path, contrasting here very strongly with\nthe religion of our Bible, though perhaps not with political\nChristianity.  All through its teaching there is an underlying\nsuggestion that {165} subjects will obey their rulers not only\noutwardly but also inwardly in their opinions and convictions.\n\nConfucianism does not believe in government by the people, of the\npeople, for the people; but it believes very strongly in government for\nthe people by the rulers.  Many of its maxims might be cut out as\ntexts, and hung up in the House of Commons with great appropriateness.\nIt constantly pictures a well-ordered peaceful state, in which the\ndignity of government is well maintained, and where the working-man\nshall profit by his work through justice and peace, and the trader grow\nrich in confident security.  In all this teaching it is not opposed to\nWestern civilisation.  Confucius advocates the reform of society by the\naction of the State.  Thus the sanitary laws, the education laws, the\ntemperance laws of the West are thoroughly consistent with the teaching\nof Confucius.  Where that teaching differs from the West is that it\ndisbelieves in democracy.  Yet Confucianism cares nothing for a man's\nbirth: all men are born equal to the Confucianist as to the Christian;\nand so Confucianism has, for many centuries, welcomed people of the\nlowest birth as Governors, if they could pass the requisite\nexaminations, and, having given every opportunity to men of all classes\nto become officials, it entrusts them and not the people with the\ngovernment of the country.\n\nIn another way Confucianism is opposed to Western civilisation.\nConfucianism believes intensely in the dignity of government; their\nclassics are full {166} of examples of people who, at the risk of their\nlives, defied kings and maintained the dignity of their positions; and\nthis doctrine of dignity is consequently very deeply ingrained in\nChinese thought; it is in reality the base of that curious doctrine of\n\"face\" by which a man will do anything rather than confess that he is\nwrong.  A great missionary recounts how his wonderful work at Tientsin\nwas once threatened with destruction because a boy from the south of\nChina knocked a boy from the north off his bicycle, with the result\nthat the college was soon divided into two factions on the question as\nto who should pay for the injured bicycle.  The matter was only with\ndifficulty arranged by the President paying for the bicycle and\ncharging it to the guilty boy; but the boy did not mind paying--he\nminded confessing that he was wrong.  There was another case in this\nsame college where a boy had been induced to confess privately his\nsorrow that he had wilfully insulted a master.  He was prepared to\nsuffer expulsion rather than confess his fault openly.  He was\nmiserable at the prospect of leaving the college, and when a great\nappeal was made to his better feelings to say that he was sorry, he\nshook his head sadly.  At last he was asked, \"Have you never allowed\nyou were wrong in your whole life?\"  \"No,\" he said, with a look of\npride, \"_never_.\"  Odious and detestable as this doctrine is in private\nlife, I think I have the authority of St. Augustine for saying that it\nis a maxim of good government that however wrong an {167} order may be,\na superior should not confess his error, so necessary is this doctrine\nof dignity to government.  Thus the Chinese expression \"face\" has been\ncommonly accepted as a good English expression when speaking about\ngovernments.\n\nNo doubt it is this sense of dignity which gives such authority to the\nChinese official.  In many ways it may be an element of weakness.  I\nwas surprised to learn that the officials in the Yamen had never been\nin the shops of the city; it is beneath their dignity.  Goods are\nbrought to them and they buy in their own houses.  For instance we were\ntold how in Changsha two patriotic bas-reliefs were put up in a shop,\none of them representing the Westerns bringing tribute to the Emperor\nof China, and the other depicting a Western woman, chained and\ndishevelled, being led in as a slave.  Of course our very excellent and\nmost efficient representative, Consul Hewlett, made instant\nrepresentation to the Governor and the objectionable figures were\nremoved; but the Chinese officials claimed that they were completely\nignorant of what was happening in the shops of the town, because they\nnever went there.\n\nIt is obvious that this high estimation of dignity makes much of\nWestern government antipathetic to a Chinaman; he cannot sympathise\nwith a civilisation which admires government by noisy agitation, vulgar\nposters, indecent journalism.  Such an agitation as that in favour of\nwomen's suffrage is inconceivable and disgusting beyond words to the\nmind of {168} a Chinese thinker; that women, whose dignity is such that\nthey should never be tried in a public court; that educated ladies,\nwhose names, in China, must scarcely be mentioned owing to their\nexalted position, should wrestle in a public crowd and be arrested, is\none of those mysteries in Western government that the dignified Eastern\nmind can never hope to understand.\n\nConfucianism, considered by itself, is not unfavourable to Western\ncivilisation, and its great influence in China will no doubt largely\naccelerate the Westernisation of that vast empire.  For instance, the\npolicy of education is one which has been followed by China for many a\nlong year; all that the Chinese are doing is to alter the object of\nthat education.  It used to aim at giving men a complete knowledge of\nthe Chinese classics; now it aims at giving them in addition a\nknowledge of the West and of natural sciences; and so such an eminent\nConfucian scholar and such an ardent Conservative as the late\nChang-Chih-Tung was the foremost advocate for a Western education.\n\nAgain the development of the Press on Western lines takes place rapidly\nin China, where newspapers have long been known, and which boasts of\nbeing a country possessing the oldest newspaper in the world, the\n_Peking Gazette_.  Translations of Western literature issued by the\nChristian Literature Society are read with avidity by a race that\nesteems literature highly, no matter with what subject it deals, {169}\nand who has no worse an epithet for one of its emperors than\n\"book-burner.\"\n\nThough Confucianism is not antipathetic to Western civilisation as a\nwhole, and by its philosophy and literature encourages education in\nWestern ideas, yet those ideas will, I fear, be fatal to that mighty\nsystem of ethics that has kept China together, and has enabled her to\nconquer her conquerors so many times.  The countries that have never\nknown Confucius are succeeding far better than the countries that have\nbeen taught by him.  The fact that he always claimed that any race who\nfollowed his teaching would be prosperous, coupled with the fact that\nChina, with her splendid resources and immense population, is far\npoorer and weaker than nations who know nothing of his teaching, is\nsufficient to bring its own condemnation to this philosophy.  There is\na marked difference in the teaching of Christianity and Confucianism in\nthis respect.  Christianity, by the example of its founder, teaches\nthat the world must be reformed through the individual; and that the\ndestruction of a State, whether it be Jerusalem or Rome, is only a\npainful incident in the upward advance of mankind.  If every Western\nState were destroyed, the true Christian would only pause longer over\nhis reading of the prophet Jeremiah; but when China, the home of\nConfucianism, realises her powerlessness in the face of the West, in\nsorrow and regret she will close the books of Confucius, as the books\nthat guided the {170} State to destruction, even though that teaching\nwas pleasant and beautiful.\n\nA great Chinaman realised that this was the position of Japan, and told\nme that he did not believe that in Japan any one really believed in\nBuddhism or in Confucianism or in the new-found Shintoism; and that, as\nthey had not yet accepted Christianity, they were in a state, odious to\nthe Western and Eastern alike, of being without moral guidance in this\nworld.  The position of Japan to-day will, in all probability, be, both\nin regard to the constructive and destructive effects of Western\ncivilisation, the condition of China to-morrow, unless indeed\nChristianity can fill the vacant place in Chinese thought.  Never\nbefore has such an opportunity been presented to the Christian world as\nthis vast mass of population included under the name of China, left\nhomeless by the action of world thought.\n\nThose millions of people, for instance, who yearn for a spiritual\nreligion, and who have found in times past some comfort in the confused\nand corrupt faith of Chinese Buddhism, are now ready with open ears to\nlisten to any one who is prepared to teach them a higher and more\nspiritual religion.  The Confucian scholar who realises the debt that\nChina owes to the teaching of the sage, and yet who feels that Western\ncivilisation is sapping his authority and leaving China without a moral\nguide, welcomes readily the teaching of the moral philosopher who is\nprepared to show that Confucianism is essentially {171} right and has\nevidence of Divine truth within it, but that it only errs in not\nrealising that the complete salvation of man can only be accomplished\nby those who appeal to his spiritual nature as well as to his moral\nsentiments.\n\nIf Christianity conquers China, one of her first actions will be to\nreinstate Confucius in the position from which Western materialism has\ndethroned him; but the task would be infinitely easier if Christians\ncould take effective action at once.  Every day that passes makes the\nposition more difficult.  Every Confucian scholar who shuts up his\nbooks and opens the books of the materialistic philosopher of the West,\nwill prove an additional obstacle in the way of the Christianisation of\nChina.  The great danger is that the West, ignorant of what is\nhappening in the East, will let this opportunity pass and allow Western\nmaterialism to establish itself as a force in China, as it has\nestablished itself as a force in Japan.  The world is full of examples\nof lost opportunities; let us hope that China will not have to be added\nto that sad category.\n\n\n\n\n{172}\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nINTERVIEW AT NANKING\n\nThe best view of the religion of China is to be obtained from the\nenlightened Chinese themselves, and their views will probably be of\ninterest to our readers.  It should be explained that one of the\nobjects of our second visit to China was to inquire whether the Chinese\nofficials would welcome the foundation of Universities in which Western\nknowledge could be taught, and whose atmosphere should be Christian.\nWhen the matter was first discussed in England it crept into the\nnewspapers, and I immediately received an invitation from the Director\nof Chinese Students in London to discuss the subject with him.  I had\ntwo interviews with him.  What surprised me was that against all the\nopinion of the average Englishman who is conversant with China he did\nnot regard the Christian character of the University as a deterrent,\nbut he asked one question on which he apparently laid the very greatest\nstress.  He inquired, \"If a University is started in China on such\nlines as you propose, will you guarantee that the teachers are\nefficient?\"  I immediately assured him that the learned committees who\nwere considering the question at both Universities would, whatever\n{173} else they did, never allow any one to go out as teacher unless he\nwas most fully qualified.  He then assured me that he had no doubt the\nscheme would meet with very great sympathy in China, and that he would\ngive me letters of introduction to various people who would give the\nvery fullest information on the subject.  Among these was one to that\nmost eminent man, Tuan-Fang, Viceroy of Nanking.\n\nWhen I arrived at Nanking I presented my letter of introduction through\nthe Consul, and the Viceroy most cordially invited me to tiffin at the\nYamen.  With further courtesy he sent his carriage to fetch me.  We had\na most sumptuous repast, at which about twenty officials were present,\nand in consideration of my being a foreigner some European food was\nprovided.  They appeared much pleased when I assured them that I\nappreciated Chinese quite as much as European food.  We had a most\npleasant luncheon, at which we discussed all manner of topics.  I was\nasked to explain exactly the position of Oxford and Cambridge, and when\nI mentioned that Oxford was over a thousand years old, I had evidently\nestablished the reputation of my University far above that of all\ncompetitors.  The Viceroy then admired the school system of England.\nHe said the schools were \"like a forest,\" and he assured me that he\ntook the very greatest interest in education, and promised after\nluncheon to show me some of his schools.  I expressed admiration of\nChinese learning, and he told me it was divided into four {174}\nheads--morals, elegancy of style, philosophy, and manners.  The respect\nthat His Excellency had for Confucius did not prevent him from admiring\nother philosophers, especially Mih-Tieh, the philosopher who taught the\ndoctrine of universal love.  This was the more remarkable, because at\nHankow the very same point had been discussed with some Chinese clergy\nover Sunday supper, and they had referred to this philosopher's works\nwith considerable admiration, and had declared that his doctrine was\nmuch more consonant with Christianity than that of any other Chinese\nphilosopher.\n\nHis Excellency then discussed the danger of a modern education.  He\nquite realised the obvious evils that resulted from rashly encouraging\nWestern education without an ethical basis.  He said they had observed\nthat those who returned from the West were less dutiful to parents than\nthose who had remained in China.  Then we had a long talk as to whether\nit was possible to assimilate the two and to give a man a perfect\nforeign and a perfect Chinese education.  The difficulty felt was that\nmen with a perfect foreign education were too often unable to write\nChinese with sufficient elegance to satisfy the fastidious taste of the\ncultivated Chinese scholar.  All this conversation was carried on at\nthe dinner-table, chiefly through interpreters, with a crowd of Chinese\nservants, excluded from the room, but looking through a window to watch\nwhen our needs required their presence.\n\n{175}\n\nWe discussed after tiffin the scheme for a University and the relations\nbetween Confucianism and Christianity.  His Excellency was much pleased\nthat I should take such interest in things Chinese, and immediately\nsaid that as I had come all the way to China to inquire into these\nthings, I ought to receive every information.  Turning to his\nsecretaries, he told them that on the next day they were to provide\nscholars learned in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism to give me all\nthe information that I required, and arranged that the Consul and I\nshould return next day.  He then suggested that we should go and\ninspect the school that was next his palace, and in which his own\ndaughter was being educated.\n\nThe school was for children of the highest class, and contained only\nabout thirty boys and thirty girls.  He conducted a sort of informal\nexamination which I should have thought must have been extremely trying\nfor the children.  His Excellency and myself came first, then two\ninterpreters, and then about twenty officials.  When the scholars were\nexamined in Western knowledge, we were asked to put a question or to\nlook at a copy-book; when they were examined in Confucian knowledge,\nHis Excellency put the question, and the interpreters translated to me\nboth the question and the answer.  The intelligence of the children was\nof a very high order, and they were very attractive.  The uniform of\nthe boys resembled that of a French schoolboy, though the cut of the\ntrousers showed that the {176} costume had been made by a Chinese\ntailor, probably after a Japanese model.  The girls were dressed in\ngrey coats and trousers and had natural feet; this was perhaps not\nquite so remarkable as it at first appeared when one remembers that the\nViceroy is a Manchu, and the Manchus have never admired the distorted\nfoot of a Chinese woman; but as they went through their musical drill\none could not help thinking that the neat coat buttoned across and\nreaching to the knees over loose trousers was about as ideal a dress as\nhas ever been invented for women.  His Excellency did not fail to make\nhis own daughter stand up, and asked her many difficult questions,\nwhich she answered very well in a calm and collected manner.  After\nshowing us these schools His Excellency said that we must stop a third\nday and see many of the other schools in Nanking.\n\nNext morning I was most distressed to find that my friend Mr. King, His\nMajesty's Consul, was too unwell to attend the interview which I was to\nhave with the learned men of Nanking, and so with some trepidation lest\nI should make sad faults in my manners without his kindly guidance, I\ndrove up to the Yamen.  There I was received by a crowd of officials,\namong whom were two great Confucian scholars with the Hanlin Degree, an\nauthority on Buddhism and an authority on Taoism, whose knowledge\nsubsequently proved to be extremely small.\n\nThe courtesy of the Chinese officials, the charm of their manner, the\nmixture of dignity and good nature {177} which is such a characteristic\nof their behaviour, makes controversy with them delightful.  I do not\nthink any one who has known them can be but greatly attracted by their\ncourtesy and kindness.  All Chinese are courteous, but the Chinese\nliterati, perhaps naturally, greatly excel their fellow-countrymen in\nthis charming characteristic.  I should add that the two interpreters\nwho were provided were men whose mastery of English was only equalled\nby their wide learning and pleasant address.  One of them had been in\nEngland and was indeed a great traveller; he had ridden all through the\npasses which separate India from Chinese Turkestan; he belonged to a\nvery great family, and traced his descent from one of the leading\npupils of Confucius.\n\nWe discussed Confucianism first.  I set the ball rolling by asking what\nwas meant by the phrase \"superior man.\"  The position was a pleasant\none; I was there to be instructed, and could therefore ask as many\nquestions as I chose.  The \"superior man\" is a translation of a phrase\nin the Chinese classics which perhaps might be better translated \"ideal\nman\"; at least so I gathered from these gentlemen; and that in the\nworks of Confucius and Mencius his qualities are fully described.  With\ngreat joy the whole party fell upon the question, and next minute they\nwere engaged in a courteous polemic as to how exactly they should\ndescribe the \"superior man,\" and the answer came that he must be a\nconscientious man, a man very true to himself, charitable, just and\n{178} truthful.  When they were pressed as to whether wealth was at all\nnecessary to the \"ideal man,\" they indignantly repudiated the\nsuggestion; the \"superior man\" might equally be a beggar sitting by the\nroadside or a Viceroy sitting in his palace.  It was more interesting\nwhen they were asked whether he need be a learned man.  There was some\ndoubt and hesitation in the answers; the doctors again consulted with\none another, and the answer came, \"No, learning was not at all\nnecessary.\"  I asked whether the \"ideal man\" might be a non-Chinaman,\nand it was held that he might belong to any race.  But the next\nquestion was far more difficult for them to answer.  Nothing that they\nhad said prevented the \"superior man\" being a Christian; a Christian\nmight be true and conscientious and charitable.  I quoted the case of a\nforeign doctor living in their city, and asked how he failed to come\nwithin their definition of the \"superior man,\" but the Hanlin scholars\ncould not agree; no Christian, in their opinion, could be a \"superior\nman.\"  But my interpreter added that he himself did not endorse this;\nto his mind any man who fulfilled the requirements should be classed as\na \"superior man.\"\n\nWe then changed the conversation to the question of \"whether Confucius\nbelieved in God or not?\"  I had been instructed in this controversy by\none of the most learned missionaries in China, Dr. Ross of Mukden.\nThey maintained, as he told me they would maintain, that the Heaven of\nConfucius meant Reason.  {179} But Reason cannot possibly punish the\nguilty, though the guilty might be punished by their want of Reason.\nAnd as Confucius refers in several places to Heaven as a power that\npunishes, the definition is obviously incorrect.  It dates from a\nphilosopher called Chu.  Again the learned men were absorbed in\ncontroversy, every one enjoying such a discussion.  The greatest number\nstill held to the doctrine that Heaven meant Reason, but a certain\nnumber held that it meant a personal God.  It ended in the controversy\nbecoming quite heated, and in a copy of Dr. Legge's translation of the\nChinese classics being fetched, so that I might fully understand their\ndifferent points of view.  In the end we agreed that there was a\nconsiderable force in the argument that Confucius believed in a\npersonal God.\n\nWhen I further asked how Reason could possibly punish a bad man when he\nwas dead, and how it was that many a bad man, as we all know, died in\nwealth and prosperity, they answered that after death his memory was\npunished by his bad deeds coming to light.  I suggested that if a man\nwas dead this did not matter to him, and that Confucius' assertion that\npunishment followed sin implied a future life.  When they were further\nasked whether Confucius taught that all secret sin should one day be\nmade public, there was an eloquent silence, and we dropped the subject.\n\nWe then went on to discuss Buddhism, and a pleasant old gentleman\nleaning on a stick was {180} brought up to instruct me in the doctrine\nof Buddhism.  It was obvious from the jocose and pleasant way the\nmatter was treated, that this was very different ground to the\nphilosophy of Confucius.  Then, though everybody was courteous,\neverybody was keenly and seriously interested, but Buddhism was\nregarded as a most amusing topic; I was assured that only a few women\nbelieved in it, and that none of those in the room gave it the\nslightest credence.  They explained to me why the Dalai Lama came to\nPeking.  Two of the disciples of Buddha had been reincarnated, and the\ngreatest of those two was the Dalai Lama, but it was impossible to tell\nin which baby the reincarnation took place without coming to the Mongol\nTemple at Peking; then lots were cast and the matter was settled.  I\nhad my doubts whether the old gentleman was accurate, but clearly no\none else in the room had the smallest acquaintance with the subject;\nthey made a marked difference between the Buddhism of the Lama Temple\nat Peking and that of the Monastery at Hangchow, which they called\nIndian Buddhism, and said the district was often named Little India;\nbut when I tried to discover how many sects of Buddhists there were in\nChina, or what was the nature of their tenets, I could get no\ninformation from these gentlemen.\n\nHis Excellency Tuan-Fang joined us at this moment and asked whether I\ncould possibly read a Sanscrit manuscript that he had discovered, and\n{181} which, from the Chinese notes appended to it, he gathered\nreferred to Buddhism.  He also wished to discuss the origin of Chinese\ncharacters; he had a theory that they came from Egypt, and he showed\nmany rubbings of hieroglyphics which he had had made from monuments in\nEgypt to prove his point.\n\nBut I wanted to ask some questions about Taoism.  I had tried to\nunderstand Taoism and had found it extremely difficult, and I thought\nthese cultured literati could give me some assistance.  I was soon\nundeceived.  Nobody believed in Taoism, and they knew nothing of its\ndoctrine or of its worship.  They suggested that the Taoist priests\nwere often to be found in a Buddhist temple, but one scholar said that\nthat was only because the Taoist priest liked to make a little money by\nselling incense sticks.\n\nThen His Excellency turned the tables and began asking questions about\nChristianity.  The thing that troubled him was that the Bible which he\nhad read was in such poor style.  He wanted to know whether I thought\nour Blessed Saviour habitually wrote in good style or not.  I explained\nthat He had originally spoken in Aramaic, which had been translated\ninto Greek, and from the Greek into English, and then had been\nretranslated by Englishmen into Chinese, so naturally the Chinese\nversion could but inadequately represent the full beauty of His words.\nIt is worthy of notice how much the Chinese mind is attracted by all\npurely literary subjects, and how {182} little they care about physical\nscience.  For instance, when the Viceroy asked me about the sun\nstanding still in the Book of Joshua, which led us into natural\nscience, it was immediately obvious that this was a subject in which\nthese gentlemen took no interest.\n\nWe then repaired to a sumptuous luncheon prepared entirely in Chinese\nfashion.  The viands were exquisitely cooked, and comprised bird's-nest\nsoup, shark's fins, white fungus, and all the usual Chinese delicacies.\nThe hospitality of my host made me regret that the capacity of a human\nbody is limited, and if it were not for the excellency of the Chinese\ncooking, dyspepsia must have been the result.  Over luncheon we\ndiscussed all manner of topics, and I noticed how extremely sensitive\nmy hosts were to the slightest want of manners.  They referred to a\nmutual friend, a European, in the severest terms because he lacked in\ncourtesy.  They discussed also the question of foot-binding.  They were\nconvinced that the habit is being given up, and they assured me that it\ndid cause girls excruciating agony.  They said the younger generation\nof Chinese gentlemen would not marry women with deformed feet.\n\nI left the Yamen a great admirer of the culture that could make men so\npleasant.  If they lacked directness as controversialists, they were\nmost agreeable in their extreme civility and their imperturbable good\nhumour.  I shall always look back to my days at Nanking as some of the\npleasantest of my life.\n\n\n\n\n{183}\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN CHINA\n\nIt is only just to put in the forefront of the influences that are\nChristianising and changing China the French, Italian, and other\nmissions of the Roman Catholic Communion.  Our first contact with the\nwonderful work which these missions are accomplishing was in French\nChina, at that very interesting but most pestilential locality, Saigon.\nWe were received with the greatest kindness by the Sous-Gouverneur at\nthe French Government House, a palatial residence worthy rather of an\nemperor than a governor, compared to which Government House at\nHong-Kong seemed but a cottage.  Yet even there life was hardly\nbearable even under an electric fan.  The heat was stifling.  It had\nbeen impossible to drive out except in the middle of the night, and so\nwe were entertained by being taken by night to see our first glimpse of\nChinese civilisation, for the Chinese once dominated this country, and\nhave left their civilisation behind them.\n\nDriving back, our French host regaled us with stories of the people,\nand incidentally mentioned the great power which Christianity has in\nthese colonies.  We were much impressed by his {184} testimony to the\nefficiency of mission work, for the French official is far from\nfavourable to the Roman Catholic Church.  He told us not only was a\nlarge part of the country round Saigon Christian, but Christianity was\nsuch a vital thing that the Church had no difficulty in getting\nsufficient money to build splendid churches.  Next day I called on the\nBishop.  He was a splendid type of Roman Catholic missionary, with his\nwhite beard and his courtly manners.  We found several such in our\nwanderings, for Catholic missions are spread all over China, and have\nbeen founded many years.  He spoke of the great success of the work,\nand thought that the hostility of the French Government was in some\nways preferable to their patronage, for the personal lives of many of\nthe officials are far from admirable.  Their morality would better\nbefit our Restoration Period than the twentieth century.  A Governor's\nmistress was a person recognised and courted by official society, and\nit was perhaps to the advantage of the mission that in the native mind\nChristianity was dissociated from such evil doings.\n\nI asked him how he supported the climate, which we had found barely\nendurable for two days.  He replied that the climate was quite cool to\nthe missionary who lived a chaste and temperate life, but that the\nGovernment found it terrible for their officials.  This may be quite\ntrue, but still I think chaste and temperate Englishmen would find the\nclimate of Saigon intolerable.  We do not make {185} sufficient\nallowance in speaking of a healthy or unhealthy climate for the origin\nof the missionary.  If he comes from Marseilles in the South of France,\nit is not perhaps wonderful that he should find the countries which are\nnot hotter than his native land in the summer quite tolerable.\n\nThe history of Catholic missions is apparently to be divided into three\nperiods.  The first period terminates in 1742 and commences with the\nfirst mission of the Jesuits under Father Ricci in 1584.  During this\nperiod the Roman Catholic missions, directed by a series of men of\nextreme ability, endeavoured and nearly succeeded in converting China\nfrom the \"top downwards,\" for, owing to their wonderful scientific\nattainments, the missionaries received important posts under the\nChinese Government.  The fall of the Ming dynasty and the conquest of\nChina by the Manchus only served to improve their position; they\ndirected not only the Government astronomical observatory, but they\neven superintended the arsenal and became the cartographers of the\nempire.  They had many adherents chiefly among the learned.\nChristianity, like Confucianism, had commended itself to the intellect\nof the country.  In pursuit of this policy they endeavoured to\nharmonise Christianity with the thought of the literati of China; such\na process was no doubt extremely dangerous, but they thought that it\nwas possible to tolerate ancestor worship and the adoration of\nConfucius; whether they were right or {186} whether they were wrong,\nwhile they did it Christianity had many educated adherents.\n\nAnother kind of missionary next appeared in China, the Dominicans, who\nmade up in fanaticism for what they lacked in wisdom.  These men\noffended every prejudice of the Chinese; they taught the harshest and\nnarrowest form of the Roman Catholic doctrine.  The foot was to be made\nto fit the shoe, and not the shoe to fit the foot.  There were riots\nand troubles, and the Dominicans blamed the highly placed Jesuits and\nfreely accused them of having denied the faith and of having accepted\nhigh office as the reward for unfaithfulness.  Appeals were made to\nRome.  Rome, many thousands of miles away, wavered, unable probably to\nunderstand either the controversy or its importance.  The heroism of\nmissionaries travelling over miles of sea and being shipwrecked in\ntheir endeavours to reach Rome reads like a romance.  But in 1742 the\nmatter was finally settled by Benedict XIV. in a Bull \"Ex quo\nsingulari,\" and the Jesuits were defeated--a defeat which was completed\nby their suppression in China in 1773.\n\nWith their defeat the Roman missions entered on the second period of\ntheir history.  They were no longer directed by very able men, and they\nbecame rather the Church of the poor than of the rich.  They\nexperienced constant persecution, and, to gain weight and position,\nthey finally accepted the French, who were then in the zenith of their\npower, as their {187} patrons.  Such a course necessarily involved that\nthey must do all they could to further the French interests, and the\nRoman Catholic missions became more and more an adjunct of French\ndiplomacy, defended by France and on their side advancing the interests\nof the French.  It is impossible to say exactly when this policy began.\nLouis XIV. had sent large gifts to the Emperor of China, but he does\nnot seem to have had any intentions beyond giving countenance and\nweight to the Roman Catholic missions.  Some one pointed out to\nNapoleon I. the great value of China, and the man of great ideas,\nalways dreaming of that Empire in the East which he was never to found,\nclearly thought there was something to be made of this.  He helped the\nmissionary societies with funds--it is curious to think of Napoleon I.\nas the supporter of foreign missions.  This act came, like most other\nFrench secrets of the time, to the ears of Pitt; and he managed that\nthe information should reach the Emperor of China, and sent through a\nsafe channel advice that the Emperor of China should look upon the\nRoman missions as dangerous and France as a \"wicked power.\"  Whether\nthis advice would have been taken to heart or not is doubtful.  Roman\nmissions were unpopular in China; still they had powerful friends; but\nthe discovery of one of their missionaries with maps of China intended\nfor the use of foreign countries convinced her of the truth of the\nEnglish suggestion, and Roman missions were put {188} down at the\nbeginning of the nineteenth century with a relentless hand.  In 1840\nthere broke out the first foreign war between China and the West, and\nafter this Catholic missions became more and more an appanage of French\npolicy.  Whether the French had distantly intended the conquest of\nChina, or whether they merely looked upon China as an outlet for her\ntrade, they used the Catholic missions as a means whereby French\ninterests should be pushed.  Certainly the author of _Les Missions\nCatholiques Fran\u00e7aises_ does not hesitate to suggest that France was\nrewarded for the protection of missions by an increased trade.\n\nIn 1842, as the result of a war, a treaty was signed to which we have\nbefore referred, and in 1860 it was followed by another.  Both gave\nmissionaries extensive rights.  Can you wonder that the peace-loving\nChinaman, looking back on history, finds it difficult to understand why\nthe preachers of the gospel of love should have been so often followed\nby the armies and fleets of the military races of the West?  The coping\nstone to this policy of propagating Christianity by the power and\ninfluence of a foreign nation was placed by an edict which just\npreceded the Boxer movement.  That edict astonished even the Roman\nCatholics, for the author of _Les Missions Catholiques Fran\u00e7aises au\nXIX. Si\u00e8cle_ speaks of the extraordinary surprise it was to the Roman\nCatholic body.  This edict ordained that bishops and priests should\nhave official rank in China; that the bishops {189} should be equal in\nrank to viceroys and governors, and the vicars-general and the\narch-priests should be equal to treasurers and judges, while the other\npriests should be equal to prefects of the first and second class; and\nthat if any question of importance arose in connection with the\nmissions, the bishop or missionaries should call in the intervention of\nthe Minister or Consul to whom the Pope had confided the protection of\nthe Catholics.  The edict closes with three injunctions.  First, that\nthe people in general were to live at peace with the Catholics;\nsecondly, that the bishops should instruct the Catholics to live at\npeace with the rest of the world; and lastly, that the judges should\njudge fairly between Catholics and non-Catholics.\n\nThis edict can perhaps be regarded rather as a victory of French\ndiplomacy than of the Roman Church.  French diplomacy had converted the\nwhole of the Roman Catholic work into an agency for the national\naggrandisement of France; the Roman Catholic Church had sold herself to\nthe French Government; her old traditional policy of employing the\npowers of this world to propagate Christianity had involved her in this\nposition; and she had presented Christianity to her converts as\nsomething which, however great its spiritual gain, had also very real\ntemporal advantages.  The Church was a great society which would defend\nyou in this world just as it would give you promises of security in the\nworld to come.  So she had instituted a regular system by which her\nadherents were defended in any lawsuit or attack.  {190} This\ninterference in lawsuits was, however, not peculiar to the Roman\nCatholics.  It is an old Chinese custom--a custom in which both Romans\nand other denominations have acquiesced; still it was exaggerated by\nthe Roman Catholic Church till it brought down upon her the anger of\nthe Chinese official world.\n\nIt is hard for a Westerner, with his ideas of an independent court of\njustice, to comprehend the system.  A lawsuit is not regarded in China\nas a thing to be settled simply on its merits.  They are only a factor\nin the decision.  The general desire is that, if all things are equal,\njustice shall be done; but together with justice the judge has to\nconsider the social position of the litigants and their power of\nvengeance or of reward.  The best analogy to a Chinese lawsuit is an\nEnglish election.  If you read the speeches and addresses you will\nconceive that the whole desire of a candidate engaged in an English\nelection is that justice should be done, but in practice you soon\ndiscover that the influence of individuals has to be considered as\nwell.  A candidate who always disregards justice is universally\ncondemned; but a candidate who wilfully offends powerful people, who is\nnot prepared to give and take, to sacrifice a conviction here, to push\nforward a little beyond the line of justice there, is equally unable to\ngain the suffrages of the voters; and in China the judge stands in the\nsame position as the candidate does in England.  If he is convinced\nthat a certain {191} cause is backed by very powerful people who can\nsecure him a better appointment and a higher salary, or who if angered\nmight even succeed in getting him dismissed from his post, he decides\nthe case in that litigant's favour.  If, on the other hand, the parties\nare about equally matched in influence and power, like the English\ncandidate he then considers the justice of the case; and therefore the\nfirst thing a litigant does is to try and secure all the influential\nsupport within his reach.  Chinese officials told me that they have to\nhave their cards printed with \"for visiting purposes only\" written on\nthem, otherwise they are stolen and used without their knowledge in the\nfurtherance of some lawsuit, and English Protestant missionaries\nconfirmed the story.\n\nThough this interference in lawsuits is a universal custom, its extreme\nuse is peculiar to the Roman Catholics.  To attack a Roman Catholic was\nto bring the whole strength of his mission, with the diplomacy of\nFrance behind it, against you.  It was in furtherance of this policy\nthat the Roman Catholics were anxious to hold official rank.  An\nofficial will not speak to any one below his rank; the missionary finds\naccess to the Viceroys very difficult; but if the Roman Hierarchy had\nthis high official rank, the Bishop had only to pay a visit in his\ngreen official chair, when, by the strict etiquette of China, he must\nbe received with all politeness, and his visit must be returned.  To\nprocure these privileges the Roman Catholics were prepared to sell to\nFrance the large {192} and undoubted influence they had among many\nthousands in China.  There is a certain poetic justice in the Roman\nCatholic Church suffering from the actions of the French Government at\nhome.\n\nStill justice compels us to remember that they have not been alone in\nthis policy.  Missionaries of other faiths and other lands have both\nrelied on the defence of foreign powers and have interfered with the\nlawsuits of their converts.  A Protestant missionary from the Southern\nStates of America frankly defended the system.  He boldly asserted that\nnon-interference in a lawsuit would be simply misunderstood by the\nChinese.  When he was young he had absolutely refused to interfere in a\ncase where a widow was being oppressed, and a non-Christian Chinese\ngentleman had interviewed him, and after some circumlocution, had\nremonstrated with him on his hardness of heart, that he, a teacher of\nthe religion of love, should neglect the widow in her necessity.\nStill, the Roman Church, as in Ireland, as in France, as in Italy, is\nan institution which is essentially political; and the traditional\npolicy of the Roman Church has been followed in China with the\ninvariable result, first, that when the power of the State is used to\npromote her tenets she grows strong, and next when that power is\nwithdrawn or becomes hostile she feels the loss of the earthly support\non which she has relied and apparently grows weaker.  This is, however,\nonly transitory; the Roman Church, for instance, is growing stronger,\nnot weaker, now {193} that she has lost the support of French\ndiplomacy, and the missions have entered upon their third epoch when\nthey are preaching Christianity without any special support of a\nforeign government and are succeeding.  For there are few bodies of\npeople in this world who are more heroic and devoted than the Roman\nmissionaries; they have died by fever, have been massacred, they live\non a miserable pittance; I was told that one enlightened missionary,\nonce a Professor in Paris University, lived on \u00a312 a year; and their\nheroism and self-denial reaps a large reward.\n\nTheir most beautiful and most successful works are the orphanages which\nthey maintain.  They accept any of those children whom the Chinese\nmothers cast out to die, either because of their poverty or because\nthey are girls.  These children are brought up with infinite care and\nkindness, and are taught embroidery, lace-making, and other trades.  No\nmore beautiful sight can be seen than one of these orphanages, with the\nhappy children hard at work and rejoicing as only Chinese rejoice in\npleasant labour.  When these children grow up they are married to\nChristians, and from them springs a native Christian population, which\nhas never known any of the horrors of heathenism.  As a rule they live\nin small societies.  I believe there is an island on the Yangtsze which\nis entirely peopled by Christians.  The work may be great, but the cost\nis great too.  Many a life has been laid down so that these children\nmight be Christians.\n\n{194}\n\nI recall one scene at Ichang.  There rises near the town a great\norphanage, and when we visited it, we found the French sisters looking\nweary and whiter than their white robes.  An epidemic of smallpox had\nbroken out in the orphanage, and out of 140 orphans, 28 had died of\nsmall-pox, besides which the sisters had suffered themselves from\nmalaria.  One could but admire the devotion of these women living far\noff from their own country, tending children whom no one else would\ntend, and gaining as their reward hatred and misunderstanding from the\nChinese.  A Bishop belonging to this mission had been murdered, and a\nlay brother told me that it was because they were accused of stealing\nchildren to make Western medicine out of their eyes.  This strange\nslander arises apparently from the desire, which is not understood by\nthe Chinese, to save and preserve the lives of other people's children.\nChinese ethics have no place for such altruism.  Your duty never\nextends beyond your own relations, either by blood or from official\nposition.  There is another reason, however, for this notion.  The\nRoman Catholics have a system of native agents who are prepared to\nbaptize any child, whether of heathen or Christian parents, who is\ndying.  This system is very well organised.  Some of these agents\nperambulate districts and some remain at fixed points.  Perhaps not\nunnaturally the Chinese cannot understand this methodical search for\ndying children, and as a reason must be found, and as the reason that\nseems most probable to the Chinese {195} mind is some form of personal\ngain, they have invented this slander.\n\nWhether we approve or disapprove the general action of the Roman\nCatholics--and our feelings are probably very mixed on this subject--we\nmust recognise that they are a very great factor in the change that is\ncoming over China.  For centuries they have stood before the Chinese as\nassociating with Christianity the science and the knowledge the Chinese\nhave always admired.  The wonderful work done by the Jesuits of the\neighteenth century has established a tradition of excellent scientific\nwork which is well maintained by the learned brothers of the Ziccawei\nObservatory.  Many hundreds of lives have been saved at sea by the\nsplendid meteorological service they have organised, and the sailor who\ncares nothing for Roman or for Protestant walks down on the Bund to see\nwhat the Ziccawei brothers can tell him about the probability of a\ntyphoon.  The benefit of their service, though great, is not limited to\nthe number of lives of mariners that their science preserves; their\nscience is an object-lesson to the Chinese--an object-lesson especially\nuseful at a time when materialism is taunting Christianity with\nobscurantism.\n\nMissionaries in the field do not entirely recognise the connection that\nexists between their own work and the work of other denominations.  The\nman on the mission field sees his bit of work, and realises that it is\na failure or that it is a success, but he does not {196} realise how\nintimately associated that success or failure is with world movements\nover which he has but the very slightest control.  These world\nmovements are dependent on many factors that must be beyond his direct\nknowledge, and one of the factors that influence the success of\nProtestant missions is the wide influence of Catholic work.  Conversely\nevery new Protestant mission that opens the door of a school or a\ncollege probably tends to augment the number of Roman Catholics in\nChina.  The question put to the Chinaman is not, \"Will you be Roman or\nProtestant?\"  That was the question that was put to the European in the\nsixteenth century.  The question is, \"Will you become a materialist or\na Christian?\"  And the answer he makes must be largely affected by his\nexperience of the intellectual efficiency and high moral tone of those\nhe calls Christians.  I despair of persuading my Protestant friends\nthat the reputation of the Ziccawei brothers is a valuable asset in\nevangelical work, and I equally despair of persuading the Roman\nCatholic that the splendid educational establishments of American\nProtestantism is one of the reasons why their numbers are increasing by\nleaps and bounds; but the Chinaman would probably think the remark\nself-obvious.\n\nHow small the differences appear that we think so profound was first\nbrought home to me as we passed through the Red Sea on the French mail\nin company with a body of Coptic schoolmasters who were going to\ncivilise Menelik's subjects in Abyssinia.  {197} As it was Sunday\nmorning these young men came up to me to ask an explanation of the\nceremony of ship inspection which is performed with some pomp by the\nFrench captain on that day.  With a wholly exaggerated idea as to the\nreligiosity of the French they had concluded that this was a Christian\nceremony, and when I had explained to them that on a French ship it was\nillegal to have a service, they were distressed, for they explained\nthat though they had been educated in many different quarters, they\nwere all in agreement on religious matters.  One had been educated in\nthe Protestant College in Beyrout, and another had been educated in the\nJesuit College at Cairo, which, he added in explanation, is practically\nthe same thing.  This statement would be regarded as accurate by the\naverage Chinaman.\n\nAt any rate, no one can doubt the importance of Roman Catholic work in\nChina.  They now claim to have over a million of adherents, served by\nnearly two thousand priests, and when one reads that they declare that\nthey have made in Peking alone thirty-three thousand converts in one\nyear, one realises what a power they are in the Christianisation of\nChina.  In the West such figures would mean the downfall of\nProtestantism, but in China such figures mean the growth of a common\nChristianity which all denominations can influence and in which all\ndenominations can have a share.  Remember, though a million Christians\nsounds a vast number, it is small compared with the four hundred\nmillions who now form the population of China.\n\n\n\n\n{198}\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nOTHER MISSIONS\n\nThough the Roman Catholic missions were first in the field by several\ncenturies, it must not be supposed that they are now the only Christian\ninfluence at work.  The work of other bodies is extensive and very\nimportant.  The pioneer society was the London Mission, which began\nwork under Dr. Morrison in 1807.  Very soon after them the British and\nForeign Bible Society began work in 1812.  But no great mission work\nwas undertaken till after the treaty of 1842.  Then society after\nsociety sprang up.  One of the earliest was the Church of England\nMissionary Society, which has a very extensive work, especially in\nEastern China.  Among the earliest of its missionaries were the two\nveteran brothers, Bishop Moule and Archdeacon Moule, who have for half\na century ordered its ranks with courage and self-denial.  The\nPresbyterian Mission was not long behind them, and the American\nMethodist Missions began work practically at the same time; and so\nmissions have gone on increasing till there are over sixty missions,\nover and above the Roman Catholic Missions, at work in China, with a\nstaff of over three thousand five hundred white workers and a {199}\nbody of converts numbering over a quarter of a million.\n\nThe people who are opposed to missions will immediately say what a\nregrettable thing it is that Christianity should present such a picture\nof division to the heathen, and they will probably find a great number\nof people who are sympathetically inclined to missions and who\ncordially agree with them.  There can be no doubt that it would be far\nbetter if the Christian Church presented a picture of unity to the\nwhole world.  It would be far better that we should all think alike;\nbut if we cannot think alike, it would be a great mistake to seek for\nunity by encouraging people to suppress their convictions.  Unity is\nvery valuable, but it can never be so valuable as are truth and\nhonesty.  Far better to accept the truth and say that there is a\ndifference of opinion rather than by denying the truth and concealing\nthe divisions that really exist to give a false appearance of unity.\nIf this is true of other parts of the world, it is even more true of\nChina.  Her national tendency is to regard conviction as of little\nimportance, and on the other hand to lay great stress on uniformity.\nPerhaps one should say that this is the natural result of an autocratic\ngovernment.  Autocratic government naturally encourages the doctrine\nthat everybody should agree with the autocrat.  Now the advance of the\nWest has been accomplished by encouraging liberty of opinion, therefore\nthe people who are to expound the great doctrines of Western\ncivilisation rightly appear before {200} the Chinese world showing a\ngreat diversity of view.\n\nIt is most regrettable when liberty is exchanged for tyranny, when the\nacceptance of one opinion involves the persecution of another, when\nChristians not only differ but persecute and thwart each other's\nefforts.  This may be an evil in our own land, an evil which we hope\nwill soon pass away, but in China that evil does not exist except\nbetween the Roman and the non-Roman bodies.\n\nThere are great differences of opinion.  The extreme Ritualist position\nis ably represented in China, the ultra-Protestant position has equally\nable representatives, and I have seen them uniting in the Shanghai\nConference in defence of the Apostles' Creed against a Latitudinarian\nattack.  To the Chinese I think they present not the aspect of\ndifferent bodies opposing one another, but rather different regiments\nof the same army intent on overthrowing the same enemy; and though they\nare clothed in a different uniform and use different weapons they serve\nunder the same general.\n\n[Illustration: TRAVELLING IN CHINA--OLD STYLE.  A RAILWAY STATION--NEW\nSTYLE]\n\nThe American bodies are far the richest.  Whether it is that the United\nStates is a richer country than England, or whether it is that they are\nmore liberal in their gifts to missions, or whether it is that they are\nmore inclined to spend their money on Chinese missions, the result is\ncertain, the American missions have every advantage that money can\ngive.  Their splendid educational establishments are a feature in {201}\nmany towns.  If the American missions have the advantage of the English\nmissions in money, both British and American missions have an equal\nright to claim that they have as representatives in China a body of\nself-denying and enthusiastic men.  It would be invidious to make any\nreference to the excellence of any special mission.  Among the British\nmissions, the London Mission claims indeed the greatest number of\nconverts, though the Church Missionary Society does not come far behind\nit.  Again, the Presbyterian Missions and the China Inland Mission have\na large and growing work.  The latter is a most curious development of\nmissionary policy.  The missionaries, differing in many doctrinal\nparticulars, have agreed to co-operate under the name of China Inland\nMissions in the west of China; they have agreed not to oppose each\nother in any way, and to give each other mutual support.  They are\nunder the head of a director who organises and arranges their separate\nprovinces.  A great feature of this scheme is that they effect a large\nsaving in the expenses of mission work by co-operation.  A white man\ncannot live in many districts in China without a supply of medicines\nand some Western comforts; they arrange for the forwarding of these\nthings, and help the missionaries in their journeys.\n\nBishop Cassels is at once a member of this mission and of the C.M.S.\nHe is a splendid example of the courage that is necessary for\nmissionary work.  He has been through the Gorges of the Yangtsze twenty\n{202} times.  Once he was unwise enough to forsake the small native\nboat in which he habitually travels and to entrust himself to a\nsteamer, which, under the pilotage of a German captain, was going to\nattempt the rapids.  They did very well till they happened to bump on a\nrock, when the captain lost his head, and instead of beaching her, he\ntried to anchor.  The water surged in and soon put out his fires, thus\npreventing him from raising his anchor, with the result that the ship\ngradually filled and sank and the passengers had to swim for their\nlives.\n\nThe S.P.G. Mission is excellently manned, but suffers much from want of\npecuniary support.  I cannot help feeling that if it was but once\nrealised how important it is that the capital of China, whither resort\nall the intellectual and ambitious men of China, should thoroughly\nunderstand the logical position and the reverent worship of the Church\nof England, that the necessary funds would be forthcoming.  It is most\ndesirable that China should understand that there is a _via media_\nbetween Rome and Protestantism.\n\nWithout wishing in any way to detract from the necessity for missions\nto other parts of the world, we may point out that China has at this\nmoment a very special claim.  No one would say that the mission work in\nIndia or in Africa demands within the next few years that the\nintellectual side of Christianity should be thoroughly explained, but\nthis is actually the case in China.  The intellectual men of {203}\nChina who gather together at Peking are now demanding to know what\ntruth there is in Christianity.  They must be answered by men as\nintellectual as themselves, who will be able with courtesy and force to\nconvince them that Christianity is a religion that is thoroughly\nconsistent both with modern science and with the intellectual progress\nof the world.\n\nNo better mission to undertake that work can be conceived than the\nNorth China Mission of the Church of England.  This mission, under the\nleadership of Bishop Scott, represents with dignity the tolerant and\nreverential attitude of the Church of England.  One cannot help\nthinking that if he had a sufficiently liberal support, so that he\ncould have a college where he could undertake the education of some of\nthose future statesmen of China who are desiring to understand Western\nthings, that his mission might be the means of encouraging a movement\ntowards Christianity among the scholars and statesmen of China.  That\ndistinguished Baptist missionary, Dr. Timothy Richard, told me that he\nthought that the dignity of the Church of England, especially as so\nably represented by Bishop Scott, might be a great asset in convincing\nthe Chinese literati that Christianity was a religion which would\nharmonise with their love of order and dignity.\n\nOf missions of other nations we saw one or two examples, but they are\nfew in number if you except the Roman Catholic Missions.  It is rather\na pity that the Scandinavian Missions do not throw all their {204}\neffort into work in Manchuria; few races would endure the bitter cold\nof Manchuria better than they, and Manchuria is readier to accept\nWestern ideas than perhaps any other part of China.  She has felt and\nrealised the pressure of the West, she has suffered under the burden of\nRussian domination, she has seen the Westernised armies of conquering\nJapan put to flight the northern invader.  As we stood on the 203 Metre\nHill and realised on that shattered hill-top how Manchuria has seen the\nfull force of the destructive power of Western civilisation; as we\ncounted the wrecks that then lay at the mouth of the harbour; as we\nlooked at each shattered homestead, yes, and at the bones that were\nstill unburied, we felt that the great land of Manchuria has a special\nneed that some one should show her that Western civilisation can indeed\nproduce something more lovely than shells and bayonets.\n\nI am happy to be able to say that a splendid work is being carried on\nby the Presbyterian Missions; they have shown to the Northern Chinese\nanother form of courage than that which was shown by the warriors of\nRussia and Japan.  Two stories remain in my mind among many.  First a\nstory of the old days before Russia had made the Trans-Siberian\nRailway, before the Japanese had for the first time taken Port Arthur.\nA British mission doctor was at work.  The Chinese, _more suo_, had\ndetermined to get rid of this example of the mercy of Western\ncivilisation.  They did not dare to kill him openly, so they sent a\n{205} messenger who feigned to have come from a sick man out in the\ncountry.  The doctor and his Chinese dresser, unconscious of the plot,\nreadily obeyed the summons.  They noticed that a child followed them,\nand they did their best to induce him to go home, but he would not.\nWhen they arrived at the village inn they discovered that the sick man\ndid not exist.  They were in doubt what to do, when suddenly the door\nwas thrown open and several of the soldiers of the Viceroy's bodyguard\nrushed in, and seizing the two, they declared that they had stolen a\nchild to make medicine out of his eyes.  They then proceeded to torture\nthe doctor by tying his hands behind his back and suspending him by\nthem to the roof.  Such was the agony that the doctor lost\nconsciousness.  They then took him down, and he was put into a\nloathsome Chinese prison, where he was exposed to mental torture as\nsevere as the physical torture which he had already endured.  He was\ntold that he would be beheaded, and every preparation was made, and\nthen at the last moment he was taken back to the prison.  This was\nrepeated till they thought they had shattered his nerve, and then he\nwas allowed to go free.  With that calm courage which has so often\ncharacterised the action of the members of the missionary body he\nreturned to his work fearless of death and torture.\n\nAnother story, which has its humorous side, was also told us.  At the\ntime of the Russian occupation of Newchwang, the Russians had, as we\nhave {206} described above, been \"pacifying\" the town, and a crowd of\nterrified Chinese had taken refuge in the Presbyterian Mission\ncompound, where there was only one lady.  She, however, came from\nBelfast, and had all the courage of the Northern Irish in her veins.  A\nbody of Russian soldiers came towards the mission with the intention of\nshooting the Chinese.  She took a horsewhip in her hand, and regardless\nof the loaded rifle or the bloody bayonet, commenced to belabour the\nsoldiers with it.  There are some things which are understood by all\nnations, and the use of the horse-whip was at once appreciated by the\nRussians, who fled before her, leaving her a victor and the saviour of\nher Chinese friends.\n\nI know people say that women should not be exposed to the risks of a\nmissionary's life, but the answer is that were women not employed, half\nthe mission work would be left undone and the heroism with which women\nhave endured death and danger has been no small factor in the spread of\nChristianity and in producing the change in China.\n\n\n\n\n{207}\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nTHE EFFECT OF WESTERN LITERATURE IN CHINA\n\nAmong the influences that have awakened China, outside the great lesson\nof political events, none has been more influential than literature in\nits many branches.  The Chinese have always been a literary race.  They\ninvented printing about the same time that the savage Saxons welcomed\nthe first book written by the Venerable Bede, and the influence of\nliterature has therefore held sway many hundred years in China.  But\nfor the last six hundred years there have not been many works of\noriginal thought produced in native literature.  Most of their writings\nhave been commentaries on the Classics following along the beaten\npaths, or works of poetry full of references to the Shi-King or the\nclassic poetry of the Chinese.  The literature of China is\ncharacteristic of her civilisation.  It is confined by an artificiality\nwhich has its origin in an inordinate respect for the past and an\nabsolute distrust of the future.  Every book looks backward to the\nperiod when China's thought was pure and great.\n\nThis period continued till the Anglo-Saxon influence made itself felt\nthrough its missions.  Very early in the history of Protestant missions\nit was {208} perceived that in a country like China some other appeal\nmust be made than could be made by the white missionary.  A nation\nreverencing the printed page to such a degree that men will carefully\npick up a piece of paper and put it on one side rather than trample it\nheedlessly, for fear lest that piece of paper should contain words of\nwisdom, is obviously a nation that can best be reached through printed\nmatter, and so Dr. Morrison, the pioneer of Protestant missions,\ndevoted the greater part of his missionary life to translating the Holy\nScriptures.  The matter was not so simple as might appear to those who\nare only conversant with the civilisation of younger and less\nartificial races than the Chinese.  It is not enough to translate a\nwork into Chinese; the spoken language is nowhere used for literature.\nThe literary language commonly called Wenli probably never was spoken,\nand is so full of artificial rules of construction that it is only\nafter many years that a man can hope to write it efficiently.\nChang-Chih-Tung says that it requires ten years for a Chinaman to\nbecome an efficient translator.  That does not mean that it takes ten\nyears for a Chinaman to learn English, but ten years for a man to be\nable to put into good Chinese the thoughts that he has learned from the\nWest.\n\nThe written language of China, it should be remembered, is not a\nlanguage in which sounds are portrayed by means of signs as it is with\nWestern languages.  Each character represents an idea, the only analogy\nin our language being the numerals and {209} some few signs we have for\nsimple words such as \"cross\" or \"and.\"  Therefore when new ideas are\ndeveloped new signs are required.  These can be created out of old\nsigns.  For instance, I understand that a railway engine is called a\nfire carriage.  This, by the way, caused great confusion of mind in a\ncertain district to the Christian converts who were conversant with the\nstory of Elijah, for some of them erroneously concluded that Elijah\nleft this earth in a railway train.\n\nAnother instance of the difficulty of expressing new things was\nafforded when a certain mission started work in China.  They were in\nsome perplexity as to the title that they should choose for their\nsociety.  They wanted to convey to the Chinese that their denomination\nclaimed especially to feed the souls of men.  They explained all this\nto an educated Chinaman, and quoted some well-known texts.  He\nimmediately wrote down two characters, and assured them that they\nrepresented what they had said about the spiritual food that they\nprovided, and would also be very popular with the Chinese, as indeed it\nproved.  The moment they opened the door of the chapel they were\nbesieged by hundreds of Chinese of the poorer class, who, after\nlistening for a short time, went away discontentedly.  The missionaries\nfound out afterwards that the title they had been given literally\ntranslated was \"Health-giving Free Restaurant,\" a most attractive title\nto the hungry Chinaman.\n\nThere is indeed another way of representing new {210} words.  The word\ncan be borrowed bodily from another language and pronounced in a\nChinese way, and the word-signs which best represent the sounds can\nthen be employed.  This is often done with proper names.  For instance,\na great Chinese statesman told me that he referred to Sir Edward Grey\nin his despatches to China by three signs which had the three sounds Ga\nLa Hay, but this system is obviously open to misconstruction, because\nthe reader might be tempted to give the words their normal meaning.  I\nbelieve that such terms as X-rays and ultimatum have been so adopted\nbodily into the Chinese language.  Ninety per cent., however, of the\nnew word-signs which go to make up what the Chinese call modern style\nare new combinations of ancient ideographs.\n\nOne of the pioneers in this translation work said at the Shanghai\nConference that the first thing a missionary had to do before he could\nconvert the people was to convert the language.  Until he had invented\na new set of word-sounds to convey Christian ideas, the preaching of\nChristianity laboured under the very greatest disadvantage.  The \"term\ncontroversy,\" that is, the controversy as to what sign should be chosen\nto signify the Christian's God, was an example of this.  It arose first\nin the Roman Communion and afterwards gave great trouble to other\nCommunions.  The choice lay between three terms--one signifying\noriginally \"Supreme Ruler,\" one \"Heaven,\" and the last \"Spirit,\" none\nof which quite {211} expressed our idea of God.  What Christians felt\nwas felt by other translators also, and one of the great causes of\nadvance in China has been the formation of a language which can now\nthoroughly express all the ideas that are characteristic of the West.\nMany of these word-signs come from Japan.  Japan, using the same\nwritten script as China, and having accepted Western thought, is more\neasily able to compose the word-sign necessary for its expression, and\nit is in this way among many others that the influence of Japan will be\nvery important if not paramount in far Eastern countries.\n\nEvery missionary body has tried to produce Christian literature; the\ngreat difficulty has been to get the translator.  The method usually\nemployed is to get a Chinese graduate, too often not a Christian, and\nto make him, under careful supervision, write down the phrases rendered\nby the missionary into Chinese.  Even so the difficulties are very\ngreat.  The object of literature is differently understood in the West\nand in the East.  A Chinese scholar who was very conversant with both\nlanguages explained the difficulties by the following anecdote.\nEngrossed in the study of Western knowledge he had neglected his\nChinese literature, and was in imminent danger of failing in his\nexamination.  Happily for him the night before his examination he read\na classical author much admired by connoisseurs but not much read owing\nto his great obscurity of expression.  A particularly recondite {212}\nphrase dwelt in his memory because it had cost him so much trouble to\ndiscover its meaning.  Next day he used the phrase in his paper, and\nwhen his paper was returned to him with the marks of the examiner upon\nit, it was obvious that it was this phrase, surrounded on all sides by\nthe marks of his examiner's approbation, which had been the means of\nhis passing that examination.  Subsequently he went to Chicago\nUniversity.  \"There,\" he said, with the quiet humour of a Chinaman, \"I\nlearnt that the object of an essay was to convey an idea in as simple a\nmanner as possible.  This is not the Chinese plan.\"\n\nOne of the pioneers in this work was the body which is now called the\nChristian Literature Society for China.  Assisted by a brilliant staff,\nDr. Timothy Richard has produced a great mass of excellent work which\nhas profound influence on thought in China.  No better test can be\nfound of the wonderful work that they have done than the fact that the\ngreatest statesman that China possessed, and also her greatest\nConfucianist scholar, should refer to one of their publications, _The\nReview of the Times_, as one of the causes of China's enlightenment.\nThe Christian Literature Society has not, however, been the only\nlabourer in the field.  Good work has been done by the Religious Tract\nSociety, which has dep\u00f4ts in various parts of China for the sale of\ngood literature; and there have been other societies which have also\npublished books, including the Mission Press, belonging {213} to the\nRoman Catholics, which is situated at Hong-Kong.\n\nBut in speaking of Christian literature we must not forget the various\nBible Societies which have done such varied and excellent work in\nChina, chief among which has been the British and Foreign Bible\nSociety.  Far beyond where the white missionary could reach, the\nproductions of this Society have penetrated; even right across the\ndeserts of Mongolia have their colporteurs carried their wares.  Of the\nconversations which I had with various Chinese gentlemen one was\nespecially remarkable as a testimony to their activity.  My\ninterlocutor was one of those fat lazy men who enjoy the good things of\nlife and care but little for serious matters, and yet I was surprised\nto find that he was obviously acquainted with, at any rate, some of the\ntenets of the Christian faith, and I wondered how this indolent man had\nobtained such knowledge.  I felt certain that his dignity would never\nhave permitted him to have talked to a Christian missionary, much less\nto have listened to a Christian sermon.  At last he incidentally\nmentioned that though a Confucianist he was well acquainted with the\nGospel of St. Mark.  I could not well ask him how he had obtained it,\nbut no doubt it had come to him through the means of the British and\nForeign Bible Society.\n\nWe happened upon another example of the influence of the Bible Society.\nWe were coming down on the boat from Canton, and, walking on the\nChinese {214} deck, I saw a man smoking opium and reading an English\nbook.  As I saw he knew English, I addressed him; under the influence\nof opium, he was wonderfully communicative.  The book turned out to be\nSt. John's Gospel, and he was reading about our Lord's Crucifixion.  He\nhad only picked it up because he wanted to improve his English, but he\nwas deeply impressed by it, and his comments were most interesting.  He\nasked me whether it was true that when our Lord was crucified He had\nstood alone against all the power of the Jews and the Romans, and when\nhe received an answer in the affirmative, he added, \"Then He must have\nbeen Divine, for no man who was not Divine could have stood alone.\"  To\nthe Chinese mind, which is incapable of any separate action, which is\npowerless unless it has the moral support of the Government, of a\nGuild, or even of a secret society, the story of the Crucifixion\nappeals most strongly as an example of Divine strength of purpose.\nThis strange contrast between the opium-smoker and the Bible was\ntypical of China.  The forces of good and evil were wrestling together\nfor the possession of that man's life; the forces of good having been\nput into his hands no doubt by the instrumentality of some Bible\nSociety.\n\nBut the good work that has been directly done by all these societies\nhas been greatly augmented by the good work that they have done\nindirectly through the medium of some of their converts.  A body of\nChristian young men determined to start {215} a publishing house on\ntheir own account, the object of which should be that the published\nbooks, both translations and original works, should best convey to the\nChinese mind lofty and noble ideas in Western thought.  If these books\nwere not intended to be definitely propagandist they were at least\ncalculated to teach the ethical system of Christianity.  The work of\nthe Shanghai Commercial Press has had a great influence on the thought\nof China; from thence has issued forth a mass of literature both for\nschools and for the general public which has introduced Western thought\nto the Chinese.  Many of our standard authors have been translated, and\nthe Chinaman, moved by his love of literature, is now becoming\nintimately acquainted with every literary activity of our civilisation.\nWhen one looks at those strange word-signs it seems hard to believe\nthat any one could read them with ease and rapidity; yet Chinamen say,\nthough writing is a matter of great difficulty and requires much time,\nreading the characters is quicker than reading our system of printing,\neach idea being conveyed by one sign, instead of, as in our language,\nby many letters.\n\nThese signs are apparently things to which sentiment attaches.  We\nheard a most interesting debate at the Conference of the Anglican\nChurch at Shanghai as to the title by which the Anglican body should be\ngenerally known, and it was instructive to watch the differences\nbetween the views of the English and the Chinese minds on the question,\nas the debate {216} was translated by a most able interpreter, Mr.\nTsen.  We began with what threatened to be a rather dreary Anglo-Saxon\ndebate between the High and the Low Church.  One felt the old\natmosphere of the sixteenth and seventeenth century of English history\nvery present in the room.  The debate was on the question as to whether\nthe word \"Catholic\" should form part of the title.  I need not detail\nthe arguments that were advanced on both sides; they are too well\nknown.  Then we turned to the Chinese translation, and at once the\nfires of Smithfield and the thunders of the Reformation disappeared as\nby magic, and the blue-robed men from all parts of China woke up to an\ninterest that was as extraordinary as it was instructive.  We gathered,\nby means of our interpreter, two or three most interesting facts.\nFirst, there was unanimity in the room that the title should not in any\nway, indirectly or by allusion, convey the idea that the Anglican\nChurch had anything to do with England.  The view of China for the\nChinese obviously commanded the assent of all in the room; even those\nwho had been influenced the other way by their teachers, had to allow\nthat the word Anglican would be fatal to the popularity of the Church.\nWhen \"The Holy Catholic Church of China\" was proposed as a title, it\nwas suggested by the white men that it savoured of insolence, as\nimplying that the other communions did not belong to it.  This met with\nno favour from the Chinese.  Their argument was simple; we are {217}\nall going to be one body in a short time, so the others can share in\nour title if it is a good one, and if it is not, we can share theirs.\nThen there was this feeling, which it was impossible for a stranger to\nappreciate, that each ideograph had a sentiment attached to it, and\nthat therefore the title must be composed of ideographs which had not\nmerely a suitable meaning but also a beautiful association.  In the end\nthey adopted for their title the ideographs that are used in the Creed\nfor the Holy Catholic Church, not meaning thereby that they were the\nonly branch of the Catholic Church in China, but that they were a true\nbranch of the Catholic Church.  There was another point made obvious to\nthe onlooker, a point which will be dealt with further on in this book,\nnamely, that owing to the different policies of the missions, the\nAmerican body dominated in debate because they were represented by an\nextremely able body of Chinamen, while the English missions had as\nChinese representatives only men of ordinary education.\n\nBut to return to the question of literature.  Though literature has\nbeen instrumental in disseminating both the truths of Christianity and\nthe noble ethical teaching of the West, it has also been instrumental\nin disseminating much that is evil and corrupt in Western literature.\nPerhaps it is not extraordinary that the Japanese bookseller finds that\nthe erotic novel from Paris sells more freely when translated than the\nEnglish story whose whole {218} motive depends on a proper\ncomprehension of the Christian ethical position.  _The Dame aux\nCam\u00e9lias_, by Dumas, is the most popular of the Western works, and one\ncannot but tremble to think what incalculable injury such stories will\ndo to a nation which does not understand the relative positions in\nwhich those works are held by men of high character in the West.\nChang-Chih-Tung refers in one of his works to the apparent immorality\nof Western thought; and if we grant that books like these are typical\nof Western thought, we shall not be able to wonder at his conclusion.\nThrough the distorted medium of such translations Western civilisation\nmust seem wholly detestable.  The Chinaman will naturally say, \"Your\nboasted morality is merely a hypocritical covering for a profligacy\nwhich we should never permit in our land.\"\n\nNot only are French novels translated, but all the works which Western\nthought has produced against the Christian faith.  Haeckel's \"Riddle of\nthe Universe\" is a typical example.  In literature, as in every other\ndepartment of life in China, two elements of Western civilisation\nstrive for mastery.  On one side there are arrayed the powers of\nChristianity and the interpretation of Western civilisation as a\nproduct of Christian thought; on the other side lies materialism, and\nthe explanation of Western civilisation as a natural result of\nevolution which is developing an irreligious but most comfortable\nworld.  If China listens to the first, she will become like other {219}\nnations, a great power, not only rich, but honourable, true, and\nmerciful, the result of the teaching of Christian faith and ethics.  If\nshe listens to the second, the efficiency of China will be rendered\nterrible by a low morality, which will not only desolate and depress\nmany millions, but even have a deleterious effect on the West which so\nmistaught her.\n\n\n\n\n{220}\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nMEDICAL MISSIONS\n\nAfter literature perhaps we should place medical missions as one of the\nmost effective ways of placing before the Chinese the difference\nbetween our civilisations and of showing them the truth and beauty of\nChristianity.  There are three or possibly four reasons why medical\nmissions are a right and effective way of conducting the Christian\npropaganda.  First, they are an object-lesson of the love which\nChristianity inculcates.  In school teaching we find that the\nobject-lesson is the most efficient and easiest way of getting the\nhuman mind to understand a quite new idea; medical missions are\nobject-lessons of the essential character of Christian teaching.\nChinese ethics are very distinct in limiting the duty of man to certain\nwell-known relations.  They are five in number: the relation of the\nsovereign and minister, of the husband and wife, of the father and son,\nof the elder and younger brother, and of friends.  No Confucian\nrecognises the universal brotherhood of man; that is solely a Christian\ndoctrine.  Thus Confucius reproves the man who wishes to offer\nsacrifices to some one else's forefathers; that appears to him to be as\nofficious as the duty of {221} offering sacrifices to his own ancestors\nis important; a man has no obligations to any one else but to those who\nstand to him in one of these five relations.  Very different is the\ntone of the Apocrypha, which is not of very different date, and which\nputs burial of the dead among one of the first duties of man without\nspecifying the necessity of any close relationship.\n\nThe action of missionaries in coming to China was therefore wholly\nmisunderstood by the Chinese.  They were regarded as merely the\nemissaries of foreign powers, sent to spy out the land.  Considering\nthe way in which the Roman Catholic missions did as a fact identify\nthemselves with the foreign policy of France, one cannot altogether\nwonder that the Chinese attributed to their mission the selfish\nprinciples they themselves would have followed.  The first purpose,\ntherefore, served by medical missions is to demonstrate to the Chinese\nthat Christianity has higher ideals than Confucianism.\n\nTheir second great object is one that must appeal to the heart of\neverybody who has been in China.  It is impossible to work among the\nChinese without being rendered miserable by the appalling amount of\nsuffering and misery that exists at the present day.  The poverty of\nEngland cannot be spoken of in the same breath nor can in any way be\ncompared with the poverty of China.  Deplorable as is the condition of\nmany individuals in England, harsh as is the action of some of our\ncasual wards, {222} any one who has studied both will freely allow that\nthe poor in England are rich compared to the poor in China.  Among the\nvast crowd that wanders along the North Road to London, you will\nscarcely see one without boots; there is scarcely one who does not get\na piece of bread to eat when he is hungry; there are none who are\nsuffering from untended wounds or unalleviated sickness.  The workhouse\ninfirmary will always open its doors, however harsh the Guardians, to\nthose who are absolutely ill.  But in China, starvation is quite\ncommon.  Missionaries tell you how at certain junctures they have\ntravelled along a road, passing man after man lying at the point of\ndeath, and those who are sick have too often no resource but to wait\nwith patience the pain and death they foresee as their fate.  The\nmissionary feels, as he preaches the doctrine of love, that he cannot\nconsistently ignore these suffering multitudes.\n\nThe third reason why medical missions are maintained is because they\nare a means of approaching people who otherwise would not hear the\nChristian truth.  The man who has successfully healed the body has some\nreasonable hope to expect that the patient will accept that medicine\nthat he offers to cure the soul.  So medical missions have been started\nin every place.  We visited many excellent medical missions, from\nchilly Mukden to torrid Canton.  There are many stories told how in the\ndays when the Chinese would not listen to {223} missionaries, the\nmedical missionary obtained that hearing which was refused to his\nclerical brothers.  I was told one medical missionary found that the\nmoment that he was extracting teeth was the moment when he could best\nadvance his teaching.  I have never heard the story substantiated;\nunless the Chinese are very different from us, one would have thought\nthat the teaching would have had a distinctly painful association.\nPerhaps he took as his thesis the extraction of sin from the character.\nHis success was equalled by that non-medical missionary who had the\nadvantage of having a set of false teeth; these he used to take out\nbefore the astonished coolies and replace them; then having attracted\ntheir attention by this manoeuvre, he took up his parable on the need\nfor taking away their sins from them and for putting new life into them.\n\nThe Chinese coolie loves a jest, and once he is on the laugh he will,\nunlike his English brother, be much more inclined to attend to serious\nteaching.  One of the missionaries who understands this trait of the\nChinese best is Dr. Duncan Main of Hangchow, where we spent two most\ninteresting days seeing his hospitals and work and visiting his\npatients.\n\nThere is no better testimony to his great work than his obvious\npopularity.  Wherever he goes there are smiles and greetings.  He\nexplains as we walk who are the individuals who salute him.  That great\nfat man who stands bowing and smiling is a {224} merchant of some\nwealth; his wife has been in the hospital; she has been tended by Dr.\nMain and by his skill has been cured.  That old woman who stands by him\nsmiling is another ex-patient.  That young man with an intellectual\nface and a dark robe is an old medical student, now a doctor himself\nwith a large practice, and he has settled near Dr. Main's hospital.\nAnd so his work increases and grows and the good he does must live\nafter him.  He takes us into the out-patients' room; they are a motley\ncrowd, with strappings and bandages on various parts of their persons.\nWhile they are sitting there a lay-reader expounds to them the elements\nof Christian teaching.  What a contrast to their minds must be the\nplain forcible teaching and the simple effective remedies and medicines\nof the Christians to the incantations and nauseous compounds of their\nnative doctors.  There is a great doubt as to what is the nature of\nmany of the Chinese drugs.  They always prescribe a vast number, many\nof which are apparently innocuous in their effect; they always give\nthem in large quantities, and do not in any way attempt to isolate and\nextract the active properties of the things they use.  You see a man\neating a large bowl of some nauseous compound and you are told he is\ntaking Chinese medicine.  You ask a captain what his cargo consists of,\nand he tells you that it is largely made up of Chinese medicine.  Some\nof the medicine seems to be prescribed on the principle of our old\nherbals; that is, there is a fancied resemblance between the plant and\nthe disease.  Others seem to {225} come from well-known remedies\nadministered in various ways; ground-up deer's horns from the mountains\nof Siberia has probably much the same effect as chalk has in our\npharmacopoeia.  But there also seems to be some possibility that the\nChinese doctors have certain useful remedies which are unknown to\nWestern medicine.\n\nThere is a strange story told in Shanghai about a certain remedy for a\nhorrible disease called \"sprue.\"  The story is well known to every\nresident in Shanghai, still it will bear repetition.  A certain quack\ncalled \"French Peter\"--I do not know his proper name--habitually cured\nsprue.  Cases which English doctors had absolutely failed to cure, and\nwhich threatened ruining a career or loss of life, he cured in a few\nweeks.  He had two remedies--a white powder and a black draught.  He\nhimself was a most unattractive-looking man.  My informant told me that\nhis career was being threatened by this horrible disease, and that he\nwas expecting to leave China in a week or two, when some one suggested\nthat he should try \"French Peter.\"  When they met, \"French Peter's\"\nappearance was so unprepossessing that the sick man's courage nearly\nfailed him.  He had been for weeks on a milk diet, and the first thing\nthat the man said to him was, \"Look here, take these medicines and go\nand have a good beefsteak for luncheon.\"  He decided to try them.  He\nate his beefsteak, he took the white powder and the black draught, and\nI think within three weeks was quite well.  \"French Peter\" would {226}\nnever tell his secret or where he got his remedies; at least he used to\ngive different accounts to different people.  I believe he is now dead,\nbut on talking the matter over with some Chinese friends they assured\nme that the remedies were well known to Chinese doctors, and that\n\"French Peter\" had got them from one of their compatriots.\n\nDr. Main deals with his patients in the same cheery way that he\naddresses every one; a word or two suffices to discover the nature of\ntheir ailment.  If the case is very serious, the patient is detained\nfor further examination; if it is trivial, it is attended to at once by\na native dresser.  For the rest he himself prescribes.\n\nThen he takes us up to the wards, and explains that the great\ndifficulty is to get the Chinese to care for cleanliness.  That is the\nsame story in every hospital; they cannot believe it matters very much\nwhether the thing is kept clean or not.  The medical students will\nproceed to handle anything after they have washed their hands and think\nthat the previous washing insures asepticism, regardless of the fact\nthat they have touched many septic things.\n\nDr. Main's hospital is typical of mission hospitals--Dr. Christie's\nhospital at Mukden, Dr. Gillison's at Hankow, Dr. Cochrane's at Peking,\nand many others.  There are also hospitals for women.  We saw many; the\nfirst we visited, the Presbyterian Hospital at Canton, was a good\nexample, impressing us not only by its efficiency, but also by the\ngreat service it performed to the suffering {227} masses of China by\ntraining women doctors, who are permitted to minister to their sisters\nwhen etiquette does not permit of male medical attendance.  The lady\nwho showed us round the hospital spoke English fluently; she was\ndressed in the dress of the Cantonese woman, which suited her\nprofession admirably, as it consisted of a long black coat and\ntrousers.  Some hospitals are reserved for the very poor; at Nanking,\nfor instance, Dr. Macklin showed us over his beggar hospital.  He\nfollows the parable of the Good Samaritan most literally, and wherever\nhe finds a poor, starving, dying man, he brings him in.  Clearly he\ncannot afford anything but a limited accommodation for these poor\ncreatures, but he is on the whole most successful, and there is many a\nman whom poverty had brought near to death whose life he has saved.  As\none looked at those types of suffering humanity and realised the good\nthat Dr. Macklin was doing, one felt that the days of saintly service\nwere not over yet.\n\nAnother beautiful work is Dr. Main's leper hospital at Hangchow.  It\nwas a weird and strange experience to hear those lepers singing our old\nEnglish hymns.  Leprosy, as my readers doubtless know, does not often\nleave open sores; it slowly eats away the body while it leaves the skin\nintact; and so you see men without hands and arms yet with finger nails\nupon the stump, blind men without noses, and very commonly men whose\nvoices are cracked and broken.  These lepers are housed in an old\ntemple, in one of the most beautiful situations in China--a {228}\nsituation which is supposed to be the original of the landscape on the\nold willow pattern plates; and the beauty of their surroundings\ncontrasts strangely with their hideous forms and harsh voices.  There\nwas an infinite pathos when by that blue lake and purple mountain,\nthose harsh but plaintive voices sang the old tune of \"Jesu, lover of\nmy soul\"; and though we could not follow the Chinese words, the faces\nof these poor sufferers were eloquent in expressing how fully they felt\nthe meaning of that hymn.\n\nBut above all we should mention the great work that is being carried on\nby Dr. Cochrane at Peking.  He has managed to induce all the medical\nmissions in Peking to unite in founding a great hospital--a hospital\nwhich has received the approval of Government.  This successful example\nof federation has solved a difficult problem.  No doubt the efficiency\nof medical missions in many a town is impeded by their want of unity.\nA mission body will open a medical mission, and will send out a doctor\nor even two in charge; one doctor must go on his furlough, another is\nperhaps ill, and the result is that the mission is closed.  The\ncommercial community are rather ready to point out that the mission\nhospital is closed in the summer when there is the greatest need for\nit.  The answer to the taunt is the policy of federation.  While it is\nnext to impossible to keep open the mission hospitals in an unhealthy\nclimate with a limited staff, it is perfectly possible to do it if the\nstaff is increased.  Every doctor in Central and Southern China must\n{229} have a certain period of rest, otherwise he will not be able to\nstand the enervating effects of a semi-tropical climate; and however\npossible it is to keep white men at work for three or four years\nwithout a holiday, and I know commercial people claim that this has\nbeen done in certain individual instances, it is in reality the very\npoorest economy.  The mission doctor is far too valuable a person to\nhave his life cast away by such a foolish policy of extravagance.  He\nmust have his rest every year and his furlough every seven years.  But\nit is not necessary that the hospitals should be closed if the staff is\nbig enough; a certain number of the hospital staff can go on leave, and\nwhen they are rested, can come back and allow others to go in their\nturn.  Dr. Cochrane has shown at Peking that such federation is\npossible, and the China Emergency Committee is making every effort to\nencourage a similar federation in other parts of China.  Medical\nmissions are splendid examples of Christian charity and love, but they\nare rather sad examples of the lack of unity among Christian men.\n\nAnalogous to the medical mission are the missions to the blind and the\ndeaf.  The blind are a striking example of how Christianity alleviates\nmisery, for the blind in China learn to read more quickly than those\nwho have sight.  The teachers of the blind have invented a system of\nraised type by which the Chinaman can read every word that is\npronounced in Chinese.  It is not our letter system, which they {230}\nwould find difficult to understand, but something after the nature of\nthe Japanese system.  Each syllable is represented by a sign; so,\nstrange as it may appear, the blind man not having to study the\ncharacter learns to read more quickly than the man with normal sight.\nThere is an excellent school for the blind at Peking, under Dr.\nMurray's superintendence.  There is another at Hankow, where we saw a\nmost striking instance of the beauty of holiness.  One of the masters\nat this blind school was a blind man himself; he was a most ardent\nChristian; he had been taught to play the organ, which, indeed, is a\nspeciality at that school, many of the organists in the mission\nchurches in Hankow coming from it, and one could not look upon his face\nwithout feeling a conviction that his spiritual vision was as clear as\nhis physical sight was dark.\n\nThere is a fourth reason, and one which applies as much to educational\nmissions as to medical missions, why both are fitting and proper ways\nto teach Christianity.  Christianity claims to and does benefit the\nwhole of man, not merely his spiritual side.  Mankind cannot properly\nbe cut up and divided into spirit, mind, and body.  He is essentially\none, and it is most necessary that those who are learning about our\nreligion, should understand that while we claim every benefit should\ncome from the spiritual part of our nature, we are prepared to show\nthat we in no wise despise the body, which needs religious care as much\nas the soul.  Neither are we careless about the {231} mind.  So the\nthree parts of mission work go hand in hand, for preaching and prayer\nwill heal the ills of the soul, the medical mission deals with the ills\nof the body, and the educational mission makes the mind healthy and\nstrong.  We shall deal with the educational side of mission work later\non.\n\n\n\n\n{232}\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nMOVEMENT IN KOREA AND MANCHURIA\n\nOne of the movements which will affect Christianity all over the East\nhas had its origin in Korea.  Just as the suffering and miserable heart\nof the individual man is that which Christianity finds most suitable\nfor its home, so it is with a nation.  It is at the moment of national\nadversity and humiliation that religious movements most readily rise.\nKorea had looked upon herself as the equal of Japan.  From Korea came\nmuch of the civilisation which adorned Japan before the great Western\nmovement.  When Prince Ito with the eyes of a statesman was realising\nthat Japan must either accept the domination of the West or its\ncivilisation, Korea was immovably entrenched in her belief in her\nnational greatness and in her contempt for the Western world.  So\nWesternised Japan has overcome her ancient rival and teacher, and Korea\nis humbled to the very dust.\n\nIn many ways that humiliation is rendered more poignant owing to the\nlack of sympathy between the races.  Though they both have taken their\ncivilisation from China and have a common classical literature, they\nare diametrically opposed in many things.  The Japanese are essentially\na clean race.  {233} They wash constantly; they will not enter a house\nwith their shoes on their feet.  No one who knows them will accuse the\nKoreans of excess in cleanliness.  On the other hand, the Japanese very\nfrequently lack modesty.  Many are the stories that residents will\ntell; and we have seen the Japanese women clothed in the garb of Eve\nappear in the public bath and even in the street.  On the other hand,\nthe Koreans may be corrupt and immoral, but they are modest.  The women\nof Seoul as they walk through the streets cover their faces with their\ngreen cloaks, till one almost thinks one must be in a Mohammedan land.\nThose green cloaks are a perpetual reminder of the ancient hostility\nbetween the races.\n\nThe picturesque story is worth telling.  The Japanese, knowing of the\nabsence of the Korean armies, determined to surprise Seoul.  They\nthought they had succeeded, when to their amazement they saw the walls\nof Seoul covered with what they took for warlike Koreans.  The ready\nwit of the women had saved their town.  They had dressed themselves in\ntheir husbands' clothes and so deceived their hereditary foes.  The\nEmperor rewarded them by giving them the right to wear the man's green\ncoat, which they wear not in coat fashion, but over their heads, the\nsleeves partially veiling their faces; and as one wanders down the main\nstreet of Seoul and watches the modest but gaily-dressed crowd of\nKoreans--the women in their green coats with red ribbons, the men in\nwhite garments wearing their curious top-knots {234} and quaint\nhats--one understands the antipathy they must feel for the short,\nmuscular, soberly-dressed Japanese who by his courage and daring has\nsubdued them and now tramples on their national susceptibilities and\nignores their national rights.\n\nThere are several missions in Korea, but there is one which, _prim\u00e2\nfacie_, would call for no special remark.  It ministers to the\nwhite-robed Koreans in the same way that many another mission ministers\nto these Eastern peoples--teaching and preaching.  Externally there is\nnothing exceptional about the missionaries.  I will not say that their\nmission is uninteresting, but it is unexciting.  They are Americans by\nnationality and Scotch by name and blood, and they follow the national\nPresbyterian faith with all its cautious teaching, with all its prim\nsimplicity.  No one would regard them as the mission that was likely to\ncreate a great excitement or raise a great enthusiasm, neither indeed\ndo they so regard themselves.  Their conception of mission work was the\nsensible and reasonable plan of converting a sufficient number to make\nthem teachers and preachers, and then having educated them, to send\nthem out to convert their own fellow-countrymen.  In 1906 and the\nbeginning of 1907 they were filled with dark forebodings for the future\nof Korea.  The temporary occupation of Korea by the Japanese was\nobviously going to be changed into a permanency.  The murder of the\nQueen had shown what the Japanese would do, and the victory over Russia\nhad shown what they {235} could do.  Korea was at their mercy.  Subdued\nyet not conquered in spirit, the missionaries, knowing their people\nwell, foresaw that a bitter friction must arise between the two races;\nthat rebellions and the consequent fierce repression must bring to\ntheir infant church a time of great trouble; and so, like the wise\nChristian men that they were, they took themselves to the Christian's\nweapon, namely, prayer.  They earnestly prayed that in some way a great\nblessing should fall on their converts.  That prayer was seemingly\nunanswered, the grasp of Japan was not relaxed.  Except for the wisdom\nand gentleness of the great Prince Ito, there was nothing but\noppression and sufferings for the Koreans.  The Japanese army had\nlearnt not only their military art but their statecraft in Germany, and\nthe latter is traditionally harsh.  Break, crush, and bully are the\nmaxims which find general acceptance in the Prussian Court.  Prince\nIto, however, was a great admirer of English imperial policy with its\nmaxims of justice to the weak, mercy to the conquered, and reverence\nfor all national traditions; but Prince Ito could not control the\nJapanese soldiers, and the moans of the oppressed Koreans echoed\nthroughout her land.\n\nIn the spring of 1907 the Presbyterian Mission held what is called its\ncountry class--that is to say, that the men who had been converted were\nsummoned from all the country villages to the town of Pyeng-Yang, and\nthere they attended for several days' instructions in the Christian\nfaith.  This {236} excellent rule enables Christians who believe but\nwho are ignorant to acquire a more ultimate knowledge of the truths of\nChristianity.  These meetings are wholly unemotional; they are in no\nsense revival meetings, nor even devotional; they are essentially\neducational.  Their object is to teach and not to excite.  For the\nScottish-American has a double national tradition that knowledge is\nstrength.  These meetings had been held one or two days; they had\nfollowed their usual uneventful if beneficial course, and showed every\nprobability of ending as they had begun, when one of the Koreans rose\nfrom the centre of the room and interrupted the ordinary course of the\nmeeting by asking leave to speak.  As he insisted, permission was given\nhim.  He declared that he had a sin on his conscience that forbade him\nlistening to the teaching of the missionaries in peace, and that\nfurther he must declare this sin.  The Presbyterian missionaries do not\nencourage this kind of open confession of sin, but still to get on with\nthe meeting and to quiet him they gave him leave to speak.  He then\ndeclared that he had felt some months ago a feeling of bitterness\ntowards one of the missionaries, a Mr. Blair, who was our informant.\nMr. Blair assured him that so far from feeling that there was any need\nfor this confession he regarded the matter as trivial, and hoping again\nto bring the meeting back to the point he suggested that they should\nsay the Lord's Prayer.  Hardly had he uttered in Korean the words \"Our\nFather,\" when {237} a sudden emotion seemed to rush over all those who\nwere there present.  The missionaries described it as at once one of\nthe most awful and one of the most mysterious moments of their lives.\nThey were not revivalists; they had not encouraged it; they did not\nbelieve in it; they disliked an emotional religion with which they had\nno sympathy; and here they were in the face of a movement which was\nbeyond, not only their experience, but that of the greatest\nrevivalists.  They tried to stop it, but unavailingly.  The Koreans,\nunlike the Chinese, always sit upon the floor, and as the missionaries\nlooked out over the meeting from the platform on which they stood, they\nsaw the faces of their converts racked with every form of mental\nanguish.  Some were swinging themselves forward striking their heads on\nthe ground, hoping, as it were, to obtain by insensibility peace from\ntheir torturing thoughts; some were in the presence of an awful terror;\nsome were leaping up demanding to be heard, longing to free their souls\nfrom the weight they felt would crush them; others with set faces were\nresolutely determined not to yield to the inspiration of the spirit\nwhich suggested that they should gain relief by frank confession.  The\nmissionaries having failed to bring the meeting to a close, submitted\nto what they felt was the will of a higher Being, and the meeting went\non till fatigue produced a temporary and a partial rest.  Though the\nmeeting was closed, the missionaries learnt afterwards that many {238}\nKoreans went on all through the night in agonised prayer.\n\nThe next day they hoped the thing was over, and that the incident might\nbe reckoned among those strange experiences which workers in the\nmission field must occasionally expect to encounter; but not so--the\nmeeting next night was the same as its predecessor.  They noticed\nseveral interesting facts.  One, for instance, was, that the women were\nfar less affected than the men.  The movement did not reach them till\nlater, and never so fully.  Another remarkable thing about this\nmovement was that though the Methodists are by tradition a revivalist\nbody, and though they have a vigorous mission working in that town, yet\nthe revival only spread to their converts after many days, and then\nneither with the spontaneity nor the fire with which it had been\nmanifested in the Presbyterian Mission.\n\nOf the reality of the confession of sin there could be no doubt.  One\nman, for instance, confessed to having stolen gold from a local\ngold-mining company, and produced the wedge of gold which he had\nstolen, and asked them to treat him as he deserved.  The manager of the\ncompany luckily was a European, who wisely refused to punish a man who\nhad so spontaneously confessed his theft.  Many of the sins that were\nconfessed would not bear repetition.  Some confessed even to such awful\nsins as that of murder of parents.  One man in particular, a trusted\nservant of the mission, resisted confession, and day by day {239}\nbecame more and more racked with mental agony, till the missionaries\nfeared that his health would not endure the terrible strain of such\nmental anguish, and they advised him to make a free confession of his\nsins.  At last he came to them with a sum of money in his hand; he had\nraised it by selling some houses which he had bought as a provision for\nhis old age, and he confessed to the sin that was torturing him.  He\nhad done what is constantly done in the East--he had peculated.  His\nposition had been that of an agent whom the missionaries employ to make\nmany of their small payments, and out of each of these payments he had\ntaken \"a squeeze.\"  With these he had bought the houses which now he\nhad sold.  He left the missionaries happy in heart though empty in\npocket.\n\nThis movement spread more or less over the Presbyterian missions in\nKorea, but never with such intensity as manifested at Pyeng-Yang.  We\nheard it spoken of by a non-Christian Korean, a member of the Court of\nthe Emperor of Korea.  He had heard of it, and said men were saying\nthis movement is a wonderful thing, for under its influence men\nconfessed crimes of which even torture would not have induced them to\nown themselves guilty.  A Chinese merchant also heard of it in\nManchuria.  The man came down to Pyeng-Yang, and happened to stop with\nthe Chinese merchants.  He mentioned that there were Christians in\nManchuria, and the Chinese merchants immediately took an interest.\nWhen he asked what {240} they knew of the Christians, they answered,\n\"Good men, good men.\"  One of them was owed by a Korean twenty dollars,\nwho would only allow that he owed ten, and the merchant having no means\nof redress, had written off the debt; but when this revival took place,\nthe Korean came with the other ten dollars together with interest, and\nwhat of course would appeal even more to the Eastern mind, with the\nfrank confession that he had lied.  This practical illustration of the\neffects of Christianity greatly impressed the Chinese.\n\nWhen we arrived at Pyeng-Yang the movement was over.  We went to some\nof their meetings.  They were very common-place ordinary meetings.  All\nthat struck us was that there was a tone of reverence, a sense of\nreality, which made one feel that Christianity was as sincere in Korea\nas it is in our own land.\n\nThe movement has spread from Korea to Manchuria.  In Manchuria the\nmovement had not quite the same spontaneity that it had in Korea; it\nsavoured more of the revival meetings of the West.  It needed the\nstirring words of a great preacher, Mr. Goforth, to start it, yet there\nwere one or two curious manifestations of power.  One is worth telling.\nOne brother was heard expostulating with another; he was asking why his\nbrother had, forgetful of his family dignity or \"face,\" confessed to\nsins which brought not only himself but his family into disrespect.\nThe other answered, \"When the Spirit of God takes hold of a man, he\ncannot help speaking.\" {241} Two still more curious instances are worth\nrecording: one in which two soldiers who were not Christians were so\nmoved that they confessed their sins; another which seems to prove the\npresence of a force exterior to human influence or to the emotions\ncaused by eloquence or moving hymns.  An elder of the Church had\nforgotten or been detained from going to one of these meetings; when\nthe speakers went to inquire next day why he had not been there, he\nasked them in return to tell him what they had done at the meeting, and\nthey told him that many people had confessed their sins.  He was deeply\ninterested, and said: \"I was sitting in my house at the hour of your\nmeeting; I suddenly felt as if all my sins were laid before me, and I\nrealised as I had never done before my many shortcomings.\"\n\nAnd so the movement has spread through Manchuria to China.  If it has\nlost something of its freshness, something of its force, it still\nremains a movement that may accomplish great things.  No one who has\nread the history of the Wesleyan movement, and of the wonderful\nmanifestations that accompanied its commencement, will look without\ninterest and expectation for the work which this movement may\naccomplish.  Let us hope that it will bring to China a sense of reality\nin spiritual things which the present materialist teaching threatens to\neliminate from her national life.\n\n\n\n\n{242}\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nTHE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA\n\nAt the great Shanghai Conference we always spoke of the \"Church in\nChina,\" implying thereby that there was to be one Christian body in the\nChinese empire.  This ideal is lofty and not impossible.  There is a\nreasonable expectation that the great intellectual movement in China\nwill render the Chinese very ready to accept new ideas, and the rate of\nconversion in China gives one reasonable hope that the new ideas may be\nChristian and not those of Western materialism.  If China becomes\nChristian there will no doubt be a great tendency to accept the unity\nof Christianity as an essential doctrine.  As a race they clearly tend\ntowards union as much as the Anglo-Saxon race tends towards disunion.\nThe British empire has been held together by its fear of its enemies;\nthe Chinese empire has been held together through their natural love of\nunion, which is the dominant characteristic of the race.  Remove the\nenemies of the British empire and she will naturally divide, but force\nthe Chinese empire apart and she will naturally return to one body.\nChinese Christianity will, if it is truly Chinese, tend to one body.\nThis truth, which I think would have been {243} allowed by the whole\nShanghai Conference, opens up a train of thought which is full of\nforeboding and yet of hope.\n\nOne obvious criticism of what was said of the Church in China was kept\nlargely out of sight at the Shanghai Conference, namely, that as the\nRoman Communion far outnumbers the whole of the non-Roman Communions\nput together, the Church in China, therefore, if it is to consist of\nall Christians, will be something very different to what the majority\nof those present at that Conference would like.  Some men maintain that\nthe Chinese love of unity will not go so far as to compel the union\nbetween Protestant and Catholic, and that in China the schism which has\nrent Christianity in twain in Europe will be continued.  I would ask\nthose who think thus if they think this is desirable even if it is\npossible.  Once foreign influence and support has been removed, would\nnot such a division soon produce a state of great friction, resulting\nprobably in the destruction of the smaller body.  But it is most\nimprobable; a race which has habitually put together Taoism, Buddhism,\nand Confucianism will have no difficulty at all in uniting Romanism and\nProtestantism.  I do not mean to say that Rome will conquer; it does\nnot seem likely.  The power of the Romans is great when they are\npreaching our common Christianity, but their peculiar doctrine of the\npre-eminence of Rome is most unattractive to the Chinaman.  After all,\nRome is a very small place to a man who lives in China.  Think how\nlittle {244} we know of ancient Chinese history, and realise how little\nChina knows of the history of our civilisation.  Home at the present\nday is to the Chinaman merely the capital of Germany's weakest ally.\nThe reasoning of the universality of the Roman Church, always faulty,\nseems almost ridiculous in China.  The Chinaman on one side is\nconversant with America, on the other side she is in touch with India,\nwhile on the north she has a frontier which stretches for thousands and\nthousands of miles between her and the great Orthodox Church of Russia.\nOne's eyes naturally turn to this immense line of frontier between\nConfucianism and Christianity, and one wonders how any Chinaman can\npossibly think of Rome as the one Catholic Church.  If the Roman\nChurch, with its foreign domination and its tacit acceptance of the\nfact that only members of the Italian nation can receive Divine\nauthority to guide the Church on earth, is unattractive to the mind of\nthe man who lives in the Far East, on the other hand its ornate and\ndignified services must be most attractive to a race whose national\nphilosophy puts pre-eminent weight on dignity and decorum in dress and\ndemeanour.  If the Roman Church could give up her Latin services, could\nfrankly become a national Church which owed no obedience to any Pontiff\noutside China, one would regret the possibility but one would have to\nallow the probability of her complete domination over the Chinese\nempire.  Again one's eyes turn to the northern frontier, and one asks\noneself {245} whether that great Orthodox Church, the dignity of whose\nservices is without parallel, and which frankly accepts the national\nChurch as a reasonable Christian position, will not one day be a large\nfactor in the future missionary work in China.  After what we had seen\nand heard at the Centenary Conference, and after we had realised the\ngreat extent of the Roman work, we felt that till one understood why\nthe Russian Church conducted no missionary work one could not\nunderstand the whole missionary problem; for when the Russian Church\ndoes undertake such work, her geographical position must render her\nimportant.\n\nThe whole of this question is of the greatest interest to the student\nof missions, but especially to an Anglican.  The great value of the\nAnglican position has always seemed that, to use an election phrase, we\noffer a platform on which all those who call themselves Christian might\npossibly unite.  The great rent which divides Protestant from Catholic\nseems not only to make it impossible for Latin Christians to unite with\nthe Teuton Protestant Churches, but also renders it hard for the latter\nto unite with the great Churches of Eastern Europe.  Of course all this\nhas only an academic interest in England, but in China with its rapidly\ngrowing Christianity and an intellectual revolution surging forward to\nunknown possibilities, all this is of vital interest.  What will\nChinese Christianity be?  Is it to be an ornate Christianity to which\nthe converts {246} of Rome and possibly the converts of the Orthodox\nChurch will adhere, an ornate Church sullied no doubt with the faults\nof her parents, a Church possibly attractive to the Buddhist, for he\nwill not need to traverse any great distance in thought to enter her\nportals; or is it to be a great Protestant Church, cold and bare,\nvigorous and energetic, a Church in which the uniform of the Teuton\nmind will sit badly on the Chinese convert, a Church which may in many\nthings represent truly the will of our mutual Master, but a Church\nwhich leaves the Oriental cold and miserable, while it practically\ntears from our Bible those endless chapters on the decoration of Temple\nand Tabernacle, those constant commands to an exact and ordered ritual.\n\nI write with what the Germans call \"objectivity\"; the Teuton within me\ndislikes ritual; but the Chinaman is no Teuton, and the Chinaman loves\nritual as much as any man on earth.  No one who has been received by a\nChinese Viceroy in his Yamen can have the very slightest doubt on this\nsubject.  If the Protestant bodies hope to force on the Chinese a\nnon-ornate form of Christianity, they will be doing exactly what the\nItalian Church did to the Northern races, and which produced the great\nupheaval of the Reformation.  The Reformation was essentially the\nrebellion of the Teuton mind against a forced acceptance of the Italian\nview of Christianity.  To force on the Chinese converts a Christianity\nshorn of all ritual and display will produce in years to come some\nsimilar upheaval.  {247} There is yet a third possibility.  The\nAnglican position affords the means of avoiding such an upheaval, and\nof permitting a union of all Christians on the basis of an ornate\nservice and evangelical Christianity.  For while it permits a service\nequal in dignity to that of Rome or of Russia, it insists equally with\nthe bodies who pride themselves on the name of Protestant on the\nsupreme value of the Bible.\n\nThe very hope I have that Christianity will conquer China makes me\nfearful for the future.  The age of persecution is past, the blood of\nthe martyrs has been shed, and the seed of a Church freely sown.  But\nafter the age of persecution comes the age of heresy, and to preserve\nChristianity in China from future dangers, not only is union necessary,\nbut a well-ordered Church bound by creeds, respecting tradition, which\nshall embrace all those Christians by whomsoever they have been\nconverted who love the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The great danger\nI fear for the future Church in China is one of Eastern and not Western\norigin.  I do not fear the domination of Rome.  I doubt that the\nProtestant Communions will succeed in ultimately persuading the Chinese\nto worship God in a bare building and without vestments.\n\nChina and Japan will, if they are conquered by Christianity, be neither\nProtestant nor Catholic any more than we are Nestorian or Eutychian.\nTheir divisions, their dangers, their struggles, will arise from a\nwholly different set of circumstances.  I fear {248} the dangers will\ncome from an effort to incorporate Buddhism and Christianity in one\nreligion.  This is all the more probable as it has doubtless happened\nbefore.  Nestorianism and Buddhism are the probable parents of the\npresent Chinese Lamaism.  It is, however, not given for us to see into\nthe future, but we can look back into the past, and we can see that our\npredecessors in the faith nearly invariably made the mistake of\nsupposing that the old dangers were going to recur, and of therefore\ndepending on the old measures of defence.\n\nThe future Church in the Far East must fight her own battles.  She must\nsolve her own problems.  All we can do is to hand over to her the truth\nin all its fulness, and teach her to look for divine guidance, to\nforget such words as Protestant, Roman Catholic, Nonconformist, and\nAnglican; to learn merely the word \"Christian\" and the word \"Love.\"  If\nFar Eastern Christianity will have its battles to fight, it will have\nalso its message to give to the West, \"that they without us should not\nbe made perfect.\"  It may be that the message of the East to the West\nwill be that as God is One, so must His followers be; that strong and\nmighty as is the West, there is in her an element of the very greatest\nweakness; that the discord that reigns between Christian and Christian,\nbetween race and race, between class and class, is not the will of the\nCreator, but is the result of the national sins of the white races.\nThe Far East, with its greater power of unity, {249} may illumine the\nWest with a higher conception of this great virtue, and the world may\nbe a far holier and happier place when the yellow race has preached to\nthe world the great doctrine of peace on earth and goodwill to men.\n\n\n\n\n{253}\n\nTHE NEW AND THE OLD LEARNING\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\nEDUCATION, CHIEFLY MISSIONARY\n\nI have before had occasion to refer to the great influence education\nhas had on the awakening of China, and I think the Americans can fairly\nclaim to have been the greatest workers in this field.  The Roman\nCatholics have from time immemorial been most careful to train children\nin Christian truth, and they have wonderful institutions for this\npurpose.  In 1852 the Jesuits founded the College of St. Ignatius for\nthe education of native priests, and since that day they have founded\nmany educational institutions.  They have besides a very large number\nof primary schools, intended originally merely to preserve their\nconverts from too intimate contact with the heathen world, and they\nhave also many higher schools.  In those schools they teach modern\nknowledge, making a speciality of teaching French, which they can do\nwith great efficiency, as many of their number belong to the French\nnation.  In the German sphere of influence there are Catholic schools\nwhere German is taught; but though the work is excellent, it cannot be\ncompared with the work of the Americans, who were really the pioneers\nof higher education in China.\n\n{254}\n\nWhen the American missionaries began to arrive, a new departure was\ninaugurated in education.  The school and college were no longer places\nwhere Christians were simply educated; they were places where\nChristians, confident in the truth of their teaching, gave away to\nheathen and Christian alike all the knowledge that the West possessed.\nThe conception was bold; it was grand.  It showed a statesmanlike grip\nof the situation and a courage which can only come from a consciousness\nof the strength of the Christian position, that Christianity was not a\nnarrow religion fearing free inquiry.  Christianity, on the contrary,\nwas a religion which could only be appreciated by those who had the\nvery fullest knowledge.  These teachers boldly declared that ignorance\nwas the mother of religious error, and therefore the duty of every\nChristian was at once to remove ignorance and to share with every one\nthe knowledge that can alone make the world capable of truly\nappreciating God's power as manifested in every department of science.\n\nSo these schools and colleges grew up.  Those who believed in this\npolicy did not belong to any one denomination, though they did belong\nto one nation--America.  There were many opponents to this policy.  It\nwas argued that the duty of the mission bodies was to preach the\nGospel, and that however advantageous education might be, it was not\nthe business of the Christian to give it; but whatever doubt there was\nthen, facts have been too strong for those who {255} opposed the\neducational policy, and any one travelling through China realises more\nand more how the Mission that has spent money on education is the\nMission that has the power of expansion.  The Mission that has no\neducational system is always cabined and confined for want of money and\nmen.  They are always writing home to ask that another man shall be\nsent out; some one has broken down or some new opportunity for work has\nbeen opened, and so \"they must press upon the Home Board the great\nimportance of sending out at as early a date as possible one or more\nhelpers.\"  The Home Board is always answering those letters, expressing\n\"every sympathy with their anxiety,\" but in reality pouring cold water\non their enthusiasm, and pointing out that the supply of men is limited\nand that the supply of money is yet more limited.  Thus the opportunity\npasses and the mission cannot expand.  The same little church stands\nfilled with converts; the same mission building houses the tired out\nand climate-stricken white missionaries.  Such a mission, while\ninspiring the greatest respect for the heroism of the missionaries,\narouses also a feeling of despair.  How is it possible that a mission\nlike this can really solve the problem of making Christianity a\nnational religion?  How can spiritual ministrations be performed by\naliens, supported by alien money collected from a possibly hostile race?\n\nA very different effect is made on the mind of the onlooker when he\ncomes upon some mission that {256} has made education a speciality.\nThere all is life, vigour and success.  One of the most successful of\nthe American missionaries, Bishop Roots, of the Episcopal Church of\nAmerica, explained the system by which he is succeeding in making\nChristianity an indigenous religion.  At his large college, presided\nover by Mr. Jackson, many are heathen.  Some go through the college and\nimbibe a certain respect for Christian ethics, which will not only make\nthem a benefit to China but will make an intellectual atmosphere\nsympathetic to Christian teaching.  Some, however, will become\nChristians who will mostly go out into the world and take their place,\nand a high place too, in the leadership of the future China, as much\nowing to the excellence of the teaching that they have received as to\nthe high morality which is produced by their Christian faith.  Then\nthere will be a few who will feel a distinct call to go out as\nmissionaries to their own people.  These men will have no temptation to\nbecome Christians for the loaves and fishes, because, owing to the\nexcellence of the education that they have received and the great\nprosperity that is dawning over China, they could command a large\nsalary in the open market.  These highly-educated clergy are able to go\nout and put Christianity to the Chinese in a manner which no white man\ncould hope to equal.\n\nWhat Bishop Roots told me can be well illustrated by two little\nincidents.  In Hankow, where his work is increasing by leaps and\nbounds, the Lutheran {257} Mission failed, and therefore it resigned\nthe chapel to him.  He accepted readily, and soon his Chinese clergy\nwere preaching to crowded congregations.  The second incident was this:\nI expressed a wish to make a present to one of these Christian\nscholars, and I asked what books he would like to receive.  I was told\nthat such books as Balfour's \"Defence of Philosophic Doubt\" and\nHaldane's \"Pathway to Reality\" were the kind that would appeal to such\nyoung men.  Not only will these men carry the Gospel to their\nfellow-countrymen far more efficiently than can the alien, but they\nwill to a great extent be able to live on the subscriptions of their\ncongregations, and so the communion to which they belong will become\nnot only self-propagating but self-supporting.\n\nTo understand the importance of this controversy the various aims of\nmissionary education must be realised, and it is because those aims are\ndifferent that the controversy has been confused and the value of\neducation as an assistance to missionary effort in China misunderstood.\nThere are really seven aims: three which are common to all missionary\neffort in all lands, and four which especially apply to countries like\nChina which are passing through a transitional period of thought.  The\nthree which are common to all missionary effort are (1) evangelisation;\n(2) edification of the Christian body; (3) education of preachers and\nteachers.  The four that are peculiar to China in her present\ntransitional condition are (4) preparation of secular leaders; (5)\nleavening of the whole public opinion; (6) opposition {258} to Western\nmaterialism; (7) association of Christianity with learning.\n\nThe arguments for the first three are applicable to every land.\nEvangelisation can no doubt be carried on most efficiently before the\nmind has received any intellectual bias.  The Jesuit priest is reported\nto have said, \"If I have the child till he is ten, I do not care who\nhas him afterwards;\" and therefore, as in all the world so in China,\nthe Roman Catholics have always made a great effort to educate\nchildren.  They have preferred those who have had no home-ties, orphans\nand waifs, and have by this policy built up a huge Christian population\nnumbering over a million.  This population is thoroughly Christian in\nsentiment; they have never known an idolatrous atmosphere, and they\nlive to a great extent by themselves in communities.  While they are\nthoroughly Christian, they are also absolutely Chinese; no effort is\nmade to Westernise the children in any way.  From this great Christian\nbody Catholic priests are drawn, and I believe so completely Christian\nare they, that no difference is made between them and white men by such\nan important body as the Jesuits.  When other Christian bodies began\nmissionary work in China they also started schools, but the difference\nof their schools was that they aimed much more at the second than at\nthe first object.  The school was not merely a place to attract\nhomeless children and bring them up as Christians; it was also intended\nto edify and adorn with knowledge the children of Christians.  {259}\nNon-Christians were largely admitted, but I think that I am right in\nstating that the object was much more edification than evangelisation.\nIn a corrupt society like China, where all knowledge is intermingled\nwith vice, it is inevitable that Christian schools should be erected\nfor the Christian body, and it is equally inevitable that those who are\nnon-Christians but who admire the schools greatly should try and enter\nthem.  The feature of these schools for the most part, though not\ninvariably, in contrast to the earlier Roman Catholic schools, is that\nWestern education is to a certain extent, varying in each mission,\nsuperadded to Chinese learning; and therefore, though the school is\nessentially a school for Chinese learning, the children as a rule learn\nsomething also of Western knowledge.\n\nOut of these schools naturally arise others which have the third aim of\nmissionary education as their object, namely, the preparation of\npreachers and teachers who in the future shall be the real missionary\nbody of China.  Every thinking man realises that the alien missionary\ncan only exist in a brief transitional period.  The true teachers of a\nrace must be those who are linked to it by ties of blood and tradition,\nand nearly every mission has therefore set to work to create a native\nministry which is sooner or later to take over the task of the\nconversion of China.  This is regarded by many, nay, by most, as the\ngreat aim of missionary educational work.  The degree of preparation,\nhowever, differs widely in different missions.  {260} Some missions,\ndrawing their teachers from the lower ranks of society, are quite\ncontent to give them an education which will enable them to lead and\nteach the lower class among whom they move; other missions held that\nthe Christian teacher must not merely he able to lead the ignorant but\nmust be able also to meet in controversy those who may be well equipped\nwith Western knowledge; and therefore while in some missions the\neducation of native pastors is conducted solely in Chinese, in others\nthe teaching is in English, to enable the teachers and preachers to\nkeep abreast with the thought of Western countries and to defend their\nland by pen and sermon as much against the errors of the West as\nagainst the superstition of the East.\n\nIt is in the preparation of these highly educated men that an\nopportunity is given for the fourth aim of missionary education in\nChina: one which would not be applicable in every country, but which is\nvitally important in China, namely, the preparation of secular leaders\nin China.  To understand the importance of this we must be always\nreminding our readers that China is in the midst of an intellectual\nrevolution.  She is passing through a period which is in some way\ncomparable to the period of the Renaissance in Europe, but which\nexceeds it both in importance and in danger, because in Europe, as the\nname shows, it was essentially a reintroduction of forgotten but not\nnew knowledge with its subsequent enlargement and development.  In\nChina {261} the revolution is caused by the introduction of foreign\nknowledge, which is absolutely inharmonious and in many ways opposed to\nnative thought.  In Europe the foundations of knowledge were always\nsecure; it was only the superstructure that was altered.  In China the\nvery foundations are being uprooted; the result is that China is at the\npresent without leaders, except for a narrow band of men, who owing to\nthe foresight of some Christians in the past have received a Western\neducation.  There are plenty of old-fashioned leaders, who have led or\nfailed to lead the sleepy China of years ago--men of considerable\nability but in a state of great mental confusion, owing to their\npowerlessness to comprehend the many aspects of the civilisation which\nis being forced upon them and which is unnatural to them.  They cannot\nunderstand our currency questions, our financial operations; they only\ndimly realise the possibilities and problems connected with military\nand naval armaments.  They yearn for the years gone by, but an\ninexorable fate urges their country forward into new positions, which\nbring with them new responsibilities, new powers and new dangers.\nChina demands men to lead her through this terrible state of confusion\nand change, and she turns round to find the men who understand Western\ncivilisation, who have the character and the knowledge necessary to\ndeal with all these problems.  Just at this moment, any man of ability\nwho has an intimate knowledge of Western things stands a chance of high\n{262} preferment.  It may be that this demand will be satisfied by the\nnumber of students China has sent abroad to be educated, but the size\nof China and the great demand for men skilled in Western learning make\nmany of those having a most intimate knowledge of China confident that\nthis is an opportunity that is still open, that it is still possible to\ndirect to some degree the minds and thought of those who will lead\nChina as statesmen, as authors, and as men of learning.  The production\nof these men can be carried on to great advantage in the same\nestablishment as that in which the clergy are receiving their\neducation; the educated clergyman, the future pressmen and statesmen of\nChina are in this way brought in close contact with one another, and\neven from one establishment the good that may come to China is quite\nincalculable.\n\nThis brings us to the fifth great aim of education, the leavening of\npublic opinion in China so that Christianity will find ground prepared\nfor its sowing.  The destruction of superstition, the production of\nWestern ethics make Christianity a reasonable instead of an\nunreasonable religion to those who hear it preached.  Clearly to leaven\npublic opinion influence must be applied to those who will control such\npowers as those of the press and the school; the teacher and the writer\nare the men who should be especially aimed at; and to attain this aim,\nit is necessary to institute and maintain {263} places where higher\nknowledge is taught rather than only primary schools.\n\nBut there is another object, the sixth aim for education in China.  One\nof the unpleasant features in the revolution that is going on in\nChinese thought is the present introduction of Western materialism,\nwhich to judge by the example in Japan, will grow more rankly after\ntransplantation.  The West has a double aspect when seen from the East;\nit is a Christian world where women are pure and men are honourable; it\nis a rich world where there are no moral obligations.  The first aspect\nis the one that is represented by the missionary; the second aspect is\ntoo often taught by the sailor and merchant classes; and when the\nChinaman asks what is the thought and the base of Western teaching, the\nJapanese materialist, pointing to the example set by many Western\nlives, declares that Christianity in Europe is like Buddhism in Japan,\na religion that at one time had many adherents but whose influence is\nfast waning, and it is in resisting this materialism that the\nMissionary College and University perform perhaps their most important\ntask.\n\nThe men who are to do this work must be men most highly skilled in\nWestern knowledge; they must understand science and be able to meet a\nfollower of Haeckel in debate, they must be competent to discuss\nsociology with disciples of Herbert Spencer, and they must not be\nafraid to dip into the {264} study of comparative religion; in\naddition, they must be qualified to write excellent Chinese and to be\nfirm in their Christian faith.  The production of such men as these\nshould also satisfy the seventh and last aim of Christian education: it\nwill associate learning with Christianity in the minds of the Chinese.\nThe keynote of Chinese thought is its great admiration for learning.\nIn China there is no caste or class, no division except between the\nignorant and the learned; if Christianity is associated with ignorance,\nits influence will be lost, and it is no mean object to make\nChristianity and knowledge in the mind of the Chinaman two parts of one\ngreat idea.\n\nIt is obvious that as missionary societies lay weight on one or the\nother of these objects, they will support a different kind of school.\nIf their object is the first, they will seek to educate the orphan and\nthe waif, and the school and the orphanage will be, as they are in the\nRoman Catholic body, intimately joined together.  If the object is to\nedify the Christian body and to provide it with a suitable pastor, the\nmissionary body will erect primary schools for Christian children and\ntheological and normal schools to complete their school system.  If, on\nthe other hand, the missionary body aims at leavening the whole thought\nof China, of capturing China for Christ, or if it aims at defending\nChina against the terrible pest of Western materialism--which will turn\nthe light that China now has into black darkness and harden her for\never against Christian teaching--the High School, {265} College, and\nthe University will be the objects on which the money will be spent.\nThis last has been the object of the American bodies; and I think China\nowes a great debt of gratitude, under God, to the great width of\nthought and grasp of the situation that the American mind has exhibited.\n\n\n\n\n{266}\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\nGOVERNMENT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM\n\nOne of the highest testimonials to the wisdom of the missionaries in\ninaugurating an educational policy has been given by the Chinese\nGovernment.  Imitation is the sincerest flattery, and missionary\neducation has its imitator in no less a body than the Chinese\nGovernment.  The Chinese have always loved education, but the education\nthey admired was the literary education which had for its commencement\nthe Chinese character and for its end the Chinese Classics; their\nsystem of teaching was different from our own; they were far greater\nbelievers in learning by rote than the most conservative English\nschoolmaster who ever set a long repetition lesson to his pupils.  It\nis a strange sight to see an old-fashioned Chinese school, the boys all\nshouting out at the top of their voices the names of the characters\nwhose meaning they do not understand.  An essential part of the\nperformance is the clamorous shouting; the louder they shout, the\nharder they are working and the quicker they think they learn, so when\nthe visitor surprises a class their voices are not raised above a\npleasant and reasonable elevation, but after he has been {267}\ndiscovered by the class, the shouts increase in volume till the noise\nis only to be compared to the paroquets' cage in the Zoological Gardens.\n\nAnother peculiarity of the school is that all the pupils turn their\nbacks to their master; the doctrine being that if they were allowed to\nwatch their master, it would be perfectly impossible for him to detect\ntheir many little acts of dishonesty.  The missionaries at first\npainfully imitated these schools; they felt that it was impossible to\ntrust the children of their converts to the heathen atmosphere of a\nChinese school, and at the same time they realised what great value and\nimportance was placed by the Chinese on education.  These schools led\non to a sort of middle school called \"shu-yuen,\" which existed in all\nbig towns, which in its turn led on to four Universities, but they have\nbeen, I believe, for some time in an inefficient condition.  Still for\ngood or for evil the system was there, and long before our own new\ndeparture in education, the Chinese were quite accustomed to the idea\nthat the boy who had sufficient ability might climb the ladder of\nlearning, from class to class, from school to school, till at last he\ntook the coveted Hanlin Degree.  So high a value did the Chinese place\non education, that it was possible, and it did indeed happen, that boys\nof the very humblest parentage climbed that ladder till they reached\nthe most exalted positions.\n\nThe first sign of an alteration of this system was {268} the book that\nwas issued after the Chinese-Japanese war by Chang-Chih-Tung.  That\nremarkable statesman realised after China's crushing defeat that a\ngeneral reform was absolutely necessary if she was to maintain her\nplace among the free and independent nations of the world, and he wrote\na book entitled \"China's Only Hope,\" in which he strongly advocated the\nacceptance in some measure of Western education.  His scheme is the one\nwhich practically obtains now in China, that is of making Chinese\nlearning the foundation on which Western education is to be placed.  He\nhad a great disbelief, like most Chinese, in the difficulty of\nacquiring Western education.  He writes: \"Comparative study of foreign\ngeography, especially that of Russia, France, Germany, England, Japan,\nand America; a cursory survey of the size and distance, capital,\nprincipal ports, climate, defences, wealth, and power of these (the\ntime required to complete this course ten days).\"  It is very hard for\nthe Chinese literati to understand the difficulties of acquiring\nWestern learning.  Chang was a man of no mean intellect, and one of the\nreasons why he was so anxious to preserve Chinese learning was because\nhe realised the destructive effect Western learning has on Oriental\nfaiths.  He hoped to preserve the ethics of Confucianism and to attach\nto them the practical knowledge of the West, which he realised was a\nnecessity for China.  He summed up the position by saying, \"Western\nknowledge is practical, Chinese learning is moral.\"\n\n{269}\n\nThe immediate result of this book was absolutely the reverse of what\nits author intended.  A million copies of the book had been issued, and\nit circulated throughout China.  It raised a storm of opposition, and\nprobably was one of the causes which produced the Boxer outbreak; but\nthe failure of Boxerdom and the Russo-Japanese war convinced China that\nChang-Chih-Tung was right, and his book may now be taken as the book\nwhich best expresses the intellectual position of the moderate reformer.\n\nHe first deals with that very difficult question of finance.  He\nproposes to finance the schools with a wholesale disendowment of the\ntwo religions in which he does not believe, Buddhism and Taoism.  He\nwrites: \"Buddhism is on its last legs, Taoism is discouraged because\nits devils have become irresponsive and inefficacious.\"  He then\nsuggests that seven temples out of ten should be used both as regards\ntheir building and their funds for educational purposes.  But he has a\nsympathetic way of treating the disendowed clergy of China.  He\nsuggests that they could be comforted by a liberal bestowal of official\ndistinction upon themselves and upon their relatives.  Who can tell if\nWelsh Disestablishment would not be popular if all the clergy were to\nbe made archdeacons and their brothers and fathers knights.  But he has\na historical precedent for disendowment--Buddhism has apparently\nexperienced the process of disendowment three times; but as the last\ndisendowment was {270} in 846, on our side of the world we should not\nregard it as a precedent of much value.\n\nIn establishing schools he adopts five principles.  The first is one to\nwhich we have already referred, that the new and the old are to be\nwoven into one, the Chinese Classics are to be made by some magical\nprocess the foundation of the teaching of Western education.  The\nsecond is a very un-Western but possibly a sound way of looking at the\nquestion.  He puts forward two objects of education: first, government;\nsecondly, science.  The first includes all knowledge necessary for the\ngovernment of mankind--geography, political economy, fiscal science,\nthe military art, and though he does not mention it, I suppose history.\nThe second is natural science, and includes mathematics, mining,\ntherapeutics, sound, light, chemistry, &c.  The third principle is one\nthat we rarely act on in our own country, namely, that the child shall\nbe only educated in the subjects for which he has a natural aptitude.\nThe fourth principle is one that applies absolutely to China; it is the\nabolition of what is called the three-legged essay, a complicated feat\nof archaic and artificial writing which only exists for the purpose of\nexamination, something analogous to our Latin verses.  The fifth\nprinciple shows that China is as far ahead of us in some ways as she is\nbehind us in others.  China has passed beyond the stage of free\neducation to the stage of universal scholarship; all students are paid,\nand this has brought about a great abuse; {271} men study merely to\nobtain a living who have no aptitude for learning, and on whom\neducational money is really wasted, and so he abolishes payment.\n\nHis Excellency closes his advice with a suggestion that societies for\nthe promotion of education should be formed.  The Chinaman loves these\nlittle social clubs and gatherings.  His chess club, his poetry club,\nhis domino club, are national institutions.  Why not, suggests His\nExcellency, have an educational club, or as I suppose we should call\nit, a mutual improvement society.  Thus wrote the great Viceroy who\nmore than any other man prevented the spread of the Boxer outbreak from\ndesolating Central and Southern China.  During that Boxer rebellion all\nadvance was impossible, but after that overflowing flood of disorder\nwas passed, the reforms suggested by Chang-Chih-Tung began to be\nseriously considered, and on January 13, 1903, an Imperial Edict was\nput forth renovating and organising, at least on paper, the whole\neducational system of China.  It would not be China if there were not a\ngreat deal of sound sense in that edict; it would not be China if on\npaper the organisation did not seem to be perfect; it would not be\nChina if as a matter of fact the whole scheme were not to a great\nextent a failure.\n\nThe scheme was very complete.  It began at the bottom and continued\nthrough every grade of education to the top.  First there were to be\ninfant schools; these were to receive children from three to {272}\nseven years old, and their object was to give the first idea of right\nand to keep the children from the dangers of the street.  These schools\nwere to be succeeded by primary schools of two departments, and\nchildren were to enter the schools as they left the infant school when\nthey were seven years old, and to continue in them till they were\ntwelve.  The subjects to be taught were morals, Chinese language,\narithmetic, history, geography, physical science and gymnastics.  At\npresent there was to be no compulsory attendance, but that was looked\nforward to as the future ideal.  The schools were to be free, and the\nmoney was to be produced either by taxes or by a raid on some\nendowments, notably endowments of religion or of the theatre--for\ntheatres in China are endowed.  Funds were also to be found by\nsubscription, and titles and ranks were promised to those who shall\nopen schools; unlike our own country, where, alas, the spending time on\neducation for the poor is only rewarded by abuse.  These primary\nschools would lead into higher schools, and these schools would be the\nlast on the ladder of education, in which only Chinese subjects were to\nbe taught.  Above them were to be what they call middle schools, and\nthe subjects to be taught are roughly those which are taught in our\nHigh Schools: the Chinese Classics, Chinese language and literature,\nforeign languages (one at least to be obligatory), history, geography,\nphysics, chemistry, science of government, political economy, drawing,\ngymnastics; and after the example of Western schools, singing {273}\nwould be also taught.  These schools lead on to the superior schools in\nwhich higher branches of the same subjects are taught.  These schools\nwere to be divided into three sections.  The first section consists of\nlaw, literature, and commerce; the second section of sciences, civil\nengineering, and agriculture; the third section of medicine.  It is\nnoteworthy that English is necessary for those who are learning the\nfirst two sections, while German is compulsory for those who are\nlearning the third section--in either case a third language may be\nadded; and these superior schools were to lead on to a University, in\nwhich there were to be eight faculties.  The first faculty is\nessentially a Chinese one, and I suppose would be best expressed to our\nthought by \"belles-lettres,\" but it includes such things as rites and\npoetry; the second faculty is that of law; the third, history and\ngeography; the fourth, medicine and pharmacy; the fifth, science; the\nsixth, agriculture; the seventh, civil engineering; the eighth,\ncommerce.\n\nThe University course was to take three years, and there was to be a\nUniversity installed in each province.  The educational system was to\nbe perfected by two other institutions--a post-graduate college where\nresearch was to be undertaken, and a normal college which was to be\ndivided into an inferior and a superior one for the purpose, the one of\npreparing schoolmasters for the village schools, the other for higher\neducation.  A far less ambitious scheme for the education of girls has\nbeen added to this by {274} an edict of 1907.  If my readers have waded\nthrough this scheme I am afraid that they will have come to the\nconclusion that China has nothing to learn from Western powers, but\nrather she ought to be able to teach them how to perfect their own\nincomplete system of education; but alas, this scheme is only on paper.\nIn the province where H.E. Yuan-Shih-Kai ruled the schools approach in\nsome degree to the level of Western efficiency.  In every other\nprovince that I visited or heard about, the results of this edict were\nmarkedly disappointing; the only exception being where the Universities\nhad been organised, not in the form or terms of the edict, but by\nWestern teachers acting on more or less independent lines.  For\ninstance, there is a splendid University which has been founded by Dr.\nTimothy Richard in Shansi.\n\nThat University has a curious history.  After the Boxer massacres\ncompensation was demanded by the Powers both for the buildings that\nwere destroyed and for the missionaries that were killed.  A certain\nnumber of the missionary bodies refused absolutely to take any\ncompensation.  Animated by the spirit of the early Christian Church,\nthey would not allow that the blood that had been shed for the sacred\ncause could be paid for in money.  At this juncture there threatened to\nbe rather an impasse.  The Western Government were insisting on\ncompensation, and it was doubtful and uncertain how that compensation\nshould be paid.  The Chinese Government sent for the Protestant\nmissionary in whom they had the {275} greatest confidence, Dr. Timothy\nRichard, and he made a suggestion which was at once acceptable to both\nthe Chinese and to the missionary body, that the money should be\ndevoted to the founding of a great University; for ignorance is the\nmost common cause of fanaticism, and the terrible massacres enacted in\nChina would never have taken place had China understood, as\nChang-Chih-Tung did understand, that Western science and enlightenment\nwere for the benefit of China; so this University was founded.  It was\nfounded under peculiar terms.  It is under the government of China, and\nyet not completely so.  Dr. Timothy Richard is for a certain number of\nyears one of its governors, and he has for ten years at least the\ncontrol of the Western side of the education.  He is supported by an\nable staff, and the Rev. W. E. Soothill is the existing President.  At\nthe end of the ten years which are just running out, the status of the\nUniversity is to be altered, and is, as far as I understand, to return\nto the ordinary status of a Government University.  I need hardly say\nthat this University has been highly satisfactory in its teaching, and\nlately it has sent many of its students to England to complete their\neducation.  It suffers, however, from the absence of a proper\npreparatory course.  One of the difficulties that lie right in the way\nof Chang-Chih-Tung's compromise is the difficulty of finding time for a\nWestern preparatory course, and that is only equalled by the difficulty\nof finding teachers.  Without time and teachers the students {276}\narrive at the University period of their lives with only a very\nelementary knowledge of Western subjects.  This college can hardly be\ncited as a college of high governmental efficiency, but should rather\nbe regarded as an example of the good that a man like Dr. Timothy\nRichard can do if he is only allowed scope.\n\nAnother Western University under Chinese Government control is the one\nat Tientsin, the Pei-Yang University.  That University has the\nadvantage of being well supported by efficient Government schools at\nPao-ting-fu.  One interesting detail about the Pao-ting-fu school--a\nfact indeed which in two or three ways should give us food for\nthought--is that it is controlled by a Christian who is allowed by the\nGovernment, against their own regulations, to carry on an active\npropaganda.  He was the man who, when the missionaries were murdered at\nShansi, at the risk of his life brought down a message from them\nwritten in blood on a piece of stuff.  Perhaps it is not extraordinary\nto find that such a man is producing excellent work.  The Pei-Yang\nUniversity, however, falls far short of our ideals of what a University\nstandard should be.  Still, as far as it goes, it is very efficient.\nIt is taught by a very effective body of professors.  It has 150\nstudents, and teaches law, mining, and engineering.  The staff is\nAmerican with very few exceptions.  One of those exceptions is Mr.\nWang, a Chinese gentleman who received his education in London.  Very\nlittle philosophy is taught, {277} only three hours a week are given\nfor Chinese learning, and the students are expected to acquire a\nsufficient knowledge of Chinese subjects before they come to the\nUniversity.  The American professors, who proved to be a delightful set\nof men, allowed that there was no real scientific training given in\nthis school.  They gave the same account of their pupils which you will\nhear in every Chinese school.  They excelled in algebra, drawing, and\nin the most stupendous power of committing formul\u00e6 to memory.  One of\nthe difficulties of teaching a Chinese class is that they have so\nlittle difficulty in learning by rote that they much prefer learning\nthe text-books by heart to trying to understand them.  The Law School\nin the Pei-Yang University is taught by a man who has no knowledge of\nChinese law.  This is one of the small mistakes made by American\neducators in China, which I think must be somewhat misleading for China\nin the future.  To learn nothing but Western law, and to imagine that\nthat Western law can be applied directly to the Chinese people, is to\nmake the same mistake that Macaulay so eloquently condemned in the old\nEast India Company.  Such a system of teaching can only make\nunreasonable revolutionaries.\n\nThese two examples of teaching institutions carried on under the\nChinese Government by Western teachers are wholly exceptional, and\nthough excellent in their way are unimportant, and having regard to the\nvast mass of the population of China are inconsiderable.  What are five\nor six {278} hundred students to a population of four hundred millions.\n\nI must reserve the account of what I saw of the schools under Chinese\nmanagement, including the Peking University, to another chapter.\n\n\n\n\n{279}\n\nCHAPTER XXIII\n\nTHE SAME IN PRACTICE\n\nAny one who has read the preceding account of the intentions of the\nChinese Government might be pardoned if he supposed that after four or\nfive years those intentions had borne fruit in an efficient system of\npublic education.  But one who has resided any time in China would only\nsmile at the suggestion that there should be an intimate relation\nbetween what the Chinese Government professes to do and what the\nChinese Government does.  A Manchu Professor whose European education\nhad enabled him to appreciate rightly the weaknesses of the Chinese\nrace, said with great candour, \"In China we begin things, but we never\nfinish them.\"  I had the privilege of seeing over some twenty\nGovernment schools in China, and the truth of these words was very\nobvious.\n\nMy hospitable host at Nanking, His Excellency Tuan-Fang, hearing that I\ntook an interest in education, declared that he would be very glad that\nI should see his schools.  I expressed a regret that my ignorance of\nthe language would impede me in thoroughly understanding what was being\ntaught.  He most hospitably said that I could myself examine {280} the\npupils who were studying Western subjects, and who therefore spoke\nEnglish or French, and that my wife should examine the girls' schools;\nthat we should be accompanied by two interpreters as well as by the\nDirector of Education, and that he would examine the schools in any\nbranch of knowledge that I chose.  So we sallied forth, a very imposing\nbody, and I was asked to select what schools I should like to visit.\nOf course I selected the higher grade schools in which Western subjects\nwere taught.  The first school on which we descended was the\nAgricultural College.  The teachers of Western subjects were two\nJapanese and one Chinaman.  They were being taught in Chinese, but I\nhad no difficulty in finding out in the first room we entered what they\nwere learning, because the illustrations were well known to me, for\nthey formed part of a book of elementary botany which I had at one time\nstudied.  I suggested to Mr. Ts\u00eang, the interpreter, that the right\ncourse would be to ask the Japanese master to select his best pupils\nand that then he should examine them while I should suggest the\nquestions.  It soon became clear that all the Japanese teacher was\ndoing was to teach them to copy the illustrations in the book and\nnothing else.  For the first time we noticed what we afterwards\ndiscovered to be the invariable rule, that the Japanese are most\nperfect draughtsmen, and that every class taught by the Japanese always\nlearnt to draw perfectly, though they learnt little else.  The Chinese\nwere rather pleased that the Japanese teacher cut such a sorry figure.\nWe then {281} went to the next room.  Again there was a Japanese\nteacher professing to explain the model of a steam-engine; again the\npupils were obviously ignorant; again we bowed and they bowed and we\nleft the room.\n\nThe next room had quite a different atmosphere.  Obviously efficient\nwork was going on.  The men were learning elementary chemistry.  The\nteacher was a Chinaman who had been trained in London and spoke English\nperfectly.  He was as straightforward as he was efficient.  He frankly\nsaid that the progress that his pupils had made was very limited\nbecause of the short time that they had been at work.  We congratulated\nhim on the efficient way he was managing his class, and were interested\nto hear afterwards that he was a Christian.  More than once we came\nacross Christian Chinese, and did not know till later that they were\nChristians, but were struck by their efficiency, which sprang doubtless\nfrom a high ideal of work.\n\nWe left the Agricultural College and then proceeded to a High School,\nwhich is the name that is given to a first-grade school that precedes\nthe University, and which at present stands in its place.  We had in\nthis school much the same experience.  A Japanese teacher was teaching\nbiology and was dissecting a river mussel.  This was done in such a\nposition that only two men could see what was going on.  I wondered at\nthis.  Then we found out that he could not speak a word of Chinese.  He\ndissected the {282} mussel and professed to give a lecture on its\nanatomy to a pupil who understood Japanese, and then the pupil\ndelivered the lecture to the rest of the class.  My Chinese\ninterpreters were of opinion that very little could filter through the\nclass in this way, but the Director of Education smiled sweetly.  He\nobviously felt that in some mysterious way Western education was\npercolating to the pupils under his charge.  As we returned along the\ncorridor I glanced in.  The biological lecture was over; I expect it\nwas the only one of the session, and the pupils went away with\nadmirable pictures of the river mussel.  If the Japanese teachers only\nset up for teachers of drawing, I am certain they would have no equals\nin the world.  A little further on in the same building there was a\nprofessed teacher of drawing.  The class was not a selected class, they\nwere drawing from a cast of a well-known Greek statue, and the work was\nsimply admirable.  I am confident that, except in an art school, you\nwould not find better work in Europe.  In the next room there was a\nscience teacher.  To impress the Director of Education, he rashly set a\nmachine for demonstrating the vibration of sound at work.  The machine\nwould not demonstrate anything, much to the joy of my Chinese friends,\nsolely for the reason that he had not wound it up.\n\nI should tire my readers if I were to go on describing room after room.\nI cannot of course be certain how far these Japanese teachers had\ntaught science, but at any rate their pupils had not {283} acquired any\nknowledge, and I think we may easily be too hard on the Japanese.  One\nmust remember that they have to supply teachers for all their own\nschools.  Is it likely that they will be either able or willing to send\ninto other countries efficient teachers of Western education?  It is\nnot as if Western knowledge had been for long taught in Japan.  Their\nschools are now many and they were few.  I suppose no man, no great\nnumber of men at any rate, over thirty-five or forty, are equipped with\nan efficient Western education in Japan.  One wonders why they allow\ntheir national reputation to be injured by supposing it to be possible\nfor them to supply these teachers of Western knowledge.  Political\nmotive suggests itself as a reason why a country so proud and so\nambitious as Japan should allow a course that must eventually injure\nher reputation as an enlightened power.\n\nThe next school we went over was very interesting.  It was what is\ncalled a Law School.  The men who are learning in this school will be\nthe future officials of China; only, following the Chinese custom, they\nwill rarely or never hold office in the province in which they were\nborn and educated.  They were men of some standing, and it looked\nstrange to see all these senior men, over sixty in number, sitting like\nchildren at the school desks.  They were dressed, in uniform, and were\nunder a sort of military discipline.  The senior pupil gave the word of\ncommand, and at once the class sprang to attention and saluted {284}\nus, while we bowed first to the teacher, then to the class, after which\nthe examination began.  They were chiefly taught by Chinese, and, as\none might expect, were well taught in the Chinese Classics.  We were\ninformed that the Japanese teacher was teaching them Western law; but\nin answer to an inquiry he explained that he had not yet taught them\nany law, but that he was teaching them the Japanese language, since it\nwas through the Japanese language alone a knowledge of Western law\ncould be attained.  The reason seemed very inconclusive especially when\none remembers that the Japanese know and write Chinese characters, so\nthat it is easy to get any work that is printed in Japan printed in the\ncharacter which every Chinaman can read.  I have before explained the\npeculiar merit of the Chinese character is that people who speak\ndifferent dialects and even languages can read it equally well.  I\npointed all this out to my Chinese friends.  I think their suspicions\ntoo were aroused.  Certainly this experience lends colour to the\nsuggestion that Japan hopes that the Manchu dynasty will be succeeded,\nnot by a Chinese dynasty, but by a dynasty from a race whose courage,\nenergy, and intellect has already humiliated Russia and China, and may\nnot inconceivably dominate China, should, for instance, Germany and\nEngland go to war.\n\nWe then went to see some classes taught by Americans.  Two things\nstruck me in those classes.  First, for some reason I cannot\nunderstand, unless {285} there was jealousy at work, the class was\nsmall compared with the enormous classes which I had seen\nelsewhere--thirty, twenty, or even fifteen were the numbers that white\nmen were teaching.  The other thing which struck me was that the\nselection of subjects might be improved.  For instance, one of the\nteachers was teaching Anson's Law of Contract; one could scarcely see\nhow a knowledge of the English law of contract could be very beneficial\nto a resident in China; and on looking over the book that another class\nwas using, I found that they were being instructed how to buy an\nadvowson in England.  I cannot of course say that the class was\nactually taught this interesting information, but it was certainly in\ntheir text-book.  Another text-book was a summary of the history of the\nworld; it was issued by an American firm.  On looking up the chapter\nwhich referred to China I found the most extreme expression that an\nAmerican democratic feeling could prompt used with regard to the\nEmperor of China.  I pointed this out to the Chinamen.  Apparently no\none had taken the trouble to glance through the books that were being\nused.  Such action is regrettable, because it inevitably brings Western\neducation into disrepute, and suggests it to be something essentially\nrevolutionary.\n\nAnother curious experience was to find a Cantonese Chinaman teaching a\nscience class in English because he did not know Mandarin.  It will be\none of the limitations to the usefulness of the Hong-Kong {286}\nUniversity that the bulk of the students who attend it will be\nCantonese-speaking Chinamen, and they will therefore be inefficient as\nteachers to the great mass of the Chinese empire.  A University which\nhopes to produce teachers which shall teach the whole of China must be\na University situated in Mandarin-speaking China.\n\nIt was waxing late after we had seen these schools.  We had consumed a\ngreat amount of the day in partaking of a most excellent Chinese\nluncheon, where the only mistake I had made--at least the only one of\nwhich I was conscious--was in not being instructed in the nature of the\nentertainment.  I had yielded to the solicitations of my host and had\npartaken largely of the first two or three courses.  Later on in the\nluncheon I was divided between the desire to be polite and a fear that\nthe capacity of the human body might be exceeded.  Our host was the\nDirector of Education, and my interpreter whispered to me that he had a\ngreat knowledge of cooking and that \"he loved a dry joke.\"  His skill\nas a Director of Education, especially of Western subjects, might be\ndoubted; but as a kindly host and an amusing companion he would have\nfew equals in our country.  This aspect of the Chinese official too\noften escapes the Western critic; whether efficient or inefficient,\nthey are always agreeable men.  After luncheon he begged to be excused,\nas he had a visit of ceremony to pay; it was the birthday of a dear\nfriend's mother.  {287} His official robes were brought out, and\nclothed in them he took his seat in a sedan chair and left us.\n\nWe were taken on, rather unwillingly I fancied, to see the Commercial\nSchool.  The hour of the classes was over, but still the school was\nreally instructive.  What was so remarkable about it was the extreme\nsimplicity of the place where the boys lodged.  The school is not\nmaintained by Government, but by the rich Silk Guild of Nanking.  Many\nmembers of this Silk Guild, I was assured, would only be able to read\nand write enough to carry on their business.  They are a rich and\npowerful body, and this school is intended for their sons.  The\ndormitory was a slate-covered building without any ceiling, and the\nbeds were arranged like berths on board ship, one on the top of the\nother, with narrow passages between them.  In this way, of course, a\nroom was made to hold a perfectly surprising number of individuals.  I\ncould not help remembering the Church Army Lodging-house at home.  If\nwe arranged the beds as they were arranged in that room, though we\nshould double or treble the number of travellers we could house, we\nshould incur the wrath of the sanitary authority.\n\nVery different was the Naval School.  Here reigned efficiency, for the\nNaval School is under the partial control of two officers lent by His\nMajesty's Navy.  The limit of their control was the limit of their\nefficiency.  For instance, the Chinese Government sometimes refused to\nlet their naval officers be shown an actual ship; their idea was much\nthe same {288} as that of the lady who forbid her son to bathe until he\nhad learnt to swim.  The difficulty was very great for anything like\npractical instruction.  Continual representations induced the Chinese\nGovernment to allow the boys to have a trip on the river in an old\nship.  The moment this was accomplished there was great\nself-congratulation on the part of the Chinese official; from resisting\nthis reasonable suggestion they changed to self-laudation at the wisdom\nof accepting the plan.  The efficiency of the teaching was not only\nhindered by the want of practical knowledge, which is of course fatal\nto naval efficiency, but these officers had also to complain of what so\nmany other Europeans have to complain--first, that the people whom they\nwere sent to teach did not know enough English, so that much of their\ntime was spent in teaching elementary English; secondly, that their\nclasses were not large enough.  Far away the most effective way of\nusing a Western teacher would be to use them as we saw them used in one\nschool.  The Western teacher was supported by two or three Chinese\nassistants; he gave his lecture in English, and the pupils took notes;\nthen the assistants went round the desks, looked at the notes, and\nexplained in Chinese all those points that the pupils had not fully\ntaken in.  This plan has another advantage, that it trains these\nChinese teachers to continue the work of a Western teacher, and in some\nways it is a more efficient system than the normal schools.  The\nWestern teacher of course exercises a general {289} supervision over\nhis class and maintains order and discipline.\n\nWhile I had been busy with the boys' schools, my wife had been busy\nwith the girls' schools.  She was taken over the Viceroy's School, the\none already described where the little girls showed such surprising\nknowledge of the Chinese Classics.  Her experience was less happy than\nmine.  The children were being drilled by a Japanese instructress who\ncould hardly play at all; she used a small gem harmonium, and the\ndrilling was little better than a feeble country dance.  The same\ninstructress was responsible for a singing lesson; she played with one\nhand on a harmonium, and allowed the children to bawl as they pleased\nwithout either time or tune.  All the pupils at this school were day\nscholars.\n\nThe interpreter who conducted Mrs. King, the Consul's wife, and my wife\nover this and the following schools had removed his own daughter to a\nmission school, thinking she would receive better teaching.  As regards\nthe musical part of the instruction there can be no question but that\nhe was right.  The next school she saw was also for the children of the\ngentry, who supported it by subscriptions.  There were 140 girls, fifty\nof whom were boarders whose parents paid for their board.  These fifty\nyoung ladies all slept in one room, and their toilet arrangements\nimpressed my wife as anything but luxurious; the effect was more like a\nsteerage cabin on a big liner than an ordinary school dormitory.  The\nclass-rooms {290} were all on the ground floor, leading from courtyard\nto courtyard in Chinese house fashion.  The instruction seemed to be\nmainly Chinese, with attention paid to geography, drawing, and fancy\nwork, English being taught by a young Chinese teacher in a rather\nelementary way.  The mistresses appeared in dignified skirts, no doubt\nas a symbol of authority.\n\nThe last school she was shown was larger and less exclusive.  It was\nwell organised, the classes being arranged with sense and\ndiscrimination.  There were 200 pupils of all ages and ranks, the\nschool being a public one.  They were mostly dressed in black.  Ten\nlady teachers presided over this school, including a normal class with\na male superintendent; the whole in Chinese buildings.  The teaching\ncomprised Confucian ethics, the Chinese characters, arithmetic,\ngeography, drawing from flat copies, and English given by a young\nChinese girl who had been educated in a Shanghai mission school.\n\nThe instruction seemed to be good on the whole.  About one-fourth of\nthe scholars boarded at the school.  Attached to it was a kindergarten\nmanaged rather sleepily by two Japanese.  Again the children's singing\nwas hardly worthy of the name.  My wife was impressed by the\ninferiority of the Government girls' schools to the mission girls'\nschools in almost every particular.  Doubtless they will soon improve,\nbut at present the Government does not seem able to obtain efficient\nteachers, and is much too inclined to spend vast sums on practically\nuseless {291} apparatus--useless because the instructors do not\nunderstand how to use it.\n\nOur experiences at Nanking were extremely interesting, but they were\nnot exceptional.  We saw over Government schools at Wuchang, again at\nChangsha, and also we saw something of the Peking University.  At\nChangsha matters were not nearly so far advanced as they were at\nNanking.  There were the same Japanese teachers, one of whom taught\nEnglish, but I could not get a single copy-book produced to show how\nfar they had advanced in the knowledge of this language.  There were\nthe same American teachers; good men, but unable to do much owing to\ntheir want of knowledge of Chinese, and owing, as I said before, to a\ncertain jealousy which prevented them having a sufficient number of\npupils.  The very excellent school which is carried on at Shanghai,\nunder Western management, forms a good contrast to the others.  This\nschool does not profess to teach very advanced subjects, but it teaches\nordinary English subjects most efficiently.  The system is this: the\nboys are first taught in Chinese, while they are acquiring the\nrudiments of Western knowledge and of the English language; they are\nthen transferred to a class which is taught in English by Chinese; here\nthey acquire from their own countrymen a very thorough knowledge of\nEnglish and a tolerable knowledge of Western subjects.  In both these\ndivisions of the school all explanations are given in Chinese.  After\nthey have acquired a good knowledge of English they are then {292}\nadvanced to the class which is taught by an Englishman, who has some\nknowledge of Chinese; here they perfect their knowledge of English, and\nthe teacher can if necessary explain a difficulty by the help of a\nChinese word.  Lastly, they are taught absolutely in English by an\nEnglishman who need not know any Chinese, as it is never used.\n\nAt Wuchang the schools were similar to those of Nanking.  The only\nschool which was exceptionally interesting was the School of Languages.\nThis was managed by a Manchu, who was prompt, exact, and efficient--in\nfact, the very greatest contrast to the usual Chinese official.  He\nspoke French perfectly, as he had been brought up in Paris and spent\nsome time in the West.  In a few words he showed that he understood the\nproblem of education in China.  He told me that his nation would never\nsucceed in teaching their nationals Western subjects until they\nselected teachers who had some experience in the knowledge and in the\nart of teaching, and that the habit of regarding all Westerners as\ncapable of teaching all Western subjects must produce disaster.  He\nboldly professed himself a Roman Catholic, and was one of several\nexamples that came under my notice of the wonderful influence that\nChristianity has on the formation of a vigorous character.  The boys\nhad been very well taught in English and French, and I gathered in\nGerman and Russian as well.  Certainly if China gets such men to lead\nher, she need have little fear of the power of the West.\n\n\n\n\n{293}\n\nCHAPTER XXIV\n\nDIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF EDUCATION\n\nThe difficulties in the way of education differ in Government schools\nand in Mission schools.  If the Chinese Government could unite the\nGovernment schools to the Mission schools, they would overcome all\nthese difficulties, and they would have a most perfect system of\nWestern education.  Of all the difficulties lying in the way of\nGovernment schools, first and foremost is the fundamental weakness of\nChina, that weakness which is endangering her national existence, a\nweakness which I fear she will never completely surmount until she\naccepts a higher ideal.  For her weakness is the universal greed for\ngain.  Resident after resident reported the same cause of weakness,\nthat a Chinaman cannot resist taking his \"squeeze\"--that is, his\ncommission.  It is not of course so dishonest as it would be on our\nside of the globe, because a Chinaman is more or less avowedly paid by\nthese commissions, and therefore in many ways they are rather\nequivalent to the fees paid by an Englishman to a Government office\nthan to illicit commissions, the acceptance of which in this country is\npunishable by law.  If it is not as immoral, it is almost as\ndeleterious to efficiency, because it tends {294} to make officials\nunreasonable in their action.  To ask the reason why things are done in\nChina, is always to receive the answer that somebody got a \"squeeze\"\nthereby.\n\nAnd so it is with education.  As we wandered through room after room\nfilled with apparatus sufficient to teach thousands of students, and of\nsuch a complicated nature as absolutely to confuse those students when\ntaught, one longed that a tithe of this expenditure could have been\nused for that modicum of apparatus which is necessary to make not a few\nmission schools thoroughly efficient.  Much of the apparatus has never\ngot outside its packing cases, and perhaps a great deal had better\npermanently remain there, for nothing is so subversive to the proper\nteaching of men whose great defect is that they have never handled\nthings with their hands, as to give them complicated apparatus to\ndemonstrate the most recondite laws of science.  A great scientific\nteacher, when consulted about the apparatus necessary for elementary\nscience, advised plenty of bonnet wire, glass tubes, and one or two\nother little things of that sort.  When one asks why the Chinese have\nbeen so lavish in their expenditure on apparatus which they cannot and\nwill not use, the reply is the same old answer--somebody got a\ncommission.  Bui I think beyond that there is a real belief that\neducation is a matter of expensive apparatus--a belief which is not\naltogether unknown on this side of the globe.\n\n{295}\n\nThis brings me to the second great difficulty in the path of Government\neducation.  They will believe that an efficient education results\nrather from having an expensive building than from a competent teacher.\nI have before had occasion to refer to the extreme simplicity of the\nlife of the Chinese.  Many of the schools were housed, and very\ncomfortably housed, in Chinese houses.  The Chinese house always looks\nout on a courtyard, and courtyard is joined to courtyard by passages.\nThe rooms are only divided from the courtyard by carved wooden screens\nwhose interstices are sometimes filled with paper and sometimes not.\nThey are eminently sanitary--in fact, to a large extent they fulfil the\nrequirements of the \"open-air cure.\"  In one case in the courtyard were\na lot of basins and ewers, and the boys were compelled to have a wash,\nwhich if extensive must, in the winter, have been extremely unpleasant.\nFor all this I expressed my sincere admiration to my friend the\nDirector of Education, but he received my compliment much in the same\nspirit with which a mother accepts your assertion that her child is far\nprettier in her every-day dress with tousled hair than she is in her\nSunday clothes, as with hideous tidiness and pharisaic pomp she wends\nher way to church.  My compliment was taken almost as an insult.  I was\nthen shown the ideal of China, a huge and hideous building, modelled on\nthe architecture which white men deem necessary to enable them to\nsupport the tropical heat, to the fatal effects of which they are {296}\nso sensitive; massive walls to carry the heavy roof; huge arched\nverandahs where white people may get the breath of air they so need.\nOf what use are all these to a race who cannot understand what you mean\nwhen you speak of the heat being unhealthy, who, however sensitive to\ncold and wet, flourish in the warmth to which they have been accustomed\nall their lives?  The Chinese do not admire this architecture for its\n\u00e6sthetic effect; they care little about its heat-resisting qualities.\nThey like it because it is Western; because Western people are educated\nin such buildings; because, I suppose, they expect Western learning to\nwork in some way through those massive stone walls to the minds of the\npupils; and because they fancy Western ideas would be more easily\nunderstood in these hideous surroundings.\n\nThirdly, there is no serious effort made to get good teachers.  At one\ntime, I understand, they had in their service a very remarkable body of\nmen--men like Professor Martin of Peking--whose knowledge was only\nequalled by the sincerity of their purpose.  Lately they have been\ngetting rid of these men as fast as they could, the cry of \"China for\nthe Chinese\" being perhaps responsible for this movement; and they have\nendeavoured to replace them by Chinese subjects with but little\nsuccess.  They have therefore fallen back again on foreigners, largely\non Japanese.  These men are some of them very able and qualified\nteachers; some, on the other hand, have had little or no experience of\nteaching, and their inefficiency tends {297} to bring all foreign\nteachers into disrepute.  Not only must the teacher have a special\nknowledge of the art of teaching, but a teacher of a race like the\nChinese, with different traditions to our own, must well understand\nthose traditions.  We can best realise the enormous difficulty a\nChinese student has of learning from a Western teacher by remembering\nhow impossible it is for any of us to understand something that is put\nfrom a Chinese point of view.\n\nIf the Chinese Government want efficient foreign teachers, they must\nnot pick up anybody, but they must hold out inducements to young men to\ncome as teachers, and must give them security of tenure.  If, for\ninstance, the Chinese Government had in their service such an efficient\nbody of men as could be found in the mission schools, they would have\nno difficulty.  Another difficulty which stands in the way of the\nChinese schools is their want of discipline.  One of the most\nremarkable developments in China is the school strike.  They have\nundoubtedly extraordinary powers of united action, but the school\nstrike originates as much in the weakness of the teachers as it does in\nthe remarkable power the Chinese race has of united action; you hear of\nit all over China, and it is sometimes ludicrous, sometimes serious.\nOne school struck because the foreign teachers required the pupils to\npass an examination of efficiency before they would give them a\ntestimonial.  This was deemed most incorrect by the {298} scholars, who\nheld a doctrine which would be very attractive to our own\nundergraduates, that residence alone was a sufficient qualification for\na degree.  Many of the strikes take place for most occult reasons.\n\nAnd this brings me to mission schools, for strikes take place equally\nwith them as in Government schools.  They occur in boys' and in girls'\nschools, and for the most un-understandable reasons.  In one school the\nstrike began because a Chinese teacher caught hold of a boy's queue and\ndragged him by it.  The boy's \"face\" was injured, and his companions\nmade common cause.  Another strike took place in a girls' school\nbecause a girl was punished.  Of course these strikes do not occur\nwhere there is an efficient and vigorous teacher.  It was attempted,\nfor instance, with Archdeacon Moule, but it only ended in the leaders\nbeing caned.  Still, one mission had its school practically ruined by\none of these strikes; it was the result of an intrigue by an\nunbelieving teacher who had been employed by mistake.  These strikes\nare not a very great difficulty to the mission when it is in charge of\nefficient and experienced men; a little justice and firmness apparently\nsoon disposes of any unreasonable resistance to authority, and tact and\nknowledge prevent any friction which may result from regulations that\nmay be offensive to Chinese ideas.\n\nA far greater difficulty in the mission schools is the question of\nfinance.  The Chinese for the most part pay their scholars; the result\nis that the mission school {299} has to compete not only against a free\nschool, but against a school in which pupils are paid to come, and it\nappears as if it would be almost an impossibility for mission schools\nto support themselves against such competition.  As a matter of fact it\nis usually found that so great a value do the Chinese put on the\nefficient education that they receive in the mission school that they\nare willing to pay a reasonable fee rather than be paid for the useless\neducation given by the Government school.  Still it makes finance a\ncertain difficulty.  Many of the schools are largely self-supporting;\nothers rely on fees to find board and lodgings for the pupils and the\nsalaries of the native teachers.  So that every school more or less\ncarries a great financial burden.\n\nThe great difficulty of mission schools at the present time springs\npartially from Government action.  The ideal of every Chinaman is at\npresent to be in the service of the Government; we must emphasise that\nword \"at present,\" because undoubtedly, owing to the railway\ndevelopment of China, a wealthy commercial class must arise all over\nher land, as it has already risen in the great port towns.  This class\nwill be independent of Government and will be the class that needs\nWestern education more than any other class, for they will be in\nintimate contact with the West.  But at present those who seek a higher\neducation hope for the most part for Government employment.  One of the\nrules of Government employment is that the officials shall on {300}\ncertain days repair to the various temples to represent the Emperor,\nand it is naturally held that such action is impossible for a\nChristian.  Besides this, the Government makes it extremely hard if not\nimpossible for a Christian to go to its University at Peking.  All\nteachers and pupils in a Government school are required on the\nEmperor's birthday to bow down or kow-tow to the tablet of Confucius.\nMissionaries hold that such action is not consistent with the Christian\nfaith, and therefore the mission school is very loath to send its\nChristian pupils on to the Government University.\n\nIt must, however, be stated that several Chinese scholars, including a\nChristian, have indignantly denied that the kow-towing to the tablet of\nConfucius implies anything more than the respect due to the greatest\nthinker that China ever possessed.  We had the privilege of being shown\nover Peking University by an extremely able and pleasant Chinese\ngentleman, a Christian.  He showed us the tablet of Confucius and\nexplained to us the ceremony.  It must be owned that externally there\nwas but little that one could associate with the idea of divinity.  The\ntablet was behind a glass case, and at first it suggested some sort of\neducational apparatus.  The desks were placed at right angles to it, so\nthat it did not actually occupy what could be regarded as the chief\nplace in the room.  The gentleman who showed us over strenuously denied\nthat any of the pupils in Peking Government University could regard\n{301} Confucius as God.  None were admitted to the University except\nthose who were already well versed in the Chinese Classics, and they\nknew perfectly well that in these Classics Confucius said that he had\nno supernatural power; while the leading commentator on Confucius, the\nman whose teaching had more than any other influenced modern\nConfucianism, was avowedly an agnostic, and therefore, so far from\nregarding the tablet as divine, it would be nearer the truth to say\nthat the greater bulk of the scholars disbelieve in the idea of God\naltogether, or at any rate hold an agnostic position with regard to it.\nWhen I put these difficulties to an eminent missionary the answer was,\nyes, but by a late edict they have made Confucius equal to heaven and\nearth, and so whatever doubts there were before have been resolved, and\nthe Chinese Government has decreed to Confucius divine honour.  I put\nthis criticism to an able civil servant in the employ of the Chinese\nGovernment, and he answered that that decree was really intended to\nhave the opposite effect.  The Chinese are aware that they are as a\nmatter of fact relegating Confucius to a secondary place in education,\nand they are therefore most anxious to propitiate the Confucian\nscholars.  They have compromised the matter much on the same system\nthat we use in the West with regard to some politician whose services\nhave been valuable, but who is actually a hindrance in the House of\nCommons.  Confucius has been given divine honours {302} as the worn-out\npolitician in England is given a peerage; it is a form of honourable\nretirement.  A very intellectual Chinese, however, expressed himself\nquite otherwise, saying that anybody who understood Chinese views would\nhave grasped the meaning of making Confucius equal to heaven and earth.\nAs heaven and earth induce the wealth of mankind, so has Confucius done\nby his teaching; as heaven and earth can change things and make things\nexist that were not, so with Confucius; but that Chinese theology\nregards heaven and earth as created by the one God, and therefore\nConfucius is put in the position of an exalted but a created being.\nWhat impresses perhaps the Westerner more than this rather recondite\nChinese reasoning is the simple fact that while by the Government edict\nit is decreed that the tablet of Confucius shall be honoured by three\nbowings and nine knockings, it is also ordained that the schoolmaster\nshall be honoured by one bowing or kow-tow and three times knocking the\nground with the head.  The similarity of the salute to the schoolmaster\nand to the tablet of Confucius rather disposes of the idea that the act\nof reverence to the tablet involves worship.  On the other hand, it is\npointed out that this is the main ceremony that is observed in what are\ncalled the temples of Confucius; but when this was put to a Chinaman,\nhis answer was that they were not temples, and if there had been any\nworship in those temples, they would have been frequented {303} as much\nby the women and children as by the men, but as a matter of fact they\nwere frequented only by literati.  When it was suggested that on\noccasion, however, there were sacrifices in these temples, he did not\ndeny this, but changed the subject.\n\nBut we must not say that the respect and reverence offered to\nConfucius, whether it involves idolatry or not, is the only reason why\nChristian pupils are advised not to go to the Government Universities.\nThere are two other great reasons.  The first is an extremely practical\none: the education in Government Universities is avowedly imperfect.\nThe fact that the Government have subscribed to the English University\nat Hong-Kong and to the German College in Shantung show that they are\naware of their own shortcomings.  The second reason is that the racial\ncharacteristics of Chinamen demand that they should act as a body.  An\nacute observer asserted that, as far as he was able to judge the\nmatter, no Chinaman ever acted independently; and that therefore it is\nputting a burden greater than the race can bear to ask that Christians\nshould maintain their Christianity when they are surrounded by an\nunbelieving and heathen atmosphere; and that, as a matter of fact, the\nresult of sending students to Government Universities would, except in\ncases of men of very strong character, be to send them to unbelief.\nYet a greater and simpler objection is that these Government\nUniversities for the most {304} part do not exist, and that it is\nimpossible for small institutions like that at Peking to take even a\nhundredth part of the students who are clamouring for Western\neducation.  But the mission schools have another and a newer\ndifficulty, one which is causing the greatest heart-searching.  This I\nmust reserve for the next chapter.\n\n\n\n\n{305}\n\nCHAPTER XXV\n\nTHE NEED OF A UNIVERSITY EXPLAINED\n\nThe great danger that threatens mission schools, a danger which is\nincreasing every year, is that the best pupils of these schools have to\ngo to Universities in search of Western knowledge where they are\nexposed to the insidious attacks of Western materialism.\n\nThe teachers have at present no alternative; they have to send the best\nand brightest of their pupils somewhere to complete their education.\nIt would be unfair on a boy to refuse to send him on, and if he is to\nreceive a higher education, where can he get it but at some place where\nthe atmosphere is distinctly anti-Christian.\n\nThere is in the East no place with a neutral atmosphere as there is in\nthe West.  In the West most people have had some Christian training, or\nat least they comprehend Christian ethics.  So in a Western\ninstitution, even if the education be wholly secular, a Christian does\nnot find everything antipathetic to his faith.  But in the East the\nvast majority are non-Christian, and consequently the moral and\nintellectual atmosphere is hostile and antipathetic to a Christian.\nHere if an institution is non-religious it is probably not hostile to\nreligion.  {306} In the East if an institution is non-religious it is\nprobably anti-Christian.  At present the only University in action is\nthat of Tokio, though we are promised others, and its ill effects have\nbeen so obvious that the Chinese Government have ordered a wholesale\nwithdrawal of pupils from its unhealthy influence.\n\nAs we have already pointed out, Western civilisation is magnificent but\nit is destructive, and when taught without any constructive religious\nteaching it inevitably tends to destroy all spiritual ideas and too\noften also to pervert the moral ideals of the race.  As the pupil goes\nthrough the mission school he learns within its walls to shake himself\nfree from the haunting fear of demons which besets every Chinaman; he\nhas slowly realised that God is holy, good and loving, and has either\naccepted Christianity or stands on the threshold of the formal\nacceptance; he has reached the end of the curriculum of the school or\ncollege and his brilliancy demands a higher education.  Attracted by\nthe reputation of Tokio, he goes to its University, and there he finds\nhimself in an atmosphere where all the destructive thought of Europe\ngrows rankly; the good God in whom he has learned to believe in the\nmission school follows in the track of the demons of his youth, and he\nis left believing in a world founded by blind chance, where ethics are\nthings of service to restrain your neighbour but folly to follow\nyourself.  \"Eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,\" is the lesson which\nis not perhaps taught in so many words, but {307} which none the less\nis forced into his mind; his views become those of Falstaff; all that\nis fine, all that is noble, flees from his life; though he no longer\nbelieves in the God of Love, he does not return to the belief in the\ndemons of his youth; there is nothing in his world beyond getting rich\nor gratifying the flesh and laughing at those people who believe in\nhigher ideals.  He has been acquainted with and has learnt to loathe\nfrom his youth up the philosophy of Yang Choo.  He has, for instance,\ndespised such a sentence as this: \"The people of high antiquity knew\nboth the shortness of life and how suddenly and completely it might be\nclosed by death, and therefore they obeyed every suggestion of the\nmovements of their hearts, refusing not what was natural for them to\nlike, nor seeking to avoid any pleasure that occurred to them, they\npaid no heed to the incitement of fame; they enjoyed themselves\naccording to their nature; they did not resist the common tendency of\nall things to self-enjoyment; they cared not to be famous after death.\nThey managed to keep clear of punishment; as to fame and praise, being\nfirst or last, long life or short life, these things did not come into\ntheir calculations.\"  And now he finds that the philosophy of Yang Choo\nis as he supposes the newest thought of the great rich successful\nWestern world; as he returns to his home and spreads abroad the\npoisonous doctrines that he has imbibed, the missionary wonders\nwhether, after all, it would not have been better to have left the man\nto his primitive demonology.\n\n{308}\n\nThe American mission bodies saw this danger from the first, and have\nalready set up great educational establishments which to a certain\nextent supply this need.  That great institution Bishop Graves' College\nat Jessfield, the Boone College at Wuchang, the British College at\nWeihsien, and Methodist Universities at Soochow and Peking, are all\nexamples of good work.  But they do not, any of them, bring the student\nup to what we call University standard, or what I understand is called\nin America the post-graduate course; what is felt is, that there is\nneed of an institution in which the highest knowledge shall be taught,\nwhere the true aspect of Western thought shall be shown--not that\naspect which is bringing France to destruction, not that aspect which\nmakes Belgium unconcerned at the Congo scandals, but the aspect which\nboth in America and in England we have always admired at least in\ntheory, and in practice when we have been strong.  The fundamental\ntruth on which our civilisation rests is that God is good, and that\ntherefore truth and progress are right and possible, and that the\nhighest expression of the goodness of God is in His incarnation as it\nis universally taught by Christians of various views and of many\ndenominations.  The West owes to the East, if there is any common duty\nof man to man, to set before it the real truth as to the greatness of\nWestern civilisation, namely, that it is the result of Christianity.\n\nBut missions are not anxious merely for a University {309} as a means\nof defence against the materialistic onslaught which threatens their\nwork--they need it for many other reasons; for instance, the University\nwould make it possible for all denominations to have highly educated\nnative ministers.  No student of missions can ever be content to regard\nthem as an ideal arrangement.  The conception of a race being\nministered to spiritually by another race is obviously inadequate; it\nis open to many criticisms; there must be a confusion in the mind of\nthe convert between what is national and what is Christian; one Chinese\nregarded Christianity with doubt because he had heard that the German\nEmperor is a Christian, and to his mind he is the embodiment of the\nfierce piratical Western races.  The word which the Chinese use for\nrobbers means red-bearded men, so associated, alas, is the Western race\nin China with war and rapine; it is easy for a member of the Western\nraces to be misunderstood when he is talking about the religion of\nlove.  Would any English parish like as its Rector a Chinaman, even if\nhe were saintly and went so far as to cut off his queue?\n\nSetting aside the associations of the Western race, the Western race\nhas great difficulty in speaking Chinese without making ridiculous\nmistakes.  Who among us has not smiled when the Chinaman's inability to\nsay the letter \"r\" has caused him to offer us \"lice\" to eat, but what\nmust it be to the Chinaman when he hears the Western preacher lost\namidst those mysterious Chinese intonations, and {310} therefore making\nsome wonderful statement.  A Chinese gentleman assured me that he had\nlistened to a missionary extolling the virtues of a wild pig.\nReverence forbids explaining what was really meant.  If the ministers\nof religion are to be Chinese, it is obvious that they must be highly\neducated Chinese; to have religion taught by ignorant men in a country\nlike China where learning is reverenced so profoundly, must be to\ncondemn it as the religion of the coolie.  The Chinese minister must be\nable to maintain his position, not only against the Confucian scholar,\nbut against the Western materialist, and must therefore have an equally\ngood education.  Without saying that it is reasonable to expect that\nthe Western missionary should be withdrawn within the next few years, I\nthink it is wisdom for every mission body to aim at founding a body of\neducated native clergy who can free Christianity from the taunt of\nbeing a foreign religion, and who can, when the foreigner leaves China,\ntake his place and uphold the faith.\n\nIf to have an educated native ministry is one great object of the\nUniversity, another great and only less important object is the\ncreation of an intellectual Christian laity who shall form and direct\nChristian public opinion.  The school teacher, the writer, are only one\ndegree less important, if indeed they are so, than the Christian\nminister; and if as China assimilates Western civilisation, she finds\nin her midst a body of men conversant {311} with the best side of that\ncivilisation, able to interpret its mysteries to her, so that it does\nnot become subversive to all spiritual religion and morality, it is\nmore than probable that she will take those men and put them in high\npositions, and the grain of mustard seed will by their means grow into\na plant which shall overshadow the whole of China.  The other day I was\nreading how St. Grimaldi and St. Neots founded the University of Oxford\nin 886.  Theology, grammar and rhetoric, music and arithmetic, geometry\nand astronomy, were the subjects taught.  After a thousand years we are\nin a position to judge of the success of the experiment.  Surely every\none will wish to have a hand in founding a similar undertaking.\n\nThe foundation of this University cannot for two or three reasons be\nleft to one body.  In the first place, no one communion will be rich\nenough to undertake such a work; secondly, it might cause a certain\nnarrowness of atmosphere; thirdly and chiefly, co-operation among\nChristians would afford an object-lesson to the Chinese of the real\nunity there is between them.  We are constantly twitted with the fact\nthat we confuse the heathen by professing the religion of love and then\nsetting before them a mass of warring sects.  If we can unite in the\nfounding of such a University, we shall show that though we see the\nChristian truth in different aspects we have agreed that truth is one,\nand have in spite of our divisions a fundamental unity.  When {312}\nthis matter was referred to at the Shanghai Conference, considerable\ndifficulty was felt among missionaries as to the terms on which such a\nUniversity should be founded.  It was agreed to refer it to the\nCommittee on Education, and that Committee of Education has in the year\n1909 welcomed the formation of such a University.  Dr. Hawks Pott, who\nof all men in China can best speak as an authority on education, since\nhe has organised and maintained that wonderful institution at\nJessfield, warmly advocated its formation.\n\nNo doubt one of the reasons why the missionaries now see their way to\nthe acceptance of this University is because a neutral body has come\nforward to initiate the undertaking.  Committees of the Universities of\nOxford and Cambridge have been sitting for many months considering the\nquestion with all the skill and ability which their great learning and\ntechnical knowledge enable them to bring to bear on this subject.\nThough of course they have a thorough knowledge of education in all its\naspects, they were aware that they lacked knowledge of China and the\nChinese, so for many months they heard and examined the evidence of any\none who was thoroughly acquainted with China and with the conditions of\nmissionary work.  They devised a scheme which they thought would at\nonce satisfy the workers in the mission field and be acceptable to the\nChinese.  The mere outline of the scheme is that this University should\nencourage the formation of denominational hostels, which shall {313} be\nunder the control of individual missionary bodies, and which shall form\ncolleges at the University; and while the University alone would\nconcern itself with giving secular teaching from a neutral standpoint,\nthe colleges would give Christian teaching to their pupils.  In this\nway all conflict between missions would be avoided; each mission would\ncontinue to care for the pupils which it had hitherto sheltered and\neducated.  To the University would accrue the great gain of having a\nsupply of properly prepared pupils coming into it from the mission\nschools, one of the causes of disappointment of ill-considered\nUniversity schemes being that there is no proper provision for a supply\nof pupils.  In the West there are numerous secondary schools, and any\nUniversity can easily find a sufficient number of pupils properly\ngrounded in knowledge.  In the East to erect a University without\nfeeding schools is like building a house in the Chinese fashion roof\nfirst.  The Yale University Mission found itself compelled to set up\nelementary schools to teach the elementary Western knowledge which was\nnecessary before even the lowest grade of college work could be\nattempted.  Western teachers are, as we have before explained, few and\nfar between outside the mission schools, and therefore mission schools\nwould both help and be helped by a University.  The University\ncompletes the work they have begun, and returns the men to the mission\nto carry on its work with honour and efficiency.  On the other hand,\nthe mission supplies the {314} University with pupils, which after all\nare the prime necessity of education.\n\nAnother great feature of the Oxford and Cambridge scheme was that the\nUniversity should aim to be a native University, and this no doubt was\nthe side which attracted the Chinese.  Instead of using knowledge, the\ncommon heritage of all men, as the means of imposing the domination of\nthe alien on China, knowledge is offered by this University as\nessentially the thing which belongs to China as well as to any other\nrace.  If in the commencement the majority of the professors must\nbelong to the Western race, it is to be hoped that many of its\nprofessors will soon come from China, and that when the University is\nwell begun, and Christianity has become as national a religion as it is\nin our land, and Western civilisation has lost the right to describe\nitself by that epithet, and has become the civilisation of the East as\nof the West, then the University whose foundation is now being laid may\nbe the great light of the future China.\n\nPerhaps the most important part of the scheme is that which suggests\ndenominational hostels as the proper solution of the difficulties that\nbeset union and interdenominational work in the mission field.\n\nThere are obvious difficulties in arranging for a common religious\nteaching, and, on the other hand, it is very advantageous for the many\nmission bodies at work in China to show a united front against the new\nmaterialism and the ancient superstition.  {315} Nothing so shows the\npower of Christian love as a union work of this nature.\n\nWe Christians are often taunted with our differences, and we are\nassured that many will support any scheme that makes for union and\npeace between the different elements of the Christian world.  Here is a\nscheme which will tend to bring Christians together, and to induce that\nmutual respect and toleration which must be the foundation of a closer\nunion.  The baby must walk before he runs, and if the Christians of\nChina can maintain such a University, their daily intercourse will\ngreatly assist any further scheme for unity.\n\nBut there is another use in the hostel system which should not be\noverlooked.  At all times one of the great hindrances to the education\nof young men is the tendency that they have to waste their strength in\nriot and wantonness.  The Chinaman is perhaps more subject to these\ntemptations than the Westerner.  A student said: \"We cannot work; we\nare too profligate.\"  A Chinese statesman advised against certain towns\nas possible sites for a University because of their tendency to entice\nmen into vicious courses.  Far the most efficient way of opposing this\nevil is to make some one responsible for the moral welfare of the young\nmen, and this is done in the hostel system.\n\nEvery hostel would be governed by some person who would make the moral\nwelfare of the young men his peculiar care and study.  The head of the\nhostel might or might not be on the teaching staff of the {316}\nUniversity; but whether he taught or not, his first duty would be the\ncare of the moral and spiritual welfare of those committed to his\ncharge.  He would give all his energy to reproduce the highest moral\ntone of a Western University.\n\nThis scheme is being tried in Chentu, where a union University is being\nstarted.  And I believe it is in every way proving successful.  Those\nwho have not realised the size of China will be perhaps inclined to ask\nwhy not unite the two schemes?  The simple answer to those who have\ntravelled is that the distances are too vast.  You might as well talk\nof uniting Oxford and Harvard, for those two Universities are about as\nfar from one another in time as Hankow is from Chentu.  Even when the\nrailway is built the distances will be immense.  The enormous distances\nof China are also a reason why it was impossible to amalgamate the\nHong-Kong scheme and the Oxford and Cambridge scheme.  Hong-Kong is now\nten days to a fortnight away from Hankow, and such a different language\nis spoken there that the dwellers in Northern and Central China are\noften forced to use English to understand one another.\n\nThe University of Hong-Kong will be very beneficial to the colony, and\nis an example of the generosity of the merchants and citizens of that\ntown; but as a means of naturalising the higher side of our\ncivilisation it labours under the great disadvantage of not being\neither in China nor under the Chinese flag, nor of speaking the\nprevailing language.\n\n\n\n\n{317}\n\nCHAPTER XXVI\n\nTHE NEED OF A UNIVERSITY EXPLAINED (_continued_)\n\nThe Committees at Oxford and Cambridge had not been without hope that\nthe missionary world would accept the scheme readily once it was well\nunderstood.\n\nThey had had the advantage of many interviews with missionaries and\nothers in London at their joint meetings so as to make it a matter of\nsome certainty that a large portion of the Western educators of China\nwould agree with them.  But they were rather doubtful whether the\nscheme would be welcomed by the Chinese official world.\n\nThe commercial world in London that had dealings with China was rather\npessimistic.  They held the view that you only had to mention the word\nChristian or missionary to a Chinese official and it would have the\nsame effect that the word rats has on a terrier.  But as I have before\nrelated, we were agreeably surprised to find at the very outset that\nthe Chinese official world were far from hostile, and that we were\ngiven, unasked, letters of introduction, whose contents I did not know\nexcept that they procured for us a welcome in China which was as\nsurprising as it was delightful.  I learnt in China that knowledge\n{318} and learning is so loved and respected that those whose object is\nits dissemination will ever find a ready welcome, and I learnt also\nthat whatever may have been their sentiments in the past, in the\npresent the Chinese have no hatred towards Christianity, but they\nregard it as one of the least odious parts of the Western civilisation\nwhich has become for them a necessity.  I had also the privilege of\nseeing His Excellency Tong-Shao-Yi in London, and he did not discourage\nthe plan.\n\nWhen we arrived at Harbin we found an official ready to receive us who\nhad been sent to welcome the scheme to China.  His instructions were to\naccompany us to Kwangchangtzu and to watch over our comfort.  As he\nonly spoke Chinese, conversation was difficult; but with the aid of a\nmember of the Imperial Customs we gathered the object of his mission.\nAt Mukden we met with a similar civility.  I was invited to dine at the\nYamen.  I shall always remember my drive to that dinner.  At Mukden no\ncarrying chairs are used, but a springless cart, in which the\ntraveller, or more accurately the sufferer, reclines.  I was late for\ndinner, so the order was given to the charioteer to drive quick, and as\nwe bounded over the unpaved streets of a Manchurian town I had an\nopportunity of realising one of the minor discomforts of Chinese\nmissionary life.  At the Yamen the same civility was shown to the\nscheme, and next day Dr. Ross, my kindly host, took me to see a Manchu\nnoble of high rank.  He was more than encouraging.  He first sounded\nthe note {319} that I found vibrating through the whole of China.  He\nasked why did not the West concern itself with such things as\neducation, which benefit man, rather than with war, which produces such\nendless suffering and misery.\n\nAt Peking I met some great officials who all were favourable, but it\nwas not till we got south that we encountered what can only be\ndescribed as enthusiasm for Western education.  One gentleman advised\nthat such an institution should be started at once, and recommended the\nrecall of all students studying in Western lands to fill its ranks.\nAnother who was interpreting was not satisfied with the prudent\nofficial reply I received that the plan was good, but that I must make\ninquiries at Peking.  He added: \"Make inquiries at Peking; but if they\nrefuse, go on with your scheme all the same.\"  A body of young men who\nhad been educated at Boone College sent a petition that the scheme\nshould be forthwith undertaken, but perhaps the most remarkable\nexperience was that which I had at Shanghai.  I was entertained by\nthirteen of the gentry who had all received their education in the\nWest.  We discussed every aspect of the plan, and when I pressed upon\nthem that one of the good results of the University would be that it\nwould have a healthy moral environment, an old man turned to his\ncompanions and said: \"We have ourselves had experience of this.  The\nenvironment in which we lived when we were in the West was different\nfrom that in which we found ourselves when we returned {320} to\nShanghai, and did not it largely affect our lives?\"  After we had\ntalked some time the question was put plainly to them: \"Would they\nsupport such a University?\"  One of them turned round and said: \"Of\ncourse we should.  It is obvious that if you will give us in China the\nsame sort of University as there is in England, if only on the score of\nexpense, we shall want to send our sons there; besides which no one\nlikes parting from their children and leaving them in a distant land.\"\n\nI discussed the matter with a Chinese statesman in Peking.  I asked\nwhether Peking would not be a good centre, but he was very adverse to\nthe idea, because he said that Peking had such a bad moral tone that\nboys would not be able to do any good work, and that he himself far\npreferred that Chinese boys should be sent at ten years old to England\nto receive their whole education in our country.  When we pointed out\nto him how, except in the case of a few rich men, such a course would\nbe quite impossible, he said: \"Then put your University right away in\nthe western hills out of reach of the immoral influences of a town.\"\nThere can be few more eloquent testimonies to the necessity of another\nUniversity; nothing but a Christian University could succeed in\ncreating the moral atmosphere, which this wise man saw was the power of\nthe West.  In the same conversation he gave a further testimony to the\npower of Christianity, all the more striking that it was uttered by a\nman who was not a Christian.  He said: \"Yes, {321} I have no doubt that\nall that is good in the West comes from Christianity.\"\n\nAll the officials we interviewed always ended their encomiums on the\nsuggested scheme by a saving clause to the effect that, before we did\nanything, we must ask his Excellency Chang-Chih-Tung.  When we passed\nthrough Peking the first time we failed to see him, and it was\ntherefore with some anxiety I sought an interview with him on our\nreturn journey.\n\nChang was a figure in the politics of China whose importance it would\nbe hard to over-estimate.  Not that he had the reputation for being a\npeculiarly able man; in fact, some of the Europeans spoke slightingly\nof his mentality.  His force and influence came rather from his moral\nqualities.  He was the perfect type of Confucian scholar.\n\nWonderfully well versed in all the knowledge of the literati of China,\nhe was far from despising any form of knowledge; in fact, he was one of\nthe first of the statesmen of China to recognise the importance of\nWestern education.  When we were discussing with some leading merchants\nthe want of integrity of many of the officials, they claimed Chang as\nan exception with enthusiasm.  He had held the highest offices and\nstill remained comparatively poor.  His reputation for clean-handedness\nwas enhanced by his age.  In China the old are greatly reverenced, and\nan old, honest, and learned statesman combined three of the qualities\nmost admired in China.\n\nIt was therefore with some trepidation that I {322} found myself going\nto see a man whose moral authority was so great that he could with a\nword mar or make the University scheme as far as the power of the\nChinese officials extended, and in his case this was very far.  I was\nalone, for owing to the rather heated debates that divided the British\nand Chinese Governments over the Canton-Wuchang Railway, it was thought\nadvisable that no member of the Legation should come with me.  I drove\ndown to the north end of the city, and turning down a by-lane, scarcely\nwide enough for the carriage to pass, we drew up opposite a very modest\ndwelling.  I was received by His Excellency's nephew, a man of\nextremely courtly manners; and as he conducted me across the yard I was\nstruck by the simplicity of the house.  The room, for instance, into\nwhich I was ushered had a brick floor, and was separated from the\ncourtyard only by a paper and wood screen.  Imagine what the intense\ncold must be in a Peking winter when the thermometer is somewhere below\nzero!  The furniture of the room was equally simple.  Two Chinese\nchairs of the Chinese guest-room pattern, standing on each side of the\nusual Chinese table, were supported on the other side of the room by a\ntoken of the ever-encroaching West in the shape of a common round table\nand some mongrel-looking stools, which looked as if they were\nproductions of Japan palmed off as European.\n\nAs we sat and talked (for I was too early for my interview) my host\ntold me all about his uncle's {323} family, and the while I wondered at\nthe austerity of the dwelling of the greatest man in China after those\nof royal blood.\n\nHis Excellency was then ready to receive me, and we adjourned to\nanother equally simple room where the usual table with tea, sweetmeats,\nand wine was laid out.  Chang during the whole interview smoked a long\npipe, which required all the efforts of what I took to be two boys, but\nwho really were slave-girls, to keep alight.  He wanted to know where\nthe money was to come from.  I assured him that there are many generous\npeople in England and America who, desiring to leave a good name behind\nthem, and convinced that education confers on humanity incalculable\nbenefits, are willing to give largely to such a cause.\n\nThen he inquired what line we should take with regard to Confucian\nlearning; I said Christianity and Confucianism need not be opposed, and\nwe should respect and encourage the teaching of the sage.  He clearly\napproved, and gave me advice as to the course of study to be\nfollowed--first, Chinese letters, then foreign languages; and he\nadvised as the site for the University some place near Wuchang and not\nPeking.\n\nHe then assured me that I might tell my countrymen that he approved of\nthe scheme.  \"Who,\" said he, \"could but approve of such a scheme?\"\n\nAs I left he accompanied me across the courtyard, though I protested,\nand I felt I had been honoured {324} by this interview with one of\nChina's greatest men.  He was the embodiment of all that was fine in\nChina.  He belonged to an age that is passing away.  The Chinese\nstatesman of the future will learn Western luxury with Western\nknowledge.\n\n\n\n\n{325}\n\nCHAPTER XXVII\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nOne word in conclusion.  I have tried to show the greatness of the\ncrisis that is before us.  The civilisation which has long been worn by\nthe white man alone is now being donned by the yellow man, not as the\nresult only of missionary effort, but as the result of those great\nworld causes over which puny mankind has no control; and I have tried\nto show that all that we can do is to recognise and frankly accept this\ngreat fact, namely, that the members of the human race who are subject\nto and governed by our civilisation are to be nearly doubled, and that\nthe second half will import into that civilisation not only new\ntraditions, but a new racial personality, which must cause a\nfundamental alteration in many of its traditions and customs.  We must\nnot say that the movement will be shortly completed, for it has\nscarcely yet begun; but we have seen enough in the success that has\nattended the movement both in Japan and in China, to convince us that\nit will ultimately dominate the Far East.  This movement may be for\ngood or for evil; it may be for the downfall of the world, for the\nperpetual misery of mankind, if that which is evil in both\ncivilisations is to be perpetuated and {326} that which is good is to\nbe destroyed; or it may be for the benefit of mankind if, when the\nChristian civilisation welcomes the great yellow races, it accepts from\nthem, as it has accepted from many other races, their characteristic\nvirtues.  Hitherto our civilisation has grown richer; every race it has\nconquered has added beauty to its traditions and nobility to its\nideals.  We may look forward with hope, if not with confidence, to its\nfuture.  But if this momentous change in the history of the world is to\nbe well directed, it can only be done by men of sincere Christian\nfaith; and if the civilisation is to augment these benefits to mankind,\nit can only be by being more fully endued with the Christian ethics on\nwhich its whole greatness depends.\n\nFor the perpetuation of this ethic, for the education of the future\nthinkers of China, we suggest a University is needed; that University\nshould not be founded by one race alone.  Some may differ from us, and\nhold that other action is advisable.  They may be right, but it behoves\nthem to formulate their policy, because one thing seems certain--that a\npolicy of inaction at the present moment is one which is fraught with\nrisk, if not with disaster.  If no one makes any effort to direct the\nthought of this vast unit of mankind into the right paths, it is\nimprobable that good will naturally result.  The fitting of Western\nthought to an Oriental race, while it must be chiefly left to the race\nitself, needs clearly the help of those who are conversant with the\nbest aspects {327} of that Western thought and of its history.  The\nmissionary has done much, but he himself is the first to say, \"I cannot\ndo all; I must be supported by those who will teach my converts the\nfulness of Western knowledge.\"  And so the missionaries have\ninaugurated a policy of education which is most successful as far as it\nhas gone.  The question before all well-wishers of China is, shall it\ngo further; shall we show China the intellectual light by which we are\nwalking, or shall we leave China to stumble in the darkness till she\nfalls into deeper error.\n\nThose who look forward to progress in this world must also look forward\nto breaking up the old evil traditions and to founding new ones; the\nold tradition, which limited love to citizens of the same State, which\nput bounds on charity, so that man did not love man unless he spoke the\nsame language, or at least had the same coloured skin, is dying fast\nthough it is dying hard.  A new tradition is being founded, and must be\nfurther developed, in which, as in the parable of the Good Samaritan,\nthe word love is taught as passing and transcending all bounds of race\nand language.  The cultivation of this new tradition is vital to the\nexistence of our civilisation.  If love cannot bind races together, the\nimproved arts of war will in time extinguish the civilisation that gave\nthem birth.  If we are to encourage international love, we can best do\nit by sharing together in international acts of mercy and generosity.\nThe great Chinese race has need of the wealth of Western {328}\nknowledge.  Let Western races join together to give them what they\nneed, and in so doing they will not merely benefit China, though as\nChina counts for a quarter of the population of this world, and is\nnearly equal to the number of men who have a right to call themselves\ncivilised, that were no small merit; but they will do more, for they\nwill by common acts of mercy and love bind each to each so that the\nhorrid curse of racial hatred shall not be again able to divide them.\nThe elements of good in one race will be brought in contact with the\nsimilar elements in another race; men will learn to trust men; and that\nwhich the thundering cannon can never compel, or the keenest wit of\nstatesmen ever compass, will be accomplished by the obedience and\nsimple faith of the Christian men and women of all races, and the world\nwill be welded into one solid piece, where men can work without wasting\ntheir efforts in making machines to torture and kill their fellow-men,\nand where at last the prophecy shall be fulfilled: \"They shall beat\ntheir swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks.\"\n\n\n\n\n{329}\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nWILL RUSSIA BE REPRESENTED ON THE MISSION FIELD?\n\nWhen it was settled that we should go to China to see what\nopportunities there were there for an educational mission emanating\nfrom our English Universities, we decided to go _vi\u00e2_ Siberia, and stop\nat St. Petersburg and also at Irkutsk on the way.  I had previously\nfound the journey of fifteen days without a break exhausting to myself\nand still more so to my wife who accompanied me.  The plan had also the\nadvantage that it gave me an opportunity of trying to find out why the\ngreat Russian Church had never attempted any serious mission work in\nChina.  From a mere inspection of the map one would naturally have\nexpected that the Christian power which had a frontier with China of\nthousands and thousands of miles would have been the most forward in\nthat country in fulfilling the command of the founder of Christianity\nto give His message of happiness to every living man.  In our previous\ntour we had been surprised to find that the missionary efforts of\nRussia were insignificant in China, though, strange to say, they were\nfairly vigorous in Japan.  When we arrived at St. Petersburg I was\nfortunate enough to obtain letters of introduction to the courteous\ngentleman who then represented the imperial power in the councils of\nthe Russian Church, M. Iwolsky, Procurator of the Holy Synod.  One\nthing became evident; for the time being Russia is so much absorbed in\npolitics as to be oblivious of other duties.  Living in England, we can\nlittle realise the excitement and anxiety that filled the minds of many\nwho dwelt in the far off villages of Russia, while they waited to hear\nwhether or not they were to be engulfed in a revolution as dangerous\n{330} and as far-reaching as that which more than a hundred years ago\noverwhelmed France.\n\nA lady described to me how she had sat in terror in her country house\nwhen all communication from St. Petersburg had ceased owing to the\nstrikes, while the smoke of surrounding houses which had been set on\nfire by marauding bands told of the fate which might possibly await\nher.  Now all that is over.  The revolution--so they think in\nRussia--is a thing of the past; and Russia has entered on a course of\nconservative reform to which, if she adheres, will doubtless make her a\nprosperous and contented empire.\n\nI gathered from some of my informants that the reasons why Russia had\nbeen backward in the mission field, and also why she was racked with\nrevolution, were in reality the same, namely, that the Orthodox Church\nwas not so vigorous and had not that hold on the consciences of the\npeople that it ought to have.  Not that for one moment Russia is\nceasing to be religious.  The attendance at Father John's funeral was\nquoted as disproving such a possibility.  People of the working and\nmiddle classes came for miles to stand on a bleak cold day for long\nhours merely to catch a glimpse of the coffin which contained the\nmortal remains of a man who, according to their belief, lived more than\nany man in accordance with God's law.  Russia is religious to the very\ncore; but, like all religious nations, our own included, she longs to\nexpress her deep sincerity through diversity and not through\nuniformity.  Alas! there are people in every nation who want to put us\nin one religious uniform and to march us like soldiers at the word of\ncommand straight into heaven's gate.  In England this view only makes\nsome good and narrow-minded people anxious to have such a thing as\nreligious uniformity in our schools; but in Russia this doctrine has\nbeen more vigorously held, and is doubtless responsible for the waning\npower of the Orthodox Church.  Mr. Pobiedonosteff, leader of the\nreactionary movement, nearly caused a revolution, and certainly {331}\nweakened the Church, by insisting on Uniformity and Orthodoxy.  He\nbelieved that there could be but one form of religion in the State, and\ntherefore he discouraged every other form of religious activity.  Not\nonly did he rightly forbid those strange wild immoral sects who\npractise and teach mutilation, but even the sober and devout followers\nof Lord Radstock were to be silenced.  The result of such a policy was\nbut too obvious.  Religion was made odious by the insincerity which\nsuch a policy must foster, and the State became detestable to all\nearnest Christians who claimed the inherent right of every living soul\nto love and worship his Creator in accordance with his true convictions.\n\nAll this has now passed like a bad dream.  People in Russia may believe\nwhat they like and worship God how they like.  M. Iwolsky was most\nanxious that the world should know that he, the then representative of\ntemporal power in the councils of the Russian Church, so far from\nencouraging the idea that Christ's Church can be controlled by a\ntemporal power, however great, was most careful to maintain that in\nspiritual matters the Church is independent of the State, even if in\ntemporal matters she submit herself to the authority of Government.\nPeter the Great abolished the Patriarchate; he added many, though not\nall, of the powers of the Patriarchate to the Crown; and therefore the\nEmperor represents the Patriarch in many ways.  But it is wholly\nmisunderstanding his position to say that in spiritual matters he is\nsupreme.  The Russian Church, like all other branches of the Church, is\ncontrolled and governed by councils, both general and provincial.\n\nBut M. Iwolsky had to confess that the power which the State wielded in\nthe Synod of the Church was still very great.  The Crown has three ways\nin which it can influence the council.  First, though the members of\nthe council are representatives of the Church, it is the Crown who\ndecides (with the exception of the Metropolitans) who those\nrepresentatives shall be; secondly, the Crown, through the Procurator,\ncan forbid any action which {332} brings the Synod into conflict with\nthe laws of the State; lastly, the Procurator, as representative of the\nCrown, must always be present at the debates of the Synod, and has\nalways a right to express his opinion, even on spiritual questions.\nSuch powers put together clearly give the Crown a control not only in\nthings temporal, but, if it is desired, an influence in things\nspiritual as well.  Still it cannot be too widely known that at any\nrate in theory the Russian Church is in things spiritual independent of\ntemporal power.  Most Englishmen would think, no doubt, that if the\nChurch is to hold her rightful place in the hearts of Russians, she can\nonly do it by relying on the power of preaching rather than on the\npower of the sword.  Therefore it would be best for both Church and\nState if they had less to do with one another.  English Churchmen will\nbe glad to hear that there is some prospect of a Synod of the Orthodox\nChurch being held, independently of the existing Holy Synod--a council\nwhich may rank as a General Synod of the Greek Communion, if other\nbranches of the Orthodox Church are invited to join in its\ndeliberations, of which there is some prospect.  The object of this\nSynod will be to reform the discipline of the Church, a matter which is\nengaging, I understand, the sincere attention of the devout Christians\nof Russia.  Few things bear truer witness to the weakness of the Church\nin Russia than the low moral tone which exists, as all witnesses aver,\nin every grade of Russian social life.  The outward observance of the\nfasts and feasts and ceremonies of the Church, though admirable in\nitself, is perfectly consistent with a great deal of scepticism with\nregard to the truths of Christianity.  It is not uncharitable to\nsuspect such scepticism when a great profession of Christianity is\naccompanied by a low moral tone.  The Church has felt her weakness and\nhas sought the help of the State, and has therefore not succeeded in\nher mission.\n\nNow happier days have opened for Russia which it is hoped may lead on\nto happier ones beyond.  The State no {333} longer helps the Church by\nsilencing her critics, by exiling those who cannot agree with her: the\nBuddhist who lately at the definite command of the Government had\naccepted Christianity has returned to sincerity and open profession of\nBuddhism.  The Church no longer so supported by the State may feel her\nweakness, but she will grow rather than diminish in strength as she\nlearns to use more and more the real weapon of Christianity, namely,\nthe sacred truths of our religion published both by writing and by\npreaching.  Russia is one of the great nations of the world.  The\nOrthodox Church which dominates Russia is both true and faithful, and\nshe will guide her people into prosperity and peace when she has\nlearned to follow her Master's example and to order the sword drawn in\nher defence to be returned altogether to its sheath.\n\nNothing can be at present expected from the unorthodox bodies who until\nlately have been persecuted to such a degree that they have scarcely\nbeen able to exist.  In external matters the Orthodox Church commands\nthe obedience of the nation to a wonderful degree, but in controlling\nthe deep convictions of the heart she lacks power.  Nowhere is this\nmore obvious than in the moral tone which prevails in Russian society.\nPerhaps it is not just or fair to take the capital of Siberia as a\nspecimen of ordinary moral life in Russia, but one might well say at\nIrkutsk that all save the spirit of man is divine.  We had been to a\ncertain extent prepared by our previous tour to disbelieve in the\nhorrors of the climate of Siberia, but what we saw and heard at Irkutsk\nhas convinced me that Siberia should rank high among the places that\nare reckoned pleasant for human habitation.  Siberia, or certainly the\neastern part of Siberia, is not the dreary plain, wind-swept and\nmiserable, that one read of in one's childhood.  On the contrary, it is\na land of constant calms and steady sunshine, a land of lakes and\nhills, and though it is cold, the cold seems but trifling in the\nglorious sunshine of a Siberian winter.  I feel certain that if Lake\nBaikal were {334} somewhere within reach of London it would be one of\nthe most frequented centres for pleasure-seekers.  And from the point\nof view of wealth it is a most favoured land; a land where there is\ngold and where there is coal; a land where there is copper and silver,\nand where a hot summer ripens thoroughly all cereal crops.  For\nsportsmen it seems a veritable paradise.  The pheasant (or at least his\nbrother) with whom we have long been conversant as dying of every\ndisease in the moist coverts of England, lives wild in this dry and\nhealthy climate.  The wild boar and the wolf, the bear and many forms\nof the antelope and deer, are to be found on the borders between\nSiberia and China.  The rivers are full of salmon and other fish whose\nnames I cannot attempt to give.\n\nIf an Englishman were asked to choose whether he would live in St.\nPetersburg or in exile at Irkutsk, he would, I believe, have no doubt\nin deciding in favour of the latter, if--and that is a great if--the\nspirit of man were not so human and corrupt.  We were told that there\nare six hundred women who are divorced in the jurisdiction of Irkutsk.\nSuch a statement indeed seems incredible, but certainly the morals of\nthe officers leave much to be desired.  Vices go in flocks, therefore\nlaziness perhaps accounts for the amazing state of things which exists\nin Irkutsk.  The town is as full of officers as Eton is of boys.\nEpaulettes jostle you in the streets, you tumble over swords in the\nrestaurants, and with all this force at the disposal of the\nauthorities--for I conclude that some at least of these officers have\nsoldiers under them--the streets of Irkutsk are unsafe after dark.\nPerson after person warned us of the danger of being unarmed at night,\nat any rate in the by-streets.  People are murdered in their own houses\nin the suburbs; women have their fur coats torn off their backs.  One\nis aghast at the incredible slackness of the authorities, who instead\nof instituting a reasonable police force such as exists even in Chinese\ncities, allow the city to be watched at night by aged Dogberrys in huge\nfur coats armed with {335} rattles which they use incessantly.\nCertainly, though they may fail to frighten away robbers with this\nprimitive weapon of protection, they succeed in interrupting the\nslumbers of the visitor.  In the department of municipal activity the\ntown is equally badly organised.  The streets were under snow, and as\nupon a hard-seated sledge we leapt from hole to hole, we had at least\nthe comfort of realising that in summer their condition must be even\nmore trying.\n\nIt is unsafe to trust gossip, but I give it for what it is worth.  We\nwere assured that the only reason why the priceless wealth which Russia\npossesses in the gold mines of Siberia was not further developed was\nbecause of a similar official incompetence.  There is said to be a\ngreat deal of secret digging for gold.  Men disappear in the summer and\nreappear in the autumn with a pound's weight of pure gold, for the gold\nlies only about three metres below the ground.  But if this primitive\nform of mining came to the knowledge of the Government it would put in\nforce the mining laws which would then successfully stifle the industry.\n\nIt is needless to add that profligacy and laziness are not the only\nvices against which Russian Christianity has to contend.  Their people\nhave another in common with ourselves of which the Church is only too\nwell aware and which it is making great efforts to suppress, namely,\ndrunkenness.  Actually on our journey we had an example of this vice\nwhich every one regarded as comic, but which might have been tragic.\nThe train is brought suddenly to a standstill.  There is something\nwrong.  Everybody tumbles out of the carriage to look.  A man is lying\nin the snow.  At first it is thought he has been knocked down by a\nprevious train.  Further examination shows that it is only a man dead\ndrunk lying right across the line--the result of keeping one of the\nfestivals of the Church.  Every one laughs; he is pulled out of the\nway, we climb back into the train, leaving him in the care of a priest,\nquite unconscious how near he has been to death.  Drunkenness is a\nterrible evil in our own land, but its results are far more terrible in\n{336} this land of frost-bite.  There are numbers of people without\nhands and feet begging in the street, and we were told that the general\ncause of these injuries was vodka.  A man going home falls into a\ndrunken sleep on the way: he awakes next morning with his hands and\nfeet frost-bitten, or perhaps he never wakes again: the sleep of\ndrunkenness merges into the sleep of death.\n\nAs one considers these things one realises why the Buddhist Bouriat and\nthe Mohammedan Tartar still adhere to their ancient faiths.\n\nI do not think an Englishman has a right to criticise other nations\nwhen so much remains to be done at home.  Still one cannot truthfully\nsay that, however numerous her churches or well-attended her services,\nthe Orthodox Church directs Russia while she is powerless to make\nheadway against these vices.\n\nThe great trials through which Russia has passed hold out every reason\nto hope that with liberty, purity of worship will be again established,\nand where there is purity of faith there must be mission work.  No\ndoubt the Government has hindered mission work; in fact, they have\nforbidden it in China.  Christianity was to them so much the handmaid\nof the State as to be inconceivable outside the State; but all this is\nbreaking down.  The great mission work conducted in Japan to which I\nhave before referred has shown that the Orthodox Church grows well on\nEastern soil.  The existence of a village preserving the Orthodox\nreligion in the middle of China which has been spoken of above, has\ndemonstrated at least the vitality of that faith among the Chinese\nnation.  When the Russian missionaries cross the frontier they will not\nleave their own country weaker, but their work will be a token that\nRussia is purifying her faith and is advancing along the road that\nleads to holiness.\n\n\n\n\n{337}\n\nINDEX\n\n\n  Abyssinia, 196\n  Accuracy of Chinese, 72\n  Agnosticism, 301\n  Agricultural College, 280\n  Aims of missionary education, 257 _et seq._\n  Altar of Heaven, 142, 155\n  America, 244, 254, 308\n  American Methodist Mission, 198\n  American missions, 16, 192, 200, 217\n  Americans, 234, 253 _et seq._, 277, 284\n  Amita, 149, 150\n  Amitobha, 149\n  Amur, The, 11\n  Ancestor worship, 153 _et seq._, 160, 161\n  Ancestral tablet, 159\n  Anglican Church Conference, 215\n  Anglicans, 216, 245 _et seq._\n  Anglo-Saxon race, 242\n  Anson's Law of Contract, 285\n  Antung, 91\n  Apocrypha, 221\n  Apostles' Creed, defence of, 200\n  Apparatus, 290, 294\n  Architecture, 137 _et seq._, 295\n  Art, Chinese, 137, 138\n  Association of Christianity with learning, 258 _et seq._\n  Autocratic government, result of, 199\n\n\n  B\n\n  Baikal Lake, 333\n  Balfour's \"Defence of Philosophic Doubt,\" 257\n  Bamboo rope, 85\n  Bambooing, 66\n  Beggar Hospital, 227\n  Belgium, 308\n  Benedict XIV., 186\n  Bible Societies, 17\n  Bible Society, British and Foreign, 17, 198, 213\n  Bible, style of, 181\n  Blagovestchensk, 11\n  Blair, Mr., 236\n  Blind, Missions to, 201 _et seq._\n  Boone College, Wuchang, 308, 319\n  Bouriat, Buddhist, 336\n  Boxer Movement, 7, 9, 18, 156, 161, 188, 269, 271, 274\n  British missions, 201 _et seq._\n  Buddha, 149\n  Buddhism, 148 _et seq._, 164, 170, 175, 179 _et seq._, 243,\n      248, 263, 269, 333\n  Buddhist temples, 45, 141\n  Bull, Papal, 186\n  Butterfield and Swire, 79\n\n\n  C\n\n  Cambridge, 173, 312\n  Canton, 113\n  Canton Women's Hospital, 226\n  Canton-Wuchang Railway, 322\n  Cantonese dialect, 286\n  Cassels, Bishop, 201\n  Centenary Conference, 122, 125, 132, 200, 210, 242 _et seq._\n  Chair travelling, 97\n  Chang-Chih-Tung, 75, 152, 168, 208, 218, 268 _et seq._,\n      321 _et seq._\n  Changsha, 77 _et seq._, 167, 291\n  Characters, Chinese, 132, 181, 208 _et seq._\n  Chentu, 316\n  Chicago University, 212\n  China Emergency Committee, 229\n  China for the Chinese, 216, 296\n  China Inland Mission, 201\n  China Merchants' boats, 62\n  \"China's Only Hope,\" 268\n  Chinese clergy, 174, 257, 259 _et seq._, 310\n  Chinese-Japanese War, 5, 268\n  Christianity in China tolerated, 45 _et seq._\n  Christie, Dr., 226\n  Chu, 156, 179\n  Chungking, 81\n  Church of England, 202, 203\n  \"Church in China,\" 242\n  Church Missionary Society, 201\n  Cities, Chinese, 95 _et seq._\n  Civilisation, Chinese, 56 _et seq._\n  Classics, Chinese, 168, 207, 260, 270, 301\n  Cleanliness, difficulty with Chinese, 226\n  Clergy, Chinese, 174, 257, 259 _et seq._, 310\n  Cochrane, Dr., 226, 228 _et seq._\n  Colleges, 254 _et seq._, 303, 308\n  Commercial power of China, 29\n  Commercial Press, 16, 215\n  Commercial School, 287\n  Confucian teaching, 73, 156, 159, 163 _et seq._, 321, 323\n  Confucianism, 148, 153 _et seq._, 163 _et seq._, 175, 221, 243, 261\n  Confucius, 41, 42, 59, 156, 163 _et seq._, 220, 300 _et seq._\n  Copts, 196\n  Corruption of Chinese, 62, 293\n  Courtesy of Chinese, 70 _et seq._\n  Cruelty of Chinese, 65 _et seq._\n  Currency, 63 _et seq._\n\n\n  D\n\n  Dalai Lama, 180\n  Delamarre, P\u00e8re, 47\n  Diabolical possession, 158\n  Difficulties of education, 293 _et seq._\n  Difficulties of translation, 208 _et seq._\n  Director of Chinese students, 172\n  Director of education, 280 _et seq._, 295\n  Discipline, want of, 297 _et seq._\n  Divine honours to Confucius, 301\n  Dominicans, 186\n  \"Door of Hope,\" 134\n  Drugs, Chinese, 224\n  Dumas, _Dame aux Camelias_, 218\n  Duty to parents, 74, 174\n\n\n  E\n\n  Ede, Mr., 56\n  Edict against opium, 117\n  Edict, educational, 271\n  Edict on Confucius, 302\n  Edict on official rank for Roman Catholic missions, 188, 189\n  Edification of Christianity, 257 _et seq._\n  Education, 253 _et seq._\n  Education, Committee of, 312\n  Education of preachers, 257 _et seq._\n  Educational, 230, 231\n  Educational policy in China, 254 _et seq._\n  Emperor of China, 187, 275, 300\n  Emperor of Korea, 76, 239\n  Emperor of Russia, 331\n  Emperor, German, 309\n  Empress of China, the late, 128\n  Episcopal Church of America, 256\n  Ethics, Chinese, 70 _et seq._, 220\n  Evangelisation, 257 _et seq._\n  Ezra, 59\n\n\n  F\n\n  \"Face,\" 166, 167, 240, 298\n  Famine in China, 56\n  Fashion, power of, 33\n  Fashions in China, 34\n  Financial difficulties in schools, 298 _et seq._\n  Foot-binding, 66, 124, 129, 130, 182\n  Foster, Mr. Arnold, 125\n  Foster, Mrs. Arnold, 3\n  France, foreign policy of, 24, 187, 191, 221, 308\n  Franciscan Sisters, 68, 194\n  French officials, 184\n  \"French Peter,\" 225, 226\n  French policy, 188\n  French ship, 197\n  French, the, 46, 186, 187, 188, 192, 253\n  Fukien, 50\n\n\n  G\n\n  Gardens, 72\n  Gardens, public, Shanghai, 102\n  Gautama, 149\n  Geography, 268\n  Germans, 253\n  Germany, 6, 18, 48, 49 _et seq._, 235\n  Ghurkas, 25\n  Gillieson, Dr., 226\n  Girls' schools, 130 _et seq._, 289 _et seq._, 298\n  Goforth, Mr., 240\n  Gold in Siberia, 335\n  Gorges of Yangtsze, 81 _et seq._, 201\n  Gospel, St. Luke's, comments on, 214\n  Gospel, St. Mark's, Chinaman's acquaintance with, 213\n  Government educational systems, 266 _et seq._\n  Grand Canal, 80\n  Graves, Bishop, 308\n  Greek Church, Chinese, 148, 336\n  Green Korean coats, 233\n  Grey, Sir Edward, 120, 210\n\n\n  H\n\n  Haeckel's \"Riddle of the Universe,\" 218, 263\n  Haldane's \"Pathway to Reality,\" 257\n  Hangchow, 223 _et seq._\n  Hangchow, monastery at, 180\n  Hankow, 78, 81, 89, 140, 174, 226, 229, 316, 319\n  Hanlin scholars, 176 _et seq._, 267\n  Han-Yang Ironworks, 30\n  Harbin, 315\n  Hart, Dr. Lavington, 99\n  Hashish, 108\n  Heat at Saigon, 183, 184\n  \"Heaven,\" 156, 178, 179, 210\n  Heaven, Temple of, 142\n  Hewlett, Consul, 167\n  High schools, 281\n  Higher schools, 272\n  Hoang-ho River, 56, 57\n  Home Board, 245\n  Home life, Chinese, 135, 136\n  Hong-Kong, 76, 103, 109, 183, 213, 283, 303, 316\n  Hunan, 77\n\n\n  I\n\n  Ichang, 68, 81, 85, 194\n  Ideographs, 217\n  Ignatius, College of St., 253\n  India, 164, 244\n  India, comparison with China, 22, 23\n  India, home of opium, 114\n  India, Little, 180\n  Indian Buddhism, 180\n  \"Indiscreet Letters from Peking,\" 39\n  Industry, Chinese, 72\n  Infant schools, 271\n  Inns, Chinese, 89\n  Intellectual side of Christianity, 202\n  Intonations, Chinese, 309\n  Irkutsk, 51, 329, 333 _et seq._\n  Ironworks, Han-Yang, 30\n  Ito, Prince, 232, 235\n  Iwolsky, M., 329 _et seq._\n\n\n  J\n\n  Jackson, Mr., 256\n  Japan, 50, 121, 126, 149, 160 _et seq._, 170, 204, 210, 263,\n      283, 325, 329, 330\n  Japan and Korea, 5, 232 _et seq._\n  Japan and Russia, 12, 23, 49 _et seq._\n  Japanese, 61\n  Japanese, _re_ opium, 115, 116\n  Japanese teachers, 131, 280 _et seq._, 295\n  Jarlin, Monseigneur, 3\n  Jessfield College, 308, 312\n  Jesuits, 185, 186, 253, 258\n  Jesuits, scientific attainments of, 185, 195\n  Jesuits, suppression of, in China, 186\n  Jews, Chinese, 148\n  John, Father, 330\n  Jordan, Sir John, 120\n\n\n  K\n\n  Kiauchau, 6, 48, 51, 91, 92\n  King, Consul, 176\n  Kins, 26\n  Kiukiang, 97\n  Korea, 76, 232 _et seq._\n  Korea and Japan, 5, 12, 232 _et seq._\n  Korean women, 233\n  Kow-tow, 300\n  Kwangchangtzu, 318\n  Kwannin, 149, 150\n\n\n  L\n\n  Lamaism, 15, 149, 248\n  Languages, School of, 292\n  Laotze, 151\n  Laudanum, 112 _et seq._\n  Law Schools, 277, 283\n  Lawsuits, Chinese, 191, 192\n  Lawsuits, interference in, 189 _et seq._\n  Leavening of public opinion, 257 _et seq._\n  Legation, British, 141\n  Legge's, Dr., Chinese Classics, 179\n  Leper Hospital, 227\n  Likin, 58\n  Literati, Chinese, 177, 186, 203, 321\n  Literature, effect of Western, 207 _et seq._\n  Literature Society, Christian, 16, 168, 212\n  Lolos, 27, 68\n  London Mission, 198, 201\n  Louis XIV., 187\n  Lutherans, 256\n\n\n  M\n\n  Macklin, Dr., 67, 227\n  Main, Dr. Duncan, 223 _et seq._\n  Maios, 27\n  Manchu ladies, 130, 131\n  Manchuria, 12, 51, 53, 90 _et seq._, 204, 232 _et seq._\n  Manohus, 25, 176, 185, 279, 292, 318\n  Mandarin-speaking, 285, 286\n  Manich\u00e6ism, 151, 152\n  Martin, Professor, 296\n  Materialism, Western, 171, 305 _et seq._\n  Medical missions, 220 _et seq._\n  Mencius, 177\n  Methodist colleges, 308\n  Methodists, 238\n  Middle schools, 272\n  Mih-Tieh, 174\n  Military power of China, 24, 25\n  Ming dynasty, 26, 185\n  Mission Press, 212\n  Missions, 183 _et seq._, 198 _et seq._, 220 _et seq._,\n      253 _et seq._, 305 _et seq._\n  Missions Catholiques Fran\u00e7aises, Les, 188\n  Modesty, lack of, in Japanese, 233\n  Mohammedans, Chinese, 148\n  Mongolia, 51, 213\n  Mongols, 26\n  Monotonous employment, love of, 73\n  Moral power of China, 32\n  Morrison, Dr., 15, 17, 198, 208\n  Moule, Archdeacon, 4, 137, 198, 298\n  Moule, Bishop, 198\n  Movement in Korea and Manchuria, 232 _et seq._\n  Mukden, 91, 226, 318\n  Mukden, battle of, 5, 13\n  Murray, Dr., 230\n  Mutiny, 54\n\n\n  N\n\n  Nanking, 63, 67, 92, 297 _et seq._\n  Nanking, hospital at, 227\n  Nanking, interviews at, 172 _et seq._\n  Napoleon I., 187\n  Napoleon III., 47\n  Native ministry, 257, 259 _et seq._, 310\n  Naval school, 52, 287\n  Need of University explained, 305 _et seq._\n  Nestorians, 15, 149, 150, 248\n  Newchwang, 8, 205\n  North China Mission, 203\n\n\n  O\n\n  Obedience of Chinese, 61\n  Obedience to parents, 74\n  Observatory Ziccawei, 195\n  Official rank for Roman Catholic Missions, 188, 189, 191\n  Officials, Chinese, 167, 172, 283, 299, 317\n  Officials, French, 184\n  Old, reverence for the, 321\n  O-mi-to, 149\n  Opium, 107 _et seq._\n  Opium, edict against, 117\n  Opposition to Western materialism, 258 _et seq._\n  Organisation of Chinese Government, 60\n  Orientals, 36 _et seq._, 61\n  Orphanages, Roman Catholic, 193, 194, 264\n  Orthodox Church of Russia, 244, 245, 330 _et seq._\n  Oxford and Cambridge, 173, 312\n\n\n  P\n\n  Pagodas, 141\n  Pao-ting-fu, 7, 276\n  Pastor Hsi, 158\n  Patience of Chinese, 72\n  Patriarchate, the, 331\n  Pei-Yang University, 276\n  Peking, Blind Mission at, 229\n  Peking Gazette, 168\n  Peking, interviews at, 319 _et seq._\n  Peking, Lama Temple at, 180\n  Peking, Methodist University, 308\n  Peking, missions at, 203\n  Peking, Mongol Temple at, 150, 180\n  Peking, Roman Catholics at, 197\n  Peking, sack of, 10\n  Peking to Canton railway, 89\n  Peking, Union Hospital at, 226\n  Peking University, 291, 300\n  Pe-T'ang, the, 140\n  Physical science uninteresting to Chinese, 182\n  Pidgin English, 22\n  Pitt, 187\n  Pobiedonosteff, M., 330\n  Police, different nationalities of, 101\n  Port Arthur, 5, 204\n  Post-offices, 103 _et seq._\n  Pott, Dr Hawks, 312\n  Poverty in China, 221\n  Preparation of secular teachers, 257\n  Presbyterians and their missions, 69, 198, 201, 204, 235 _et seq._\n  Press, the, 168\n  Primary schools, 272\n  Procurator of Holy Synod, 321 _et seq._\n  Pyeng-Yang, 5, 235 _et seq._\n\n\n  Q\n\n  Queen of England, the late, 128\n  Queen of Korea, murder of the, 76, 234\n\n\n  R\n\n  Railways, 88 _et seq._\n  Rapids of Yangtsze, 82 _et seq._\n  \"Reason,\" 178, 179\n  Red boat, 82, 85\n  Reformation, the, 246\n  Religions of China, 147 _et seq._\n  Religious Tract Society, 212\n  Renaissance, the, 260\n  Rescue work, 133 _et seq._\n  \"Review of the Times,\" the, 212\n  Revival, 236 _et seq._\n  Ricci, Father, 185\n  Richard, Dr. Timothy, 203, 212, 274 _et seq._\n  Rickshas, 98\n  Ritual, 246\n  Rivers, 80 _et seq._\n  Roman Catholic missions, 183 _et seq._, 203\n  Roman Catholics, 46, 47, 148, 213, 243, 258, 292\n  Roman Church, policy of, 192, 243, 244\n  Romanised system of reading, 132\n  Rome, appeal to, 186\n  Roofs, Chinese, 142, 143\n  Roots, Bishop, 256\n  Ross, Dr., 113, 178, 318\n  Russia and Japan, 23, 49 _et seq._, 163\n  Russia in mission field, 329\n  Russia, Orthodox Church of, 244, 330 _et seq._\n  Russians, 204 _et seq._\n  Russo-Japanese War, 11 _et seq._, 163\n\n\n  S\n\n  Saigon, 183, 184\n  Saigon, Bishop of, 184\n  Saigon, climate of, 184\n  St. Augustine, 166\n  St. Petersburg, 51, 329, 330\n  Sanscrit MS., 180\n  Scandinavian Missions, 203\n  Scheme, United Universities, 312 _et seq._, 317 _et seq._\n  School uniform, 175, 283\n  School, Viceroy's, 175 _et seq._\n  Schools, 253 _et seq._\n  Schools in England, 173\n  Schools in Nanking, 173 _et seq._\n  Scotch, the, 69, 234\n  Scott, Bishop, 203\n  Secondary wives, 123 _et seq._\n  Seoul, 77, 233 _et seq._\n  Shanghai, 36, 76, 95, 105, 113, 126, 129, 133, 140, 225, 291\n  Shansi, 6, 18, 49, 110, 274\n  Shantung, 6, 18, 92, 303\n  Shi-King, 207\n  Shintoism, 163, 170\n  Shops, Chinese, 96 _et seq._\n  Shu-yuen, 261\n  Siberia, 25, 148, 329, 333 _et seq._\n  Silk Guild, 95, 287\n  Slanders against missions, 194\n  Slave Refuge, 126\n  Slaves, 126 _et seq._, 323\n  Solidarity of Chinese, 60\n  Songs of trackers, 84\n  Soochow, University at, 308\n  Soothill, Mr., 275\n  Spencer, Herbert, 263\n  S.P.G., a _via media_, 202\n  S.P.G. Mission, 202\n  \"Spirit,\" 210\n  Sprue, 225, 226\n  Squeeze, 293, 294\n  Starvation common, 222\n  Streets, Chinese, 97 _et seq._\n  Strikes in schools, 297 _et seq._\n  Summer Palace, sack of, 46\n  Sund Fo, 25\n  \"Superior man,\" 177, 178\n  Superior schools, 273\n  Superstition, 156, 157 _et seq._\n  Supreme Being, 155, 156, 220\n  Synod of Russian Church, 331 _et seq._\n  Szechuan, 88, 92\n\n\n  T\n\n  Tablet of Confucius, 300 _et seq._\n  T'ang-K'ai-Sun, His Excellency, 116\n  Taoism, 151 _et seq._, 164, 175, 181, 243, 269\n  Tartar, Mohammedan, 336\n  Temple of Heaven, 142, 155\n  Teuton mind, 246\n  Theatres, 272\n  Tibetans, 25, 114\n  Tientsin, 28, 36, 38, 61, 91, 93, 95, 99, 166, 276\n  Tokio, 306\n  Tong-Shao-Yi, His Excellency, 41, 318\n  Tonkin, 17\n  Torture of medical missionary, 205\n  Trackers on Yangtsze, 83, 86, 87\n  Trans-Siberian Railway, 21, 204, 329\n  Travelling, comfort in, 21\n  Treaties, 46, 47, 188\n  Tuan-Fang, His Excellency, 173 _et seq._, 279\n  Turkey, 164\n\n\n  U\n\n  Union Hospital, 226\n  United States, 200\n  United Universities Scheme, 312 _et seq._, 317 _et seq._\n  Unity in China, 242\n  Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 312\n  Universities in Soochow and Peking, 308\n  University, Paris Professor, 193\n  University, Pei-Yang, 276\n  University of Oxford, 311\n  University government, 303\n  University government system, 273\n  University in Chentu, 316\n  University in China, 94, 172, 175, 263\n  University in Hong-Kong, 286, 303\n  University in Peking, 291, 304\n  University in Shansi, 274 _et seq._\n  University in Tokio, 306\n\n\n  V\n\n  Viceroy of Nanking, 173 _et seq._\n  Vices, Chinese, 62\n  Virtues, Chinese, 72\n\n\n  W\n\n  Wall, Great, 26\n  Wang, Mr., 276\n  War in 1840, 188\n  Weihsien, 308\n  Wenli, 208\n  Wesleyan movement, 241\n  West and East, 36 _et seq._\n  Western civilisation, two elements of, 218, 325 _et seq._\n  Wheelbarrows, 101\n  Williamson, Dr., 16\n  Willow pattern from Hangchow Lake, 228\n  Women, Chinese, 102, 121 _et seq._\n  Word-signs, 210 _et seq._, 215\n  Wuchang, 291, 292, 323\n\n\n  X\n\n  Xavier, St. Francis, 15\n\n\n  Y\n\n  Yale University Mission, 313\n  Yamen, 71, 167, 173, 176, 182, 246, 318\n  Yang and Yin, 121, 151, 152\n  Yang Choo, 307\n  Yangtsze, island on, 193\n  Yangtsze-Kiang, 53, 54, 62, 73, 81 _et seq._, 118, 126\n  Yuan-Shi-Kai, His Excellency, 274\n  Yunnan, 92\n\n\n  Z\n\n  Zenana work, 131\n  Ziccawei Observatory, 195, 196\n\n\n\n\n  Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co,\n  Edinburgh & London","title":"Changing China","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":86059}