CHINA and AMERICA TO-DAY 3 1822017066846 LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANDWGO Central University Library University of California, San Diego Please Note: This item is subject to recall. Date Due Cl 39 (7/93) UCSD Lib. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AN DIEGO 3 1822017066846 / r PS 140.5 China and America To-day AUTHORITATIVE WORKS OF ARTHUR H. SMITH Chinese Characteristics. New Edition, Revised, with additional Illustrations. Demy 8vo, 7s. 6d. Miss E. R. SCIDMORE in " China the Long-Lived Empire," says : " Nothing can ever displace Dr Smith's ' Chinese Characteristics," the keenest and most appreciative study of the Chinese human being yet made." Village Life in China. A Study in Sociology. New Edition. Demy 8vo, art binding, with 9 full-page Illustrations, 7s. 6d. The Athenaum says: "Gives a more faithful representa- tion of village life in China than any that has ever yet been attempted." China in Convulsion : The Origin ; The Outbreak ; The Climax ; The Aftermath. The survey of the cause and events of the recent uprising. In 2 Volumes, demy 8vo, cloth extra, with numerous Illustrations, Maps, and Charts, 2is. Mr FREDERICK COLEMAN in the Daily News says: " Dr Smith has given to the world a book that will be readily recognised in all quarters as the best and most complete work on the subject." OLIPHANT, ANDERSON & FERRIER PUBLISHERS China and America To-day A Study of Conditions and Relations BY ARTHUR H. SMITH Thirty-five Tears a Missionary of the American Board in China Edinburgh and London Oliphant, Anderson ^ Ferrier 1907 SO ALL THOSE IN EVERY LAND, AND ESPECIALLY IN AMERICA, WHO RECOGNISE THE ACTUAL AND THE POTENTIAL GREATNESS OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE, AND THE DUTY OF THE MOST ENLIGHTENED WESTERN NATIONS TO PROMOTE THEIR WELFARE, THESE PAGES ARE INSCRIBED CONTENTS PAGE I. THE OCCIDENT AND THE ORIENT : * Wl . 13 II. THE NEW AMERICA .... 1W m .. 19 III. OLD CHINA *. .. ... 28 IV. A GREAT RACE ,.,,*. 47 V. THE BRASS DISH AND THE IRON BRUSH , 80 VI, THE NEW FAR EAST AND THE NEW CHINA 108 VIL AMERICA'S ADVANTAGES AND DISADVAN- TAGES IN CHINA , , , t , 146 VIII, AMERICA'S OPPORTUNITIES AND RESPONSI- BILITIES IN CHINA ...... * , 195 INDEX ..*.,,, t . 843 DATES OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE HISTORY i.. ,. : 241 DATES OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE HISTORY A. a 1275 Marco Polo Arrived at Court of Kublai Khan. 1516 Portuguese Arrived at Canton. 1575 Spanish Arrived at Canton. 1580 Father Roger and Matthew Ricci Entered Canton. 1622 Dutch Arrived in China. 1637 English Arrived at Canton. 1660 Tea First Carried to England. 1670 Beginning of Trade with the East India Company. 1719 Beginning of Commerce with Russia. 1784 First American Merchant Vessel Left New York for China. 1793 Earl Macartney Received by the Emperor. 1816 Lord Amherst's unsuccessful Embassy. 1834 Opium Dispute Begins. 1839 Beginning of War with Great Britain. 1842 Aug. 29, Treaty of Peace Signed at Nanking. 1844 July 3, First Treaty between the United States and China. 1859 Nov. 24, Commercial Treaty with the United States. 1860 Oct 13, British and French Capture Peking. 1864 T'ai P'ing Rebellion Crushed. 1868 Burlingame Treaty Signed. 1870 June 21, Tientsin Massacre. 1873 June 29, Foreign Ministers Received in Audience by the Emperor. 1875 Death of Emperor T'ung Chih and Accession of Pres- ent Emperor. 1880 Nov. 17, New Treaty with the United States Signed. 1887 Feb., Assumption of Government by the Emperor Kuang Hsu. 1888 American Exclusion Acts against Chinese Passed. 9 10 IMPORTANT DATES A. D. 1891 Anti-Foreign Riots in the Yang-tzu Valley. 1894 War with Japan, 1895 Treaty of Peace with Japan, 1897 Nov., Seizure of Kiao Chou by Germany. 1898 Mar., Russia Leases Port Arthur of China Reform Edicts by the Emperor. Counter Edicts by the Empress Dowage end De- thronement of the Emperor. 1899 Rise of the Boxer Movement 1900 June 17, Capture of Taku Forts by the AlHea June 20, Murder of the German Minister. Siege of the the Legations in Peking. Aug. 14, Relief of the Peking Legations by the Allies. Aug. 15, Flight of the Court to Si Ngan Fu. Sept. 9, Signing of the Peace Protocol 1902 Jan., Return of the Court to Peking. 1904 Feb. 8, Beginning of the War between Japam and Russfcu 1905 Sept 5, Treaty of Peace between Japan and Russia. Dec., Despatch of Two Imperial Commissions to America and Europe to Study Constitutional Government AMONG the many dramatic events at the close of the nineteenth and the opening of the twentieth century, whether we consider the number of the human beings affected or the magnitude and variety of the interests involved, none are of greater impor- tance than the changes in the Far East The usual attitude of Americans toward world- phenomena of this sort has been that of more or less intelligent indifference, regarding them in the phrase of a British writer of half-a-century ago as "ten-thousand miles offy," and therefore of no moment to us. By the events of the last decade this way of think- ing has been shown to be not merely unphilosoph- ical, but irrational. Geographically, politically, com- mercially, and morally, the countries and the peoples of the earth are more and more felt to be inter- related by what Cicero called " a common bond," not in theory only, but in solid and indisputable fact. The number by whom this old truth, newly appre- ciated, is distinctly apprehended is, however, not large. Those who are willing to take trouble and to make sacrifices in order to compel others to ap- prehend it are even fewer; yet nothing is more cer- xx 12 FOREWORD tain than that the welfare of the Commonwealth depends, as it always has depended, upon the insight and the outlook of the few. The following chapters, prepared in deference to the request of many friends, contain little which has not in some form been said by others; but timely truths nowhere require more varied iteration than in busy America, where there is an unconscious consciousness of a destiny for which there is but slight provision, and of which there is as yet a very inadequate comprehension. All that is intended in these pages is merely an out- line sketch, in charcoal, of the general relations be- tween America and China. THE AUTHOR. SHANGHAI, CHINA. THE OCCIDENT AND THE ORIENT THE author of one of the most beautiful of Ori- ental poems assumes the interval between the East and the West as a standard of immeasurable dis- tance. The observant traveller who crosses from Europe to the Syrian shore of the Mediterranean Sea recognises at once that he is now in another world. It is not mere differences of language or of race, for those are found everywhere ; but there is a pervasive barrier, felt, but unseen, which divides, and for aught that we can see always will divide, the Occident from the Orient. All this and much more is condensed into the five letters, which, to our thought, represent the greatest of all the continents Asia. It is the land of origins. The human race must have come from somewhere, and whether we locate that some- where in some valley to the north, or upon some plain to the south, we cannot persuade ourselves that our most distant ancestors were not Asiatics. It is a realm of antiquities, the might and in- exhaustible ruins of which have as yet been only superficially explored, of magnitude in space, of in- definite duration in time. It is the land in which all the religions of mankind have originated, and from which by widely different processes they have been 13 14 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY spread over the earth. It is the land where fatalism reigns, where the sins committed in one state of existence are slowly and toilfully expiated by succes- sive reincarnations during successive kalpas, or myriad-year periods. In our cold Western world we hold and we teach a doctrine of logical contra- dictions. A thing exists or it does not exist one or the other, certainly not both at once ; or in the formal statement of the people that talk about " logic," " A and not-A divide the universe." There is no, and there can be no, middle ground. All this is in Asia sublimated nonsense. Every Chinese " believes " in three mutually contradictory religions at one and the same time, and with no sense of logical (or illogical) inconvenience. " A Hindoo will state with perfect honesty that Chris- tianity is true, that Mohammedanism is true, and that his own special variety of Brahminism is true, and that he believes them all implicitly." " A Hindoo astronomer who predicts eclipses ten years ahead without a blunder, believes all the while, and sincerely believes, that the eclipse is caused by some supernatural dog swallowing the moon, and will beat a drum to make the dog give up his prize." A similar phenomenon is witnessed in China, where, in accordance with orders published in " The Peking Gazette," the crew of a foreign-built man-of-war, armed with Krupp guns, turn out with drums, iron- pans, and any implement which will make a din, to " save the moon." At some future, and let us hope THE OCCIDENT AND THE ORIENT 15 not too distant, time, there may arise a philosophical observer able to combine into one harmonious whole the race-traits which in a lesser or in a greater degree characterise the Turk and the Arab, the Persian and the polyglot inhabitants of the Indian peninsula, the Siamese, the Japanese, the Korean, the Chinese, and the Tartar. When that happy day arrives, we shall be able to co-ordinate those isolated bones, of which we are now in but partial possession, into a complete skeleton which shall be styled " Asiatic Character- istics." The disregard of time, of accuracy, of what we mean by comfort, indifference to suffering in others, a self-seclusion which makes it forever im- possible for the Occidental to comprehend the real inner thought of the Oriental, the passion for the theatrical and for the spectacular (with a general flavour of the " Arabian Nights "), the all-pervading doctrine of family, clan, corporate responsibility, the definite merging (or rather submerging) of the in- dividual in the mass all these will be seen to be only variant manifestations of a common heredity, education, environment. " Oriental," in the phrase- ology of Dr. Sidney L. Gulick, " signifies that type of civilisation which does not recognise the value or the rights of the individual person as such. It represents autocratic absolutism in government; it emphasises the rights of the superior and the duties of the inferior; it ranks men as inherently superior to women. It has no place for popular education or for representative government, and it esteems mili- 16 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY tary virtue as the highest type known. In other words, in Oriental civilisation the community is supreme, the individual of no value whatever in himself." The unchanged and the unchanging East is best typified by the Arabs of the desert, of whom Mr. Meredith Townsend, in his illuminating essays on " Asia and Europe," has something to say, and from whom we may quote a few paragraphs. " There is no puzzle in the world, either to the ethnologist or the psychologist, quite equal to the Arab, whether he dwells in a tent, half-nomad, half- robber, or abides in the city of Nejd or South Arabia, the oldest, most tranquil and proudest of republicans. Why is he, of all men in the world, the one who changes so little, that the person who, of all mankind, most resembles Sheikh Abraham in ways and habits and bearing, and, as the best ob- servers say, in habit of thought, is his collateral kins- man, ninety generations removed, a sheikh of Syria or Nejd? What induces the Arab to seclude him- self in a dreary peninsula, in poverty such as no European conceives, and there live a life of remote antiquity; a life without object, or hope, or fear; a life so persistent that, a thousand years hence, if Europe does not conquer him, the Arab will be as to-day? . . . No one who knows the Arab doubts his enterprise, and yet he lives on unchanged in the Syrian desert, or in his vast, secluded peninsula [Arabia is as large as India, or Europe west of the Vistula seeking no advance, complaining of no THE OCCIDENT AND THE ORIENT 17 suffering, living his life, such as it is, straight on, and accepting death as a destiny neither to be sought nor to be feared and fled from. As it was, is now, and ever shall be, world without end that is his conception of human life. Time is nothing to the Arab; progress has no attraction for his mind; wealth, though when abroad he seeks it zealously, has no charm to tempt him thither. Poverty is noth- ing to him, for the man who is contented with his skin can never be poor. . . . They despise industry, put wealth by as meaningless, keep the tradition of the past as a possession, and without decay as with- out progress, live on forever, as they were in ages of which history tells us nothing. . . . Imagine a clan which prefers sand to mould, poverty to labour, solitary reflection to the busy hubbub of the mart, which will not earn enough to clothe itself, never in- vented so much as a lucifer match, and would con- sider newspaper-reading a disgraceful waste of time. Is it not horrible that such a race should be? more horrible, that it should survive all others? most horrible of all, that it should produce, among other trifles, the Psalms and the Gospels, the Koran, and the epic of Antar ? " From the Occidental point of view, Immobility, Incomprehensibility, and general Irrationality these too frequently compose the little that we think we know of the Orient. But as thera is a sense in which the Occident is a whole, so likewise is the Orient [We are to-day confronted with the indis- 1 8 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY putable fact that parts of the Orient are undergoing greater changes, and, even as we reckon progress, are making more progress, than any other part of the world. To call the reader's attention to some of the concomitants of these new conditions is the purpose of the ensuing chapters. II THE NEW AMERICA THERE is a deep significance in those maps which are so drawn as to show the gradual, intermittent, but steady process by which the territory of the United States came to be increased. If ever an American statesman was committed against extra- constitutional acts, that man was Thomas Jefferson. The Constitution made no provision for the purchase of alien territory, therefore, according to the strict- constructionist Democrats of that day, no such pur- chase could constitutionally be made. On the other hand, the right to navigate freely the Mississippi river was of vital importance to all set- tlers in the valley of that great artery and its trib- utaries, a right for which, if necessary, they would have been prepared to fight. At a " psychologic moment," " Napoleon seized the opportunity to do England a bad turn by increasing the power of her revolted colonies. Whatever the actual circum- stances, however, it is a notable fact that the Fed- eral Government without hesitation shouldered the responsibility of this huge acquisition of territory, with its tiny population of 50,000 whites, and the same number of black and colored people, although there was considerable opposition in the Northern States." 19 20 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY However great was the gratification felt at the outcome, no one living an hundred years ago could possibly have entertained any adequate conception of the ultimate importance of this event, the cen- tennial anniversary of which was celebrated by a great industrial and commercial Exposition. The history of Florida, the next acquisition, was remarkable, for it had been colonised by Spain, and in 1763 was ceded to Great Britain in return for Cuba and the Philippine Islands. Twenty years later, Great Britain restored Florida to Spain, most of the English leaving the country, and until 1819 it remained a Spanish colony. It was then pur- chased by the United States, to be used seventy-nine years afterwards as the base from which those mil- itary and naval operations were conducted which in a brief period drove the Spaniard out of that New World which he helped to discover, and where for four centuries he had misused his power. Our unwarranted aggression upon helpless Mex- ico, with the ensuing treaties, carried our boun- daries from the Rio Grande to the Columbia, and by the settlement of the long-standing dispute with Great Britain the Canadian frontier was permanently adjusted. The next step in expansion, less than two decades later, was to many Americans both a surprise and a puzzle. It was apparently taken through the skill and persistence of two men, Charles Sumner and William H. Seward, the latter one of the most THE NEW AMERICA 21 prescient of statesmen that America has ever pro- duced. The vast territory of Alaska became ours because Russia, for reasons not difficult to surmise, was anxious to sell and we were willing to buy. The transcendent importance of the transfer only became obvious to every one when during the Span- ish war the United States took over Spanish rights in the Philippine Islands, and the island of Guam, and annexed the Hawaiian group. " When these circumstances are taken into consid- eration," remarks Mr. Colquhoun, " it becomes the more remarkable that from the first the United States has never hesitated on her path of expansion. At the same time, the policy was not commended by any of her great statesmen." And again : " One cannot fail to pause and review the circumstances in which that unparalleled development took place, and one is immediately struck by the steady continuity of purpose which seems half-unconsciously to have dominated the people and their rulers. In pros- perity and adversity, in defence of slavery and in spite of it, by the Federalists and by the Democrats, the work went steadily on. ... In short, the career of the United States has been from the first one of masterful, irresistible expansion, not for lack of space or opportunity at home, but because of sheer force, initiative and nervous energy charac- teristics which are peculiarly strong in the race which the North American continent has developed from many stocks." 22 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY, Nothing, indeed, in the early history of the coun- try is more remarkable than the variety of strains blended into a new whole, English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Swedish. Though it required four centu- ries to eliminate the Spaniard, it was accomplished at last. The dislodgment of the French was even more significant, for our American wars between French and English were but isolated moves in a wide and complicated game extending around the globe, from the continental peninsula of India to the Heights of Abraham on the St. Lawrence. As a result of these conflicts some brass plates buried at the junction of important rivers (many of them discovered by Frenchmen) certifying that all lands drained by these streams were the property of His Serene Highness, Louis IV., a few proper names of Gallic origin in North America and the little settle- ment of Pondicherri on the Bay of Bengal, were practically all that remained to register the evapora- tion of what was intended to become a mighty French world-empire. As by the war between the States America may be said to have gradually come to a real self-con- sciousness, so by the Spanish war we have come at last to a world-consciousness. In each case, as in every great conflict, the results were far wider than could at the outset have been foreseen by the wis- est. Nine fateful years have passed since the Span- ish war, and for good or for ill, to the great disquiet of some of her children as well as to that of some THE NEW AMERICA 23 of her neighbours, America is an actual as distin- guished from a potential world-power, with a very imperfect apprehension of what the new relations imply and of what they may involve. The Monroe Doctrine admits of many interpretations, to none of which has the world at large given its assent ; but whether it be regarded as a warning to others not to interfere upon the Western Continent, or as a conditional promise that America will undertake to render such interference unnecessary, the responsi- bility is serious. The Panama Canal brings us into new relations with the Caribbean Sea, some of the ports of which in the control of other nations might in the case of war, as Capt. Mahan reminds us, become of vast strategic importance. The completion of this great waterway will make America a first-class Pacific Power. " As far back as 1869 money was voted for estab- lishing a naval station and harbour on Midway Island, and though the project was abandoned the island was retained." The Samoan harbour of Pango Pango, one of the finest in the Pacific, al- though not actively occupied until after the Spanish war, was ceded to the United States in 1872, and may become of great importance. Most instructive is the history of our relations with the Hawaiian Islands. More than sixty years ago, Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, de- clared that no other power would be suffered to hold 24 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY this group, which, on the other hand, the United States did not want and would not take. Through their Christianisation by American missionaries their ties with that country were strong, and as soon as the sugar and other industries were devel- oped they became commercially and economically dependent upon America. The spectacular monar- chy ran its course, followed by a short-lived repub- lic ; but it had long been evident that formal annex- ation by the United States was only a question of development. These islands are important as a strategic base and as a unique centre of influence in the broad Pacific. In one of his luminous magazine articles, published five years before the Spanish war, Capt. Mahan wrote : " Too much stress cannot be laid upon the immense disadvantage to us of any mari- time enemy having a coaling station well within 2,500 miles of every point on our coast line from Puget Sound to Mexico. Were there many others available we might find it difficult to exclude from all. There is, however, but the one. Shut out from the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands as a coal- base, an enemy is thrown back for supplies of fuel to dfstances of 3,500 or 4,000 miles or between 7,000 and 8,000 going and coming an impediment to sustained maritime operations well-nigh prohib- itive. It is rarely that so important a factor in the attack or defence of a coast-line of a sea frontier is cmcentrated in a single position, and the circum- THE NEW AMERICA 25 stance renders it doubly imperative upon us to secure it if we righteously can." What influence these wise words exerted it may not be easy to say, but it is certain that when the little Hawaiian republic knocked for admission, the sober sense of the Amer- ican people recognised that to grant it was at once a duty and a privilege, the advantages of which were reciprocal. The Hawaiian Islands are not only the Key of the Pacific, but the Cross-roads of the Pacific as well. As Dr. Josiah Strong observes, they are " mid- way between Unalaska and the Society Islands, mid- way between Sitka and Samoa, midway between Port Townsend and the Fiji Islands, midway be- tween San Francisco and the Carolines, midway be- tween the Panama Canal and Hongkong, and on the direct route from South American ports to Ja- pan." The following table of distances is only approximately correct, since different charts are marked with different figures, but it exhibits the unique situation of Honolulu: MILES Honolulu to San Francisco 2,100 Honolulu to San Diego 2,260 Honolulu to Portland, Oregon 2460 Honolulu to Sitka 2,395 Honolulu to Unalaska. . . 2,018 Honolulu to Vancouver 2,330 Honolulu to Acapulco 3,310 Honolulu to Nicaragua 4,210 Honolulu to Callao 5,240 Honolulu to Valparaiso 5,9i6 Honolulu to Auckland 3,850 26 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY MILES Honolulu to Sydney 4,480 Honolulu to Yokohama 3,400 Honolulu to Hongkong 4,893 Honolulu to Manila 4,700 Honolulu to Guam 3,500 Honolulu to Samoa 2,290 Honolulu to Tahiti 2,380 Honolulu to Fiji Islands 2,735 With the opening of the Panama Canal the posi- tion of Honolulu in the track of the world's com- merce will be seen to be of decisive importance, " because it will lie in the path of an increasing file of vessels moving from Panama to China, Japan, or Asiatic Russia." Dr. Strong quotes the Hon. L. A. Thurston as follows : " In the whole Pacific Ocean, from the equator on the south to Alaska on the north, from the coast of China and Japan on the west to the American continent on the east, there is but one spot where a ton of coal, a pound of bread, or a gallon of water can be obtained by a passing vessel, and that spot is Hawaii." By the acquisition of the Philippine Islands the United States is brought within two days' easy steaming of China. Manila is but a little more than 600 miles from Hongkong, which is only eighty miles from Can- ton perhaps the largest aggregation of population in the Chinese empire. America thus becomes de facto an Asiatic power. The completion of an ail- American cable across the Pacific brings Washing- ton within a few minutes of Manila, while branch lines to China and Japan complete the circuit. THE NEW AMERICA 27 The tropical archipelago which now constitutes the American outpost at the door of the Far East may be, in an important sense, a test of our national capacity, and it may easily become what some al- ready consider it a Pandora box of evils. In what spirit and with what success we are to administer our newly-acquired island possessions, and in what manner we are to deport ourselves in presence of the Oriental peoples with whom we are now brought into contact, are vital questions for the New America. Ill OLD CHINA AN inherent difficulty in the forming of any ade- quate conception of China by a Westerner is that he is almost certain to regard it as a mysterious entity which, Minerva-like, sprang into being at one place and at one time. The truth is, however, that what- ever may have been their origin, the Chinese are no exception to the universal law of human evolu- tion. Their history differs from that of other peo- ples with which Occidentals are familiar in the co-operation of five factors nowhere else to be found in combination: namely, comparative isolation; ex- tended duration ; extremely gradual progression ; su- periority to environment, and the overwhelming influence of resident forces as compared with the relatively unimportant effect of those from without. The Chinese are at once the oldest, the most nu- merous, and the most homogeneous people exist- ing upon the earth. Their history begins with a mythical period not unlike those of Greece and Rome, passing which we come to what Occidentals term the legendary period, whose opening is almost thirty centuries B. c. This is the age of the Five Rulers, who were "much more like great tribal OLD CHINA 29 chieftains than kings in the true sense of the word. Each of these five is said to have ruled for a long period of time and to have done much for the civil- isation of the people." The first of these was Fu Hsi, who is reputed to have lived not later than B. c. 2852, and perhaps several centuries earlier. He es- tablished marriage, introduced by means of certain characters a notation of time, regulated the seasons, invented the six styles of writing, and instructed the people in the arts of hunting, fishing, and pasturing. " Much is attributed to him which was undoubtedly of later origin, as, for instance, the highly compli- cated system of Chinese written characters. Prob- ably at this date the Chinese possessed nothing except rude hieroglyphics, and the method of writ- ing used at the present time is the product of the slow development of ages." * A successor of Fu Hsi was Shen Nung (B.C. 2737), who taught the people the art of agriculture, and the use of herbs as a medicine. A later ruler is supposed to have invented the 60 year cycles, while his wife taught the rearing of silk worms and the making of silk clothing. Two famous members of this glorious quintette (although there were nine in all) were Yao (B. c. 2356) and Shun (B. c. 2286), who have been ideal- ised as such perfect rulers that, as any coolie may 1 The foregoing quotations, and some which follow, are from the best epitome of Chinese history, by Rev. F. L. Hawks Pott, D. D., President of St. John's College, Shanghai, "A Sketch of Chinese History." 1903. J30 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY. tell you, in their time doors were not shut at night, nor lost articles picked up by any save the real owner. One of the most striking features of the intellec- tual civilisation of China is the universal habit of turning a considerable part of the national literature out of doors before every New Year, at which time antithetical couplets, composed with great literary skill, are pasted on the posts of houses or gates, window frames, and the like, there to remain throughout the year until replaced by fresh ones. References to the Classics, with poetic and historic allusions, abound. One of the couplets everywhere to be met with tersely glorifies the two worthies just named, together with the great Yii, who founded (2205 B. c.) the Hsia dynasty, and Wen Wang, a famous Duke, whose period was about 1 140 B. c. "The Day of Yao; The Time of Shun; The Rule of Yxi; The Style of Wen." To no people in the world have past ages and dead men ever been more of a " live issue " than to the Chinese, without a perception of which fact it is im- possible to comprehend them or their history. Like all other countries, China had inhabitants who arrived long before the " first settlers," and with them the Chinese waged warfare, gradually driving them back, but without exterminating them. Many of these tribes whom the Chinese have not been able OLD CHINA 31 to subdue are still to be found in the mountainous parts of southern China. When the rude maps of the empire at the different stages of its slow growth are examined, its historic evolution during the last 3,000 years becomes, by a similar representation, as clear as that of the United States since the adoption of the Constitution. The first territory occupied by the Chinese was in the northwest, along the Yel- low River, and formed but a fraction of what is now China proper. By an expansion as normal as that in America, although so deliberate, the Empire has been pushed onward and outward until at certain periods it has been coextensive with the greater part of the continent of Asia, stretching from India on the one hand to Persia on the other. The earliest rulers were Patriarchs, developed by their struggles with their neighbours into Military Chieftains. From a Western point of view, the history of China is divided into two well-marked periods, of which the first, the Legendary, began about 2500 years B. c., extending to the Ch'in dynasty (B. c. 221-209). Among the different feudal States into which China was then divided, that of Ch'in was sit- uated on the western frontier, where its rulers might naturally be expected to become adepts in warfare, as compared with the more peaceful States remote from the stormy borders. It is from the name of this division of the Empire that the word China is supposed to have had its origin, a word, it should be observed, which the Chinese have never employed, 32 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY and which they are now introducing from the West through Japan, in the form of Chih-na. One of the Ch'in rulers, who, by the way, entered upon his labours at the early age of thirteen, recog- nising the weakness of the divided state of China, determined to unite it. After bringing all the States into submission he organised the country into prov- inces, over which officers were appointed, responsible to himself, a system which has practically been fol- lowed down to the present time. To guard against the ever-threatening Tartars, this Emperor built (and in part repaired) the " Great Wall," by far the most impressive of the tangible memorials of China's past, a gigantic undertaking, usually reck- oned at fifteen hundred miles in length. It was completed (B. c. 204) in ten years' time, " at a vast expense of men and material, and not until the family of the builder had been destroyed." This " statesman of puissant energy and strongly marked individuality," who has been called the Na- poleon of China, was the real founder of the Em- pire as we know it. He took the ambitious name of The First Emperor, Ch'in Shih Huang, that his- tory might be begun from him ; and to facilitate this end, as well as to dim the memory of the past which he was resolved to abandon, he despotically ordered the destruction of nearly the whole of the existing literature. The scholars of the time naturally re- sented and criticised this wholesale vandalism, and offered a keen and a persistent opposition. Upon OLD CHINA 33 this he ordered 460 of them to be buried alive " for the encouragement of the others"! The survivors concealed as many as possible of the priceless treasures of antiquity, and from the tablets of their memories " wax to receive but marble to retain " they were subsequently able to reproduce the greater part. China is perhaps the only country in which so overwhelming a calamity could have been followed by effects so relatively slight. This period of Chinese history is from every point of view of capital importance. It contains the only revolution in the long experience of the Chi- nese race, although they have passed through re- bellions literally innumerable. Ch'in Shih Huang was a reformer who appeared at a crisis. But in order to accomplish his nationalistic and egoistic pur- pose he was ready to make an abrupt and a final break with the past. But a fundamental characteristic of Chinese civil- isation is a refusal to break with the past: continu- ity is its life. The Chinese Muse of History is as inexorable as Fate it is, indeed, but another name for Fate, and by that Muse and in that history Ch'in Shih Huang, the unifier of China and one of its ablest spirits, is adjudged a monster of wicked- ness and a warning to an hundred generations. The dynasty of Ch'in lasted but forty-nine years, but some of its effects were permanent. The Empire was put in condition to present a determined front to the in- cursions of the barbarous tribes to the north. 34 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY The Han, which soon followed, is considered the first national dynasty. The former, or Western Han, lasted 231 years, and the later, or Eastern han, lasted 196 years longer. " The wild tribes disturbing the peace of the Empire at this time were probably of the same stock as the Huns and Turks, who afterwards made inroads into Europe, the Huns becoming the great scourge of Europe under the leadership of Attila (A. D. 445)." The warfare of China with the Tartars of the north, under widely varying conditions, the details of which are irrele- vant to our purpose, went on unintermittently from the beginning of the Han dynasty (B. c. 206) for more than fourteen hundred years, until in 1644 the present dynasty of Manchu Tartars seized the throne which they have ever since held. An interesting and an instructive historic parallel might be drawn between the barbarian inundation of Rome, and the invasion of China by her barbarian enemies, with the advantage distinctly in favour of China. It was said that Greece, being conquered, con- quered her conquerors, although in the process she lost her identity. Of China it may even more truly be affirmed that being constantly overrun, large parts of her territory being lost, and twice con- quered by alien tribes, she not only conquered her conquerors, but compelled them to give up their own identity and fuse themselves with China. In the light of what has been said, it is to be hoped that a partial table of Chinese dynasties may suggest OLD CHINA 35 for it can do no more to the discerning reader something of the greatness of a people who have occupied their territory continuously for more than three millenniums, and perhaps for four, or even longer. Omitting altogether the mythical and leg- endary period, we will begin with the Chou dynasty, the epoch of China's oldest literature and the period of her greatest sages. DURA- DATE TION RULERS The Chou Dynasty . B. C. 1122-255 867 34 The Ch'in Dynasty . " 255-206 49 5 The Han Dynasty (Former, or Western Han) . " 206-A.D. 25 231 14 The Han Dynasty (Later, or Eastern Han) . . A. D. 25-221 196 12 The "Three Kingdoms" " 221-265 44 " The Western Chin Dynasty " 265-317 52 4 The Eastern Chin Dynasty " 317-420 103 n The Liu Sung Dynasty " 420-479 59 9 The Ch'i Dynasty . . " 479-502 23 7 The Liang Dynasty . " 502-557 55 6 The Ch'en Dynasty . " 557-589 32 5 (Five Northern Dynasties, 386-589, 31 Rulers) The Sui Dynasty . . " 589-618 29 4 The T'ang Dynasty . " 618-907 289 22 The " Five Dynasties," Later Liang, Later T'ang, Later Chin, Later Han, and Later Chou, . . " 907-960 53 13 The Sung Dynasty . " 960-1127 167 9 The Southern Sung Dynasty " 1127-1280 153 9 The Yuan Dynasty (Mon- gol) .... " 1280-1368 88 9 The Ming Dynasty . " 1368-1644 276 17 The Ch'ing Dynasty (Man- chu) .... " 1644- 9 36 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY It must not be supposed that the consolidation of the Empire, first achieved by Ch'in Shih Huang, was a permanent feature. On the contrary, it was only a precedent. Disunity was the ruin of Greece, as of many other lands, and it has always been the curse of China. Sometimes a dozen different con- testants were struggling to establish each his little kingdom, and often all fell together before an in- vader whom, if they had been united, they might have opposed with success. In the long and impos- ing series a few dynasties and a few monarchs stand out with peculiar prominence. The seven dynasties which in themselves and in their relations are most interesting to Occidentals are perhaps the Chou, the Han, the T'ang, the Sung, the Yuan, the Ming, and the present Ch'ing dy- nasty. Of the Chou a few words may be said in a following chapter, in connection with its great Sages and the great literature which then appeared. The Han is noted for the reversal of Ch'in Shih Huang's policy of destroying the records of the past, in the careful search for such as remained, and the encouragement of scholarship. It is to be remembered that the so-called " books " of the ear- liest Chinese ages were bamboo tablets, varnished, upon which characters were inscribed with a metal stylus, but not a single specimen is known to be now in existence. The ten " stone drums," still to be seen in the Confucian temple in Peking, bear inscriptions in the character employed in the Chou dynasty, to OLD CHINA 37 which they probably belonged. The brush pencil with which the Chinese write their characters is ascribed by tradition to the third century B. c., though it may be earlier. Paper was an invention of the Han period, and was first made of silk (as one form of the character representing it shows, be- ing compounded of the radical signifying silk), but this was too expensive, and was succeeded by the inner bark of trees, old rags, and fish nets. In the year B. c. 190, the law of Ch'in Shih Huang against the existing literature was repealed, and a literary renaissance ensued, in which many thousand works, classical, philosophical, poetical, military, mathematical, and medical, were laboriously col- lected, but at the close of the dynasty during an insurrection they were all reduced to ashes. Nearly every succeeding dynasty has repeated the process of collection, the literary treasures at one time amounting to a load for " more than 2,000 vehicles.'* In later catastrophes these would be again and again destroyed or lost. Mr. Wylie's " Notes on Chinese Literature," from which these facts are quoted, men- tions five great " bibliothecal catastrophes," includ- ing that of Ch'in Shih Huang, in the final one of which, occurring at the beginning of the sixth cen- tury, the greater part of 70,000 volumes was burned. The Han dynasty was the formative period of Chinese polity and institutions. It was then that the system of competitive examinations had its rise, and the early rulers " developed literature, com- 38 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY merce, arts, and good government to a degree un- known before anywhere in Asia." Of the great T'ang dynasty, Dr. Williams remarks : " This cel- ebrated line of princes began its sway in peace, and during the 289 years they held the throne China was probably the most civilised country on earth; the darkest days of the West, when Europe was wrapped in the ignorance and degradation of the Middle Ages, formed the brightest era of the East. They exercised a humanising effect on all the surrounding countries, and led the inhabitants to see the benefits and understand the management of a government where the laws were above the officers. The people along the southern coast were completely civilised and incorporated into the Chinese race, and mark the change by always calling themselves ' Men of T'ang '." The second T'ang Emperor, T'ai Tsung (627- 650), was one of the greatest of Oriental monarchs. He cultivated literature and learning, building an enormous library close to his palace, reminding one in several ways of Alfred the Great. He became a patron of the Nestorian Christians, who had al- ready been in China much more than a century, but whose sole relic is a tablet of black marble erected in 781, which still stands in the suburbs of Si Ngan fu, in Shensi, where it was accidentally dug up by workmen in the year 1625. In a single year " embassies from a great num- ber of tributary Kingdoms and States came to the OLD CHINA 39 Capital to pay their respects and to offer tribute; and the great variety of languages spoken by the envoys and the great diversity of their costumes testified to the power and prestige of the Chinese Empire." The T'ang is remembered as the period in which the first somewhat rude printing was exe- cuted in China, five hundred years before the art was invented in Europe, as well as the epoch of the first paper money, so much in evidence a few centuries later under the Mongols. In this dynasty, too, within six years of the flight of Mohammed, his followers are said to have entered China, where they have ever since been established, especially in certain special provinces, to the present reputed number of perhaps twenty millions. They are of central Asian and not of Arabic descent. The T'ang was the golden age of Chinese poetry, of which a collection has been published during the present dynasty, running to the length of nearly 50,000 separate poems. Buddhism made great headway, owing to the unreligious nature of the teachings of Confucius, but when elaborate prepa- rations were made to receive with distinguished honour a bone of Sakyamuni (or Siddartha), the founder of the faith, China's ablest statesman and philosopher, Han Wen-kung, wrote an overwhelm- ing attack upon the innovation, which is still cher- ished as a model of unanswerable reasoning. He was punished by banishment to the southern fron- tiers of the Empire, where he tamed the barbarians 40 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY of the region now known as Swatow, returning later to enjoy honour while he lived and to become a god of literature after his death. He is also, strange to say, in some parts of China regarded as the tute- lary god of the Chinese village. Amid the internal and external struggles which constitute so large a feature of Chinese national history, " the eleventh century holds a marked place as the commencement of a new era in Chinese literature." Five unimpor- tant dynasties had given place to the Sung, which in a northern and a southern capital controlled the des- tinies of the Empire for more than three centuries. Ssu-Ma Kuang spent nineteen years of his life in preparing a Mirror of History from the Chou dy- nasty to his own time. The most distinguished man produced by China at the time of the Sungs was undoubtedly Chu Hsi (A. D. 1130-1200), who was at once a statesman and a voluminous author, and whose interpretations of the Classics, varying widely from those of the Han, have become the standard of orthodoxy ever since. The adoption of a hard and fast system of exegesis in works of so wide a scope and so vast a range has tended to run the intellectual and moral nature of the Chinese in cast-iron moulds, and is probably the principal factor in the unalterable fixity of China. The influence of Chu Hsi over the mil- lions of educated Chinese since his time may justly be reckoned as second only to that of Confucius and Mencius, whom he expounded. OLD CHINA 41 It is of interest to learn that more than eight centuries ago there was in China a socialistic states- man of the Sung dynasty, named Wang An-shih, whose influence over the Emperor whose reign is styled Shen Tsung (A. D. 1068-1086) was so great that he was allowed to put his ideas into practice. Among the reforms proposed by him were the fol- lowing : ( i ) The nationalisation of the commerce of the Empire. The taxes were to be paid in the pro- duce of the land and in manufactured commodities, and the surplus products and commodities were to be purchased by the Government, which would after- wards transport them to the different parts of the Empire where they were in demand, and sell them at a reasonable profit. This reform was intended to do away with the oppression of the rich, who bought from the poor at as low rates as possible, and, gain- ing control of the market, sold at exorbitant prices. (2) State advances for the cultivation of the soil. It was proposed that the Government should ad- vance capital to the poor farmers, to be repaid after the harvests in the sixth and tenth months, and that the rate of interest for such loans should be two per cent, per month. (3) The Militia Enrollment Act. It was proposed to divide the whole Empire into divisions of ten families, with a headman, with ad- ditional headmen for fifty families, and for five hun- dred. Each family with more than one son was bound to give one for the service of the State, like the landwehr. (4) The imposition of an income 42 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY tax for the construction of public works. This was intended as a substitute for compulsory labour, but it was impossible to ascertain the incomes, and the plan was violently opposed, and like all the reform- ers' schemes came to naught, ending in his disgrace. He is said to have been a man of frugality and of obstinacy, being always perfectly certain that he was right and every one else was wrong. It is a characteristic Chinese trait that all these innovations were based upon certain new and more correct interpretations of portions of the ancient classics. The name of Wang An-shih has gener- ally been treated with contempt by the historians of China, and his economic theories have been looked upon as dangerous and destructive innovations. Kublai Khan, of the Yuan or Mongol dynasty, was a grandson of the world-renowned Tartar, Gen- ghis Khan, who first carried his conquests over al- most the whole of Asia from the Pacific to the Caspian Sea, and then threatened Europe. Kublai Khan was a liberal and an enlightened monarch who adopted Chinese ways, patronised Chinese literature, and under whose rule the Empire greatly prospered. He extended the partial system of existing canals and dug new connections, so that Hangchow, in the Chekiang province, which was one of his capitals, was united by inland waterways six hundred or more miles in length with Peking (then called Cambaluc). This made the transportation of tribute rice inde- pendent of the long and dangerous sea route. It was OLD CHINA 43 in the reign of this great ruler that Marco Polo (1275) made his memorable visit to Cathay, so- called (from the Khitan Tartars), which may be considered the rediscovery of China by the West. The first Roman Catholic missionaries to reach China met with a reception from Kublai Khan not unlike that of the Nestorians from T'ai Tsung, of the T'ang dynasty. Under Kublai's rule the Chi- nese Empire became the most extensive domain that had ever been ruled by one man, stretching from the Yellow to the Black Sea, and from northern Mon- golia to the frontiers of Annam. The short-lived Mongol rule soon gave place to the Chinese Mings, who governed the Empire for more than three centuries, and then fell into decay, as all dynasties in China sooner or later do. Not one of the Ming monarchs was a ruler of the highest ability; but the dynasty as a whole makes a very good historical showing. It is of especial interest to Occidentals, because it embraces the earlier period of modern European intercourse with China, to which further reference must be made elsewhere. Like all the more important periods, the Ming era was a time of great literary activity. In its earlier years the Imperial library was said to contain 300,- ooo books and more than double that number of manuscripts. To bring this vast wilderness of learn- ing within reach, the second Ming Emperor, whose reign is called Yung Le, undertook one of the most gigantic enterprises in the annals of bibliography. 44 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY He appointed a committee of scholars "to collect in one body the substance of all the classical, his- torical, philosophical, and literary works hitherto published, embracing astronomy, geography, the oc- cult sciences, medicine, Buddhism, Taoism, and the arts." There were three presidents of the commis- sion, five chief directors, twenty sub-directors, and 2,169 subordinates. The work was completed in 1407 just five hundred years ago and contained in all 22,877 books, besides the table of contents, which occupied sixty books. During the siege of Peking in 1900, the Han- lin Academy, which contained the only known copy of this literary monument in the empire, was fired by the government troops, with the desire of burn- ing the British legation. A great number of the volumes were destroyed by fire and by water, the re- mainder being dispersed to libraries and museums all over the world. The second Emperor of the Manchu dynasty was K'ang Hsi (1662-1723), whose life was contempo- raneous with that of Louis XIV, of France. His long reign of sixty-one years was one of the most brilliant in all Chinese history, for he was " a great warrior, an able scholar, and a wise ruler." He endeavoured to stop foot-binding among Chinese girls, a practice dating from the T'angs, but, after four years of failure, the edict, lest it should cost him the throne, was withdrawn. As the men had been forced to adopt the Tartar cue, on pain of los- OLD CHINA 45 ing their heads, the inference that Chinese women were not susceptible of being controlled by Imperial decrees was not lost upon the Chinese themselves. Prof. Giles considers K'ang Hsi " the most suc- cessful patron of literature the world has ever seen." He caused to be prepared a great collection of ex- tracts in 1 10 volumes, an encyclopedia in 450 books, an enlarged Herbal, a complete collection of the most important philosophical writings of Chu Hsi, and also a great Lexicon of the Chinese language, embracing over 44,000 characters, illustrated by citations from authors of every age and style. His grandson, Ch'ien Lung, who on the comple- tion of his sixtieth year of rule abdicated his throne for the Chinese reason that he might not be guilty of an infraction of filial piety in reigning longer than his grandfather, was, like him, a man of letters, and executed great literary enterprises, including "(0, a magnificent bibliographical work in 200 parts, con- sisting of a catalogue of the books of the Imperial library, with valuable historical and critical notices attached to the entries in each, and (2) a huge to- pography of the whole Empire in 500 books, beyond doubt one of the most comprehensive and exhaust- ive works of the kind ever published." This mon- arch was likewise for more than fifty years an industrious poet, " finding time in the intervals of State duties to put together no fewer than 33,950 separate pieces " some of them, however, being distichs, or antithetical couplets, and others four- 46 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY line stanzas. He was also a warrior, and, like his grandfather, a successful statesman. His armies defeated the King of Burmah, and forced into sub- mission the fiery Gurkhas on the further side of the almost impenetrable Himalayas. When he died, in 1796, " from the steppes of Mongolia on the north to Cochin China on the south, from Formosa on the east to Nepaul on the west, the Chinese ar- mies had everywhere been victorious." It was not a happy omen that this military glory coincided with the period during which the pressure of the untam- able European in China began to be most irksome. Every Englishman, it is said, is an Island, and every American a Declaration of Independence. Every Chinese may be regarded as an epitome of twenty-five dynasties and of the reigns of more than two hundred emperors. IV A GREAT RACE STUDENTS of Chinese antiquity like Dr. James Legge, who translated and with abundant learning edited all the voluminous Chinese Classics, from in- cidental allusions in the Odes and the Book of History and from drawings on stones showing the domestic utensils, the dwellings, the agricultural implements, the modes of transportation of the Chou dynasty, conclude that the normal life of the average Chinese of to-day is in many of its essentials not unlike that of his ancestors of 2,500 years ago. To understand this fact and the reasons for it is of the utmost importance, if we are at all to comprehend China. Occidental history has generally proceeded along apparently irregular lines, resembling earth- quake shocks, producing geologic " faults." Chi- nese history, on the other hand, may be likened to the imperceptibly slow rise of a continent, which, leaving the natural scenery unaltered, conveys the erroneous impression that " all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." In the words of one of the most recent and most competent writers upon the Far East : " No other nation with which the world is acquainted has been so constantly true to itself; no other nation has 47 48 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY preserved its type so unaltered ; no other nation has developed a civilisation so completely independent of any extraneous influences; no other nation has elaborated its own ideas in such absolute segregation from alien thoughts ; no other nation has preserved the long stream of its literature so entirely free from foreign affluents; no other nation has ever reached a moral and national elevation compara- tively so high above the heads of contemporary States." l If " civilisation " be taken as signifying the replacing of physical by intellectual, and of in- tellectual by moral force, there can be no question of the antiquity, the extent, and the reality of Chinese civilisation. If, as we so unceasingly reaffirm, self- preservation is the first law of Nature, there can be no disputing that the Chinese have lived " according to Nature " nay, that they are the only people that have so lived, since they are the only ones who have survived ; and now, after several millenniums of rel- atively slow " progress," are beginning to show that they have a reserve fund of physical, mental, and moral energy which is not only not exhausted, but is practically inexhaustible. Is not this a phenom- enon worthy of our investigation? Reflections of this sort must occur to those who are confronted with the Chinese. One of the ear- liest expressions of them is to be found in a work called " The Chinese and their Rebellions," pub- lished more than fifty years ago by one of Her 1 Capt. F. Brinkley, in Oriental Series, " Japan and China," Vol. 10, page i. A GREAT RACE 49 Majesty's Consuls, Mr. T. T. Meadows, a man of philosophic temper and of large knowledge of China, in the form of a meditation while seated on the Great Pyramid : " These old stone blocks I am sitting upon, what different peoples they have looked down on in this Nile valley below! First their old hewers flourished and fell. Then came the Per- sians. Then the Greeks ruled here and founded Alexandria. After them came the Romans; their traces are visible in old Cairo there. Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans have all utterly disappeared from the face of the earth. They have been fol- lowed here by the Mohammedan Arabs, at first en- thusiastic fighters for the name of the One True God, now mere ' backshish hunters ' from these guides up to their Pashas. They too must vanish; they are in fact vanishing as a nation before our eyes. The Chinese started in the race of national existence with the oldest of the old Egyptians, long before this huge mound of stones was piled up. They outlived their ancient contemporaries. They outlived the Persians. They outlived the Greeks. They have outlived the Romans; and they will out- live these Arabs. For they have as much youth and vitality in them as the youngest of young nations. . . . Here are the Chinese who have pro- longed their existence for 4,000 years, and nobody asks how ? I believe I am the only man living that has given himself serious trouble to investigate and elucidate the causes. SO CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY " What narrow-viewed observers in some respects Occidentals are! Even Bunsen in his book on Egypt makes some slighting remark on the old Chi- nese, as compared with the old Egyptians. Yet the former had to the latter something of the supe- riority that mind has to matter. They both of them tried to preserve and perpetuate themselves. The old Egyptians tried to do it by working on dead matter. They mummied their bodies and wasted an enormous amount of labour in piling up these stone mountains, good for no purpose of true civili- sation; and Occidentals look back with respect on them for doing it. The old Chinese, Yao and Shun at the mere mention of whose names these same Occidentals break out into grins as broad as those of donkeys eating thistles the old Chinese fixed their eyes on certain ineradicable principles of man's mind ; and, working on these, have founded and built up a monument, the grandest and most gigantic the world has ever seen, a thoroughly national nation of 360 millions of rational, industrious, and ener- getic people. In an attempt to suggest by a few hints the sources of the great qualities of the Chinese people, one is confronted by the obvious impossibility of correctly epitomising elements so elusory and obscure, and withal so widely different from those with which we are familiar in the development of the West. As we have seen, there were in the legendary period of Chi- nese history men like Yao, Shun, and Yii, who were A GREAT RACE 51 called " Sheng," or Holy Men (not with reference to likeness to the character of a Holy Being, but as embodying the conception of completeness whole- ness). These men had an instinctive apperception of that Ultimate Principle which is the furthest and highest reach of Chinese philosophy the Absolute, the source of all things. For this reason their teach- ings were deemed absolutely true, and the Holy Books which comprised them are an infallible au- thority. Confucius (born in what is now the province of Shantung, B. c. 551, died 478), the last of this line of Holy Men, was both a philosopher and a states- man whose temperament and education fitted him to become, as he said that he was, a transmitter of the past for the reformation of the present. 2 Al- though at different times he held office, his main work was in training a large body of disciples and in editing the works of antiquity. It is these an- 2 "To these favouring conditions [of climate, etc.] we may well attribute the fact that here in the hills of Shantung the peculiar civilisation of the Chinese attained its highest devel- opment, and produced in the seventh and sixth centuries be- fore our era, a school of philosophers worthy to rank with their contemporaries in the West in India and in Greece. It seems a marvellous coincidence that three advanced schools of elevated human thought should have thus arisen in three distinct centres totally independent of each other; schools which fixed the type of the three great civilisations of the world the Chinese, the Indian, and the Greek, this latter the foundation upon which rests the modern civilisation of Europe and the West." Mr. Archibald Little in "The Far East," p. 23. 52 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY cient books, with his own additions, and those of his disciples, which form the Chinese Classics. " Immediately after the Holy Men are the wise and worthy men, or Sages. The Sage does not possess intuitively a full apperception of the work of the Ultimate Principle in men and things, nor the faculty of spontaneously yielding complete obedi- ence to the dictates of his own perfect human nature ; but he attains a full apperception and a complete obedience by dint of study and effort. The Sages stand therefore decidedly below the Holy Men; there are even degrees among the Sages, while the Holy Men, being from the first all perfectly wise and good, are all equal. Still, the Sage who does attain that highest standard of excellence which is the ob- ject of his efforts, stands as a teacher almost if not quite on a level with the Holy Man." Mencius (born also in Shantung B. c. 372, died 279) was the greatest of the Sages. The Chinese consider Heaven, Earth, and Man as a trinity, in which Heaven is Father, Earth is Mother, and Man is the product of the two. It is for this reason that the Emperor is the " Son of Heaven," while the Sun is his elder brother, and the Moon his elder sister. The three fundamental tenets of Confucian thought may be said to be (in the language of Mr. Meadows, from whom the preceding paragraph is quoted) : The Fundamental Unity which underlies the variety of phenomena in Nature ; the existence in the midst of all change of an eternal Harmonious Order; A GREAT RACE 53 and that man is endowed at his birth with a nature which is radically good. This latter doctrine may be considered as the threshold of Chinese learn- ing, since it is embodied in the opening couplet of the "trimetrical classic," dating from the Sung dynasty, which is generally the first book put into the hands of the little pupil, who learns to shout at the top of his voice : "All men at the beginning have a virtuous nature: "In their nature all agree, but in their practice they differ widely." Right rule is therefore merely the directing of human affairs in harmony with the law of heaven. Man's nature being thus perfectly good, its qual- ities as exhibited in active relation to the world are exhibited under the heads of Five Constant Virtues, represented in English by the words Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom, and Fidelity; but it must be noted that these words convey but a part of the meaning implied, especially in the case of "propriety," which connotes not only that which ought to be done under certain conditions, but the principles which lead to it. Heaven has placed men in certain fixed " relations," which are five in number, that of Prince to Minister, Parent to Child, Husband to Wife, Brother to Brother, and Friend to Friend. As a "religion," for which the Chinese employ only the word Instruction, the Confucian system of 54 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY thought involves the worship on the part of the Emperor of the powers of Nature, and on the part of both Emperor and people the worship of the Holy Men, Sages, and Heroes of the Past, who thus be- come practically deified. It involves especially the worship of ancestors, who stand in the relation of the fountain to the stream, and of the root to the tree. While the Chinese, like their great Master, Con- fucius, have always been agnostics in regard to a future life, the ceremonies of ancestral worship have always been regarded as of prime importance, and constitute their real religion. This worship may be regarded in one aspect as a memorial service, in which the worshippers are brought near to the de- ceased and the deceased are brought near to them. In another aspect, this worship is a formula im- peratively required by Filial Piety, and by which blessings and protection are afforded and ills are forefended. This dependence of the living upon the dead is matched by a like dependence of the dead upon the living, resulting in a substantial unification of the past and the present. " The individual char- acter of the Chinese, in which, with all its defects, there is so much to admire, owes much of its strength to the training which the young have always re- ceived in reverence both for living parents and au- thorities, as well as for dead ancestors." " The descendants are sharers in the virtues and illustrious deeds of their forefathers, and the forefathers again A GREAT RACE 55 are ennobled by the illustrious deeds of their pos- terity." The rites of ancestral worship and the age-long system of civil service examinations are doubtless the two leading factors in producing that mental and moral unification of the Chinese which has resulted in its homogeneity and perpetuity." The system of thought which we designate as Confucianism has many great excellences, and like- wise many inherent defects, each of which has brought forth fruit after its kind ; but we are in this connection concerned merely to show that it has been a mighty force producing through long peri- ods of time effects elsewhere unequalled. In the prefecture of Yen Chou, and the district of Ch'tt Fu hsien in the Shantung province, is the grave of China's " throneless King." After an interval of intermittent neglect, extending to about three centu- ries, this spot was recognised by Imperial command, and has been the objective of millions of pilgrim- ages for more than two thousand years. A few miles to the south lies the simple, unenclosed mound which marks the last resting-place of Mencius, whose influence in their long history is second only to that of the Master. It is an interesting fact that the renaissance of China is in Chinese thought indissolubly associated with that Master whose face at that remote period was toward the more ancient ancients, in the imita- tion of whom he saw his country's only hope. It is therefore significant that at the close of the year 56 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 1906, 2,384 years after his death, an Imperial decree was issued ordering that henceforth Confucius shall be honoured by the same ceremonies and sacrifices as are employed by the Emperor in the worship of Heaven and Earth. China has no Egyptian obe- lisks or Palmyran pillars, nor is the greatness of her civilisation in need of them. In this Empire, even more than elsewhere history is, in Carlyle's phrase, at bottom the story of its great men. In the second century of our era, under the Han dynasty, there was an official named Yang Chen, a native of Shansi, who was appointed Governor of a region now com- prised within the province of Shantung. As he passed through a certain city an old friend, who was now to be a subordinate to him, called upon him in the evening with the usual present of money from an inferior to a superior. " Surely," said Yang Chen, " though your old friend has not forgotten you, you have forgotten your old friend." " It is dark," re- plied his friend, " and no one will know." " Not know ? " said Yang Chen, " Heaven will know, Earth will know, you will know, and I shall know. How can you say, ' No one will know ' ? " And from this circumstance the ancestral hall of the Yang family is to this day called : " The Hall of Four Knowings." Through the decay of morals at court, Yang Chen lost his influence and his posts, and drank a cup of poison. He would receive no bribes. He laid up no store for his descendants, and when a friend remonstrated with him on leaving nothing A GREAT RACE 57 to his sons or grandsons, he replied : " If posterity should speak of me as an incorruptible official, would that be nothing? " Is it any wonder that he is rev- erenced to-day? Near the city of Wei Hui fu, in northwestern Honan, may be seen a large tumulus marking the burial-spot of an incorruptible minister, named Pi Kan, who, at the command of a wicked King, to whom he was related, was killed, to ascertain whether his heart had " seven openings," as that of a Sage is reputed to do. This happened in B. c. 1123, and the lesson of the consequent downfall of the Shang dynasty has never for a moment of the intervening three thousand years been forgotten; nor have maledictions on the tyrant and encomiums upon the minister ever ceased. This much having been said in regard to the back- ground of Chinese history and Chinese thought, it remains to speak of a few race-traits in which the qualities inherent in the Chinese may be concretely discerned. The first to be named follows immedi- ately from the data already presented. It may be termed Reverence for the Past. This is carried to a pitch which to the Occidental is simply incompre- hensible, and extends from the past as a whole to everything in it, considered in detail. Citations from the works esteemed as classical, and sayings embody- ing the fruit of the longest experience in the fewest words, are universally current, even among the illiterate, as an epitome of wisdom unquestioned 58 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY and unquestionable. The sum total of these dicta is " axiomatic China." More than any other race in Asia, probably more than any people in the world, the Chinese have the historic instinct, which, as has already been men- tioned, has produced the most voluminous annals of every period. Dynasties have come and have gone; but, as we have seen, the general current of Chinese history has not been essentially altered. In China it has always been profoundly felt that " through the ages one increasing purpose runs," not for the development of the new, but for the preservation of the old. Every province and every city has its own records. Family genealogies are considered of great importance, and in the case of the oldest clans they extend back for four-score generations. It is the immeasurable greatness of China of which the Chinese are, as it were, unconsciously proud, and to preserve it, if they can, has been at once their unconscious and their conscious aim. This is the root of that conservatism without which China would have long since disappeared, like those other great empires, the rise, development, and decay of which she has witnessed with a not unnatural feeling of calm superiority. To them the strange evolutions of Occidental history must resemble the antics of a mouse in a jar of oxygen. The Chinese have had very little oxygen, but then they have had very little death from an overdose. They have fallen into a A GREAT RACE 59 practical veneration of " old-time custom," as if it were a divinity. At the close of an address, in which this unchanging element of Chinese life and history was pointed out, as distinguished from the many short-lived empires and kingdoms of the Orient and the Occident, a bright English-speaking Chinese schoolgirl wished to inquire which is better for a nation, to have many evolutionary (and revolution- ary) changes and then go to pieces, or by avoiding them to become a hardy perennial? Perhaps the reader has his own preference. The Chinese likewise have theirs. From antiquity the Chinese have been imbued with a high regard for mental effort. The earliest char- acter in the first of the Chinese Classics the Mem- orabilia of Confucius is that signifying to " learn." When Chang Chih-tung, Governor-General of the two provinces of Hunan and Hupeh, wished to put forth a book which should stir the Chinese to the depths of their being with a sense of their own de- ficiencies, he entitled it simply, " Learn ! " 3 As the Chinese symbols of thought are unique in human literature, so likewise has been Chinese devo- tion to them. A singularly irrational system of in- struction and general poverty has produced among the great bulk of the common people a compulsory illiteracy, but it is always accompanied by a profound respect, not only for mentality, but even for the 8 The translator has paraphrased and expanded the author's meaning by rendering it into English as " China's Only Hope." 60 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY characters which embody it. Benevolent societies send men about the streets of cities with baskets, to. gather up scraps of paper upon which anything has been written or printed, receptacles being provided in which the paper is stored until burned in special furnaces. Western indifference to the fate of written or printed matter appears to the Chinese as an indi- cation of serious moral obtuseness. It is a popular proverb that to steal a book is not a crime. The trimetrical classic, already mentioned as the first handbook to which the scholar is intro- duced, teaches him that "Dogs watch at night; bees make honey; If one does not learn, he is inferior to animals and insects." At the head of the four classes into which, for many thousand years, mankind have been divided are placed Scholars ; Farmers and Workmen follow, and Merchants stand lowest of all, because they merely distribute and do not produce. Chinese officials, with their complicated series of nine ranks, each subdivided into primary and secondary, are discriminated as civil the word for which is the same as that for literature and military, the former respected and honoured, while the latter are rela- tively looked down upon. One of the current '* re- forms " is the elevation of the military official to a parity with the civil officer, in accordance with the custom of the West. A GREAT RACE 61 Confucius is considered as the embodiment of that moral teaching which has always commended itself to every Confucianist, that is, to every Chinese. When the Chinese perceive Occidentals to be experts in the use of natural forces, but apparently indiffer- ent to the principles of Reason (Li), and Propriety, or the code of social order upon which Confucius and his followers always laid so much stress and by which all human relations ought to be regulated, they not unnaturally conclude that while Westerners are ingenious in mechanics, they cannot have had the privilege of a moral training in the way of the Sages. It is, indeed, difficult to overstate the advantage of dealing with a people who are imbued with a thorough-going and an hereditary respect for reason and for moral ideas. A Chinese has for law, and for all the symbols of law and of government, an innate and ineradicable reverence. This quality, and the fact that their form of government has always appeared to them, when rightly administered, ideal, makes the Chinese, both at home and abroad, good subjects. When governed upon lines to which they are accustomed and of which they approve, they are more easily governed than any other people, for in that case it may be said that they govern themselves. In this connection should be mentioned the fact that the government of China, so far from being as is often supposed an " absolute monarchy," is mon- archical in form only, administered through numer- 62 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY ous Boards and Bureaux, resting ultimately upon the consent of the people, whom one of the most ancient Classics declares to be " the Root," and the agency through which Heaven speaks. Chinese his- tory, as we have seen, has never been a mere hum- drum of routine, but has bristled with rebellions, because the people would not permanently submit to maladministration. It is a popular proverb that "when magistrates oppress, the people rebel." In general it may be said that there is a rebellion in progress somewhere in China all the time; but the causes are generally local, and for lack of unity and of resources the revolts are often apparently extin- guished, like fire in coal-bunkers, which may in real- ity be smouldering below. China is honeycombed with secret societies of all sorts, which the government is utterly incompetent to suppress, but which it now and again attacks with savage fury, sacrificing many lives; after which things go on as before, the organisation sometimes merely altering its name. In purely local affairs, the officials generally take care not to interfere, for in these matters China is as democratic (albeit in a Chinese way) as America, and often much more so. If magistrates carry their oppression too far, the opposition may take the form of a boycott (an orig- inal and an ancient Chinese practice), the mer- chants closing all their shops, to the great distress of the people, whose clamour and whose threat of appeal to a higher official soon bring the magistrate A GREAT RACE 63 to terms. Occasionally the magistrate is forcibly and bodily carried to the provincial capital, where he is deposited at the yamen of the Governor with the message : " We will not have this man to rule over us." The active participants are banished, but the magistrate is removed. On other occasions his sedan-chair is smashed, not infrequently his yamen is wrecked, and sometimes, to avenge intolerable wrongs, he is killed with brutal violence. In these and in many other ways the Chinese illustrate their irrepressible democracy. The highest officers in the Empire in memorials to the throne constantly adduce this national trait as an apology for violence to foreigners, for opposition to the introduction of steam navigation on inland waterways, as well as opposition to railways and mines, and there is often much to justify their standard plea of helplessness. The inherent democracy of China is inexplicable until we remember that, like all other institutions, it has its roots in the remote past. Mencius " elab- orated and amplified the system of Confucius, and in the process of amplification he propounded some doctrines of an essentially democratic nature. He taught that the throne is based upon the people's will, that in the presence of well-founded popular discontent, a sovereign should abdicate; that humane government is the only way to power; that a revolutionary leader may be followed by the people to the mitigation of their hardships ; that a bad king may be dethroned by a minister who is 64 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY of royal blood, and even by one who, though lacking this qualification, is a Sage." " The Chinese people," says Mr. Meadows, " have no right of legislation, they have no right of self- taxation, they have not the power of voting out their rulers or of limiting or stopping their supplies. They have therefore the right of rebellion. Rebel- lion is in China the old, often exercised, legitimate, and constitutional means of stopping arbitrary and vicious legislation and administration." " As to practical freedom, a Chinese can sell and hold landed property with a facility, certainty, and security which is absolute perfection compared with English dealings of the same kind. He can traverse his country, throughout its 2,000 miles of length, un- questioned by any official, and in doing so can follow whatever occupation he pleases. He can quit his country and re-enter it without passport or other hindrance." In general, he pays no tax but that on land, which is probably the lightest in the world. Much of the lack of " progress " in modern China is due to the fact that while the foreigner is aggres- sive, the mandarins are ex oflicio obstructive, and the mass of the people immovable, so that the most strenuous effort simply produces friction and heat, and after all ends in inertia. It may be observed incidentally that, next to the Turk, the Chinese have most thoroughly systematised the art of masterly in- activity. The Tsung Li Yamen, or Chinese Foreign Office (abolished by the protocol of 1901 for one of A GREAT RACE 65 a different pattern), was happily likened by Dr. Martin to a micrometer screw, contrived to diminish motion, and was characterised by Lord Salisbury as merely a machine to register the amount of pressure brought to bear upon it. It is an innate conviction of the Chinese people that work, hard work, and plenty of it is a necessary condition of human existence. Never did any race better illustrate the proposition that " Honest work rules the world." The Chinese individually rises early and works late (with highly intermittent se- quence) ; at home and abroad, always and every- where, he works. Unlike those in other lands who have become victims of social theories, he does not entertain the fallacy that, irrespective of his merits, the world " owes " him a living. He quite appre- ciates the state of the labour market, and unlike some Western labourers, he does not knock off work as soon as he has something to spend. Gambling and opium-smoking are the most common, although far from universal, Chinese vices, which not infrequently extinguish the worker's energy in ruinous inaction. The talent for industry pervades all classes. The life of the farmer is one of hard work. In the south- ern part of the empire, farm-work literally never ends. In the north, the farmer often takes advan- tage of the enforced leisure season to go off to great distances, perhaps pushing a heavy wheelbarrow many scores, or even hundreds, of miles, loaded with some local product as cotton, or oil ; returning with 66 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY a different load just in time to begin again the heavy farm work. The variation of the fraction of a cent in the price of grain will suffice to set long lines of barrows and whole fleets of junks in motion. Because of the indefatigable labour bestowed upon it, Chinese farming rather resembles gardening upon a large scale. The contrast between the unkempt and neglected cotton patches in India, and the weed- less fields of the Chinese, is an index to quite different interpretations of man's relation to Nature. The merchant class is not behind the farmer in its willingness to put forth great exertion for light re- wards. Dealers, small and large, send out employees to markets and to fairs with packs on their backs, slung to carrying-poles, or loaded on barrows, start- ing early and returning late, after which an account must be taken of every separate article, and prepara- tion made for an early departure on the morrow. The life of a clerk in a Chinese shop of any kind is no sinecure, and the master often works harder than any of his men. There is much grinding, routine and few holidays. For intellectual toil the Chinese have a phenom- enal talent. They are willing to submit to years of memoriter drudgery for the mere chance of enter- ing an examination, where it is certain that not more than two or even one in an hundred can pass; and which, when they have passed this process (ac- cording to the old regime), has to be indefinitely repeated, Perhaps in the entire history of the world A GREAT RACE 67 no such misapplication of mental labour is to be found as in China; yet of this the Chinese them- selves have always remained happily unconscious. If the Chinese scholar is obliged to undergo fatiguing intellectual effort (under which he often breaks down in health), the life of an official hold- ing an important post is that of a galley-slave chained to his oar. In the Chinese system a single appointment frequently combines a variety of in- congruous functions. The same man may hold several different posts, many of the duties of which he must indeed commit to subordinates, but for all of which he is responsible. In general, no Chinese can hold even a sinecure office without much hard work, in the direction at least of contriving how not to lose it. The Chinese labourer has, with some exceptions, a steadiness, a sobriety, and likewise an intelligence, which not seldom renders him invaluable. He is thrifty and economical; yet when he receives good wages he is a liberal spender for what he wants, which makes him an excellent customer. A market among the Chinese, once gained, is said to be one of the most regular, and most susceptible of expansion, of any in the world. The Chinese have developed China to the utmost point of which it is capable without a more adequate knowledge on the part of the worker, and for this knowledge they are now seeking. The greater part of the habitable globe, on the other hand, is still un- 68 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY. developed. Nearly every country about the great Pacific Ocean needs labour, and abundance of it. Siberia, Alaska, British Columbia, the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Borneo, Java, the Philippines, though many of them exclude it, all need Chinese labour, which, all things considered, is the best in the world. The Anglo-Saxon is distinguished among the peoples of the earth for the rectilinearity of his speech. He calls a spade a spade, and not a garden implement. He congratulates himself upon his di- rectness, which is often a synonym for bluntness, and upon his sincerity, which is sometimes another name for rudeness. Social conventions he knows, and ob- serves when he must, but, like dress-suits and tall hats, they are to be got rid of as soon as possible. We understand that diplomacy requires caution, patience, gradual approach, tact, and suppression of the superfluous ; but for diplomacy the Anglo-Saxon has little taste and less talent. In this regard he is distinctly inferior to his Italian, Spanish, and French neighbours, but upon this inferiority he dwells with pride. The Oriental, who ages ago learned how best to oil the ways of social intercourse, is at an opposite pole. From his earliest years he is accustomed to forms, for to him forms are things. A Chinese boy or girl cannot be said to have any " awkward age," for they have been trained into a natural grace which is at once our envy and our despair. We are far A GREAT RACE 69 too apt to despise codes of manners which in our nervous, bustling, hurrying age are tending more and more to disappear. We denounce the ceremo- nious Oriental as insincere, because we fail to appre- hend the point of view of the Oriental. He is not necessarily more " insincere " than are we, when we subscribe ourselves (as some still do) " Your most obedient servant," or when we use the adjective " Dear," to introduce an angry letter. In each case the other party comprehends perfectly what is in- tended. An American bawls to a passer-by: " Hello! is this the road to Boston?" Whereas a Chinese would say: " Great Elder Brother, may I borrow your light to inquire whether this is the imperial highway to Peking ? " An American street-car conductor is hoarse from incessantly shout- ing : " Step lively, lady, step lively ! " We hear that under similar circumstances a Japanese conduc- tor quietly waits for every passenger, and when an intersecting route is reached, politely inquires: " Does any honoured guest desire a transfer to the Shimbashi line ? " No one who has lived for long in the East fails to recognise that the Oriental talent for courtesy is one of their rich gifts, which loses nothing from the lack of appreciation of those who can neither practise nor understand it. In his " English Traits," Emerson speaks appre- ciatively of the national ability to bring " oar to boat and salt to soup." In this respect the Chinese, who 70 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY is sometimes patronisingly referred to as "the Anglo-Saxon of Asia," is not only our equal, but often much more than our equal. According to his theology or cosmogony Heaven, Earth, and Man are a triad, of which, as we have seen, Man is the middle term, so that he has only to adjust himself to the others to produce perfect equilibrium. His world is theoretically one of moral order. Practi- cally, he finds it one of moral disorder, but taking his theory as a working hypothesis he does with it the best he can. Nowhere is man more identified with his environ- ment than in China " China and the Chinese," for neither would be the same without the other. The Chinese is not a natural inventor, but he has, as it were, stumbled upon some of the great facts of the universe. The mariner's compass, gunpowder (al- though this is disputed), and the art of printing; the manufacture of paper, the weaving of silk, the best methods of irrigation, the thorough-going fertilisa- tion of the soil (the latter a great advance upon the practice of most Occidental nations), with scores of other discoveries, we must credit to the Chinese. For ages they have ploughed their land in the au- tumn and not in the spring, a reform which the De- partment of Agriculture is now struggling under difficulties to teach the American farmer. Their methods of making lacquer, of ivory and wood carv- ing, and numerous other industries, show their talent for adaptation. A GREAT RACE 71 In the province of Ssu-ch'uan, in Western China, there is a certain species of privet to which in the month of March excrescences or scales are found attached. On being opened, these present a pulpy mass of minute insects like flour, which eventually develop six legs and antennae. This is the white- wax insect, the export of which from their breeding- ground to a region 200 miles to the north, over a series of mountain ranges, was formerly a much greater industry than since the general introduction of kerosene oil. The scales are made up into paper packets, weighing about sixteen ounces. The army of porters travel only at night, and at the resting- places open and spread out their packets in cool places. Upon their arrival, the scales are tied up in a leaf, bound with a rice straw, and are hung close under the branches of the white-wax tree, where the males excrete the wax to the extent, in favourable years, of four or five pounds of wax to a single pound of scales. The excreting process requires about an hundred days, when the twigs are cut off, placed in boiling water, and the wax of commerce is run into moulds. How came the Chinese to learn how to adapt themselves to this singular process of nature ? In the same province there are brine wells and petroleum wells more than 2,000 feet in depth, which have been worked by ropes made of split bam- boo for at least 1,650 years. Mr. Meadows instances the gentle and cautious Chinese method of coaxing a chicken into a coop, in 72 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY contrast with our habit of shouting, chasing with dogs, and hurling missiles, as an example of superior civilisation on the part of the Chinese, in exhibiting a better adaptation of means to ends. Every travel- ling Chinese tinker with his tiny charcoal stove and small kit of tools, who with little copper clamps can deftly join broken crockery, and do any kind of metal work with neatness, is in a different line another instance. Small Chinese children often ap- pear quite able to judge of the probable output of the family crop, and are familiar with the comparative cost of everything which the family buys or sells. " In every detail of handling and moving commodi- ties, from the moment they leave the hands of the producer in his garden-patch to the time when they reach the ultimate consumer, perhaps a thousand miles away, the Chinese trader is an expert. Times and seasons have been elaborately mapped out, the clue laid unerringly through labyrinthine currencies, weights, and measures, which to the stranger seem a hopeless tangle, and elaborate trade customs evolved appropriate to the requirements of a myriad- sided commerce, until the simplest operation has been invested with a kind of ritual observance, the effect of the whole being to cause the duplex wheels to run both smoothly and swiftly." It might be expected that if an average Chinese were suddenly dropped from the clouds upon an un- familiar spot of the earth's surface, he would make a rapid survey of his environment, and proceeding A GREAT RACE 73 (like the Yankee in the story navigating a captured stranded whale) to conform to the new conditions, would boldly and successfully face all competitors. A Chinese of experience always has a contrivance for every emergency, and frequently one of which no foreigner would have thought, and which he would not have known how to use if he had thought of it. It is this quality which makes the Chinese invaluable under strange conditions especially on long jour- neys. In a way which often seems to us clumsy, they achieve almost impossible results, as in trans- porting for long distances huge blocks of stone for Imperial tablets by webs of rope attached to a regi- ment of horses and mules. The scaffolding by the aid of which the huge towers over the city gates of Peking and other cities are erected, are them- selves works of art, and are all held together by ropes much more securely than by our method of driving precarious nails. Many years ago a partly built railway bridge in Tientsin was abandoned, the foreign engineers in vain applying steam-power to draw out the piles. When they had at last ex- hausted their energies, the Chinese securely lashed flat-bottomed boats to the timbers, and the rising tide at once pulled them out. The method by which nearly twenty years ago the Yellow River was in- duced to resume its old course through Shantung, instead of taking the short-cut to the south, was a marvel of ingenuity, and was successful despite the 74 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY predictions to the contrary of foreigners on the spot, both amateurs and experts. Climatically, the Chinese have no habitat. They flourish on the banks of the Amur, in the tropics, and everywhere between. Their physical vitality is the wonder of the world. But their intellectual adaptability is even more remarkable than their physical. Their traditional system of instruction has done little to make their minds alert, but much to render them receptive. The faculty of memory, which nearly all our modern systems of education either ignore or decry, but upon which literally every mental acquisition depends for its value, the Chinese have cultivated to an unexampled extent, being able to repeat books verbatim by the cubic foot. This gives an exactness of knowledge to which most Americans, at least, are strangers. More than half-a-century ago, Dr. Yung Wing, then a student at Yale College, took a prize for Eng- lish composition. From that day to this, Chinese students in all departments of learning mathe- matics, law, and oratory have constantly showed their equality with the rest, and not infrequently their pre-eminent superiority to most. When the age- long training of Chinese in lines totally unlike West- ern studies is considered, Chinese adaptation to such an intellectual atmosphere is recognised as a remark- able phenomenon. The Chinese system of government, by its persist- ance and in its effects, is one of the most unique A GREAT RACE 75 examples of organisation to be found in human his- tory. This system appears the more theoretically well-balanced the more it is considered. It has all the compactness and all the flexibility of a well- bound raft; and even if in rapids and whirlpools it works loose, it is soon securely lashed together again and the unending voyage is resumed as before. The democratic local government exhibits the phenom- enon of endless variety with substantial unity, and essential indestructibility. Chinese trade-guilds, like those in Europe during the Middle Ages a period of history in which China may be said to have been living until recently display a sinewy structure to which the Western world affords perhaps no anal- ogies. To run counter to their currents is to try conclusions with an adult iceberg. The units of every class of Chinese society know how to enter into an effective union like that of chemical atoms. Officials combine with officials against officials, and the resultant is that composition of motion which an American calls " practical poli- tics." Scholars, whose rights or whose dignity have been invaded by an official, collect in packs and rend him. Merchants, as already mentioned, wield the weapon of the boycott, the ultimate consequences of enforcing which will bring any official to bay. Salt- merchants and pawnshop keepers two licensed and semi-official lines of business are equipped to com- bat officials who strive to gratify at their expense the unquenchable thirst for silver. Yamen-runners, 76 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY compradores, middlemen of every sort and grade, all domestic and other servants, and in general all who do business for others, have an elaborate and com- plicated system of extracted percentages, which foreigners call " squeezes." They resemble the pressure of the atmosphere, silent, invisible, perhaps unfelt, equally distributed in all directions, and in- evitable. The great drawback in the exercise of the unique talent of organisation has always been mutual sus- picion, and the domination of personal, local, and class interests over the general welfare. There are indications that these serious disabilities are begin- ning to be less of an obstacle to united action. That in the new China they will tend to diminish is a moral certainty. From the days of Sir John Davis to the present time, the " cheerful industry " of the people has been the most notable sight in China. This is not incon- sistent with much inarticulate protest in particular cases, not against the system under which they live, but against the lot of the special individual. In the past, the Chinese army has been largely recruited from malcontents and runaways. It is true that Chinese men, women, and girls commit suicide on slight provocation for revenge or in despair. Yet these absolutely numerous cases are relatively few. The Chinese are unconscious fatalists. In the midst of surroundings which appear to Occidentals to offer nothing to make life happy, or even tolerable, they A GREAT RACE 77 move serenely on, without haste and without pause. Chinese content is often erroneously supposed to be based upon ignorance. Yet countless myriads hear without a sigh of other lands where wages are high and life more attractive than at home. The ills of their lives are accepted as we put up with our climate. It may be bad, but I cannot help it, neither can any one else, and that is the end of it. The impact of Occidental civilisation is perpetually introducing into China, if not a " divine discontent," at least a pro- found dissatisfaction with things as they are. But as yet this affects but a microscopic fraction of the population. The remainder, whatever may befall, will doubtless continue to exercise their phenomenal faculty not only for taking things as they come, but, what is much more difficult, for parting with them as they go, and in each case with that equanimity of spirit which we call " content." As we have already seen, the perpetual existence of the Chinese people is an illustration of this gift. It is a gigantic instance of the survival of the fittest. Their physical constitution enables them to live on coarse food, often in insufficient quantities, and yet to thrive. They can endure cold, heat, fatigue, hunger, and the loss of sleep. Their moral ideals have been higher than those of any other non- Christian nation, and of this fact they have con- sciously reaped the benefit in a solidity and a rotund- ity of character not elsewhere to be found in Asia. They are not lightly attracted to an alien faith, but 78 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY modern times have produced no more patient, heroic, and devoted martyrs than the Chinese. We may conclude with a quotation from Sir Robert Hart, who wrote shortly after the relief of Peking, where he, for nearly half-a-century an honoured and trusted high official of the Chinese Government, with many others, was threatened with massacre by Boxers and by Imperial troops under the immediate sanction of the Throne : " It must be freely allowed that the Chinese possess quite as large a share of admirable qualities as others, and that these are not merely to be found in isolated cases here and there, but are characteristic of the race as a whole and the civilisation it has developed. They are well-behaved, intelligent, economical, and indus- trious; they can learn anything and do anything; they are punctiliously polite; they worship talent, and they believe in right so firmly that they scorn to think it requires to be supported or enforced by might; they delight in literature, and everywhere they have their literary clubs and coteries for hear- ing and discussing each other's essays and verses; they possess and practise an admirable system of ethics, and they are generous, charitable, and fond of good works; they never forget a favour and they make rich returns for any kindness ; and though they know money will buy service, a man must be more than wealthy to win public esteem and respect ; they are practical, teachable, and wonderfully gifted with common-sense; they; are excellent artisans, relia- A GREAT RACE 79 ble workmen, and of a good faith that everyone acknowledges and admires in their commercial deal- ings. In no country that is or was has the com- mandment * honour thy father and thy mother * been so religiously obeyed as it is among the Chinese, or so fully and without exception given effect to, and it is in fact the keynote of their family, social, offi- cial, and national life, and because it is so their days are long in the land God has given them." The foregoing pages may be taken as an imperfect summary of a few great race-traits a sketch in charcoal far enough from completeness. Here, then, we have one of the remarkable races in the history of mankind. Perhaps the twentieth century may have no larger issue than the consideration of what is to be the relation between the Anglo-Saxon and the Chinese peoples. V THE BRASS DISH AND THE IRON BRUSH THE beginnings of the relations between the Occi- dent and China are lost in the mists of antiquity, but there is adequate evidence that perhaps as early as the opening of the second century B. c. " a commerce of appreciable magnitude existed between the Roman Empire and Northern China, silk, iron, and furs being carried westward, while glassware, woven stuffs, embroideries, drugs, metals, asbestos, and gems were sent to China. Syria or * Ta Ts'in ' [or Ch'in] , as the Chinese called it was the origin of this commerce, and Parthia was the half-way house, the transport being entirely overland." * These land routes were extremely difficult. " At the north the Ural Mountains interposed an almost impassable barrier, in the central region a great desert stretched almost continuously from the Mediterranean to India and China, and threatened the lives of men and animals which invaded it. At the south of that desert was that impassable mass of mountains known as ' The Roof of the World,' the Himalayas." On the other hand, however, it is said that " the topographical conditions along trans- 1 " Japan and China," by Capt. F. Brinkley, vol x., pp. 134 and 138-9. 80 BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 8l Asian routes to North China were very different two thousand years ago from what they are to-day. . . . Excavations now in progress tend to prove that a high state of culture existed among the people, that the art influences of Greece and Rome were felt there, that Buddhism was the religion of the inhabi- tants, and that they derived their civilisation from India. But owing, apparently to insufficient irriga- tion, the towns and villages were gradually buried under advancing sands, just as in the case of Egypt, and where gardens, avenues, and orchards once existed, there is now only a waste." 2 The conquests of Alexander the Gieat gave a great impulse to overland trade with China. The consolidation of the empire of the Western world under the Romans continued and expanded it. In the year 166 A. D., Marcus Aurelius sent a mission to China through Burmah and Yunnan, the Parthians monopolising and blocking the land route, and " thus it fell out, toward the close of the second century, A. D., that ships began for the first time to reach Canton, and commerce was partly deflected to the ocean path in the south from the trans-Asian routes to the north." In the last quarter of the fifth century, the Turks on the northern frontier of China bought silk and tea in exchange for articles of iron. In the seventh 2 "The Commercial Prize of the Orient," a paper in the National Geographical Magazine, Sept., 1905, by Hon. O. P. Austin, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics. . 82 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY century Arab traders from Java, the Malay Penin- sula, and Indo-China opened factories in various places between Persia and the Far East, as well as at Canton, which in the middle of the eighth century was a small place surrounded by aborigines. This is thought to be the first instance of foreigners set- tling in China for commercial purposes. We now come to an entirely different set of phenomena. The discovery of America by Christopher Colum- bus, at the end of the fifteenth century, was soon followed by the knowledge of two water-routes to the Far East, one of them around the Cape of Good Hope, through the Indian Ocean, exploited by the Portuguese, the other around Cape Horn and across the Pacific, which was pre-empted by the Span- iards. Within less than twenty years of the first voyage of the great Genoese, the Portuguese had reached Malacca (a tributary of China) and five years later (in 1516), almost four centuries ago, they arrived at Canton. They established " factories," or trad- ing establishments at Ningpo in the Chekiang prov- ince and at Ch'uan Chou (or Chin Chou), in Fukien ; but their conduct was marked by such ex- treme lawlessness that in the former place the Chinese people rose against them en masse, attack- ing the Portuguese colony, " destroying twelve thousand Christians, inclusive of 800 Chinese, and burning thirty-five ships and two junks." The special acts of the Portuguese to which the Chinese BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 83 took exception, were not merely infesting the coast as pirates from Ningpo to Ch'uan Chou, but making a raid on the tombs of some " Chinese Kings " in the neighbourhood, with a view to rifling them, and sallying out into neighbouring villages to kidnap Chinese women and girls. This expulsion happened in 1545, and, four years later, a like event happened at Ch'uan Chou, " and thus, by conduct of which, had the Chinese themselves been guilty of it, no condemnation would have been found too strong, the Portuguese permanently lost their footing on the mainland." Their first occupation of the small tongue of land, known as Macao, was gained by a deception, for, pretending that " certain goods falsely represented as tribute, had been injured in a storm and must be dried, they obtained permission to erect sheds at Macao for that purpose, and sub- sequently remained as tenants of the place on pay- ment of five hundred ounces of silver." Unable to expel them, the Chinese, in self-defence, subse- quently deliminated Macao from the mainland by putting up a stone wall. The next European comers were the Spaniards, who, having seized the Philippine Islands (1543), became suspicious of the Chinese, and perpetrated an indiscriminate massacre, during a period of several days, of all the Chinese on the islands. Many thou- sands were either put to the sword or sent to the galleys. This proceeding was repeated nearly sixty years later, when it was feared that the Chinese 84 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY settlers would ally themselves with a dreaded pirate known as Koxinga. Following the Portuguese and the Spaniards, came the Dutch, who signalised their advent by at- tacking indiscriminately both Portuguese and Spaniards. "They asailed Macao [1622] with seventeen ships, but being repulsed went to the Pescadore Islands, which they occupied [1624]," building a fort there and forcing the Chinese to la- bour for them. There was no quarrel between China and Holland. The two countries were complete strangers to each other. Thus their acquaintance opened first with an armed attempt on the part of the Dutch to drive the Portuguese from a place in China which the latter had leased to them, and, secondly, with the forceful seizure of another place in China's territory, though no state of war existed or even any cause of quarrel. In short, the Dutch intro- duced themselves to the Chinese in the guise of in- ternational freebooters." 3 The Chinese finding the lawless raids of the Dutch on the coast inconvenient, cleverly contrived to per- suade them to evacuate the Pescadores, and to re- move to Formosa, a large island opposite the Fukien province, which the Chinese had never occupied and to which they had, therefore, no claim. Harried by the enterprising Chinese military force, to Formosa the Dutch went, where they later put a stop to the promising work of converting the natives to Chris- 3 " Japan and China," vol. x., p. 180. BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 85 tianity, lest their trade with Japan should be jeop- arded that empire having expelled the Christians. At the end of a siege of nine months, and with the loss of i, 600 men, the Dutch after twenty-eight years of rule were permanently driven out of Formosa by the pirate Koxinga. In 1665, and again in 1795-6, they sent embassies to Peking, on each of which occasions they performed the " three kneelings and the nine head-knockings " to an empty throne, in the role of tribute-bearers. Dr. Williams briefly summarises De Guignes' account of their last journey to Peking, where the Emperor's " hauteur was a be- fitting foil to their servility, at once exhibiting both his pride and their ignorance of their true position and rights. They were brought to the capital like malefactors, treated when there like beggars, and then sent back to Canton like mountebanks to per- form the three-times-three prostration at all times and before everything their conductors saw fit; while the latter, on their part, stood by and laughed at their embarrassment in making these evolutions in tight clothes. They were not allowed a single opportunity to speak about business, which the Chinese never associate with an embassy. . . . Van Braam's account of this embassy is one of the most humiliating records of ill-requited obsequiousness before insolent government lackeys which any European was ever called upon to pen. The mis- sion returned to Canton in April, 1796, having at- tained no more noble end than that of saluting the 86 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY Emperor, and this, indeed, was all the Chinese meant should be done, when themselves suggesting the en- tire performance; for, in order to understand much of their conduct toward their guests, the feelings they entertained toward them must not be lost sight of." In the year 1839 tne Dutch issued an inter- dict against the admission of Chinese settlers to any of the Dutch-Indian colonies, since the skill of the immigrants threatened to engross the labour market. " It was left," as Captain Brinkley remarks, " for the Dutch to practise exclusiveness against others while claiming liberality for themselves. Other nations, however, are not ashamed to follow in the same course even in the twentieth century." The first foreign treaty which the Chinese ever concluded was that of Nerchinsk with Russia in 1689, by which that power was compelled to retire from territory which she had held for eight and thirty years. Yet despite this rebuff, and notwith- standing the long conterminous frontier of Russia and China, these countries contrived for more than two centuries to get on without any of those hostili- ties experienced in the case of every other nation. The process of stealthy absorption of Chinese ter- ritory, euphemistically termed " painless identifica- tion," which went on unimpeded for nearly half-a- century, was in 1905 abruptly checked by the decisive victory of Japan in the Tsushima Straits. The English introduced themselves to China long after the Continentals (1637), but were bitterly BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 87 antagonised by the Portuguese, who represented them to the Chinese as " rogues, thieves, and beg- gars." In consequence of this the Chinese forts fired upon the English ships, by whom the fire was furiously returned for two or three hours, when the fort was taken, and the English colours displayed. A letter was then despatched to the officials at Can- ton remonstrating against the attack, explaining the capture of the fort, and asking for liberty of trade. With these preliminary amenities, English com- merce with China was opened. As the Ming dynasty was then tottering to its fall, nothing further was attempted in the way of trade until 1664, when the effort came to naught through the jealousy of the Portuguese, who never lost an opportunity of misrepresenting to the Chinese the character and designs of the English. In 1670, the English were successful in making a treaty with the ex-pirate Koxinga, who ruled Formosa. " This, the first commercial convention concluded by a European power with a Chinese potentate, is specially inter- esting because of its explicit provision on the subject of jurisdiction. The extra-territoriality principle received clear recognition, the ' King ' undertaking to punish all wrongs or injuries done by his subjects to the British, and the latter undertaking a similar duty of redress in the case of Formosans." The bold, adventurous spirits who in the seven- teenth century navigated European vessels to the Far East, were men cast in rough mould, with but 88 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY scanty traces of the suaviter in mo do, and with an exuberant over-supply of the fortiter in re. French and English sailors fought each other in the Canton river, until, to keep them as much as possible apart, the Chinese had to assign them different islands as places of recreation. Ships of different European nationalities repeatedly attacked one another in Chinese waters, and the Chinese, who never heard of international law, yet recognised the fact that this was a breach of decorum. In 1814, during the war between Great Britain and the United States, a British frigate, totally disregarding Chinese rights, cruised off Canton to seize American vessels, block- ading some, capturing one and taking her into port, and, chasing another to the vicinity of Canton, took her, upon which the Americans in turn armed their boats and retook her. The Chinese tried to get the representative of the East India Company to send away the disturbing vessel, which he professed him- self unable to do, upon which the Chinese employed the only means open to them : preventing the employ- ment of native servants and stopping the cargo- boats. " The whole story is a string of paradoxes, the river at Canton converted into an arena of belligerent operations by British and American ships; the Chinese remonstrating against such a flagrant disregard of international law, and being placidly told that it could not be cured and must be endured ; their attempts to assert their national rights by hampering trade ; the foreign merchants retaliat- BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 89 ing by stopping the trade altogether ; and finally the Chinese, who were the wronged party throughout, being compelled to make many concessions in order that the foreigner might consent to resume the busi- ness which alone held him in Canton." In England great interest was felt in the expensive and spectacular embassy of Lord Macartney to Peking (1792-3), which cost the Chinese Govern- ment $850,000 for its entertainment. But it was a mere exchange of courtesies and did no business, the net result being a formal letter from the aged Em- peror Ch'ien Lung to the King, informing him that hereafter trade must be strictly limited to Canton. The later mission of Lord Amherst, in 1816, was even less successful, being peremptorily sent away, because the ambassador refused to go in unprepared to a sudden audience with the Emperor. It is thought that the Chinese Government was alarmed and offended by England's expansion in India, where " she had just won victories in regions overrun twenty-four years previously by the troops of the Middle Kingdom." The expense of this embassy is supposed to have been fully as great as the pre- vious one, and it is not surprising that it had no suc- cessors. It is instructive to hear that when Lord Amherst reached Canton, on his return journey, " he found that the British frigate Alceste, which was to carry him home, had been occupied in firing on the Chinese flotilla and bombarding the Chinese forts during his absence in the interior." The frigate had 90 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY been assigned to a berth lower down the river than her commander thought suitable, upon which he moved leisurely up the river, and being fired upon, silenced the war-junks and drove the garrison from the forts. It is difficult at the beginning of the twentieth cen- tury to comprehend the anomalous conditions pre- vailing in Chinese waters at the close of the eighteenth century. A large number of vessels from many countries had come, all bent on trade. The Chinese have always had a commercial instinct in no way inferior to that of the Greek and the Jew. The foreign commerce was profitable to both sides. The Manchus, however, who had come into the magnificent heritage of the Chinese Empire with comparatively little effort, never forgot that they were themselves aliens, and felt an instinctive and not unnatural jealousy of the unknown strangers from foreign lands, whose future relations with the Chinese subjects might lead to serious complications. K'ang Hsi (1662-1723) and his grandson, Ch'ien Lung (1736-1796), were two of the ablest monarchs who had governed China for a thousand years. Under their rule especially that of the latter as we have already mentioned, the bounds of the Chinese dominions had been greatly extended. Is it strange that the Manchus had no intention of risk- ing the security of their hold upon this great empire for the sake of a trade which they probably regarded with comparative indifference, if not with absolute BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 91 dislike ? How could they know what would happen when the Western barbarian once got a footing on Chinese soil? If he could not be kept out alto- gether, as they desired, he could at least be penned up in the " factories " at Canton, upon a piece of ground perhaps a quarter of a mile in length, with a promenade an hundred yards by fifty, occupied by barbers, fortune-tellers, and idlers. The Chinese, who have always been amenable to the most dangerous of all flattery, the inferiority of what was about them, entertained as it were ex ofhdo an unquestioning conviction of their own su- periority to all mankind. To this feeling the Manchu, who certainly had no claims to it on his own account, was by a simple syllogism the heir. The Chinese had always been the foremost race under Heaven. The Manchus had recently demon- strated their superiority to the Chinese. Therefore, the Manchu was the Top-piece and Lord of All-un- der-Heaven. For this reason, it was the Manchu cue not merely to discountenance foreign inter- course and trade, but to indulge in these extravagant assumptions of pre-eminence by making " a striking show of overlordship in their dealings with every foreign nation, in order to produce a wholesome im- pression on the minds of their Chinese subjects." The view of the Chinese and the Manchus as to their status among the peoples of the earth was handsomely matched by that of the foreigners com- ing to China, who regarded the Chinese with open 92 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY contempt. They knew nothing of the language, and cared less than they knew. An enterprising Eng- lishman, the first to learn Chinese, had the boldness to travel from Canton to Peking (communication being denied him at Ningpo) to lay a complaint against the exactions of the " Hoppo " of Canton, As a net result, his Chinese amanuensis, for giving assistance to an alien, was beheaded; the official complained of was degraded and the fees were re- duced; and the enterprising linguist was himself banished from China, in view of which it is not perhaps singular that the study of the language never attained popularity. The foreign communities in China were a law unto themselves, living, in the felicitous phrase of Dr. Williams, in a state of nature. A British wit- ness examined by a parliamentary committee at a later date, frankly testified : " We never paid any attention to any law of China, that I recollect." Despite Imperial prohibitions, constant efforts were made by the merchants to extend the area of their trade, but the officials, acting under orders from Peking, always thwarted them. To act as inter- mediaries between the officials and the foreign mer- chants the Chinese Government appointed a body of Chinese merchants who were responsible for collect- ing the foreign dues, for the transactions of each supercargo, and for the behaviour of the crew while in port. This was the famous " co-hong," an emi- nently Chinese contrivance, which, while not free BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 93 from serious embarrassments and abuses, was prob- ably the only practicable method of attaining the end in view. It was only when a foreigner had killed a Chinese that the Chinese Government interfered and de- manded the surrender of the accused. Portuguese, English, and Americans, each in turn, complied with this requirement. In 1821, an American sailor named Terranova, who had inadvertently dropped a dish on the head of a boatwoman, was suffered to be dragged from his ship and taken into the city for " trial," where he was publicly strangled at the execution ground. The next day his body was returned and the trade was resumed. A radical difficulty from the beginning was the absence of any foreign authority to deal with foreigners. In this particular case, it is a disgraceful fact that no notice of the affair was taken, and no remonstrance offered against the injustice suffered, but the Amer- ican Government, as Dr. Williams remarks, " still left the commerce, lives, and property of its citizens wholly unprotected at the mercy of Chinese laws and rulers." The local Chinese authorities always made a rich harvest out of the trade, and save in great emer- gencies were most reluctant to stop it. When their extortions were unusually onerous, the British mer- chants, on their part, sometimes adopted Chinese tactics, and took themselves off to seek other markets, but with slight success. Much of the 94 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY early European intercourse with China was thor- oughly discreditable, whether regarded from the point of international interests, of international law, or of common sense. " There was no such person as a consul ; no such thing as a convention ; no such thing as a recognised division of jurisdiction; no such thing as a mutual agreement about the mode of doing business; no such thing as a fixed tariff, or harbour regulations, or police. Each side had to be guided by its own instincts." When the accumulation of differences had made a friendly settlement impossible, Lord Napier, irri- tated by the studied superciliousness of the Gover- nor-General, referred to him in a despatch to the British Government as " a presumptuous savage," who was guilty of " base conduct," and who cared nothing for commerce " so long as he received his pay and his plunder." In addition to this, he pub- lished a document in Chinese for the edification of those under the rule of H. E. the Governor-General, charging him with " ignorance and obstinacy." One may well agree with Captain Brinkley, from whom this incident is quoted, that " it might be dif- ficult, as between the two dignitaries, to award in this particular instance the palm of civilised cour- tesy and prudence." Although opium has been known to the Chinese for a thousand years, it was not until the early part of the eighteenth century that it attracted the at- tention of the Chinese Government, which in the BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 95 year 1729 issued a drastic decree punishing the seller with the cangue (a heavy wooden collar) and with banishment, and the keeper of an opium den with imprisonment and strangulation. All having complicity in the sale, transportation, or import of the drug were likewise liable to severe penalties. To what extent this edict was enforced is not known, but the opium trade went on as before under the name of " foreign medicine." In 1781, the East India Company took charge of the opium produc- tion in India (although after the close of that cen- tury it was not imported into China in their ships). Despite its liability to the severest penalties, the opium trade was carried on in British, American, and in Portuguese vessels, the officials being corrupt and the profits great. When the spread of the vice of smoking evoked a new Imperial edict against it, the only result was a great increase of smuggling, and the occupation by British smugglers of a small island, called Lintin, lying between Macao and the mouth of the Canton river, which became not only a headquarters of smugglers, but at times the resi- dence of the British Superintendent of Trade. The proceeds of the illicit sales were shared by all the Chinese officials concerned, from the highest down. Without entering into the details of this sinister trade, it may be said in a word that when a High Commissioner named Lin arrived at Canton (March, 1839), demanding that all opium be sur- rendered to him, and that bonds be given that no 96 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY more should be imported, a decisive crisis in British (and all other) trade with China had been reached. The ensuing war between Great Britain and China was a turning-point in the history of China, of the Far East, and in some measure of the world. The matured judgment of one of the latest commentators on these events will be of interest to the reader as a temperate statement of the existing conditions. " When the above facts are reviewed, it becomes plain that this conflict, the first open war between China and a European Power, had its remote origin, primarily, in Great Britain's failure to organise any machinery for the control of her nation's trading in China, and, secondarily, in her objection to their control by Chinese machinery; and had its proxi- mate cause in an ill-judged attempt on the part of the Chinese to terminate by hasty and heroic measures a trade which had attained large dimen- sions through the corrupt connivance of her own officials. Morally, the Chinese were altogether in the right; tactically, they blundered. No nation ever entered the lists with better warrant, if the se- quence of incidents alone be considered. " The British Government itself, when it essayed to state its cause at the bar of public opinion, could not find more plausible counts than that its subjects had been insulted and injured; that its merchants had sustained loss, and that trade relations must be secured against such disturbance. Many apologists contended that the radical trouble lay in China's BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 97 arrogant assumption of superiority to all outside nations, and her refusal to associate with them on equal terms. As to that, it must be observed that the pettiest Occidental nation has always claimed to be immeasurably superior to China, and has always refused to associate with her on equal terms. Her pretensions are paralleled and surpassed by those of the people that condemn them most loudly. Every European and every American openly asserts his racial eminence above the Chinese, and to class him with them would be an unforgivable insult. It was not because China set herself above Great Britain that the latter failed to provide means for the due control of her subjects trading within the former's territories. It was because in China's case Great Britain acknowledged no obligation to conform with international usages, never neglected in the Occi- dent. Neither was it because of any pride of race that China gradually narrowed her associations with foreigners until Canton became the sole lawful emporium of their trade. It was because their dis- orderly and masterful conduct had displayed them in the light of intolerable associates. It was not because she entertained any project of terminating their commerce and driving them from her coasts that she instructed Commissioner Lin to adopt the measures which finally involved her in war. It was because they had introduced into their commerce an unlawful element which threatened to debilitate her people, morally and physically, and to exhaust her 98 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY treasure. But for opium-smuggling by British sub- jects, the war would never have taken place, so far as human intelligence can discern. History can have only one verdict in the matter. It is impossi- ble to doubt that had opium been an insignificant article of commerce, a country where the public con- science is so highly developed as it is in England would never have officially associated herself with such a traffic, or questioned China's right to crush it by the exercise of any measures, however drastic. But opium was not an insignificant article of com- merce. It was the lubricant which kept the whole machinery of England's trade running smoothly and satisfactorily. India owed England a large sum, and further bought from her every year much more than she sold her. To redress the balance and to meet payments on account of interest and prin- cipal, considerable sums of specie should have been annually transmitted from Calcutta to London. On the other hand, England's purchases every year from China greatly exceeded her sales to her, and consequently some millions sterling of specie should have been sent annually from London to Canton. Here it was that opium performed such a cardinal function. India discharged her debt to England with opium, and this being carried by British mer- chants to China England in turn discharged her debt to China with the drug. Thus, in fine, the flow of specie from India to England was avoided, and to complete the economic advantage the British BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 99 Government of India derived a bulky item of revenue by taxing the opium before its shipment to China. If the magnitude of a sacrifice on the altar of international morality excuses reluctance to make it, there is much to extenuate England's offence. If the vastness of the material interests involved im- poses upon statecraft any obligation of circumspec- tion in dealing with them, the reckless precipitancy of Commissioner Lin's attempt to kill this giant commerce by a thunder-clap process of extinction deserved the fate which overtook it." 4 Perhaps it may be allowable to take a single ex- ception to the remark of the judicious writer just quoted, where he says that " but for opium-smug- gling by British subjects, the war would never have taken place, so far as human intelligence can dis- cern. History can have but one verdict in the matter." Opium-smuggling by British merchants undoubtedly led to the war, but, as we have seen, the conditions were so anomalous, and the moral in- capacity of each side to see the other's point of view so complete, that one might with equal justice say that sooner or later the conflict must have been precipitated if the poppy plant had never been dis- covered. (Incidentally it may be suggested that it is not easy to see how " history " can have a " verdict " upon what under different conditions would or would not have happened, which is at best only matter of probable opinion.) This is made the *" Japan and China," voL ii., pp. 12-15. ioo CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY more obvious because in less than fifteen years after the treaty of 1842 the complaints on the part of the British against China had so accumulated, with ag- gravated and mordant concomitants, that another war was inevitable. That a lucrative traffic does not tend to clear the moral vision of those who partici- pate in it is by no means a novel truth. Opium- smuggling neutralised the stern edict of 1729 against the drug, and but for that smuggling there is no obvious reason why China might not have a3 successfully freed herself from the curse as Japan, who strangled the serpent before it had grown strong enough to strike. That opium has been a greater evil to China than war, famine, and pesti- lence combined, although probable, is not indeed susceptible of apodeictic proof. In the book already mentioned, called " China's Only Hope," Governor- General Chang Chih-tung has a chapter entitled " Cast Out the Poison," in which he declares that " opium has spread with frightful rapidity and heartrending results through the Provinces. Mil- lions upon millions have been struck down with the plague. To-day, it is running like wildfire. In its swift, deadly course it is spreading devastation everywhere, wrecking the minds and eating away the strength and wealth of its victims. Unless something is soon done to arrest this awful scourge in its devastating march, the Chinese people will be transformed into satyrs and devils. This is the present condition of our country." After BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 101 prolonged agitation of the subject on the part of those who insist that national acts must take account of moral principles, the House of Commons in May, 1906, which had twice before passed similar votes by small majorities, adopted, by unanimous vote, a resolution that the export of opium from India to China is morally indefensible, and requested the Government of India to put an end to it. The only logical outcome of this gradual change of front is the ultimate cessation of the trade, and aid given to China in freeing herself from its effects. At present the Chinese Government is engaged in an apparently sincere attempt to put an end to the smoking, the sale, and the cultivation of opium, but probably with- out an adequate conception of the almost but not wholly insuperable obstacles. From the signing of the treaty of Nanking, in 1842, to the close of the century, amid all the per- mutations and combinations of politics and policies, there was never a time when China and the Western Powers understood one another. Many foreigners in China were autocratic, dictatorial, and openly contemptuous of the rights of the Chinese. The latter, and more especially the ruling Manchus, were narrow of vision, relatively ignorant, conceited, ob- structive, obstinate, and insincere, in Lord Elgin's phrase, " yielding nothing to reason and everything to fear." They had no wish, and no reason to wish, to come into the " sisterhood of nations," and when forced to join the happy family they employed 102 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY their wonderful talents in successfully playing off one Power against another. Fresh troubles constantly arose, each one being generally settled by opening other ports, which fre- quently led to more troubles to be adjusted by yet more ports. Adequately to treat of the complex causes of these phenomena would of itself require a small volume. 5 Western Powers had sent to China far too many men of the type of Sir Harry Parkes (whose statue adorns the Shanghai water-front), who mistrusted all Chinese and who would put up with no " nonsense " from obstructive officials ; and far too few of the Lord Elgin variety, whose sim- ple rule was never to make an unjust demand, and never to retreat from a demand once made. In the remarkable articles (already quoted) pub- lished by Sir Robert Hart immediately after the close of the siege of Peking, the author, whose ex- perience in China and whose knowledge of the Chi- nese point of view is altogether unequalled, devotes some paragraphs to an effort to make his readers understand what that point of view is. As no other foreigner in China can speak with equal authority we cannot, perhaps, do better than to quote these significant sentences, observing parenthetically that he has (doubtless for reasons) altogether ignored 6 Those who seek a fuller presentation of this topic are re- ferred to chapters ix., x. and xi. of Holcombe's "Real Chi- nese Question" (reprinted in England in cheap form under the title: "China's Past and Future"), and to the first eight chapters of the author's " China in Convulsion." BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 103 many important items, such as the fixing for China by the Powers of a low and practically unalterable rate of import duty ; the destructive effects on China of the commercial intrusion of foreigners; and es- pecially the unbridled territorial aggression by which nearly the whole seaboard of the Empire, as well as the Provinces bordering on the great Yang- tzu River, were either the present or the intended " sphere of influence " of some European govern- ment, or actually " leased " to them, from Kuang Chou Wan and Kowlung in the far south, to Kiao Chou, Wei Hai Wei, and Port Arthur in the north not a port being left in which the Chinese could mobilise their own navy! The position which the Chinese take up, said Sir Robert Hart in 1900 (and the case is very much stronger now), may be said to be this: "We did not invite you foreigners here, you crossed the seas of your own accord and more or less forced your- selves on us. We generously permitted the trade you were at first satisfied with, but what return did you make? To the trade we sanctioned you added opium-smuggling, and when we tried to stop it you made war on us ! We do not deny that Chinese con- sumers kept alive the demand for the drug, but both consumption and importation were illegal and pro- hibited; when we found it was ruining our country and depleting our treasury, we vainly attempted to induce you to abandon the trade, and we had then to take action against it ourselves. War ensued; 104 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY but we were no warriors, and you won, and then dictated treaties which gave you Hongkong and opened several ports, while opium still remained con- traband. Several years of peaceful intercourse fol- lowed, and then Hongkong began to trouble us; it was originally ceded to be a careening-place for ships simply, but, situated on the direct route to the new ports, it grew into an emporium, and also, close to our coast and rivers, it became a smuggling centre ; in your treaties you had undertaken a certain control of any junk traffic that should spring up, but when that traffic became considerable you dropped the promised control, and our revenue suffered. " Originally uninhabited, Hongkong now became the home of numerous Chinese settlers, many of them outlaws who dare not live on the mainland; these became British subjects, and you gave the Brit- ish flag to their junks, which were one day British and another day Chinese, just as it suited their pur- pose; and out of this came the 'Arrow' war, fol- lowed by new treaties, additional ports, legalised opium, and fresh stipulations, in their turn the cause of fresh troubles. Whether it was that we granted you privileges or that you exacted conces- sions, you have treated the slightest mistakes as vio- lations of treaty rights, and, instead of showing yourselves friendly and considerate, you insult us by charges of bad faith and demand reparation and indemnities. Your legalised opium has been a curse in every Province into which it penetrated, BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 105 and your refusal to limit or decrease the import has forced us to attempt a dangerous remedy; we have legalised native opium not because we approve of it but to compete with and drive out the foreign drug, and it is expelling it, and when we have only the native production to deal with, and thus have the business in our own hands, we hope to stop the habit in our own way. Your missionaries have been everywhere teaching good lessons, and benev- olently opening hospitals and dispensing medicine for the relief of the sick and the afflicted, but wher- ever they go trouble goes with them, and instead of the welcome their good intentions merit, locali- ties and officials turn against them; when called on to indemnify them for losses, we find to our as- tonishment that it is exactions of would-be mil- lionaires we have to satisfy! Your people are everywhere extra-territorialised ; but instead of a grateful return for this ill-advised stipulation, they appear to act as if there were no laws in China, and this encourages native lawlessness and makes con- stant difficulties for every native official. " You have demanded and obtained the privilege of trading from port to port on the coast, and now you want the inland waters thrown open to your steamers. Your newspapers vilify our officials and our Government, and, translated into Chinese, circu- late very mischievous reading; but yet they have their uses, for, by their threats and suggestions, they warn us what you may some day do, and so io6 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY help us indirectly, although that does not conduce to mutual respect and liking. All these things weaken official authority therefore the official world is against you; and they hurt native traders therefore the trading classes are indignant. What countries give aliens the extra-territorial status? What countries allow aliens to compete in their coasting trade? What countries throw open their inland waters to other flags ? And yet all these things you compel us to grant you ! Why can you not treat us as you treat others? Were you to do so, you would find us friendly enough, and there would be an end of this everlasting bickering and these continually recurring wars ; really you are too short-sighted, and you are forcing us to arm in self-defence, and giving us grudges to pay off in- stead of benefits to requite." The Golden Rule of Christ teaches us to do to others as we would have them do to us. In ac- cordance with the usual negative forms of expres- sion and the passive temperament of the Chinese, the Confucian dictum was not to do unto others as we would not have them do unto us. The version of " David Harum," to do to the other man what he wants to do to you, and to do it first, is that upon which Western Powers in China have for the most part acted. The time has now come when this is no longer possible. It is im- perative that there should be a radical readjustment BRASS DISH AND IRON BRUSH 107 of the relations between the West and the East. The mutual suspicions and antagonisms of the past must be replaced by reciprocal enlightenment, friendliness, and confidence. By what means this is to be accomplished, is one of the largest and most important of living questions. VI. THE NEW FAR EAST AND THE NEW CHINA THE British Empire is in a way the modern rep- resentative of the ancient Roman Empire, not merely because in a geographical, commercial, and financial sense the first meridian runs through its capital, but because it is the centre of a ganglion of inter- ests which literally embrace the globe. For this reason, the intelligent reader of a great London daily will be able to learn the conditions prevailing in lands, to use the phrase of the old geographies, civilised, semi-civilised, and savage. The reader of the most comprehensive American journal will, however, as a rule derive from its columns very little co-ordinated information about the world at large, and such items as are given (owing to the exigen- cies of an " afternoon edition " which appears about ii a. m., and an "evening edition" which is hawked about the streets at 3 p. m.) are largely un- classified. Intelligence of a revolt on a Russian man-of-war is preceded by an account of a subway accident, say at Seventieth street, New York, and followed by a lurid narrative of an earthquake in Valparaiso, and also of the efforts of a man in the Bowery to sever his wife's jugular vein with a 108 NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 109 table-knife. This is not, we are told, because American journalists are unenterprising, but be- cause the American demand for information in re- gard to what goes on abroad is homeopathic. It may be said in general that there is in the United States no class of men with a broad and funded knowledge of anything outside of our own national interests, more particularly of those lands the languages of which we do not understand. We are without anything analogous to the retired civil service men of Great Britain, who, taken in the aggregate, have concerning a large part of the world a knowledge which is exact, comprehensive, and universal. Americans, on the contrary, may rather be said to entertain what Bismarck termed " a vast and varied ignorance " of anything and everything at a distance. For much of their infor- mation regarding many foreign lands Americans are indebted to missionaries, who, as a rule, are men and women of culture, having a familiarity with the lan- guages and the peoples possessed by no others, and who are not infrequently almost the only permanent foreign residents of the countries to which they are sent. To them merchants, travellers, and especially newspaper correspondents, are under the greatest obligation. Our British cousins have long been aware of the fact, which Americans have as yet scarcely discov- ered at all, that the opening years of the twentieth century find a large part of the world in a transi- HO CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY tional state. Following the Boer war, the most delicate problems of readjustment tax the utmost skill of the wisest men in Great Britain. Railways are opening up Africa, but with them are also opened up land questions, labour questions, questions of monopolies in gold and in diamonds, race ques- tions, and questions of the relations of the different European Powers to one another. There is al- ready a new South Africa. When the Cape to Cairo railway shall have been completed, there will be indeed a new Africa. There is already a new Egypt an Egypt, the reclamation of which is one of the most spectacular and most hopeful events in the recent history of mankind. Can it be that this is that ancient, that mysterious, that extinct land, of which our Lowell wrote? " There sits drear Egypt 'mid beleaguering sands Half-woman and half-beast, The burnt-out torch within her mouldering hands Which once lit all the East" But there is a cloud hanging over cloudless Egypt. The reflex effect of the great Russo-Jap- anese war has penetrated even here. There is a danger of which British statesmen give most em- phatic warning. The fanaticism of the Moslems is astir, and while fully recognising the unparalleled advantages of British rule, they are yet religiously hypnotised by the Osman whom they despise and hate. If all North Africa were once more ablaze NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA in with a " holy war," who knows what might not happen ? Slowly and not with observation there is com- ing to be a new Turkey. The " unspeakable Turk," who, in Freeman's phrase, has been merely " camp- ing in Europe " for five hundred years, must sooner or later recross the Bosphorus. Then what? Cab- inets and Berlin Congresses may vote as they like, and a generation later they may be altogether for- gotten in the city where they had so done. The real principles upon which the New Turkey must be built will be those and those only which by American missionaries have been taught in the cities and the obscure mountain villages of European and of Asiatic Turkey, and have been burned into the in- tellectual, the moral, and the spiritual consciousness of the students of many races in polyglot Robert College, Constantinople. There is indeed to be a New Turkey when all this weary seed-sowing will be perceived not to have been in vain. In that great continental museum of nations and races which we compendiously term India, great changes are taking place. Problems which are even more complex than elsewhere confound the ablest rulers, many of whom recognise that in the general prevalence of Christianity is the only solution. The British Government, which less than a century ago deported the first American missionaries as poten- tial anarchists, is now the largest supporter of Christian schools. 112 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY On the day following the first victory of the Jap- anese the Indian vernacular press contained a vivid account of the battle, with the brief but significant comment : " And we too are brown men 1 " The restlessness of the Indian peoples became more pro- nounced, and the development of the swadeshi or patriotic " India for the Indians " movement was reported, the outcome of which no one is wise enough to foresee. Mohammedan India, it should not be forgotten, is powerfully influenced by the unrest of Egypt. The growing sense of a certain unity where heretofore there has been nothing but segregation, is the promise and potency of a New India. Many volumes have been written upon the new Japan, but it is doubtful whether the mere perusal of the most detailed descriptions can give anyone a due impression of the magnitude and the scope of the change which the past fifty years have wit- nessed in that Empire, a metamorphosis which may be likened to the transformation of a junk in mid- ocean into a modern steamer. The intense patri- otism of the Japanese, their openness of mind, their indomitable perseverance, their genius for detail, their talent for prevision and for provision all these in an Oriental people are bewildering and amazing. Moreover, during their recent war they displayed one gift which Occidentals most of all, Americans have never possessed, the talent for holding their tongues. Hundreds of thousands of NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 113 Japanese knew perfectly well where Admiral Togo's fleet was concealed, but, like " Bre'r Rabbit," they all " lay low and ain't sayin' nuffin'." If they won world victories, instead of boasting of them in flu- ent and florid phrase, the facts were recited with no waste of adverbs and adjectives, and all the credit was attributed to their ancestors and to the ex- alted virtues of their Emperor. The modest and truthful despatches of a Japanese general or ad- miral might have been drafted by Julius Caesar in Gaul. That there is another and a very different side to the shield, is known to everyone who is familiar with the Far East. Many who are infatuated with " Great Japan " are cured by a single visit to Tokio, with its Yoshiwara, a city within a city, where " regulated vice " attracts no more attention than tea-houses and cherry trees in rural districts. When the traveller through " beautiful Japan " sees half- naked women and almost entirely naked men stand- ing together all day in a broiling sun on a platform lashed to steamers, tossing up baskets of coal for most trifling pay, it is hard to realise that this race is not on a level with the Malays, with whom they may perhaps have affinities. No such sight, even among the big-footed boat- women, could ever be seen in China. In the mere work of administration there may be a sense in which the Japanese do almost everything better than some peoples who might be named do almost 114 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY anything. 1 Japan is undoubtedly one of the two most efficient countries in the world. As between the Japanese and the Chinese there is as yet not even room for comparison, for China and real effi- ciency have never made each other's acquaintance. But there is, so far as appears, a general agreement among those who know both races well, that mor- ally, and especially in truthfulness and in commercial integrity, the Japanese are greatly the inferior. To disguise facts like these is worse than idle, for they add to, and in part constitute, the difficulty of the Far Eastern problem. In view of the antiquity and the solidarity of the Chinese Empire, it is obvious that it is not a land where innovations are likely to be welcome. In this respect it stands at a great re- move from Japan, which, owing to China a part of its language, its literature, its philosophy, its prin- cipal religion and arts, has never had any rooted prejudice against adopting and adapting what is foreign, but which very soon becomes effectively naturalised. With the exception of Indian Bud- dhism, China may be said to have taken next to nothing from abroad, and to suit its Chinese envi- ronment Buddhism had to be essentially modified. 1 For a comprehensive exposition of Japan's administrative achievements, the reader is referred to " Great Japan, A Study in National Efficiency," by Alfred Stead, London, 1906, and " The Real Triumph of Japan," by Dr. Louis L. Seaman, New York, 1906. For a criticism of Japan's forcible exploitation of Korea and the Koreans, see " The New Far East." by Thos. F. Millard, New York, 1906, and " The Passing of Korea," by Homer B. Hulbert, New York, 1906. NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 115 The Nestorians who entered China in the sixth century of our era, and the mediaeval Roman Cath- olics of the thirteenth century, eventually disap- peared with all their adherents like pools of water evaporated in the desert. Representatives of the toughest and most unmal- leable of races, after we know not how many ages of striving against fate, have long been under- going slow digestion in China, until, having sold their sacred scriptures and their synagogue, and with only a sad memory of a long, silent struggle, the Jews in the Chinese Empire are upon the point of extinction. The Chinese, as we have seen, found themselves invaded, much against their will, by many bands of foreigners, who demanded concessions of various kinds, with the actual or implied threat of force never out of mind. China was in no condition to fight. Its " army " was little better than an ill-organised, ill-paid po- lice force, ineffective even against a widespread re- bellion like that of the T'ai P'ings, and wholly incapable of standing against a respectable foreign contingent. Li Hung-chang had for a long time a large corps of foreign-drilled troops. China grad- ually gathered a navy, which in the last half of the " eighties " was supposed by many who thought that they knew to be a formidable fleet. The war with Japan, in which that navy was at a blow extin- guished, put an end to the superstition. The re- u6 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY newed exhibition of China's real weakness in 1900 made a certain impression upon the unimpression- able conglomerate which collectively we call China; and led the way for a more or less half-hearted effort at " reform/' meaning by that term, for the most part, not renovation, but merely a rearrange- ment of existing materials. During all these years there was a small but earnest body of Chinese, largely those who had been educated abroad, to- gether with some of the more open-minded younger men at home, who gave themselves with unremitting zeal to preparing the way for the New China. In the reaction (September, 1898) following the Em- peror's premature reform decrees, six of this number died as martyrs, beheaded by Imperial command, protesting to the last that by reason of their death the cause which they represented was all the more certain of ultimate success, and that, though they were slain, multitudes of others would arise to take their place. But it was the overthrow of the land and naval forces of Russia by Japan irr 1904-5 that gave its greatest and decisive impulse to reform in China, which has since then set in like a strong tide, but with so many eddies and cross-currents as to show that there must be much tacking of the junk of State if it is not to be wrecked. More especially since 1900 a series of important changes in army administration has been in progress in China. Of these Governor-General Yuan Shih-k'ai has (until recently) been the leader, his well-drilled, NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 117 well-paid, well-uniformed, well-fed, and well- housed soldiers far surpassing any others. In the autumn of 1905 a great military review, with ma- noeuvres, was executed on the plain of Chihli, to which foreign military attaches and correspondents were invited, and where they were duly impressed by the evidences of a revolutionary change in Chinese military effectiveness. During the succeeding year similar exercises took place in northern Honan. It is planned to unify the hitherto distinct provincial forces into one great national army, and to raise the number of troops to at least half a million. At present Chi- nese soldiers are by no means what they may be expected to become a few years hence. It is rec- ognised both by foreigners and by Chinese that evolutions of this kind bear a somewhat remote likeness to the sudden and unexpected emergencies of actual war. Yet those who have had the opportu- nity of observing the contrast between the Chinese army which judiciously fled before the Japanese in 1894, and the troops of to-day, see not only change, but thoroughgoing transformation. In view of the present military outlook, all suggestions as to the " partition of China " have " folded their wings like the Arabs." The always strong national feel- ing of the Chinese is now being supplemented by what appear to be the germs of real patriotism. This is at present accompanied by an intense anti-foreign wave, due to the combined effect of the causes Ii8 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY which have been mentioned. Injuries and wrongs which were formerly either unknown or unnoticed are now promptly bruited abroad and discussed in the tea-shops and in the press with marked effect upon the hitherto vague and ill-defined Chinese public sentiment. Imperial birthdays are now celebrated with showy processions of uniformed school-children and students, who are perhaps (as at Tientsin in the autumn of 1905) gathered to the number of sev- eral thousand and addressed by the Governor-Gen- eral or other high officials on their duties to their country. A leading Chinese journal in Shanghai prints a page in English, headed by the motto: " Ducit Amor Patriae." Telegraphs, which were generally introduced into China more than twenty- five years ago, have greatly aided in increasing the power of the Central Government over the formerly semi-independent " Viceroys," or Governors-Gen- eral. Telephone systems have been established in several Chinese cities, notably in Peking, where they are used for administrative purposes. Elec- tric lights are now seen in the capital, where but recently tiny bean-oil lamps diffused a pervading darkness, and they are also found in many other cities, even in the far interior. It is extremely unfortunate that of the two initial cases of the introduction of railways into China, one was accompanied by such a palpable and gross breach of faith as would, had it been committed by NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 119 the Chinese, have made the press of many lands ring with indignation. Under a concession for a horse-railway (steam being expressly barred) for the ten miles and more from Shanghai to Wu-sung at the mouth of the Huang-p'u river, upon which Shanghai stands, a steam engine was surreptitiously smuggled in. Its use instantly led to riots of a serious and determined nature. The case soon be- came a diplomatic one, and to end it the Chinese Government bought the line outright, but was compelled to run it for a year, which it did faithfully. At the expiration of that period the Government had the railway torn up and shipped to Formosa, where it became the nucleus of a line which was extended later. Is it difficult to com- prehend the feelings of the Chinese at being tricked in this manner? The result was to confirm Chi- nese suspicion, enhance Chinese watchfulness, and to postpone for a long time the railway opening of China. The short line from the K'al Ping coal mines east of Tientsin, on the other hand, was allowed to evolve by a natural process, and was withal con- ducted by the manager, Mr. Kinder, with so much skill and tact that no serious opposition was en- countered. In 1897 it was at length extended from Tientsin to Peking, incidentally ruining both the boat traffic on the Peiho and the city of T'ung Chou (twelve miles east of Peking), which made the mistake of driving it away in haste, only to 120 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY repent later in dust and ashes when there was no help. During the late war the heavy and unexam- pled profits accruing from the Government rail- ways, amounting at times to perhaps $500,000 (sil- ver) a month, tended to put a final quietus upon the sentimental and other objections hitherto entertained by many of the people, who appreciated the advan- tages of the improved facilities, and were prompt to avail themselves of the same. A brief notice of the railways already in operation in China will convey an idea of the extent of the changes which they imply. (1) Tientsin to Peking and T'ung Chou; Tien- tsin to Newchwang. Total length, about 540 miles. Built by a British company, and in part mortgaged to British bondholders. (2) Shanghai to Wu-sung; Shanghai to Suchow and Wusieh. Total present length, 90 miles. To be extended as much farther to Nanking. Built by a British company. (3) The "Peking Syndicate" (Anglo-Italian) railway. Bought by the Chinese Government. Tao- kou to Ch'ing-hua chen (Honan). Total length, 89! miles. (4) Peking to Hankow (Ching-Han). Total length, 1,215 kilometers 760 miles; branch line to Fang-shan, 9 miles; K'ai-feng-fu to Ho-nan fu (not yet opened), 136 miles. Franco-Belgian cap- ital NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 121 (5) Ts'ing Tao to Chi-nan fu (Shantung Prov- ince). Length, 247 miles. German. (6) Manchurian line. Harbin to Port Arthur, about 400 miles, controlled to Kuan-ch'eng tzu by Japanese, from there to Harbin by Russians. (7) Chinese lines: Manchuria. Chin-chou to Hsin-men t'un, 173 miles; thence to Moukden. (8) Borders of Kiangsi and Hunan Provinces. P'ing-hsiang to Li-ling, 56^ miles. (9) Canton to Fatshan and Samshui, 31 miles. (This was a part of the Yueh Han line, the conces- sion for which was given to an American syndicate. ) A short line of railway to connect the preceding with the city of San-ning (Hsin-ning hsien) is mak- ing rapid progress in construction. At its northern terminus, on the southern bank of the West river, a mart is to be built to be called " New Town." The capital for this road was subscribed by Chinese in America and Australia, and the whole work of con- struction is carried on by them. Among these Chi- nese capitalists are many earnest Christians, and in drawing up plans for the New Town they reserved a special plot of ground near the centre, where a large church and school are to be built for the use of the Christian portion of the community. The streets are to be laid out like those of the cities and towns of the United States. The Director of Rail- ways in the Province of Fukien has recently made a tour to the settlements of his fellow provincials 122 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY In Singapore, Penang, and Java, and has secured a subscription of some million taels to form a joint- stock company to link with those of the adjacent Provinces the Fukien railways, which will be con- trolled not by the Government, nor yet by officials, but by a board of directors. (10) Swatow to Ch'ao-chou fu (Kuangtung Province). Length, 23^ miles, or, with sidetracks, 30 miles. (n) Peking to Kalgan. Completed to the en- trance to the Nankow Pass. It is meant to extend this later to Urga and Kiakhta, and to connect with the trans-Siberian line. (12) Chen-ting fu to T"a!-yuan fu (Shansi Province) narrow gauge. Financed by the Russo- Chinese Bank. About one-half, or 80 miles, com- pleted. (13) French lines: Hanoi (Totigklng) to Yun- nan fu, the capital city of Yun-nan Province, From Lao-kai, the Chinese frontier, to Yun-nan fu is about 298 miles. Hanoi to Nan-ning fu in Kuangtung. These are as yet incomplete and are only partly in Chinese territory. The British are beginning a line from Kowlung, opposite Hongkong, to Canton. The Portuguese, in conjunction with the Chinese, are building another from Macao to Canton. A great number of other railways are projected, some of them actually be- gun, by the Chinese, as from Shanghai to Hang- chow; Kiukiang to Nan-ch'ang fu, etc. It is es- NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 123 pecially desired to connect Hankow with the dis- tant and inaccessible Province of Ssu-ch'uan, but this is recognised as being impracticable without foreign help, which the Chinese positively decline. There is a short railway (26 miles) connecting with the Peking to the Hankow line and leading to the Western Imperial Tombs. On account of the lack of capital, of competent Chinese engineers, and of experienced (not to say honest) administrators, no confidence is yet felt by foreigners in China in the practicability of de- veloping China on these lines; but under present conditions China must either be developed thus or remain undeveloped, for foreign domination or in- terference the Chinese will no longer tolerate. Their evident wish and intention is to buy out as speedily as possible all foreign "rights" and thus make an end of them. It is obvious at a glance that the combined effect of the present, and far more of the impending, changes in intercommunication and transportation in China will be far-reaching and will increase in social, economic, and political importance every year. The routes already in operation pass through nine out of the eighteen Provinces in China, and through three others in Manchuria. The navigation of the inland waters of China by steam vessels has within the past few years been greatly extended, with obvious advantages and equally patent evils. The inspection of boilers is 124 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY infrequent and at times perfunctory; danger and accidents from overcrowding and from careless steering are serious and constant; the injury to river banks in time of high water by the wash of steamers is so great as to lead to frequent riots; and, especially on the West river of the Kuantung Province, the number of boatmen thrown out of em- ployment is given as an excuse for the alarming increase of river piracy, involving the loss of more than one foreign life, and the frequent murder of considerable numbers of Chinese. The Chinese Government has adopted the plan of opening inland " ports " at various places along the line of railways, and a considerable number in Man- churia, in order the better to resist the aggressions of any single Power by enlisting the interest of all the rest. Each new " port " is an additional inlet and gateway for new ideas, and while the result may not be an unmixed good, the change in an important step in advance. The Chinese postal system is not yet ten years old, but in the last half of that period it has been greatly improved and extended until it now con- nects almost all the cities of the Empire. During the year 1905 the number of offices was increased by 307, and the present rate of increase is about one office per day; there are perhaps 2,000 in all. The number of articles handled increased in 1905 from 66 millions to 76 millions, and the parcels from 771,000 to over a million; while the money-order NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 125 transactions grew from half a million taels to 820,- ooo. The social, educational, and political value of this great innovation is beyond estimation. Industrial institutes have appeared in many of the chief cities, where different arts and crafts are taught to workmen of the most unpromising char- acter, some of them children, others beggars picked up from the street, a class for whom there has hith- erto been no smallest ray of hope. These establish- ments are found in Peking and in the capitals of many of the larger Provinces, such as Suchow, Hangchow, Chi-nan fu, and Ch'eng-tu fu in re- mote Ssu-ch'uan. Similar enterprises for the helpless poor, men and women, boys and girls, have been opened in unoc- cupied granaries, temples, etc., under the charge of a kind of Bureau of Charities (itself an unheard-of thing), the machinery, teachers, etc., being fre- quently imported from Japan. The abundant pat- ronage of these places shows that they are meet- ing a deep need. Another branch of the same general plan is that of instructing the prisoners in common jails. This reform is now well-rooted, and is a wonderful con- trast to the previous indifference and neglect. Pris- oners well-dressed, well-fed, and well-guarded are taught to weave rugs, run sewing-machines for leather work, make boots and shoes, stamp Chinese writing paper, do carpenter and iron work, to print, to dye, and many other things. In an institution 126 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY of this kind at Tientsin there is a lecture hall where the prisoners are required to attend daily and listen to exhortation and instruction. Large sums have been invested in these enterprises, which in time will yield abundant return, For the display of the results of these and other manual-training schools, industrial exhibits have been opened. By degrees this grows into a stand- ing exposition of whatever may be most noteworthy in the output of a place. Such an one has for some years been opened in Tientsin, with an average at- tendance of visitors (men and women on separate days) of 2,000 a day. On the latest of these oc- casions the show was specially noteworthy and promising. Prizes were distributed and certificates bestowed with great pomp and circumstance, being handsomely framed, carried in yellow chairs, and placed for a fixed time on exhibition. It is in- tended to hold such displays in every large city, with a view to a National and after some years to an International Exposition. Manufactures of many kinds are beginning here and there also to appear, generally under the pat- ronage of the Board of Commerce, which is inva- riably careful to require, under pain of forfeiture of the whole, that no stock shall be sold to a for- eigner. Cotton mills and silk filatures have been established in Shanghai for many years, with per- haps forty thousand employees largely women and girls and are spreading into the interior, but many of them have not been financially successful. In the interior improved wooden looms are being in- troduced from Japan. Experts from Hangchow are now teaching the natives of Shantung how to spin and weave the silk of that Province, hitherto used only for the comparatively coarse product known as " pongee," into the most beautiful fabrics, rivalling those of Central China. Soap-making, can- dle factories, glass-works, knitting companies and the like are found in different parts of the Empire, but for the lack of capital, experience, and mutual confidence these enterprises often come to nothing. A company has been organised to use steam-trawlers of English make, with nets of English pattern. From a factory in Shanghai there is a considerable sale of pianos to Chinese, who also use thousands of bicycles. An attempt has been made at a general introduction of uniformed police and street-clean- ing, which works well in some large centres, while in others, for lack of intelligent supervision, it has either come to nothing or has been used as a means of extortion. In a city in Chih-li where nobody speaks or understands English, sentries with rifles suddenly began to march up and down (there be- ing nothing to guard) while staring notices ordered travellers to go : " To and fro by the left." Ag- ricultural reform has been begun, especially arbor- iculture, barren hillsides being planted with pines, and mulberry trees for feeding silk-worms imported into Shantung from the south. As yet, native in- 128 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY ertia being too strong, real agricultural progress has been but slight. A new Chamber of Commerce in Canton is formed of two and seventy different guilds, proposing to open a bank, to issue notes, and to imitate foreign manufactures with a view to driving foreign trade out of the country. Many important improvements have been made in the laws of the Empire, some of the more barbarous punishments being abolished, but it is by no means certain that these reforms have everywhere gone into effect. But the greatest of all the many changes in China is the definite abolition by Imperial Edict (Septem- ber, 1905) of the old-style examination, and the introduction of Western learning; an innovation which, whether as regards its radical nature in over- turning the precedents of nearly two millenniums, the many millions whom it affects, or its future re- sults, may when complete justly be reckoned among the most remarkable and decisive intellectual revo- lutions in the history of mankind. It must be un- derstood that as yet the merest beginning has been made, and that there is and long will be a conserv- ative party which, if it were able, would gladly move the shadow on the dial-plate backward. That, however, is out of the question the " eight-legged " examination " essay " is gone forever. In China so much depends upon the individual incumbent of each post that at first sight the status would appear to be almost chaotic. Provincial " Colleges " were NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 129 opened when there were neither competent in- structors nor qualified students, the whole scheme resembling a pyramid standing upon its apex. Many Japanese teachers were invited (and many more came of their own initiative) because they were nearer at hand and cheaper than any others, and especially because they are Orientals. China has at last been undisguisedly sitting at the feet of her age-long pupil, and the process of the " Japanisation " of China has been well ad- vanced and will go yet further. But in time the Chinese will assert themselves, as they always have done, and will manage their own affairs as they are abundantly competent to do. There has never been any love lost between these so different races, which, whatever their for- mal alliances, will almost inevitably tend more and more to drift apart. It is in the metropolitan Province of Chihli, under Governor-General Yuan Shi-k'ai, that the greatest educational advance has been made. According to a memorial from him, which appeared during the year 1906, there were in operation within his juris- diction the following institutions: The Imperial Pei Yang University at Tientsin. The High College at Pao-ting fu. The Imperial Army Medical College. The Industrial High School, the Agricultural High Schools, besides Agricultural and Industrial Primary Schools to the number of 21. I3Q CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY The Telegraph College. The School of Draw- ing and Mathematics. The Normal High Schools and Normal and other Training Schools, 89. Middle Schools, 27. Advanced Schools, 182. Primary Schools, 4,162. (The Women's Normal School. Girls' Schools, 40. STamen-runner's Schools, 18. There are two kindergarten schools in Tientsin; nineteen half-day schools, of which ten are official and nine are private; fifteen night schools, with an average of two teachers and twenty-five pupils each. Also one Chinese and German school; one secreta- ries' school ; one " servants' " school ; one commer- cial school, and a General Educational Association. The number of students shown in the record was 86,653, exclusive of those in the half-day and night schools. Including military and police students, the total amounts to 100,000. Another useful institution is the Educational Mu- seum, founded by order of the Industrial Bureau in 1905. It is provided with all the apparatus for ex- periments in physics and chemistry, with the instru- ments required in teaching the other sciences. Still another establishment is the Training Institute, to give employment to poor pupils and to train them to become skilled workers and artisans. The stu- dents number at present 1,000, and are taught by NEW; FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 131 fifteen skilled manufacturers, three of whom are foreign experts. The desire for the new learning has likewise reached the interior. In a village about thirty-five miles from Tientsin there is a flourishing girls' school. The curriculum includes, besides the Chi- nese written language, arithmetic, geography, ele- mentary science, sewing, drawing, calisthenics, music, and etiquette. The large school-room is ar- ranged like that of a Western school, and biological, zoological, and physical culture charts are hung over its walls; also maps and blackboards. The pupils are taught to sing with an organ. This is a free school supported by a wealthy family of the place, a member of which is the chief teacher. It is said that others of a similar kind may occasionally be found scattered about, and their influence in the New China cannot be estimated. Each of the 124 districts of the Province has about twenty primary schools, with an average of thirty boys apiece, who are taught upon a more rational plan than in the old schools. Each district has also one low-grade and one high-grade elementary school, with an average at- tendance of fifty boys, who not only study Chi- nese books, but are started in history, geography, arithmetic, and simple science. In each of the sixteen prefectural cities there is a middle school, where the study of English is begun, with more advanced courses of science and mathematics. Much 132 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY attention is given to developing national and mili- tary sentiment. Physical training is an important part of the curriculum. In the lower grade schools there is simple drilling; in the higher colleges the students wear uniforms, are given manual exer- cises with the rifle, and are put through military evolutions. The text-books impress upon students the duty of developing the power of China, the dan- ger of military weakness, and the importance of self-sacrifice for national interests, illustrating these teachings by reminders of the rapid development of Prussia and of Japan. Instruction in all is free, and in the higher schools the students are boarded, and even clothed, at public expense, thus opening the new education to the poorest families. It is obvious to one acquainted with the great cost of educational institutions that such a system of free tuition in all grades, besides its inevitable de- moralising tendency, is a burden far too heavy to be borne by the State, and particularly in a country like China, which, while potentially rich, is actually poor. Unless this policy is changed, whenever a spe- cial revenue applied to educational purposes dimin- ishes or ceases, the schools and colleges will stop too. How long they can be conducted on the pres- ent plan is uncertain. Even if fees absolutely large were to be charged, they would at best provide for but a fraction of the heavy cost of buildings, equip- ment, and instructors. According to the old plan, one teacher taught a handful of boys a single line NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 133 of study only, and was poorly paid for his work. On the new scheme, for a corps of teachers giving instruction in a wide range of studies, ten times, fifty times, perhaps several hundred times, as much must be expended, and how is the money to be raised? Much of the teaching is extremely inade- quate, and there is a great dearth of teachers; yet it is obvious that here are the fertile seeds of a New Empire. An important feature is the surpris- ing development of schools for women and girls, which, a few years ago absolutely unheard of, are now very common and rapidly increasing both in number and in importance. The girl students are becoming deeply imbued with patriotic sentiments, and they will be a factor of prime importance in the New China. There is one feature of the new edu- cation in the Far East of especial interest to Anglo- Saxons. This is the development of athletics, for which Orientals have hitherto felt only contempt. To see hundreds of stalwart young Chinese, in sporting costume, assembled on a Saturday after- noon (Sunday being usually a holiday in Govern- ment schools) putting the shot; throwing the baseball ; running the 100 yards, the 440 yards, the mile, and the obstacle races; executing the high jump, the long jump, the pole vault, and the tug of war all this is one of the most surprising of modern sights. In a great port like Shanghai, on such occasions one may see Taotais by the dozen, and thousands of onlookers, including many girl 134 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY students. It was recently announced that a team from the Chinese Y. M. C. A. of Rangoon had won the football championship for all Burmah, defeat- ing not only all comers in Burmah, but also the British regimental teams, which came from several parts of the presidency to try conclusions with their Asiatic opponents. In connection with the Korean Y. M. C. A. of Seoul, 130 young men who had been brought up in the lap of luxury and who a few years ago would not have gone more than a few yards except in palanquins, walked six miles to the field with flags and music. Foreigners who have chanced to be in interior cities report that the local contests between the pupils of the several Govern- ment schools arouse the most intense popular inter- est, two thousand spectators sometimes attending, including all the civil and military officials. A Chinese company of students in Shanghai has re- cently been allowed to join the Volunteers, and gave on the waterfront an exhibition of the drill and evolutions which the local journals declared had not often been surpassed. For two generations and more missionary influ- ence has been exerted against the ancient Chinese custom of binding the feet of girls, but during the past five years more progress in this reform has been made than in the previous half-century. At a great farewell meeting held at Shanghai, Novem- ber, 1906, to Mrs. Archibald Little (the wife of a British merchant), who has done more to promote NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 135 the movement than any other individual, the reform was definitely turned over to Chinese leaders for their energetic prosecution, which is already as- sured. The greatest interest in this movement has been taken by the highest authorities, Imperial Edicts and proclamations by Governors-General and other officials, books, tracts, ballads all having contributed to its furtherance. This will always be memorable as the first reform which the Chinese have cordially taken over from foreign initiative, to be followed, we may believe, by very many others. As already mentioned, a sincere effort is now in progress by the Government of China to put an end to the use of opium and the cultivation of the poppy plant, by limiting the period after which all opium-smoking becomes criminal, and by peremp- torily closing the houses where it is publicly smoked, as well as by forbidding it to those employed in yamens, to officials, soldiers, and all Government servants. It is, of course, easy for those who know how " reforms " in China, as in Russia, have been "written with a pitchfork on the surface of the sea," to point out the titanic difficulties to be en- countered. The Chinese Government, which issued its first drastic decree against the use of opium 167 years ago, may be supposed to be aware of that* Because a thing never has been done, is it certain that it never can be done? Conditions are altered. A strong Chinese public sentiment, never before in evidence, is now antagonising opium. That great 136 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY reserves of active and passive hostility must be en- countered is to be expected, especially as many of those by whom the laws are to be enforced are them- selves the worst offenders. But there is now a con- siderable number of able men, of whom H. E. T'ang Shao-i is the leader, who are in dead earnest, and who mean to give their lives to this reform. What these men need is not criticism, but sympathy. Even partial success in the course of a generation would be a remarkable and most encouraging transfor- mation. 2 There is in China a new journalism. The number of papers under native management is large, and also fluctuating. Instead of devoting their columns, as a decade ago many of them did, largely to local gossip, private and public scan- dals, and to blackmail, these journals are greatly widening their thoughts with the process of the Chi- nese sun. Dr. Woodbridge of Shanghai (himself the editor of a widely circulated Christian weekly) 2 It is noteworthy that the decree ordering the discontinu- ance of the use of opium was directly due to missionary ini- tiative. In May, Dr. H. C. Bu Bose of Suchow, the Presi- dent of the Anti-Opium League, had an interview with the Governor-General of the "River Provinces" (H. E. Chou Fu), and was told that if a memorial signed by missionaries of all nationalities were sent to him he would forward it to the Throne. Ruled sheets were sent to 450 cities, and the returns gave 1,333 signatures, which were bound in a volume covered with yellow silk, and sent to Nanking, reaching there August 19, whence they were forwarded to Peking. The Imperial Edict was issued September 20. NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 137 has recently written of them in these terms : " Gen- erally speaking, the native secular press is not anti- Christian. On the contrary, it is more pro-Christian than the secular press in Europe or America. One never sees a joke against the Bible in the native papers. The Chinese people are peculiarly susceptible to what they call tao-li, or doctrine not specially theological doctrine but any tenet that professes to teach, instruct, and reform." The " Nan Fang Pao," published in Shanghai, has a foreign page (the one with the Latin motto) which it calls the " South China Morning Journal," in which with vigorous English the editor educated in America fearlessly attacks abuses both among his own coun- trymen and among foreigners, some of whom under this unwonted criticism from a Chinese source are very restive. It is at the hands of such men that the whole history of China's past foreign relations is undergoing thorough review, eliciting caustic com- ment. Is it surprising that the " Ocean men " often wince at the rehearsal of the deeds which they and their fathers perpetrated with a light heart and with no apparent thought of a future? Freedom of the press cannot yet be safely granted in China, for there are no thousand years of slow preparation for it. The story of the progressive editor, P'eng of " The Peking Mandarin Daily," who was the leader in a patriotic movement to raise funds to pay off the foreign indemnities at once, is both pathetic and ominous. His paper, in which he may have 138 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY been somewhat indiscreet, was suppressed, he was thrown into prison, and later driven at once into exile and into insanity I " The Woman's Daily Journal," of Peking, per- haps the only one of its kind in the world, is itself a sign of the new times. Its capable woman editor has also interested herself in attending lectures on current events, education, sanitation, reforms, and the like. A Manchu Princess (sister of Prince Su, whose palace was occupied by the Christians dur- ing the siege of Peking), herself the wife of a Mongol Prince, attended one of a course of these lectures (held in the chapel of the American Board Mission in Peking), bringing with her a bevy of girls, samples of a Mongol school, which, in imita- tion of those of the missionary ladies, she had against much opposition established in her Mon- golian home. Who can say how far such a ray of influence may penetrate, or when its transmitted effects will cease? A few words must be added about the New Liter- ature with which China is now being inundated. A competent foreign scholar in Shanghai, Mr. John Darroch, who investigated the matter, found that in 1905 there were about 1,200 new publications to be found in the book-shops of the foreign settlement of Shanghai. Of the fifty-five shops, thirteen confined them- selves to the old literature, eleven sold both new and old, and thirty-one only the new. NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 139 The largest single agency in China for their pro- duction and sale is the Commercial Press (under Japanese influence), which employs many hundred workmen, with a pay roll of $14,000 per month, and is at present greatly enlarging its plant. It has branches at Canton and Hankow, and agents all over China, and in San Francisco, to push sales among the Chinese in America. Among the new works are very pretty and attractive primers, got up in foreign style, with admirably executed pictures of natural objects. There were found sixty volumes on the science of education, and twenty volumes of text-books on geography, physics, etc. Ninety his- tories ranged in price from five cents to $2.50 (silver) . Seven of them were so-called universal his- tories, eleven of Europe, twelve of Japan, several of China, five of Russia, four of England, two each of France and the United States, three of Egypt, four of the nineteenth century, and one each of Italy, Rome, Greece, and Turkey. There were forty books on geography, sixty on government, forty on law, thirty on political economy, seventy on mathematics, fifty on literature, fifty on language, seventy on health, sixty on science, seventy on drawing, one hundred and twenty on the art of war, thirty on agri- culture, twenty on astronomy, forty on mechanics, thirty books of travel, and twenty on mensuration. Among all these books non-Christian religions are not represented by a single tract or page. Chris- tianity is indeed the only religion referred to with 140 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY any respect by the writers of the new literature. " They are not pro-Christian, some of them even write tirades against Christianity; but for Taoism and Buddhism they have an unmitigated contempt." Fiction was represented in one year by but twenty- one volumes, and in the next by fifty-seven, showing which way the Oriental mental tides run. Among well-known books translated and for sale, were Uncle Tom's Cabin ; Treasure Island ; The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes ; Tales from Shakespeare ; Joan of Arc, and even the Arabian Nights is said to be in preparation. In a paper on this fertile subject read in 1905 at a meeting of the Educational Associa- tion, Mr. Darroch judiciously remarked : " If the Chinese are being interested in Western storybooks they are learning to appreciate our way of looking at things. It will not much longer be true that the mind of the Orient is so dissimilar to the thoughts of the Occident that these two must always remain incomprehensible to one another. This is the one touch of nature which will make the whole world kin, and we shall find this mighty nation of 400 millions as susceptible to the thrills of emotion which sweep over our national life, as are our nearer and more intimate neighbours. That this change of sentiment on the part of the Chinese will have pro- digious effects on our work as missionaries and educationalists will not, I think, be gainsaid." The despatch, early in 1906, of two Imperial Commissions from China to the West to study the NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 141 forms of " constitutional government " was an in- teresting, a spectacular, and a significant sign of the new times upon which China has fallen. An attempt to destroy one of these parties at the Pe- king railway station by a bomb was a sinister pre- lude, and an ill-omened introduction of Occidental methods into the East. The two Commissions, al- though absent from China less than eight months, visited the United States and all the principal coun- tries of Europe. The leading members of the Com- missions, while able and intelligent men, one of them a Manchu Prince had not the smallest ac- quaintance with constitutional government, and some of them had not even set foot on a steamer. But by the aid of far-travelled and experienced sec- retaries the Commissioners were able to observe widely, if not deeply, and to prepare comprehensive and intelligent reports of what they had seen. Upon their return and on the presentation of their re- ports, great differences of opinion developed among the leading men of China as to the extent to which Japan should be imitated in fixing a definite date for the new plan to begin. The conservatives tri- umphed, and a decree was issued mentioning " sev- eral years " as the period of incubation, which in an Oriental country is generally understood to be synonymous with postponement to the Greek Kal- ends. But it is probably a fortunate outcome, for although great mass-meetings of rejoicing were held in many of the ports and in some inland cities, 142 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY scarcely any one had any idea at all what the pro- posed innovations involved. It was pointed out in some of the memorials that the people are as yet too ignorant to render the step a safe one, and compulsory education was urged. From that time to the present the most apparently radical changes in governmental machinery have been proposed, and many of them adopted; as, for example, the abolition of some of the many " Boards," the creation of an indefinite number of new ones, and (incidentally) the introduction of an entirely new and bewildering nomenclature. But though the old boards are thus planed and varnished, with new titles on their shining faces, of essential reform there is scarcely any sign, although sooner or later, against great opposition, it must come. In October of the same year a novel examination was held in Peking, which marks a turning-point in the educational practice of a great Empire. During two entire but not consecutive days fifty-three can- didates were examined by the new Board of Educa- tion for the two highest degrees. Of these, twenty- three had studied in Japan, sixteen in the United States, two in England, and one in Germany, their ages ranging from twenty-three to forty-four years, and their degrees from that of a graduate of a Japa- nese " High School " to a Doctor of Philosophy of Yale University. Eleven of the candidates failed to pass, and of the successful contestants, the first twelve places, with the exception of the sixth, which NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 143 was taken by a Trinity Hall man, fell to ex- American students. The three questions propounded to the candidates in philosophy were as follows : ( I ) De- fine philosophy, and distinguish it from science and ethics. Explain the following systems of philosoph- ical thought: Dualism, Theism, Idealism, Material- ism, Pantheism, Agnosticism. How would you classify, according to the Western method, the fol- lowing Chinese philosophers: Chuang Tzu, Chang Tsai, Chu Tzu, Lu Tzu, and Wang Yang Ming? (2) Explain why philosophy developed earliest in Greece. What are the leading thoughts in the teaching of Heraclitus? Why will his system, at one time almost obsolete, again become popular? (3) Expound fully Mill's four methods of induc- tion, and mention some of the scientific discoveries and inventions which may be directly traced to them. On the second day the theme for the essay was: Will it be expedient for China to adopt the system of compulsory education? The candidates were graded, first, according to their foreign degrees; second, on the basis of their work since graduation; and third, on their exam- ination papers. Those who attained to over 80 per cent, of a possible 100 were to receive the first de- gree (Chin shih), of whom there were eight; those who reached 70 obtained a first-class second degree (Chii Jen) ; those who reached 60, a second-class of the same rank, while those marked 50 merely re- ceived a certificate of attendance at the exami- 144 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY nation. The candidates were allowed to prepare their papers either in Chinese or in any Western tongue which they preferred, and all those from America or Europe chose English. This liberty shows, as one of the ablest of the successful candi- dates (Dr. W. W. Yen) points out, that " at last the barriers in the way of Western knowledge have been battered down, and the new education in China will become something real and thorough." Contrary to all previous experience, no man was given an official position simply because he passed the exami- nation, that being left to be otherwise determined. This does away at a blow with the superstition that every man able to satisfy examiners is there- fore fit to hold office. No religious tests were re- quired, and no distinction was made between Christians and non-Christians. Indeed, nine of the successful men were Christians, eight were Protes- tants, and one was a Roman Catholic, and if those were included who took their preparatory studies in Christian institutions, the number would be larger. 3 It is somewhat less than fifty years ago since the 3 Among those who took degrees at this examination was a graduate of an American dental college, and another whose forte was engineering. The delicious absurdity of bestowing the stately title of "Entered Scholar" (Chin-shih) upon students of this type was not lost upon the reactionary party. Even more open to criticism was the entire absence of any requirements as to attainments in the native language of the candidates, one of whom, according to Dr. Yen, could not write his own name decently in Chinese 1 NEW FAR EAST AND NEW CHINA 145 Governor-General of the two Kuang Provinces (H. E. Yeh) was captured by the British when they took Canton, and was carried off to Calcutta. On the long voyage, in answer to a question why he never read anything, he made the memorable reply that it was because all the books in the world that were worth reading were already stored in his " abdomen." From that time to the day in Octo- ber when H. E. Yen Fu invited sundry graduates of American, British, Japanese, and German insti- tutions to explain how Western philosophers would classify Chuang Tzu, Chu Hsi, and Lu Tzu, and why the system of Heraclitus will once more become popular, is what the hunt-loving English call " a far cry " ; although measured on the vast dial-plate of Chinese chronology it is but as a watch in the night. Is it not obvious that the Genius, now fully lib- erated from the Celestial Bottle in which for some thousands of years he has been corked and sealed, will never again be got back inside? And is it not equally plain that what that Genius decides to do in the future is a matter of considerable mo- ment to his neighbours, and indeed to all his con- temporaries ? VII AMERICA S ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES IN CHINA A CHINESE who recognises the ideograph which does duty as the name of America (Mei, from its resemblance to the English word) is aware that it means " beautiful," and that when dissected it is found to be composed of two characters signify- ing " great " and " sheep." His ideas as to the " Western " land which is yet situated due east, are vague and hazy. His mental attitude, so far as he has any, is that of unintelligent ignorance. The average American who has been to school, has studied geography, reads the newspapers, and who constantly hears in the city street-cars and in the village store and post-office much instructive conversation on current events, knows that China is situated in the west ; that it has a " Yang-tzu Ki- ang river," a " Huang Ho river," possibly a " T'ai Hu lake," or even a " T'ai Shan mountain " ; that its proper names are essentially unpronounceable by " civilised " beings ; that its language is a pre- posterous medley of absurdities, impossible to acquire and useless when learned ; that all Chinese eat noth- ing but puppies, rice, and rats; that for thousands 146 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 147 of years this people have been decorated with " a pig-tail " ; that they have a fixed habit of doing ev- erything " just the opposite from the right way " ; and that in general the Chinese are a numerous, a troublesome, and a ridiculous folk. The aver- age more or less educated American is therefore much superior to the uneducated Chinese, for his mental attitude is that of intelligent ignorance. It is perhaps difficult for anyone but a scientist to explain, or to understand when it is explained, what constitutes a " race." But neither the sci- entist nor anyone else has the smallest doubt that the Anglo-Saxon " race " is equipped with a race- prejudice probably not matched, certainly not ex- celled, elsewhere. There is in our minds no ques- tion that We are the " heirs of all the ages, in the foremost files of time," the last and finest product of age-long evolution, and in a word the World's Last Hope. After Us the deluge! It is somewhat singular that a country which be- gan its career with the dramatic production of a document like the Declaration of Independence, which announces to mankind that " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created free and equal," should, after attaining such confi- dence in the abstract proposition (however inter- preted), find so much difficulty in acting upon it in the concrete. While it is a superseded after-dinner pleasantry that our remote forebears " first fell upon their knees and then fell upon the aborigines," it 148 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY is much more than an epigram to say, in the phrase of Helen Hunt, that the record of our treatment of the North American Indians extends far beyond " A Century of Dishonour " down to the latest scientific theft of " Reservations." Our admirable Lake Mo- honk Conferences and other agencies have done their best, and a very efficient best it has been, to introduce saner and righteous methods; but the disgrace of the past is indelible. Our dealings with the black man are even worse than those with the red man, and the ensuing evils constitute the gravest danger on the horizon of the Republic. At the root there has always been a more or less prevalent contempt for the " red-skins," epitomised in the venerable dictum that " the only good Indian is a dead Indian." There is a well-nigh irresistible propensity to pronounce the race name of the negro with the letter " g " doubled, and to couple with it an epithet implying that the individual spoken of has been judicially condemned. The same point of view is that from which all other " inferior races " are too often contemplated. Natives of the south of Europe are compendiously termed " da- goes"; a Japanese is styled "a Jap" (an expres- sion which they very properly resent) ; while the Chinese is, as it were, ex offido " John," coupled with " Chinaman " (a deprecatory patronymic for which there is no analogy and no necessity), or with delicate irony he is mentioned as "a Chink." In each of these cases words are real things embodying ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 149 a lofty indifference, not to say an insolent con- tempt. In a similar manner, we are in the constant habit of speaking of distant and unfamiliar localities as " out there," as if they were simply points in the interstellar spaces destitute of lines of latitude or longitude by which they might be defined. We will not take the trouble to master the speech of other nations (contenting ourselves with charac- terising each in turn as " a lingo "), and if foreign- ers cannot speak English it is not uncommon to hear them criticised as intellectual bankrupts. " I asked that Russian," said a well-bred American to the writer of these lines, " when the bridge would be opened, but the fool couldn't talk English." Is it not wise to recall the reply of a Constantinople dragoman, stung by a similar comment made for similar cause? "You spik Turkish?" "No." " You spik Greek ? " " No." " You spik Arabic ? " "No." "You spik Italian?" "No." "You spik Spanish?" "No." " You spik French ?" " No, no, no, I don't speak any of them." " Well, s'pose I fool, you six times fool! " One of the qualities for which we are least distinguished abroad (or at home) is self-depreciation and modesty. The presupposi- tion, perhaps entirely unconscious, of our unques- tioned superiority in almost everything, is often almost axiomatic. This is not precisely the same as the brag and bluster of the ante-bellum days, when it seemed to be supposed that America could " beat 150 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY all Creation," yet it is not so far removed. In the minds of large numbers, more especially of the ed- ucated and travelled class, this assumption does not exist, and in many cases, although it has a root, it has the good taste not to show above ground. But among the people at large it appears to prevail extensively and intensively to a surprising and depressing extent. If anything could mitigate or cure it, world-knowledge and world responsibilities might be expected to do so. No other national trait tends to make Americans more disliked or more ridiculous. The tone of the stronger and the saner American journals shows an increasing perception of America's real greatness and opportunities; but, on the other hand, many newspapers and numerous speeches in Congress and elsewhere show how far just views are from being universal. The magnitude of the work which has been done in subduing a virgin continent, the restless and un- tamable energy which has accomplished so much in so short a time, is a wonderful spectacle, upon which we may rightly dwell with satisfaction and gratula- tion. But in listening to some of our people dilate upon this topic one might at times almost gain the impression that in past ages a committee of eminent brevet American citizens had first deliberated on the necessity for more room for expansion, and that thereupon the whole American continent, moun- tains, plains, rivers, and waterfalls, had been cre- ated from designs furnished by themselves. In ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 151 less than a century we have, it is true, " conquered the wilderness." But we have wasted the bound- less forests, destroying manifold more timber than we have utilised, thus drying up brooks and rivers that were perennial. By reckless and slovenly cul- tivation we have exhausted millions of acres of once fertile land, we have squandered (and are still squandering) the natural fertilisers of the soil, turn- ing the nitrates into the water-courses, so that, in Victor Hugo's phrase, pestilence springs from the streams and hunger from the furrow. Of these by- products of our "civilisation" we do not now boast. We gladly expend scores of millions of dol- lars to undo a fractional per cent, of the needless, wilful, inexcusable havoc which we have wrought and are still working in a continent of marvellous resources, to which if we had any claim at all it was because we could use and develop it as a trust for ages and generations to come. A people with a record like this are manifestly at a disadvantage when confronted with Orientals, who have occupied their ancestral seats for three or four millenniums, who are reasonably contented, and who have no consciousness of " earth-hunger." It is a distinct advantage to citizens of the United States in dealing with China that our several treaties with that Empire have been honourable to America and just to China. (Detailed information in re- gard to them may be found in the Hon. John W. Foster's " American Diplomacy in the Orient," from 152 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY whose work extracts have been freely made.) The first of the series was negotiated by a shrewd law- yer, the Hon. Caleb Gushing, who was fully a match for the procrastinating and obstructive Chinese. The letter of instructions was penned by Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, and " shows his wide grasp of public questions." The accompany- ing letter which President Tyler sent to the Em- peror of China, however, is not a State paper of which Americans have occasion to be proud, and many will agree with the comment of Captain Brink- ley : " Every historian of China's foreign relations has placed ineffable conceit at the head of her cat- alogue of sins. But no document known to have emanated from the Chinese Court is permeated with such a fine tone of patronising superiority as the autograph letter written by the President of the United States to the Grand Khan in Peking, on the 1 2th of July, 1843. Mr. Tyler undertook to convey information as well as admonition to his ' good friend ' Tao Kuang. He told him that the sea alone divided America and China ; that the latter had * millions and millions of subjects/ and that Ameri- can citizens ' leaving the mouth of one of their great rivers, and going constantly toward the setting sun, sailed to Japan and to the Yellow Sea'; and he told him also that ' the rising sun looked upon the great rivers and great mountains of China/ while 'the setting sun looked upon rivers and mountains equally large in the United States/ which is much the ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 153 sort of language that Fenimore Cooper would have put into the mouth of a * great white chief ' address- ing a Choctaw or an Apache. Then the President, continuing his courteous confidences, informed his 1 good friend ' that ' the Chinese loved to trade with our people, and to sell them tea and silk, for which our people paid silver, and sometimes other arti- cles/ e. g., opium ; and then, rising above primers of geography and commerce, Mr. Tyler admonished the Grand Khan that ' There shall be rules. Our minister, Caleb Gushing, is authorised to make a treaty. Let it be just. Let there be no unfair ad- vantage on either side. Let the treaty be signed by your own Imperial hand. It shall be signed by mine, and the authority of our great council, the Senate. And so, may your health be good, and may peace reign ! ' To the note struck clearly in this diapason of dignified condescension, the note of justice, Amer- ica's dealings with Eastern countries have always been attuned. It is true that she practises against the Chinese an illiberal exclusiveness, which, if prac- tised by them against American citizens, would be punished at the cannon's mouth ; and it is also true that to China's demands for redress for murderous outrages of which her subjects are the victims, Washington replies by pretexts of domestic admin- istration which, were they advanced by Peking, would be laughed to scorn. But these are the flaws in the jewel. Chinese and Japanese alike have learned by experience that the United States Govern- 154 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY * ment may be implicitly trusted to do in any inter- national complication not merely what is right and just, but also what is generous. It is a fine record, and that it should have for its frontispiece the strange letter of President Tyler to Emperor Tao Kuang is a striking incongruity." l A year later, re- marks another British writer, " a treaty of peace, amity, and commerce was concluded, which, it must be confessed, was far in advance of its British pred- ecessor. In its thirty-six clauses ample provision is made for every possible contingency which could then be foreseen, and for a period of sixteen years until the signature and ratification of the Tientsin treaties the Gushing convention served as the basis for the settlement of nearly all disputes arising be- tween foreigners in China." Mr. Foster cites the testimony of a contemporary British authority, who wrote : " The United States Government in their treaty with China, and in vig- ilant protection of their subjects at Canton, have evinced far better diplomacy, and more attention to substantial interests than we have done, although it has not cost them as many groats as we have spent guineas, while their position in China is really more advantageous and respected than that of England, after all our sacrifice of blood and treasure." After the negotiations conducted by Mr. Gushing were once under way, there was no serious difficulty in concluding the Wang Hsia treaty, so named from the place of its signature in a suburb of Macao. 1 Oriental Series, "China," vol. xi., pp. 173-175. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 155 It is a singular fact that during all this period " Mr. Gushing had not set foot on Chinese territory, nor had he held personal intercourse with a single high Chinese official, except the embassy, up to the time of signing the treaty, and that instrument had been negotiated and executed on foreign (Portu- guese) territory." The second treaty between the United States and China was arranged in 1858 at Tientsin, just after that of Russia, and in advance of those of Great Britain and France. It granted diplomatic privi- leges, enlarged trade and travel, and religious tol- eration, but owing to the intervening war with Great Britain the ratification was postponed till the following year. In 1867, Mr. Anson Burlin- game, the United States Minister to China, who after a period of six years was about to resign his office, was suddenly appointed Envoy of the Chinese Government with the highest rank, to visit all the treaty Powers as high minister empowered to at- tend to every question arising between China and those countries. Much natural, and indeed inevita- ble, jealousy was felt in Europe at the selection of an American for this unique position; and, on the other hand, great hopes were entertained of the out- come ; but they were frustrated by the death of Mr. Burlingame at St. Petersburg before anything of permanent importance had been accomplished. " The only substantial result of the mission was the treaty which it negotiated with the Government of the 156 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY United States," which was drafted by Secretary Seward. " It stipulated the territorial integrity of China by disavowing any right to interfere with its eminent domain or sovereign jurisdiction over its subjects and property; it recognised the right of China to regulate its internal trade not affected by treaty; provided for the appointment of consuls; secured exemption from persecution and disability on account of religion; recognised the right of vol- untary emigration; granted the privilege of schools and colleges; disavowed the intention to interfere with the domestic administration of China in re- spect to public improvements, but expressed the willingness of the United States to aid in such en- terprises when requested by China." The special feature of the Burlingame treaty of 1868 was its emigration agreement Article V. " cordially recog- nised the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual advantage of the free immigration and emigration of their citizens and subjects respectively from one country to the other for purposes of curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents " ; and Article VI. provided that the citizens and subjects, respectively, " shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities, or exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favoured nation." The President in communi- cating notice of it to Congress spoke of it as " a lib- eral and auspicious treaty." There was a delay in ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 157 its ratification by the Chinese Government, and serious uneasiness was felt in the United States lest it should fail. " Under President Grant's direction, Secretary Fish instructed the American Minister in Peking to exert his influence with the Chinese au- thorities to bring about its early ratification." He wrote : " Many considerations call for this, besides those which may be deduced from what has gone before in this instruction. Every month brings thousands of Chinese immigrants to the Pacific coast. Already they have crossed the great moun- tains and are beginning to be found in the interior of the continent. By their assiduity, patience, and fi- delity, and by their intelligence, they earn the good- will and confidence of those who employ them. We have good reason to think this thing will continue and increase " ; and the Secretary said it was wel- comed by the country. Ten years after this treaty was signed, President Hayes, in a message to Con- gress, thus spoke of its leading provision : " Un- questionably the adhesion of the Government of China to these liberal principles of freedom in emi- gration, with which we were so familiar and with which we were so well satisfied, was a great ad- vance toward opening that Empire to our civilisation and religion, and gave promise in the future of greater practical results in the diffusion throughout that great population of our arts and industries, our manufactures, our material improvements, and the sentiments of government and religion which 158 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY seem to us so important to the welfare of man- kind." But it was not long after the ratification of this treaty that strong opposition to the immigra- tion of Chinese into the United States began to manifest itself, on the ground that they are too industrious and too frugal; that by their competi- tion they drove out white labour, underbid and un- derlived all Occidental peoples; that they sent their wages out of the country; were segregated in over- crowded and filthy sections of every city where they were numerous; and that they were unassimilable and generally undesirable. The sentiment had be- come so strong that in 1876 an appeal was made to Congress to abrogate the treaty, and the report of the committe appointed, with the accompanying tes- timony, constitutes a volume of over twelve hundred pages. This is not the place to argue the question of Chinese immigation. On the count of industry and frugality, which the old proverb affirmed in this case erroneously to be the two hands of for- tune, they were immediately convicted. The evi- dence of the effect of Chinese labour on the demand for white labour was, and still is, contradictory, but that large regions of the United States have long been and are still suffering for the lack of labour of which there appears to be no adequate supply, is demonstrable, and indeed obvious, even to an unob- servant traveller. The relevancy of the argument so dear to the ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 159 former San Francisco sand-lot orator, and now in- herited by the labour unions, that the Chinese send their money abroad, is somewhat difficult of compre- hension, in view of the proved fact that they are among the most constant patrons of the transporta- tion companies, that they almost invariably spend their money freely, and that it is not disputed that whatever becomes of their wages, the product of their labour, which is all that is paid for, remains. This issue, moreover, is not apparently raised in regard to any other immigrants, or it might go hard with some of them. All" 'that has been said of the evils of " Chinatown " in many of our large cities is undoubtedly true, the forces of both Oriental and Occidental degeneracy being here at their maxi- mum ; but it seldom seems to occur to critics of this state of things that their existence is prima facie a confession, and indeed a proclamation, of American inefficiency and incompetency (not to say imbecil- ity) in the administration of cities. In support of this self-evident truth, take, for example, the com- ment of one of our latest and leading authorities upon municipal police problems, who says : " Chi- natown would not long exist if there was any really honest public opinion that wanted it driven out; but it has white friends, influential ones the real estate owner, the men in politics, members of rich societies, mistaken philanthropists, a little regiment of lawyers who make money out of it, newspaper men and magazine writers who exploit it, sight- 160 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY seers who think it represents life in China, and some people who distinctly think that it is a decidedly pic- turesque addition to the town and a good place to take a country friend once in a while and let him see something old and Oriental. If an honest police cap- tain, therefore, attempts to put a heavy hand on the place, there is at once an outbreak of sympathy for these innocent and honest-looking Chinamen, long articles in the newspapers about warring ' tongs/ and about good Chinamen, bad Chinamen, Christian Chinamen, and police brutality. Then, too, there is the suspicion, unfortunately founded on too many facts, that in times past corrupt police officials have derived large revenues from this rank and ill- smelling little town." 2 A comprehensive study of the methods which have been adopted in British colonies, a sympa- thetic co-operation with the best elements among the Chinese themselves, and with the heads of the Chi- nese immigration companies, the service of compe- tent, fearless, and, above all, incorruptible officials, backed by an intelligent, law-abiding people, might have prevented or at least materially modified such conditions as have disgraced American cities. That there is more or less of a gulf between the Chinese and the Occidental, it is one of the objects of the present volume not to deny, but to emphasise; but that it is not a gulf which is " fixed " by a law 2 "Guarding a Great City," by William McAdoo, Police Commissioner, New York City. New York, 1906, pp. 179-180. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 161 of Nature is evident from the alteration of Chinese types found in the Straits Settlements, Australia, and especially in our own Hawaiian Islands, where may be found as promising specimens of the Chinese race as anywhere in the world. The result of the agitation of the question of Chinese immigration was the enactment by the Forty-fifth Congress (1878) of a law which was little short of absolute exclusion, and provided for the abolition of Articles V. and VI. of the Bur- lingame treaty (it having been found that it was inconvenient for Americans any longer to cordially recognise " the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual advantage of the free immigration and emigration of their citizens and subjects, respec- tively, from one country to the other for purposes of curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents." Had it been China that was guilty of such disregard of international obligations, much more would have been heard about the matter; but China had not then come to international self -consciousness. In 1880, a special Commission negotiated a new treaty, which gave the United States the " power to regulate, limit, or suspend immigration, but not absolutely to prohibit it," the prohibition applying only to labourers, others being permitted to enter freely and to reside in the United States. By way, as it were, of illustrating the American conception of the binding force of treaty stipulations, in 1882 162 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY Congress passed a law prohibiting or suspending the immigration of Chinese labourers for twenty years, but the act was vetoed by President Arthur on the ground that a prohibition of immigration for such period was in violation of the assurance of the Commission which negotiated it, that the large powers conferred on Congress " would be exercised by our Government with a wise discretion, in a spirit of reciprocal and sincere friendship, and with entire justice." Congress thereupon modified the law by suspending the immigration of labourers for. ten years. While a new treaty with China was in process of negotiation to provide for still greater restrictions on the return of immigrants who had once been in America, under pressure of the labour unions and in the stress of a political campaign, a law known as the Scott act was passed, absolutely prohibiting the admission of Chinese labourers to the United States, thus once more violating treaty obligations, by which (in the case at least of China) we proclaimed ourselves to be no longer bound. This was fortified by a new treaty, which China good-naturedly consented to sign, prohibiting the admission of Chinese labourers for ten years. Re- strictive legislation of the most radical character was then attempted, which would in practice have prohibited scholars, teachers, and travellers from setting foot on our soil. The bill embodying these stringent provisions was defeated, and for it was substituted another continuing in force existing laws ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 163 and regulations not inconsistent with the treaty, until 1904, or until a new treaty should be made. It would not be difficult to add one more to the many essays and volumes which have been written on the subject of Asiatic immigration into Occiden- tal lands, for the question concerns not alone the United States, but Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. The object of this chapter, however, is much less ambitious, but much more comprehensive, namely, to point out that the past methods of dealing with the subject on the part of the people and the Con- gress of the United States are radically wrong, and that unless we are to be involved in serious future trouble they must be changed. Let us specify four particulars: I. The treatment of Chinese labourers in the United States. The coming of Chinese at our ur- gent invitation at the time of the discovery of gold in California was due to the absolute necessity for cheaper labour. They were invaluable in every ca- pacity, as they always have been in each of the many lands to which they have migrated. The steamer companies in every way encouraged and facilitated emigration. Without the Chinese the continental railways could not have been built. There was a gradual expansion of Chinese activi- ties in all forms of useful service in towns and in settlements, but the Chinese also took up abandoned workings in mines and streams and made them pay. 164 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY But race prejudice soon got upon their trail. Chi- nese testimony was not admissible in courts of law, leaving them a helpless prey to violence which was never lacking. A Chinese was taxed over and over again on the same mining property by armed and lawless men whom he had no power to resist. His legally acquired mining claims were raided, his dwellings destroyed, whole settlements broken up, and countless unprovoked and brutal murders com- mitted not only in the hamlets and towns on the Pa- cific coast, but in the large cities as well. In Rock Spring, Wyoming, all the Chinese residents, five hundred in number, were driven out of town and eleven killed outright, while many others probably died of their wounds after being chased to the hills, where food was kindly sent them by the authorities. In Tacoma about seven hundred Chinese were un- lawfully expelled by an anti-Chinese mob in No- vember, 1885, and but for the firmness of a few individuals the same outrage would have been perpetrated a few months later in Seattle. A pam- phlet published in San Francisco, in 1905, repro- duces accounts, ranging through many years, of several score of incidents of this sort from local journals in California, Oregon, Washington, Ne- vada, and other places, the editors in many towns being by mere self-respect compelled to take the part of the persecuted Chinese, while others shamelessly defended every atrocity. " The Supreme Court of California, in 1855, made a decision, in order to I6S exclude all Chinese testimony against white men, which briefly amounts to this: First, a native of China is an African negro; second, a native of China is an American Indian; third, a native of China has no right which an American white man is bound to respect; therefore murderers and rob- bers of any nation may commit what crime they please against such without concern as to American courts." 3 The total number of Chinese victims of Ameri- can violence during these years will never be known, but it was probably several hundreds. There is no particular in which the worst Boxer atrocities in China were not equalled and exceeded by what has been perpetrated in many cities and settlements of Christian America. Great military expeditions and a heavy indemnity avenged the for- mer. Almost all the latter were entirely unpun- 8 The present Minister from China to the United States, in an address at Chicago a little more than a year ago, made the following statement: "More Chinese subjects have been murdered by mobs m the United States during the last twenty-five years than all the Americans who have been mur- dered in China in similar riots. ... In every instance where Americans have suffered from mobs, the authorities have made reparation for the losses, and rarely has the pun- ishment of death failed to be inflicted upon the guilty offenders. On the other hand, I am sorry to say that I cannot recall a single instance where the penalty of death has been visited on any member of the mobs in the United States guilty of the death of Chinese, and in only two instances out of many has indemnity been paid for the losses sustained by the Chinese." 1 66 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY ished. The criminals could not be brought to trial, could not be identified if tried ; when their guilt was proved they were frequently allowed to escape, and if convicted the sentences were seldom if ever car- ried into effect. 4 The Chinese bore all this with most exemplary patience. A remonstrance pre- pared for presentation to Congress in the name of the Chinese merchants of San Francisco (a trans- lation of which is printed in Dr. Speer's volume) is a temperate, dignified, and forcible document, ap- pealing to the rulers of this country as reasonable men to govern the land according to the will of Heaven, and to put an end to the crimes and atroc- ities, of which a long and dark catalogue is given. It is impossible for any intelligent and candid reader to examine the testimony in regard to American treatment of the Chinese for more than half a cen- tury without coming to the conclusion that no country able to fight would have submitted to such chronic insult and outrage without going to war to avenge it. 2. The treatment of Chinese labourers in the United States has been bad, but from the Chinese point of view that of Chinese merchants, students, and travellers has been even worse. Because many Chinese contrived to evade the laws, United States officials frequently appeared determined to show 4 "The Oldest and the Newest Empire: China and the United States," by William Speer, D. D., Hartford, 1870, p. 577. Detailed accounts of these events with appropriate com- ments and suggestions abound in this volume. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 167 Chinese that this great Republic is not to be trifled with, upon the evident assumption that it is better to exclude ten Chinese entitled to enter the coun- try rather than admit one whose right was doubt- ful. Chinese merchants, scholars, and travellers have often been deliberately classed as labourers, al- though distinguishable at a glance; they have been immured in the unsanitary and often filthy detention sheds of San Francisco and subjected to the humil- iation unheard of in China of being stripped naked and measured by the Bertillon system as if they were convicted criminals. The facts have been often related in detail in American newspapers, mag- azines, and reviews, and may be supposed to be familiar to all who care to know them. The late Taotai Wang Kai-ka contributed an article to the " North American Review," for March, 1904, tinder the suggestive title: "A Menace to America's Oriental Trade." Mr. Chester Holcombe, formerly Secretary of the United States Legation in Peking, in an arti- cle in "The Outlook" (April 23, 1904), mentions among other illustrations of our methods the case of a Chinese merchant in San Francisco who re- turned to China to get a bride, only to find that she was not allowed to land in California. " Another Chinese merchant and wife, of unquestioned stand- ing in San Francisco, made a trip to China, and while there a child was born. On returning to their home in America the sapient officials could in- 1 68 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY terpose no objection to the readmission of the par- ents, but peremptorily refused to admit the three- months-old baby, as, never having been in this country, it had no right to enter it! Neither of these preposterous decisions could be charged to the stupidity or malice of the local officials, for both were appealed to the Secretary of the Treasury in Washington and were officially sustained by him as in accordance with law, though in the latter case the Secretary, the Hon. Daniel Manning, in approv- ing the action, had the courage and good sense to write, * Burn all this correspondence, let the poor little baby go ashore, and don't make a fool of your- self/ " 5 Miss Luella Miner has devoted the greater part of a volume, called " Two Heroes of Cathay," to detailing the treatment accorded to two young Chi- nese students who had suffered in the Boxer out- break in Shansi (and one of whom, at imminent risk to himself, brought the first authentic informa- tion concerning the fate of the American mission- aries in the cities of Tai-ku and Fen-chou fu). It is important to notice that these students were pro- vided with formal certificates duly issued to them by the American consul at Tientsin, and also with a spe- cial document from H. E. the Marquis Li Hung- chang, the highest and most influential official in China. All these, however, counted for less than B This last case is also cited in " New Forces in Old China," by Arthur Judson Brown, D. D., p. 160. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 169 nothing upon their arrival in America, where " they were treated by the United States officials at San Francisco and other cities with a suspicion and bru- tality that were more worthy of Turkey than of free, Christian America." " Arriving at the Golden Gate, September 12, 1901, it was not until January 10, 1903, that they succeeded in reaching Oberlin, and those sixteen months were filled with indignities from which all the efforts of influential friends, and of the Chinese Minister to the United States, were unable to protect them." No American returning from abroad, whether he lands at New York or at San Francisco, feels called upon to feel proud of our tariff laws, or of the treatment of travellers by our customs officers, a treatment which appears to stand in a class by itself and not to be paralleled in any other coun- try. Within the past two years a case of exceptional insult to a Chinese family landing at Boston at- tracted wide notice, and the intervention of the President of the United States, who, in a message to Congress, stated the grievances of the Chinese more strongly than they have generally been able to do it for themselves. It must be evident that there is something radi- cally wrong when events of this kind constantly recur with the persistence of a repeating decimal, and are only prevented by the inflexible rigour of a Chief Magistrate who insists upon a " square deal." There could scarcely be a more typical exempli- 170 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY fication of this spirit of undisguised contempt for the amenities of international intercourse than the experience of the Chinese exhibitors at the Lou- isiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904. " Our Government formally invited China to par- ticipate, sending a special commission to Peking to urge acceptance. China accepted in good faith, and then the Treasury Department at Washington drew up a series of regulations requiring " that each exhibitor, upon arrival at any seaport of this coun- try, should be photographed three times for pur- poses of identification, and should file a bond in the penal sum of $5,000, the conditions of which were that he would proceed directly and by the shortest route to St. Louis, would not leave the Exposition grounds at any time after his arrival there, and would depart for China by the first steamer sailing after the close of the Exposition." Thus a sort of Chinese rogues' gallery was to be established at each port, and the Fair grounds were to be made a prison pen for those who had come here as in- vited guests of the nation, whose presence and aid were needed to make the display a success. It is only just to add that, upon a most vigorous pro- test made against these courteous regulations by the Chinese Government, and a threat to cancel their acceptance of our invitation, the rules were withdrawn and others more decent were substituted. But the fact that they were prepared and seriously presented to China shows to what an extent of in jus- ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 171 tice and discourtesy our mistaken attitude and action in regard to Chinese immigration has carried us." 6 For many years the legal, extra-legal, and often lawless proceedings against the Chinese on the Pa- cific coast and elsewhere in America seemed to excite no general interest in China, except in a few counties in Kuang-tung, whence the greater part of the immigrants came. But since the Boxer upris- ing China has become as never before unified. In the summer of 1905 (simultaneously with Japan's naval victories) the usual mutual repulsion of na- tives of different Provinces to each other appeared to be subordinated to a great wave of national feeling, first manifested in the coast cities and rapidly spread- ing to the interior. Then began the boycott of Amer- ican products, which not only affected the sale of kerosene, flour, and piece-goods, but in some in- stances broke up American mission schools, made travelling unsafe in some parts of China, and called forth bitter editorials in Chinese journals, as well as cartoons, showing the animosity towards those who continued to use American goods. That much of this sentiment and its display was manufac- tured, does not alter the fact that it produced its effects, injuring both sides, but especially the Chi- nese themselves. In a case reported from the south of China, a youth returned from school where he had imbibed the current views, acting in accord- ance with the teachings of the Filial Piety Classic, asked his father and mother for permission to de- " New Forces in Old China," pp. 160-161. 1 72 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY stroy a gramophone of American make, which had been given to him, on the ground that the Amer- icans are bad people who oppress the Chinese. As the machine was his own, his parents gave him leave to do as he pleased. He then coiled his queue on his head, rolled up his sleeves, and taking a hatchet into the yard soon reduced the gramo- phone to a mass of wreckage. The other members of his family were by this time also infected with the bacillus anti-Americamis, and went through the house gathering up all articles of American origin; taking them into the yard they made a bon- fire of them, feeling that thus they had been freed from an accursed spell. It was in this spirit that the boycott, cleverly manipulated by designing men, was carried through. The coffin of one of its early promoters, who committed suicide in Shanghai, was taken to his native place in Canton, where it was received, especially by students, with the greatest honour. The following year the anniversary of his death was celebrated with great ceremony, and were the course of events in succeeding centuries to be like that of the past, within a few hundred years this youth by natural evolution might become the god of Patriotism. Throughout this movement, which but for its interruption by officials might have become a national one, it was instructive to observe that its nidus was largely among students, many of them half-educated, and more than half- intoxicated with new ideas of " the rights of man," ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 173 and of the essential unity of the Chinese people. The anti-American boycott was a storm-signal in a region where there are not unlikely to be many subsequent typhoons. 7 That it passed without doing far greater damage is no proof that this will happen next time ; while the fact that such a sudden movement on such a relatively small scale caused such a profound sensation in America, is not likely to be lost upon the shrewd Chinese. For the first time there appeared to be a general recognition on the part of the American people that as a people we have greatly wronged the Chinese, and it was to the thoughtful traveller a significant circumstance that unprejudiced and intelligent Americans, when the provocation for the Chinese action was ex- 7 As these lines are committed to paper, a Peking letter in a Chinese journal (with an English page) comes under obser- vation, in which the writer (one of the Secretaries of the Imperial Commission which went abroad to investigate Con- stitutional government) says in reference to the proposed re- newal of the boycott, and Minister Rockhill's request to have it stopped : " I think our merchants, students, and others have every right to boycott American goods in China. If the American working classes can do as they like toward Chi- nese, simply because the latter can live on cheaper food and work more hours at less wages, why can we not retaliate by boycotting American goods? America dare not treat Japan in the same way as China, because our neighbour has a large and a strong army and navy, and can compel respect if neces- sary by the force of her arms. I hope the Governor-General of the two Kuang provinces will not dissolve the boycott asso- ciation, as demanded by Mr. Rockhill, until he has received some assurance that the Washington Government will act fairly toward China by amending the present exclusion laws." 174 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY plained them, almost invariably exclaimed: "I am glad of it! I would have done the same thing in their place ! " 3. Every true American ought to wish well to those organisations which have for their object the steady and permanent improvement of the condition of all grades of workers. Despite a foreign immi- gration of a million a year, mainly on the Atlantic seaboard, that part of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains is yet suffering from the scar- city and the cost of labour. Superabundant testi- mony from every Pacific State shows that a mod- erate immigration of Chinese labourers would vastly increase the wealth of these States, and would aid in developing resources now running to waste, and likely to do so for a long time to come. In some industries, such as salmon-canning and fruit-raising, and especially wherever irrigation is required, the Chinese are found to be indispensable. All the northern portion of the United States deeply feels the lack of domestic service. Papers, pam- phlets, books, have been and are constantly appear- ing upon this fertile theme, yet nothing is done, or apparently can be done, to mend matters. If it were possible (as it is not) to introduce into the country a few hundred thousand Chinese servants, half to serve as cooks and the remainder as table- boys and general house-servants (in each of which capacities the Chinese have no superiors in any land), it would probably prove the greatest social ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 175 blessing which could be conferred on the women of America. Within five years it would make life an entirely different matter, and it would almost certainly raise the birth rate. American girls, as a rule, positively refuse to go out to domestic serv- ice. Foreign " help " is scarce, unsatisfactory, ex- pensive, and transient. Now why cannot American women be relieved of some of their heavy burdens by inviting the Chi- nese to fill a now vacant place ? Because the Amer- ican labour unions would not permit it. If we under- stand by Civilisation " that state of society in which the will, the interests, and the passions of the indi- vidual (or of a class) are restrained by irresistible law for the protection of the whole community, or it may be for its advancement toward an end deemed by that community in its wisest moments permanently desirable," it is evident that the intel- ligent tyranny of highly organised capital and the relatively unintelligent tyranny of highly organised labour, each planning for its own interest, and dis- regarding that of the commonwealth, are equally opposed not only to true democracy (or republi- canism), but to the fundamental principles of civil- isation. Under present conditions, however, any further Chinese labour immigration is not merely impracti- cable but undesirable, since it must inevitably add to the long catalogue of our crimes against China. 4. The sketch already given of our treaties with 176 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY China shows what obligations we have willingly assumed. The imperfect summary of the outrages against Chinese in America may indicate how lightly we have often disregarded those obligations. To the remonstrances of China we have been obliged to explain that the crimes were committed in " a Territory," the designation of a region over which the control of the central government is very im- perfect ; or perhaps in " a State," a division of the country over which in matters of this sort the cen- tral government has no control at all. Is it any wonder that when a certain Secretary of State re- ferred a dissatisfied Chinese Minister to " the Gov- ernor of Colorado," that Minister should blandly reply that China had no treaties with "the Gov- ernor of Colorado " ? And is it surprising that such shuffling of responsibility as we invariably re- fuse to tolerate from the Chinese Government should appear to the Chinese as utterly unworthy of a "free and enlightened republic"? May it not be a fortunate circumstance that the question of the relation of the individual States to the General Gov- ernment in matters covered by treaties is thrust upon us in a way which ought to compel a definite set- tlement? There is probably little danger that Americans will ever tamely surrender any rights upon which they ought to insist; but is there not grave danger that some special guild or some State may deliberately set its own volition, preferences, or prejudices against the welfare of the nation as ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 177 a whole? As long as this is seriously threatened, it is difficult to see how we are safe either from the risk of domestic strife, or from that of foreign war. The " body politic," like any other body, must have a head, and must be a unit, otherwise it is unsound, which is but another name for insane. It is prob- ably the commercial thumb-screw which will prove the greatest stimulant to that American good sense which in the end is sure to prevail. Mr. Oscar Straus, Secretary of Commerce and Labour, discuss- ing proposals for reciprocal tariffs, is reported to have said : " The situation is serious. The San Francisco affair may greatly affect American trade with Japan, and there is also ground for fear that it may injuriously influence the general friendship between the two Powers, a friendship which is essential to the development of commerce. Amer- ica is not now in a position to criticise any nation or individual who endeavours to obtain favours from another while at the same time inflicting injuries on the latter." Nothing is more probable than that all differences both with Japan and China might have been avoided by judicious and temperate consulta- tion with these Powers as equals, as everyone now recognises Japan to be. It is perhaps no exaggera- tion to say that a large part of the American peo- ple is as much in need of education in this matter as are the people of China. The President of the United States in his annual message, December, 1906, embodied the view of a patriot in these words : 178 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY " Good manners should be an international, not less than an individual, attribute. It is unthinkable that we continue a policy under which a given locality may be allowed to commit a crime against a friendly nation, and the Government of the United States be limited, not to preventing the commission of the crime, but in the last resort to defending the people who have committed it against the consequences of their own wrong-doing." The 'root trouble with our relations with China, and more recently with Japan, is the contemptuous disregard of their point of view and the childish insistence upon our own. He who supposes that in the face of the rising spirit of the Orient we can permanently have one set of immi- gration laws for the Chinese, and another for the Japanese, is under an illusion which will sooner or later be dispelled. Another item in the list of American disadvan- tages in China is the history of the concession given to an American syndicate for building a railway from Hankow (Wu-ch'ang) to Canton. The northern section of this great trunk line (Peking to Hankow) had been entrusted to a Belgian syn- dicate, because Belgium is a small Power from which nothing is to be feared. But the Belgian syndicate was financed in France, and the Russo- Chinese Bank (virtually a Russian State Bank) was the banker. Thus the Chinese believed themselves to be delivered over to a Russo-French combination which controlled this initial line through the heart ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 179 of China. America, traditional " friend of China," having no territorial ambitions, was then granted the concession for the southern half of this route upon the express stipulation that the right should not be transferred to any other nationality. But the Belgians were eager to get control of the American stock, and were actually allowed to do so. When the Chinese discovered this fact they rightly threatened to cancel the concession. By what financial juggling the stock, while actually bought in Belgium, was made to appear to be still American, is of no importance here. The vital fact was the evident breach of faith, which, when it was dis- covered, made the people of the Provinces through which the line was to run furious. Great mass meet- ings (a new phenomenon in China) were held, at which, in fluent speech, but in conflicting dialects, mutually almost unintelligible, the perfidy of the Americans was denounced. It soon became impossi- ble either for Americans or for Belgians to build the road. The Chinese wished to have an appraisement of the value and to pay for what they got, but they charge the American syndicate with refusing to sell at less than a 50 per cent, profit, so that for what was at most worth $2,000,000 they paid $3,750,000 (gold), borrowing the money to do so from the Hongkong Government, doubtless thanking the gods of the land and of the grain that they were rid of such " friends to China." But this was not all. Chinese, whose official position entitled them to ex- i8o CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY amine the books of the syndicate, testify that they were not allowed to do so; that when they did get access to them it was discovered that large sums had been constantly drawn amounting at times to several thousand dollars by the manager, for which no vouchers were forthcoming, and no other ex- planation than the compendious phrase " personal expenses." Mr. K. G. Kuang, a Taotai, who is an engineer on the repurchased (" Yueh-Han") lines, is reported in a recent Hongkong paper as saying: " That Chinese officials do squeeze, I am not going to deny, and I have seen some fairly good examples of it. The best samples of it, however, that I have ever seen or heard of are insignificant compared with things I could tell you about your boasted for- eigners [Americans] and our railway. Mind, I have the books. Things doubled in price in a most mysterious way. We paid high prices, and got nothing worth having for our money." To the high financiers managing this enterprise, seeing nothing beyond the four corners of their ledgers, it doubtless seemed (and perhaps still seems) a remarkably clever performance. Had the railway been well and honestly built, its operation by Americans would have opened a viaduct into which American machinery and American goods would have flowed in an ever-enlarging measure; and, better still, America would have been able to influence China for good in important ways and at a time when she most needed such help. Instead of ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 181 this, we have the boycott, and a mixture of hatred and contempt for America and Americans which for a long period rendered the lives of citizens of our country in China distinctly a burden. It is not, perhaps, too much to say that from a moral, and even from a commercial, point of view, this whole proceeding was the severest blow ever struck by Americans themselves at American interests in the Far East. Another capital American disadvantage abroad has been the baleful shadow thrown by the Spoils system at home over appointments of foreign min- isters and consuls. There was formerly a baseless superstition that the nomination of Minister to China " belonged " to the Pacific coast, for no other apparent reason than that this portion of the coun- try had more experience of the Chinese and more antipathy to them than any other. That we have had, on the whole, an excellent line of ministers is no thanks to the system or the lack of it. It is only recently that a small staff of student-interpreters has been attached to the Legation in Peking, from among whom interpreters could be appointed to the consulates, where the scandals connected with the employment of English-speaking Chinese in that capacity or rather, incapacity have been notori- ous. Now that reform of the consular service has begun, we may look for its extension. That serv- ice has furnished many admirable men, and when an American consul is at his best he is not sur- 182 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY passed by those of any other country and also, alas! many unworthy ones. A recent British critic remarks: "From one end of the .country to the other, American consuls in the past have been the butt of every jest on the subject of the white man's so-called superiority over the Chinaman, in the matter of ' squeeze.' Having, except in certain honourable cases, but four, or at the most eight, years of office before them, after which they will be thrown on the world without pensions, it has be- come an understood thing among American consuls that any ' plunder ' that is to be made, should be promptly pocketed. It would be unkind to make longer reference to this subject at a time [1905] when the conduct of at least three American con- sulates in China is engaging the serious attention of the Washington State Department. But when it has been proved beyond doubt, as it will be, that American officials in China connive at acts which bring their country into increasing contempt in the Far East, it is high time that the matter should be properly attended to. There is only one solution it is the creation of an American consular service on the English model. Young men of the Yale and Harvard stamp, after being properly grounded in Chinese for two or three years at Peking, would soon make the present state of affairs only a distant memory." 8 8 "The Re-shaping of the Far East," by B. L. Putnam- Weale, vol. ii., pp. 330-331. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 183 It is a fact of great importance that Orientals are most deeply impressed by what is visible. British consulates in Eastern ports are always large and well-placed, and belong to the Government. The Shanghai consulate is situated in spacious grounds on the most eligible site in the International Set- tlement. The Germans, the French, and the Japan- ese, in like manner, always have suitable and com- modious establishments. Alone among the great powers, the United States owns no buildings, and has nowhere any local habitation, drifting now here now there, at the caprice of a landlord (though the Consul's locality can, however, almost always be discovered by diligent study of the local directory and a map). American lack of a merchant marine is a serious handicap in the Far East. Half a century and more ago American clipper ships outsailed all others, and reaped the profit of the difference of two cents a pound on the first tea cargoes, clearing, perhaps, $40,000 in a single trip. In 1848, the arrivals of American ships in Chinese waters were 67 at Can- ton, 20 in Shanghai, and 8 in Amoy, standing first after the British. Thirty-five years ago the " flowery flag " was everywhere in evidence on the China coast, and up the Yang-tzu. Now it is seldom seen. With the war between the States our merchant marine dwindled; yet, although that war terminated more than forty years ago, we are still subjected not only to the strange humiliation of see- 1 84 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY ing America's carrying-trade and its profits in the hands of other nations, but of witnessing the sudden rise and skilful development of German and Japan- ese world commerce within the limits of a single generation, while we content ourselves with build- ing ocean yachts of uncanny proportions, which (manned perhaps by a European crew) can gener- ally outrace all others. Little Japan, on the other hand, has subsidised a great number of steam lines, and now has regular and efficient service to Vladi- vostock, Korea, all the seaports in China and the ports of the Yang-tzu river, Hongkong, the Straits Settlements, Bombay, London, Australia, Victoria, B. C, Seattle, San Francisco, and the Hawaiian- Islands, and is now opening new routes to South America. Thus the busy hands and tireless brains of the Japanese are steadily developing their plan of weaving about the globe a network of commercial lines which are already making Japan a formidable trade-rival of the greatest Occidental countries. The apparently impending nationalisation of nearly (or possibly quite) all the principal Japanese indus- tries will, for aught that can be foreseen, render them in their own field irresistible. There is, in like manner, a process in active operation which, with pardonable exaggeration, has been styled the " Ger- manisation of the world," to which in America little or no attention seems to have been paid. (For some notice of the outline facts, the reader may be referred to Chapter X. of Von Schierbrand's " Ger- ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 185 many, the Welding of a World-Power," New York, 1904.) Contrast with this range of facts the case of the United States as described ( " New York Independ- ent," June 21, 1906) by Senator William P. Frye, who as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Com- merce has devoted more time and study to the ques- tion of ship-subsidy than any other American. This is his account of the American merchant marine in 1905 : " Last year, for example, not an American vessel entered or cleared, in the foreign trade, in Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Greece, Scotland, or Ireland; only one in France, two in Germany, fifty-seven in England forty-seven being credited to the American line, which was started a few years ago under the unfortunately amended effort which Congress made toward ship-subsidy. The other ten steamers were also built in expecta- tion of the shipping bill of 1901. For the entire continent of Europe there were eighty-eight Amer- ican entries out of a total of 4,154; ninety American clearances out of a total of 4,490 forty-seven being those of the one American line. A few years ago our consul at Bergen, the principal port of Norway, imposed certain fees and taxes upon a little vessel, the ' Hamilton Fish,' which, accidentally, I think, entered the port. His attention was afterward called to the fact that these fines had been repealed by Congress several years before. In his letter re- 186 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY. funding the charges, the Consul wrote : ' The fact that I have been Consul here for fifteen years, and that this is the only American vessel I have seen, may be some excuse for my ignorance of the law.' It seems to me that this picture ought to humiliate and mortify every patriotic citizen of the United States, who glories in the power and the prosperity of his country. But It is more than humiliating. It is absolutely dangerous to be so utterly dependent on the other nations of the world." Is it strange that whenever one meets with an article in a British or a Continental journal on the world's shipping, it is always assumed that in this connection the United States of America is a quan- tity wholly negligible? It is but yesterday that any serious attempts on our part have been made to win the good-will of the South American republics, which, had we been wise, we should have employed every means to achieve at least a quarter of a cen- tury ago, since that good-will, when won, will in its effects prove of the highest value both to us and to them. As an additional example of American de- sire to do justice to China, it deserves mention that, in the very first of our treaties, citizens of the United States were expressly forbidden to deal in opium or in any contraband article of merchandise, and the Government promised to take measures to pre- vent its flag from being abused by the subjects of other nations, as a cover for the violation of the laws of the Empire. This agreement was sub- ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 187 sequently renewed (to the extreme disgust of the British Minister) in the treaty of 1880. In the early days of the last century, American naval com- manders, while notifying shipmasters that if caught smuggling opium they must expect no protection from the fleet, yet took no steps to prevent such violation of the laws. American effort to do simple justice to an Oriental people excited on the part of those profiting by the opium trade both opposition and ridicule, as a showy and an entirely inexpensive display of virtue. In a recent work already quoted (" The Re-shap- ing of the Far East ") the author calls the American prohibition of trading in opium a "curious pro- vision." In explanation of this remark, he admits that " no right-minded man can take exception to the general justice of this pronouncement, but with- out a full knowledge of the extremely complex opium question ... it is impossible to understand the exact value of a clause. The motives which inspired it gave rise to the peculiar and distinct policy America has constantly followed in China for a period of fifty years, to the serious detriment of the real good of the country. For the United States . . . have, as it were, approached China in this way and with these words : * Circumstances and a for- tunate geographical position have given birth to a friendly trade between our two peoples, who must, in spite of everything, preserve a distinct attitude towards one another. Points of disagreement may i88 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY arise between us, but we wish to insist on the fact that we approach the whole Chinese question from the only kind and noble point of view, and that any privileges granted us by no means entail any relin- quishment of the Emperor's right of eminent domain or dominion over his lands and his waters.' And if one continued the speech, he might add sotto voce, ' And, in spite of everything, we will maintain this attitude of friendly solicitude, and will not attempt to understand finesses, intrigues, or the actual con- ditions of an Eastern country, but shall continue to proclaim that China is a sovereign international State.' ' But Providence had in store swift retri- bution for this shameful recognition of China's " international rights." " Had American shipping continued to expand after the * forties ' and the con- clusion of the first treaty in the way which had been so noticeable in the first decades of the nineteenth century, there is no saying what the maintenance of an attitude adapted only for intercourse between Western peoples, or those which have been thor- oughly Europeanised, would have brought about. But the sudden decline and subsequent almost complete disappearance of the American flag from Chinese waters, made the position of the United States in China for many years one of meagre importance." It is upon this lofty level of morality that negotiations with China (and with other Oriental countries as well) have often been con- ducted. The same view, even less obliquely ex- ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 189 pressed, was embodied forty years ago in the remark of a French char ge-d" affaires in regard to the translation by Dr. Martin of Wheaton's " Inter- national Law " into the Chinese language, who said to Mr. Burlingame : " Who is this man who is go- ing to give the Chinese an insight into our European international law? Kill him choke him off; he'll make us endless trouble." 9 American attitude in regard to the terrible traffic in Chinese coolies was similar to that toward opium, but in this, happily, she did not stand alone. The evident intention in the circular notes of the late Secretary Hay, to secure justice to China, did not a little to convince the more intelligent Chinese of the essential good-will of the United States. It is true that the actual importance of the international agree- ments relating to the " open door " were misunder- stood, and greatly overrated in America, where the wide chasm between promise and execution, in mat- ters relating to the Far East, has not obtruded itself upon public attention. Secretary Hay took, indeed, a wise and commendable stand; but little or noth- ing came of it, because we were not at all prepared to back up our opinions with force, and without force, the Far Eastern question would never have reached its present stage. It was well to insist upon the opening of certain " ports " in Manchuria, and the Unitation of the area of the war was a great in- 9 " A Cycle of Cathay," by W. A. P. Martin, D. D., LL. D., P. 234. CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY ternational benefit. But it was not. diplomatic notes, but Japanese armies, which settled the matter. An American asset of value in China has been the high character of the heads of some of the great mercantile firms which flourished two and three gen- erations ago, but these large houses have all disap- peared and have left few successors. It is not so much by specifications in treaties, as by the quality of its men, that the keen-sighted Oriental judges a people. It is a great advantage that we have now an American Asiatic Association, with a secretary whose vigilance nothing escapes, and with a monthly journal which serves to concentrate light, and to deepen the interest of intelligent Americans in the Far East. Complementary to this organisation are the American Associations of China and Japan, each of which acts as an eye, an ear, and a voice. No American in America, who cares to be informed as to American relations with the Far East, has any further excuse for ignorance; and no American in the Far East, however remote from treaty ports may be his residence, need be unenlightened about cur- rent questions, or unrepresented in an expression of American public opinion. The fact that the present President of the United States is a man of alert mind, broad knowledge, instantaneous comprehen- sion, inflexible integrity, resolutely bent on civic, na- tional, and international righteousness, and that the administration of the State Department has for ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 191 many years been guided by the same principles, is among the most hopeful signs of an improved and elevated national life. An evidence of the growing appreciation at Wash- ington of the increasing importance of our foreign relations was the passage (June, 1906) by Con- gress, of a bill for the establishment of a long-needed United States Court for China. This is " not an isolated act on the part of the Government, but, like the recent legislation for the reorganisation of the Consular Service, is one of a series of acts looking toward the improvement of our relations with China and other nations." Within a very brief period after the opening of the Court by Judge L. R. Wilfley, formerly Attor- ney-General of the Philippine Islands (December 17, 1906), important civil suits had been heard and adjusted; gamblers and sharpers had been tried, convicted, and sentenced; and all the disreputable houses kept by alleged " American " women had been closed (more than sixty of them leaving the port), and such clamour raised as to show that many " vested interests " had been hard hit, now that the fair name of America can no longer be trailed in the mire. After this far too-extended discussion of Amer- ican advantages and disadvantages in China, the question occurs and recurs, why is it that as com- pared with its capacities and its opportunities, our country counts for so little, when it might count for 192 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY so much ? To this, different replies may rightly be given. Perhaps the greatest of all our disabilities in com- petition with other nations and races is our appar- ently incurable unwillingness to recognise our own defects. We are intoxicated with our wealth, our numbers, our resources. Books like Mr. Carnegie's " Triumphant Democracy," which flatter the na- tional vanity without really touching any of the great underlying problems of our national life, find quick response among the multitude; but the voice of the more thoughtful scholars and journals is lost in the din and dust of daily activities. Competition was never so keen, business methods never so un- compromising. The most alert and the most per- sistent will win, and others will drop out and be forgotten. We are too engrossed to be argued with or enlightened. The motto of the whole American business world might well be: " Do not talk to the Motorman." Education is too often valued not for what there is in It, but for what can be got out of it. Intellectually, the cardinal sin of Americans is super- ficiality. Some years ago the late Bishop of London, Dr. Creighton, published an article in the " Contempo- rary Review," " in which he declared as the result of his great experience as a teacher, that the English people, as a whole, do not care to gain knowledge, believed that it is no advantage to be learned, and were inclined to undervalue scholars. They held ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 193 that knowledge of one's work, as distinguished from learning, is desirable, but that learning is a load for the mind, rather than a source of strength." The journal from which the above is quoted (the " New York Observer") adds that " if this is true of England, much more is it the case in America. As a nation, we set no value upon learning which is deep and recondite." " The truth is that neither Americans nor Englishmen have the plodding power of the Germans. They are willing to work hard for a special object, to stake their whole physical and mental force upon the attainment of an end ; but they will not toil for toil's sake. If knowledge is necessary in order to gain wealth or fame, political or social position, they will yield to the necessity; but in America, at least, this seldom happens." In the keen competition of the twentieth century the best equipped, the most foresightedly intelligent, nation will out-distance the rest. Efficiency of all varieties is the keynote of modern business life. Whatever promotes it is to be cultivated, whatever hinders it is to be discarded. And what has all this to do with American success in the Orient? A business man of wide experience in different Far Eastern countries was asked which of the many nationalities represented there furnished the best business men, and instantly and unhesitatingly he replied : " The Chinese," explaining that it was on account of those race-qualities which we have already mentioned. " And who are the worst ? " 194 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY After a thoughtful pause he answered : " Amer- icans. They are too impatient, they insist on big returns, they are unwilling to bear losses, they will not condescend to small matters, and they want their returns at once or they will quit." Can it be true that as a nation we are afflicted with a myopia preventing us from seeing beyond the shortest distance, and with a careless optimism which, without fatiguing itself by any laborious examination of existing conditions, is content to fall back on that consoling generalisation (cited some years since in a review article by one of our leading authorities on economics), that a special Providence watches over the welfare of fools, children, and the United States? VIII AMERICA'S OPPORTUNITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES IN CHINA THAT the American Republic and the Chinese Em- pire must have an important relation to one another is an idea which has long been more and more forc- ing itself upon the attention of thoughtful men. One of the most clear-sighted of American states- men gave explicit expression to this more than half- a-century ago. In a speech in the United States Senate, July 29, 1852, Mr. William H. Seward said : " Even the discovery of this continent and its islands, and the organisation of society and gov- ernment upon them, grand and important as these events have been, were but conditional, preliminary, and ancillary to the more sublime result now in the act of consummation the reunion of the two civili- sations, which, parting on the plains of Asia four thousand years ago, and travelling ever after in opposite directions around the world, now meet again on the coasts and islands of the Pacific Ocean. Certainly no mere human event of equal dignity and importance has ever occurred upon the earth. It will be followed by the equalisation of the condition of society and the restoration of the unity of the human family. Who does not see that henceforth every year European commerce, European politics, 195 196 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY European thoughts and European activity, although actually gaining greater force, and European con- nections, although actually becoming more intimate, will nevertheless ultimately sink in importance; while the Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands, and the vast regions beyond, will become the chief theatre of events in the world's great hereafter? Who does not see that this movement must effect our own complete emancipation from what remains of European influence and prejudice, and in turn develop the American opinion and influence which shall remould constitutional laws and customs in the land that is first greeted by the rising sun ? " At the time when these words were uttered they must have appeared to many hearers and readers as the wild dreams of an unfettered fancy, but those who are living to-day are better able to appreciate their deep significance. It is altogether beside the purpose of this volume to discuss the commercial relations of the United States and the Far East, which are the subject of an unending series of Consular Reports, and of articles in journals of all descriptions. For a comprehen- sive view of the economic aspects of this subject the reader is referred to Dr. Josiah Strong's " Ex- pansion," which condenses into less than 300 pages a convincing array of facts and arguments. 1 1 " Expansion Under New- World Conditions," by Josiah Strong, New York, 1900. See also von Schierbrand's " Amer- ica, Asia, and the Pacific," New York, 1904, where Dr. Strong's arguments are repeated and amplified. OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 197 The following is a brief summary of the author's conclusions : 1. The astonishing development of energy and wealth which has subdued the American continent makes America the most forceful and resourceful nation in the world. With ever-increasing wealth and energy, we shall have at home an ever-decreas- ing opportunity to invest and to apply them. Our young men and our capital will, therefore, increas- ingly go abroad, and be found wherever undeveloped resources and sleepy eighteenth-century methods create an opportunity. Thus America will increas- ingly acquire individual and corporate rights all over the world. 2. American manufacturing supremacy gives every promise of permanence. Our manufacturing interests must inevitably become relatively greater, while our agricultural interests become relatively smaller. Our national welfare will be increasingly dependent on foreign markets. We are already de- pendent on such markets, not simply for industrial prosperity, but for political and social health. 3. The awakening of China is a fact of world importance and of profound significance. To raise the standard of living in China to the average standard of the United States, would be equivalent, so far as our markets are concerned, to the creation of five Americas. To raise the standard of living in China fifty per cent, would, commercially speak- ing, add 200,000,000 to the world's population. 198 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY 4. The completion of the new Ishmian Canal, by making a geographical change of the first magni- tude, will have a profound effect upon the world, and will confer on America the commercial su- premacy of the Pacific. 5. The Pacific is to become the centre of the world's population, commerce, wealth, and power. It is to be also the arena where the great races of the future will settle the question of free institu- tions or absolutism for all mankind. 6. We are now entering on a new world life, of which America is an organic part. This creates new necessities and new obligations, which it will be impossible to evade. This is a commercial age, and commercial considerations are the mainspring of policies. It is the supreme interests of nations, or what appears to be such, which shape their politics both at home and abroad, and in this day industrial and commercial interests are supreme. Questions of finance, of tariff, of expansion, of colonial policy, of the open door, dominate politics, national and international, because they profoundly affect industry and commerce. It is idle to suppose that we can be a part, and a principal part, of the organised commercial and industrial life of the world and yet maintain a policy of isolation. It is of pressing importance that all Americans, and especially the large and influential class of edu- cated Americans, should comprehend the nature of these world-problems by which we are now to be OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 199 more and more confronted. Our cousins across the water have a coterie of narrow-gauge thinkers whom they dub " little Englanders." The type in America is only too familiar, and nothing but con- tinued hypodermic injections of knowledge can be expected to work a radical cure. It is an excellent thing that Senators, Representatives, business men, and men of leisure should personally visit Eastern lands to gain first-hand impressions otherwise un- attainable; but it is highly unfortunate that the stay of almost all travellers is too brief to be of value, and that so few of them have any taste or talent for a careful study of existing conditions, but are content to accept a few generalisations, often second or third hand, and return to America radiat- ing a genial omniscience epitomised in the recurring phrase: "7 tell you, sir!" and with an ignorance which is only more elaborate than it was before. These are the people who, as Prof. Chamberlain of Tokio remarks, write those letters and volumes of travel which are mainly composed of " slush en- livened by statistics." If the manufacturers and the merchants of the United States were wise in their generation, they would equip frequent expeditions to find and make openings for American enterprise in the Far East, just as men of other nations have long been doing; nor would they be deluded into supposing that be- cause we have " a big country " we can perma- nently get on without world markets. It is only 200 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY in the Scilly Islands that the inhabitants are re- ported to " make their living by doing each other's washing." In Colquhoun's " Mastery of the Pa- cific " it is assumed that the control of the commerce of this mightiest of oceans will ultimately fall to America. But before this can take place there must be not only a revolutionary change in our shipping laws, but also a material abatement of our national self-conceit and superciliousness. " Discussing the question as to what constitutes superiority and in- feriority of race, Benjamin Kidd declares that ' we shall have to set aside many of our old ideas on the subject. Neither in respect alone of colour, nor of descent, nor even the possession of high intel- lectual capacity, can science give us any warrant for speaking of one race as superior to another. Real superiority is the result, not so much in any- thing inherent in one race as distinguished from another, as of the operation upon a race and within it of certain uplifting forces. Any superiority that we now possess is due to the action upon us of these forces. But they can be brought to bear upon the Chi- nese as well as upon us. We should avoid the pop- ular mistake of looking at the Chinese * as if they were merely animals with a toilet, and never see the great soul in a man's face.' " 2 " There is per- haps no truer sign of the essentially provincial char- acter of the self-centred white people than their failure to discover and appreciate the noble and the 2 " New Forces in Old China," p. 33. OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 201 beautiful in the great civilisation of the Orient. We have been blinded to these by the selfishness of our lives, the greed of our ambitions, and the pride of our might." 3 It is often blithely assumed by Americans that although we are not at present in a mood to interest ourselves in the Orient, at some future time, when we may have more leisure, we will perhaps look into the matter. An American Consul who has with some difficulty discovered an opening which by prompt dexterity American enter- prise might best fill, will tell you that he wrote to some of the large " home firms," giving details, and advising them to send out a man to seize the opportunity, only to receive in due time a curt reply that provided the Consul will guarantee their agent the sum of not less than (say) eight dollars a day from the time of boarding his trans-Pacific steamer he will be sent otherwise not. And this at a time when permanent representatives of companies and syndicates from every country in Europe have long and patiently been watching for chances to roast their chestnuts at the Oriental fire! There is a German proverb which speaks in criti- cism of him who sits in an armchair with his mouth wide open, waiting for roasted pigeons to fly in- side. There is likewise a Chinese adage which alludes unsympathetically to him who, finding a hare asleep, first wakes him, and then endeavours to run him down. At an annual dinner of the Amer- a " The White Peril," by Sydney L. Gulick, D. D. 202 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY ican Asiatic Association, H. E. Wu Ting-fang, then Chinese Minister to the United States, said : " We all know that China is one of the greatest markets of the world, with a population of four hundred millions that must be fed and clothed, and must receive the necessaries of life. She wants your wheat, your cotton, your iron and steel, and your manufactured articles of the New England States. She wants steel rails, electrical machines, and an hundred other things that she cannot get at home and must get abroad. It is a fine field for Amer- ican industry to fill these wants. It is particularly easy for you to reach China on account of the fine highway you have on the Pacific, and especially de- sirable that you do so, since you have become our next-door neighbour in the Philippines. If you do not come up to your own expectations and meet this opportunity, it is your own fault." 4 To this corresponds the cynical remark of the late Marquis Li Hung-chang, then the foremost states- man in China, who perfectly understood the weak points of foreign peoples : " If Americans want the trade of China they must come after it." In the able and comprehensive discussion (already referred to) of " The Commercial Prize of the Orient," the Hon. O. P. Austin is at pains to show how and why we may expect to increase our share of the Oriental trade and especially of its imports. " The Orient produces large quantities of the class of 4 Quoted in "Expansion," pp. 132-133. OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 203 merchandise which we must import, and imports equally large quantities of the class of merchan- dise which we produce and desire to sell. Our imports of raw silk, and tea, and hemp, and jute, and tin, and goat-skins, and other articles of the class produced in the Orient amount to hundreds of millions of dollars annually, and our imports from Asia and Oceania have grown from less than 32 millions of dollars in 1870 to 190 mil- lions in 1904. The Orient is a large importer of cotton and cotton goods, mineral oils, manufactures of iron and steel, flour and meats, of which the United States is the world's largest producer." In the same way, " there seems no good reason why we should not supply at least one-half of the cotton goods imported into the Orient, instead of less than one-tenth, as at present." Mineral oil, iron and steel, are products of which the East is rapidly increasing its imports, and we are the largest pro- ducers of these in the world. " The natural advan- tages which we have in supplying that section of the world were shown by the large orders for flour and meat and many other articles which were poured in upon the dealers of the United States at the opening of the Russo-Japanese war, and these hurry orders came from both Governments, which thus agreed at least upon one point that the United States is a natural source of supply for that great sec- tion, at least in these important requirements." The Isthmian Canal will bring into direct water connec- 204 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY tion with all parts of the Orient " our Mississippi Valley, the world's greatest producer of breadstuffs and meat; the South, the world's greatest producer of cotton; our great iron fields, the world's largest producer of that important metal, and our manu- facturing system, which is the greatest in the world. When all these great fields of supply are given direct water-communication with the Orient, they should be able largely to increase our contributions to her requirements, and the hundred millions of merchandise which we now send each year to the Orient should grow to at least five hundred millions." But this is not all. Of what H. E. Wu Ting-fang called " our fine highway " Mr. Austin remarks : " We have a much greater frontage on the Pacific Ocean than any other nation, and better harbours, not only upon the mainland, but also the principal island harbours of the entire ocean. Our national frontage on the Pacific, considering only the number of nautical miles to be protected, patrolled, or lighted, is 12,500, while that of the United Kingdom is 10,000, Russia a little over 6,000, Japan a little less than 5,000, and China little more than 3,000 miles, so that our frontage upon the Pacific exceeds that of any other nation." In addition to all this, and the possession of the Hawaiian Islands, Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines, as "great nat- ural telegraph poles " for a trans-Pacific cable, there is one other unique advantage which Mr. Aus- tin illustrates by a map. " It will be seen that the OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 205 equatorial current begins its westward movement at the very point in which vessels from an Isthmian Canal would enter the Pacific, and moves steadily westward to the vicinity of the Philippines, then turning northward along the coast of China and Japan is deflected to the east, flows eastwardly across the North Pacific to the American coast, and then moves down the western coast of the United States to the point of beginning. The air currents, while their exact location is somewhat affected by the changes of the seasons, follow practically the same lines, and are equally certain and reliable." " This steady, permanent flow of air and water will never cease as long as the earth revolves to the east and the great bodies of land and water retain their present relative positions must always give to the North American continent the advantage in the commerce of the Pacific." But in order to reap the full benefits of these immense natural advantages we must, as a preliminary, have and hold the good-will of the East. In every business, good-will, although intangi- ble, is a valuable asset. The two Chinese characters meaning " business " literally signify " a matter of the affections" (shih-ch'ing) , a most philo- sophical concept, since no one wishes to keep up relations with another who abuses him. In an in- terview in February, 1906, the vice-president of the Pacific Mail Company is reported as saying : " I suppose that no race has ever dealt with another so unfairly as we have dealt with the Chinese. The 206 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY history of the Exclusion Act makes the blood of any intelligent Chinese boil. Officials having to do with the Chinese on the Pacific Coast have proceeded on the theory that their popularity would grow in di- rect ratio to the number of Chinese they kept out almost, I might say, to the brutality of their treat- ment. And yet a boycott of our own was the greatest cause of the boycott on American goods." Although this topic has been already discussed in another connection, it deserves repeated mention, because of the baseless impression that despite our national eccentricities Americans must be popular in China. Whenever we learn to do even-handed jus- tice we may again become so, but not earlier. The city of San Francisco was thrown to the ground in one minute of solar time because it was built upon a geologic " fault." Let us see to it that our coun- try's policy is no longer based upon a moral fault, which must in the end bring disaster. But there is very much more for us to do than merely to set our own house in comparative order. In the harbour of New York there is a statue of gigantic size presented by a sister republic repre- senting " Liberty Enlightening the World." It has always been a favourite assumption of Americans that if we have something to learn, we have also much to teach. Just what that is admits of differ- ent answers, especially as we are painfully aware that American ideals and American realisation of those ideals are by no means coincident. It is OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 207 agreed, among ourselves at least, that an hundred and thirty years of American autonomy cover many important achievements of more or less realised ideals. Among these may be named : The combination of divergent and heretofore con- flicting local governments into a durable common- wealth" E Pluribus Unum." Absolute separation of Church and State. Trust in the People themselves to manage their own affairs. Manhood suffrage under appropriate limitations. Universal compulsory education. The largest opportunity for the individual. " The republic is opportunity," A sphere for the influence of woman far wider than was ever before thought possible. An overwhelming sentiment in favour of peace and order, and in favour of all forms of arbitration. Although some of these ideas may have been first developed in America, none of them are pro- tected by international copyright. On the con- trary, we recognise (in theory) the desirability and perhaps even the possibility of their wide (we need not say universal) extension. The progress of the world always conies from the reception and the adoption of new ideas, and some of these concep- tions are being pondered as never before. At a time when the three leading countries of Europe are torn with controversies over the adjustment of the interests of religion and the government, America 208 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY is in that line, at least, as tranquil as the summer sea. Questions like those which have been named are neither Occidental nor Oriental, but belong to mankind. One American missionary Dr. Guido Verbeck was more influential than any other fac- tor in bringing about that complete religious liberty which is now admiringly witnessed in Japan. In China, after millenniums of prosy monotony, in an eddy of reaction against innovations, an Imperial edict has recently been issued virtually establishing a Confucian State religion (although, as in other similar instances, whether anything comes of it is another matter). Has America any useful experi- ence to offer to China ? The Far East has for ages been constitutionally immobile. Now it is all awake, and a part of it is alert. In China, woman, as such, has been unhonoured, rather than dishonoured, having no personal name, but only two surnames, that of her own and that of her husband's family. The " three subjections " bounded her career in childhood to her parents, in marriage to her husband, in widowhood to her sons. With the new ideas now pouring into China this state of things cannot permanently continue. A Chinese girl in a Shanghai mission school prepared an original essay on the theme : " Liberty, equality, fraternity, inherent in the idea of Man." To an average Chinese woman the American educated woman seems to belong to a different range of ex- istence and so she does. But is it not remarkable OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 209 that before American colleges for Chinese women in China have had time to be acclimated they have suddenly become the ideal of the Chinese them- selves? a change as revolutionary as that from pounding rice with a stone pestle in a mortar to hulling it in a mill worked by electricity, generated by water-power. American ideas and ideals have already been introduced into China, where they are already working silently and out of sight. Our greatest influence must come through the lives of the great men and the noble women with whose careers our brief annals are filled. It is interesting to note the effect upon Orientals of a study of the life of George Washington. Nearly sixty years ago (as Dr. Speer in the volume already quoted records) a Chinese scholar in a " General Survey of Mari- time Countries," prepared a special chapter on the achievements and character of Washington, of which the following is the closing paragraph: " Surely Washington was an extraordinary man. His successes as a soldier were more rapid than those of Sheng and Kuang, and in personal courage he was superior to Tsao-pi and Liu-pang. With the two-edged sword (of justice) he established the tranquillity of the country over an area of sev- eral thousand miles. He refused to receive pecuni- ary recompense. He laboured to rear an elective system of government. Patriotism like this is to be commended under the whole heavens. Truly it reminds us of our own three ancient dynasties! 210 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY In administering the government he fostered vir- tue, he avoided war, and he succeeded in making his country superior to all other nations. I have seen his portrait. His countenance exhibits great men- tal power. Who must not concede to him the char- acter of an extraordinary man ? " Washington was strongest at just those points where the Oriental is weakest, and the Oriental rec- ognises that fact at a glance. Views like this of our greatest men have been fermenting in the minds of Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans for a long time. A recent paper mentions that in a popular vote of the scholars in a Japanese school as to their favour- ite hero, Washington received a few more than sixty votes, and Lincoln almost as many, while the great Japanese war-Armiral Togo did not rise to forty ballots ! The new China is to be officered and piloted by new men. All the impulses which have brought about the renaissance of Japan, and those which are yet to do the same for China, are im- pulses from without, and not from within. China is now turning to other nations for guidance and for help in educating her young men. It is but a few years since she sent her first students to Japan ; but during the past two years the hegira of Chinese youth to the Island Empire is probably without his- toric parallel. Japan no doubt expects to pay back her age-long debt to China by exerting there a dom- inating influence as a step toward her anticipated hegemony of Asia. Even in the stress and strain OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 211 of the Russian war she set apart numbers of her army and naval officers, as well as civilians, for the instruction of the Chinese students. Friction arose between these scholars and the Chinese Minister to Japan, who was a Manchu, and the rising spirit of Chinese patriotism renders the whole Manchu race especially obnoxious to young China. Freed from the wonted restrictions of home and of the Confucian training in which they were born, the Chinese students resented Japanese control, and several thousands of them returned to China, some- times abusing the opportunity afforded them by their travel to write and to speak in a way to excite anti-dynastic feeling, already far too strong for safety. At the present time it is estimated that there are about 15,000 Chinese in Japan, nearly all in Tokio, representing almost every Province of the Empire. The public vice which is so conspicuous a feature of the capital of Japan has never been known in China. It has demoralised very many of the Chinese students. Some of them have even thrown off the trammels of Confucianism, and are openly adopting an attitude of contempt for the ancient Sages. One such remarked to a foreigner : " It was old K'ung [Confucius] who ruined China!" The only creed ,( aside from Christianity) available to replace the teaching of China's hereditary masters, is Epicure- anism, which has hitherto never been in China a recognised cult. For China itself such a state of 212 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY things is an alarming symptom and a menace to her relations not with Japan only, but with other nations as well. 5 The Court in Peking has with excellent reason long looked with disfavour upon this unbalanced influence of Japan, fearing espe- cially its anti-Manchu tendencies, but the Gov- ernment is apparently quite helpless to stem the swelling tide. Under circumstances such as these, is it not the part of wisdom for us to put forth our best exer- tions to deflect this stream of students to our own shores, not for the good of China alone, but also for the welfare of America and of the world? Our former ill-treatment of those who in the past have desired to come is the greater reason for the adop- tion of this policy upon a large scale. A Chinese gentleman once said to the writer that he would much have preferred to have his son study in the United States, but having vainly spent six months of time and much money in the effort to get him into the country, he had sent him to more hospitable England. The unmitigated folly of our course of action is now becoming manifest even to ourselves. It only requires an educated public opinion not merely to remove restrictions, but to extend a wel- come to Chinese students to our educational institu- tions all over the land. 6 It is interesting to know that the international committee of the Y. M. C. A., with characteristic foresight and energy, has undertaken a work of broad range among these students, from which large results are sure to flow. OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 213 As an excellent specimen of various papers which have been indited upon this subject of national and international importance, the reader may be glad to have the opportunity of perusing one written early in 1906 by a distinguished American educator, submitted to the President of the United States, and privately circulated. " Memorandum concerning the sending of an Educational Commission to China, by Edmund J. James, President of the University of Illinois. " The recent developments in the Orient have made it apparent that China and the United States are destined to come into ever more intimate re- lations, social, intellectual, and commercial. The Chinese will come to this country for the purpose of studying our institutions and our industry. A striking evidence of this fact is afforded by the work of the Chinese Commission now or lately in the United States. Our own people will go to China for the purpose of studying Chinese institutions and industry. Anything which will stimulate this mu- tual intercourse and increase mutual knowledge must redound to the benefit of both nations. " A great service would be done to both coun- tries if the Government of the United States would at the present juncture send an educational com- mission to China, whose chief function should be to visit the Imperial Government, and with its consent each of the provincial governments of the Em- pire, for the purpose of extending through the au- 214 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY thority of these Provinces to the young Chinese who may go abroad to study, a formal invitation on the part of our American institutions of learning to avail themselves of the facilities of such institutions. The appointment of such a commission would draw still closer the bonds which unite these two great na- tions in sympathy and friendship, " China is upon the verge of a revolution. It will not, of course, be as rapid as was the revolution in Japan, if for no other reason, because of the vast numbers of the nation and the enormous extent of its territory. But it is not believed that this rev- olution which has already begun can ever again suffer more than a temporary backset and reaction. " Every great nation in the world will inevi- tably be drawn into more or less intimate relations with this gigantic development. It is for them to determine, each for itself, what these relations shall be, whether those of amity and friendship and kindness, or those of brute force and ' the mailed fist/ The United States ought not to hesitate as to its choice in this matter. The nation which suc- ceeds in educating the young Chinese of the pres- ent generation will be the nation which for a given expenditure of effort will reap the largest possible returns in moral, intellectual, and commercial in- fluence. If the United States had succeeded thirty- five years ago, as it looked at one time as if it might, in turning the current of Chinese students to this country, and had succeeded in keeping that OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 215 current large, we should to-day be controlling the development of China in that most satisfactory and subtle of all ways, through the intellectual and spiritual domination of its leaders. " China has already sent hundreds, indeed thou- sands, of its young men into foreign countries to study. It is said that there are more than five thousand Chinese studying in Japan, while there are many hundreds in Europe three hundred in the little state of Belgium alone. This means that when these Chinese return from Europe they will advise China to imitate Europe rather than America, England, France, and Germany, instead of the United States. It means that they will recommend English and French and German teachers and en- gineers for employment in China in positions of trust and responsibility rather than American. It means that English, French, and German goods will be bought instead of American, and that industrial concessions of all kinds will be made to Europe in- stead of to the United States. Now it is natural, of course, that the vast majority of Chinese youth should go to Japan to study rather than to European countries or the United States, owing to its prox- imity, to racial affinity, and to the smaller cost of travel and living. On the other hand, the Chinese are in many points jealous of the Japanese, and, other things being equal, would often prefer to send their young people to other countries. Among all these countries the United States would be the most nat- 216 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY ural one to choose, if it had not been for our anti- Chinese legislation, and still more for the unfriendly spirit in which we have administered this legisla- tion, for the Chinese Government at any rate never really objected to our legislation directed toward preventing the immigration of Chinese labourers, but only to the manner in which we passed such laws and the way in which we administered them. " We are the natural friends of the Chinese. We have been their real political friends. We have stood between the Chinese Empire and dismember- ment; we have come more nearly giving them the square deal in all our relations in the East than any other nation. They are consequently less suspi- cious of us, as far as our politics are concerned, than of any other people. Their justly sore feel- ing over our treatment of Chinese gentlemen in our custom-houses will yield quickly to fair and de- cent conduct on our part. It is believed that by a very small effort the good-will of the Chinese may now be won over in a large and satisfactory way. We may not admit the Chinese labourer, but we can treat the Chinese student decently, and extend to him the facilities of our institutions of learning. Our col- leges and universities are to-day far better adapted for giving the average Chinese student what he de- sires in the way of European civilisation, than the schools and colleges of any European country. We need but to bring these facts to their attention in order to secure their attendance here, with all the OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 217 beneficial results which would flow from such an opportunity to influence the entire current of their thought and feelings. " If a commissioner with one or two assistants were sent to China representing the American Gov- ernment in a formal way in the field of education, and should extend to the Chinese people, through the Government at Peking and through the pro- vincial governments, a cordial invitation from the United States, and from the institutions of higher learning in the United States to avail themselves of these advantages exactly as they would if they were their own institutions, it is apparent that a great impression might be produced upon the Chinese people. The Chinese appreciate, as well as we, the compliment implied in sending a formal com- mission of this sort to another country. It is a recognition such as any country might be proud of, and the Chinese are a singularly proud and sensi- tive people in everything that concerns their own dignity. " Such a commission going to each of the Prov- inces would have an opportunity to give the Chi- nese Government much information about the United States and its educational institutions; and as the inquiries of such governments would not be limited, of course, to education and educational institutions, so the information spread abroad throughout China would not relate simply to edu- cational matters, but to industrial and commercial 2i8 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY as well. It would be possible, through this method of coming in contact with influential Chinese, to recommend directly to them in response to their re- quests, American teachers, engineers, and other people whose services they might like to obtain. I mention this point especially because I know that the leading Chinese statesmen are anxious to get just the right kind of men from America and Eu- rope as assistants in all sorts of business and gov- ernmental enterprises, having had myself, during the last year, four inquiries from different Chinese gov- ernments for young men who would be willing to spend five or six years in the Chinese public service in responsible and influential positions. " In a word, the visit of such a commission would exert a manifold and far-reaching influence, ex- ceeding greatly in value any possible cost of the enterprise. It would have results in many unex- pected directions outrunning all our present antic- ipations, and showing new and surprising possibil- ities of usefulness in the fields of education, business, and statesmanship. The extension of such moral influence as this would, even in a purely material sense, mean a larger return for a given outlay than could be obtained in any other manner. Trade fol- lows moral and spiritual domination far more inev- itably than it follows the flag." If this wise and statesmanlike proposal of Presi- dent James has not thus far resulted in action, it must be due to inertia on the American side of the OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 219 Pacific, and not to the probability of opposition in China. The matter should by no means be suffered to rest until something is accomplished. As soon as the importance of welcoming Chinese students to America under existing conditions was brought to the attention of the Overseers of Harvard Univer- sity they at once voted to extend through the Chi- nese Imperial Commissioners then in the country to the Chinese Government an invitation for ten Chinese students to attend that institution. The same step was soon after taken by Yale University ; and on behalf of Chinese women, to whom three scholarships were offered, by the trustees of Welles- ley College, an institution which the Imperial Com- missioners visited at the special command of the Empress Dowager, who had become greatly inter- ested in what she had heard of American education for women. When the immense influence which has been exerted in Japan by the comparatively small number of her daughters who have been edu- cated in America is remembered, the importance of this small beginning for her sister empire may be faintly forecast. But all these movements, and many others like them, are utterly inadequate to cope with the present opportunity and emergency. It is well known that after all public and private claims arising from the Boxer disturbances of 1900 have been satisfied, there will eventually remain in the hands of the American Government a sum of perhaps $20,000,000 (gold), a part of the indem- 220 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY nity of 450,000,000 taels of silver arranged by all the Powers in the peace protocol of 1901. Upon two previous occasions, once with China and once with Japan, the American Government has established a precedent (so far as appears unique among nations) of returning unexpended balances of indemnities. The suggestion is often made that this money should be treated in the same way as its predeces- sors. Many Americans, however, intimately ac- quainted with China's condition, are profoundly convinced that if such a sum were handed back to China without conditions, it would at once be applied to purposes which would distinctly endanger the peace of the world, and make more difficult and in- soluble a problem already taxing the ingenuity of the Occident to deal with. It is of course easy to say that if this money is ours we should keep it ; if it belongs to China, to China it should go. But is it not perfectly reasonable to claim, as many do claim, that this sum represents not merely replacing value of fixed capital destroyed, but that it should be considered as a punitive indemnity for a great criminal act of Chinese officials, and in reality of the Chinese Government, against the American Gov- ernment in the person of its Legation? We are under as much obligation to see that this money is so used as to make similar outbreaks in future more difficult as we are to return it at all. Ought we not, acting upon the wise suggestion of President James, OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 221 to propose to the Chinese Government to use this sum (which will fall due annually for a genera- tion to come), or at least a part of it, in educating Chinese students in the United States? During the preceding hundred years there has been a mighty collision between the civilisation of the West and the civilsation of the East. We have had commerce, followed by war, and war succeeded by diplomacy. The Western nations have estab- lished Legations at Peking, and consulates at the ports, while the Chinese have been persuaded to establish Legations in Western lands and consulates in foreign ports to look after the interests of Chi- nese subjects. Thus times have vastly changed since 1858, when " one of the Chinese plenipoten- tiaries, in response to a suggestion that his Gov- ernment should appoint consuls abroad to look after the interests of the Emperor's subjects settled in foreign lands, said : " When the Emperor rules over so many millions, what does he care for a few waifs that have drifted away to a foreign land ? " It was stated that some of those in the United States were growing rich from the gold mines and that they might be worth looking after on that account. " The Emperor's wealth," he replied, " is beyond compu- tation; why should he care for those of his sub- jects who have left their home, or for the sands they have scooped together?" 6 It is not so long ago that diplomacy was counted upon to settle all "Foster's "American Diplomacy in the Orient," pp. 278-9. 222 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY the issues between the East and the West as soon as China should have been beguiled into the " sis- terhood of nations " ; but the ultimate outcome of this process, deftly mingled with perpetual Western aggression and outrage, was the Boxer movement, and the siege of the Legations in Peking. The cli- max of this "diplomacy" was exhibited in 1901, when the Powers found it difficult to agree upon anything; and when at last they did agree, the net result of their elaborate specifications (except only the indemnity) was, after a few years had elapsed, as nearly as possible nothing at all. The world is slowly and with difficulty becoming disabused of its obsession that commerce is in itself an ele- vating agency. On the contrary, when unregulated by conscience, it furnishes fire-water and fire-arms to savages, engages in the slave trade and the coolie traffic, and in the " red rubber " atrocities on the Congo, at which the civilised world is aghast, " Commerce, like the rainbow, bends toward the pot of gold." Neither is moral renovation to be expected from such industrial revolution as is taking place in Japan, and will within a few decades wholly trans- form China. Listen to " The Bitter Cry of the Children," and see how even in our own Christian land we are barely able (if indeed we are as yet able) to check the downward tendencies of unregulated industrialism which wrecks the lives of women and destroys more children and youth than an army of Minotaurs. A critic of our civilisation, writing OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 223 under the guise of a Chinese, bitterly complains of the persistent attempts of the Occident to substitute for the old Chinese " moral order " Western " eco- nomic chaos." There is much to be said for this contention, for it is as good as certain that when China shall have been quite drawn into the modern commercial and industrial maelstrom, while she will be financially richer, she will be morally poorer. Much light has come to China from many sources, unwilling as she has been to receive it. The for- eign-controlled Imperial Maritime Customs has been a standing object lesson in Occidental methods of honestly administering great public trusts, but the Chinese would be glad to be rid of the foreign element, when, without higher motives than rule at present, " Chaos and Old Night " would soon set in again. An able and intelligent foreign press, the large body of foreign residents in Chinese ports, and especially the Chinese students who have been educated abroad, have all had an important though widely different part in the gradual leavening of a small portion of China. Yet these have only touched the fringes of the Empire, or the banks of its chief river. But there has been in China another force incomparably more influential than all of these combined. It is the originally small, but always steadily growing body of Protestant missionaries, 7 T Only Protestant missionaries are mentioned, for the reason that the methods and the objects of the Roman Catholic societies are altogether different in kind and in results. 224 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY beginning a century ago with a single Englishman, and now numbering more than 3,800, from six dif- ferent countries of Europe, and from all quarters of the British Empire, the United States being (at the end of 1906) represented by 1,562 persons. These men and women instead of living beside the Chi- nese, as do residents of the ports, live among them in cities, towns, and hamlets in every Province of the Empire, speaking every dialect, going every- where, inquiring into everything, constantly meet- ing and mingling with all classes of Chinese, from officials in their yamens to coolies and beggars on the street. Much knowledge of China has, indeed, come to the outside world from other than mission- ary sources; but for many decades nearly all trust- worthy information of outside countries which filtered into the minds of the bulk of the Chinese people came through missionary channels. Upon the spiritual aspect of their work (the most important because fundamental) it is aside from our purpose to dwell further than to remark that uni- versal experience has shown that the introduction of Christianity into any land is the most powerful moral force in human history. The object and the result of these labours is not the making of isolated converts, but the introduc- tion of a new moral and spiritual climate a very different matter. Before China could be trans- formed, it was absolutely necessary that a vast Chi- nese Wall of prejudice should be not only scaled, OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 225 or tunnelled, but levelled to the ground. In spite of some inevitable crudities of method, and errors of judgment, this work has gone steadily forward, and a large but incalculable part of the changes in China are the direct or the indirect result of these forces. For more than ninety years Americans in China have been engaged (like their comrades from other lands) in exclusively altruistic labour. They have explored the Chinese language and literature, trans- lated the Bible, and prepared not merely Christian books, but others of general value and importance for the enlightenment of the Chinese people. For carrying on this work they have equipped nine presses, which issue annually 119,000,000 pages. American hospitals and dispensaries are scattered from one end of China to the other. One of the oldest and largest is carried on in the city of Can- ton, where foreign intercourse with China began, and where the late Dr. John G. Kerr, who gave more than fifty years of fruitful service in preparing medical literature and in training medical students had in some forms of surgical practice a world-wide reputation. It is at Canton, also, that American women doctors have opened the only Woman's Med- ical College in China, the precursor, it is to be hoped, of many successors for the training of Chi- nese women physicians, to alleviate the woes of the millions of Chinese women. It was at Canton that Dr. Peter Parker began 226 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY as a missionary of the American Board a brilliant career, " opening China at the point of the lancet," and doing more than anyone of his time to dispel Chinese prejudice. He acted as Chinese Secretary at the negotiation of the first American treaty, be- ing subsequently himself appointed Minister. It was likewise to Canton that Dr. S. Wells Williams went out under the American Board as a printer, becoming one of the most variously learned men in China, numbering among his activities the editor- ship of " The Chinese Repository " ; the compilation of a dictionary of the Cantonese dialect ; the service of interpreter to Commodore Perry in negotiating the famous treaty which opened Japan to the world ; the position of perpetual secretary of the United States Legation being charge nine different times ; the authorship of a great dictionary of the Chinese language, in its day the best extant, and of the most accurate and most comprehensive thesaurus of information about China, " The Middle Kingdom." It was to Canton that Dr. A. P. Happer gave more than fifty years of his life, leaving behind him as a monument the Canton Christian College. Dr. E. C. Bridgman was the earliest American missionary to reach China (1830) under the Amer- ican Board, where he found a British pioneer, Dr. Morrison, after twenty-three years still without a companion. Dr. Bridgman founded and for twenty years edited " The Chinese Repository," a magazine which did much to make China known to OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 227 the outer world. Like Dr. Parker, he was appointed Chinese Secretary at the negotiation of the first American treaty. He removed to Shanghai in 1847 t join a committee in the translation of the Bible. He was the first president of the China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. His associate in trans- lation work was the Rev. M. S. Culbertson, who graduated at West Point with Halleck, Beauregard, and Sherman, and when he determined to go to China he held a commission as second lieutenant in the United States army. Dr. D. B. McCartee was another member of the Presbyterian Mission in Ningpo a man of special gifts, who after twenty- eight years of work for China had the remarkable fortune to give as many more to Japan, where he was for some years Professor in the University of Tokio. Dr. John L. Nevius, who removed from Ningpo to Chefoo, was known to foreigners in general as the introducer into China of excellent American fruits; to the Chinese by numerous books in that lan- guage, and by his phenomenal country mission work ; and to missionary experts by his writings on " Methods of Mission Work " and " Demon Posses- sion in China." Dr. C. W. Mateer, of the same mis- sion, has given somewhat less than fifty years of his life to education in China, having published a group of mathematical and other text-books in Chinese ; an elaborate and compendious course of study for stu- dents of the Chinese language, and having devoted much attention to the revision of the New Testa- 228 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY ment in mandarin. One of his associates in this work is Dr. Chauncey Goodrich, for more than forty years in China, a theological teacher, hymnol- ogist, and author of a Chinese syllabary. Another educator of distinction is Dr. D. Z. Sheffield, who has long been president of the College at T'ung Chou (near Peking), and is the author of a Uni- versal History, besides works in Theology, Church History, Political Economy, and Ethics. The late Dr. S. I. J. Schereschewsky was a very learned American Russian Lithuanian Jew, who did a unique work in translating, single-handed, the whole of the Old Testament into the Mandarin language, followed by the Book of Prayer. During the last twenty years of his life, although so paralysed as to be unable to speak clearly, or to write at all, he yet by means of a typewriter and a system of ro- manisation of Chinese characters translated the whole Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek into the literary style of Chinese, the result being published by the American Bible Society in 1902. He revised his Mandarin Old Testament, prepared a reference Bible for the American Bible Society, and at the time of his death was engaged in the translation of the Apocrypha. In the case of these men, there are few examples in history of such perseverance under difficulties, apparently in- surmountable, crowned by such complete success. The octogenarian, Dr. W. A. P. Martin, still liv- ing in Peking (originally of the Presbyterian OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 229 Board), was long at the head of the School of Lan- guages which furnished most of the translators and interpreters for the Chinese Government. At a later date he was named in " The Peking Gazette " as president of the Peking University, and given a high Chinese title. He is the author of many important works, both in Chinese and in English. Dr. Young J. Allen (nearly fifty years in China) was for many years at the head of the Anglo-Chinese College in Shang- hai, and has long been editor of " The Review of the Times," a Chinese monthly, which is literally a magazine of information, the largest single win- dow through which the Chinese have ever looked out upon the world. It enters very many of the yamens in China, and has long been, in its way, the most influential periodical in the Chinese Empire. Dr. Allen is also author of a compendious and de- tailed " History of the War with Japan," with a huge supplement giving the inside telegraphic history of the war, with copies of all the despatches back and forth, the latter being privately furnished by H. E. Li Hung-chang. The sale of these works has been enormous, and in the absence of a copyright law, they have been honoured by perpetual and almost universal piracy on the part of the Chinese. At the time of the projected reforms of 1898, the Emperor sent not only for all the back numbers of the " Review " from the beginning, but for copies of all the publications of the Useful Knowledge So- 230 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY ciety, by which it was published. Dr. C. D. Tenney (once a missionary of the American Board) began on a small scale the education of Chinese youth, in- terested leading Chinese officials in the matter, from Li Hung-chang downward, and was the means of organising- the Tientsin University, which he con- ducted until the Boxer year, after which he was placed at the head of the new Government Univer- sity at Tientsin, with the superintendency of all the schools in the metropolitan Province of Chihli, it being planned to make them the model for other Provinces. He is now in the United States super- vising the education of a party of more than forty Chinese students. Dr. Watson M. Hayes (American Presbyterian Mission) accepted the invitation of Yuan Shih-k'ai, then Governor of Shantung, to or- ganise the new Provincial University. The detailed course of study was submitted by the Governor in a memorial to the Throne during the exile of the Court at Singan fu, and was made by Imperial Decree the model to which all other Provincial Universities were to conform. Dr. Gilbert Reid of Shanghai, formerly of the American Presby- terian Mission, has laboured for many years to es- tablish an "International Institute" (educational), which shall be a medium for a better understanding of each other by Chinese and foreigners. The en- terprise is supported by a large Society, comprising many Chinese officials and merchants, as well as by subscribers in Great Britain and the United States. OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 231 Last, but far from least, we place the name of a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church Frank D. Gamewell whose fortification of the British Legation in Peking, during the siege, was declared by the British General Gaselee to be " be- yond all praise," and who was perhaps the only man among the many hundreds there imprisoned, the preservation of whose life was, humanly speak- ing, essential as a means of saving all the rest. It should not escape notice that more than two- thirds of those whose names have been specially mentioned were distinguished in connection with 'teaching. Education may, indeed, be said always to have been with Americans in China a specialty. The list of great teachers would not be complete without the addition of the pioneer of them all Dr. S. R. Brown, who taught the Morrison School at Macao and Hongkong from 1839 t 1846. Among Dr. Brown's pupils was a bright lad of an obscure and poor family, afterwards known to fame as Dr. Yung Wing. It was he who, as already mentioned, in 1872 and 1873, took large parties of Chinese students to be educated in the United States a great stream flowing from a tiny crevice. Of the fourteen institutions claiming a college grade in China, twelve, in nearly every maritime Province and up the Yang-tzu, are American. The educa- tional Association of China is a body of practical teachers in the Empire, meeting triennially for the discussion of educational problems and for unity 232 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY of action. According to its latest report (1905), of the total British and American membership more than 77 per cent, was American. The only insti- tutions in China, of college grade, for Chinese women, are American. The total number of Amer- ican schools and colleges of all sorts is probably considerably in excess of one thousand. The influ- ence of such educational centres in an Oriental em- pire, until recently still in the Middle Ages, has been altogether out of proportion to the number of teachers. These institutions have been active dy- namos throwing out light and heat in all directions. The pupils have often become teachers in Govern- ment schools, passing on to others the impetus which they have themselves received. The most eminent Chinese officials have often been cordial in the expression of their appreciation of the benefits which they received from American efforts. On his visit to America the late Marquis Li Hung- chang once said to a delegation which waited upon him: "I fully appreciate the philanthropic objects which the missionary societies have in view. . . . The missionaries have not sought for pecuniary gains at the hands of our people. They have not been secret emissaries of diplomatic schemes. Their labours have no political significance, and, last but not least, they have not interfered with or usurped the rights of the territorial authorities. You have started numerous educational establish- ments which have served as the best means to OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 233 enable our countrymen to acquire a fair knowledge of the modern arts and sciences of the West. As for the material part of our constitution, your soci- eties have started hospitals and dispensaries to save not only the souls but also the bodies of our coun- trymen. I have also to add that in times of fam- ine in some of the Provinces you have done your best to the greatest number of sufferers to keep their bodies and souls together." At the dinner given in New York (February 2, 1906) to the Imperial Commissioners already men- tioned, H. E. Tuan Fang observed, in replying to the extended address of Dr. Arthur J. Brown, among other things : " We take pleasure this even- ing in bearing testimony to the part taken by the American missionaries in promoting the progress of the Chinese people. They have borne the light of Western civilisation into every nook and corner of the Empire. They have rendered inestimable serv- ice to China by the laborious task of translating into the Chinese language religious and scientific works of the West, They help us to bring happi- ness and comfort to the poor and the suffering, by the establishment of hospitals and schools. The awakening of China, which now seems to be at hand, may be traced in no small measure to the work of the missionary. For this service you will find China not ungrateful." It is a matter of not a little psychological inter- est to see a sturdy old Confucianist, diplomat, and 234 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY man of the world, like Li Hung-chang, and a wide- awake Manchu of the new era, like Tuan Fang, certify to the hard-headed business men of New York, the moral, the social, and the economic benefit of missionary work in China; especially as many of those who perhaps read the report of the speeches in the next morning's paper might not im- probably have been ready off-hand to express their matured conviction (i) that missionaries in China have accomplished nothing to speak of, and (2) that in doing so they incidentally brought on the Boxer uprising. " The sociological importance to China," says Dr. Sydney Gulick, " of free and pure Christian propaganda is completely ignored by the average student of Oriental affairs. But, beyond dispute it is, that no more potent though silent influence is exerted in that land for the removal of race-misun- derstandings and prejudices, and for the upbuilding of the era of good-will between the white man and the yellow man, than are exerted by Protestant mis- sions." " It is not improbable," remarks Benjamin Kidd, " that to the future observer, one of the most curious features of our time will appear to be the prevailing unconsciousness of the real nature of the issues in the midst of which we are living." And in this connection many readers will recall (as does Dr. A. J. Brown, from whose " New Forces in Old China" the quotation is taken) the mem- orable words of the historian Lecky : " No more did the statesmen and the philosophers of Rome un- OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 235 derstand the character and issues of that greatest movement of all history, of which their literature takes so little notice. That the greatest religious change in the history of mankind should have taken place under the eyes of a brilliant galaxy of philoso- phers and historians who were profoundly conscious of decomposition around them ; that all these writers should have utterly failed to predict the issue of the movement they were then observing; and that during the space of three centuries they should have treated as contemptible an agency which all men must now admit to have been, for good or evil, the most powerful moral lever that has ever been applied to the affairs of men, are facts well worthy of meditation in every period of religious transi- tion." The fact that some of our ablest American statesmen and men of affairs, like the late ex-Pres- ident Hayes, ex-President Cleveland, the late Presi- dent McKinley, the late Secretary John Hay, Presi- dent Roosevelt, and many more, gave their open and hearty support to the work of foreign missions is due to the fact that they recognise in them a sociological force which is unobtrusively but irre- sistibly working toward the introduction of a Chris- tian climate all over the earth. 8 From this point of view the enterprise of Christian missions often considered as an amiable fad becomes of the high- est national and international importance. 8 See on this subject Dr. James S. Dennis's "Christian Missions and Social Progress," especially volume iii, in extenso. 236 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY. To quote the temperate language of Mr. F. T. Gates, Mr. Rockefeller's secretary, in urging him to give generously to foreign missions : " The sub- ject of foreign missions should command the inter- est of patriots and philanthropists, of men of all creeds and of no creed, of men of commerce, of manufactures, of finance, of the bankers, importers and exporters of our country, and of all who have the well-being of their own country at heart. In the long run, it will be found, I think, that the effect of the missionary enterprise of English-speak- ing peoples will be to bring them the peaceful con- quest of the world not political dominion, but do- minion in commerce and manufactures, in literature, science, philosophy, art, refinement, morals, relig- ion, and in future generations will bring back return- ing tribute in all these departments of life and prog- ress quite beyond present estimation. Forgive me if I am in earnest in the matter. I have been brood- ing over this subject for years. These views as to the importance of missions spring from no sudden enthusiasm, but represent deliberate conviction, which has stood the test of every mood and of all my study, reading, reflection, and intercourse with men for a long time." " Such then," comments " The Outlook," " is in brief the view of mission- ary work held to-day by intelligent and well- informed men. Christian missions are seen to-day to be the most effective instruments for mediating between and bringing together fragments of the human race long isolated, radically different, and OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 237 too often bitterly antagonistic. They are in a unique way humanity's clearing-house of ideas and ideals, of motives and movements." 9 To a similar purpose, although from a different point of view, was the address of the Hon. Wm. J. Bryan in Lon- don, July 4, 1905, after a wide tour of Oriental lands, in the course of which he said : " And now we come to the most important need of the Orient a conception of life which recognises individual re- sponsibility to God, teaches the brotherhood of man, and measures greatness by the service rendered. The first establishes a rational relation between the creature and his Creator, the second lays the foun- dation for justice between man and his fellows, and the third furnishes an ambition large enough to fill each life with noble effort." " We do not remem- ber," observes the journal just quoted (perhaps more widely influential in America than any other), " ever to have seen a better definition of the function of Christian missions than this. To inspire men with a sense of their responsibility to God that they may be made wise and strong to fulfill their obligations to their fellowmen by the highest service of which they are capable, is not a bad summary of the duties of the Christian ministry both at home and abroad. The nation which is animated alike in domestic and foreign policy by this spirit is a Christian nation, though it may have neither a national creed nor a national church." 10 "The Outlook," September 9, IQ05- 10 "The Outlook," July 16, 1906. 238 CHINA AND AMERICA TO-DAY Speaking of the flood of new books upon Ori- ental questions, the Hon. John W. Foster, in a re- cent magazine article, gives it as his opinion that " probably in no previous period of the history of the human race has there been awakened such con- centrated attention to one portion of the earth and its inhabitants." It is important to take long views and wide. We have been " long isolated " from the Oriental peo- ples, we are indeed " radically different," but we must on no account allow ourselves to drift into becoming " bitterly antagonistic." The qualities which the Chinese have developed most successfully, and in which they are strongest, are those which the world most needs, and for which in the new era upon which we are entering there will be the widest scope, and for which also there is sure to be the richest and most permanent reward. Those who are engaged in trying to comprehend these peoples and to make them comprehensible to others, are the intermediaries and the interpreters for the East and the West, and there are and can be no others. America and China! what are to be their future relations? a matter possibly of quite as much im- portance to us as to China, for the Chinese have been fixtures where they are for four millenniums, and should our aged planet hold out as much longer, whatever other regions they may occupy, it is as certain as any future event can well be that the Chinese will then be where they are now. We, too, OPPORTUNITIES IN CHINA 239 though in possession of our own continent less than a tenth as long as the Chinese, are confident that we hold a life-lease. Would it not be to our advan- tage if American push were to be reinforced by Chinese patience, American versatility by Chinese concentration, American energy by Chinese endur- ance? Great as the changes appear in comparison with the past, the transformation of China has as yet scarcely begun, and will go on in a more or less accelerating ratio for long years to come. In it all, the moral and not the material element must be put first. This mighty renovation will mean much to all Western lands, but it may mean most to America. If we are wise, shall we not face all our duties and opportunities with earnest eagerness, without prejudice, with courage, and with hope toward the setting sun, with the motto: "AMERICA AS- SISTS THE EAST? THE END INDEX Abraham Sheikh, and his collateral (present day) kins- man in Syria, 16. Absolute monarchy, China far from being an, 61. exclusion of Chinese enacted, 161. Absorption (stealthy) of Chinese territory checked, 86. Adaptation, Chinese talent for, 70. Africa, a New, 110. Age-long training of Chinese, 74. debt of Japan to China, 210. Agnostics, Chinese, 54. Agricultural reforms and arbqricultural development, 127. Alaska, importance of the United States purchase of, 21. Allen, Dr. Young J., 229. Alexander the Great, conquests of give impulse to over- land trade with China, 81. Altruistic labour of Americans in China, 225. America, the New, 19; attitude of towards the Chinese, 161; deprecatory terms of, applied to foreign peoples, 148; exclusion of Chinese from, 161. America's advantages and disadvantages in China, 146; opportunities and responsibilities in China, 195; Oriental trade, a menace to, 167; treaties with China, honourable character of, 151; treatment of the black man and the red, 147, 148; flag, disappear- ance of from Chinese waters, 188; important achievements of, 207. American Asiatic Association, 201; annual dinner of, 201; citizens at mercy of Chinese laws and rulers, 93; courts, Chinese testimony rejected in, 164; official shuffling of responsibility, 176; violence towards Chinese (in the U. S.), 164; ships in Canton river, belligerent operations of, 88; manufacturing su- premacy of, 197. Americans (in Bismarck's phrase) said to have "a vast and varied ignorance" of anything and everything at a distance, 109. Amherst, Lord, English ambassador at Canton, 89. Anglo-Saxon, the rectilinearity of his speech, 68. of Asia, the Chinese, 70. 241 242 INDEX Anti-foreign wave in China to-day a manifestation of patriotism, 117. Arab, the, and Arabia, 16. Army and Navy of China characterised, 115; later im- provements in, 116. Armies of Chinese, victorious, 46. Arbitration, sentiment in favour of, 207. Arrow war, the, 104. Asia, the land of origins, 13; a realm of antiquities, 13. Asiatic characteristics, 15. Athletics and physical training developing, 133. Attila, of the Huns, the scourge of Europe, 34. Attitude of America towards the Chinese, 161. Austin's, Hon. O. P., "The Commercial Prize of the Orient " quoted, 81, 202. Awakening of China, profound significance of, 197. Awkward age, Chinese have ho, 68. " Axiomatic China," 58. Bacillus Anti-Americanus, the, 172. " Backshish hunters," Mohammedaa Arabs now merely, 49. Bamboo tablets, the earliest Chinese books, 36 Barbarian, Western, his footing in China, 91. Belligerent operations of British and American ships in Canton river, 88. Bibliography, Annals of Chinese, 43, 44. Bibliothecal catastrophes, 37. Board of Education and its examinations, 142; examples of the questions asked and the subjects sought to be expounded by, 143; themes set for essays, 143. Boycott, the, Chinese merchants wield the, 75, 206; anti- American, 173. Boxer massacre, the, 78; effect of on China, 171. Brass Dish, the, and the Iron Brush, 80. Bridgman, Dr. E. C., earliest missionary to China, 226. Brine and petroleum wells, 71. Btinkley, Capt. F., on China and Japan, 48, 80, 84, 86, 99. Britain, at opening of twentieth century, finds large part of the world in a transitional state, 109; her develop- ment in South Africa, India, and Egypt, no; her early dealings with China and the ensuing compli- cations, 94; her interest in the opium traffic, the " lubricant " for a time in the national trade, 98. Brown, Dr. Arthur J., his " New Forces in Old China," 168, 171, 200, 233, 234. Dr. S. R., pioneer Chinese teacher, 231. Bryan, HOB. Wm. J., address of in London, 237. INDEX 243 Buddhism, great headway of in China, 39, 81. Taoism, and the arts, 44. Bunsen, Baron, his work in Egypt, 50. Bureau of Charities, Chinese, 125. Burlingame, Anson, U. S. minister to China, appointed envoy of Chinese government to the Treaty Powers, 155; the emigration agreement in the treaty of 1868, 156; death of at St. Petersburg, 155. Canals and waterways, 42. Canton, English complaint of Hoppo's exactions at, 92. Carnegie's " Triumphant Democracy," flatters the ma- tional vanity, 192. Cathay, Marco Polo's visit to, 43; "A Cycle of Cathay" quoted, 189. Chamber of Commerce, at Canton, the new, 128. Chang Chih Tung, governor-general, 59; on the opium trade, in his book " China's Only Hope," where he urges to " Cast out the Poison," 100; insuperable obstacles in the way of suppressing the trade, 101. Changes in intercommunication and transportation in China far-reaching, 123. Cheerful industry of the Chinese people^ 76. Ch'en dynasty (A. D. 557-589), 35- Ch'i dynasty (A. D. 479-502), 35. Ch'ien Lung, emperor and man-of-letters, 45. Chin (Western) dynasty (A. D. 265-317), 35. (Eastern) dynasty (A. D. 317-420), 35. Ch'in dynasty (B. C. 255-206), 31. Ch'in Shih Huang, first emperor and unifier of China, 33; a reformer, 33; dynasty of, 33; destroys existing literature, 32; buries alive his scholar critics, 33. China, old, 28; legendary, 31; origin of the name, 31, 32; early socialistic statesmen of, 41; nationalisation of commerce in, 41; sages or holy men of, 50-52; his- tory of and its divisions into periods, 33; its early feudal states, 31; building and repair of the great wall of (1500 miles in length), a gigantic under- taking, 32; warfare of, with the Tartars of the North, 34; Manchu Tartars seize the throne, 34; historic parallel between barbarian inundation of Rome and the invasion of China by her barbarian enemies, 34; dynasties of, chronologically arranged, 35; Na- poleon of, 32; consolidation .of under Emperor Huang, 32; formative period of polity and consti- tution, 37; great work on the topography of, 45; victorious armies of, 46; family genealogies in, 58; honeycombed with secret societies, 62; immeasura- 244 INDEX ble greatness of, 58; inherent democracy of, 63; lack of progress, 64; hard work a necessary condi- tion of human existence in, 65; early mattufacture of paper in, 70; silk-weaving in, 70; farming in, 70; merchant class in. 66; land of ploughed in autumn, 70; Roman Catholic missionaries the first to reach, 43; foot-binding in, 44 and 134; invention of mari- ner's compass, 70; system of government in, 74; trade guilds in, 75; invention of printing art in, 39, 70; survival of the fittest in, 77; overland trade with, 81; opening of English commerce with, 87; treaty of with Russia, 86; lawless raids of Dutch on coasts of, 84; Western barbarians, footing in soil of, 91; early lack of consuls in European intercourse with, 94; opium trade of a greater evil than war, famine and pestilence, 100; nineteenth century foreigners in, autocratic, dictatorial, and openly contemptuous of rights of the people, 101; railways in operation in, and profits of, 119-122; anti-foreign wave a manifes- tation of patriotism in, 117; electric lighting now prevalent in, 118; Japan contrasted with, 114; army and navy of characterised and later improvements in noted, 115, 116; United States treaties with, 151, J 55> J 74> P9PPY plant now discouraged in, 135; in- tercommunication and transportation in far-reach- ing, 123; Japanisation of, 129; drastic decrees against present use of opium, 135; public sentiment now antagonistic to its use, 135; journalism and literature in, 136, 138; compulsory education now urged, 142; patronising character of President Tyler's state paper to Emperor of, 152; women and her subjec- tions in, 208; Protestant missionaries and their work in, 105; opening of at the point of the lancet, 226; disunity the curse of, 36; reverence for the past of, 57; Brown's "New Forces in Old China," 168, 171, 200; China on verge of revolution, 214; proposal to return unexpended portion of indemnity money, 220; good work of Protestant missions in, 105, 223; acknowledgment of the moral, social, and economic benefit of missionary work in, 233. Chinatown, evils of in many large American cities, 159. Chinese classics, Legge's, 47. literature, Dr. Wylie's notes on, 37. labour, its effect on the demand for white labour, 158; immigration of to the Pacific coast, 157. people, great qualities of, 50. the, a great race, 47. waters, anomalous condition of, at the close of eight- eenth century 90. INDEX 245 Chinese Repository, the, 226. Chinese, real founder of empire, 32; dynasties, 35; early literature destroyed, 32; Muse of History, 33; polity and institutions of, formative period of the, 37; a great race, 47; agnostics, 54; great qualities of the people, 50; race traits of, 57, 75-78; historic instinct of the, 58; symbols of thought of, 59; Lord Elgin's attitude towards, 102; Sir Henry Parkes' dealings with the, 102; the Chinese in Japan, 211; thousands of in other foreign countries, 215; punctiliously polite, 69; no right of legislation, 64; no right of self-taxation, 64; heat-handedness of, 72; con- formity to conditions of the, 70; physical vitality of, 74; system of government among, 61, 74; mas- sacre of in Philippine Islands, 83; cheerful industry of the, 76; officials of and their nine ranks, 60; monarchical form of government, 61; right of re- bellion, 64; steady, sober, and intelligent as labour- ers, 67; Herbal of, 45; poetry, golden age of, 39; great lexicon of language, 45; interdict of in Dutch- Indian colonies, 86; waters, international breaches of decorum in, 88; anomalous conditions prevailing in waters of at close of eighteenth century, 90; com- mercial instincts of, 90; ablest monarchs of, 90; superiority of Manchus of, 91; American citizens at mercy of laws and rulers, 93; invaluable in do- mestic service, 174; indispensable in salmon-can- ning and fruit-raising, 174; postal system, 124; immigration of to America and the latter's enact- ments against it, 157, 158; San Francisco's hostility to, 166; American violence toward, 164; rejection of testimony of in American courts, 164, 165; at- titude of the United States toward " a menace to America's Oriental trade," 167; 5000 Chinese study- ing in Japan, 215; Americans the natural friends of the Chinese, 216; tuition of free in all school grades, 132; dearth of teachers, 133; girl students a factor of prime import, 133. commercial instinct of, 90. a punctiliously polite people, 78. language, lexicon of, 45. in Japan, the, 215. officials, and their nine ranks, 60. foreign office (the Tsung Li Yamen), 64. Ching dynasty, Manchu (A. D. 1644 ), 35. Chou dynasty, the (B. C. 1122-255), 35; its great sages, 36. Christians, Nestorian, a patron of the, 38. Chu Hsi, statesman of Sung dynasty, 40; influence of, 40. Classics, the, interpretations of, 40, 42. 246 INDEX Code of social order, 61. " Co-hong," the famous Chinese intermediary, 92. Colquhoun's " Mastery of the Pacific," 200. Columbus, Christopher, his discovery of America, 82. Commerce, early Chinese, 80; overland trade with China, 81; English trade with China opened, 87; of Empire, nationalisation of, 41. Commercial press in China (under Japanese influeace), 139- " Commercial Prize of the Orient," The, quoted, 202. Community, the supreme in Oriental civilisation, 16. Compulsory education urged, 142. Conceit, ineffable, of Chinese, 152. Conformity to conditions of Chinese, 73. Confucius (B. C. 551-478), 51, 54, 55, 61; Memorabilia of, 59- Confucian system of thought, 53, 54, 55. Confucian temple in Peking, 36. Confucianism, its many great excellences, 55; its worship of ancestors, 54. Constitutional government, study of encouraged by two recent Imperial Commissioners, 140; reports on postponed, 141. Consuls, early lack of in European intercourse with China, 94. Contrivance for every emergency, A, a Chinese gift, 73- Coolies, Chinese, American attitude to traffic in, 189. Courtesy, Oriental talent for, 69; innate in many Chinese, 69. Culbertson, Rev. M. S. translator of the Bible into Chinese, 227. Custom, Old-time, veneration for in China, 58, 59. " Cycle of Cathay," A, quoted, 189. Darroch, John, of Shanghai, on New Literature in China, 138, 139- " David Harum," and its variant on the Golden Rule, 106. Democracy, Inherent, of China, 63. Dennis, Dr. James S., his " Christian Missions " quoted, 235- Disunity, the ruin of Greece and the curse of China, 36. "Divine Discontent" of the Chinese, 77. Dutch, the, advent of in China and attack Portuguese and Spaniards, 84; international freebooters, 84; lawless raids of on China's coasts, 84. Indian Colonies, interdict of Chinese in, 86. Dynasties, the Chinese, 35; the seven most interesting to Occidentals, 36; the T'ang dynasty, 35. INDEX 247 East India Company and the Opium trade, the, 95. Educational Commission to China, President James's memo on, 213, 218. Institutions in China, 129, 130; advance great in Province of Chihli, 129; institutions in operation under Governor-General, 129, 130; number of stu- dents, 130; scope of curriculum, 131. Museum, Chinese, 130. Egyptians, Old, and old Chinese compared, 49. Electric lighting prevalent now in China, 118. Elgin, Lord, his attitude towards the Chinese, 101, 102. Embassies to the capital of tributary Kingdoms and States, 38. Engineers, Chinese lack of competent, 123. English antagonised by the Portuguese on first coming to China, 86; her commerce with China opened, 87. Examination, Chinese old-style, abandoned, 128. _ Exclusion Act, the, applied to the Chinese and its effect on them, 206. Family genealogies in China, 58. Far East, the, and the New China, 108. Farming in China, 66. Fatalism, land where it reigns, 14. Fatalists, Chinese unconscious, 76. Filial piety, Chinese, 54, 171. Fixity of China, unalterable, 40. Five Constant Virtues, the, 53. Five Rulers, the great Chinese, 28. Florida, an early Spanish colony, 20. Foreign communities in China a law unto themselves, 92. Foreign office, Chinese (Tsung Li Yamen), the, 64. Foreign treaty, first between China and Russia, 86. Foreigners in China, many of them autocratic, dictatorial, and openly contemptuous of Chinese rights, 101. Foreigners in China, in igth century, autocratic, dicta- torial, and openly contemptuous of the rights of the Chinese, 101. Foster, Hon. John W., quoted, 238. Foster's "American Diplomacy in the Orient," quoted, 151, 221. Foot-binding in China, 44, 134. Formative period of Chinese polity and institutions, 37. Four Knowings, Hall of the, 56. Gambling and opium-smoking, common vices in China, 65. Gamewefl, Rev. F. D., his labours and work during siege of Pekin, 231. 248 INDEX Gates, F. T. (Mr. Rockefeller's secretary), quoted, 236. Genealogies, Chinese family, 58. Genghis Khan, the world-renowned Tartar, 42. Giles, Prof., his dictum pn K'ang Hsi, 45. Girl students a factor of prime importance, 133; schools for girls and women, 133. Goodrich, Dr. Chauncey, theological teacher and hym- nologist, 228. Great Wall, the, of China, 32. " Guarding a Great City," McAdoo's, 160. Gulick, Dr. Sydney L., "The White Peril" quoted, 15, 201, 234. Gunpowder, invention of attributed to the Chinese, 70. Gurkhas, fiery, forced into submission, 46. Hall of the Four Knowings, the, 56. Han, the, first national Chinese dynasty, 34, 36, 37. Han Wen-Kung, the philosopher statesman, 39. Hanlin Academy, burning of, 44. Happer, Dr. A. P., of the Canton Christian College, 226. Hard work, a necessary condition of human existence in China, 65. Hart, Sir Robert, on Chinese qualities, 78, 102, 103. Harvard University's invitation to Chinese students, 219. Hawaiian Islands, key and cross roads of the Pacific, 25. important strategic base, 24. Hawks, Rev. F. L., "a Sketch of Chinese History," 29. Hayes, Dr. Watson M., of American Presbyterian Mis- sion, 230. Herbal, Chinese, 45. Historic instinct of Chinese, 58. Holcombe's " Real Chinese Question," 102. Holy men, or Chinese sages, 50-52. Hongkong, Britain's acquirement of, 104. Honolulu, unique situation of, 25, 26. " Hoppo " of Canton, English complaint against the ex- actions of and its results, 92. Huns, the, under Attila, the scourge of Europe, 34. Immigration, Chinese, and American enactments against it, 158, 161. of Chinese to the Pacific Coast of the U. S., 157- Imperial Library, the, 43. Income tax imposed for construction of Public Works in China, 41. Indemnities, unexpended, utilising or returning them, 220. Industrial institutes and exhibits in chief Chinese cities, 125, 126. Inland ports, opening of in China, 124. INDEX 249 Intellectual toil, Chinese have a phenomenal talent for, 66. Intercommunication and transportation in China, 123. International breaches of decorum in Chinese waters, 88 usages disregarded by Britain in China, 97. Instruction of prisoners in Chinese jails, 125. Isthmian Canal, the, 26, 198, 203, 205. James, President (Univ. of 111.), on Educational Commis- sion to China, 213, 218. Japan, the New, and the Japanese, 112; contrasted with China, 114; her war with Russia, 116; her age-long debt to China, 210; Chinese in, 215; politeness of, 69; patriotism of her people, 112. Japanese teachers employed in Chinese provincial col- leges, 128, 129. Japanisation of China, 129. Jefferson, Thomas, a President committed against extra- constitutional acts, 19. Jews in China now at point of extinction, 115. Journalism, a new, with widened thought, 136; secular press hot anti-Christian, 137; fearless in its attack of abuses, 137; journals conducted by women, 138. K'ang Hsi, 2nd Emperor of Manchu dynasty, 44; brilliant and long reign of, 44; great patron of literature, 44. and Chien Lung, ablest Chinese monarchs, 45, 46. Kerr, Dr. John G., of Canton, 225. Kidd, Benjamin, quoted, 234. Knowledge, Western, barriers battered down, 144. Koxinga, drives the Dutch from Formosa, 85; ex-pirate, early English treaty with, 87. Kublai Khan, his conquests over Asia, 42. Labourer, Chinese, steady, sober and intelligent, 67. Lacquer-making, ivory and wood-carving, Chinese ex- perts in, 70. Lake Mohonk conferences, our admirable, 148. Land in China ploughed in autumn, 70. Learning, the new, in China, 131. Legations at Peking, 221, 222. Legendary China (B. C. 25OO-A. D. 209), 31, 50. Legge, Dr. James, his Chinese Classics, 47. Lexicon of the Chinese language, great, 45. Li Hung-chang, Marquis, 115, 168, 202, 232, 234. Lin, Commissioner, his attempt to kill the giant com- merce in opium, 95, 97. Liberty, Statue of, Enlightening the World, 206. Literary activity during Ming era, 43. 250 INDEX Literature, Chinese, successful patron of, 45; the new de- velopment of, 40, 138; new publications, 138; agency of the Commercial Press, 139; vast range of modern publications, 139; translation of Occidental stand- ard works, 140; early Chinese, destroyed by Em- peror Huang, 32; repeal of the latter's edict against, 37- Little, Archibald, his work on " The Far East," quoted, Si- Little, Mrs. Archibald, her efforts to abolish foot-binding of Chinese girls, 134. Louisiana Purchase Exposition, contempt for amenities of international intercourse at, 170. Macao, Portuguese occupation of, 83; deliminated from mainland, 83. Macartney, Lord, spectacular English embassy of, 89. Mahan, Capt., quoted, 23, 24. Malacca, Portuguese arrival at, and at Canton, 82. Manchu dynasty, second emperor of, 44. Manchus, superiority of to the Chinese, 91; their heritage of China, 90. Mandarins, obstructive ex-officio, 64. Manila, brought near to Washington by cable, 26. Manual training schools, Chinese, 126. Manufacturing of various kinds in operation now in China, 126. beginning now to appear, 126. Marco Polo, his memorable visit to Cathay, 43. Mariner's compass, invention of in China, 70. Martin, Rev. Dr. W. A. P., his " A Cycle of Cathay," 189. Mateer, Dr. C. W., fifty years' educational work in China, 227. McAdoo, Police Commissioner, on American municipal police problems, 159; his work " Guarding a Great City," 160. McCartee, Dr. D. B., his long work at Ningpo and Tokio, 227. Meadows, T. T., on the Chinese and their rebellions, 48; his meditations while seated on the Great Pyramid, 48; on fundamental tenets of Confucian thought, 52. Memorabilia of Confucius, The, 59. Memory, cultivated in China to an unexampled extent, 74- Men of Tang, 38. Mencius, the greatest of Chinese sages, 52; his last rest- ing-place, 55. Mental effort, Chinese high regard for, 59. INDEX 251 Merchant class in China, the, 66. Marine, American, lack of, a handicap in the Far East, 183. Mexico, unwarranted American aggression upon, 20. Middle Ages, the, Chinese still or lately living in, 75. Military chieftains, early Chinese, 31. Militia Enrollment Act, Chinese, 41. Miner, Luella, her "Two Heroes of Cathay," 168. Ming Emperor, Yung Le, 43. Mings, their dynasty and era, 43, 87. Mirror of History, from Chou dynasty downward, 40. Missionaries, Protestant, and their good work in China, 105, 223, 224. Roman Catholic, the first to reach China, 43. Mississippi River, right to navigate freely, 19. Mohammed, flight of, 39. Mohammedan Arabs, mere " backshish hunters " now, 49. India powerfully influenced by unrest of Egypt, 1 12. Monarchical form of Chinese government, 61. Mongol rule, short-lived, 43; dynasty, 35. Monroe Doctrine, the, 23. Muse of History, the Chinese, 33. Nanking treaty of 1842, the, 101. Napier, Lord, speaks of a Chinese Governor-General as " a presumptuous savage," 94. Napoleon of China, the, 32. National frontage on the Pacific, American, 204. Nationalisation of Chinese commerce, 41. Nature, intellectual and moral, of the Chinese run in cast-iron moulds, 40. Nature, powers of, worshipped in China, 54. Navigation of Chinese inland waters recently greatly extended, 123. Navy and Army of Chinese characterised, 115; later im- provements in, 116. Neat-handedness of the Chinese, 72. Nerchinsk treaty with Russia, the, 86. Nestorian Christians, a patron of in China, 38. Nevius, Dr. John L., his book om "Methods of Mission Work," 227. New America, The, 19. New Learning, the, desire for has reached China's im- terior, 131. "New York Independent" quoted, 185. " New York Observer " quoted, 193. Ningpo, early factories and trading establishments at. 82. 252 INDEX Occident, the, and the Orient, 13. Occidentals, the seven Chinese dynasties most interest- ing to, 30. Official shuffling of American responsibility, 176. Officials, Chinese, and their nine ranks, 60. Old China, 28. Old-time custom, Chinese veneration for, 58, 59. Opening China at the point of the lancet, 226; opening of inland ports (Chinese), 124. Opium, illicit sales of the deadly drug, 99; greater evil than war, famine, and pestilence, too; opium-smok- ing and gambling, 65; trade in, 94, 135; smuggling of, a factor in bringing on war with England, 98, 99; use of, 100; drastic decree against, 135; strong Chinese public sentiment now antagonising its use, 135- Opportunities and responsibilities of America in China, 195- Orient, the, great changes and progress in, 18, 202-204. a large importer of cotton and cotton goods, 203. Oriental talent for courtesy, the, 69. " Outlook," The, quoted, 167, 236-238. Outrages against the Chinese in America, 176. Overthrow of Russia's land and Haval forces by Japan (1904-05), 116. Pacific, the, to be the centre of world's commerce, wealth and power, 198. Panama Canal, influence of its position, 23, 26, 198; see Isthmian Canal. Pango Pango, ceded in 1872 to the United States, 23. Paper, early manufacture of in China, 37. Parker, Dr. Peter, missionary of the American Board at Canton, 225. Parkes, Sir Harry, 102; his attitude in dealings with the Chinese, 102. Patriarchs, the earliest rulers in China, 31. Patriotism in China manifested by the anti-foreign wave agitation, 117. Peking, the siege of, 44. Philippine Islands, seized by the Spaniards, 83; acquisi- tion of by the United States, 26. Physical training now a part of the educational curricu- lum in China, 132. vitality of the Chinese the wonder of the world, 74- Piano factory in Shanghai, 127. Pi Kan, killed to see if his heart had "seven openings." 57- INDEX 253 Poetry, Chinese, the T'ang period the golden era of, 39. Poppy plant, cultivation of now encouraged, 135. Portuguese, the, reach Malacca and Canton, 82; their fac- tories at Ningpo, 82; their expulsion, 83. Postal system in China now improved and extended, 124; number of offices and of articles handled, 124. Pott, Rev. F. L. Hawks, his "Sketch of Chinese His- tory," 29. Primary schools in Chinese Provinces, 131. Printing, art of, invented in and early resort to in China, 70. Prisoners in Chinese jails, instruction of, 125. Progress in China, lack of, 64. Protestant missionaries and their good work in China, 105, 223, 224. Putnam-Weale's " The Re-Shaping of the Far East," 182, 187. Race-traits, Chinese, 57, 75-78. Rajds, lawless, of the Dutch OH Chinese coasts, 84. Railways in operation in China, 119-122; profits of, 120; breach of faith manifested by constructors on first introduction of, 118. Rebellion, Chinese right of, 64. Reciprocal tariffs, proposals for, 177. Red-skins, American prevalent contempt for the, 148. Reid, Dr. Gilbert, his educational work at Shanghai, 230. Reid, Dr. Gilbert, of American Presbyterian Mission, .230. Religions of Mankind, laad in which all have originated, 13- " Re-Shaping of the Far East," The, quoted, 182, 187. Responsibility, American official shuffling of, 176. Reverence, Chinese, for law, symbols of, and of govern- ment, 6r. Reverence for the past in China, 57. for parents and authorities, 55. Roosevelt, President, his assertion that " Good manners should be an international, not less than an indi- vidual, attribute," 177, 178. Russia and her war with japan, 116. Russo-Japanese War, reflex effect of the great, no. Sages or Holy Men of China, 50-52. Sakyamuni (or Saddartha), honour paid to, 39. Salmon-canning and fruit-raising, Chinese useful in, 174. San Francisco's hostility to Chinese immigration, 159. Scholar, Chinese, fatiguing intellectual labour of, 67. 254 INDEX Scholars, the critics of Emperor Huang's acts, buried alive, 32, 33. Scholarship, Chinese, encouraged, 134. Schools for women and girls in China, development of, 133- Secret societies, China honeycombed with, 62. Seward, Wm. H., most prescient American statesman, 21. Sheffield, Dr. D. Z., President of College at T'ung Chou, 228. Shen Tsung era, 41. Shuffling (American official) of responsibility, 176. Silk, the spinning and weaving of, in China, 70. Socialistic statesmen of China, early, 41. Spanish seizure of the Philippines, the, 83; indiscriminate massacre of Chinese on, 83. Speer's " The Oldest and the Newest Empire," 166, 209. Spoils system in the United States in appointments of foreign ministers and consuls, 181, 182. Squeeze, the, Chinese officials resort to, 180. Ssu-Ma Kuang, his " Mirror of History," 40. State advances for the cultivation of the soil, 41. Stead, Alfred, his work on " Great Japan," 114. Stone drums, ten, in Confucian temple, Peking, 36. Strong, Dr. Josiah, quoted, 25; his " Expansion under New World Conditions," 196. Survival of the fittest in China, 77. Symbols of thought, Chinese, 59. System of government, Chinese, 74. Tablets, bamboo, the earliest Chinese books, 36. T'ai Tsung, second T'ang Emperor, 38. Talent, worship of, in China, 78. T'ang, men of, 38. T'ang, the, golden age of Chinese poetry, 39. Taotai Wang Kai-Ka, on " A Menace to America's Ori- ental Trade," 167. Tariffs, reciprocal, Oscar Straus's proposals of, 177. Tartar cue, adoption of, 44, 45. Tartars of the North, China's warfare with, 34. , Manchu, seize the Chinese throne, 34. Teachers, dearth of, and much of teaching inadequate, 133- Telegraph and telephone systems in China, 118. Tenney, Dr. C. D., his education of Chinese youth, 230. Text-books and what they inculcate, 132. Themes set for essays by Chinese Board of Education, 143- Tientsin treaty between the U. S. and China, the, 155. Tokio's regulated vice, 113. INDEX 255 Topography of China, great work on, 45. Townsend, Meredith, his essays on " Asia and Europe," 1 6. Trade-Guilds, Chinese, 75. Trader, Chinese, an expert, 72. Training, age-long of Chinese, 74. Treaties (United States) with China, 155, 174, 175; hon- ourable character of, 151. Treatment of the Chinese in the U. S. bad, 162-166. Tsushima Straits, decisive victory of Japan in the, 86. Tuan Fang, his testimony in regard to missionary work, 234- Tuition, Chinese, free in all school grades, 132. Turk, "the unspeakable," in. Turkey, a New, in. Tyler, President, patronising character of his State paper to an Emperor of China, 152. United States Court for China, establishment of, 191. and China coming together, 213. career of, one of masterful, irresistible expansion, 21. treaties with China, 151, 155, 174. Verbeck, Dr. Guido, a factor in bringing about religious liberty in Japan, 208. Violence (American) towards the Chinese in the U. S., 165. Virtues, the Five Constant, 53. Wall, the Great, of China, 32. Wang An-shih, stateman of Suug dynasty, 41, 42. Wang Hsia treaty, 154. War, the Arrow, 104. Washington, George, effect of a study of his life upon Orientals, 209. Wei Hui fu, Chinese city of, 57, 103. Wen Wang, the Chinese Duke, 30. Wellesley College, offer of three scholarships to Chinese women, 219. Western barbarian's footing on Chinese soil, 91. knowledge, barriers of burned down, 144. learning introduced and abolition of the old-style examination, 128. Powers and China never understood each other, 101. " White Peril," The, quoted, 201. White wax, the, and its industry, 71. Wiffley, Judge L. R., of U. S. Court for China, good work of, 191. 256 INDEX Williams, Dr. S. Wells, editor of "The Chinese Reposi- tory," 226. Williams, Dr., OH the great T'ang dynasty, 38. Woman in China and her subjections, 208. "Woman's Daily Journal," of Peking, the, 138. Woman's Medical College, Canton, 225. Woodbridge, Dr., of Shanghai, states that native secular Work, a condition of human existence in China, 65. Wylie, Dr., his " Notes on Chinese Literature," 37. press of China is not anti-Christian, 136. Yale University, invitation of to Chinese students, 219. Yang Chen, Governor, 56. Yao and Shun, perfect Chinese rulers, 29, 50. Yuan Shih-K'ai, Governor-General and soldier, 116. Yung Le, second Ming Emperor, 43. Yung Wing, Dr., his prize for English composition, 74. Yu, the Great, founder of the Hsia dynasty (2205 B. C.)t 30. J -2 (/> < >rt University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000 847 574 1 u