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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
FORWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES
EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
THE MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT
THE UPLIFT OF CHINA
(N- B. — Spei-ial helps and denominational missionary literature
for this course can be obtained by correspondence with the Secretary
of your mission board or society.)
ARTHUR H SMITH
THE
UPLIFT OF CHINA
Revised Edition
BY
ARTHUR H. SMITH
Forty Years a Missionary in China
I9I2
Missionary Education Movement
OF THE United States and Canada
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1907, by
Young People's Missionary Movement
New York
Copyright, 1912, by
Missionary Education Movement
OF the United States and Canada
New York
TO THE
CHRISTIAN PEOPLE OF AMERICA
WHO RECOGNIZE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY
FOR WORLD BETTERMENT AND THE UNPREC-
EDENTED OPPORTUNITY WHICH CHANGED
CONDITIONS AFFORD TO THE PRESENT
GENERATION THIS LITTLE VOLUME
IS INSCRIBED
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
Editorial Statement, First Edition xi
Editorial Statement, Revise:! Edition xiii
Foreword xv
I A General View of China I
II A Great Race With a Great Inheritance 27
III The Defects of the Social Sjstem S3
JV The Strength and Weakness of the Religions. 83
V Uplifting Leaders iiS
VI Forms of Missionary Work 155
VII Missionary Problems 183
VIII Transformation, Condition, and Appeal 207
APPENDIXES
A The Orthography and Pronunciation of Chinese
Names 251
B Bibliog'-aphy , 254
C Area and Population 259
D Opium Edict, 1906 260
E Dates of Important Events in Modern Chinese
ETistory 262
F Table of Chinese Dynastic Dates 264
G Statistics of Protestant Missions in China 265
Index 267
Vll
ILLUSTRATIONS
Arthur H. Smith Frontispiece
Map Showing Lines of Transportation Page 7
IMap Showing Areas of Coal, Iron, and Soil. " 12
Traveling Cobbler, A Unique Sawmill " 18
Watch Tower in Examination Halls, Nan-
king '•■ 44
Government Examination Halls, Nanking.... '"' 44
Door of Clan House, Clan House " 58
A Confucian Temple, Buddhist Temple,
Taoist Temple " 86
Worshiping at the Family Altar " 96
Blue Dome, in Temple of Heaven, Peking.... " 96
A Thousand Years of Missionary Service " 150
Hope-Wilhglmina Hospital, Amoy " 162
Hopkins Memorial Hospital, Peking " 162
St. John's University, Shanghai " 168
North China Union College, near Peking. ... " 168
Peking University " 168
Chi-nan Fu IMuseum " 174
Mission Press, Shanghai " 174
China's Republican Leaders, Sun Yat Sen and
Yuan Shih Kai " 18S
New Government College, Nan-yang " 212
Association Field Day, Shangnai " 212
Western Innovation, Shanghai " 212
Missionary Map End
IX
EDITORIAL STATEMENT
FIRST EDITION
According to the rules of the Young People's
Missionary Movement, the Editorial Committee
has liberty to make any alterations that it may
consider necessary in the manuscripts submitted
to it for publication. In making such changes it
is customary to consult with the author. The
absence of Dr. Smith in China, however, has
made it impossible for the Committee to secure
his cooperation in its work of revision. It
wishes, therefore, to state that Dr. Smith is in no
wise responsible for any of the changes in the
original manuscript, which have been made with
the idea of increasing its effectiveness as a text-
book for mission study. The whole of Chapter
III and nearly all of Chapter V have been re-
written, and insertions, a part of which are
quotations from other writers or from Dr.
Smith's other works, have been made in Chapters
I, II, and IV. Other changes have been made
by way of elision and rearrangement of para-
graphs. The Committee regrets earnestly that
it has been impossible to confer with Dr Smith
on the subject of these changes and to secure his
assistance in making them.
XI
EDITORIAL STATETvIENT
REVISED EDITION
This revised edition has been prepared to keep
the mission study constituency in touch with the
most recent events in China. ]\Iany books are
coming from the press these days, all of which
are out of date before they can reach the public.
Events are moving so rapidly in China that no
one can keep pace without having read the last
edition of the daily paper.
The material in the first six chapters remains
unchanged. The last two chapters have been
entirely rewritten by the author and reached the
Committee early in May. The questions and
references for these two chapters have also been
revised.
The Alissionary Education Movement has en-
gaged an author in China who is now writing on
the changing conditions, and as soon as the new
Republic becomes more firmly established he will
forward his m.anuscript for publication.
May 28, 1912.
Xlll
FOREWORD
The problem of China is to a large extent the
problem of the world. Even to those who have
liitherto taken but slight mterest in *' world-
politics," it is becoming dimly discernible that
in Eastern Asia the Occident has greater and
more difficult questions than it has ever yet set-
tled, or even faced. War, diplomacy, commerce,
industrial expansion, governmental reforms,
have all had or are having their part in the un-
precedented alinement of the Far East, but it
is the inevitable weakness of each and all of them
that they never settle anything, while they tend
to unsettle everything. Those who recognize
that moral and spiritual forces ultimately rule
the world will increasingly feel that the West
owes it to the ancient East to pay back a part of
its age-long debt by helping to lay deep the foun-
dation of an Oriental Christian civilization.
In a necessarily compendious outline such as
the present, it is impracticable to illustrate ade-
quately the amount and the quality of the work
which Christian missions have done and are
doing in China. For this reason it is the more
essential freely to use collateral helps, to which
end a small bibliography is appended. It is
XV
^■vi Foreword
greatly to be hoped that those who read this
book may never lose their interest in its subject
nor cease their study of it.
In the great century upon which we have en-
tered it is important that the rising generation
should have a large funded knowledge of the
part which the Far East has played in the history
of the world hitherto, and a clear perception of
the much larger part which it is to take in the
immediate future, and of the duties and privi-
leges of Americans to contribute to the peace of
the world by helping to establish in it the king-
dom of God.
Arthur H. Smith.
Shanghai, China, December 2§, jpo6.
A GENERAL VIEW OF CHINA
China bulks large because she now has a popula-
tion of 400,000,000 — three fourths the people of the
Pacific basin — whose industry, energy, economy,
perseverance, and fruitfulncss make them the
Anglo-Saxons of the Orient. China sustains this
immense population wholly by farming and such
crude manufacturing as can be carried on by hand.
China is just beginning to accept modern inventions
and to introduce modern machinery; and with far
the largest and toughest, most industrious and most
economical laboring class on our globe, an era of
vast industrial expansion is immediately before her.
Moreover, China is now beginning to construct rail-
roads and to open the largest and finest coal and
iron mines thus far known to man. Baron Rich-
tofen, after a laborious investigation of many years,
submitted to the German government a three-vol-
ume report of the coal and iron resources of China,
showing that they are the finest in the world. He
found coal in fifteen of the eighteen provinces exam-
ined by him; and in the province of Shan-hsi alone he
reported enough coal to supply the human race for
several thousand years. Side by side with these
supplies of coal, Baron Richtofen found vast supplies
of iron ore. The German government was so
amazed by the Baron's reports that an expert com-
mission was sent to China in 1897 to re-examine his
data, and this commission fully verified Baron Rich-
tofen's estimates.
— Bishop J. W. Bashford.
I
A GENERAL VIEW OF CHINA
F the unknown people who at an unknown Favorable
'^ ^ Location of
time from an unknown place of departure, china
but probably from the extreme west of Asia,
started on their march to the extreme east, were
consciously choosing their destiny, they could not
have chosen better nor more wisely. The country
which we call China, but for which the Chinese
equivalent is Middle Kingdom (now more appro-
priately expanded into Central Empire), is one
of the most favorably situated regions on the
earth's surface. Lofty mountains give rise to a
magnificent river system ; there is a coast-line of
perhaps two thousand miles, a fertile soil, a tem-
perate climate, and every variety of production.
China lies wholly in what is known as " the belt
of power," within which all the great races of
mankind have had their origin and have worked
out their destiny.
The Chinese Empire' is composed of several Divisions and
divisions, known as China Proper, or the Eigh-
teen Provinces, with the dependencies of Man-
1 To maintain unity in customs and religions, the text of this
book has been confined to China Proper.
2 The Uplift of China
diuria, Mongolia, Tibet, and Chinese Turkes-
tan. A large part of this territory has never
been surveyed at all, so that varying estimates of
the area are readily accounted for. The figures
quoted are from a standard authority,^ but it must
be understood that they are approximations only,
and merely represent ' the last guess at the case.'
China Proper comprises 1,532,420 square miles;
Manchuria, 363,610; Mongolia, 1,367,600;
Tibet, 463,200; Turkestan, 550,340; making a
total of 4,277,170 square miles. With this may
be compared the area of the United States, to-
gether with Alaska, and the Hawaiian Islands,
which with both the land and the water area of
the last two divisions, is given as 3,567,563
square miles. Manchuria is a little larger than
the province of Quebec and three times the size
of the British Isles.
Population 'pj-jg question of the population of China is one
of the essentially insoluble riddles of contempo-
raneous history. In 1904 Mr. Rockhill," after a
careful inquiry, came to the conclusion that all
the official estimates made within the past one
hundred and fifty years are far in excess of the
truth, and that the number of the inhabitants of
China Proper at the present time is probably less
than 270,000,000. The figures usually quoted
are those furnished by the Chinese government,
as the result of an estimate made for the purpose
^ Statesman's Year-Book, 1906.
* American Minister to China, 1907.
A General View of China 3
of the apportionment of the indemnity of 1901.
According to this, the population of the Eighteen
Provinces is 407,253,030, or about five and one-
third times as large as that of the United States
at the census of 1900. The population of Man-
churia was estimated by the same authority as
16,000,000; that of Tibet at 6,500,000; that of
Mongolia at 2,600,000; and that of Turkestan as
1,200,000; making a grand total for the whole -
empire of 433,553,030. On the whole, one may as
well assume the round number of 400,000,000 as
a working hypothesis for the population of China,
although in the opinion of many good judges the
figures may be much too large. On the fore-
going basis, the population per square mile would
be 266, the most dense being that of Shan-tung,
with 683 to the square mile, and the least dense
that of Kuang-hsi, with 67.
There is far more uniformitv of size in the |ii*„;°/*,''*'
eiarhteen orovinces than in the States of the
American Union. The largest is Ssii-ch'uan,'
which has 218,480 square miles, which may be
compared with Texas with its 262,290 square
miles; but while Texas had in 1900 something
over 3,000,000 people, Ssu-ch'uan is supposed to
have about 69 millions, and that province, with
the neighboring one of Kuei-chou (next to the
smallest in population of all the provinces) had
a population larger than that of the whole United
^ For the pronunciation and location of geographical names, see
Index.
4 The Uplift of China
States at the last census. The smallest of the
provinces is Che-chiang, which is a trifle larger
than the State of Indiana, but which has a popu-
lation nearly five times as great.
Scenery Jq the traveler who passes through beautiful
Japan to northern China, with its unvarying
levels, the view is distinctly disappointing. But
the Chinese Empire is broad and has every va-
riety of landscape, lofty mountains (although
these are the exception), the sublime gorges of
the Yang-tzu, and in the south-central and south-
ern provinces a semi-tropical luxuriance of vege-
tation most pleasing and attractive to the eye.
In mountainous regions, especially, temples are
located with great skill so as to command ^the
most advantageous sites, combining a view of
man's industry with a secure retreat from the
cares of dusty earth. The pagoda is one of
the few benefits which Buddhism has conferred
on China, a relic of a period when faith was active
and vital, instead as at present a mere historical
reminiscence. Many of the bridges over Chinese
canals are extremely picturesque, while the sus-
pension-bridges over the rivers of the southwest
made of bamboo ropes have attracted the admira-
tion of all travelers. In the southern portions of
China, city walls are found mantled with ivy,
although undue sentimentalism is perhaps
checked by the pervasive presence in the canals
below of boatloads of liquid manure.
A General View of China 5
China is cut through by many great rivers, of vang-tzu
which the mighty Yang-tzu, and the Huang Ho,
or Yellow River, are the chief. Each of these
rises in the mountains of Tibet, and finds its
way eastward to the sea. The Yang-tzu, which
is 60 miles wide at its mouth, with its numerous
tributaries is to China what the Mississippi and
Amazon are to the United States and South
America. It is navigable by large ocean steamers
to Han-k'ou, more than 600 miles from its mouth.
Steam vessels run to I-ch'ang, about 400 miles
farther up. Beyond this the famous Yang-tzu
gorges begin, and although steamers have made
the ascent to Chung-ch'ing, about 725 miles
above, the rapids are so dangerous that the
route is at present impracticable. Each of the
" Four Streams," which give their name to Ssu- ;
ch'uan, is an important avenue of trade.
The Yellow River, on the contrary, which Yeiiow River
makes a vast circuit through the northwest of the
empire, passing through regions of clay and
sand, is not only for the most part useless for
navigation, but richly deserves the name of
" China's Sorrow," on account of perpetual over-
flows, its frequent changes of channel, and the im-
mense expense of guarding against the breaking
of the artificial banks, which are generally com-
posed merely of earth, reinforced by stalks of
sorghum. In the year 1887, especially, when the
Yellow River completely altered its course, find-
6 The Uplift of China
ing- its way by devious routes southward to the
sea, it was the occasion of terrible disaster, count-
less villages being suddenly swept away like ants
under a rain spout.
Artificial The canals of China, largely found in the cen-
Waterways . , , .
tral provuices, are numerous, and date from a
time when none such existed in Europe. The so-
called Grand Canal extends from Hang-chou, the
capital of Che-chiang, crossing the Yang-tzu and
Yellow Rivers, to Lin-ch'ing in Shan-tUng, there
entering a river flowing to Tientsin. The canal
was formerly a great artery for the transport
of the imperial tribute grain, but upon the adop-
tion of the sea route it became superflous for that
purpose, for which it has not been used since
1900.
Interior AH but the mountaiuous provinces have rivers
r^avigation
of considerable importance, and no people ever
better understood the art of using navigable
waters than the Chinese. Relatively insignificant
streams like the Wei River, with which the Grand
Canal unites, convey a traffic beyond all propor-
tion to their size. Chinese craft are modeled
after the water-fowl, not after the fish, and can
traverse very shallow water. Some varieties of
specially constructed double-enders carry sur-
prising loads, while drawing only a few inches of
water. The sails of cotton or of matting hang
loosely to huge masts, and being stiffened with
bamboo poles appear cumbrous and clumsy, yet
A General View of China
with these the boatmen can sail very close to the
wind, and in general they manage their boats
with a skill elsewhere unsurpassed. With a few
minutes' work the mast may be removed and laid
CBMORQA/^s
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' ' --—""' - ' ^TRANSPORTATION MAP
^^ FRENCH
A^ [china'
of
To/ij-JCiflj
Cities rmned have 5C.C00 orDorefeputoim
Principal Rivers
Grand Canal
Railway lines.built 1.1. . .
•* projected ■
flat, as in case of head winds, to economize re-
sistance, or in passing under bridges.
In striking contrast to the number and the im- Lakes
portance of its rivers, are the fewness and the
8 The Uplift of China
unimportance of China's lakes, of which those
best known are the P'o-yang, and the Tung-t'ing,
each of them shallow, and each highly untrust-
worthy at certain stages of water.
The Great The Great Plain extends from the Yang-tzii
Plain
to
River to the mountains which divide Chih-li
from Shan-hsi and Manchuria, and supports a
population estimated at more than a hundred
millions, reminding one in density of inhabitants
of the province of Bengal. It is largely alluvial in
its origin. In many wide regions incalculable
harm has been done by the devastations of the
rivers which the Chinese have not been able to
control. Flooding is often followed by the ap-
pearance of a nitrous efflorescence, injurious, and
often fatal to the growth of crops.
The Loess 'p^g locss soil occurs mainly in an extensive
Soil -'
region of which the province of Shan-hsi is the
center. It consists of a peculiar brownish earth
penetrated with minute porous tubes running
from above downward, which by capillary attrac-
tion, when there is sufficient water, draw up
moisture from below. At other times drought and
famine are synonymous terms. These deposits
are now considered to have been formed by age-
long dust-storms. The terraces of the loess
country are one of the sights of China, as are the
caves dug in this soil for dwellings, which, though
damp, dark, and smoky, serve as homes for great
numbers of the poor. This soil with adequate
A General View of China 9
rain is naturally rich without fertilization. Tlie
loess deposits, owing to the frequent and immense
fissures, are a great obstruction to travel, and are
proving a difficult problem for the builders of
railways.
The Japan Current, prevented by outlying is- The ciimate
lands from reaching the shore, has less efifect
upon China than has the Gulf Stream on North
America. As Dr. Williams mentions, " the aver-
age temperature of the whole empire is lower than
that of any other country in the same latitude,
and the coast is subject to the same extremes as
the Atlantic States. Canton is the coldest place
on the globe in its latitude, and the only place
within the tropics where snow falls near the sea-
shore." While the climate is in general much
more regular in its periodicity than that of the
United States, it varies greatly in a series of
years. At Peking the thermometer ranges from
zero (Fahrenheit) to above lOO degrees, yet the
cold is complained of as more penetrating than in
much higher latitudes, although the winters are
dry. In the warmer months, southern and cen-
tral China are oppressively hot, and, as in India,
the night often gives little relief, while, in the
northern provinces, this is not usually the case.
Ssu-ch'uan is largely damp and steamy in sum-
mer, the number of clear days being few when
compared with the north. In northern China
there are peculiar electrical conditions which af-
lo The Uplift of China
feet unfavorably the nervous system of many for-
eigners.
Rainfall The so-called rainy season in China is to a con-
siderable extent dependent upon the southwest
monsoon. The amount of the rainfall varies
from 70 inches in Canton, to 36 in Shanghai, and
16 in Chih-li, which are the averages of several
annual observations, but the variations in succes-
sive \ears are marked. On the Great Plain three
fourths of the rain generally falls during July
and August. In that region the spring rains
are generally scanty and often almost absent.
That this is no new circumstance is indicated by
the ancient adage that " Rain in spring is as pre-
cious as oil." Among the many reforms needed
in China a redistribution of the rainfall is one of
the most urgent — a much larger supply in spring
and in the late autumn, and much less in summer.
Typhoons The coast of China is liable to terrible typhoons,
one of the most terrific of wdiich occurred in
September, 1906, in Hongkong, almost without
w^arning, resulting in the loss of many thousand
lives, in the wrecking of steam vessels of all
sorts and sizes, and involving a loss estimated
at five million dollars, all in the space of less than
two hours. The destructive land tornadoes so
common in the United States, appear to be al-
most or quite unknown in China.
Diseases Epidemic diseases, while common in China,
are much less fatal than in India. At intervals
A General View of China ii
Asiatic cholera commits fearful ravages which
are practically unchecked. Small-pox, diphtheria,
and some other diseases may be said to be both
endemic and epidemic, never wholly absent, and
not infrequently recurring with extreme violence.
The bubonic plague has firmly rooted itself in the
southeastern part of China, and in Hongkong,
and the percentage of mortality, largely although
not excfusively among the Chinese, is in this time
of enlightenment unprecedented. Tubercular
affections are perhaps the most fatal to the
Chinese. Many of the foregoing diseases are
entirely preventable, the high death-rate being
due to the dense population, and to the equally
dense ignorance of sanitary laws, as well as to
complete indifference to them when pointed out.
Yet foreigners in China are probably as health-
ful as in their native lands, with similar climatic
conditions. It may be mentioned incidentally that
in the early part of 1903 there were seven men
still engaged in active missionary service in
China who arrived in the ' fifties.'
The mineral resources of China appear to be Mineral
practically inexhaustible, and are as yet virtually
untouched. Coal and iron, twin pillars of mod-
ern industry, exist in quantities elsewhere un-
surpassed. The coal-bearing areas alone have
been estimated at 419,000 square miles, a terri-
tory larger by some 13,000 square miles than
that of all New England, together with all the
Resources
12
Tlie Uplift of China
states bordering on the Atlantic coast from New
York to Florida. Every traveler through Shan-
hsi is struck with the evidence not only of over-
whelming riches of coal and iron, but of many
other minerals, including almost all which are of
economic importance. It is a remarkable fact that
instead of being limited as in the United States to
a few favored districts, the coal measures of
China are found all over the empire and in every
province. Pure magnetic iron ore is produced
A General View of China 13
in the greatest abundance. Some of the mines
furnish a grade of coal quite equal to the best
Pennsylvania anthracite. " The mineral wealth
of Yiin-nan alone is something enormous and al-
most inexhaustible, . . . Rubies and sapphires,
garnets and topazes, amethysts and jade, abound
in the western prefectures ; gold, silver, platinum,
nickel, copper, tin, lead, zinc, iron, coal, and salt
also abound. Copper is especially abundant ; its
ores are of excellent quality and have been
worked for ages in over one thousand places." *
Gold has also been found in paying quantities in
the sands and alluvial deposits of Mongolia.
Salt has always been a government monopoly.
It is produced not only by evaporation from sea-
water, but from natural deposits, and in Ssu-
ch'uan from brine brought up from deep wells.
That this vast potential wealth soon to be made
available, has been hitherto useless, is chiefly due
to three causes: profound ignorance of geology
and of chemistry, invincible superstitions about
geomancy, feng-slmi^ and official exactions espe-
cially in mining the precious metals.
China is perhaps the only country in the world Agriculture
which in the past has been entirely capable of
^ Little, The Far East, 126.
2 The belief held by the Chinese in relation to the spirits
or genii that rule over winds and waters, especially running
streams and subterranean waters. This doctrine is universal
and inveterate among the Chinese, and, in great measure,
prompts their hostility to railroads and telegraphs, since they
believe that such structures anger the spirits of the air and
waters, and consequently cause floods and typhoons.
14 The Uplift of China
supplying its own wants. Its inhabitants, origi-
nally pastoral, early became agricultural, and they
devoted themselves to tillage with an assiduity
and a success elsewhere unequaled. Their farm-
ing is frequently characterized rather as garden-
ing. They are a race of irrigators. They under-
stand the rotation of crops, and in a crude way
something of the qualities of soils. Ages ago
they learned to apply fertilizers with a fidelity and
a patience without which they would long since
have been unable to support so great a population.
The country is unusually fertile. The extensive
province of Ssu-ch'uan, for example, has a salu-
brious climate, ranging from the temperate to
the subtropical. Its soil is rich and most pro-
ducts yield three or four crops annually. Wheat,
barley, maize, millet, peas, and beans are culti-
vated in the north, while rice, sugar, indigo, cot-
ton, opium, tea, and silk are produced in the south.
Currency The Only currcucy of China until recently has
been the brass cash with a square hole for string-
ing, the size varying from an American five cent
silver piece up to a diameter of more than an
inch. These last were for the most part issued
one hundred or two hundred years ago. It is not
uncommon to meet with coins in daily use which
were minted in the T'ang dynasty, perhaps a
thousand years ago. A single cash represents the
smallest unit of value, ranging from one-fifteenth
to one-twentieth of an American cent. Silver, in
A General View of China 15
the form of bulHon weighing fifty ounces (taels),
more or less, or in lumps of ten ounces or less,
still forms the medium of the greater part of
Chinese exchange, but there is a system of banks,
by drafts on which money may be transferred
from place to place. The tael is divided deci-
mally, as are all Chinese weights and measures,
with the exception of the catty (equal to one and
one-third pounds), which as a rule contains 16
ounces, though the number varies up to 28 ounces.
The standards of weight are never the same Varying
/ 1 1 - 1 \ 11 Standards
m any two places (unless by accident), and the
same place may have an indefinite number of sil-
ver or other weights, making the losses in buying
and selling alike serious and inevitable. Within
the past few years the various provincial mints
have been pouring forth so-called " ten cash "
pieces (worth in reality only from two and one
half to six of the old cash) at the estimated rate
of between one and two billions every year.
The people would only take them on condition
that they were available for the payment of
taxes. When at a later period this was for-
bidden, a financial crisis ensued, prices rose, and
much distress ensued. The central government
is now taking over all the provincial mints, but
there is still no assurance of a uniform copper or
silver currency for the whole empire.
In view of its immense resources the question Wealth
is natural : Is China a rich countrv ? It contains
l6 The Uplift of China
almost illimitable possibilities, yet the people
taken as a whole are poor. So fierce and so con-
tinuous is the struggle for mere existence that it
is natural that whatever once for all puts an end
to it, should be regarded as divine. In many parts
of China the god of wealth is the most popular
divinity. In the triad which sums up all that man
can ask or hope for, wealth, official emoluments,
and old age, the place of honor is given to the
most important, without which the others would
be barren. With the exception of the purchase
of land, the supply of which is limited, there are
few safe investments. In every business the
risks are great. Interest on loans varies from 24
to 36 per cent, or even more.
Introduction j^ yiew of the Wealth of China and the poverty
of Forestry ^ •'
d Grazing of its inhabitants, the question naturally arises,
what are the causes, and what improvements can
be inaugurated to ameliorate conditions. The
wasteful habits of the people, especially in the
north of China, have resulted in the entire oblit-
eration of the forests, so that the lack of wood not
only for fuel but for economic purposes is
severely felt. Deforestation of large areas has
also reacted on the climate, causing long periods
of drought. True to the instinct of economy
among the people, they have not hesitated to grub
the roots of plants and grass, as a substitute for
firewood, and have in this manner denuded the
soil. The surface of the soil thus deprived of
an
A General View of China 17
Its natural protection is exposed to the dust-
storms which occur several times annually. One
of these dust-storms it has been calculated bears
out to sea several million tons of fine loess soil.
By the irttroduction of scientific agriculture for
soils and for seeds, the improvement of old
plants and the introduction of new ones, the en-
couragement of cattle raising and the afforesta-
tion of barren mountains, the soil would be pro-
tected and the climate moderated so that vast
sections would be reclaimed and China's re-
sources marvelously increased.
As has already been suggested, the floods E^^^-neerlnE
along the Yellow River are frequent and are al- ^eihods
ways fraught with widespread destruction. The
weak attempts of the Chinese to curb the course
of the rivers have availed nothing. This is due to
a lack of engineering skill and the dishonest
peculations of the mandarins supervising the
work. While the Chinese are pioneers in irriga-
tion and have extended their system, yet there
is urgent need for the deepening and broadening
of the countless artificial waterways, the employ-
ing of modern engineering methods to remove
rapids and other obstructions to navigation, and
the construction of reservoirs to control the flood
waters of the great rivers. These and other in-
novations will make a new physical China, put
an end to famines, and enable the country to sup-
i8 The Uplift of China
port much more than its present population with
far less clifificulty than is now felt.
Industrial It is iiot at all improbable that China can
Progress
double both her population and her products. At
any rate, the development of her immense
natural resources has not as yet seriously been
touched and '' commercial and industrial changes
are but beginning. With only three thousand
miles of Chinese railway/ experience since 1900
has shown the most conservative Chinese that
here is an Aladdin's lamp which they have but
to rub to produce a wealth beyond the dreams
of even Oriental avarice. The line from Peking
to Niu-ch'uang is supposed, during the year
1905, to have netted the Chinese government
between $300,000 and $400,000 (silver") per
month. Is it strange that Chinese geomancy
(feng-shui) practically disappears as an inhibi-
tory force, and that the dreaded earth-dragon
crawls down a little deeper to be out of the way of
the rumble of trains and the piercing of mining
shafts? The new industrial China will involve
one of the mightiest transformations in the his-
tory of mankind, — hundreds of millions of sturdy
agriculturists metamorphosed into manufacturers.
The great plain of China produces unlimited
1 This is the railway mikage in operation C1907); while the
total,— in operation, under construction, and projected, including
the railroads built under the Manchurian concession, — approxi-
mates nine thousand miles.
^ The Mexican silver dollar, used extensively in the Orient,
and having a value of about fifty cents.
A General View of China 19
cotton. Its teeming population are all potential
agents by which steam and electricity will revo-
lutionize the emipire of the East. The city of
Hank'ou, on the Yang-tzu River, is probably
destined to become one of the greatest manu-
facturing centers of the world. Shanghai is
rapidly becoming the commercial metropolis of
the empire, much as is New York that of the
United States. To control this unprecedented
development, and to have a share in its poten-
tialities, is the ambition of every trading
country." *
The theater of commercial and political activ- ^l%"l°J
ity in this century is the Pacific Ocean. Situated
in closest proximity to one half of the world's
population, China is destined to play a leading
part in the concert of the nations. With her
two thousand miles of coast-line facing the
Pacific ; with a people equal to if not superior
to the Anglo-Saxons in industry, economy, and
perseverance ; with millions of cheap laborers and
almost unlimited raw material ; with improved
methods of agriculture and the introduction of
modern machinery in mining and manufactur-
ing; with the expansion of navigation and the
extension of roads and railroads ; with the estab-
lishment of a staple monetary system and com-
mercial confidence ; with the peopling and de-
velopment of the vast hinterland of Manchuria,
^ The Outlook, March 24, 1906, page 704.
20 The Uplift of China
Mongolia, Tibet, and Turkestan, is it not reason-
able to suppose that when the strongest race in
the Orient is awakened, the mastery of the
Pacific commercially and politically will be in
the hands of the Chinese?
Opportunity China has long been a commercial field coveted
of Christianity ^
by great powers. The greed of Western nations
has by degrees thrust open her doors, China is
open! But who shall enter, — Occidental civili-
zation with her vices and materialism? — or the
Church with her message of life and salvation?
In this strategic period of transformation, shall
not Christianity outstrip all other competitors in
the uplift of China?
A General View of China 21
SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THE QUESTIONS.
Most of these questions are thought questions. That
is, they require for their answers some original think-
ing. This form of question has been chosen for in-
sertion in the text-book (i) because questions which
constitute a mere memory test of the facts of the text
can easily be constructed by any leader or member who
makes an outline of the principal facts, and (2) be-
cause mere memory questions, although they have
their uses, yield far less than thought questions either
in mental development or in permanent impression.
In some cases complete answers will be found in the
text-book ; usually statements that will serve as a basis
for inference ; but ;. few questions appeal solely to the
general knowledge and common sense of the student.
The greatest sources of inspiration and growth will be,
not what the text-book adds to the student, but what
the student adds to the text-book; the former is only
a means to the latter.
In using these questions, therefore, let the leader
first gather from the chapter or from previous chapters
all that relates to the subject. It will be found profit-
able to jot down this material so that it will be all
under the eye at once; then think, using freely all the
knowledge, mental power, and reference books avail-
able. For the sake of definiteness, conclusions should
be written out. It is not supposed that the average
leader will be able to answer all these questions satis-
factorily; otherwise, there would be little left for the
class session. The main purpose of the session is to
compare imperfect results and arrive at greatei "om-
pleteness by comparison and discussion.
It is not supposed that the entire list of questions
will be used in any one case, especially when the ses-
sions last only an hour. The length of the session, the
22 The Uplift of China
maturity of the class, and the taste of the leader will all
influence the selection that will be mace. In many
cases the greatest value of these questions will be to
suggest others that will be better. Those marked *
require more mature thought and should be made the
basis of discussion.
There has been no attempt to follow the order of
paragraphs in the text-book in more than a general
way.
QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER I
Aim : In View of her Resources and Probable
Future, to Determine the Importance of China's
Evangelization
I. The Natural Resources of China.
I. If you had to live in Asia, in what zone would
you choose to live?
". ,In which of the five zones of tl:^ earth are the
present world powers located ?
3. Has location anything to do with their prom-
inence?
4. How does the latitude of China compare with
that of the United States?
5. Could you choose in Asia a more favorable
latitude than China possesses?
6. What is the advantage, especially in Asia, of
having a position on the seacoast?
7. Of what advantage is it for a country to ex-
tend over several degrees of latitude?
8. Compare the area and population of Ssu-ch'uan
province with that of France.
9. Compare the area and population of Shan-
tung province with that of Illinois.
TO. Compare the area and population of the eigh-
teen provinces with that of the United States.
A General Mew of China 23
11. Construct a chart that shall present the vast-
ness of the population of China ni tiie most
striking way possible.
12. How does the coast-line of China compare
with that of the United States. (Consult
map.)
13. What signs of appreciation of the value of
China's harbors have been shown by European
powers?
14. What other waterways in the world compare
in navigability with the Yang-tzii?
15. How do these compare in the extent of popu-
lation which they serve?
16. For climatic reasons would you care to live
farther north in Asia than the northern bound-
ary of China?
'7. Would you care to live farther south than the
southern boundary?
[8. What quality of soil is usually found in great
river basins?
19. What other soil in China is of special fertility?
20. How do the mineral deposit? of China com-
pare with those of any other country you
know ?
11. Hindrances to Economic Progre'" that jtay bf
Removed.
1. Why does not the mere possession of such a
favorable location and such immense resources
make China at present a rich country ?
2. In what ways will the introduction of rail-
roads affect the wealth of the country?
3. Which population may safely become more
dense, an agricultural or a manufacturing doo-
ulation ?
24 The Uplift of China
4. What will be the effect on China of the intro-
duction of manufactures?
5.* Examine carefully Chapter I to see what
recommendations you should make if you were
appointed forestry commissioner of China.
6.* What do you think could be accomplished by
energetic measures along this line?
7.* What should you recommend if you were
commissioner of irrigation?
8.* What should you hope to accomplish by this?
9.* What effect would the evangelization of China
have upon her economic condition?
III. China's Probable Future.
1. How does China rank among the nations of
the earth in potential resources?
2. Which will probably grow more rapidly in the
next fifty years, the numbers of the population
of the United States, or the general intelligence
of the population of China?
3. Which population will be the more valuable
economically at the end of that time?
4. What effect will the development of China's
natural resources have upon the standard of
living and general intelligence of the people?
5. How will China rank among the nations of
the earth when this material development is
realized?
6. Is this development likely to be long delayed?
7.* What will be China's influence in the world if
she remain unevangelized ?
8. What is the greatest problem of the twentieth
century before the Church?
A General View of China 25
References* for Advanced Study — Chapter I
I. Agriculture.
Ball : Things Chinese, 13-26.
Bard : Chinese Life in Town and Country, XVII.
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 10.
Denby: China and Her People, Vol. i, X.
Douglas : Histary of China, VI.
Gorst : China, VII.
Gray: China, XXIII, XXIV.
II. Mineral Resources.
Ball : Things Chinese, 307-312.
Bard : Chinese Life in Town and Country, 157, 158.
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 10.
Colquhoun : China in Transformation, 58-68.
Gorst : China, II.
Jernigan : China in Law and Commerce, 330, 337,
341, 356, 387, 391, 392.
Parker: China, 153-155.
Keltie: Statesman's Year-Book (1906) 768.
III. Climate.
Ball : Things Chinese, 173-177.
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 9, 10.
Brown : New Forces in Old China, 18, 84.
Nevius : China and the Chinese, 28, 29.
IV. Commerce.
Brown: New Forces in Old China, 40, loi, 109, 117,
121, 126, 136, 305.
Colquhoun : China in Transformation, VI.
, Denby : China and Her People, Vol. 2, II, III, IV.
^ The references at the end of each chapter have been selected
as widely as possible to meet the needs of all classes. Those
recommended in the " Suggestions to Leaders for the Class
Session" are largely chosen from the books in the Special Reference
Library on CViina.
26 The Uplift of China
Parker: China, VIT.
Wildman : China's Open Door, XI.
V. The Future of China.
Brown: New Forces in Old China, VIII, IX, XIII.
Denby: China and Her People, Vol. 2, XVI. XVII.
Millard: The New Far East, XV, XVI, XVII.
Norman : The Peoples and Policies of the Far
East, XVIII, XX.
Weaie : The Reshaping of the Far East, Vol. 2
XXXV.
GREAT RACE WITH A GREAT
INHERITANCE
27
When Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness,
Chinese laws and literature and Chinese religious
knowledge excelled that of Egypt. A hundred years
before the north wind rippled over the harp of David,
Wung Wang, an emperor of China, composed classics
which are committed to memory at this day by every
advanced scholar of the empire. While Homer was
composing and singing the Iliad, China's blind min-
strels were celebrating her ancient heroes, whose tombs
had already been with them through nearly thirteen
centuries. Her literature was fully developed before
England was invaded by the Norman conquerors. The
Chinese invented firearms as early as the reign of Eng-
land's first Edward, and the art of printing five hundred
years before Caxton was born. They made paper A. D.
150, and gunpowder about the commencement of the
Christian era. A thousand years ago the forefathers of
the present Chinese sold silks to the Romans, and
dressed in these fabrics when the inhabitants of the
British Isles wore coats of blue paint and fished in
willow canoes. Her great wall was built two hundred
and twenty years before Christ was born at Bethlehem,
and contains material enough to build a wall five or six
feet high around the globe.
— J. T Gracey.
I
II
A GREAT RACE WITH A GREAT
INHERITANCE
T is a popular Chinese proverb that antiquity Family"*
and modern times are aHke, and that AU-
under-Heaven (China) are one family, — a saying
which may be regarded as an epitome of her his-
tory. " No other nation," says one of the most
recent writers upon China, " with which the world
is acquainted has been so constantly true to itself ;
no other nation has preserved its type so unal-
tered; no other nation has developed a civiliza-
tion so completely independent of any extraneous
influences ; no other nation has elaborated its
own ideals in such absolute segregation from
alien thought ; no other nation has preserved the
long stream of its literature so entirely free from
foreign affluents ; no other nation ha-s ever
reached a moral and national eletation compara-
tively so high above the heads of contemporary
states." '
Chinese historians begin their legendary his- Hlafory**
tory at a period about thirty centuries before the
Christian era, but where it ends and where solid
^ Brinkley, Oriental Series: Japan and China.
29
30 The Uplift of China
footing begins is in the minds of Western schol-
ars quite unsettled, some deciding upon 2300 to
2000 years B. C, others selecting the beginning
of the Chou dynasty, 1122 B. C, and still others a
later date. The important fact is that, thirty-
five, forty, or perhaps even forty-five centuries
ago, the institutions of the Chinese people, their
language, arts, government, and religion, had be-
gun to develop on lines from which no depar-
ture has ever been made,
inflnence of Coufucius was born in the Chou dynasty, B. C.
Confucjus _ . J > ^•
551, and with his face set toward the even then
immeasurable past, lamented the good old times
of Yao and Shun, from fifteen hundred to two
thousand years before him, and the Chinese peo-
ple, following his lead, have continued lamenting
them down to the present time.
A Continuous YoT a studcut of the outline of China's develop-
ment to burden his memory with the names of
monarchs and the dates of dynasties is wholly
unnecessar}'. But it is essential to gain a dis-
tinct impression of the fact that, from mythical,
semi-mythical, semi-historical, and historical
times, the evolution of China and the Chinese
has been continuous and uninterrupted.
"^Em^eror Asidc from her great sages, the name which
perhaps most Occidentals are disposed to place
first in importance is that of Shih Huang-ti, the
self-styled First Emperor, who not only built
the Great Wall, abolished feudalism, and unified
A Great Race and Inheritance 31 !
the empire, but out of vanity ordered the com-
plete destruction of most of the hterature of !
China, the more important parts of which were
afterward recovered. Dr. Williams terms him j
" the Napoleon of China — one of those extra- !
ordinary men who turn the course of events and
give an impress to subsequent ages," but Chinese
historians detest his name and his acts. '..
The Han dynasty (B. C. 202-A. D. 221) is Han Dynasty I
of special interest because the northern Chinese
still style themselves " Sons of Han," because
in it the competitive system of examinations had j
its rise, and because its emperors " developed
literature, commerce, arts, and good government
to a degree unknown before anywhere in Asia."
The T'ang dvnastv (618-007) marks another J^^ T'ang
'^ • • ^ ^ / / Dynasty
of the high-water periods of Chinese history, I
when China " was probably the most civilized '
country on earth," an era of schools and liter-
ary examinations, of the cultivation of poetry,
of the incorporation of the inhabitants of the
southern coast (w^ho still call themselves ' Sons
of T'ang') into the m^ain body of the people, ,
and of the extension of the empire to the banks I
of the Caspian Sea. |
In the Sung dynasty (960-1127) lived the Sung Dynasty
famous historian Ssu-ma Kuang, a great socialist |
minister of state named Wang An-shih (who \
anticipated many modern communistic theories ]
and mcidentally nearly ruined the empire), and
32 The Uplift of China
Chu Hsi, the acute and profound commentator
on the classics, whose interpretations have con-
tinued the standard of orthodoxy down to the
present time.
Yiian and Jn the Yiian, the first foreisfn (Monsrol)
Mtng o \ o /
Dynasties dynasty (1280-1368), under the great Kublai
Khan, Marco Polo made his memorable visit to
Cathay. The Mongol dynasty was short-lived,
and was replaced by the Chinese Ming dynasty
(1368-1644), during which time European ships
first visited Chinese waters, the empire being at
last face to face with the West.
Manchu From 1644 to the present time China has been
Dynasty ■ ■ ^
ruled by a race of Manchus, invited in to assist
one of the parties in internal disputes and judi-
ciously deciding to remain and keep the empire
for themselves. They have styled theirs the
Great Pure, or Ta Ch'ing dynasty.
An Unvarying jj-jg apparent monotouy of Chinese history is
mainly due to the fact that similar causes have
always produced, with minor variations, similar
results. The founders of dynasties were neces-
sarily men of action and of force, who concen-
trated their power, returned to the old ways,
abolished abuses, gradually tranquilizing and uni-
fying the empire. After a certain (or rather
an uncertain) period the original impulse, under
degenerate descendants, was exhausted, abuses
again multiplied, rebellions increased, and the
decree of Heaven was held to have been lost.
A Great Race and Inheritance 2i3
A'luch paralyzing disorder ensuing, a new
dynasty gradually got itself established, to repeat
after a few score or a few hundred years the
same process.
" The government of China is that of an abso- Government
lute, despotic monarchy. The emperor rules by
virtue of a divine right derived direct from
Heaven, and he is styled ' The Son of Heaven.'
This divine right he retains as long as he rules
in conformity with the decrees of Heaven. When
the dynasty falls into decay by the vices of its
rulers, Heaven raises up another who, by force
of arms, the virtue of bravery, and fitness for
the post, wrests the scepter from the enfeebled
grasp of him who is unfit to retain it any longer.
This idea has exerted a beneficial effect on the
sovereigns of China, who feel that on the one
hand they are dependent upon high Heaven for
the retention of their throne, and who humbly
and publicly confess their shortcomings in times
of floods and drought. On the other hand,
though there is no House of Commons to exer-
cise a check on the unrestrained power of the
sovereign, there is the general public opinion of
the people, who, being educated in the principles
that underlie all true government, are ready to
apply them to their rulers when they forget, or
act grossly in opposition to, them. To see the
system of patriarchal government carried out in
its entirety, one must come to China. The em-
34 The Uplift of China
peror stands in loco parentis to the common peo-
ple, and his officers occupy a similar position.
The principles which have formed the frame-
work of government for millenniums among these
ancient, stable, and peace-loving people, may be
found in a study of the rule of the ancient kings,
Yao and Shun, and their successors, and in the
precepts inculcated by Confucius and Mencius." *
The Teaching Prominent among the inheritances from
of the Sages _ °
China's past must be placed the teaching of her
sages. This should be considered as one of the
largest gifts ever bestowed by the Father of
Lights upon any race of the children of men.
The defects and the errors of this teaching are
not to be blinked, but th.ese do not alter the fact
that a Power that makes for righteousness is
recognized, that a lofty ideal of virtue is per-
petually held up, and that wrong-doing is threat-
ened with punishment.
A Conception j^ Conception of moral order and a theorv of
01 Moral ^
O''^^'" human government singularly adapted to the
people is one of the priceless assets of the Chinese
which they have received from antiquity. The
principles which underlie the Chinese system mjay
be said to be in China undisputed, and indeed
indisputable. Even the forms of political ad-
ministration have their roots in the earliest of
the Chinese classics. The numerous wars and
rebellions of Chinese history are to be regarded,
JEall: Tilings Chinese, 319.
A Great Race and Inheritance 35 j
i
not as a protest against the ideals, but against ;
the faihire to carry them into execution. It was j
not the system which was thought to be at fault, ,
but the men who had perverted it. >
The only aristocracy in China has been the f^g"^^^^'^"^' j
student class, and yet under their democratic 1
system of education examinations have been open 1
to men of every rank. Official position being ■
the reward of success, the system has stimulated |
general participation and has undoubtedly ele-
vated the standard of education. It has also
attracted a superior class to public office, because ■
only men of ability could qualify. As the classics ,|
studied have moral worth, they have improved I
the character of the people. x\lthough not more
than one in fifty has obtained official position,
the unsuccessful have been influential in mold- ,
ing and controlling public opinion and have done |
much to maintain a stable, united, and peaceful j
China.
One of the greatest virtues among the Chinese ^'"^^ P'**y
is filial piety, while disobedience is one of the
greatest crimes. From early childhood they are |
taught to obey their parents. While the duties
of children to parents are exacting, they have I
nurtured a respect for parentage that children 1
of the West would do well to emulate. The j
system also insists upon the proper care of the |
body, as it is received in perfect form from the j
parents. It has imposed upon the nation a sense 1
36 The Uplift of China
of obedience and subordination that has pre-
vented revolt and anarchy. That filial piety has
been in China a mighty unifying force, and that
the days of the Chinese people have indeed been
long in the land that the Lord has given them,
are indisputable facts.
Absence of There is no caste in China and very little caste
feeling. It is said that one of the T'ang dynasty
emperors tried to introduce caste into China and
failed. Any one, with few minor exceptions,
may aspire to rise and many constantly do so,
after starting from the humblest beginnings. A
native writer thus describes the gradations in
society :
Gradations " pirst the scholar: because mind is superior
to wealth, and it is the intellect that distinguishes
man above the lower orders of beings, and en-
ables him to provide food and raiment and shelter
for himself and for other creatures. Second, the
farmer: because the mind cannot act without the
body, and the body cannot exist without food ;
so that farming is essential to the existence of
man, especially in civilized society. Third, the
mechanic: because, next to food, shelter is a
necessity, and the man who builds a house comes
next in honor to the man who provides food.
Fourth, the tradesman : because, as society in-
creases and its wants are multiplied, men to carry
on exchange and barter become a necessity, and
so the merchant comes into existence. His oc-
in Society
A Great Race and Inheritance 37
J
cupation — shaving both sides, the producer and I
consumer — tempts him to act dishonestly ; hence i
his low grade. Fifth, the soldier stands last |
and lowest in the list, because his business is to \
destroy and not to build up society. He con- 1
sumes what others produce, but produces nothing :
himself that can benefit mankind. He is, per- j
haps, a necessary evil." ^ i
A complex group of race traits form an im- Race Traits ;
portant part of the inheritance of the Chinese j
people, a few of which are here selected, not of i
course as a complete enumeration, but merely as ]
illustrations. j
The Chinese are a hearty people, fitted for any yl'j^*?^*' \
climate from the subarctic to the torrid zones. I
The average Chinese birth-rate is unknown, but j
it may be doubted whether it is elsewhere ex- !
ceeded. Infant mortality is enormously high, !
floods, famine, and pestilence annually destroy '
great numbers of adults, yet in a few years the !
waste appears to be repaired. Aged people, who I
everywhere abound, may often be seen engaged i
in heavy manual labor, occasionally working as ]
masons and carpenters, and frequently in the j
fields, when past eighty years. Every dispensary j
and hospital in China contains records of a wide
range of diseases and surgical cases often long |
neglected and chronic. Yet under skilful treat- i
ment even these frequently make the most sur- i
> Quoted by Beach, Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 45, 46. j
38 The Uplift of China
prising- recoveries. Almost all Chinese exhibit
wonderful endurance of physical pain, constantly
submitting to surgical operations without anes-
thetics and without wincing. As a people the
Chinese have constitutions of singular flexibility
and toughness, and upon occasion can bear hun-
ger, thirst, cold, heat, and exposure, perhaps
(with the exception of the Japanese), to a greater
degree than any other race. From a physical
point of view, there is no group of mankind now
in existence, if indeed there ever has been any,
better qualified to illustrate the survival of the
fittest, than the Chinese.
Adaptiveness While the Chinese are not an inventive race,
they possess a phenomenal capacity for adapta-
tion to their environment. Having only the rudi-
ments of natural science, they ages ago empiri-
caily made discoveries of the latent capacities of
earth, air, and sea. Gunpowder,' the mariners'
compass, and the art of printing from blocks
were familiar to the Chinese ages before they
were known in the West. Thorough fertiliza-
tion of the land, the practise of terracing hills
and cultivation of the slopes, systematic and gen-
eral irrigation, rotation of crops, the use of
leguminous plants as food and their cultivation
for resting the soil, the care of the silkworm and
the weaving of silk, the carving of wood and of
1 The compounding of gunpowder first by the Chinese is dis-
^"11161 by some n-riters.
A Great Race and Inheritance 39
ivory, the manufacture of lacquer, as well as a
host of other industries, are all instances of this
talent, and the list might be indefinitely extended.
No people are more fertile in resource, more skil-
ful in the application of mind to problems of
matter, but when steam and electricity become
universally available throughout the empire, the
present high efficiency of the Chinese will be
multiplied many fold.
This wonderful gift is exhibited on a vast scale t'J'= talent
in the perpetuation of the Chinese race from pre- continuance
historic times till now, without check from with-
out, without essential decay from within. In
classical times, as is shown by many warnings in
ancient books, there was the greatest danger that
strong drink would be their ruin, but by degrees
that peril was surmounted. Within the past two
centuries opium, by far the most deadly evil in
their long history, has even more seriously
threatened to transform the Chinese, as one of
their leading statesmen expressed it, " into satyrs
and devils." ' In the year 1729 a drastic imperial
edict was issued against the use of this poisonous
drug, but the growing foreign commercial in-
terest in its importation rendered the decree a
dead letter. The determined effort of Commis-
sioner Lin in 1839 to drive opium out of China,
brought on war. In 1906, after a lapse of 177
years, the imperial prohibition is renewed, and an
1 Chang Chih Tung: China's Only Hope, 73.
40 The Uplift of China
apparently resolute efifort is set on foot to put a
stop to the smoking of opium and probably also to
the cultivation of the poppy plant, — although the
latter is still in the future tense. The Chinese, as
we have seen, have twice ' been overrun by other
races, and in each instance by sheer superiority
have eliminated or absorbed their conquerors,
and the ancient regime has gone on essentially
undisturbed. Were this test to be indefinitely
repeated, the result would almost certainly be
the same. By overwhelming physical power the
Chinese might indeed be * conquered,' but with-
out their help China could never be administered.
For the compulsory assimilation of the Chinese
people to other standards than their own, even
geologic epochs would not suffice.
of^NlrvH I" t^iis age of steam and electricity. Western
civilization has developed a conspicuous nervous
system. The twirling pencil, the twitching fin-
gers, and anxious face, are daily reminders of
taut nerves. The Occidental composure is easily
shattered by delay and disappointment, while to
the Chinese it matters not how long he is required
to remain in one position ; and he will stick
steadily to his work from morning till night,
plodding faithfully at the most monotonous task.
Even the children display a capacity for keeping
quiet that would drive a Western child insane.
1 By Genghis Khan in the thirteenth century and by the
Manchus in the seventeenth.
A Great Race and Inheritance 41
The Chinese cannot understand why an Occi-
dental should participate in athletics without pay.
Taking exercise is an unknown art among them.
They are not subject to worries and anxieties.
They have the ability to accept lawsuits, famine,
and disaster calmly. Whatever the future im-
pact of the Chinese with the Occidental, it is not
unreasonable to assume that in the twentieth cen-
tury in the race for world supremacy the most
enduring will be the tireless and phlegmatic
Chinese.
If the Chinese have any talent at all, they have industry and
•^ -' Economy
and have always had a talent for work. If the
physical empire which they have inherited be it-
self regarded as a talent, by laborious, patient,
and intelligent development of their inheritance,
they may be said to have gained ten other
talents. They rise early and toil late. Farmers
in particular toil ceaselessly. Artificers of all
kinds ply their trades, not merely from dawn
till dark, but often far into the night. In
the early hours, long before daybreak, may be
heard the dull thud of the tin-foil beaters of Can-
ton or that of the rice hullers of Fu-chien. The
stone-cutters of Chiang-hsi crawl up the steep
mountain sides before sunrise, have their food
sent up in buckets, themselves returning after
sunset, while all day long through fog and even
in the drizzling rain may be heard the steady click
of their chisels. Merchants great and small ex-
42 The Uplift of China
h'.bit the same talent for toil, and yet more those
peripatetic dealers, who with a carrying-pole on
their shoulder, or a pack on their backs, transport
bulky commodities to great distances, and for the
most trifling profits. With the exception of the
period just following the Xew Year, the holidays
are infrequent.
The Talent 'p]-,g cheerful industry of the Chinese has al-
ter content
ways attracted the admiring attention of the dis-
cerning observer. The Chinese themselves under-
stand far better than any outside critics can do
the imperfections of the system under which they
live, but they are profoundly aware that many of
them are inevitable, and they are convinced that
it is better to bear the ills they have than to fly to
others that they know too well. Yet in despair
and especially for revenge they will on very slight
provocation commit suicide. Chinese content-
edness is not at all inconsistent with an idealism
which finds expression in the secret sect? and
societies. Their capacity for work, for adapta-
tion, and for content, make the Chinese in every
land where they have settled, excellent immi-
grants. Without their assistance, it is difficult to
see what is to be done to develop the tropics.
With their assistance, in due time the whole
earth may be subdued.
Talent for np]-[g entire civilization of China is an illustra-
wrganizaticn
tion of this native gift. Perhaps no form of
human government was ever more adroitly con-
A Great Race and Inheritance 43
trived to combine stability with ftexibiUty, ap-
parent absohitism and essential democracy. That
the genir.s of the Chinese is fuhy equal to reshap-
insf their institutions to accommodate modern
needs, as a schooner may be fitted with auxiliary
steam attachments, may be taken as certain, if
only there were an adequate supply of the right
kind of men. Scholars readily combine in solid
phalanx against officials who invade their rights,
while merchants by suspending all traffic, can
force the hand of oppressive mandarins in resist-
ing illegal exactions. The mercantile and trade
guilds of China resemble those of Europe in the
Middle Ages, but with a cohesion reminding one
of a chemical union, against the action of which
it is impossible to protest. Boats, carts, sedan-
chairs, and other modes of transportation are
all managed by guilds which must always be
reckoned with. All China is honeycombed with
secret societies, political, semipolitical, and re-
ligious, all forbidden by the government, and fre-
quently attacked with fury by the officials and
dispersed. But while readily yielding to force,
like mists on the mountain top, the constituent
parts separate only to drift together elsewhere,
perhaps under variant names and forms. Indi-
vidual and class selfishness, together with that
ingrained suspicion with which the Chinese, in
common with other Orientals, resrard one
44 The Uplift of China
another, serve as a check upon what would other-
wise be an inordinate development of this talent.
Intellectual But perhaps it is in intellectual tasks that the
Endurance
industry of the Chinese is most impressive. To
commit to memory the works called classical is
an alpine labor, but this is merely a beginning.
On the old plan of examination essays, every
scholar's mind (literally 'abdomen') must be a
warehouse of models of literature from which,
according to arbitrary rules in competition with
hundreds and perhaps thousands of others, he
might make selections in the weaving of his own
thesis or poem. Indefinite repetition of such
examinations under conditions involving physical
and intellectual exhaustion, with an utmost
chance of success of scarcely two in a hundred,
might qualify the successful contestant to be-
come a candidate for some government appoint-
ment — when there should be a vacancy. Per-
haps, after all, no men in China are so hard-
worked as the ofificials, who not infrequently
break down under the strain. In all these and in
many other ways the Chinese display a wonderful
talent for work.
Respect for With a theory of the universe which explains
Intellectual ■' ^
and Moral the relation between heaven, earth, and man as
Forces '
one of moral order, the Chinese have a profound
respect for law, for reason, and for those prin-
ciples of decorum and ceremony which are the
outward expression of an inner fact. Once con-
NANKING
A Great Race and Inheritance 45
vinced that anything is according to reason, they
accept it as a part of the necessary system of
things. MiHtary force has always been recog-
nized as necessary, but as a necessary evil. Mili-
tary officers have always been far outranked by
civil officers, and it is only now, that the Western
civilization of force is becoming influential, that
these two branches of the State's service are to
be put on an equality. Even the mere symbols
of thought are regarded with the greatest respect.
The gathering up and burning of written or
printed paper (for which special furnaces are
provided) is an act of merit. To study, to learn,
is considered as at once the highest duty and the
greatest privilege. The Chinese have always de-
pended upon education as the true bulwark of
society, and of the State. Perhaps into no people
known to history have the principles of social
and moral order been more uniformly and more
thoroughly instilled. Government, law, and all
their emblems are regarded with what appears
to a Westerner an almost superstitious vener-
ation, but as a result, when ruled upon lines to
which they are accustomed, the Chinese are
probably the most easily governed people in the
world.
For their own immeasurable past the Chinese
entertain the loftiest admiration. The universal
memorizing of the most ancient classics, the all-
pervading theatricals for which they have a pas-
Reverence foi
the Past
46 The Uplift of China
sion, and the tea-shop, the peripatetic story-teller,
the popular historical novel, all unite to render
the period of say two millenniums ago, quite as
real as the present, and of far more dignity, not
to say of more importance. Yao and Shun, who
stand at the outermost horizon of Chinese his-
tory, figure to-day in conversation, in examina-
tion essays, in editorials of the press, in antitheti-
cal couplets pasted on the doorways of palace or
of hovel, as objective and influential realities.
In a sense every Chinese may be regarded as a
condensed epitome of the reigns of say 246 em-
perors in 26 dynasties.
Conservatism He is not easily swerved from his uniform
course, because from the beginning this has been
the way of All-under-Heaven. Without this
strong bond of conservatism China would like
other empires have long since fallen in pieces.
With it, the face of all the people beu.g turned
to the past, she has been practically immovable.
But now, under new conditions, impelled by fresh
impulses, we behold the wonderful spectacle of
the most ancient and the most populous of em-
pires, with one hand clinging to that mighty past,
while with the other groping for a perhaps still
more mighty future. With this galaxy of race
traits, not to speak of many others, the Chinese
may be said to be outfitted for the future as no
other now is, or perhaps ever has been.
A Great Race and Inheritance 47
Here then is the most numerous, most homo- a Race to be
Reckoned
geneous, most peaceful, and most enduring race with
of all time. Its record antecedes the pyramids of
Egypt. The reign of the Emperor Yii antedates
the period of Moses eight centuries, and Con-
fucius preceded Christ more than five hundred
years. The history of Greece and Rome is mod-
ern compared with China. Of the peoples of
ancient history, the Jews and Chinese alone sur-
vive, but the Jews have lost their country, lan-
guage, and nationality, while to the Chinese these
remain. Subjugated by Genghis Khan in the
thirteenth century and by the Manchus in the
seventeenth, they have maintained their language,
government, religion, and customs, and absorbed
their conquerors. To the world's progress they
have contributed their share. Books were pro-
duced in large numbers in China one thousand
years before Gutenberg was born. The mariners'
compass, forerunner of steam and electricity, was
used by the Chinese several centuries before it
was used in the West. Gunpowder, which has
revolutionized all military science, was first com-
pounded by the Chinese, and they were pioneers
in the manufacture of porcelain and silk. The
Great Wall and the Grand Canal are striking
evidences of the engineering skill and enterprise
of the people. All these with ita language, liter-
ature, philosophy, and powerful race traits, mark
the Chinese as one of the most gi-fted divi-sions
48 The Uplift of China
of the human family. When it is remembered
that all of these achievements were consummated,
isolated by ocean, mountains, deserts, and their
own exclusiveness, the conclusion cannot be
avoided that this is a great race with a great m-
heritance worthy of the consecrated energies of
tne most capable manhood and womanhood of
the Church. To capture this race for Christ
means the early conquest of the whole wond
QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IT
AIM . To Realize the Importance of Winning thf
Chinese Race for Christ
I. Qualities of the Race Indicated by its Wonderful
Past.
I.* What physical causes have helped to preserve
China in such isolation?
2. Compare the Chinese Empire in age with the
Roman Empire, the Papacy, the English Mon-
archy, and the United States Government.
3. Compare the principles of governmental re-
straint in China with those of the other great
empires before Christ.
4. What trace is left of those other empires at
present?
5. In the days of Paul, which was the more
promising race, the Chinese or our Anglo-
Saxon ancestors?
6.* Compare the amount that each race has re-
ceived, from without, since that time.
A Great Race and Inheritance 49
7. How should you feel toward principles of gov-
ernment that had preserved your country while
others decayed?
8.* What are some of the advantages and what
some of the disadvantages of having a golden
age so far in the past?
9. In what respects did the attitude of Confucius
and Mencius differ from that of the Hebrew
prophets ?
TO.* Name all of the reasons you can why the
Chinese system of government has endured so
long.
11. How has filial piety affected the stability of
the government of China?
12. In what ways has the educational system been a
bulwark to the government?
13.* What can you infer from a comparison of the
Chinese ranking of occupations with that of the
order of castes in India?
14. On the basis of their past history, how would
you rank the Chinese among the races?
II. The Present Equipment of the Race and Its Prob-
able Future.
15. What physical hindrances has the race had to
contend with?
p6. What will be the effect on the Chinese of im-
proved sanitation and food supply ?
17. Why are the Chinese desired as laborers, but
unpopular as immigrants?
18. What sort of troops do you think the Chinese
would make?
19.* What are the advantages and what the dis-
advantages of the absence of nerves?
:o. How will the Chinese be fitted to enter into
50 The Uplift of China
uidustrial competition when they possess ma-
chinery ?
21. Why do we speak of a yellow peril, but not of
a brown peril or a black peril?
22* What do you understand by the yellow peril ?
2S* Compare the strong and weak points of the
Chinese with those of the Anglo-Saxon.
24.* How will the races rank when they have freely
borrowed from each other?
25.* What traits that they lack do you think the
Chinese might acquire?
26.* What principles should you keep in mind in
introducing changes into China?
27. In view of the natural resources of the country
and traits of the race, what is the probable
future of China?
28. How do you rank China among the mission
fields of the earth?
References for Advanced Study. — Chapter H
I. History.
Ball : Tilings Chinese, 326-345.
Gorst : China, IV.
Kidd : China, Section II.
Parker: China, II.
Williams : A History of China, I.
II. Physical Poivers of People.
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 35.
Henry : The Cross and the Dragon, 37-40.
Smith : Chinese Characteristics, III, XI, XVI.
Williams: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. i, 41.
A Great Race and Inheritance 5 1
III. Menial Pozvcrs of People.
Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 36-39.
Nevius : China and the Chinese, 279-282.
Smith : Village Life in China, 102, 103.
IV. Literature.
Ball: Things Chinese, 399-410.
Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 15-23.
Douglas: History of China, XIX.
Williams : The Middle Kingdom, Vol. i, XI, XII,
V. Government.
Ball : Things Chinese, 318-322.
Bard : Chinese Life in Town and Country, XII.
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 30, 31.
Colquhoun : China in Transformation, XI.
Giles: China and the Chinese, IH.
Holcombe : The Real Chinaman, 11, X.
Nevius : China and the Chinese, V.
THE DEFECTS OF THE SOCIAL
SYSTEM
But in speaking of the home, it must not be forgotten
that it includes something more than the devotion of
child to parent. There is a duty of parent to child, and in
addition to this, there is an obligation existing between
brothers and sisters. The Chinese home is built upon
a philosophj' which to us seems one-sided, much being
said about the child's duty to the parent, and the younger
brothers' duty to the eldest, but less about the mutuality
of domestic relations. Do not the parents owe some-
thing to the child ? The child enters life without his
own volition ; when he becomes conscious of existence,
he finds himself environed by others, and certain rela-
tions fastened upon him. He is taught to address one
person as father, another person as mother, a third as
brother, and a fourth as sister. As he does not select
the parent whom he is to revere, neither does he de-
termine whether he shall be the elder brother or the
younger, or even how many brothers and sisters are to
surround him. Can it be that thus brought into the
world, he is under greater obligation to his parents than
his parents are to him?
— JFiPiam Jennings Bryan.
Woman is made to serve in China, and the bondage
is often a long and bitter one : a life of servitude to her
parents ; a life of submission to her parents-in-law at
marriage ; and the looking forward to a life of bondage
to her husband in the next world ; for she belongs to the
same husband there, and is not allowed, by the senti-
ment of the people, to be properly married to another
after his death.
— /. Dyer Ball.
M
Ill
THE DEFECTS OF THE SOCIAL
SYSTEM
T N the preceding' chapter has been presented
the bright side of Chinese character. Mani-
festly it is a race with tremendous possibilities.
Lacking some of the leading traits of the Anglo-
Saxon, it has others which go far to compensate
it, and which iwider conditions by no means im-
probable may even turn the scale in its favor.
But there is also a dark side to the picture. S^'"«^^„ ,
'^ Society Needs
Along- with features that compel our admiration, Christ
Chinese society as a whole stands in sore need
of Christianity. It would be alike unnecessary
and undesirable to attempt to conform society
in China to that of the Occident. Much as it
owes to the spirit of Christ, Western civilization
is not yet ready to pose as a model for non-
Christian nations to copy in detail. But it con-
fidently offers to every nation and kindred and
tribe and tongue, the salt that has preserved all
that is best in it from putrefaction.
Whv does the Chinese social system especiallv Type of
" . -^ '^ ■ Early Social
need the mfluence of our religion? To answer structure
this question, we must study the structure of the
55
56 The Uplift of China
family in China and trace its consequences. In
the history of social development in the West,
we must go back for hundreds of years before
we find ourselves in the patriarchal stage. Early
Greek and Roman society was organized on this
basis, and we confront many of its features in
the Old Testament. The scheme is a natural de-
vice for lending stability to the social order. The
family becomes a close corporation, with author-
ity concentrated in the father, its head. With
its welfare that of the individual is not per-
mitted to conflict.
Marriage Has In the Wcst, whcn a son marries, he usualh
Not Created a 1 1 1 c r -i
New Family separates and becomes the head of a new family,
which revolves henceforth in an orbit of its own.
For the development of his own individuality
and that of his wife, this is undoubtedly the
wisest course. But in the East, the develop-
ment of the individual is not taken into consid-
eration ; the maintenance of the family as a unit
is alone of importance. Therefore, the son re-
mains under the paternal roof and continues
under his father's authority, while his bride be-
comes a minor subordinate, whose relations with
her former home have been severed, and whose
duty it now is to serve the parents of her husband.
Even her selection, which we regard as a sacred
and inalienable right of the individual, subject
to the woman's free decision, is in China purely
a concern of the family. The parents arrange
Defects of Social System 57
for the marriage through the medium of a pro-
fessional match-maker, sometimes when the
young people concerned are mere infants, and a
man usually sees the face of his wife for the first
time after the wedding ceremony has been per-
formed/
The typical Chinese household, then, consists The Typical
. . -^ . . ' Household
of the parents, their sons, who probably have been
married while still in their teens, the daughters-
in-law, who have come without courtship or pre-
tense of afifection into their new home to be the
servants of their mother-in-law, and their chil-
dren. The daughters of the family, on arriving
at marriageable age, have become members of
other households and are seen only on occasional
visits in a circle where they no longer have any
rights. Property is held in common, though it is
sometimes divided before the death of the father.
The rights of the parents over their children are
absolute. The father, and after his death, the
mother, may chastise, sell, or even kill a son^ or
daughter. As for the wife, from the moment she
enters the house of her husband, " she ceases to
1 Archdeacon Gray tells of a wedding which he attended,
where the bride turned out to be a leper. She was at once
divorced, but the bridegroom was unable to recover more than
part of the sum he had paid to her parents. Gray, China, Vol.
I, 188.
* In the North China Herald for June ii, 1903, is reported a
case in which a worthless son who refused to reform was
strangled by his own mother, with the approval of the clan.
Dr. Nevius mentions an opium smoker who sold his wife to
procure opium, and his son to defray the expenses of being
cured. Nevius, China and the Chinese, 253.
58 The Uplift of China
have a wish that he is legally bound to respect." *
"^^^ Bo''^" Even after the branches of the family separate
into different households, the worship of their
ancestors preserves a bond between them, and
beyond this lies the constraint of the clan, the
members of which live together in villages and
have an ancestral temple in common.
^Check"! What will be the practical effect of this state
Progress gf affairs on social life and the development of
individual character? It is evident, in the first
place, that innovation will have a hard time of it
in such an order. Large bodies proverbially
move slowly. They must do so in order to hang
together. To move an entire Chinese family at
a brisk trot would imply an immense amount of
initiative and decision in the character of its
head. But the aforesaid heads are not apt to
possess initiative in abounding quantities, even
if the idea of progress in some explicable way
should happen to enter their mi;ids. They are
old, and the impulses characteristic of youth are
dried up within them. While in theory a
Chinese becomes of age at sixteen, as a practical
matter he is often not his own master until late
in life. His father, his uncles, his elder brothers,
all coerce him and control his actions, so that only
natures of the strongest sort can hope to retain
their independence of spirit. The average man
becomes the head of his family with the powers
1 Jernigan, China in Law and Commerce, 120.
Defects of Social System 59
of personal judgment and initiative largely
atrophied by disuse, and is little fitted to lead
along new paths.
The mutual responsibility of the family also influence of
Mutual
tends to check innovation as well as wrong-doing. Responsibility
The father is responsible for the son as long as
they both live, and the son is held accountable
for his father's debts. In case of crime, other
members of the family who have not had the
slightest share in its commission may be pun-
ished. The clan, the neighbors, and those who
have had the most distant relations with the cul-
prit may also be involved. Archdeacon Gray
cites a case in which a man flogged his mother,
aided by his wife. In consequence, the pair were
flayed alive ; the granduncle, uncle, two elder
brothers, and head of the clan to which the men
belonged were executed ; the neighbors who lived
on each side, the father of the woman and the
head representative of the literary degree wliich
the man held, were flogged and banished ; the
prefect and district ruler were for a time deprived
of their rank ; and the child of the offenders was
given another name.' Such mutual responsi-
bility, if it be unavoidable, makes people watchful
of each other, and especially makes the elders
look with suspicious eye upon any aberration
from the accustomed order on the part of their
subordinates.
^ Gray, China, Vol. I, 237, 238.
6o The Uplift of China
Restraint of Eveti if the entire family should be united in
ClanTradition , ■' ,
its desire to adopt new ideas, it would be held in
place by the traditions of the clan. The power
of the clan elders, which extends in certain cir-
cumstances even to capital punishment, may
surely be counted upon as on the side of well-
seasoned precedent. The clan traditions, like
those of the family, are not considered matters
of mere convenience, but as possessing the sanc-
tity of religion. In early society, custom and
morals are identical, and from this attitude of
mind China has not yet emerged. The worship
of the family and clan ancestors has formed an
effective barrier to change. Reverence for par-
ents combines with fear of offending the spirits,
in keeping the feet of the living in the paths
which their fathers have trod. If a man should
depart from the way approved by the past gener-
ation, he might bring a curse upon the whole
community.
Filial Piety Filial pictv iu China has been developed and
a Barrier , , . '
exalted as in no other nation under heaven, it
includes not only the honor of parents while liv-
ing, the imitation of their excellences after they
are gone, but the holding up in general of the
standards of propriety which they followed.
Thus the constraints of one generation have been
handed down unchanged to those following. It
is recorded of the Emperor Ch'ien Lung that
" after ruling sixty years, he resigned for the
Force
Defects of Social System 6i
very Chinese reason that it would not be filial to
outdo his grandfather,'" who had reigned for
sixty-one years.
The officials in China have been for centuries Education a
Strongly
chosen only from the ranks of those who sue- Conservative
ceed in passing the public civil service examina-
tions. They and the host of others who con-
tinue their trials year after year are the only edu-
cated men in the empire and are the leaders of
public opinion. But they have derived their
ideas, not from the latest theories of political and
social science, but from the classics which hold
up as the ideal to be followed the golden age
of Yao and Shun, usually dated in the third mil-
lennium B. C. Up to within a decade, Chinese
education has gloried in the fact that the teach-
ing which it furnished was absolutely free from
all adulterations of modern spirit. It would be
difficult for us to overestimate the influence, as a
conservative force, of having the only men in the
community who know anything, to know nothing
else than the opinions of philosophers who lived
more than a thousand years ago. If we should
ordain as the sole condition and requirement for
office holding the passing of severe examinations
on the works of the medieval theologians, and
could exclude from the education of the candi-
dates all more recent influences, we yet should
^ Smith. Rex Christus, 26.
62 The Uplift of China
probably have an administration more liberal in
temper than that which China has enjoyed.
Its Influence 'p]-,g character of the examinations has also an
OD Illiteracy
important bearing on the amount of practical
illiteracy in the empire. Schools are numerous
and are attended for a time at least by a large
proportion of the male population. Their pur-
pose, however, is not to fit men for the ordinary
positions of life, but only to prepare the candi-
dates for examination in the classics, and in con-
sequence, those who never complete the prepara-
tion, — a very large majority of the whole, — re-
ceive comparatively little benefit. In estimating
the percentage of illiteracy, it must be borne in
mind that many of those who are classed as
readers are about as fluent as most of our college
graduates of twenty years standing are in Greek
and Latin. They are not altogether illiterate,
but on the other hand, they cannot read with ac-
curacy and fluency. The number of those whom
we should consider readers probably does not
exceed ten per cent., and has been estimated by
competent judges even lower.
Patriotism The patriarchal system has its drawbacks in
Developed government as well as in social life. The close
union of the family and clan not only checks in-
dividual development on the one hand, but
hinders a broad patriotism on the other. Each
group thinks only of its own interests. Cliquish-
ness always destroys public spirit. It is signifi-
Defects of Social Svstem 63
o
cant that the recent signs of a national patriot-
ism in China come mainly from students who
have separated from their families to study in
the provincial colleges and in Japan.
What the father is to the family, and the elder ^^^^^^^^^y
or headman to the clan or village, that is the local of officials
magistrate to his district, the governor to his
province, and the emperor to the whole empire.
Each official has authority over those below him,
and is responsible to those above him for the gen-
eral good behavior of his constituency. While
in theory the government, like the oversight of
the father, is for the welfare of the people, in
actual practise the power granted to those in
office is usually utilized for selfish ends. A great
variety of civil and criminal functions are con-
centrated in the hands of one man, which gives
him great opportunity for abuse. There is a
system of checks and balances whereby oppres-
sion is kept within limits, but overtaxing, ac-
ceptance of bribes, minor extortion, and irregular-
ities are the rule and not the exception. Professor
Parker says : " I have myself seen enough with
my own eyes, and had innumerable free-and-easy
conversations with both m^agistrates and runners,
to enable me to state with absolute certainty that
a downright bad magistrate, succeeding to a post
dominated by a nest of evil-minded runners with
a long-established tyrannical habit ingrained in
their hearts, and practising among a stupid,
64 The Uplift of China
timid, or mahgnant population, can with impunity
assassinate any one he Hkes in his own jail, accept
any bribe, commit or condone any injustice, make
his fortune, and even preserve his reputation in
spite of all this. On the other hand, I have seen
completely honest, simple-minded, benevolent
magistrates, perfectly clean-handed (subject to
custom), anxious to do right, loyal to their su-
periors, beloved of the people, and quite capable
of restraining the police."
°'^ecunng '^^^ people are long-enduring by disposition
Rights g^j^^ have a wholesome fear of the government.
Unless an injustice is of so grievous a nature as
to rouse a whole village or clan it is apt to be
borne. The principal concern of a magistrate
is therefore not to administer equal justice to
every citizen, but to keep the more influential
sections of the population sufficiently satisfied not
to appeal against him. Even if they should do
so, he may succeed in checking their appeal.
" There is no way of sending a petition, a tele-
gram, or any communication whatever, to any
one in authority, without running the gauntlet of
a great many persons who will thoroughly sift
the message, and will do their best to suppress, or
at least counteract, whatever runs counter to their
views or interests. One of the reforms most
needed in China is a speedy and certain way to
get the ear of those in authority."
Defects of Social System 65
It is probable that a masfistrate has found it Temptation
necessary to bestow a number of judicious " pre-
sents " to open the way to his appointment; it is
quite certain that the amount he receives as sal-
ary will be altogether inadequate to defray his
expenses. He is consequently practically driven
to employ arbitrary means to recoup himself.
If he overdoes the matter of exactions, he may
get into trouble with his superiors ; if he under-
does it, he will be out of pocket. The situation
is far from ideal.
The unjust svstem of holding an ofificial ac- unjust
countable for troubles he could not have foreseen
or prevented leads many a man to suppress bad
reports of his district, instead of investigating
and righting the evil. It emphasizes the necessity
of merely preserving appearances that will sat-
isfy the inspection of those above him.
In such an atmosphere the people of China Results of ths
f^ '^ ^ System on
have lived in isolation for manv centuries. The society »n
General
training they have received accounts for much of
their wonderful homogeneity and for their re-
spect for law and moral precepts. It accounts
for their talent for combination, but it also ac-
counts for China's lack of progress during the
last thousand years. It is probably largely re-
sponsible for the lack of originality so often
thought to be a race trait. The system under
which it has lived would certainly seem well cal-
culated to discourage every impulse toward
66 The Uplift of China
variation that the race may possess. It may be
that the Chinese will some day, when their facul-
ties have been set free from the binding force of
precedent, exhibit greater originality than we
have ever given them credit for.
Contempt for j^ jg ^jgQ q^lsv to imdcrstand their contempt for
Foreigners ■' ^
foreigners. It is a peculiarity of human nature
that those most hidebound are among those most
supercilious. It is not to be expected that they
should regard those who violate so many of the
ancient rules of propriety as we do otherwise
than as barbarians.
Custom -^Yg ^I^Q j^^^.g l^gg^ gQ jQj^g. |-jj^-,g emancioated
Even with Us £j.qj^^ ^|-,g j.,^^|g ^f custom should uot ovcrlook the
fact that, in the maintenance of their traditions,
some of the best instincts of the Chinese mind and
conscience are enlisted. We have no right to
approach their system as mere iconoclasts. Mod-
ern Anglo-Saxon society has been organized so
as to open very wide limits, within which the in-
dividual is free to move. When any innova-
tion, — a new breakfast food, or hair restorer,—
lies within these limits, it has only individual con-
servatism to overcome in winning its way. No
one is in the least lowering himself in the eyes of
his fellows if he chooses to accept this sort of
novelties. But there are things at which easy-
going American society draws the line. Forms
of the so-called " rational " costume for women,
for instance, have not yet won the approval of
Defects of Social System 67
public opinion, and consequently they seem to
the average person to be too ridiculous even to
discuss. A woman would instinctively shrink
from arraying against herself the sentiment of
the entire community by adopting a style of dress
it had agreed to condemn. Such an instance will
help us to realize how hard it is to defy society
as a whole even in a matter of mere convention.
Fortunately for us, the texture of our society s"ron'giria
is so loose, and its demands are comparatively so '-'^"'^
few, that we are hardly conscious of any con-
straint whatever. But in China, the man who
undertakes to violate custom runs counter to his
family, his clan, the whole force of public opin-
ion, his feeling of reverence for his ancestors,
and fear of their spirits, the only ethics he has
ever been taught, the views of the most learned
men he has ever known, and, last but not least,
the most ingrained habits of his life. Change is
coming in China. It will be well if it come not
too rapidly to permit of the gradual preparation
of the individual and the family to receive it.
Otherwise, social and ethical chaos may be the
result.
Let us next look at the relation of the patri- fXIdlaUty
archal system to the individual. Surroundings
of the kind that we have described are not apt to
develop what we call individuality. The very
conception of this implies the right of one indi-
vidual to ditfer from another, of the present, if
'1
1
68 The Uplift of China
need be, to differ from the past. It is not a gift
which we inherit full-blown, but a potentiality
which requires exercise and expression for its
development. Precisely this expression is what
the Chinese social system consciously and uncon-
sciously represses. A youth is not encouraged
to be himself, nor to ex^press his own ideas. No
one bears with his crudities and seeks to draw
him out, in order to proanote his mental growth.
Instead of this, his elders control and snub him
until the very idea of intellectual independence
is starved within him. We are speaking of the
average case; for in China, as everywhere else,
there are natures which make some headway even
against the most untoward conditions. It is
easy to see that the average Chinese will be sadly
lacking in those qualities of independence, in-
itiative, and originality upon which Western
society sets such a premium. And the case of
the woman will be infinitely worse.
p^^vity '^^^ Chinese is always under the public eye and
under the constraint of public opinion. He
knows almost nothing of privacy. He could not
understand the lines of Lowell :
" If chosen souls could never be alone
In deep 'mid silence open-doored to God,
No greatness ever had been dreamed or done.
The nurse of full-grown souls is solitude."
The separation of families in the West and the
arrangement of houses insures to all but the
of Sincerity
Defects of Social System 69
very poor a certain amount of privacy. This in 1
turn has the tendency to cultivate self-reliance
and independence of action. But not so in
China. The way in which population swarms in
his family court-yard, in his village, and along
the whole daily path of the Chinese prevents
him from knowing the culture that solitude
offers. Hence he loses all taste for it, and en-
dures without concern crowding that would set
us distracted.
Oriental custom has never demanded more f''^'**^^.^,
Appearanceat
than external conformity. A man may hold ^f si^cefi^5*
what opinions he likes so long as they do not
affect his behavior. The result of this has been
to exalt appearance as all-sufficient. Among the
sayings of Confucius and Mencius are praises of
sincerity, which is reckoned as one of the five
constant virtues. But it is easy to see that a
training which from childhood merely represses
is not fitted to develop this characteristic. A
Chinese says of his own youth: "The boy attains
to the ideal character only when he habitually
checks his affectionate impulses, suppresses his
emotions, and is uniformly respectful to his su-
periors and dignified with his inferiors. There-
fore the child is early taught to walk respectfuUy
behind his superiors, to sit only when he is
bidden, to speak only when questions are asked
him, and to salute his superiors by the correct
designations. . . . If he is taken to task for any-
■ Face
70 The Uplift of Cliina
thing he has done, he must never contradict,
never seek to explain . . . but suffer punishment
in silence, although he may be conscious of no
wrong-doing. ... I lived the years of my child-
hood in a shrinking condition of mind. Like all
youngsters, I wanted to shout, jump, run about,
show my resentments, give my animal spirits and
affectionate impulses full play. But ... my
tongue was bridled and my feet clogged by fear
of my elders.'" It would be a rare exception
when one could grow sincere in sucli an atmos-
phere.
^SeJTse'of ^ phrase which of late is often quoted in our
popular literature is " to save face." Of the feel-
ing which this denotes the Chinese have no
monopoly, but their social ideals have developed
it to an extraordinary degree. " Face " is the
sense of having fulfilled the demands of appear-
ance. The same training which smothers sin-
cerity, feeds the desire to be above all things
" proper." This desire has its good side. It
holds people up to the performance of social
duties which are too often repudiated in the
West. A man would " lose face " if he neglected
his parents or was backward in showing the cus-
tomary hospitality. On the other hand, it fos-
ters deceit, touchiness, and unwise extravagance.
Falsehood is not permitted to stand in the way
of face. Any violation of this false sense of
1 Yan Phou Lee, When I Was a Boy in China. 18, 20.
Defects of Social System 71 ;
dignity will arouse instant resentment. The dis-
play at weddings and funerals demanded by i
" face ■' may plunge a family into debt for a life-
time.
It is impossible for a community to regard conMrnw"
truth lightly and yet to preserve a sense of ,
mutual confidence. Those who are willing to
resort to falsehood when under pressure them-
selves, have no reason to believe that others will ,
be absolutely truthful under similar pressure. |
The result is that no one in China accepts the
statements of another at their full face value. j
This lack of confidence is shown in public affairs ;
by the absence of " trust " institutions and of
opportunities for the investment of capital as
compared with the West.
A number of influences combine in rendering [^^fluJnces '
Chinese social life somewhat conspicuous for the fy^p^^hy j
absence of sympathy. The extreme poverty of !
great masses of people, a poverty that requires
millions of families to practise every possible j
economy to escape starvation, renders them cal-
lous to suffering and want which they are unable
to alleviate. The absence of nerves tends in the j
same direction. As a race they must be re- \
garded as cruel. i
Superstition aids in repressing manifestations Ig^reslei"** i
of sympathy. Misfortune is believed to result i
from the ill will of some demon, who may trans- 1
fer his persecutions to any one that attempts to 1
72 The Uplift of China
thwart him. Cases of distress are also neglected
for fear lest the government officials should hold
the would-be rescuers responsible for the evil.
Syst%m*AUo ^^^ family system only aggravates this ten-
Respons.bie ^eucy to withhold sympathy. AtTection could
hardly be expected to run far outside the family
or clan, but, even inside, the conflicting claims of
sons and their wives are a great source of bitter-
ness. Brothers and sisters-in-law too often look
upon one another as competitors for the largest
share of the common property. But perhaps the
main difficulty lies dcep-^r yet. Whatever re-
presses individuality, whatever exalts formality
at the expense of sincerity, whatever emphasizes
the inequalities of position and privilege, what-
ever makes it hard for persons to read each
other's thoughts, — these things tend to weaken
the sense of sympathy.
^evlV° While the Chinese is extremely sensitive and
"^"^conu-oi yielding to the force of public opinion, he has not
had large opportunities to cultivate independent
self-control. Hence we find him at once sub-
missive and passionate, the latter especially when
he thinks he has been subjected to a social slight.
The man who has been denied the exercise of his
manhood during so much of his life must expect
to inherit streaks of childishness to his dying day.
Dr. Gibson remarks on the anomalies of Chinese
character : " Verv slow to strike, though ever
ready to curse and quarrel, capable of great self-
Defects of Social System 73
coiistrahit, patient, peaceable, law-abiding, in-
dustrious, observant of the rights of others ; and
at the same time vengeful, implacable, ' pig-
headed,' and obstinate, carried away, often on
slight occasions, by passions of ungovernable
fury.'"
Are such individuals, with all their valuable Jn^^^qullT
race traits and economic virtues, well prepared,
just as they are, to face an era which calls for
the most highly developed individuality? Can
they be expected to acquire the needful traits of
character without introducing a new spirit into
their social system?
Let us consider, finally, the atmosphere of the woman in^
Chinese home and its effect on womanhood and *^^ Home
childhood. The ideas of propriety emphasize
the duties of the inferior to the superior and say
very little about the correlative duties of super-
iors to those beneath them. A Chinese woman
enters the household of her husband's family
tagged with the double inferiority of sex and
age. She is only a woman, and she is probably
the youngest woman on the premises. She is
expected to serve her mother-in-law and to defer
to her older sisters-in-law. If these individuals
were gifted with any instinctive sympathy with
youth, or if they felt under any special obliga-
tion to be considerate and forbearing, the per-
centage of happy households would be greater.
1 The East and the West, October, 1903, page 369.
74 The Uplift of China
But the young wife is more apt to be greeted
with the regard which sophomores and upper
classmen entertain for freshmen, so that her hfe
becomes a burden to her from the very start.
Where property is held in common, her presence
means so much less for the share of each of the
others, and the feeling is not unnatural that she
must be made to earn her way. In case of the
quarrels which are practically unavoidable in
such a situation, she may be without the sym-
pathy even of her husband. Theory demands
that he should side with his mother rather than
with his wife, and he has no affection for the
latter that would make him seek to comfort her.
In many a household a young Chinese husband
would be ashamed to be seen even talking wnth
his wife, while to show her any consideration
would expose him to the ridicule of the entire
family. It is no wonder that suicides of young
Chinese wives are far from infrequent.
L^ga^R^u The wife has few legal rights. She may be
put to death for infidelity, but has no right to
complain of it in her husband. She may be
divorced if she beats him, while he is free to
chastise her in any way short of inflicting a
wound. She is not even allowed to leave the
house without his permission, and if she dis-
obeys he ma)' sell her as a concubine.'
' Mollendorf, Family Law of the Chinese, 30, 31.
Defects of Social System 75
The fact that a girl at her marriage becomes a ^^Ji^^t^'i^a''^
member of another family discourages her par-
ents from giving her an education. Especially
in the south of China it is not uncommon for
girls to receive some instruction, but those who
proceed far enough to be able to read for profit
or recreation are probably less than one per cent,
of the whole; Dr. Martin, of Peking, estimates
not more than one in ten thousand.
. The unhappy practise of foot-binding has no Footfb^ndTng
necessary connection with the patriarchal form
•of the family, but it adds greatly to the disabil-
ities under which Chinese women labor. Mrs.
Archibald Little, whose position as president of
the " Natural Feet Society " has given her special
reason for investigation, says : " During the first
three years (of foot-binding) the girlhood of
China presents a most melancholy spectacle.
Instead of a hop, skip, and a jump, with rosy
cheeks like the little girls of England, the poor
little things are leaning heavily on a stick some-
what taller than themselves, or carried on a man's
back, or sitting sadly crying. They have great
black lines under their eyes, and a special curious
paleness that I have never seen except in connec-
tion with foot-binding. Their mothers mostly
sleep with a big stick by the bedside, with which
to get up and beat the little girl should she dis-
turl) the household by her wails ; but not uncom-
monly she is put to sleep in an out-house. The
76 The Uplift of China
only relief she gets is either from opium, or from
hanging her feet over the edge of her wooden
bedstead, so as to stop the circulation." For a
Chinese woman to confess that her feet gave her
pain would be considered most indelicate, so that
it is safe to say that there is much more of suffer-
ing than ever appears on the surface. In addition
to this it is a great check upon freedom of move-
ment.
The System t^i i . . _, .
at FauJt -I here are some happy marriages m Chma and
affectionate husbands. The wife who becomes a
mother is treated with more respect, which in-
creases as she advances in years. It remains
true, however, that the social system as a whole
is terribly deficient in providing for the natural
and divine rights of woman. That the present
situation does not cause the same amount of un-
happiness that it would if Chinese women had
ever known anything better is no excuse for its
continuance.
Chiidhoo^d 'The Chinese home in its present state does not
Misses furnish an ideal environment for childhood. To
begin with, the ignorance and disregard of sani-
tation is responsible for a large mortality rate,
and many of those who survive the unhealthy
diet and careless treatment they receive, prob-
ably carry enfeebled constitutions through life.
There is not the manifestation of sympathy be-
tween parents and children that means so much
Defects of Social System "jy
in Western homes. A Chinese father who loves
his children tenderly will yet consider it beneath
his dignity to romp with them or enter into any
of their games. A Chinese tells us that when a
boy of twelve he left his mother to go to Amer-
ica, there was no embrace, although the mother's
eyes were wet. The little fellow gravely pros-
trated himself four times, and the parting was
over.^ What would our own childhood and
parenthood be, if we felt obliged to observe such
a code of propriety?
Another thing we should miss in China is the ^^^V'^^^^^
° Not Bleating
family meal. This, as we know it, is an insti-
tution peculiar to Christendom. We could ill
spare from our lives the memories of its social
spirit and table-talk. In China men and women
eat apart, and a child seldom sits at the table with
both his father and mother. Nor has the
Chinese child any knowledge of the books and
magazines from which our children derive so
much. The mental atmosphere of his home is
far from stimulating. Even if he belongs to the
small minority who learn to read with sufficient
facility to enjoy it as a pastime, he is the rare
exception, if he possesses anything suited to his
comprehension. The quarreling between the
women of the household, which he cannot help
witnessing, aids in degrading his idea of home.
The evils we ha.ve mentioned may be consid- ANewSpir**.
-' Needed
* Yan Phou Lee, When I Was a Boy in China, 96.
78 The Uplift of China
ered as at least typical. Some of them may dis-
appear with a development of China's resources,
and the consequent rise in the standard of living.
The spread of an education fitted to the actual
needs of life will do more. But the root of the
difficulty lies deeper. The Chinese family needs
a new spirit, which shall lay stress on the duties
> of superiors to inferiors, on the worth of each in-
dividual soul in the sight of a loving Father, on
the sense of personal responsibility to him and
not to custom. It needs to learn that a man
should forsake his father and mother and cleave
to his wife, to love her as his own flesh. It needs
to learn that " dignity is not one of the fruits of
the Spirit." It needs to experience the liberty
wherewith Christ has set us free from the bond-
age of the past.
QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER III
Aim : To Realize the Need of Chinese Soc;ety for
Christianity
I. The Tendencies of Chinese Society.
I.* What are some of the more important things
that you think Western society owes to Chris-
tianity?
2. What incidents can you recall from the Old
Testament that remind you of the Chinese
family system ?
3.* Think out in detail how your own family life
would have been different from your birth till
Defects of Social Systerr. 79
now, if Chinese customs had prevailed in this
country.
4. How would this have affected your father and
mother, uncles and aunts?
5. How should you feel toward the head of your
family, if he had the rights which Chinese law
allows?
6.* How much initiative would your father prob-
ably have developed, if he had lived under the
Chinese regime?
7. What in general are the good and bad sides of
the theory of mutual responsibility?
8. What important influences would never have
come into your life, if you had felt compelled
to conform to your family traditions ?
9. How would it affect our progress, if no learn-
ing was regarded with respect but that of
Greek and Latin?
10.* What qualities that China will need for her
future development does her system of govern-
ment fail to foster?
11. What qualities ought officials to possess to
make the system a beneficent one ?
n. Its Effect on Individual Development.
12. If you wished a boy to develop initiative, what
sort of training should you give him?
13. H you wished a girl to become perfectly sin-
cere, what should you tell he'- to do?
14. How would the restrictions of Chinese family
life hinder development along these two lines?
15.* Do you know any persons who lay great stress
on appearances? How is their character af-
fected by this trait?
16. What special good has come to you from hours
that you have spent alone?
8o The Uplift of China
17. Wh'cn a man is repressed by those above
him, how is he apt to treat those below him?
lb.' With what individuals do you share the deepest
personal sympathy, and why?
19.* How many of the conditions that foster this
sympathy are present in the Chinese social
system ?
20. What is the relation of "face" to sincerity?
21. Would you care to send a son or daughter to a
boarding-school where you knew that school-
opinion was all-powerful? Why not?
III. Its Influence 011 Woman.
22. If you "Were a Chinese girl, with what feelings
would you look forward to marriage?
23. How would you feel to have your sister mar-
ried to a man she had never seen ?
24.* What difference will there be in married life
when there has been no winning of affection in
the first place?
25.* What effect will the provisions of Chinese
family law have upon the character of the hus-
band?
26. In view of the differing customs, what do you
think would be the relative proportion of happy
marriages in China as compared with the
United States?
IV. Its Influence on Childhood.
27. For what influences of your childhood home
life are you most grateful?
28. To what extent are these influences present in
the average Chinese home?
29.* In what ways does the Chinese home violate
the principles of child training that you would
idvocate ?
Defects of Social System 8i
30.* What sort of a man would you expect your
son to be if he had lived from babyhood in a
Chinese family?
31.* What sort of a woman would you expect your
daughter to be under the same circumstances?
V. The Need of Christianity.
32.* In what ways do you think you might influence
a Chinese home for the better, if you had made
the acquaintance of the family? What would
be your method of approach?
22* How far do you think you could get without
the aid of Christianity?
34.* Give all the reasons you can why Christianity
will be indispensable in making the Chinese
home what it ought to be.
References for Advanced Study. — Chapter III
I. Home and Family Life.
Bryan : Letters to a Chinese Official, VI.
Bryson : Home Life in China, Part i, II, VI.
Douglas: Society in China, XI.
Gorst: China, VIIL
Holcombe : The Real Chinaman, IV.
Smith : Village Life in China, XXV, XXVI.
II. Village Life.
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 40.
Douglas : Society in China, V.
Hardy : John Chinaman at Home, VII.
Smith : Village Life in China, I, VI, VII.
III. Educational System.
Douglas : Society in China, IX.
Dukes : Every-day Life in China, IX.
82 The Uplift of China
Gorst : China, XII.
Hardy : John Chinaman at Home, XX.
Holcombe: The Real Chinese Question, III.
Martin : The Lore of Cathay, XVI, XVII, XVIII,
XIX.
Smith: Village Life in China, X.
Williams: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. i, IX.
IV. Moral Deficiencies.
Bard: Chinese Life in Town and Country, IL
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 35, 3b.
Douglas : Society in China, XX, XXI.
Graves: Forty Years in China, VII, VIII.
Smith : Chinese Characteristics, VI, X, XXI,
XXV.
THE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS
OF THE RELIGIONS
33
China is popularly supposed to have three religions, —
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.
The first is not, and never has been, a religion, being
nothing more than a system of social and political
morality; the second is indeed a religion, but an alien
religion; only the last, and the least known, is of native
growth.
— Herbert Allen Giles.
There is little hope for China, politically, morally, or
religiously, until Taoism is swept from the face of the
land. It is evil and only evil.
—H. C. Du Base.
It [Buddhism] excites but little enthusiasm at the
present day in China ; its priests are ignorant, low, and
immoral ; addicted to opium ; despised by the people ;
held up to contempt and ridicule; and the gibe and joke
of the populace. The nuns likewise hold a very low
position in the public estimation.
— /. Dyer Ball.
The higher class of Chinese should carefully consider
the situation and should tolerate the Western Religion
as they tolerate Buddhism and Taoism. Why should it
injure us? And because Confucianism, as now prac-
tised, is inadequate to lift us from the present plight,
why retaliate by scoffing at other religions? Not only
is such a procedure useless; it is dangerous.
— Chang Chih-tung.
^it
IV
THE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS
OF THE RELIGIONS
'TpKE Chinese are not naturally a religious Not Naturally
■■' people. Although to the superficial ob-
serv^er they appear very religious, yet on closer
examination it is evident that most of their wor-
ship is empty formalism. While the Hindus
are passionately fond of the metaphysical and
speculative, the Chinese are practical and do not
burden themselves with the mysteries of the in-
visible world. As in nearly all lands, the women
are the most devout worshipers : many of the
educated men are skeptics, making only an out-
ward acknowledgment of forms of worship.
However, there are some earnest souls, seeking
satisfaction for their heart yearnings, in the
various sects.
Minor Faiths
dans in China
Before entering upon a discussion of the three Mohamme-
great religions of China, brief mention must be
made of two minor faiths. The Mohammedans
are scattered through China, especially in the
western and southwestern provinces, to the pos-
85
86 The Uplift of China
sible number of twenty milHons. They are more
lax in their practises than their co-reHgionists in
India, but they do not intermarry with the
Chinese, and keep up the forms of their faith,
making, however, for the most part no effort to
proselyte. As yet very few have become Chris-
tians, but there is no reason why there might not
be a movement in this direction when larger ef-
forts have been made on their behalf, — an enter-
prise which ought at once to be seriously under-
taken. Their moolahs, or priests, are often more
bitterly opposed to Christianity than those of the
sects of Tao or Buddha.
Jews in China There is in K'ai-feng, the capital of Ho-nan,
the remnant of an ancient colony of Jews, but
their synagogue has long since been pulled down
and its timbers, and the sacred books as well, sold.
The melancholy history of this sect is of special
interest, and a concrete instance of how one of
the most unimpressible faiths known to history
may, having lost its original impulse, be disin-
tegrated by the slow corrosion of the mingled
polytheism, pantheism, and atheism of Confucian
civilization.^
T^'"' Three forms of religion are recognized, Con-
fucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The two
former are indigenous, while the last-named came
from India. Dr. Martin discriminates the re-
> For a summary of what is known of the origin of the Jews
in China, see Yule, Marco Polo (edited by Henri Cordier).
Strength and Weakness of Religions 87
ligions of China as ethical (Confucianism), phy-
sical (Taoism), metaphysical (Buddhism).
Buddhism has adopted the deities and spirits of
other religions. Taoism has imitated the trinity
of Buddhism. Confucianism despises, rejects,
and adopts both ! Every Chinese is a Confucian-
ist, but most of them are likewise Taoists and
Buddhists. They practise all three on different
occasions and for different purposes. Because
these religions have been mingling so closely for
centuries, it is really impossible to trace all the
elements of Chinese religion to that which gave
them birth.
Gibbon remarked of the Roman Empire that Rg'ifgton
to the common people all religions were equally
true, to the philosopher all were equally false,
and to the statesman all were equally useful, an
observation of which the student of Chinese re-
ligions will often be reminded. The definition of
Religion in the Standard Dictionary is as fol-
lows : " A belief binding the spiritual nature of
man to the supernatural being on whom he is
conscious that he is dependent. Also the prac-
tise that springs out of the recognition of such
relations." There is, however, in the Chinese
language no word which embodies this concept,
its place being generally taken by a term denot-
ing instruction, which contains quite a different
idea. The phrase p'ai shcn, signifying " to
88
The Uplift of China
worship," or to pay one's respects to gods or
spirits, is a vague substitute for a word which
should mean religion.
Viewed as a
Religion
Confucius'
Life and Work
Confucianism
Confucianism presents itself to the inquirer
partly as a system of political and social ethics
and partly as a State religion, embodying the
worship of nature, of the spirits of departed
worthies, and of ancestors. From one point of
view it is therefore a religion, while from another
it is not. Confucianism does not conform to the
idea of a religion which binds the spiritual nature
of man to a supernatural being upon whom he
is consciously dependent. It must also be re-
marked that the term Confucianism is at once
vague, inaccurate, misleading and indispensable.
It would naturally imply a system of thought to
which Confucius is related in some such way
as Gautama to Buddhism, or Mohammed to
Islam, but this is by no means the case.
Confucius was a Chinese philosopher and
statesman who lived in the sixth century B. C
In the days of the weak Chou dynasty and at a
time when China was divided into a great num-
ber of petty feudal states, owing only nominal
fealty to the emperor, Confucius appeared, at
once an officer and a teacher. In the former
5 Born 551, died 478, B. C.
Strength and Weakness of Religions 89
capacity his services were never long continued,
owing to the reluctance of the kings of the sev-
eral states to be guided by his austere teachings.
The great work of Confucius was in gathering
about him a body of disciples to a reputed total
of 3,000, many of whom were deeply impressed
with his doctrines, some of them taking great
pains to see that they were perpetuated.
Worship during the periods of Yao and Shun ^^°^V°u" "^
was possibly monotheistic, if Shang Ti, the
supreme ruler of the universe, is regarded
as a personal being. But nature and ancestral
worship succeeded this monotheism. Confucius
countenanced the existing worship of ancestors
and of spirits, but laid almost exclusive emphasis
on ethical relations. He never taught the duty
of man to any higher power than the head of
the State or family. The Emperor, being the
Son of Heaven, exercises his authority under the
direction of Heaven. Right government consists
in directing the affairs of State in harmony with
the Law of Heaven.
According to the Chinese ritual, Heaven is ^"Vhlped
worshiped only by the emperor at the two sols- Em^pJVor
tices in the Temple of Heaven, in the southern
city of Peking, where the Altar of Heaven is the
spot at which the ruler of China's millions, hav-
ing by fasting and meditation prepared himself,
with an elaborate and a solemn ceremonial pros-
90 The Uplift of China
trales himself before Heaven as its agent, its
servant ; and sometimes, as in cases of rebellion,
flood, drought, and the like, as guilty of sins
against Heaven which require confession. This
was done by the Emperor Hsien Feng in 1853
when the T'ai P'ing rebellion was at its height,
imploring on behalf of his suffering people the
compassion of the Sovereign of the universe.
In this act the emperor recognizes that he rules
by the authority of Heaven, to whom he is re-
sponsible for the use of his power.
Teachings on Coufucius laid great stress upon the personal
Government *= "^ '^ _
character of the ruler, and attributed to his ex-
ample an efficiency which has never been illus-
trated in human history. The theory is that if
the prince is virtuous and all that he ought to be,
the people must likewise be virtuous and all that
they ought to be. This assumption has been
crystallized in the dictum of a Chinese philos-
opher who lived B. C. 200: "The prince is a
dish, and the people are the water ; if the dish is
round the water will be round, if tlie dish is
square the water will be square likewise."
How Good The teachings of Confucius, as to the means
Government is ,.,,.', . .. , , ,
to be Obtained by which this good government is to be brought
about, are fragmentary. What was needed, he
thought, was a renewal of the old ways, and noth-
ing else. " I am not," he said, " an originator,
but a transmitter." His favorite disciple once in-
Strength and Weakness of Religions 91
quired how the government of the State should
be administered, and Confucius replied : " Follow
the seasons of the Hsia dynasty; ride in the car-
riages of the Yin dynasty; wear the ceremonial
cap of the Chou dynasty ; let the music be the
shao with its pantomimes. Banish the songs of
the ch'ing, and keep far from specious talkers."
Thus in his view the past was the golden age, to
the restoration of which he gave all his energies
and his life, yet he died with a lamentation upon
his lips over his failure. His conception of the
origin of government is embodied in a passage
in the Book of History : " Heaven protecting the
inferior people has constituted for them rulers
and teachers, who should be able to assist God,
extending favor and producing tranquillity
throughout all parts of the empire." Accord-
ingly, the most able and the most worthy ought
to rule, and should they lose their character they
w^ould also lose the right to reign, and Heaven
would bring about their downfall.
The admirable ethical system of Confucius ex- pj*?*^*=*'
pounds the " Five Constant Virtues " : benevo-
lence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and sin-
cerity. As it is difficult for one to catch the
exact interpretation of these words, a few quali-
fying clauses under each will give the general
scope of their meaning. Benevolence implies an
unselfish and active interest in public afifairs, a
charitable aiid forgiving spirit toward others,
I !
Ethics
y2 The Uplift of China
gratification of the wishes of parents, and the
merciful treatment of the fatherless and widows.
Righteousness, more fully defined, means manly
courage, fraternal feeling toward elders and
younger persons, justice, integrity, and modesty
in all things. Propriety demands a respectful at-
titude toward all persons, preserves conjugal har-
mony, declines much, and accepts little. Wisdo}n
means a thorough investigation of the past,
knowledge of men and nature, and the constant
practise of virtue. Sincerity urges a simple and
uniform life, and such absolute purity in the
inner life that the words of the inner chamber
should bear repeating in the palace.^ While
these are very commendable virtues, they have
hopelessly failed among the Chinese, because
the only help Confucius could offer for their
realization was, " When you fail, seek help in
yourself."
The One of the characteristics of the teaching of
Five Social „ . , , T
Relations Lontucius IS its msistcncc Upon social relations.
The Five Social Relations are those of prince and
minister, husband and wife, father and son, elder
and younger brothers, and friend and friend.
" In the above order of relations, with the excep-
tion of the last, the superior is set over against the
inferior, with the result that the family and social
life in China is largely dominated by a type of
repressive formalism. Dignity, seniority, author-
^ Martin, The Lore of Cathay, 209.
Strength and Weakness of Religions 93
ity are correlated with subordination, depend-
ence, servility; and the spirit of freedom, self-
initiative, and spontaneity find little scope for
exercise,''^
The existence of spirits is not denied, but IrobiTml"'**
much more depends, according to his view, upon ^^''"^**^
men than upon spirits, who can interfere in the
affairs of men only to execute nature's behests.
If one lives according to nature and lays up good
deeds, he reaps the benefits in blessings, other-
wise he is injured, perhaps destroyed, but it is
his own doing. As the Book of Changes says:
" He that complies with Heaven is preserved ;
he that rebels against Heaven is ruined." To
investigate the laws of the unknown and the un-
knowable spiritual world is vain. Confucius
made man alone the subject of his study, and
abstained from discoursing on wonders, brute
force, rebellion, and spirits. On this topic he
said that the art of rendering effective service to
the people consists in keeping aloof from spirits,
as v/ell as in holding them in respect. " We
have not yet performed our duties to men," he
says, " how can we perform our duties to
spirits?" " Not knowing life, how can we know
about death?" "He who has sinned against
Heaven has no place to pray." The laws of
nature, and of the spiritual world as well, lie be-
yond the comprehension of all men but those en-
1 Sheffield, in Religions of Mission Fields, 309.
94 The Uplift of China
dowed by nature with the spirit of wisdom. To
present before the people questions and problems
that are incomprehensible and incapable of dem-
onstration serves only to delude them by a crowd
of misleading lights, and leads to error and con-
fusion.
Bfte^rVcath One of his disciples asked him the crucial ques-
tion : " Do the dead have knowledge of the
services we render, or are they without such
knowledge?" The Master replied: " If I were
to say that the dead have such knowledge, I am
afraid that filial sons and dutiful grandsons
would injure their substance in paying the last
offices to the departed ; and if I were to say that
the dead had no such knowledge, I am afraid
lest unfilial sons should leave their parents un-
buried. You need not wish to know whether
the dead have knowledge or not. There is no
present urgency about the point. Hereafter you
will know it for yourself." This, as Dr. Legge
justly remarks, was scarcely the treatment of a
profound subject which was to have been ex-
pected from a sage who boasted that he had no
concealments from his disciples.
^^worhi Of the far-reaching influence of the negative
and cautious attitude of their greatest philos-
opher and teacher toward the spiritual world, the
Chinese are but dimly aware, until they have
received enlightenment from a source higher than
Strength and Weakness of Religions 95
his. The gradual but inevitable effect of such ]
an illumination is to put in a clear light the de- j
fects of the teachings of the great Master, while j
yet emphasizing the many and important points ,
in which his system coincides with the teachings j
of revelation.
All Chinese cities must be provided with tem- Temphls and
pies to Confucius (but without priests), in which Worship
are included also tablets to other sages as well,
and here the Master is officially worshiped with :
elaborate ceremonies, and with costly offerings
of silk and other gifts/ His tablet is placed in
the schools throughout China, and he is wor-
shiped as the patron of learning. On entering
and departing from the schoolroom the students
are required to make their bows to the tablet.
The homage which is offered is real worship,
and, as Dr. Legge says, could not be more com-
plete were he Shang Ti himself. The widely
spread clan of Confucius (the K'ung family)
have certain valuable privileges, and its head en-
joys the title of the Holy Man, although he is
' " The sacrificial animals, consisting of an ox and several
pigs and sheep, are killed, dressed by scraping, and placed in
kneeling posture upon the altars. All civil and military of-
ficers are required to attend the ceremony. In Peking the
emperor himself officiates at the head of the worshipers; in the
provinces this is done by the highest mandarin. The silks,
among which there are fine brochades, are burned. It has been
calculated that 27,000 pieces of silk, each ten feet long, are
annually destroyed in the temples of the empire in honor of
Confucius. The cost of one celebration amounts to $125, or
about $500,000 annually for the whole empire, not counting the
cost and repair of the temples." Dr. Faber, Problems of
Practical Christianity in China, 22.
96 The Uplift of China
seventy-two generations distant from the ances-
tor who gave the family its fame. From the
foregoing sketch of some of the more prominent
aspects of Confucianism, it may be perceived
that many of the questions ordinarily arising in
regard to a religion have in this connection little
place. Confucius, as we have seen, is worshiped,
and with him the early emperors Yao and Shun.
Wen Wang, Wu Wang, and Duke Chou. Every
magistrate is required to perform officially vari-
ous idolatrous ceremonies at certain temples, es-
pecially those of the tutelary god of each city,
and of the god of war, Kuan Ti.
Nature There is also an extensive and complicated
Worship '^
system of nature worship which has been adopted
by Confucianism, such as the worship of the
deities of the hills and the rivers, the gods of the
wind and of the rain, those of the land and of the
grain, and many others. Every one, officials and
people alike, is more than willing to do reverence
to whatever seems likely to be of service in an
emergency.
Ancestral The param.ount cult among the Chinese is the
Worship ... ... . , , . ,
worship of ancestors, which existed before the
time of Confucius and was simply recognized
by him. It is the Gibraltar of Chinese belief,
underlies their religion, and is the guiding in-
fluence in their daily conduct. " Social cus-
toms, judicial decisions, appointments to the of-
Strength and Weakness of Religions 97
fice of prime minister and even successors to
the throne are influenced by it.'" The Chinese
believe that a man possesses three souls, which
after death enter respectively the ancestral tablet,
the tomb, and Hades. As these souls have the
same needs after death as before, the survivors,
especially the eldest son, must minister to them
by transmitting to the spirit world (by burning)
clothing, household effects, paper money, and
other articles. Food is set before the tablets on
certain occasions in the belief that the spirits will
enjoy the offerings. The food is afterward eaten,
but pious Chinese believe that the flavor of the
food has been abstracted. Similar offerings are
also made at the tombs of the ancestors once a
year. The motive for the worship arises out of
the belief that ancestors favor everything that is
good and frown upon every unworthy act.
Success in worldly affairs depends upon the sup-
port given to the spirits in Hades. From the
above it is very evident that fear is the spur to
filial piety toward deceased ancestors, and that the
offerings are not made altogether in the spirit
that prompts us to decorate graves, adorn statues,
or hold memorial services.
One of the direct benefits of this belief is the Benefits and
Evils of
reverence that has been inculcated for parents ^"'^"i^^'
and rulers. " It has also promoted industry and
has cultivated habits of domestic care and thrift
' Quoted by Ball, Things Chinese, 30.
98 The Uplift of China
beyond all estimation.'" On the other hand, it
has been said that not less than $150,000,000 is
annually expended in ancestral worship out of
the poverty of China. As it is necessary to be
buried near the ancestral hall or among relatives,
it prevents the colonization of the thinly popu-
lated sections of the country. It also concen-
trates love upon the home and thus precludes the
development of patriotism. Furthermore, it de-
stroys individual liberty, by imposing extreme
parental authority, and most of all substitutes the
worship of dead ancestry for the True and Liv-
ing One.
„ ,. . A*» As Confucius did not define man's relation to a
Unreli^ious
Attitude supreme being, but merely set forth an ethical
system, it is evident that his teaching cannot be
called a religion. Perhaps the words of Dr.
Legge are a fairer statement: "He was unre-
ligious rather than irreligious ; yet by the cold-
ness of his temperament and intellect in this
matter, his influence is unfavorable to the de-
velopment of true religious feeling among the
Chinese people generally, and he prepared the
way for the speculations of the literati of medi-
eval and modern times which have exposed them
to the charge of atheism."
Christianity ^^ ^^ elaborate essay read by Mr. P'ung at
the World's Parliament of Religions he remarked
that, to a Confucianist, Christianity in China is
1 Williams, The Middle Kingdom, Vol. II, 238.
Strength and Weakness of Religions 99
devoid of interest, although it is not obvious in
what sense this can be the case. The late Li
Hung-chang in speaking at a dinner given to
him in New York, said that, having read the
New Testament, he saw very little difference
between its teachings and those of Confucian-
ism, and this is probably the professed attitude
of many Confucianists. Mr, P'ung complains,
as in view of its contrast to the minuteness of
the Book of Rites he well might, that the New
Testament directions for social conduct are very
meager. Confucianism has been very carefully
studied by Western scholars, and its excellences
and its defects have been thoroughly presented.
If at a former period there was an excess of
antagonism to it on the part of some mission-
aries, there is now a tendency to a wholesome
reaction, and it is regarded rather in the light of
a preparation for Christianity. The point where
there appears to be an irreconcilable opposition
is in regard to the worship of ancestors.
Confucianism is a wonderful system of wc'LIIimb"^
thought. Its strength lies in the inherent recti-
tude of its injunctions, which, if followed, would
make the world a very different place from what
it now is. But it altogether fails to recognize
the essential inability of human nature to fulfil
these high behests, and for this inability it has
neither explanation nor remedy. In its worship
lOO
The Uplift of China
Literature
Relations to
Caafuciaaism
of Confucius, and other worthies, its face is ever
toward the past. Its worship of ancestors has
at present no ethical value, and is quite destitute
of any directive or restraining power. Con-
fucianism fails to produce on any important scale
the character which it commends. While it has
unified and consolidated the Chinese people, it
has not, as the Great Learning enjoins, renovated
them, and it never can do so. What it can do for
China, it has long since accomplished. It must
be supplemented, and to some extent supplanted,
by a faith which is higher, deeper, and more
inclusive.
Taoism
Origin Taoism, like Confucianism, is indigenous to
China, owing its reputed beginning to Lao-
tzii, the Old Master, in distinction from Con-
fucius who is the Master. The only work at-
tributed to Lao-tzu is called the " Canon of Rea-
son and Virtue," a treatise of but little more than
5,000 characters, remarkable alike for its brevity
and its profundity.
Taoist literature is vast in quantity, but with
the exception of the classic mentioned is of little
value, and is irreducible to a system.
According to tradition, Lao-tzu (who was fifty
years the older) and Confucius once met, but
while the latter spoke of the former with respect,
he did not repeat his visit. " The ' Book of
Strength and Weakness of Religions loi
Changes ' is the connecting link between Con-
fucianists and Taoists, the fundamental canon
of both." Confucianism teaches attention to
social duties and to etiquette. Taoism seeks for
" the pill of immortality," having altogether lost
its original character and become blank mater-
ialism. Although the soul is more refined than
the body, it is a material substance, and while
liable to dissolution, may by proper discipline es-
cape it. Even the body may become etherealized
and be " wafted away to the abodes of the
genii." There are in Taoist speech " Eight
Fairies," often represented as aged men of ven-
erable appearance leaning on a staff, or sitting
under a gnarled old tree. They ride on clouds
and at will mingle in human affairs. The in-
fluence of this conception on the Chinese mind
has been very great.
While there has been keen rivalrv between. Relations to
... " Buddhism
these religions m past ages, there is at present
the peace of senility. The native religion is un-
der extensive obligations to the Indian. " The
Sutras of Taoism in form, in matter, in style, in
the incidents, in the narrative, in the invocations,
in the prayers, — leaving out the Sanscrit, — are
almost exact copies of Buddhist prayer books. "^
A being is worshiped having the same name Deities of
as Shang Ti, or Supreme Ruler of the Con-
fucianists. But in practise he has delegated his
^ Du Bose, in Religions of MissicK Fields, 164.
I02 The Uplift of China
power to an inferior divinity called Pearly Em-
peror Supreme Ruler, who is regarded as
a deification of a man named Chang, an ances-
tor of the present hierarch of the Taoist religion.
The latter lives on a mountain in Chiang-hsi,
where he enjoys great state, being in reality a
spiritual emperor. He is styled by foreigners
the " Taoist Pope." It is said that in his dwell-
ing evil spirits are kept bottled up in large jars
sealed with magical formulae. Like the emperor
he confers buttons denoting rank, and gives seals
to those invested ^vith supernatural powers. He
is the chief official on earth of the " Pearly Em-
peror " in Heaven. His main function is the
driving away of demons by charms and their ex-
pulsion by the magic sword, and is known as
" Chang the Heavenly Teacher."
Te^pies^and Q„^^ Qf ^j^g j^ogt common templcs is that of the
" Three Rulers," those namely of Heaven, Earth,
and Sea, sometimes represented as brothers, de-
noting the three primordial powers of Taoist
philosophy. But there are " Three Pure Ones "
who stand at the head of Taoist gods, one of
whom is generally regarded as a personification
of Lao-tzii. One of the " Eight Immortals "
was a man named Lu (A. D. 755), now, strange
to say, the god of barbers !
Worship of There is a Dragon King ruling floods, often
DragoQ King o o o
worshiped in the form of a serpent, either aquatic
Strength and Weakness of Religions 103
or otherwise. This ceremony was performed by
the late Li Hung-chang, when Governor-Gen-
eral of the metropolitan province of Chih-li, and
during the year 1906 by Yiian Shih-k'ai, holding
the same office. As no one can certainly know
when a snake embodies the Dragon King it is not
always safe to kill them promiscuously.
The spirit world is supposed to be in all re- Spirit Wcrid
spects a duplication of the present one. Each
city has a tutelary god in wdiose temple is a
series of rooms depicting the horrors of the
future life when the soul shall have passed the
Taoist Styx and is tried for the crimes of this
life. Here are pictures, or oftener images, of li
men and women climbing mountains of ice, only
to fall back again ; caught on spears and tossed
)ack and forth to executioners ; ground between
millstones or sliced up with sharp swords, with
a little dog running about licking up the blood.
Each village generally has one or more temples village God
to the local god, who stands to the city god in the '
relation of a constable to a sheriff. On occasion
of a death the family go there at set times to
wail. The original of the local god is consid- j
ered to be a famous T'ang dynasty scholar '
named Han Wen-k'ung. \
The Taoist mass for ferrving souls across the S*''*^
° Ceremooiea
Styx is an important one. Other masses are I
said at certain times according to custom. Even
I04 The Uplift of China
Confucianists of the most agnostic type feel
obHged to have either Taoist or Buddhist priests,
or both, read their sacred books at funerals,
otherwise no one knows what might be the con-
sequences.
Priests 'pj-.g pricsts are Mmost invariably uneducated
and ignorant, acting in this capacity merely
for a subsistence. Many of them were given
away in their childhood by their parents on ac-
count of poverty, and know no other home than
their temples. They are universally despised,
but are considered as indispensable evils. Their
functions are demon expulsion and devil worship.
Taoism has a monopoly of the business of geo-
mancy, which is interwoven with the entire life
of the Chinese, and which has important rela-
tions to such innovations as telegraphs, railways,
and mining. The hold of this superstition is to
some slight extent relaxing.
Condufo^n ^^ ^^ difficult to find in Taoism at the present
day a single redeeming feature. Its assumptions
are wholly false, its materialism inevitably and
hopelessly debasing. It encourages and involves
the most gross and abject superstitions, such as
animal worship of " The Five Great Families,"
namely, the Fox, the Rat, the Weasel, the Snake,
and the Hedgehog. On the drum-tower at
Tientsin it was common to see richly dressed
merchants kneeling to an iron pot containing in-
of Taoism
Strength and Weakness of Religions 105
cense burned to " His Excellency the Rat," and
the like.
The effect of a belief in Taoism is to bring the ^/„5,^^»',^«^
living Chinese into bondage to demons, and to B«="efs
the innumerable spirits of the dead. Incredible
sums are annually wasted in burning mock-
monev (made of yellow or white tinsel paper in
the shape of ingots) to ward off imaginary evils.
Chinese demon possession, however explained,
is a real and terrible evil. It is firmly believed
that invisible agencies cut off cues, kidnap child-
ren, and do other bad deeds. From time to time
large portions of the country are subject to seri-
ous panics in consequence, as in 1877, when
there was a cue-cutting mania, and in 1897,
when it was believed that children were kid-
naped, in each case leading to the wildest and
most uncontrollable excitement. The latent su-
perstitions arising from Taoism are endless, and
they are as dangerous to the Chinese themselves
(and yet more to foreigners) as powder-mills
and dynamite factories, which they actually are.
The entire Boxer movement was a gigantic il-
lustration of this truth, when all the laws of
nature were apparently thought to have been
suddenly repealed. Men who are positive that
no sword was ever forged which can cut them,
that no rifle bullet can penetrate their charmed
bodies, that no artillery can injure them, are in
io6 The Uplift of China
the twentieth century perilous elements in any
civilized land. China to-day is full of such men.
Buddhism
Origia This faith was introduced into China in the
first century of the Christian era, in consequence
of an embassy sent to India by the Emperor
Ming Ti, to procure the books of the new re-
ligion. At different periods it encountered
great opposition both from the agnostic Con-
fucianists, and the materialistic Taoists. By dif-
ferent monarchs it has been alternately patron-
ized and repressed, although it was always able
to reassert itself.
The Chinese, unlike the Hindus, are practical,
and not contemplative. The creed of Nirvana'
and of annihilation could not get a fair hearing,
hence Buddhism, which is able to transform it-
self in many ways, has allowed the craving for
immortality to be expressed in the worship of
Buddha under the name of O-mi-t'o Fo (Amita
Buddha), in allusion to a happy hereafter and
an expected paradise. The indefinite repetition
of this name will bring great felicity, hence the
devout Mongols spend most of their spare time
in uttering the mystic syllables. The Indian
doctrine of the transmigration of soub came to
China with Buddhism, and is almost universally
^ The end of all personal existence.
Doctrines
Strength and Weakness of Religions 107
believed, leading to a wide range of supersti-
tions. Animal and insect life thus becomes
sacred, since no one can be sure that any particu-
lar lamb (or louse) is not another form of one's
grandmother. Matter is non-existent, the know-
ledge and the pity of Buddha are infinite. " All
evils are summed up in ignorance. To acquire
knowledge of the emptiness of existing things
is to be saved."
The literature of Buddhism, like that of Literature
Taoism, is appallingly extensive, embracing a
wilderness of translation from the Sanskrit, as
well as transliterations of Sanskrit sounds in
Chinese characters, of necessity quite unintelligi-
ble to the uninitiated. There are also innumer-
able original works in Chinese. Most Chinese
scholars neither know nor care anything about
these laborious productions ; yet the popular
tenets of Buddhism are deeply engraved on the
heart of the Chinese people.
They have tended to make the Chinese more Good and
- . Evil EfTecta
compassionate to the brute creation than they
would else have been. It has introduced into
China the graceful but costly pagoda, and the
dagoba, or memorial tope over the ashes of dead
priests. Buddhism has done little to relieve the
sense of sin, and has long since degenerated into
a mere form. Its priests, like those of Taoism,
are for the most part idle, ignorant, vicious para-
sites on the body politic. The religion, like
lo8 The Uplift of China
many of its temples, is in a condition of hope-
less collapse.
Sjir.e Here and there a Buddhist priest has em-
Changes fot • « i
the Better braced Christianity, giving up his precious bowl
and beads, together with the mystic certificate of
membership in the ranks of those who in any
temple are entitled to support. Now and then
with the willing consent of the people a temple
has been turned into a Christian chapel. Under
the exigencies of the present poverty of national
resources, all Chinese temples not officially listed
are liable to have their lands confiscated for the
support of local schools and academies. This
revolutionary move is sometimes accompanied
with a prohibition of the further enlistment of
young pupils, for whose support there would
then be no provision. Were this regulation
carried out generally, both Taoism and Bud-
dhism would within the next fifty years have very
little external expression, albeit the superstitions
which they represent might perhaps remain
latent but persistent.
Temples The uumbcr of Buddhist temples is greatly in
excess of those of Taoism. Many of the finest
and most costly are scattered through deep and
retired valleys, or situated on mountains access-
ible with difficulty, where, retired from earthly
contamination, the priests may perpetually drone
through their routine rituals.
Strength and Weakness of Religions 109
The most popular divinity is the goddess of ^^'t'"
mercy, Kuan Yin (sometimes represented as a
man), who is able to save from evil and to be-
stow ultimate Nirvana. A p'u-sa is an inferior
Buddha, of whom Kuan Yin is one, two other
principal ones being Wen Shu, the god of wis-
dom, who rides on a lion (especially worshiped
at Wu T'ai Shan in Shan-hsi), and P'u Hsien,
the god of action, who mounts an elephant, the
former typifying courage and eagerness, the
latter caution, gentleness, and dignity. " The
image of the Fo (Buddha) or that of the p'ti-sa
is intended to combine in its appearance wisdom,
benevolence, and victory ; the wisdom of a
philosopher, the benevolence of a redeemer, and
the triumph of a hero."
The power of Buddhism in China has arisen strength and
r^ r ■ • 1-1 Influence
from the fatal weakness of Confucianism, which
has nothing to say of the hereafter, or of retri-
bution, whereas Buddhism teaches that " Virtue
has virtue's reward, vice has the reward of vice ;
though you may go far and fly high you cannot
escape." The Recorder in one of the temples
is represented with a book and a pen in his hand,
over which is the legend, " My pen cannot be
evaded." The insistence with which this teach-
ing is emphasized has not been without its bene-
ficial effect upon the Chinese conscience.
In the mind of the reader the question natur- The
Religions
ally arises what has been the result of this amal- inadequate
no The Uplift of China
gamated triumvirate of reUgions that has swayed
one-fourth of the world's inhabitants for cen-
turies. One of the best tests of any religious
system is its effect upon the moral life of its
devotees. " By their fruits ye shall know them "
may be a trite expression, but it is an admirable
challenge to the inefficacy of these Eastern
cults. The moral precepts of Buddhism and
Confucianism elicit our praise, but their power-
lessness to uplift the people morally is evidenced
by the prevalence of deceit, dishonesty, lying,
mutual suspicion, and the total eclipse of sin-
cerity. These lapses, the precariousness of
female childhood, the inferior position of
womanhood, and some unmentionable vices
clearly show that some external force is needed
to transform the moral life of the people. Chris-
tianity will uplift these millions morally, invigor-
ate the whole country, give them right relations
to the Father, and provide salvation through
Christ.
QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IV
Aim : To Realize How CHRisTiANrrv Fulfils Boxa
THE Ideals and Needs of the Chinese
I. Which do you consider is most responsible for
the non-religious character of the Chinese,
their inherited nature or their surroundings
and training?
Strength and Weakness of Religions in
2. What does the condition of Islam in China
indicate as to the prospects of other entering
-religions?
3. What is there that you approve in the teaching
of Confucius concerning government?
4* What is there that is lacking in this teaching?
5. Have you any criticism for the five constant
virtues?
6. How do they compare with the fruits of the
Spirit?
7. Do the five social relations cover everything
that is necessary?
8.* What is the advantage and what the disad-
vantage of laying such stress on these relation-
ships?
9. Why do you think that Confucius took the atti-
tude that he did toward the spiritual world?
10. Is Confucianism better or worse for the deities
that it worships ?
II.* Try to imagine yourself a Confucianist. What
that Christianity now provides for you should
you miss most?
12. What motive should you have for doing right?
13. What do you think should be the attitude of a
missionary toward ancestral worship?
14. If a convert brought you his ancestral tablets,
how should you treat them?
15.* What care should a missionary take in regard
to social behavior?
16. Is it an advantage or a disadvantage to the
missionary that the ethical teachings of Con-
fucianism are so high?
17.* If you were a missionary, how should you ap-
proach a sincere Confucianist?
18. With what spirit should you deal with hira?
112 The Uplift of China
19. How should you endeavor to overcome hh
prejudices?
20.* How should you try to show him that Chris-
tianity met both his ideals and his needs?
21. Do you think that Taoism could possess the
influence that it does, if it were built on no real
need in human nature?
22. What need do you think it has endeavored to
supply ?
22. Do you agree that it has absolutely no redeem-
ing features?
24. What sort of people have most to fear from the
Taoist hells?
25.* What to your mind are the most serious evils
of the system ?
26. Try to imagine yourself a sincere Taoist.
Should you be glad or not to be able to believe
that your superstitions were false?
27.* How do you think that Christianity could be
presented most attractively to a Taoist?
28. How should you deal with his superstitions?
29. To what needs of human nature does the
spread of Buddhism in China testify?
30. What do you consider the best features of
Buddhism ?
31. Why is Kuan Yin the most popular deity?
32. In what ways does Buddhism seem to you
weakest ?
23. Which should you prefer to be, a sincere Con-
fucianist or a sincere Buddhist?
34.* How do you think that Christianity could be
most attractively presented to a Buddhist?
35.* H you could combine all the best points of Con-
fucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, what sort
of a religion would you have?
Strength and Weakness of Religions 113
26. What would be the strongest motives in such a
rehgion ?
:i7. How would it compare with Christianity?
38.* How would Christianity fulfil both the ideals
and needs of such a religion?
References for Advanced Study. — Chapter IV
I. Confucianism.
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 60-67.
Douglas : Confucianism and Taoism, I-VHI.
Gibson : Mission Problems and Mission Methods
in South China, HI.
Nevius : China and the Chinese, HI.
Sheffield : In Religions of Mission Fields, VH.
Soothill: A Typical Mission in China, XVI.
Williams : The Middle Kingdom. Vol. 2, 194-206,
II. Taoism.
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 57-60.
Douglas : Confucianism and Taoism, I-VIII.
Du Bose : hi Religions of Mission Fields, VI.
Gibson: Mission Problems and Mission Methods
in South China, IV.
Soothill : A Typical Mission in China. XVII.
Williams : The Middle Kingdom, Vol. 2, 206-217.
III. Buddhism.
Beach : Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 67-73.
Beal : Buddhism in China.
Nevius: China and the Chinese, VII. VIII.
Soothill: A Typical Mission in China, VIII.
Williams : The Middle Kingdom, Vol. 2, 217-235.
IV. Ancestral Worship.
Bail : Things Chinese, 30-34.
Bard: C'liiicse Life in Town and Country, VI.
114 The Uplift of China
Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 54-5/.
Martin : The Lore of Cathay, XV.
Williams: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. 2, 237-239.
V. Superstitions.
Bard: Chinese Life in Town and Country, VIIL
Denby: China and Her People, Vol. i, 183-190.
Douglas : History of China, XV.
Dukes : Every-day Life in China, VHL
Hardy: John Chinaman at Home, XXVL
Holcombe : The Real Chinaman, VH.
Nevius : China and the Chinese, XIL
UPLIFTING LEADERS j
no
They climbed the steep ascent of heaven
Through peril, toil, and pain :
O God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train.
— Bishop Reginald Hehcr.
Pioneering, in any line of life, involves difficulty, dis-
tress, discouragement, and especially is this the exper-
ience of a pioneer missionary's early years. Nor is he
generally dowered with buoyant hope above his fellows,
though, happily for himself and his work, his call has
shaken his soul to unwavering steadfastness, and en-
riched him with a calm trust, sufficient for triumph
over obstacles that often, even to himself, seem insur-
mountable. The thought of the sublime faith and per-
severance of that great man, Robert Morrison, and of
those who followed him, is ever an inspiration to the
successful, and a tonic to the depressed worker.
—W. E. Soothill.
The missionaries have not sought for pecuniary gain
at the hands of our people. They have not been secret
emissaries of diplomatic schemes. Their labors have no
political significance, and last, but not least, if I might
be permitted to add, they have not interfered with or
usurped the rights of territorial authorities. A man is
composed of soul, intellect, and body. I highly appre-
ciate that your eminen^ Boards (Foreign Missionary
Boards of the United States) in your arduous and most
esteemed work in China, have neglected none of the
three.
— Li Hung-chang.
116
UPLIFTING LE.'KDERS .
I
Early Nestorian Work and Olopim j
IT is not perhaps strange that, although there YTlbx^t^ °^
are traditions of the introduction of Christian-
ity into China at a period not long after the time j
of the Apostles, all historical traces of such an '
event should have been lost in the dim mists of
antiquity. But it is certainly singular that, after \
it had once gained a firm footing and even im- j
perial favor, the Christian faith in the form, of ;
Nestorianism^ totally disappeared from the em- ',
pire, so that its very existence was forgotten; I
Had it not been for the casual discovery in the \
year 1625 of a deeply buried black marble tablet
near Hsi-an containing nearly 1,700 Chinese
characters, and a long list of names of priests in I
Syriac, the fact that such a sect rooted itself in i
the Celestial Empire would never have been be-
lieved, as indeed after the tablet was unearthed
it was for a long time discredited. Its date is
781 A. D., during the illustrious dynasty of
1 An early sect of Christians, named after Nestorius, patriarch
of Constantinople, in the fifth century A. D.
117 i
a, Weakness
ii8 The Uplift of China
T'ang. It records the arrival of a Syrian priest
named Olopun, in the year 635 A. D., who was
kindly received by the second emperor of that
dynasty, whose title was T'ai Tsung. The style
of the inscription on the Nestorian tablet is
florid and highly obscure, yet one who already
knows what the Christian doctrines are, might
readily identify them, though buried under
Oriental imagery.
Pat?<^a'gi The melancholy history of Nestorianism in
China is not encouraging to those disposed to rely
upon the precarious favor of emperors, or officials,
however exalted ; nor to those who omit to evan-
gelize the people, and who preach a Christ who
is human rather than divine. The followers of
this faith were no doubt bitterly antagonized
by the aggressive Mohammedans who arrived in
China later than they, — the Nestorians in turn
persecuting the early Roman Catholic mission-
aries. Not a building which the Nestorians erect-
ed, not a page which they wrote in the Chinese
language, has even by tradition been preserved,
save only the Nestorian tablet.* This is in itself
a valuable and irrefragable certificate to Chinese
* About the year 1725 there was discovered in the possession
of a Mohammedan, the descendant of Christian or Jewish
ancestors from the west of China, a Syriac manuscript in the
same characters as that of the Nestorian tablet. It contained
the Old Testament in part, from the beginning of the twenty-
fifth chapter of Isaiah to the end of that book, the twelve
Minor Prophets, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel, including
Bel and the Dragon, with the Psalms, two songs of Moses, the
Song of the Three Children, and a selection of hymns. Wylie,
Chinese Researches, $£,
uplifting Leaders 119
worshipers of antiquity that Christianity is an
ancient and world-wide faith, which, more than
twelve and a half centuries ago flourished in the
central Flowery Empire.
Roman Catholic Efforts and Matteo Ricci
The missionary efforts of the Roman Catholic The Medieval
. Attempt
Church in seeking to win the Chinese be-
long to two periods, the first of w4iich may be
called the medieval attempt. This was under-
taken in the thirteenth century, and the principal
results were gained at the time when the Mongol,
Kublai Khan, was in control of China. While
there had been an earlier papal embassy, it was
John called Monte Corvino who, having first vis-
ited India, joined a caravan to China in 1291 and
was received by Kublai Khan in the same spirit
in which the T'ang emperor had welcomed the
Nestorians. Under Corvino" leadership a
church was built at Cambaluc (later called
Peking), thousands were baptized, an orphan
asylum was projected, and the New Testament
and Psalms were translated into the Mongol
language. But the mission was not followed up
with adequate reinforcements, and after Corvino
died at the age of eighty the movement quickly
came to an end.
The Roman Catholic modern attempt was The Modern
largely inspired by Francis Xavier and the Jesuit
Attempt
I20 The Uplift of China
influences which he set in motion, though he him-
self died at the threshold of China in 1552 with-
out having been able to enter the empire. This
was accomplished in 1580 by Michael Roger and
young Matteo Ricci, both of the Jesuit order.
Matteo Rjccj Ricci soon became the leader, was able to se-
cure entrance to Peking in 1601, and met with a
kind and even patronizing reception from the
Emperor Wan Li. One of his most famous con-
verts was a native of Shanghai, named Hsii,
who took the name Paul. A part of his fam-
ily estates near Shanghai still form the most
unique and interesting center of Catholic in-
fluence to be found in China.
Concession xhc death of Ricci in 1610, at the compara-
et hjs Death ' ^
tively early age of fifty-eight, turned out, as he
foresaw, greatly to the furtherance of his cause,
in consequence of the reply to an elaborate me-
morial of Father Panto j a asking for a burial
place for the distinguished Western scholar who
had given his life to China. Not long after the
imperial edict was issued, Ricci was buried with
a .splendid funeral, which was rather an exhibi-
tion of triumph at the favor shown than of grief
for the death of the one w"hose fame had made it
possible.
Cathcikr^sm Several points in the subsequent history of
Roman Catholicism in China should be men-
tioned. During the seventeenth century there
were bitter controversies over the right attitude
Uplifting Leaders I2I
toward ancestral worship and the proper term
to designate God. From 1724 to 1858, during
which Christianity was under a ban, Roman
Catholics suffered more or less of persecution.
In the period from 1858 to the present, the ten-
dency of the Church to seek and to wield political
power has endangered the interests of all other
missionaries and even of all foreign residents in
China.
Robert Morrison
" I conceive it my duty to stand candidate for Jn^^f the Man
a station where laborers are most wanted." So
wrote Morrison in 1804, at the age of twenty-two,
when offering himself for foreign service with
the London Missionary Society; and when it be-
came evident that China was to be his destina-
tion, he regarded the result as an answer to his
prayer " that God would station him in that
part of the missionary field where the difficulties
were the greatest, and, to all human appearance,
the most insurmountable." *
The remarkable application of Morrison to strenuous
^^ Preparatioa
reading, to study, and to the hardest of intel-
lectual tasks redeemed any aspect of being dull
that he may have had in his boyhood. As a
\oung man, though engaged in manual labor
' Memoirs of Robert Morrison, compiled by Mrs. Morrison,
VA. I, 54, 65.
122 The Uplift of China
from twelve to fourteen hours a day, he read and
re-read such books as he could secure, had his
Bible open before him during his hours of labor,
and studied far into the night. A little later, to
the extent of his opportunity, he pursued courses
of study and preparation for his future work in
the academies at Hoxton and Gosport, But
more astonishing than his acquisition of mental
training through these avenues was his utilizing
to the utmost any means open to him in England
of gaining a knowledge of the Chinese language.
It was understood at the time that but one British
subject had a knowledge of Chinese, Sir George
Staunton, who was in China as president of the
Select Committee of the East India Company.
piths fot'he Most providentially for Morrison, a native of
South China, Yong Sam-tak, was in London at
this time. He proved to be irascible in temper,
but even this was a source of discipline :n
patience, of which Morrison would need a limit-
less store in the trying situation awaiting him in
the East. There were also found in the British
Museum in London a manuscript copy of miost of
the New Testament in Chinese, translated by an
unknown Catholic missionary, and a Latin-
Chinese Lexicon in manuscript form. Taking in
hand for the first time the camel's-hair pencil and
acquiring from his teacher a little familiarity in
"writing the Chinese characters, Morrison nov.^ be-
gan and in a few months completed copies of both
Language
Uplifting Leaders
123
of the above-mentioned works.' This is sufficient
evidence of the unremitting diligence and de-
termination by which throughout his active
career he achieved marvelous literary labors.
As the ships of the East India Companv denied Difficulties of
y ^ - the Passage
to missionaries the privilege of a passage, Mor-
rison embarked, January 31, 1807, for China by
way of the United States ; and as illustrating the
gains of a century in navigation it may be noted
that seventy-eight days elapsed before the harbor
of New York was reached, the passage now re-
quiring a little over five days.
His reception by the Christian workers, espe- '" *he United
cially of New York and Philadelphia, was most
hospitable and cordial, and when he sailed for
his distant post, he was accompanied by the earn-
est wishes and prayers of a newly made circle of
American friends. Without doubt, his brief so-
journ in the United States had a direct bearing
upon the subsequent enlistment of American mis-
sionary effort on behalf of China ; and, as a part
of the recompense for this influence, he bore a
letter from James Madison, Secretary of State,
to the American consul at Canton, and lived for
a year after his arrival in the factory " of some
New York merchants.
After a voyage of four months from New confidence
York, Morrison arrived at Canton, September 7,
1 Townsend, Robert Morrison, 32.
^ The term " factory " designates the building where the
trade operations of a foreign company were conducted.
124 The Uplift of China
1807. Single-handed, as a representative of the
reHgion of Christ he found himself face to face
with the task of winning for his Master the
world's most populous empire. In New York
the ship-owner in whose vessel he sailed, being
skeptical concerning his purpose, had said sneer-
ingly, "And so, Mr. Morrison, you really expect
that you will make an impression on the idolatry
of the great Chinese empire?" " No sir," Mor-
rison replied, " I expect God will." ' In this same
unshaken confidence he now began his work.
^"^'^Nlitlve Having a letter of introduction to Sir George
Teacher Stauutou, hc fouud in him a man of noble spirit,
and the acquaintance thus begun ripened into a
life-long and ardent friendship. In many ways
this leader of British commercial enterprise in
the East was helpful to the missionary, at once
being of assistance to him in obtaining as teacher
the services of Abel Yun, a Roman Catholic
Chinese from Peking. Morrison's first work
was the more thorough study of the language,
and in this he made astonishing progress,
^^"'offitfal ^^^ marriage to Miss Mary Morton, the
Position daughter of a foreign resident at Macao, oc-
curred February 20, 1809. It was also at this
tim.e that he received a request from the East
India Company to become their official translator,
a position which gave him the necessary security
^ Memoirs of Robert Morrison, compiled by Mrs. Morrison,
Vol. I, 136.
Uplifting Leaders 125 '
for tlie prosecution of the great task for which he
had been especially commissioned by the London '
Missionary Society, — the translation of the
Scriptures into Chinese.
Perhaps the work of no other missionary trans- ^ Grent
lator has been so far-reaching and profound in 1
its influence as has that of Morrison. The tre- '
mendous difficulties that had to be overcome be- ,
fore the whole Bible could be put into Chinese {
are to be considered. It does not detract from j
the essential honor that belongs to Morrison to '
say that he had the aid in the New Testament of I
the version by the unknown Catholic translator,
and of the assistance in the Old Testament of Dr. j
Milne. Thirty-nine of the sixty-six books were '
his own translation. Nor does it make his
achievement materially less to recognize that it \
was not entirely successful in its terms for certain j
spiritual ideas, like that of the word for God, j
and that it has been superseded by later trans-
lations. These are disadvantages incidental to
almost every pioneer version. None the less it j
served as the basis from which others could work
out higher results.
It was with peculiar joy that Dr. Morrison Mulltone
was able, November 25, 1819, to write to the °^ Success
directors of the London Missionary Society, in-
forming them that the Bible had been translated |
into Chinese. He at once received the earnest !
and enthusiastic congratulations of missionary
126 The Uplift of China
and Bible societies throughout the world, and
everywhere the announcement was an inspiration
to enlarged endeavor.
''"*'^c^?nese ^^^ "^-^^ te°^^ ^^ ^^^ translation and literary
Dictionary gflforts was the Completion in 1823 of his Anglo-
Chinese Dictionary, upon which he had been en-
gaged for sixteen years. It was issued by the
East India Company at a cost of sixty thousand
dollars, and contained forty thousand words ex-
pressed by the Chinese characters, filling six large
quarto volumes. The work is almost as much an
encyclopedia as a dictionary, and abounds in
biographies, histories, and descriptions of nation-
al customs, ceremonies, and systems.
Some Results As the missiouary service of Dr. Morrison
of His> Life -^
came to a close by his death, August i, 1834, it
covered but twenty-seven years, yet in view of
the circumstances, and the difficulties of the time
his achievements are almost incredible. One of
his latest biographers ^ sums them up as follows :
" Any ordinary man would have considered the
production of the gigantic English-Chinese dic-
tionary a more than full fifteen years' work.
But Morrison had single-handed translated
most of the Bible into Chinese. He had sent
forth tracts, pamphlets, catechisms ; he had
founded a dispensary; he had established an
Anglo-Chinese college ; he had superintended
the formation of the various branches of the
^ Rev. Sylvester Home.
uplifting Leaders 127
Ultra-Ganges Mission ; and he had done all this
in addition to discharging the heavy and respon-
sible duties of translator to the East India Com-
pany, and preaching and teaching every day of
his life. No wonder he had achieved a reputa-
tion almost world-wide for his prodigious labors
on behalf of the kingdom of God."
Peter Parker
Founder of
Medical
If Morrison was able to show in a provisional
manner the advantages which would arise from ^^'ssions
the use of the healing art as an aid to missionary
endeavor, it was left to Peter Parker, throughout
his long and splendid career, to demonstrate that
medical missions form one of the essential agen-
cies of completely developed mission work.
Born at Framingham, Massachusetts, June 18, Iduc^aUor"*"
1804, he united w'ith the Church at sixteen, and
became a teacher in the Sunday-school at nine-
teen, — a most unusual advancement in service in
those days for one so young. Interested friends
gave material aid in his education, which was se-
cured at Wrentham Academy, and Amherst and
Yale Colleges.
It was at Yale that he decided to devote his life Enlistment
lor Lnina
to the foreign field, and when his preparation
was complete, it included courses in both medi-
cine and divinity. He went out, therefore, both
as an ordained and a medical missionary, under
the American Board. And so providentially had
128 The Uplift of China
his call and years of study been timed, that not
three months elapsed between the death of Dr.
Morrison at Canton, August i, 1834, and the
arrival there of Dr. Parker, October 26, of the
same year.
^hTs^wo^u -^ P^^^ o^ ^^^^ ^^^^ y^^^ ^^^^ spent at Singapore,
but on the 4th of November, 1835, he opened his
Ophthalmic Hospital in Canton,^ and it quickly
grew into a general hospital and dispensary.
Soon thousands were seeking admission. The
remarkable cures awakened toward this founder
of medical missions, feelings of wonder, admira-
tion, gratitude, trust, and deep devotion. Morn-
ing by morning the approaches were crowded
with patients coming for aid, some in their eager-
ness rising at midnight, others spreading their
mats the previous evening and sleeping by the
threshold, that they might be the more certain
of early admission.
Marvelous j^j-. Parker was successful in performing some
Lrebors and ^ _ °
Cures of the most delicate and difficult surgical opera-
tions, so that the blind were made to see and the
lame to walk. His cures were pronounced
miraculous, and the news of such wonderful re-
sults carried through the eighteen provinces drew
still wider circles of the afflicted to Canton for
treatment. On many days this devoted servant
Oi Christ, walking in the footsteps of the Great
Physician, dealt with more than a hundred cases,
1 Stevens, Life of Peter Parker. ii8.
Uplifting Leaders
129
till by night he was so weak and exhausted that
he was in fear of falling or fainting/ but the next
day he would again be at his post.
While Dr. Parker was seeking to restore the Spiritual
^ Purpose
body, he was no less eager to bring to the soul a
knowledge of Christ's power to save, and he
found his grateful patients receptive to his gospel
teachings both collectively and individually.
Thus it happened that in three months the suc-
cessful cures from his hospital did more to re-
move the frowning wall of Chinese prejudice and
restrictive policy than could have been accom-
plished by years of customary missionary work.
To use Dr. Parker's favorite expression, he was
*' opening China at the point of the lancet."
The interest in the work inaugurated by Dr.
Parker now became widespread ; friends were
gained of every rank from near and distant prov-
inces ; some of the brightest native young men
began acquiring a knowledge of English, with a
view to studying medicine, while others applied
for .situations in the hospital. In order to make
the work more secure financially and to provide
for its developmicnt, there was established in 1838
the Medical Missionary Society in China. As it
was the first society organized for the purpose of
combining the healing of disease with the teach-
ing of the gospel, it marks an era in the growth of
modern missions, and not long afterward the hos-
* Stevens, Life of Peter Parker, 129.
A Leavening
Force
130
The Uplift of China
Visit to the
Occident and
pital which Dr. Parker had started was placed
under the patronage of this new society. It en-
couraged physicians to come and practise among
the Chinese ; and from its influence the hospitals
now found in the empire, with their equipment,
their trained physicians, assistants, and nurses,
and the education of native youths in medicine
and surgery have largely come.
The bitter feeling kindled by the Opium War
Marriage between Great Britain and China made it neces-
sary for Dr. Parker to close his hospital for a
time and he used the opportunity to return to the
United States after seven years of intense labor.
Here he told of China's medical uplift. At
Washington he enlisted the government in an
effort to establish friendly relations with China.
In Great Britian and France he powerfully pre-
sented the cause of medical missions. Before he
left the home land on his second voyage to the
East, he was married to Miss Harriet Webster,
a relative of Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate,
and they arrived at Canton November 5, 1842.
Amid fearful conflagrations and fresh forms of
opposition, he resumed and prosecuted his work
with remarkable effectiveness.
Secretary to 'j'j^g ^-jj^-jg i-,^,^ j-[Q^y come whcu the United
American
LegaUon States could enter into terms of intercourse with
China, and Caleb Gushing w^as sent as Commis-
sioner to negotiate a treaty between the two
nations. As a result, Dr. Parker was appointed
Uplifting Leaders 131
by President Tyler, secretary and Chinese inter-
preter to the legation in China.
Having planted so firmly the medical move- f^'^f^JJf^j^nai
ment for China that he could safely entrust it in Labors
a measure to other hands, though scarcely abat-
ing at all his own medical and missionary labors.
Dr. Parker gave increasing attention to the de-
velopment of right international relations with
the empire. In 1855, worn out with the struggle
to bring China's leaders to adopt the right atti-
tude, he sought respite in America, but was so
strongly importuned that he at once returned as
United States Commissioner to China, so contin-
uing till 1857, and having as his reward the rati-
fication of the treaty of 1858. In the years from
1857 to the time of his death in 1888, Dr. Parker
resided at Washington, active till the end of his
eighty-three years of life for the Christian ad-
vancement of China, America, and the world.
William C. Burns
As the life-storv of William C. Burns is un- An intense
Evangelist
folded, it is seen that more fully than with the
other missionary pioneers of China his work is
that of a sincere, self-forgetting, intense evan-
gelist.
He was born in the parish of Dun, in Angus, parentfi*^**
Scotland, in 181 5, and was the son of a minister. Qualities
who had the calm dignity of the oldtime pastor.
132 The Uplift of China
The mother presented the complementary quali-
ties of blithesome activity and joyousness. In
the presence of her elastic good cheer and cour-
age, labor became light and duty pleasant.
These contrasted characteristics of the father and
mother were in large measure combined in the
son, in whose nature there was always a deep
seriousness but at the same time a peculiar win-
someness and attraction that drew his hearers to
him and melted them into submission to Christ
his blaster.
Eva^ngeifsTil It was at Kilslth, the scene of his boyhood
Scenes ]-,Qj^^g^ whcre liis father had become pastor, that
at a communion service in July, 1839, while
}Oung Burns was preaching, the Holy Spirit
came upon the people, and a remarkable revival
began. The same work was witnessed at Dun-
dee, where Mr. Burns was serving in the absence
of the pastor for a few months, and hundreds
were converted and added to the churches in
these parishes. This wonderful work changed
the plan of Mr. Burns of going at once to the
foreign field, and he continued without cessation
in evangelistic services throughout Scotland, Ire-
land, and Canada, from 1839 till near the close of
1846.
?o"china I'^ t^^ spring of 1847 Mr. Burns accepted the
call of the English Presbyterian Church, and
sailed as their first missionary to China, and with
surprising success mastered the language during
Uplifting Leaders 133
the first year or two of residence at Hongkong
and Canton. It is said of him that he " spoke
Chinese, wrote Chinese, read Chinese, heard
Chinese, sang in Chinese, and prayed in Chinese."
It was this entire absorption in the very spirit of
the language that enabled hini to acquire such a
command of it that he could go from one part
of China to another and yet always remain an
evangelistic preacher to the people. It also gave
him a preparation to translate the Pilgrim's
Progress into both the Amoy and the Peking
dialects, as well as many hymns into colloquial
Chinese, some of which are still in use.
Scarcely was he started in learning the Ian- g^ongkonf^
guage when he went to the prison at Hongkong,
seeking to talk and pray with three Chinese con-
demned to death. Like his divine Master it was
ever his delight to care first of all and most of
all for those whom others overlooked, to leave
the ninety and nine that were in safety and go
after the utterly lost in the heathen wilderness.
He already began to move forth among the
masses oi the people and to win the friendly
reception and good humor with which a Chinese
crowd seems ready to greet the man of genial
sympathy, of quiet self-possession, and of quick
and apt response to their questions.
His first preaching tour outside of Hongkong Evangelizing
f b 00 jl,e Villages
is characteristic. He left his assistants to direct
134 The Uplift of China
the boat to any point they thought best on the
long-extended coast, while he went through the
villages and towns, making the gospel known by
tracts and addresses. As soon as he reached
a village, he would begin reading his Bible aloud,
perhaps under the shade of a tree. Soon the
people would gather, and he would explain to
them the nature and purpose of the gospel.
Usually some one would ask him at meal-time
where he was to eat, and he would accept the
hospitality of the friendly villager, and go on
trusting in the same manner for his night's shel-
ter, thus often preaching the Word from week
to week, and lacking nothing.
Campaigning Four hundred miles northeast of Hongrkone: is
at Amoy _ '^ °
the teeming hive of human life made up of Amoy
and more than a hundred towns and villages, and
in 1851 this became the field of Mr. Burns'
labors. In March, 1852, he crossed over to the
mainland from Amoy, which is located upon an
island, and in the course of seven days made a
circuit of thirty villages, everywhere sowing
abundantly the precious seed. The next year he
reached Chang-chou, thirty miles distant, with
its population of about half a million, and he
says: " I do not think, upon the whole, that I
have spent so interesting a season, or enjoyed so
fine an opportunity of preaching the Word of
Life since I came to China, as during these nine
Uplifting Leaders 135
days,"^ The fire thus kindled at Chang-chou was
never wholly extinguished.
The results of Air. Burns' earnest evangelistic Revival Day*
work now began to appear especially at Pechuia
and one or two other towns, not far from Amoy.
There was a movement of quickening and con-
version running through many of the families of
these communities. The preaching place was
crowded to a late hour night after night, idols and
ancestral tablets were destroyed, and some shops
were closed on the Sabbath, even when it fell on
market days. " What I see here," wrote Mr.
Burns, " makes me call to mind former days of
the Lord's power in my native land."
There now came a brief visit to Great Britain, Aggressive
' Tours from
and on his return to the East the aggressive mis- shanghai
sionary evangelist sought, from Shanghai as a
base, to penetrate even into the lines of operation
that marked the contact of the imperial and in-
surgent forces in the T'ai-p'ing rebellion. Going
up the Yang-tzu River as far as he could possibly
induce his boatmen to venture, he entered the
Grand Canal, and at one point such was the
eagerness of the men to get the Christian books
that he was distributing, that they would swim
to his boat from the bank of the canal, fasten the
books to their heads by their cues, and swim
back again ! Again, as they passed through Su-
chou, many reached forth from their doors and
' Memoir of Rev. Ji'ill'iam C. Burns, by his brother, 251.
136 The Uplift of China
windows with bamboo basket-hooks, with which
thev received Scripture portions and tracts. Thus
livinsr most of the time in his boat, for some
months he followed the course of the canals and
rivers which spread like a network over the whole
country to the west and south of Shanghai, carry-
ing far and wide the quickening- gospel leaven,
labors ^^^^ closing pcriod of his career may be said to
date from the spring of 1856, when he began
work first in the region of Swatau, a hundred and
twenty miles southwest of Amoy. Here he
ventured to make a missionary visit to Ch'ao-
chou, but was arrested as a foreigner, and after
inquiry had been made into the case, was taken to
the British consul at Canton. After his libera-
tion it was not deemed prudent to return to
Swatau, so he revisited the scenes of his revival
labors at Pechuia, confirming the hearts of the
Christian disciples, reorganizing the churches,
and even at that very early date making a be-
ginning in self-support. Next, Fu-chou was for
a time the scene of his activities. That he
might secure governmental protection of some of
the native Christians who had been despoiled of
their goods, he went to Peking. Here occurred
his translation of the Pilgrim's Progress into
Pekingese. Then came the final choice for this
intrepid pioneer and breaker of new ground
whether he would go to Shan-tung or to Man-
churia. But his knowledge of the needs of the
Uplifting Leaders 1,V
more northern field led him to go m that direc-
tion. Soon after reaching Niu-ch'uang in Man-
churia he was taken ill with a cold and fever
from which he died, April 4, 1868.
Thus closed the life so fervent and consistent AKer»'«
in its devotion to Christ as to leave an indelible
mark on two hemispheres, three continents, and
many countries. " His grave stands on the
borders of the great kingdom of Manchuria, the
advanced post of Christian conquests, beyond the
northern limits of China. The little mound casts
its shadow over many lands, for where is not
Burns loved and mourned? But his life is the
Church's legacy, and his indomitable spirit beck-
ons us to the field of conflict and of victory."^
James Addison Ingle
In the autumn of 1890 Archdeacon Thomson, HisCaii
a veteran of thirty years' service in China, came
to the seminary at Alexandria, Virginia, told of
the difficulties and blessings of the work and
asked for volunteers. He then put the closing
question: "Gentlemen, must I go back alone?"
In his audience was one whose ability and con- His Response
secrated life had earned from his classmates the
title of * Bishop.' He was the senior student,
who had charge of the chapel for colored people
near the seminary buildings ; a man of large
^ Rev. James Johnston, quoted in Memoir of Williajn C,
Burns. 359.
138 The Uplift of China
ideals, who was also thoughtful of little things.
He had begun to make a path through the soft
ground between the seminary and his chapel by
using the ashes from his stove each day. A
fellow student asked him, " Why do you bother
with the path, Bishop ; you won't be in the semi-
nary long enough to enjoy it?" " No," was the
reply, '* but it will always be here for the other
fellows." The pathmaker was James Addison
Ingle, and as he listened to the old missionary,
he saw the opportunity for a pathmaker in the
Orient. He applied for appointment to China
at a time when the Board of Managers felt un-
able to increase its financial responsibilities ; and
in order to carry out his purpose raised his own
traveling expenses and a year's salary. Shortly
after his arrival at Shanghai, in 1891, there arose
a pressing need for a foreign worker at Han-k'ou.
He went to this post six hundred miles up the
Yang-tzu River, looked over the situation, and
decided to undertake the work. Within a year
and a half his senior worker retired permanently
from the mission, leaving Mr. Ingle in charge.
Qui'ik He had been in China less than two years,
S&ssponsibility ■'
and had devoted himself zealously to the study
of the people and their language, but still he "was
lacking in much of the practical experience,
which is so large a part of the missionary's capi-
tal and so important an element in the mission-
ary's influence. In spite of these disadvantages.
uplifting Leaders 139
he was left as the only American representative
of his Church in the great heathen city in central
China.
The condition of the mission was critical. A Using
Laymeo
large number of Chinese had been brought into
the Church and needed supervision and instruc-
tion. Mr. Ingle was convinced from the very
beginning that a church must be self-maintain-
ing, self-disciplining, self -propagating, and began
to apply these principles. Self-extension was
his first care. Local growth made it impossible
for him to wait for a sufficient number of Chinese
clergy ; and he gathered a few laymen close to
him, worked into the very liber of their lives
the story and the motive of the Christ, led them
from the old darkness to the new light, and so
trained them to become catechists and evangelists
to their people. As these men went to live in
towns near Han-k'ou and repeated this process
among their brethren, Mr. Ingle went from point
to point, meeting the groups of men he had in-
terested. He examined them as to what they had
learned, received as candidates for baptism those
who had been instructed, explained difificulties,
and, when they had been tested and taught for
another six months, baptized them.
Extracts from his letters at this time are char- vicitatioa
acteristic of the man : " On a recent trip to Han-
ch'uan," he wrote, " I had the same sort of
weather that we have had almost continuously
I40 The Uplift of China
since Christmas — steady and heavy rain — but the
trip was a pleasant and successful one for all
that." Then follows an account of his rapid
journey, with frequent stops to hold services,
examine candidates, to discipline some and to en-
courage others, and to stimulate and guide the
native catechists and evangelists. The examina-
tion of catechumens and even of applicants for
admission to their number was no mere formality.
Firmness js^^ quc Station, the wealthiest man in the citv
Justined '
and a former military commander of high rank,
wished to become a catechumen. He passed his
examination, but had two wives and was an
opium smoker. He promised to give up and pro-
vide financially for his concubine and also to dis-
continue the use of opium and asked to be ad-
mitted at the same time as the others, since the
whole city knew of his connection with the
Church and he would ' lose face ' if he were re-
jected. Mr. Ingle held to the principle in-
volved and refused the request. His decision
was justified. The distinguished applicant stood
throughout the service where his own servant
was publicly admitted ; his courtesy as Mr. Ingle's
host was undiminished, and afterwards he ful-
filled his promise of amendment and was then
admitted into the Church.
^. ^"■f/** Despite every care, modern China, like ancient
Corinth, showed that, where new converts are
taken directly from heathenism, self-discipline be-
Uplifting Leaders 141 i
comes a necessary part of the growing Church. i
Mr. Ingle followed the New Testament practise, I
and the offender whose sin had brought public ;
shame on the Church was required to make public |
confession of his sin in the congregation, all the
reparation possible, and submit to being deprived
of Church privileges. He was obliged to attend
the services as before, but must occupy the bench '.
assigned to penitents. In addition, his name,
the nature of the offense, and of the discipline im-
posed was written out and posted in the * guest
room', — the room in the mission open to and fre- I
quented by the public. When the offender had ;
served his probation and proved the sincerity |
of his repentance, the sign was removed and he i
was publicly declared forgiven and restored. i
This system was begun and carried out in a '
loving spirit and with the approval of the native
clergy. ,
The principle of self-maintenance was urged s",V'sn^'^n.
from the beginning. In the new stations the
Church services were in the upper room of some
Christian's house. Rude benches, Chinese wall
scrolls, with Chinese inscriptions, a Chinese table
for an altar, and the simplest cross alone marked
the room as a church. Mr. Ingle was not afraid
to withhold or withdraw financial aid in the in-
terests of self-support. And under him the mis-
sions met New Testament conditions and at-
tained a genuine Christian reality.
Self-Support
142 The Uplift of China
Developing f^jg consistent attitude toward the humblest
Workers
catechist is summed up in the following advice
to his fellow missionaries: "When you have
chosen your men, keep an eye on them. Let them
see that you are watching" them and do not in-
tend to allow any one to fall asleep at his post.
Keep a list of the converts that they have brought
in, and now and then call the workers to account
for them. It will make them more careful.
Don't merely scold them through the deacon,
but talk to them face to face. And, above all,
teach them. Don't suppose that, because they
have been in the Church for years, they know
everything. The best of them know little and
read less. Meet them regularly in classes ; give
them lessons to prepare. I believe that the
best way to train all workers is by meeting them
regularly and intimately out of the pulpit, in
classes, best held, I think, in our own houses,
where we can act the host as well as the pastor."
Gospel In the midst of many details, Mr. Ingle placed
Emphasis ,
the emphasis on the heart of the gospel in his
dealings with those under him. One of them
writes : " A fellow worker and I had so greatly
differed and each so firmly believed himself in
the right that it seemed to be a hopeless block to
our cooperative work. I told Bishop Ingle of the
affair, for I wanted his help in the matter, and I
expected him to ask minutely of the rights and
wrongs thereof. But not so, nothing was further
Uplifting Leaders 143
from his thoughts. All he said was, ' Doctor,
if we foreign workers cannot manage to live
together in Christian love, how can we hopo to
teach the Chinese to live so? Our many dif-
ferences and eccentricities are for discipline, and
serve as our finest opportunities of showing the
natives how Christians live together in peace.'
And the conversation ended right there. By
such methods and with such a spirit, in ten years
he built up in central China a strong native
Church, well-ordered congregations, with its own
native clergy, catechists, teachers, Bible women,
and other helpers."
When a new missionary district was created, i^"^-.,
' Sacril
in 1901, he was made its first bishop. The Leadership
pleasure of his associates ac his election and their
abiding affection and loyalty speak well for him
and the character of his work. He had just re-
turned from a year's furlough in the United
States, during which time he had been traveling
and making addresses almost constantly in the
interests of his work, and returned to China in
no condition to stand the strain of a bishop's life.
Ill health was almost constant, but he insisted
on keeping at his task of making modern equip-
ment adequate to unprecedented opportunities.
He kept his work in mind to the last and the day
before he died he sent this message to the Chinese
Christians and clergy : " Tell them that as I
have tried to serve them in Christ's name while
Sacrificing
144 The Uplift of China
living, so if God please to take me away from this
world, I pray that even my death may be a bless-
ing to them and help them to grow in the faith
and love of Christ. May they be pure in heart,
loving Christ for his own sake, and steadfastly
follow the dictates of conscience uninfluenced by
sordid ambitions or selfishness of any kind."
Dying N b y The next day when the end came, he gathered
about him the members of his own family and a
few of the mission staff, and began to pray in
the same clear and rich voice all knew so well.
He asked God to look with mercy on the past and
to use to his glory all efforts put forth in his
name. He prayed for his family, committing
them to the care of the Father; for the members
of the staff that they might be strong, brave, and
tmited, never fearful or halting in the work
committed to them. He prayed for the Church
in China and for the Church at home, especially
asking that God would stir His people in
America to support the work more loyally and
generously, giving more men and better men,
men rooted and grounded in the love of Christ,
to proclaim his gospel and establish his Church
in China. When the sad day of burial came, St.
Paul's Church in Han-k'ou, where less than two
years before the young bishop had been conse-
crated, was twice crowded, one with a reverent
congregation of Chinese Christians, and again
with the members of the foreign community.
Uplifting Leaders 145
Out from his church they carried him to the for-
eign cemetery where his body was to be laid to
rest, through streets lined with Chinese, many of
them weeping as they realized that no more
should they see in this life their friend and
bishop.
His influence reached out far beyond his im- Undying
mediate work m Chma; his statesmanlike ability
and his consecration had begun to be felt among
the leaders of his Church in the United States,
and in China there were many in other missions
who recognized his wisdom and efficiency. Dr.
Griffith John, of Han-k'ou, who has been half a
century in central China as the representative of
the London Missionary Society, expressed the
conviction of many others when he said that he
v/as sure that if God had seen fit to spare Bishop
Ingle's life for twenty or thirty years, he would
have become one of the greatest missionaries of
modern times.
Reinforcements in China's Uplift
It will be found most convenient in this rapid Thre« Peri»a»
survey, to divide China's century of missions into
three periods : the first, of thirty-five years, from
1807 to 1842, the close of the Opium War; the
second, of thirty-five years, from 1842 to 1877,
the date of the first Missionary Conference; and
the third, from 1877 to 1907.
146 The Uplift of China
First Period, In the first period, aside from the leaders al-
Milne and , i i ■• , 11 1 ,,
Bridgman ready sketched, perhaps the only names that call
for emphatic merition are those of the Rev. Wil-
liam Milne, Morrison's able and active associate
from -1813 to 1822, and of Dr. Elijah C. Bridg-
man, the pioneer American missionary. In addi-
tion to Milne's notable achievements as educator,
translator, and printer, he is to be remembered
as an author of exceptional fertility, — one of
his smaller productions, '' The Two Friends,"
being still popular and effective throughout
China. Dr. Bridgman's enduring monument is
. made up of the volumes of the Chinese Reposi-
tory, which he founded and most ably edited
from 1832 to 185 1, his Chrestoumthy, and his
other literary and educational work.
%Vt\o& ■'^^ ^^""^ second period, while the work of Dr. S.
cwefl'yii Wells Williams reaches back to 1833, it falls
Canton niainly in the second period. He followed Dr.
Bridgman as editor of the Chinese Repository
in 1 85 1, was secretary of the United States lega-
tion, and produced The Middle Kingdom, which
will probably always remain the standard author-
ity on the Chinese Empire. Dr. Karl Gutzlaff,
closing in 185 1, at the early age of forty-eight,
a life of intense activity and surprising erudition,
has as his noblest memorials the Basel and the
Rhenish Missionary Societies, formed largely be-
cause of inspiration w-hich he gave. As suc-
cessors of Dr. Morrison in the work of the
Uplifting Leaders 147
London Missionary Society, Dr. Hobson repre-
sented the union of medical and evangelistic
work, Dr. James Legge made Chinese thought
and the Chinese classics comprehensible to Eng-
lish readers, and with him must be linked Dr.
John Chalmers.
Alexander and John Stronach, arriviner in Founders
Amoy m 1844, gave themselves with great earn-
estness to street preaching, and the latter did
much to fix the style of the Bible translation
known as the Delegates' version.
Stephen Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Peet, and Tus- Beginner*
"^ . ' •' f»t Fu-chOB
tus Doolittle carried forward the work of the
American Board at Fu-chou from 1847; and
during the same year Judson D. Collins and
Moses C. White began in the same city the mis-
sion of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which
has since spread so largely over the whole of
China Proper. Dr. Stephen • L. Baldwin and
wife, and the Misses Beulah and Sarah Woolston
entered the field in 1857, reinforcing the work of
the founders. Virgil C. Hart and wife arriv-
ing at Fu-chou in 1866, the next year began at
Chiu-chiang the development which is sending
its radiance into the three provinces of An-hui,
Chiang-hsi, and Hu-pei. Twenty years later they
were called to go far up the Yang-tzii valley to
recypen the West China Mission, after persecu-
tion had driven out the early founders in the
wonderful field of Ssu-ch'uan. Finally when re-
148 The Uplift of China
covering from broken heaUh, Dr. Hart led,
into the heart of Ssu-ch'uan, the mission of the
Methodist Church in Canada.
PJcneersBt With the coming: of 1842 there was a marked
Opening of the gateway into China, and the
Rev. Walter M. Lowrie, sent out by the Ameri-
can Presbyterian Board, entered Canton in that
year. In June, 1844, Dr. D. B. McCartee, of
this society, began work at Ning-po, and dis-
played in his development of the field unusual
ability and knowlf^dge of China. Dr. Lowrie also
soon arrived at Ning-po, and Dr. A. J. Happer,
Mr. French, and Dr. J. G. Kerr were later re-
inforcements. In 1843, Dr. J. D. Macgowan,
representing medical work, began in this center
the mission of the American Baptist Missionary
Union, which spread widely into the surrounding
territory and established a hospital. The Church
Missionary Society of Great Britain had here as
pioneers the names of Cobbold, Russell, and
Burdon.
Workers of A brilliant group of printer-scholars are con-
Sha'^lhai spicuous among the uplifting workers of China,
and not least for splendid and beneficent acquire-
ments shine the names of Medhurst and Muir-
head, Lockhart and Wylie, at Shanghai, the last
reviewing in his Notes on Chinese Literature over
two thousand treatises, and Dr. Lockhart being
the first to begin medical work at Peking.
Episcopal Mission operations at Shanghai, for
Uplifting Leaders 149
Great Britain and America date from 1844 ^.nd
1845, Bishop Boone being the American pioneer.
At Shanghai also was built up the great printing
and publishing establishment of the American
Presbyterian Church, and in this marvelously
growing center of eastern China the work of the
American Southern Baptist Mission was com-
menced in 1847, ^rid the year following that of
the Southern Methodists.
The survey closes with the third period, from Third Period
1877 to the present. Though Dr. Nevius and
his courageous wife began service as early as
1853, the most suggestive developments of his
work, such as station-propagation, self-support,
and training of converts, appeared after 1877.
Likewise, the missionary career of J. Hudson
Taylor, having its quiet and unnoticed begin-
nings in 1853, culminated in the amazing breadth
and sweep of the China Inland Mission, until
at life s close he laid down its leadership in 1905.
Dr. J. Kenneth Mackenzie left the influence of
his life and rare devotion in the years from 1876
to 1888, John Van Nest Talmage, the faithful,
unheralded worker, built the energy of a life-
time into the mission of the American Reformed
Church at Amoy. Griffith John has completed
a golden half-century of ideal missionary de-
velopment, until his name is not only supreme
in the great mid-China field, having its center at
Han-k'ou, but loved and honored the world
150 The Uplift of China
around; while Dr. William Ashmore, of the
American Baptist Missionary Union, by more
than fifty years of remarkably fruitful service,
has indissolubly linked his name with the diffi-
cult field of Swatau.
Wonderful Reviewing" in detail the life and the achieve-
Providential . r i • • ■ 11 • 1 • • 1 -i
Pioneers and uieuts oi thcsc pionccrs, it IS wcIl-nigh inevitable
Successors 11111 1
to conclude that they have been men of phenom-
enal type, especially raised up b}' God to do the
preliminary work. Consider the educational, the
literary, the medical, and the evangelistic work
actually accomplished by Morrison, Milne, Bridg-
man, Allen, and Martin ; by Williams,- Medhurst,
and Legge ; by Parker, Lockhart, and Kerr ; and
by Burns, Nevius, Taylor, Baldwin, Talmage,
Ingle, John, and Ashmore ! The workers die, but
the work goes on. A long roll-call of native
leaders, like Liang A-fa, enlisted by Milne, and
a host of kindred souls in after times, might find
here fitting memorial. The representatives of
the women's organizations of the home churches,
now penetrating co all parts of the empire, are
deserving of widest commemoration. The great
arip.y of martyrs, both of missionaries and of
native Christians, bearing" witness by their blood,
in the face of sword and fire and cruel death,
have forever consecrated our faith in the eyes
of China's millions. Let us learn, therefore,
from this brief survey, what vast results are ac-
complished by even a few exponents of God's
Uplifting; Leader^ 15 1
outreaching- love, and from a contemplation of
the yet greater tasks remaining, what a trumpet-
call is sounding for men and women of Hke spirit
with those who have gone before to enter into
and complete their labors,
QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER V
Aim : To Appreciate the Contrtbutions to the Work
OF Some of the Leading Missionaries to China
1. Why have modern Protestant missions 3.
greater right to expect to survive than had tlia
Nestorians ?
2. What does the success of Corvino and Ricci
indicate as to Chinese chararcter?
3. Was there as much need at home in 1807 as
to-day?
4.* Compare the discouragements at home which
faced Morrison with those of missionary vol-
unteers to-day
5 What right had Morrison to expect results?
6 * Compare the difficulties that faced him on the
foreign field with those of to-day
7 Compare our encouragements v/ith his.
8.* What sort of preparation should you make for
translating the Bible for the first time into the
language of a non-Christian people?
9. Ought ihe first translation to be aimed at the
taste of the literary class or that of the com-
mon people?
10. Should you thmk it justifiable to have several
different versions of the Scriptures?
TJi. How should you translate I Corinthians IX,
24 for a nation that does not run races'
1^2 The Uplift of China
12.* What precaution should you take to make sure
that your translation was thoroughly intel-
ligible?
13. Should you trust non-Christian helpers to give
you words for Christian experiences ?
14. Name several sorts of literature that you think
pioneer missionaries ought to create.
15 What are to you the impressive lessons of
Morrison's life?
16.* What advantages has medical work over all
other missionary agencies?
17. What illustrations should you use in present-
ing the gospel to those who had come for medi-
cal treatment?
18 Do you think a medical missionary ought to
undertake an operation that seemed likely to
he unsuccessful?
19. What do 3'ou think was the relative value of
Parker's medical s.nd diplomatic work?
20. What were Burns' special qualifications as an
evangelist ?
21.* W'hat things should you keep in mind in trying
to master the language for evangelistic work?
22. What are the relative advantages of wide-
spread itineration and work in a single place?
23. Which method do you consider more effective
for spreading the gospel, that of Burns or of
Bishop Ingle?
24. How were their methods affected by the dif-
ferent circumstances under which they
worked ?
25.* What sort of questions should you ask of
candidates for baptism?
26.* Do you think that Bishop Ingle -vas justified
in so strict a standard of discipline? Give
reasons for your view.
Uplifting Leaders 153
27. How large a proportion of your time should
j'ou give to the time of training native
helpers?
28.* What are the arguments for and against giv-
ing them responsibility?
29.* What advantages has the native helper over
the missionary as a Christian worker?
30. What principles should you follow in your re-
lations with fellow missionaries in China?
31. What lesson lias Bishop Ingle's life for you?
References for Advanced Study. — Chapter V
I. Preparation for Missionary Work.
Bryson: John Kenneth Mackenzie, I, II.
Burns : Memoir of the Rev. William C. Burns,
II, IV, X.
Lovett: James Gilmour of Mongolia, I.
Mackay: From Far Formosa, I, II, III.
Stevens: The Life of Peter Parker, II, III, IV.
Thompson : Griffith John, I.
Townsend: Robert Morrison, III.
II. Missionary Call.
Bridgman : The Missionary Pioneer, II.
Burns : Memoir of the Rev. William C. Burns, XI.
Gibson : Mission Problems and Mission Methods
in South China, 312-321.
Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, 13-13.
Talmage : Forty Years in China, II.
Thompson: Griffith John, II.
III. Learning the Language.
Lovett : James Gilmour of Mongolia, Z2j-T,:i2.
Martin : A Cycle of Cathay, IIL
Nevius: John Livingston Nevius, 128-130.
Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, 27-32.
154 The Uplift of China
IV. Prayer and Missions.
Bryson : John Kenneth Mackenzie, IX.
Guinness: Story of the China Inland Mission,
Part 2, I. Part 3, IV, XV, XVII.
Hii Yong Mi : XV, XVI.
Mateer : Siege Days, XIII.
Mott: The Pastor and Modern Missions, V.
Speer: Missionary Principles and Practice, XLI.
Taylor : Pastor Hsi, XI, XII.
FORMS OF MISSIONARY WORK
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages,
teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel
of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and
all manner of sickness.
— Matthew ix. 35.
Missionary effort in China is organized— as is suc-
cessful missionary work in all lands— in the departments
of medicine, evangelistic, literary, and educational
work. It is carried on with the purpose of giving every
person in the Chinese Empire a knowledge of the gospel
as speedily as possible, of leading men and women to a
personal union with Christ, of building them up in
Christian character, and of creating as rapidly as pos-
sible a self-supporting native church.
— /. IV. Bashford.
Let us bear in mind that the best methods cannot do
away with the difficulties in our work, which come from
the world, the flesh, and the devil; but bad methods
may multiply and intensify them. For unavoidable
difficulties we are not responsible ; for those which arise
from disregard of the teachings of Scripture and exper-
ience we are. Let us also remember that, while in un-
dertaking the momentous task committed to us, we
should, by the study of the Scriptures, prayer for divine
guidance, and comparison of our varied views and ex-
periences, seek to know what is the best method of
work, still the best method without the presence of our
Master and the Spirit of all truth will be unavailing.
— John Livingston Nevius.
156
I
VI
FORMS OF MISSIONARY WORK
T is too often forgotten that the words apostle, Apostie ana
. . Missionary
and missionary, although one of them is de-
rived from the Greek and the other from the
Latin, are in meaning identical. The Book of
Acts shows how apostolic missionary work was
done in the first century A. D., and in the twen-
tieth century its essence remains the same.
The process by which entrance was obtained The
into new regions in China was everywhere sub- Mission
stantially the same. The first stage was that of
wide and incessant tours of exploration, by means
of which a fuller knowledge was gained of the
different provinces, and, what was of scarcely less
importance, the people became accustomed to the
sight of foreigners. The temporary headquar-
ters of the travelers was a boat or an inn. When
it was intended to attempt a lodgment, the visits
grew more and more frequent and were more
protracted. At last the opportunity would come
to rent a place of some one hard pressed for
money (a class of which China is full), and then
trouble would begin. The literati would com-
plain to the magistrate, who would overtly, or
15T
158 The Uplift of China
more frequently covertly, encourage opposition
until not improbably the bargain had to be an-
nulled.
*'"pitilnce: Sometimes this unequal contest lasted for
"^^ FaTth months, sometimes for many weary years, but in
the end the persistence, patience, tact, and unfail-
ing faith of the missionaries ahuays won, even
though their open and secret enemies were in-
numerable and of the highest rank. In one in-
stance of this sort, where an American mission
had been again and again mobbed in a provincial
capital, — the leader of their opponents being an
ex-governor of a neighboring province, — and
where it appeared that nothing could be done
for them in Peking, the American minister did
the foreign office (Tsung Li Yamen) a good turn
in regard to a Continential Power, and the
Chinese ministers gratefully offering to make
some return were requested to settle up all out-
standing cases, — and suitable premises were
speedily secured. The men and the women who
did this pioneering in the face of howling mobs,
often wdth scarcely a moment of assured respite,
are certainly worthy of as much honor as those
who first subdued the primeval wilderness of
America in the face of hostile Indians. In some
instances, however, especially following in the
wake of relief in time of famine, mission stations
t;eemed to be opened with very little outward ob-
Forms of Missionary Work 159
struction. Yet it was always true that prejudice
and passive resistance had to be lived down.
In the earlv stao"es of a mission it is almost im- Care in the
., 1 ' r 1 1 Early stages
possible to trust any one, for one soon learns the
accuracy of the generalization in the schoolboy's
composition, that " Man is composed of water
and of avaricious tissue." By degrees a little
corporal's guard of inquirers gathers about, of
whose motives it is, however, impossible to be
sure, and it may be a decade before the first con-
verts are baptized.
All Protestant missions make large use of Usc of street
. ° Chapels
street chapels to which everybody is welcome,
where maps and pictures are hung, explanations
being constantly given of essential Christian
truths. By Roman Catholics, however, so far
as we know, this agency is nowhere employed.
Sometimes a mob collects and loots or destroys
the chapel, which sooner or later is rebuilt.
After a time it becomes an old story and is then
neglected.
Visits to other cities and towns, perhaps origi- itineration
nating in invitations from the curious, the impe-
cunious, those having " an ax to grind," or the
genuinely interested, gradually lead to the open-
ing of new centers. Colporteurs are sent out
with books to be explained and sold, or perhaps
loaned, and with tracts to be sold, or in exception-
al cases given away. The country is so vast and
the population so dense, that to this form of
; i6o The Uplift of China
work there is literally no end. Some one must
oversee the budding churches at a distance, and
thus a system of itinerancy grows up. Mean-
while, the handful of baptized Christians, the in-
quirers, and the adherents will not improbably
be persecuted, at first perhaps in small ways and
then often with bitterness, being expelled from
the clan, denied the use of the village well, and
otherwise boycotted. Such persons must be
looked after, advised, and encouraged. Thus
there is evolved the work of a missionary bishop
or superintendent.
Station At times the colporteurs and some of the more
Classes
receptive inquirers are gathered into classes and
given fuller instruction, forming the germ of a
theological seminary, into which it sometimes de-
velops. Here and there one more intelligent
than the rest acts as a volunteer preacher, perhaps
forsaking, or it may be retaining his former oc-
cupation.
Work for Work for women by women is an integral part
of an effective mission station in China — or in-
deed anywhere. This is begun and carried on
under even greater hindrances and disabilities
than other forms of work, because in China there
is no precedent for the traveling about of unmar-
ried women, whose position at first inevitably ex-
poses them to misunderstanding if not to insult.
Yet in the northeastern part of the Chiang-hsi
province there is a whole chain of China Inland
Women
Forms of Missionary Work i6l
Mission stations " manned " altogether by ladies, , \
and this in cities where at the time no man could ;
have got a foothold, and when there were none i
available. Native pastors superintend the flock, j
which is visited at certain times by the provincial ^ I
superintendent. In another instance, where 1
Jadies had begun a work in a far western prov- \
ince, the local magistrate when asked to drive j
them out replied, " What does it matter? They
are only women !" But at last through a broken- '
down opium smoker, a class to whom mission- i
aries owe much, a shabby place was secured.
Amid great discomfort, with a total absence of ]
privacy, and with constant swarms of curious and I
unsympathetic spectators, the next stage of the I
struggle was entered upon. When foreign ladies '
dress in Chinese costume some of the incidental j
disadvantages are diminished, but the all-preva- '
lent Chinese suspicion is difficult to allay. A i
Chinese woman once remarked of some mission- i
arv ladies whom she had come to know a little,
that they seemed to be very good people indeed,
with only one defect, — they did not worship any
gods !
Chinese women can be effectively reached onlv station
- rr^, . . . , .' Classes
by women. i he mstruction of the converts is for women
most essential, yet owing to their poverty, the
pressure of domestic cares, the servitude to old-
time custom, and the demands of their parents,
husbands, children, and relatives, it becomes an
l62 The Uplift of China
exceedingly difficult task. Women's classes even
if held for but a short period afford valuable op-
portunities for instruction, the development of
Christian character, and particularly for that
social fellowship of which the lives of most
Chinese women are painfully destitute. Many
firm friendships are thus formed, and in these
modest processes of Christian culture much ad-
mirable talent is often developed.
L^ison' ^"^ ^^ ^^^ distinct benefits which mission
of Home work brings to China is the object-lesson (all the
more impressive because incidental and incon-
spicuous) of a Christian home, and Christian
training and education of children. The second
and third generation of converts have in this way
received an impulse to introduce a new domestic
life, the value of which is beyond estimation.
The touring of women in the interior, though at
first difficult and sometimes dangerous, is often
an important part of their work, as soon as little
companies of Christians begin to be collected in
outstations.
** wor°k ^ well-equipped mission station will have a
dispensary and a hospital, the resort of thousands
from near and from far. Multitudes refuse to
come until their sufferings are intolerable and
often incurable. Some come only to die, which
in the earlier stages of the work may cause
trouble — perhaps even riots. Medical tours fur-
nish large opportunities for the promotion of
HOPKINS MEM6RfAtH0SP|-mt:;?»EKING
Forms of Missionary Work 163
friendly feeling-, and for extending the mission-
ary sphere of influence. Nowhere is the mission-
ary more in harmony with the command and the
example of the Master than when, as he goes, he
preaches and heals the sick. As a means of dis-
sipating prejudice, the great advantage of the
medical work is that it is a permanent agency
(the sick, like the poor, we have always with us) ;
that those who come, do so of their own accord,
and for an object ; that they are influenced at a
most susceptible time; that a single patient may
not improbably communicate his good impres-
sions to many others while under treatment, and
to a much larger number after he is discharged.
The constant observation of the unselfish and un-
wearying fidelity of the Christian physician can-
not fail to attract even the most unimpression-
able Chinese, for he has never in his life either
seen or heard of anything like it. Countless
outstations have been opened through the direct
and the indirect result of medical work. The
opportunities of the evangelistic missionary phy-
sician and of the hospital chaplain are unex-
celled.
In addition to other medical work, special at- rP|"™.
tention is often paid to the opium habit. Opium
smokers are the most hopeless class to be found
in China, because, not only has their physical
vitality been undermined, but their moral power
as well, leading at last to a complete paralysis of
Refuges
164
The Uplift of China
the will. Opium, unquestionably the greatest
curse of the Chinese race, has probably done
more to destroy it than war, famine, and pesti-
lence combined. In the province of Shan-hsi it
is a common saying of the Chinese that " eleven
out of every ten " are smokers, even women using
it, and their infant children being lulled to sleep
with the noxious drug. Yet even there some of
the best Christian workers have been reclaimed
from a condition apparently hopeless.
Medical The woes of Chinese medical treatment bear
Work for
Women ^yith spccial hardship on Chinese women. Their
physical miseries are beyond estimate. The pres-
ence of an educated Christian medical woman in
the sick-room, wise and winning, strong and
sweet, is one of God's best gifts to China. It is
an interesting circumstance that, in the city
where Protestant missionary work was first at-
tempted, after the lapse of almost a century
(1903), the first woman's medical college in the
empire was opened, under the care of Drs. Mary
Fulton and Mary Niles, with a class of thirteen,
and more applications than could be received.
The career open to the medically educated
Chinese young woman is one of great promise
and vast possibilities.
Eadergartens The kindergarten has made its appearance late
in China, but it has come to stay. It is as yet
seen at its best in Fu-chou. It is encouraging
that the Chinese themselves, with the assistance
i<orms of IMissionary Work 165 ]
i
of Japanese teachers, have adopted and are more
and more introducing the system. As a means of .
utilizing a period of child life which the Chinese ■;
have for the most part allowed to run abso-
lutely to waste, and as a means of attracting im- ^
mediate attention and commendation on the part '■
of uninterested and perhaps semi-hostile out- ;
siders, the kindergarten has perhaps no rival. |
In the mission station there will usually be es- ^"j^^^^'^ ^''^
tablished at an early stage a school for boys. |
The first pupils are any who can be got, but at a
later period they will be mainly or wholly from ;
Christian families, studying under a Christian j
teacher Christian books, as well as the Chinese ]
classics. These rudimentary beginnings will
probably develop into a well-graded system of
instruction, terminating in a thoroughly equipped
college. In one station a Manchu lad, virtually I
a beggar, was picked up by a kind-hearted lady l
and educated, becoming a teacher and a preacher, '
the little school meanwhile passing through the :
evolutionary process just mentioned. ■
Parallel with the education of the boys, but Ed-u-ation of a
until lately at a great distance to the rear, runs I
the education of Chinese girls, without which
there can be no true balance in the Church or in
the home. The beginnings were generally small
and often most discouraging, yet when the notion i
is once grasped that girls have as good minds ;
as boys, and especially when it is comprehended
l66 The Uplift of China
that even money-wise, it is in the end a good in-
vestment to teach them, the most conservative
Chinese begin to give way. The recent change
of front in the most advanced parts of China in
regard to the education of women has brought
the Christian girls' schools and colleges into a
prominence which a few years ago would have
been considered impossible. They are an essen-
tial factor in the coming Christian regeneration
of China.
Training Que of the most interesting and hopeful forms
Schools for _ •=" '■
Women of work for Chinese women is the training school,
into which the pupils — for the most part married
women — are taken for a series of years, and, as
in other schools, with fixed terms and vacations.
Their studies result not only in a general famil-
iarity with the Old and New Testaments, with
special reference to imparting their knowledge,
but perhaps also involve an acquaintance with
outline geography, and the fundamental rules of
arithmetic. They are thus enabled to keep their
own accounts, and they readily command the re-
spect of those with whom they come in contact.
It is often a part of the plan to send these future
Bible-women out into actual work for a year,
with an experienced companion, to test their
adaptedness to their new responsibilities, the like
of which have never before been seen in China.
These training schools have as yet been more
fully developed in the Fu-chien province than
Forms of Missionary Work 167
elsewhere, but in time they must become univer-
sal. China will never be profoundly affected un-
til its women have been profoundly affected. For
the achievement of this end, perhaps no agency
more important than training schools for Chris-
tian women has ever been devised.
In a country with such highly skilled artificers industrial
/^i • '1 -11 • • Schools
as China, industrial education is conducted under
much greater difificulties than elsewhere, particu-
larly in the case of boys. In a few places these
difficulties have been partly overcome by the in-
troduction of improved looms for weaving, and
also by other industries such as carpentering,
basket-making and the like. Pupils in girls'
schools sew, spin, weave, make drawn-work, lace,
embroidery, and a large variety of articles knit
with wool. The Roman Catholics, who as a rule
are excellent practical managers, have always
made a specialty of industrial work in varied
forms. Protestants might learn much from them
in all these directions.
The doubts which have sometimes been enter- importance ot
... ... ... Educational
tamed, as to the wisdom of laying so much stress work
upon education as most American missions have
always done, may be said to have passed away.
The development of colleges rounded out the
educational system of American missions at a
time when the very conception of such institu-
tions was alien to Chinese thought. Now that
the government is opening them on a large scale,
l68 The Uplift of China
they become more than ever a necessity for Chris'
tians. The oldest missionary society in China,
long reluctant to do so, has recently begun to
establish advanced schools. Christian youth
who hold fast to their faith, equipped with a
knowledge of what China has inherited from the
past, as well as with the best which the West has
to bestow, are indispensable for the renovation
of China. In their education there are great
dangers and immense possibilities.
Bible Everv missionarv in everv land is under obli-
Societies ' ' . .^ .
gations to the Bible societies which provide for
the translation, the publication, and the distribu-
tion of the Scriptures. The British and Foreign
Bible Society, which was founded in 1804. at
once directed its attention to China, but its plan
to publish a translation of a part of the New
Testament found in the British Museum (the
one used by Robert Morrison) was relinquished
when it was ascertained that it would cost ten
dollars a copy, and that no means existed of cir-
culating it among the Chinese. In 1810 the so-
ciety printed a translation of the Acts, by Mr.
Morrison, and from that time to the present its
activity has never ceased. It has published
many versions in the literary style, in the man-
darin, as well as in thirteen distinct local dialects,
four of them printed in roman letters, as well
as in the Chinese characters, while in two dialects
editions have been prepared for the blind. It has
Forms of Missionary Work 169
also issued the Bible in Mongolian (two ver-
sions), in Kalmuc, and in Tibetan.
The system of agencies, sub-agencies, colpor- £"trcuutu>«
teurs, and Bible- women (of whom for ten years
the average number has been thirty) constitutes
a vast business enterprise, covering every part
of China. The total circulation of Bibles, Testa-
ments, and portions, from the beginning of the
society's work to the end of 1905, was 13,246,263
copies, and it is worthy of notice that the increase
in the last decade (5,200,908) was but little short
of the total circulation for the first eighty years.
This fact suggests the immense influence which
this single instrumentality has exerted and is now
yet more exerting for the regeneration of China.
The American Bible Society appeared in China American
' '■ '■ ^ ^ ^ and Scotch
soon after the first American missionaries societie*
(1834), and like its companion has been active in
providing the Scriptures for the Chinese, and in
circulating them widely. Its direct issues for
1905 were the largest of any year since it began
work in China, amounting to 625,852 volumes,
more than 98,000 in excess of any previous year.
The Scotch Bible Society, organized much later
than the others, is more free than either of its
colleagues in allowing its colporteurs to sell Gos-
pels and tracts together, and in circulating edi-
tions of the former with copious and much need-
ed annotations.
I/O The Uplift of China
8ocietie9 '^^^ work of the Bible societies is fitly supple-
mented and complemented by that of the numer-
ous tract societies, the principal ones having their
roots in and receiving their nourishment from the
great Religious Tract Society of London and the
American Tract Society. The organizations
having this work in hand are centered in Shang-
hai, Han-k'ou, Fu-chou, and other ports, as well
as in Peking, and in remote Ssii-ch'uan. The
field of the larger of these societies is not merely
China itself, vast as it is, but the whole world,
wherever the Chinese have emigrated. The pro-
portional increase in the book circulation of some
of these societies is quite equal to the growth of
that of the Bible societies just mentioned, while
the Christian periodicals which they publish are
essential to the healthy development of the native
Church.
The Christian Literature Society, at first called
Society i^y ^ different name, was the outgrowth of the
work of an able and a far-sighted Scotchman,
Dr. Alexander Williamson, a man of broad gage,
and wide influence, who prepared many valuable
books. At his untimely death in 1891, Mr.
Timothy Richard took the helm of the organiza-
tion, which aimed to reach and to influence the
intellect of China by translating the best books
available, and also by the issue of an influential
high-grade monthly magazine called The Review
of the Times, edited by Dr. Young J. Allen. Both
TbcChriRtian
Literature
Forms of ^Missionary Work 171
Dr. Richard and Dr. Allen have produced a large
number of important works which have been read
in every part of the empire. The Society pub-
lishes also a monthly magazine for Christian
readers, as well as a weekly paper, started by
the Rev. Wm. A. Cornaby. The range of topics
included in its book translations is wide, — re-
ligious, historical, biographical, scientific, an-
thropological, with works on comparative re-
ligions, and Bloch's Future of War. In the ab-
sence of a copyright law Chinese publishers have
paid the society the sincere compliment of pirat-
ing its works as soon as they appear, and upon
a large scale, a practise which, while interfering
with the financial receipts, unquestionably helps
to carry out the object of the society to diffuse
knowledge and light.
The great streams of Christian literature could ^^l^^°
not have been circulated without the aid of many
mission presses, of which the largest is under the
American Presbyterian mission at Shanghai. It
has been furnishing Scriptures and Christian
literature for the Chinese at home, as well as
for Chinese scattered all over the world. This
great institution has poured forth Bibles, Gospels,
books, tracts, and magazines, sometimes at the
rate of 90,000,000 pages per annum. The
consolidated mission press of the American Meth-
odists is also in Shanghai, and others are to be
found in various parts of China, many of them
172 The Uplift of China
overworked and all of them busy. By their aid,
the romanization of the dialects of China has
been made effective in bringing to millions who
can never learn to read the complicated char-
acters, knowledge which else would have been
unattainable. The same plan is now adopted
with the widely spread mandarin, although under
special difficulties and as yet with but partial suc-
cess. It is a remarkable fact to which the Chinese
are not as yet awake, that practically all the
labor expended to make their language more
serviceable to the needs of the people owes its
origin to foreigners.*
^_. .'^^': The first missionarv conference appointed a
Educational _ - '^ ^
Association committee to prepare text-books for schools. At
the second conference further steps were taken
which resulted in the formation of the Educa-
tional Association of China. This has been an
important agency in unifying the action of those
engaged in educational work, both by its publi-
cations, of which it has a considerable list, and
by the discussions and action at its triennial meet-
ings, of which the fifth was held in Shanghai in
May, 1905. It is important in the present con-
dition of education in China that this Associa-
tion should have a permanent secretary and
greatly extend the scope of its activities.
^ Within the last two years, however, a system of initials
and finals represented by arbitrary characters has been invented
by a Chinese scholar, and by its aid many have learned tr\ read
in a wonderfully brief period.
Forms of Missionary Work 173
The new conditions in China have opened to Lectures
missionaries many avenues of influence hereto-
fore closed. Public addresses on subjects now
of general interest have become widely popular
from Shanghai to Ssu-ch'uan, and from Canton
to Peking. In the latter city a chapel of the
American Board has for some time been used as
a lecture hall, at which, on different days, both
men and women have been instructed in current
events, and many other topics, such as history,
geography, hygiene, coal, and education.
Princesses have attended these lectures, and one
of them, the wife of a Mongol prince, gave an ac-
count of her tribulations in trying to introduce
the education of girls among the Mongols, il-
lustrating her success by exhibiting several of her
pupils. A Manchu duke, a nephew of the em-
press dowager, gave an address on filial piety.
The editor of a Peking daily and the editor of a
Chinese woman's journal, herself deeply inter-
ested in the subject, have given lectures, and
have commended the plan in their papers. As
an opportunity to reach the hitherto inaccessible
but now intellectually alert higher classes, these
openings are invaluable.
A cognate but more permanent form of in- Museums
fluence is that of museums combined with lec-
tures. Probably the best example of this is
found in the work of the English Baptist Mis-
sion in Shan-tung. Nearly twenty years ago
174 -The Uplift of China
this was begun in Ch'ing-chou, and more recently
on a far larger scale in Chi-nan, the capital. The
buildings are throughout Chinese in style. A
model of a foreign cemetery affords opportunity
to explain Western ideas as to regard for the
■dead, without attacking (or even mentioning) an-
cestral worship. Models of St. Paul's Cathedral,
the Capitol at Washington, and other famous
-Structures convey a realistic notion of Occidental
architecture. Stuffed birds, animals, mounted
fishes, huge globes, orreries, electrical machines,
model railways, and dredging machines silently
dispel darkness and prejudice. Large colored
charts, showing for different countries their rela-
tive railway mileage, tonnage of merchant ves-
sels, the output of gold, silver, iron, coal, and
other products, in all of which China is repre-
sented only by a thin yellow line at the bottom,
convince as argviments could never do. A young
Confucianist, who came to scoff, retired after a
protracted visit to remark to his uncle (an of-
ficial) : "Why, the only thing that China is
ahead in is population!" This important insti-
tution, which from its inception has been under
the charge of the Rev. J. S. Whitewright, has in
the course of twenty years received more than
a million visits, of which 247,000 were made
during 1906. No better way of attracting edu-
-cated and official China has ever been devised.
MISSION PRESS
SHANGHAI
Forms of Missionary Work
175
The great famine, which in the years 1877-78 Famine ReUc
overspread all the northern provinces of China,
proved to be a wonderful opening through which
to pierce the rough and forbidding exterior of
Chinese prejudice. A large staff of mission-
aries, with a few from the customs service, per-
sonally administered the funds in the distressed
districts. Four missionaries died of fever and
overwork, one of whom was honored by the
governor of Shan-hsi with a public funeral. In
the famine of 1907, which affected about
4,000,000 persons, missionaries again rendered
heroic service. Famine relief unostentatiously
and wisely conducted proves a golden key to
unlock many closed doors.
Asylums or villages for lepers have been es- Special
tablished in five different provinces, where excel- Asylums
lent work has been done. There ,are eight
orphanages (one of them in Hongkong, but con-
ducted by missionaries to the Chinese) caring for
a great number of children — mostly girls.
Eleven schools or asylums for the blind — the
best known being that of Mr. Murray in
Peking — are working what the Chinese justly re-
gard as daily miracles, rescuing from uselessness
and worse a class hitherto quite hopeless. A
school for deaf-mutes conducted by Mrs. Mills in
Chefoo, is an object-lesson in what may be done
in that wide field. An asylum for the insane be-
gun under great difficulties by the late Dr. J. G.
176 The Uplift of China
Kerr at Canton is likewise a pioneer in caring for
a numerous but hitherto neglected class.
p^Young ^YiQ plan of organizing the young people has
Societies been adopted by nearly every mission in China.
It is recognized as a most useful method of train-
ing new converts to become strong and aggres-
sive Christians. For large conventions the
Chinese have an especial aptitude. As an evi-
dence to the world of the earnestness and the
enthusiasm of the body of young Christians and
as a stimulus to the spirit of unity, great gather-
ings are quite as impressive as in the United
States and Canada and much more valuable,
^""chntti'an ^^ response to invitations representing the mis-
Association sionary body, the Young Men's Christian As-
sociation entered China in 1895. Since its in-
ception it has made rapid progress both among
the young men in the cities and among the stu-
dents in the institutions of learning. In the
larger Chinese cities the Young Men's Christian
Association has a peculiar value as a middle-
ground between Christians and influential non-
Christian Chinese, who are often quite ready to
become associate members, assisting with friend-
ly counsel and with financial backing. In Chris-
tian schools the association combines Christian
students into a compact organization with wide
affiliations. It affords an opportunity for the ex-
pression of the personal Christian life of the stu-
dent, and gives scope and training for aggres-
Forms of Missionary Work 177
sive work. It organizes and stimulates Bible
study, and brings to every individual the call to
service for others. In wholly non-Christian in- j
stitutions where no other avowedly Christian in- ;
fluence could penetrate at all, the Young Men's
Christian Assocation has sometimes been wel- ;
comed as soon as it was imderstood, for its social
and its moral advantages. In these directions it ;
has in China an unlimited field for usefulness.
In view of the completion of a centurv of Memorial ;
'■ 'to Mornsoa J
Protestant missions, the Canton Missionary Al- 1
liance has undertaken to collect funds to the j
amount of $100,000 for the erection of a build- I
ing which is to be under the charge of the |
Young Men's Christian Association of the port 1
in which Protestant mission work was first begun.
There are at present 27 foreign and 15 Chinese \
secretaries engaged in the China work. i
At the urgent invitation of the National Com- Among 1
mittee of Japan, work was begun by the secre- voing Mea
taries of the Chinese Young Men's Christian As- *" *^*° j
sociation (and others) among the 16,000 or \
more Chinese students in that country under ,1
somewhat abnormal and morally perilous condi- i
tions. This has been conducted by relays of
workers from China, both Chinese and foreign, j
developing with great rapidity and with many ]
signs of promise of large and permanent useful- ]
ness, since these students must eventually occupy i
influential positions in their own land. Many
178 The Uplift of China
hundreds of them have attended the classes, and
not a few have openly avowed their determina-
tion to live a Christian life,
"^wo^e"" 1 The Young Wom.en's Christian Association has
Associltion ^"^ recently reached China, and has at present
three representatives. The first of these (Miss
Martha Berninger) began work among the
women and girls employed in the numerous
steam-mills in and about Shanghai. The number
of such operatives is estimated at more than
30,000, and, including those working in match
factories, and other trades, may reach 40,000.
Several Young Women's Christian Associations
already exist in schools for girls, which will be
developed upon lines similar to those of the
Young Men's Christian Association.
Christianity \ varictv of rcHgious Organizations have
passed the pioneering stage, and are now firmly
established. Notwithstanding the reform move-
ments, Christianity still remains the indispens-
able agent for the adequate mental, physical,
social, moral, and spiritual renovation of China,
touching the nation at ever}^ vital point. Diplo-
macy and commerce have limited fields and nar-
rowness of purpose ; while Christianity, being
many-sided, has unlimited scope for its multi-
plied activities, and has for its objective the
strengthening of every weak spot in the equip-
ment of the Chinese.
Forms of Missionary Work 179
QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI
Aim : To Realize the Challenge to the Church to
Make the Most of the Agencies That Have
Been Created
1. Has the work of foreign missions fulfilled its
duty to a Chinese when it has proclaimed the
gospel to him?
2. To what extent is it responsible for influencing
his attitude?
3. If your brother were not a Christian, should
you consider your duty to him discharged
when you had once plainly stated to him the
w-ay of salvation?
4. Have foreign missions fulfilled their duty to a
Chinese when he has professed conversion ?
5.* When is the work of foreign missions consid-
ered to be complete in any country?
6. By what persons do you expect the bulk of the
Chinese race ultimately to be led to Christ?
7.* How ought this expectation to affect our
methods of work?
8.* Why are results so small in the first stages of
missionary work in any country?
9. In your opinion, what agencies exert in Chris-
tian lands the greatest power in developing
Christian growth?
10. How many of these agencies were present in
the first period of mission work in China?
11. What do you estimate as the relative amounts
of Christian influences then in circulation in
China and in Christian America?
12. Describe the methods that the evangelistic mis-
sionary uses to present the gospel to the people
directly.
l8o The Uplift of China
13.* Sum up the principal obstacles that he has to
encounter at first.
14.* How should you begin your address to a
curious crowd in a street chapel ?
15.* How should you treat those who professed
interest?
16. What is the special value of training schools
for women?
17. Arrange the agencies for overcoming prejudice
in what you consider the order of their im-
portance/
18. What general rules should the evangelist fol-
low in order to overcome popular prejudice?
19. What is the special value of schools for the
blind?
20. Are foreign mission boards justified in main-
taining such institutions as asylums for the
insane?
21. Arrange in what you consider the order of
their effectiveness the agencies for presenting
the gospel.
22.* What are the relative advantages of itinera-
tion, hospitals, and boarding schools, as agen-
cies for presenting the gospel?
23* How should you conduct a hospital and dis-
pensary to make it of the greatest spiritual
value?
24. Which three agencies do you think contribute
most to the edification of converts?
25. Which three count for most in training
workers ?
26.* Which agencies will help the native church
most in the matter of self-extension?
^ To answer such questions to the best advantage a list of
the agencies should be written out, so that they can be all under
the eye at once.
Forms of Missionary Work i8l
27.* Which most in the matter of self-government?
28.* Which most in the matter of self-support?
29. Does the multiplication of methods of work
that we have in Christian countries seem to you
to be necessary?
30 Have we all the methods which you think we
ought to have?
31. If this variety of method is necessary at home,
ought we to expect t*^ build up a strong Chris-
tian Church in non-Christian lands without it?
2,2. How ought we to expect the results of mis-
sionary work before these agencies have been
created to compare with results afterwards?
ZZ- What responsibility does this lay upon us to
see that the agencies are maintained in effective
operation?
34.* If you had $10,000 to invest in some one form
of mission work in China, where should you
place it at present to secure the greatest good?
35.* If an all-round man just graduating from col-
lege should ask you how he could be of most
use in China, what should you tell him to do?
2,^.* What should you tell an all-round woman un-
der similar circumstances?
Z7- How much money and how many volunteers do
you think could be profitably used in China just
now?
38. What call does the variety of present oppor-
tunities for service in China bring to you?
References for Advanced Study. — Chapter VI
I. Educational.
Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, iiii-115.
Graves : Forty Years in China, XIII.
Ross: Mission Methods in Manchuria, X.
l82 The Uplift of China
Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, XII.
Speer : Missionary Principles and Practice, XIX.
Wallace : The Heart of Sz-chuan, VII.
11. Medical.
Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, no, in.
Bryson : John Kenneth Mackenzie, 396-404.
Graves : Forty Years in China, XIV.
Mackay : From Far Farmosa, XXXIII.
Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, X.
Stevens : The Life of Peter Parker, VII, VIII.
Wallace : The Heart of Sz-chuan, VI.
III. Evangelistic.
Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 1x7-120.
Gibson: Mission Problems and Mission Methods
in South China, VI.
Ross: Mission Methods in IManchuna, III, IV.
Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, III.
Wallace: The Heart of Sz-chuan, V.
IV. Literary.
Beach: Dawn on the Hills of T'ang, 116, 117.
Graves : Forty Years in China, XV.
Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, XIII.
Thompson: Griffith John, XIII, XVII.
V, Work for Women.
Henry : The Cross and the Dragon, XV.
McNabb: The Women of the Middle Kingdom,
VII, VIII.
Soothill : A Typical Mission in China, IX.
Wallace : The Heart of Sz-chuan, VIII.
MISSIONARY PROBLEMS
188
Will the Republic endure? Who can tell? Thought-
ful observers are not yet sure that the American Re-
public will endure. The mob and "the man on horse-
back" are always in the background of every republic.
■ China is far better fitted for republican institutions
than the Philippine Islands or the Mexican, Central
American, and South American Republics. Her people
are more stable, peaceable, and law-abiding in tem-
perament, their respect for constituted authority is
greater, and the government of their local communities
has long been more largely democratic in character.
Nevertheless, the diffusion of those fundamental
ideas of education and religion upon which popular
government must rest has been a matter of only a few
decades in China. Vast numbers of the people have
as yet been but slightly touched by them. Multitudes
who have received the external forms of Western
civilization and government have not yet adopted the
Christian basis of morals which guarantees the wise
use of wider opportunity. The spirit of loyalty as
against other nations is strong, but the sense of unity
between the widely separated parts of the country is
still weak. —Arthur J. Brown.
The whole world is agreed in recognizing in the
transformation of China one of the greatest movem^ents
in human history. Whether we consider the immensity
of the population affected, the character of the change
that is taking place, the magnitude of the interests
which are involved, the comparative peacefulness of
the crisis, or the significance of the act that a great
and ancient race is undergoing in the period of a
decade a radical intellectual and spiritual readjustment,
it is evident that it is given to us to witness and have
part in a vast movement whose consequences will
affect the whole world and be unending.
— Robert E. Spcer.
184
CHAPTER VII
MISSIONARY PROBLEMS!
'T'HERE has always been more or less mis- "**-J^i^?an';**'°*
conception in regard to the degree of tol-
eration accorded by the Chinese government to
foreign religions. It is, of course, true that a
peaceful and pragmatic people like the Chinese
have not the instinct of persecution, but it is also
true, as Dr. De Groot has shown by copious trans-
lations from a wide range of Chinese documents,
that whenever the government has feared that
Confucianism was endangered, persecution bitter
and relentless has been the rule and not the ex-
ception. Of this fact the whole history of Chris-
tianity in China is itself an evidence, for it has
been felt that Christianity and Confucianism
were in some points, especially that of ancestor-
worship, contradictories, and ancestor-worship
may be said to be the real religion of the Chinese
people.
An impression has prevailed among foreigners ^|?„*^Jg%7^
t. J- Religiout
'The present revision (March, iqh) of this chapter has the dis- Lib«rty
advantage of being written at a distance from China and at a time
of such rapid transition that it is difficult to determine along just
what line the chief future problems of mission work in China are to
lie. The object is not to give a general survey of all those problems,
but ra'her to fix attention upon a few of the more salient ones
which are especially characteristic of the new China.
185
i86
The Uplift of China
The Revolution
Brings an
Immediate
Result
Vje^v Based on
Recent Events
Protestant
Representatives
Received by the
President
familiar with China that in the coming general
progress of the Empire religious liberty would
probably by small increments come to be con-
ceded eventually, mainly for the reason that the
Chinese have become increasingly sensitive to
any apparent inferiority as compared with West-
ern nations, among many of which religious
liberty has long been domesticated.
But the sudden success of the Chinese Revolu-
tion has completely altered the outlook. The
hopes and the prayers of three generations of
Protestant missionaries and of many centuries
of those of the Roman Catholic Church are about
to be fulfilled. We are on the threshold of re-
ligious liberty for China !
The following narrative of recent events in
the capital of China will give the warrant for this
prediction. It is taken from a dispatch sent to
the American Board of Commissioners for For-
eign Missions in Boston from one of its mis-
sionaries in Peking.
Shortly after the edict of abdication was an-
nounced, the native pastors of the Protestant
churches of Peking conceived the idea of holding
a union thanksgiving service. To this service
they wished to invite the President of the new
republic. When invited. President Yiian met them
more than half way, saying that he was desirous
of an interview with them. Accordingly, four
Chinese pastors, representing the Presbyterian,
Missionary Problems
187
Methodist, and Congregational missions, carried
in person their invitation. They were received
with all the honors accorded the highest repre-
sentatives of foreign powers, the soldiers saluting
them as they would the minister of the United
States or Great Britain.
They were escorted into a large hall with sm'ement of
foreign furnishings. Here the President met them ^"*°
with assurances of his pleasure in receiving them.
He told them repeatedly that under the new
regime they might expect perfect freedom of
worship. He intimated that so far as he under-
stood the principles of Christianity they were
what he was striving for in the new government.
He requested them to pass on his word regarding
religious liberty to the pastors and Christians
in the country, and to explain to them the prin-
ciples of the republic. Although he could not
accept their invitation In person, he promised to
send a representative to carry his message to
the Church.
The thanksgiving service was held in the Thln"ks|ivfog
largest church in the city on the afternoon of
February 26. Although admission was by ticket,
long before the hour set for the meeting the
church was crowded with a company of Intelli-
gent men and women, eager and enthusiastic, and
this In Peking, which but a few days ago was
the seat of Manchu authority. One of the Chris-
tian pastors who led in praise of the republic is
Service
i88
The Uplift of China
Message of the
President
Conveyed by
Dr. Yen
himself a Manchu. The church was resplendent
in flags and bunting and mottoes, the striped flag
of the new government holding the conspicuous
place. The Chinese band of Sir Robert Bredon,
of the Chinese customs service, enlivened the
occasion with stirring music. The climax was
the message of the new President. This was
read both in English and Chinese by Dr. Yen,
a member of the Wai Wu Pu (Board of Foreign
Control). Dr. Yen is a graduate of the Uni-
versity of Virginia, a member of the Hanlin
Academy, and for a time was president of the
North China American College Club, and is a
Christian. As a special tribute of respect to his
Christian subjects, Yiian telegraphed Dr. Yen to
come from Tientsin, that one of his Christian
officials might convey his message to the Christian
Church.
The message of President Yiian to his Chris-
tian subjects was as follows:
"The Chinese Christians of the Protestant
churches in Peking hold to-day a union meeting
to celebrate the establishment of a republican
form of government in China and to thank God
that North China has been delivered from the
horrors of war. You have courteously invited
President Yiian Shih-k'ai to attend the meeting,
an invitation which he highly appreciates. But
at the present moment, when the old government
machinery is being replaced by the new, there
Missionary Problems
189
are a thousand and one things which occupy the
time of the President, who has few moments at
his own disposal. He is unable to come to-day,
and has commanded me to represent him at this
meeting and to make a few remarks on his
behalf.
"Protestant Christianity entered the Orient Propessof
J Protestant
from the Occident over a century ago. The prog- a ce'tif"'*^ ^^^
ress of the Church has been slow and difficult,
partly because China was conservative in the
olden days and regarded anything new with dis-
trust and suspicion, and partly because the mis-
sionaries speaking a foreign language could not
make their cause clearly understood. In the past
few years the spirit of reform prevailed among
our scholars, who devoted their attention to
Western learning, as well as to Western relig-
ions. Thus gradually the objects and policy of
Christians became known.
"Moreover, the different missions have M"il"ons°fn
achieved much success both in works of charity fnd'Educatioa
and in educational institutions. On the one hand
they have conferred many favors on the poor
and the destitute, and on the other they have
carefully trained up many talented young men.
For doing both they have won golden opinions
from all classes of society. The reputation of
Christian missions is growing every day, and
the prejudice and the misunderstanding which
formerly existed between the Christian and the
igo
The Uplift of China
non-Christian has gradually disappeared, which
will surely prove to be for the good of China.
^ch^n?iTn "On account of the fact that Christian mis-
Arrangements gfons form a subjcct of treaty arrangement, they
often take on a diplomatic aspect. It is not
necessary to discuss here whether such arrange-
ments were in former days indispensable or not,
but it is evident that they must change in order
to suit present conditions. Many Chinese Chris-
tians, realizing the modification of circumstances
and desiring to remove every vestige of differ-
ence between Christians and non-Christians, have
advocated the independence of the Church, so
as to divest it of all political significance. We
must admit that they are far-seeing and they
suggest a proper basis for the future of Chris-
tian missions. They are prompted by love of
Church as well as of country.
"So long, however, as the constitution of the
country has not been promulgated and the
article guaranteeing religious freedom has not
been formally published, it would hardly be wise
or proper to contemplate a revision of the articles
relating to Christian missions. By the grace of
heaven, the Republic of China is an accomplished
fact, and in the articles of favorable treatment
the Manchus, Mongols, Mohammedans, and
Tibetans have been assured of their religious
liberty, establishing for the first time in Chinese
history a precedent for religious liberty. When
Forthcoming
Article on
Religious
Liberty
Missionary Problems 191
the National Assembly meets and the new con-
stitution is drawn up, we can be assured that
such an article will be embodied, to include the
other great religions of the world. Thenceforth
all obstacles to the liberty of conscience will have
been removed from the Republic of China; the
five peoples of China will enjoy the blessings of
republican institutions, and the distinction be-
tween Christians and non-Christians will dis-
appear forever. Members of one great family,
with one heart and one soul, we shall all exert
ourselves to promote the strength and prosperity
and the happiness of the Republic of China."
In former editions of this book the first mis- New Treaty
111- , i . , RejrulationB
sionary problem discussed was the treaty rights Expected
of Chinese Christians, which have always been
to missionaries a source of more or less per-
plexity and anxiety. The time is now approach-
ing when the Chinese people will repeat the ex-
perience of the Japanese in demanding and in
obtaining the recession of the right of extra-
territoriality which has sheltered both foreigners
and their interests, to some extent including the
Christian Church. In view of the many deli-
cate interests involved, this recession cannot, of
course, take place until the Chinese have demon-
strated their ability honestly and impartially to
administer justice. If that time has seemed to
be remote and out of all relation to practical
politics, so also did the ejection of the Manchu,
192 The Uplift of China
which is already accomplished, and the one
achievement is the forerunner of the other,
indapeadent j^ advance of the meeting of the National
Cninese Cnurcn ^
to be Tested Assembly by which this important subject and
a multitude of others must be considered and
acted upon, it is vain to hazard conjectures. But
one thing is clear. The position of the Christian
Churches in China will be radically different
from that heretofore occupied. In this "thauma-
trope," or whirl of wonders, it is evident that
the Chinese Church is to be put to a test before
unknown. Can it suddenly adapt itself to its
new privileges and opportunities without losing
its spiritual character and without becoming on
the one hand merely or mainly a patriotic society
with an honorable history, and on the other an
organization of prestige and influence which
may be "worked" for ends largely secular and
selfish? That such adaptation is quite possible
we are assured. Yet the temptations and the
perils of the new status are sufHciently evident.
In the address just quoted, delivered by Dr.
Yen in the name of Yiian, the President of the
republic, cordial reference is made to the inde-
pendent Chinese Church, which has now for
some years been the goal to which many Chris-
tians in China have been moving.
wefkSess^Jf I" several different centers such churches
^"■^^^church ^"lave already appeared, and with the growing
national consciousness they have become increas-
Missionary Problems
193
ingly popular. Their advantages and thdr dan-
gers are obvious. They will form strong and
important centers of union, developing along
lines of least resistance. Their "independence"
may become simply independence of foreign con-
trol, with a possible leaning toward some other
strong support to replace the one which has been
given up. Will the independent Chinese Church
have sufficient anchorage in a deep Christian
experience and a sufficient grasp of the essentials
of divine truth to enable it to resist the sudden
and probably enervating change of climate which
seems imminent ? Can the Church be transplanted
from sub-arctic to sub-tropic regions without
losing its vitality?
A general loosening of religious conviction
among the Chinese people has been a prominent
characteristic of the last decade in China. How
far can this process go without dissolving the
foundations of Chinese social order?
It is not impossible that before many years
there may be in China considerable mass move-
ments toward nominal Christianity. Phenomena
of this sort have been very common in India.
It is true that, unlike India, China has in form
no system of caste, but the large and at present
quite unassimilated bodies of the various Miao
tribes scattered so widely and so numerously
through southwestern China, stand in much the
same relation to the Chinese population as the
Loosening of
Religions
CoDvicticn
MsES Move-
ments Likely to
Occur
194 The Uplift of China
lower*caste in India do to the higher caste. If
such mass movement toward Christianity should
occur, what will be its effect upon the Chinese
themselves, and upon the many millions of
aboriginal tribes? That the consequences from
a political and sociological point of view would
be most serious there can be no doubt.
Mohammeda°n Accordiug to the vcry moderate estimates of
Population ]^,jj._ Marshall Broomhall's Islam in China, the
Mohammedan population cannot be less than
ten million and may be much greater. What is
to be their future? As yet scarcely any work
has been undertaken in their behalf. What
duties toward them do the Chinese Christians
owe? And what are the responsibilities toward
them of Christians in the lands from which
Christianity has come to China?
Llade^rThrp How cau leaders of the Christian Church in
China be raised up in numbers at all adequate
to the need ? How can the little band of ordained
Chinese pastors be multiplied? Unless these
great problems can in some way be met the
Christian Church cannot lead among an educated
people like the Chinese.
EducaTio°n ^ further problem is that of education. The
new departure of the Chinese government in
educational lines put an end to the practical
monopoly of Western learning on the part of
mission schools. Free tuition and sometimes the
payment of most or all of the other expenses
jMissionary Problems
195
by the state would seem to make competition
hopeless; but from the absence of true normal
schools and from many other causes the teaching
standards of the former must remain for some
time below the standards of the latter.
The whole erovernment school system of China Eviisof Govem-
° . . ment School
has been suffering from ambitiousness of plan Syatem
and meagerness of suitable material with which
to carry it out. Too much has been attempted.
The number of teachers has been at times ab-
normally small and not infrequently they have
been without pedagogical knowledge or experi-
ence, and at times positively unqualified or
disqualified. Though the superintendents of
education have sometimes been able and zealous
men, yet they have been hampered by official
routine and red tape, their best efforts being
largely without adequate result. On the other
hand, high educational positions have been often
abused to enrich the incumbent, regardless of
consequences, thus bringing the new learning
into undeserved disrepute. At times totally in-
competent men have been placed in the office
of general superintendent or educational com-
missioner.
These and many other evils have led to great Lack of
-' ^ Organization
dissatisfaction on the part of foreign expert and Discipline
teachers, engaged at high salaries, who have "
found themselves assigned to rudimentary tasks
or sometimes left without any occupation at all.
196 The Uplift of China
For this reason many such teachers have re-
signed their positions. In general there has been
an unwillingness and often an incapacity to
enforce discipline upon students who have at
times demanded as a right light tasks and high
marks. They have boycotted and driven away
teachers against whom they had a prejudice.
They have gone out on "sympathetic strikes"
so that many schools have been temporarily and
some permanently broken up. In some instances
the scholars have behaved with ostentatious
rudeness and defiance in the presence of the
highest officials of the provincial government.
Because some of these students were connected
with official families they seem as a rule to have
been left to do as they pleased. Not all. govern-
ment schools have been on this level, yet ther-e
is evidence that in all parts of China many
schools have been so. We must assume that
under the new order of things all this is to be
gradually but radically changed.
^^Mlslionl^^ In the meantime the problem of missionary
Education education in China becomes at every step graver
and more complicated. Some of the evils already
mentioned in government schools have been met
with in missionary schools also. It is more and
more obvious that the government standard of
education, whatever it may be, is one below
which mission schools must not fall, that it is
desirable to approximate as nearly as practicable
]\Iissionary Problems 197
to the government curriculum and for conve-
nience in securing attendance at conventions,
conferences, and the like, the terms and the vaca-
tions of mission schools should coincide with
those of government schools. With the adoption
of the Western calendar by the Chinese govern-
ment this ought not to be difficult of arrange-
ment.
The government schools have behind them the Two*ly°sVem8
revenues of an imperial republic, ambitious to
do its best to reform the countless evils of the
past and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the
rest of the world. The mission schools on the
contrary have behind them only such appropria-
tions as may be made from missionary treasuries
subject to high and to low tides — more especially
the latter. Their principal assets are their gradu-
ates, their extended experience, a corps of self-
denying men and women intent only upon bene-
fiting China by their teaching, and the good-will
of the people among whom they have been long
established.
The only way in which mission schools in
China of whatever grade from the kindergarten
to the university can hope to compete with gov-
ernment institutions is by doing better work
than they do, and this result must be so conspicu-
ously true as to be obvious to discerning Chinese,
who when unprejudiced are excellent judges of
fact.
Results are the
Decisive Factor
198
The Uplift of China
Educational
Union
Great Examples
of United Work
It has long been evident to the missionary body-
in China that such a result can be achieved in
no other v^^ay than by an effective educational
union of missionary forces. In the reconstruc-
tion following the Boxer cataclysm there began
in and about Peking such a drawing together
of missionary forces as resulted in a compara-
tively short time in the formation of the North
China Educational Union. This originated in a
deliberate and definite cooperation between the
four leading Protestant missions in Peking — the
London Mission, the American Board, the
American Presbyterian, and the American Meth-
odist, joined to some extent at a later time by
the Church of England Mission. As the result
of this alliance there are now six distinct union
institutions cooperated in by two, three, four,
or more missions as follows :
1. Union Arts College at Tung-chou (12 miles
east of Peking).
2. A Union Women's College at Peking.
3. Union Theological College at Peking.
4. Union Medical College at Peking.
5. Union Woman's Medical College at Peking.
6. Union Academy for Girls in Pao-ting fu.
This organic union, achieved not without diffi-
culty, is so obviously in the interests of efficiency
that no one would for a moment consider a
return to the old ways. The complete wreck of
every kind of mission plant in 1900 was in the
Missionary Problems 199
providence of God the means of bringing about
this important result, which exemplifies and on
a large scale proves the essential unity of the
Christian Church in spite of its differences.
In the great province of Ssu-ch'uan on the other
hand, the minimum estimate of the population
of which is forty-five millions, and the maximum
estimate from seventy to eighty millions, a differ-
ent and more extended type of union was ac-
complished as an incident of normal growth. Mis-
sion work in that province was interrupted by a
riot in the middle eighties, by the war with
Japan in 1894-5, and again five years later by
the Boxer cyclone. These calamities drew all
the missions together in a fellowship of suffer-
ing which resulted in the formation of the West
China Educational Union, embracing all the
Protestant societies working in the three great
provinces of Ssu-ch'uan, Yun-nan, Kuei-chou.
There is a delimitation of territory, an efficient
advisory board, and a common curriculum and
common examinations for all the schools from
the primary up to an impending university. This
instance can be commended as a fit example to
be studied in detail, as exhibiting common sense
applied to all forms of mission work in a new
field.
Other cases of union in academies, arts collejres, ^"J,**'." cases
' ° ' of Union
theological colleges, and medical colleges are
now to be found scattered all over the provinces
200 The Uplift of China
of China, and they have become so numerous
as to be recognized as the normal trend in edu-
cational development. The great and rapidly
expanding Young Men's Christian Association
and Young Women's Christian Association,
whose work is of the utmost value in the evolu-
tion of the new China, are of themselves con-
vincing examples of the benefit of interdenomi-
national and international cooperation.
Successive When in the sixth century of our era the Nes-
Chnstian -'
Mu^tuaUy torians came into China from the West, they
Hostile ^^Qf- a, singularly favorable reception at the hands
of the emperors of the Tang dynasty, at a time
when China was the most civilized country in
the world. It is remarkable that we know so
little of their doctrines, their methods, or their
success. The famous Nestorian tablet, acci-
dently unearthed in Hsi-an fu, in the year 1625,
still remains the only tangible memorial of their
presence in China. But we do know that when
the early Roman Catholic missionaries came to
China in the Yiian dynasty (thirteenth century)
they were persecuted by the Nestorian s who are
mentioned by Marco Polo. The Jesuits, who
had come into China in the sixteenth century,
in their turn persecuted the Protestant pioneer
Robert Morrison and his successors. In the
eyes of the world the divisions of Christianity,
whatever justification they may have had or
may still have, have always been its reproach.
Missionary Problems 201
The century or more of Protestant missions umty instead
•^ of Neutrality
has been characterized by a period of hostility
between them and the Roman Catholics and of
neutrality among the different denominations
toward one another, which, as we have seen, is
gradually being replaced by more or less co-
operation. The different branches of the Protes-
tant Church carried on their work upon the plan
of mental neutrality for the better part of a
century. The time has now arrived when this
is no longer possible. The stupendous magnitude
of the task before us is slowly dawning upon
the consciousness of an awakening Church in
the presence of an awakening world. The very
nature of existing conditions impels to unity of
action, and unity of action is already emerging
upon an ever-enlarging scale. Bishop Westcott
long since pointed out that the effective impulse
to the reunion of Christendom was to come from
the mission field. So it has proved and is prov-
ing. The great Edinburgh Conference of 1910
offered to many who attended it almost the first
clear vision of that far-off event. There are
increasing indications that all branches of the
Christian Church are now more sensitive to the
evils of their unhappy division than ever before.
The remedy is rightly sought in united action.
On this subject missionaries are usually in ad-
vance of their boards, and boards in advance
of the membership of the Church at large.
202 The Uplift of China
Increasing j\^q flj-st example of missionary union in China
Demand for ^ -'
Union ^y2^g ti^at between the English Presbyterian and
the American Reformed Churches in Amoy,
which was accomplished with very great diffi-
culty in face of the resolute opposition of one of
the home boards. Dr. Talmage was wont to say
that in his early missionary life he discovered that
the official name of this society was "The Re-
formed Dutch Church of North America in
China." Upon mature deliberation he became
convinced that there was in that title far too much
geography and far too little religion. Our differ-
ences, as Dr. John R. Mott reminds us, are largely
Occidental and accidental and without meaning
to Orientals. One of the China delegates to
the Edinburgh Conference in a memorable seven-
minute speech made a point which is engraved
on the memory of many who heard it : "Denomi-
national distinctioJis do not interest us Chinese."
The West China Missionary Conference was
held in Ch'eng-tu, the capital of Ssu-ch'uan, in
January, 1908. It was a body of very mixed
composition, embracing the Church Missionary
Society, the international and interdenomina-
tional China Inland Mission, English Friends
(Quaker), American and Canadian Methodists,
American Baptists, North, the British and For-
eign and the American Bible Societies, the Young
Men's Christian Association, and others, com-
prising 150 missionaries from the provinces of
Missionary Problems 203
Ssu-ch'uan, Yun-nan, Kuei-chou. This body,
after full and earnest discussion, voted with
unanimity that their ideal was "one united
Church for West China."
At a conference under the auspices of the union in china
. Approved by
Committee of Reference and Council of the Home church
Conference of Foreign Mission Boards of North
America, held in New York on February 29,
1912, the following resolutions were adopted as
an unofficial expression of its opinion:
1. This Conference desires to assure the Missions
in the strongest possible manner of its unreserved ap-
proval of the effort to accomplish the union of the
Christian Church in China, and promises the Missions
that they will have in such efforts the hearty support
of the members of this Conference.
2. The Conference approves of the fullest possible
measure not only of cooperation but of union in all
forms of mission work, such as education, preparation
and publication of literature, hospitals, and philan-
thropic work.
3. With deep satisfaction at the establishment of
the Church of Christ in China, and recognizing the su-
preme place which the Chinese Church must occupy
in the evangelization of the nation, this Conference
expresses its sympathy with every purpose of the
Church itself to unite in the interests of increased
strength and economy and of the effective propagation
of the gospel of Christ.
To illustrate further the spirit of the Confer- ^chi^Be outiook
ence, another quotation is made from the section
on "The Message of the Conference":
We rejoice in the measure of unity already attained
204 The Uplift of China
by the Christian forces in China and in their ability
in this hour, without waste or discord, to present to
the Chinese people the one faith which we all hold and
the one Lord whom we all follow. We rejoice that
so many of the men who have wrought for China in
this time of national need have been Christian men
who have borne their great responsibilities with Chris-
tian fidelity and sought to serve their country with
Christian unselfishness. With a Christian Church
united in its mission and with Christian men serving
the State in patriotic and religious devotion, we believe
that the prayers of many hearts will be answered that,
on the one hand, a pure and unconfused gospel may
be preached to the nation, and that, on the other hand,
the Christian spirit, unmixed with secular misunder-
standing or personal ambition, may control the minds
of the men who are to bear rule and authority in the
new day.
In the effort to which the Christian forces of the
nation will now give themselves with a new zeal, to
carry the gospel far and wide over China and deep into
the life of the people, we desire to assure them of the
sympathy and support of the Church of the West, and
we now make appeal to the Home Church to meet
the emergency with unceasing prayer and unwithhold-
ing consecration.
^^chTnesI The Chinese Christian Church is ready to take
Autonomy ^.j^arge of its own affairs, as the Church among
all other nations where Christianity has been
naturalized has done. Nothing can prevent this,
nothing ought to prevent it. "Denominational
distinctions do not interest us Chinese." When
once the Chinese Christian Church has taken
complete charge, the unity of the Church will
Missionary Problems 205
proceed mainly along Chinese and not along
Occidental lines. Shall we not anticipate that
time by earnest effort to remove stumbling-blocks
out of the way? This is perhaps the most im-
portant phase of the problem of the future
Chinese Church.
2o6 The Uplift of China
QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VII
Aim : To Realize the Call of the Problems at
Present Awaiting Solution in China
1. What are the possible advantages to the
Christian Church of persecution?
2. What are the disadvantages?
3. What are the main benefits of the proclama-
tion of religious liberty promised by President
Yuan?
4. Are there any dangers connected with it, un-
der the circumstances, for religion in general?
5. What would be the advantages of the sug-
gested independence from foreign connections
of the Chinese Church?
6. What would be the dangers of such a separa-
tion?
7.* What should be the present policy of Chris-
tian missions in China in view of the possi-
bility of independence?
8. If you were a missionary, how would you
act towards a native Christian community that
was beginning to be restive under your over-
sight and yet seemed to need it?
9.* What place would be left for missionary ac-
tivity if all Chinese Christians united in an
independent Chinese Church?
ID. What would be the advantages and disad-
vantages of the sudden popularity of Chris-
tianity in China?
11. What special responsibilities does such a pros-
pect lay upon the Christian Church?
12. What are the main arguments for extensive
and for intensive missionary work at the
present time?
13.* Why cannot the Chinese Church continue
Missionary Problems 207
under foreign missionaries rather than native
leaders?
14. Do 3'ou think any American Church could
profitably continue to choose its leaders from
non-Americans?
15.* What are the principal problems created for
missionary education by the development of
the government system of education?
16. Should missionary schools withdraw after the
government schools have become efficient edu-
cationally?
17. How does the argument for denominational
schools in this country compare with that for
missionary schools in China ?
18.* What recommendations would you make as
to missionary educational policy, in view of
the present situation?
19.* What are the arguments for union in higher
education? How far should such union ex-
tend?
20.* What are the arguments for union in other
lines of missionary work? How complete
should such union be?
21. How do the arguments for a union of Chinese
Christians compare with those for a union of
Christians in America?
22. Why are missionaries usually more strongly
in favor of union than Christians at home?
References for Advanced Study — Chapter VH
I. Educational Union.
China Mission Year Book, T910, V.
Cecil: Changing China, XXV, XXVI.
Burton : Education of Women in China, XI.
World Missionary Conference Report, Edinburgh,
Vol. HI, 104-121.
2o8 The Uplift of China
II. Independent Chinese Church.
China Mission Year Book, 1910, VIII.
Shanghai Conference Report, 1-34, 409-442.
World Missionary Conference Report, Edinburgh,
Vol. II, 266-268.
III. Comity and Union.
China Mission Year Book, 1910, XVII.
Shanghai Conference Report, 311-334, 689-721.
World Missionary Conference Report, Edin-
burgh, Vol. VIII, 164-173.
TRANSFORMATION, CONDITION,
APPEAL
The work of reform upon which China has entered
is a herculean one. Many well-informed foreign ob-
servers predict that the movement will break down and
the reaction will bring the country back to its ancient
conservative ways. There are no doubt many obstacles
in the way of success. The Chinese are attempting
to bring about in government and society in a very
few years what it required centuries for the Anglo-
Saxon and other European races to achieve.
— Jolrn W. Foster.
China's new system of education shows the danger
of adopting modern methods without Christian prin-
ciples. It virtually debars Christians from the faculties
and student body. Infidelity, however, has free en-
trance as long as it adheres to the external forms im-
posed by the state. An edict of January, 1907, placed
the veneration of Confucius upon the same level as
the worship of Heaven and Earth and made homage
to the tablet of Confucius compulsory upon all officials
and teachers and pupils in the government schools.
Some writers have construed this as an effort on the
part of the government to avoid the difficulty which
has existed in the case of Christian students who have
conscientious scruples about the worship of Confucius,
since Heaven and Earth are worshiped only by the
Emperor. But many missionaries do not place this
construction upon the edict. They regard it rather
as an attempted defense against the growing power of
Christianity. Christ, the Son of God, must be matched
in the popular mind by another Divine Man, Confucius,
who must be regarded henceforth as more than a holy
man and sage. At any rate, the government schools
are far from being comfortable places for consistent
Christians.
— Arthur J. Brozvn.
210
CHAPTER VIII
TRANSFORMATION, CONDITION,
APPEALi
First Steps of
the Revolutioa
THE most ancient and the greatest of Em- Quick change
o irom Empire to
pires by the most spectacular change of Republic
modern times, perhaps of all time, has suddenly
become a Republic. An absolute and patriarchal
government has been thus transformed, not as
was to have been expected by slow and somewhat
violent stages, but, as it were, over night and
at a bound.
On the loth day of October, 191 1, a mutiny
of a few regiments of government troops oc-
curred at Wuchang, the capital of the provinces
of Hu-nan and Hu-pei. The foreign press in
China had no premonition of what was coming,
and did not comprehend it when it happened.
It was generally supposed that the rising would
easily be quelled and that things would soon
resume their normal course. There was fighting
and massacre at Wuchang, and across the Yang-
iThe present revision (March, 1912) of this chapter is merely
intended to present a general outline of existing conditions and the
steps by which they have been reached. In the universal confusion
prevailing in China at a time when almost anything may be sent to
the melting-pot, it is quite out of the question to speak with pre-
cision either of what is or what is to be. To Christians with a
vision, the greatness of the missionary opportunity in China and
the urgency of the cry for help from without China are the most
outstanding facts.
211
212 The Uplift of China
tzu River in Han-k'ou and Han-yang fighting,
pillage, and arson occurred on a large scale.
Eastwa^tTand Nanking, the capital of a group of provinces
Southward f^j-ti^ei- down the Yang-tzu, was fiercely attacked
and was captured with more arson, plundering,
and massacre. Events somewhat similar took
place in Fu-chou, in Canton, and in many other
cities. There were still other cities, such as
Shanghai, the great gateway of China, where the
loss of life was but trifling, the whole population
going over to the revolutionists without disturb-
ance of any kind. To an unprejudiced observer,
it seemed that China had entered upon one of
those tempestuous epochs when, for decades or
for an entire generation, social order is sus-
pended, while a dynasty is slowly dying and a
new one is in process of retarded evolution.
Manchu But a ucw and a mighty force had entered the
Abdication , ° ■'
and Choice of cclcstial empire. The first revolutionary step,
as we have already seen, was taken October lo.
After a full month of vacillation on the part
of the Manchu court and the Manchu clan the
irrevocable imperial decree of abdication was
issued February 12, 1912, four months and two
days from the initial revolt. His excellency
Yuan Shih-k'ai took the oath as President of
the Chinese Republic on March 10, five months
to a day from the inception of the movement for
a change of rule.
Workof^Patriots "Just as Conflagrations light up the whole
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 213
city," says Victor Hugo, "revolutions light up
the whole race," and we may well agree with
the Chinese student in America who makes this
quotation when he follows it with the observa-
tion: "Of no revolution recorded in the world's
history can this be said with a greater degree
of truth than of the present revolution in China."
It has become generally known that this stupen-
dous change has been long in preparation, and
that it was for the most part brought about by
groups of men who have either been educated
abroad or at home had come under strong West-
ern influences. Of these the leader was Dr. Sun
Yat-sen, whose romantic story has not yet been
fully told. It was his steady and unflagging
patriotism in preparing the way which made the
revolution possible. It was his self-denying act
in retiring from the Presidency that a man of
more experience might navigate the ship of state
through troubled waters that gave the best evi-
dence that a new patriotism has appeared in
China. It is an interesting and a suggestive fact
that Dr. Sun and several of his Provisional
Cabinet are baptized Christians.
A few words should be devoted to replying |^^^^„^^^^
to a question and an objection which have often
been raised. "How is it," we are asked, "that
China alone has seemed to be an exception to the
universal law of progress, apparently never ad-
vancing, yet despite the grossest maladministra-
Progressed
214
The Uplift of China
tion of government, never decaying?" The true
answer to the seeming paradox we must believe
to be that the Chinese do not constitute and have
never constituted an exception to the universal
law of human progress. Owing to their isola-
tion from other branches of the human family,
to their relative superiority to their environment,
and to their contentment with their own ideas
and ideals, they, more than any other people in
history, have appeared to be unchangeable.
"^HavrM^Jked ^^t the earliest traditions of the Chinese refer
Development ^ack to a time when they emerged from bar-
barism, learned to build dwelHngs, to use fire,
to celebrate marriage, to keep count of time, and
in general to lay broad the foundation of their
civilization. Silk, cotton, paper, written charac-
ters, printing, the compass, gunpowder, the
whole range of invention and discovery have
come into that civilization gradually and at wide
intervals of time. We know that Indian corn
(maize) and tobacco were introduced during the
recent Manchu dynasty, while such plants as
the sweet potato and the peanut, now so widely
cultivated, have in some parts of the empire been
known only in recent years.
The distinction between Chinese and Western
nations is not that the latter have advanced while
China has remained stationary, but that the rate
of China's evolution has been abnormally slow.
To go back to the beginning of the causes which
Abnormally
Slow Evolution
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 215
have led to China's decisive change of front,
we must take accoimt of the nearly four centuries
of intercourse with the West, more especially
to the events of the last seventy-eight years
since the abolition in 1834 of the British East
India Company's monopoly in China. This was
followed by half a decade of skirmishing between
Great Britain and China over trade matters,
more particularly opium. The inevitable col-
lision occurred in 1839, when China was hope-
lessly defeated. The treaty of Nanking followed
in 1842, by which China was "opened," and the
five ports of Canton, Amoy, Fu-chou, Ning-po,
and Shanghai were made accessible to foreign
trade.
Fourteen years of unquiet peace followed, ^^^^JJ^^^*^**
when another war with Great Britain took place. Development
during which Canton was again captured ; but
nothing was really settled until still another con-
flict had taken place between China on the one
part and Great Britain and France on the other,
when, October, i860, Peking was captured, the
treaty of Tientsin (signed in 1858, but the next
year repudiated by the government) was ratified,
and China was once more "open." That impor-
tant event took place only fifty-one and a half
years ago, and it is unquestionably during this
period that the most efBcient causes of the pres-
ent uprising have been in operation. The great
T'ai P'ing rebellion, which for half a generation
2i6 The Uplift of China
devastated China, was largely abetted by the
weakness of the Manchu dynasty in its first trial
. of strength with Great Britain, and but for the
aid of foreigners that rebellion could never have
been put down. The struggle with the French
of the middle eighties (which ended in a drawn
game) was of value in giving the Chinese a
new military self-confidence, but it was the de-
cisive defeat of China at the hands of Japan
in 1894-5 which opened the eyes of China as a
whole, albeit slowly and with the greatest diffi-
culty, to her condition of helpless weakness.
'^"dReuograde I" ^^9^ the first intelligent reforms in China
Steps £qj. i^aj^y reigns were projected by the late
Emperor Kuang Hsii, but they were cut short
by his aunt, the late Grand Empress Dowager,
who, virtually deposing the Emperor, resumed
the reins of government, retaining them till her
death, ten years later (November, 1908). In
the interim occurred the great Boxer uprising,
in which not merely multitudes of living Chinese,
but the spirits of myriads of millions of their
military ancestors, were pitted against the world,
in the Taoist belief that they could render their
w^orshipers invulnerable and invincible. The
court and the Manchu officials were for the
most part completely captivated by this Boxer
delusion, which was both infectious and con-
tagious, swiftly sweeping over large parts of the
empire. It was directed against foreigners
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 217
whose aggressions, political and commercial, were
becoming more and more intolerable. But it
was felt that such a mighty force might readily
be turned against the unpopular ]SIanchu dy-
nasty. Its only security then was in patronizing
the Boxers to save the throne.
The outcome of this erroneous policy was the Failure of the
siege of all the legations as well as other foreign- Movement
ers in Peking, for fifty-six days, from June 20
to August 14, 1900. The relief of Peking by
the allied forces was at once followed by the
flight of the Empress Dowager, with the Emperor
and part of the court, to the city of Hsi-an fu,
in Shen-si, an ancient capital of the empire.
There they remained remote from Peking, yet ^o^rt to°^ ^^^
in telegraphic communication with it, but re- Peking
turned in January, 1902, when the court in
triumph reentered that city. The past seemed
to have been almost completely obliterated in
the bright promise of the future. ]\Iany foreign-
ers in China, however, felt a not unnatural
anxiety at the return of the Empress Dowager
to full power with no inquiry into the past and
no substantial guaranty for the future other than
the exaction of a punitive indemnity of 450,-
000,000 taels (ounces) of silver, the payment
to be distributed over about forty years.
The real motives which actuated the Empress Progressive
' Action 01
Dowasfer in introducing the numerous reforms Empress
a o Dowager
which were plentifully sprinkled through the
2i8 The Uplift of China
seven closing years of her reign will probably
never be certainly known. She must have clearly
perceived the necessity of some of them, while
we may suppose that others, especially the
promise of "constitutional government" for
China, were largely due to a fixed purpose to
throw more than one tub to the whale of popular
clamor. Southeastern China in particular, which
in the seventeenth century had stoutly resisted
the incoming Manchus, was filled with active
and aggressive animosity to the Tartar rule.
This hostility it was hoped to propitiate by the
promise of reforms a long time in advance.
Abolition of The gTcatcst of them all was the abolition of
Old-style , ,,,.., . . . , . .,
Examination the old-stylc civil scrvicc examination, which,
having its root in the Han dynasty nearly eight-
een centuries ago, was developed in the T'ang
dynasty and in the Sung from the sixth to the
eleventh centuries of our era. The epoch-making
decree announcing this momentous change was
issued September 20, 1905. Whether we con-
sider the millions of scholars concerned or the
consequences of the step, it may justly be re-
garded as the most comprehensive intellectual
revolution in the history of mankind.
Educational Two ycars later this was followed by another
decree, scarcely less sweeping, which extended
the benefit of the new education to the uncounted
millions of Chinese women, who, by their bound
feet, intellectual ignorance, and spiritual dark-
Features
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 219
ness, have been most literally all their age-long
corporate lifetime subject to bondage. It was
late in 1905 that two parties of high Manchu and
Chinese officials left Peking — to the sinister ac-
companiment of bomb-throwing at the railway
station — commissioned to visit Western coun-
tries to study "constitutional government." So
far as these magnates themselves were con-
cerned, tWs was but a belated instalment of
their public education, but as they were accom-
panied by a large force of officials of lesser rank,
many of them educated abroad, and by numerous
interpreters, the deputation must have absorbed
many new ideas. As a result of their report in
the following year, additional steps in reform
were taken, until at the time of the death of
the Empress Dowager and the Emperor in 1908,
almost every one of his former proposals had
been adopted either in fact or in principle. The
Chinese have always been accustomed to be led,
so that by these numerous and somewhat stun-
ning innovations the people at large were awed
into astonishment or benumbed into indifference.
The sociological effect of the educational changes
was overwhelming, but they were lost in the
general confusion of an age of rapid and perma-
nent transformation.
Next in importance to the overturning of the Provincial
. . , . . Councils and
Chinese svstem of civil service examinations National
. Assembly
was the introduction of Provincial Councils,
220 The Uplift of China
which were intended merely as advisory bodies
with restricted rights of discussion and without
power of legislation. These councils were a
necessary step in the introduction of the prom-
ised "constitutional government" in China. They
were held in the provincial capitals, and many
fine buildings for their accommodation have been
erected upon the ruins of the old examination
cells. Twenty-one of these councils were open
for a session of forty days on October 14, 1909.
The franchise for the choice of members was
wisely limited to officials, to scholars, and to large
property holders. Although no such deliberative
bodies have ever before gathered in China, yet
the discussions were conducted with remark-
able dignity and intelligence, giving promise that
it would not be long before the functions of
these assemblies would be greatly enlarged. The
government had thus, more or less unwittingly,
uncorked the fateful bottle, and the genius of
democracy, after age-long suppression, was now
liberated once and for all. The National Assem-
bly, which was intended as the organism out of
which, after seventeen years should have elapsed,
the National Parliament was to develop, met
in Peking in October, 1910, a year later than the
Provincial Councils. It was composed of two
hundred members, one half of whom were di-
rectly appointed by the government, from a wide
variety of incongruous sources, racial, tribal,
Democratic
Initiative ofthe
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 221
official. The other half were appointed by the
governors of provinces from nomination by the
Provincial Councils, double in number to the
appointments.
Notwithstanding the apparently fatal bar that
the National Assembly was in no sense represen- Assembly
tative and was presided over by an imperial
prince, it immediately developed democratic
tendencies, and at once demanded the shortening
of the period before the National Parliament
should meet. In response to their request the
time was then limited to three years. Success
in this contention led to an attack upon the
hitherto untouchable Grand Council, resulting
in the replacing of that body a few months later
by a so-called Cabinet with theoretical respon-
sibility on the part of its ministers. The
"budget," a luxury new to China, was criticized
in detail, involving a novel controversy between
the Assembly and the Board of Revenue, in which
the National Assembly seemed to have the best
of it. The Assembly had thus early in its career
succeeded in establishing its right to inquire into
the actions of the throne, to control supplies, and
to initiate legislation. To the friends of democ-
racy this surprisingly rapid evolution of a ca-
pacity for government by deliberative bodies
in China was extremely gratifying, and will be
a most important factor in the development of
the new republic.
222 The Uplift of China
IreEsfe°D'iil! ^^^ ^hc fifst time ill the immemorial history
of China there was now a legally constituted and
recognized body between the people and the
throne, a body able to assert itself with success
and certain to grow in power and in favor, not
with the rulers, indeed, but with the ruled. The
Provincial Councils, young as they are, and the
National Assembly, still younger, are now essen-
tial factors in the evolution of a stable govern-
ment for China.
■^Mov°me^ In the year 1906 a memorial was prepared by
the officers of the Anti-Opium League and signed
^y I '333 missionaries of all nationalities and
bound in a volume with yellow silk, and sent to
the governor-genernal of the three lower prov-
inces on the Yang-tzu River. It reached him on
the 19th of August and was by him forwarded
to Peking. The imperial edict, ordering the dis-
continuance of the use of opium and of the
growth of the poppy plant, each under specified
conditions, was issued a month later. The
avowed object was "to make China strong," but
before long not only a patriotic element but a
truly moral one likewise was injected into the
movement, which was taken up with great ear-
nestness and zeal alike by officials and people,
and especially by students. No such note of
social reform had ever before been struck in
China. In many cities, and in some cities re-
peatedly, valuable opium-pipes were brought out,
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 223
neatly piled up, and after being saturated with
kerosense oil were destroyed by fire in the pres-
ence of applauding multitudes. The foreign
press in China, always skeptical of Chinese sin-
cerity, ridiculed the decree and denied the pos-
sibility of its enforcement. But when, the fol-
lowing year, active steps were taken for such
enforcement, so much progress was made even
in the most discouraging parts of the empire
that no doubt remained of the fixed purpose of
the government or of the general cooperation
of the people, varied by occasional riots and in-
surrections on the part of the opium growers.
The International Opium Conference, held at
Shanghai in 1909, revealed in its reports from
every land a state of things which made world-
wide restriction absolutely necessary in the in-
terests of civilization. The British government
and the government of India have now come
to an understanding with China by which, at
the expiration of a short term of years, the trade
in opium shall automatically cease.
Prevention of the introduction of morphia and Jnfoduction of
i New Evils
other drugs into China will prove much more
difficult. In the meantime China is being inun-
dated with opium from other sources than India,
as well as with foreign liquors. The cigarette
habit is becoming fixed upon the Chinese people,
largely through the expenditure of a million or
two dollars each year by the British and Ameri-
224
The Uplift of China
Unquestioned
Strength of the
Reform
Action Against
Other Evils
Extension of
Railways
can Tobacco Company, which has one or two
hundred agents scattered over China to promote
that habit and to hasten sales.
It is a regrettable incident of the revolution
that in the general relaxation of all authority,
the poppy plant is reappearing, for in some places
opium has risen to twenty times its former price,
thus making the temptation to illicit commerce
and illegal cultivation of the poppy practically
irresistible; but with the resumption of stable
government there will no doubt be a return to
rigid prohibition. In any case it may rightly
be claimed that China made more progress with
its Anti-Opium campaign in three years than
was made by any Western nation in a like reform
against intoxicating liquors in an entire genera-
tion.
In 1910 the Provincial Council of Canton or
Kuang-tung Province instituted an attack upon
the strongly entrenched licensed gambling, which
had for years been a government monopoly
farmed out to the highest bidder, and against
great odds the attack was successful. These in-
stances, together with the edict designed to
abolish slavery which still exists in China, show
a moral virility of good omen for a country
just entering upon self-government.
During the past decade the railway mileage*
of China has been greatly increased, but many
'There are 6,300 miles in operation.
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 225
Postal System
important lines have been left unfinished, a? that
between Yu-ch'ang and Canton ; the recently un-
dertaken line between I-ch'ang on the upper
Yang-tzu and the province of Ssii-ch'uan, and
many others. One important road, that between
Peking and Kalgan, about one hundred and
thirty miles in length, was built entirely by
Chinese labor, directed by Mr. Jeme Tien-yow,
a Chinese engineer, educated in America.
The postal system in China has had a phe-
nomenally rapid development, showing its adap-
tation to the necessities of the people. Its parcel-
post facilities especially are far in advance of
anything in the United States or Canada, while
the rate of letter postage (for each half ounce
only) is only half that of the former country. In
the confused conditions prevailing throughout
large parts of China, the postal couriers have
often been obliged to suspend operations.
The commissioners of the imperial maritime Phasesof
^ Neutrality
customs, the income of which has been pledged
as a security for foreign loans, have, during the
revolution, maintained an interesting and some-
what unique neutrality between revolutionists
and imperialists, each side dreading that foreign
intervention which might destroy the plans of
both. It is antagonism to foreign nations, com-
pelling a unity between parts of the Chinese
empire which could by no possibility be other-
wise achieved, that is the hope of China. It is
226 The Uplift of China
to the fear of intervention also, and not to any
regard to the foreigner as such, that we owe the
marvelous protection extended (with some con-
spicuous and unhappy exceptions) to thousands
of men and women of every nationality scattered
over the great empire, many of them quite un-
able to escape, since travel would involve still
greater risk than any to which they were exposed
at home. When the experiences of foreigners
in China in this revolution are compared with
those of the foreign residents of China in the
year 1900, the wonderful difference is readily
appreciated.
Probable That it is so often supposed that a revolution
Disturbance of this magnitude can sweep over a country like
China, and calm down as suddenly as it appeared,
shows a lack of historic imagination. Those
who recall the after effects of the English revo-
lution of the seventeenth century or of the
French revolution of the eighteenth, not to speak
of others of more recent date, will cherish no
such illusion. Decades may elapse before po-
litical equilibrium is completely restored, but this
is only what China has experienced in earlier
stages of its development times without number.
Yet even here there may be great surprises in
store for us all.
Charactirind It is essential to take note of the unquestion-
^^Ihe'change able fact that the old order has forever gone.
We are to have politically, financially, economic-
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 227
ally, commercially, industrially, a new China
that in every aspect is to be reckoned with. A
century ago Napoleon, always an astute observer
of world events, is said to have remarked that
China was a sleeping giant and should be allowed
to slumber, for when China moved she would
move the world. One of the distinguished
Manchu statesmen of the middle of the last
century also gave utterance to a remarkable
prophecy: "You complain," he said, "that China
moves too slowly. The time may come when
you will cry that China is moving too fast." That
time is already here.
In bringing about this condition we rightly f°«"ce8 Working
CO o . toward the
recognize the mighty effect of Western civiliza- ^^"^ ^'^
tion upon the civilization of the East. In this,
as we have seen, commerce, diplomacy, and war
have all had their share of influence. The estab-
lishment of foreign legations in Peking in i860,
and of consulates at all the open ports; the
persuasive object-lesson of an honestly admin-
istered Chinese imperial maritime customs serv-
ice, the illumination imparted by the many
thousand Occidentals domiciled in China, and
an able and intelligent foreign press ; the constant
visits of Chinese to foreign lands, and above
all the return of Chinese who had been educated
abroad — all these have been factors in the
awakening of China. It is to be remembered
also that by foreign intercourse dark shadows
228 The Uplift of China
have been thrown, but upon these in this con-
nection it is unnecessary to dwell. To what
extent and to what degree this great awakening
has been due to Christian missions must be left
to the impartial estimate of the future. Nor will
it indeed ever be possible to disentangle the
complicated web of causes and effects so as to
determine with certainty their interaction. It
is certain that missions have been one among
forces which have been efficiently working in
the celestial empire. But many of the other
influences which have been mentioned could be
felt through here and there an exceptional man.
All of them combined touched only the outer
fringe of the country, or the banks of its chief
river. Many men other than missionaries have
greatly contributed to our knowledge of China
and its people, but probably the number of those
who have permanently influenced the people of
China is small. Nearly all of them have lived
beside the Chinese, and not among them, and
for this reason their acquaintance with the real
life of the people was of necessity partial and
limited.
workof Missionaries, on the other hand, have pene-
Missions trated to every part of China and lived every-
where — in the large cities, in market-towns, and
in hamlets. They speak every dialect. They
have been a constant force, an always growing
force, an increasingly aggressive force. For
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 229
many years it was an unintelligent criticism that
their labors were devoid of result. In 1900 the
same critics charged them with having turned
the world upside down and brought on the Boxer
earthquake. In the providence of God, Protes-
tant missions had been established for two full
generations before the great transformation of
China began, in order that the seeds sown beside
all waters might have time to germinate. So
Httle impression did decades of the most labori-
ous effort appear to produce on China, that it
was not inaptly likened to an attempt to melt
a glacier by holding up to it a tallow dip.
What may it be soberly claimed that Christian Given°china a*
missions in China have accomplished? First QodT
and chiefest, they have brought to China a new
idea of God. If the Chinese ever had the idea
of God at all, it had ages ago disappeared like
an inscription on a worn coin. The monotheistic
concept outtops all other thoughts. In the ab-
sence of it, the Chinese have worshiped real or
imaginary heroes, and have been under an in-
tolerable bondage to the spirits of the dead and
to demons. Confucian morality with all its ex-
cellences fatally lacks the sanction of a personal
God of righteousness, holiness, justice, goodness,
and truth. To any people there can be no greater
gift than the knowledge of God as a Father,
loving, caring for, and teaching his children.
Without the unity of God there is no necessary
New Idea of
230 The Uplift of China
uniformity of nature, to the comprehension of
which the Chinese have never had a key, their
discoveries being apparently the result of happy
accidents, and not due to induction from per-
ceived laws.
tiAnYmpin^d Christianity has bestowed upon the Chinese
an altogether new idea of man, as by creation
and by redemption the child of God. The Father-
hood of God involves the brotherhood of man
through Jesus Christ, and thus for the first
time the classic dictum that "within the four
seas all are brethren" has become vitalized with
meaning, and the relation between God and man
has been established. In China, as in all Oriental
lands, the individual is of comparatively little
consequence; the family, the clan, society, are
everything. Woman is unhonored. At pre-
cisely the points where Chinese social and family
life is weakest, the immeasurable blessings of
Christianity are most convincingly evident. It
dignifies and ennobles man by revealing his in-
dividual accountability to God. It elevates
woman, sanctions the relation between husband
and wife, and glorifies alike motherhood and
childhood.
"^'oTchTractTr Christianity proves its divine mission to China
by its transformation of character, not in isolated
instances only, but upon a large scale and with
lasting effects. Gamblers, heavy opium-smokers
like some who in 1900 sealed with their lives the
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 231
testimony to their reformation, proud scholars,
the most hopelessly ignorant old women, mul-
titudes mainly, but not exclusively, from the
middle and the lower middle classes of society,
have been recreated in the temper and the spirit
of their minds and have begun to live a new life.
In China as elsewhere many of the regions most
difficult to open, as the Fu-chien Province, have
yielded the largest fruit. The people of Man-
churia, on the other hand, where the mass of
the population are immigrants separated from
their ancient homes and from their ancestral
graves, have accepted Christianity upon a scale
elsewhere unexampled.
It was once thought that the unemotional f p^"*"^' ''^'■"**'
° Now Becoming
Chinese nature was unfavorable to strong re- Effectual
ligious impressions ; but it is now a frequent
observation that the Chinese are not only as sus-
ceptible to spiritual truth as are Occidentals,
but often much more so, for the reason that
they have not frittered away their moral strength
by resistance to repeated appeal. The wonderful
phenomena connected with evangelistic work in
churches and schools in widely separated parts
of China, as well as among Chinese wholly out-
side of Christian influence, are of great interest
and value as evidencing a great force hitherto
wholly unknown. It is not merely by mission-
aries of an evangelistic temper and training that
these great movements have been conducted.
232 The Uplift of China
Chinese evangehsts, tactful, consecrated, and
of deep spiritual power — among them Chinese
women — are more and more appearing, whose
influence among their own people will be increas-
ingly felt. Among these may fitly be mentioned
Pastor Ting Li-mei of Shan-tung, whose remark-
able work among the students in his own prov-
ince in Chih-li and in Manchuria will never be
forgotten. As a tangible result, within a few
months, several hundred pupils in schools and
colleges gave up their burning ambition for
wealth, power, and fame and pledged themselves
to live as active Christians, while many of them
promised to devote their lives to the spiritual
regeneration of their own country.
^""^'^uv^s Here is the human side of the energy which
Transformed jg ^^ transform China. The oral proclamation
of the gospel, with a view to the regeneration
of individuals, has always been the key-note of
Protestant missionary work. Amid great dis-
couragements, fiery trials, bitter disappointments,
this enterprise has been steadily prosecuted, until
much of China is dotted with nearly 5,000 twin-
kling points of light, each representing a mission
planted in the cold and loveless Oriental atmos-
phere — a dynamo tirelessly giving out in all
directions light and heat. Sometimes, in the
midst of much apparent success, a glacial epoch
has set in. But lives of blameless self-sacrifice
eventually overcome prejudice and suspicion,
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 233
and in an ever-increasing ratio there is progress.
The quest for results is more or less vain. With-
out ignoring or depreciating tables of statistic-,
true mission work in China may be said to be
indefinitely beyond and above them. While they
record merely external phenomena, missions are
introducing a Christian sociology — a new moral
and spiritual climate.
It is by the indefatigably persistent diffusion ^j,'^^.^^^ «*■
of its literature that Christianity has largely pre- Literature
pared the way for the new era in China. Much
of the country has been sown with books and
tracts, and although multitudes of them seem to
accomplish nothing, yet this is in appearance
only, for books penetrate where the living voice
can never be heard. A work like the late Dr.
Faber's Civili::otion East and West has been
an invaluable handbook to progressive Chinese,
official and non-official, by showing upon what
lines China should be reformed. The Review of
the Times, with its constant essays upon China
and her neighbors, and indeed upon all them.es
of importance, has been a light shining in a dark
land. Dr. Allen's history of the Chinese-
Japanese war, Dr. Richard's History of the
Nineteenth Century, countless books and periodi-
cals, have added each its silent quota of influence.
The aggregate effect of this vast total is beyond
computation. The ideas emanating from litera-
ture of this description have for many years
234
The Uplift of China
Medical Service
Campaign
against the
Pneumonic
Plague
been diffused throughout China, as aqueous
vapor pervades the atmosphere. Without the
fertihzation of the Chinese mind by this Htera-
ture, it may well be doubted whether the recent
revolution would have been possible either in
conception or in execution.
As we have seen, toward breaking down the
initial walls of prejudice, no agency can compete
with the hospital and dispensary, which, though
at first often bitterly antagonized, eventually
win their way to the favor of peasant and of
prince. Here also statistics are merely the stuffing
of the dried skin of truth, but what must be
the value of 388 fully qualified foreign phy-
sicians with their native assistants, treating in
191 1 in 321 hospitals and dispensaries 1,333.482
patients. The inevitable trend' toward union
medical colleges in all the great centers of China
will enable missionary medical education to keep
pace and more than keep pace with anything
that the Chinese government is likely to do in
this line for a long time to come.
The Lockhart Union Medical College in Pe-
king graduated its first class in 1911. just in
time to take an active and an efficient part in
fighting the dreadful pneumonic plague, which
in the spring of that year made its appearance
in southern Siberia and in northern Manchuria.
Its terrible mortality was one hundred per cent,
for it was reported that no case recovered. Yet
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 235
it was ascertained that by due precaution the
disease could be isolated and thus extinguished.
It was not until this plague had been ignored
and allowed to spread by returning laborers
through JManchuria into Chih-li and Shan-tung
that the government was at last aroused to the
imperative necessity of taking active steps to
deal with it. During that time many tens of
thousands of lives were lost, including those of
several skilled and devoted foreign physicians;
but the plague was stayed, and, still better, China
was definitely and for all time committed to the
adoption of Western medical science.
The Harvard Medical College in Shanghai is Res^earchand
to comprise not only all that is expected of such '^'■^"""s work
an institution in the Occident, but in addition
it will become a great organ of medical research,
and a training-school not merely for physicians
and surgeons — of whom China will need an un-
limited supply — but of sanitary engineers, inspec-
tors, and other officials, for whom during some
millenniums China has been patiently, albeit un-
consciously, waiting. No larger field for such
a work can be found anywhere in the world.
Every orphanage, every school for the blind,
every leper refuge — all reaching down to the
defective and dependent classes — is a testimony
to a new spirit introduced from without, which
is not only making itself felt but is winning for
itself a sincere tribute of imitation.
236
The Uplift of China
Educational
Missions
The educational activity of missions in China
has been incessant. Of the fourteen institutions
of college grade in China, twelve are American,
exhibiting the emphasis which Americans almost
invariably place upon this agency. The total
number of pupils at present under instruction
in missionary colleges and schools in China is
102,533. From the days of Dr. S. R. Brown,
whose early beginnings in Macao and Hongkong
produced a few men who became leaders in
China, down to the present day, the potency of
this instrument upon which the perpetuation and
extension of the Church in Qiina depend has
been recognized.
The education of Chinese girls in mission
Education schools was but ycstcrday regarded by nearly
all Chinese with amusement tinged with ridicule.
Yet so great was the change that, almost before
the fully developed women's colleges can be
acclimated in China, they have become the ideal
of the Chinese also. It was at the especial com-
mand of the Empress Dowager that the imperial
commissioners visited Wellesley College, Welles-
ley, Massachusetts, to witness for themselves
what had been done by and for American women,
and to learn what might be done in China. There
are already signs that the impending education
and elevation of the more than one hundred and
fifty millions of Chinese women will impart to
the national development such an impetus as
Advance in
AVoman's
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 237
has never before been known; and, humanly
speaking, it will have been largely brought about
by the work and influence of Christian women
in China.
But a short time ago it would not have been ^^^l^
too much to affirm that the export of Chinese unhed^ltates^
young women to foreign countries for an educa-
tion was totally impossible — almost indeed in-
conceivable — yet in the statistics of 191 1 it
appears that of the six hundred and fifty Chinese
students then in the United States fifty-two were
women. The number is sure to increase steadily.
The women of China are indeed China's greatest,
as well as her most neglected, asset. There can
certainly be no more important question than
what the Christian women of America can do
for the women of China.
Missionaries in China have studied the coun- Diffusfonof
try, the people, and the language. They have
examined Chinese literature and have made com-
pendious dictionaries of the language and of
nearly every important dialect. They have care-
fully investigated its religions in all their aspects,
and the results of all these labors have been
freely given to China and to all the world. But
their great task has been to preach Qirist and to
explain Christianity. The knowledge which they
have imparted has penetrated to the palace of
the imperial household, to the yamens of the
highest officials, and to the dwellings of the poor.
Christianity
238 The Uplift of China
This is evidenced by the alhisions to Christian
teachings, met with in the native press. Articles
have been frequently published in the influential
:secular Chinese dailies, showing the follies of
Chinese superstitions, and proving, with a wealth
of illustration and a fulness of knowledge to
which no foreigner could aspire, that China has
at present no religion at all but is vitally in need
of one.
.-Remarkable Uttcranccs like thcsc are the reverberating
Thought echoes, far louder and fuller than the original
tones, of the countless sermons, chapel talks,
leaflets, tracts, and books with which, as we have
seen, China has been inundated — a remarkable
instance of bread cast upon the waters, that is,
seed widely sown upon soil covered by water,
which, retiring, leaves the seed to germinate and
to bear abundant harvest. Entire volumes con-
cerning other than Chinese religions are now
and again put forth by those occupying the
highest official positions. Some of these works
exhibit a surprising familiarity not only with the
Bible but with Church history, and a friendliness
of tone which ten years ago would never have
been shown. The uncounted lives of Chinese
Christians sacrificed in the convulsion of 1900,
the many missionary martyrs, consecrated men,
heroic women, and tender children, have not
been, and will not be, without result in the future
regeneration of the empire. Without as yet ac-
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 239
cepting Christianity, China is now learning from
Christian lands, and having entered upon this
course, must of necessity do so more and more.
The four thousand six hundred and twenty- Missionaries
. are Interpreters
eight men and women in the Protestant foreisfn oftheweitto
7 . , . ^ ° the East
mission ranks m China might all be gathered into
a single modern auditorium. Scattered through
the empire, they are the chief of staff, the cap-
tains and the generals, of a mighty army. Col-
lectively they represent an accumulation of
knowledge and experience concerning China and
the Far East not elsewhere to be matched. They
are, in an important sense, interpreters of the
West to the East, and of the East to the West.
They constitute an intelligent, a sympathetic,
and a permanent body of mediators between
the two.
China has always been the largest, and, in view f^J^^'^ '^"**
of its present unexampled transition, must be
considered to be the most important mission field
in the world. In such a time of national awaken-
ing old things readily pass away and all things
become new. There has long been in China an
unconscious sense of dissatisfaction with China's
past, but this feeling has now become acute and
all-pervasive. There is everywhere a readiness
to listen to preaching and to teaching upon
almost any subject, such as was formerly un-
known. Difficult and puzzling questions, too,
are often propounded by auditors, relating es-
240 The Uplift of China
pecially to the conduct of Christian nations and
to the mysteries of the Christian faith. The
present fluid condition of Chinese society cannot
last. Therefore full advantage of it should be
taken while it does last. There is deep need of
the influence of the Spirit of God all over the
land, upon the preachers as w^ell as the hearers
of the gospel, upon the makers no less than upon
the readers of Christian books. China is recon-
structing her civilization, not out of the ruins,
but out of the materials of the old. She needs
guidance and help upon every point and in every
place. Much of this help must come from
abroad and much more must be developed from
within. The profoundest need of the Christian
Church in China is such an infilling of God's
Spirit as shall fit it for the great task of evangel-
izing the entire Chinese race. The Church has
already among its leaders many noble men and
women, but as yet they are relatively few.
Call for the Best To train the coming race of Chinese civil and
mining engineers, electricians, railway builders,
and managers has required and will long require
experts from Western lands. It is not less so
in the far deeper mining and higher building
of the Church of God in China. There is not
now a general summons to "all sorts and con-
ditions of men" to enter China, but only to the
best, physically, intellectually, spiritually. The
call is for men and women of an evangelistic
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 241
temper and spirit to do among the growing
churches of China the work which was done
by the leaders mentioned in the book of Acts,
a work of inspiration and of upHft. Long before
they know enough of the language to enter
upon it, such men and such women will have
found their field.
Then there is the call for consecrated and I^^^^*"-^ ..
Authors, Guides
thoroughly qualified teachers, professors, and Demanded
Christian Association secretaries, for the schools
and colleges already existing, as well as for the
great union colleges which are yet to be, perhaps
one in every province. At present the drift
among the young students is overwhelmingly
toward the dazzling opportunities afforded by
the new China. The need of a strong personal
influence upon them, by wise men and winning
women from Christian lands, is one of the most
imperative anywhere to be found. There is an
unceasing demand for skilful physicians, men
and women, not to conduct hospitals and dispen-
saries merely, but to introduce into China the
new medicine with Christian accessories, one of
the wisest, sanest, most hopeful of enterprises.
There is urgent need for men and women called
of the Lord to help prepare the new Christian
and general literature for the illumination of
hundreds of millions of minds and hearts. As
yet, not one half of one per cent, of the books
which ought to be provided has been produced.
242 The Uplift of China
Is there elsewhere any call like this? In every
part of the vast field there is a demand for strong
and wise all-round missionary statesmen, to ad-
vise, control, and guide in the difficult emer-
gencies always arising. Such men must indeed
be trained, but witfi the right material under right
conditions they will be developed. In every mis-
sion there is great need of able and experienced
business men to promote efficiency and to elimi-
nate waste.
Enlistment of How is it that American missions have rela-
Seli-supporting
Missionaries tivcly SO fcw self-supportiti-g missionaHes work-
ing, not independently, but coordinately with
others? In each department of activity their
numbers should be greatly increased. The young
men and young women who are needed are those
who have first been infilled by the Spirit of God.
They must know their Bibles tl.at they may be
able to wield the sword of the Spirit. They must
know how to pray and must have unlimited
faith in this mightiest of weapons. They must
be men and women of vision — "visionaries" they
will be termed — of tlie pattern of those who in
1806 knelt under the Williamstown haystack,
undaunted by the indolent torpor of the Church
or the alert hostility of the world. They must
have at least some assimilated and funded knowl-
edge of what has been done toward establishing
ithe kingdom of God on earth, and of the vast
work which yet remains undone and not begun.
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 243
Two generations ago such knowledge was |equfred*'°°^
exceptional, now, thanks to the mission study
classes, it is common. They should be men and
women who are not anxious lest they be not
prominent, or even lest they be altogether un-
known. They should be willing to subordinate
the insubordinate personal element, to esteem
others better than themselves, and even, if need
be, to work under others. Tliey should know
men and how to approach and win them. They
should have had actual experience of some form
of actual work before venturing to spread their
unfledged wings in Oriental gales. Having once
for all faced the question of a life-work, and
having decided it intelligently and conscientiously
in the light of the Word of God, the call of God,
and by the Spirit of God, they will be in no dan-
ger of abandoning it without as clear a call to
leave as they had to enter it. They should have
good health and be able to pass the examination
of any life insurance company. They should
be active in mind, versatile and adaptable.
"There are very few such young people," some S^°"°fJ*"'
will say. There are unlimited numbers of them supply
— or, if not, there should be. In other lines of
enterprise the demand creates the supply. The
man that could do great things at home, in strong
competition with hosts of others, may do much
greater things abroad where there is no com-
petition at all. Not until the best young men
244 The Uplift of China
and women of the Christian Church recognize
the magnitude and the urgency of the work, to
do which the Qiurch was by her Master set
apart, but which she is visibly not doing, will
the anemic life of that Church be replaced by
the glow of returning health.
Dedication of In all the Varied departments already noted
Powers to there is mdennite scope for voung men and
Mightiest Task ,.,,',
young women of tact, skill, and consecration.
No one is wise enough to forecast the future,
yet it is altogether probable that the door of
opportunity may not always be open. It is not
a call to sacrifice, but to privilege ; to the most
permanently productive investment of influence,
and to the dedication of the highest powers to
the mightiest task yet remaining to the Christian
Church. Unless to every reader it be a call to
earnest prayer for the regeneration of China
this book will have failed of its purpose. "And
the teachers that be wise shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn
many to righteousness as the stars for ever and
ever."
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 245
QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VIII
1. If visitors should arrive in this country from
Mars, with ideas far in advance of our own,
describe what you think would be the effect.
2. How would the results compare with those
in a country as deficient in facilities for com-
munication and transportation as was China
fifty years ago?
3. Sum up all the reasons that might lead you
to hesitate in adopting the ideas of visitors
from Mars.
4* Compare these with the reasons that have
retarded the development of China?
S. What have been the lessons for China of the
wars of the last fifty years?
6.* Arrange the recent changes in what seems to
you the order of their missionary importance,
and give reasons for your view.
7. Compare the present educational system in
China with those of America and Europe a
hundred years ago.
8. For what reasons may we expect that the
educational developments in China will be
more rapid than in the countries just men-
tioned?
g* What will be some of the effects on the nation
of the new education? Of the development
of the railway and postal systems? Of the
anti-opium campaign?
10. Have changes of such importance ever before
affected so vast a population in so brief a time?
11. Will the material changes strengthen or
weaken the social and moral forces already
existing?
246 The Uplift of China
12.* How will the entrance of Western industrial
methods affect them?
13.* What sort of moral forces will be needed
in Chinese society under the new conditions?
14. Through what agencies do you think the
needed moral forces can be best introduced
into Chinese society?
15. What is the special value of Christian litera-
ture at the present time? Of medical work?
Of educational work?
16.* Why is a time of rapid change of special im-
portance in the life of a nation?
17. Why are precedents then set harder to change
afterward?
18.* Compare the call of China with other calls
now before the Christian Church.
19.* State as impressively as you can the oppor-
tunity of the present in China.
20. What claim has this opportunity on your
money and prayer and life?
References for Advanced Study — Chapter VIII
I. Recent Political Changes.
China Mission Year Book, 1910, II.
China Mission Year Book, 191 1, II, III.
Brown, Chinese Revolution, III, VI.
Reinsch : Intellectual and Political Currents in
the Far East, VI.
II. Reform.
China Mission Year Book, 191 1, XXXI.
Ross : The Changing Chinese, VI, VII.
Cecil: Changmg China, IX, X.
Reinsch: Intellectual and Political Currents in
the Far East, IV.
Blakeslee : China and the Far East, IX.
Transformation, Condition, Appeal 247
III. New Education.
China Mission Year Book, 1910, III.
China Mission Year Book, 191 1, V.
Brown : The Chinese Revolution, IV.
Ross: The Changing Chinese, X.
Cecil : Changing China, XXI-XXIV.
Reinsch: Intellectual and Political Currents in
the Far East, V.
Colquhoun : China in Transformation, VI.
Burton : The Education of Women in China, V-X.
Blakeslee : China and the Far East, XIII, XV.
Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, January, 1912, 83-96.
IV. Communication.
Brown : Chinese Revolution, II.
Colquhoun: China in Transformation, XI, and
Appendix I.
APPENDIXES
Appendix A 251
APPENDIX A
The Orthography and Pronunciation of Chinese
Names
There is no entirely satisfactory method of repre-
senting all Chinese sounds in roman letters. Further-
more, in different parts of the empire many of those
sounds materially vary. Early writers on China adopted
the French spelling and pronunciation. Those who
have ioUowed have too often written — as travelers still
do — every man that which is right in his own ears.
Within the last forty years, however, the system of
romaniiation of Sir Thomas Wade may be said to
have become definitely established, and is indeed the
only starjdard. As with any system there are infelicities,
but its general adoption in China renders advisable its
use out of China as well. It should be studied by the
aid of the appended key to pronunciation borrowed
from Professor Beach's Dawn on the Hills of T'ang.
The vicious and intolerable misprcnunciation of Chinese
names now gftierally current ought thus to be gradually
corrected.
A few observations should be made on some excep-
tions to the use of Wade's system, and on the division
and hyphenation of Chinese names. The names of a
few Chinese cities have a well-recognized notation
which it would be affectation to attempt to alter. It
is as out of place to insist upon writing Kuang-chou fu
for Canton, or T'ien-ching for Tientsin, as to set down
Na^oli and Bruxelles for Naoles and Brussels. There
are other words in which it is likewise inexpedient to
sacrifice intelligibility to mechanical uniformity. In
Appendix A
central China a final letter is often dropped, and thus
grew up the notation Pekin and Nankin, instead of
Peking and Nanking, which should always be used.
There is an aspirate usually marked by an inverted
apostrophe, as T'ai P'ing.
The names of cities should not be written as one
word — e. g., Paotingfu, but separately with or without
capitals, either Pao Ting Fu or Pao-ting fu ; never
Pao-ting-fu. Tlie first two syllables are related in
meaning (Guarding Tranquillity), while the third shows
the rank of the city as prefectural (governing a group
of county-seats).
The surname precedes the name and should always
be separately written without the hyphen. If the per-
sonal name has two characters they may be written
separately, or better connected by a hyphen. These
principles may be illustrated in the three syllables con-
notmg the designation of China's best known modern
statesmen. Do not write Lihungchang; or Li-hung-
chang; or Li-Hung-Chang; but either Li Hung Chang,
or (better) Li Hung-chang.
a as in father
ai as in aisle
ao as ow in now
*ch as y in ;ar
ch' as in c/range
e as in prrch
e in ch, en, as in yet, when
ei as ey in whcj
*hs as hss in h'lssmg, when
the first i is omitted
i as in machine, when it
stands alone or at the
end of a word
i as in pin, when before «
and ng
ia as eo in geology
iao as e on in me aui
ie as in szVsta
*ih as er in oxer
ill as eii in ]e\\u, when h
is omitted
*/ as the first r in regular
*k as g in game
k' as k
ng as in smg
*o as oa in boa-constrictor
Appendix A 253
ou as in thoMgh ua as oe In sho^ on
*p as b uai as ey in two eyes
p' as p iici as zi.'ay
rh as rr in burr tti as rrcy in scr^Tt^
ss as in hijj *w as final a in America
*t as cf *M as French n or Oerman
/' as f «
*/^ as (/j in pa(/j *wa as French « plus a in
/j' as in cats an
*tz as ds in paJj *m^ as French u plus <? in
tz' as /^ in ca?^ yet
u as 00 in too
* Those thus marked have no close English equiva-
lents. Consonants followed by an aspirate (') are
almost like the same in English ; the same consonants
without the aspirate are more difficult to correctly pro-
no uuce.
APPENDIX B
Bibliography
Country and People
Williams, S. W. The Middle Kingdom. 2 Vols.
(Second edition, '83). Charles Scribner's Sons,
New York. $9.00.
The standard reference work in English, treating China for
the last century. The chapters on government, literature, relig-
ions, and history are especially valuable.
Smith, Arthur H. Chinese Characteristics. 1894. Flem-
ing H. Revell Company, New York. $2.00
The best work on the characteristics of the Chinese by a keen
observer and brilliant writer. A most entertaining and readable
book.
Holcombe, Chester. The Real Chinaman. 1895. Dodd,
Mead & Co., New York. $2.00.
Holcombe, Chester. The Real Chinese Question. 1900.
Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $1.50.
The author was for years in the diplomatic service and tries
to show the Chinese view-point.
Colquhoun, A. R. China in Transformation. Revised
edition, 1912. Harper & Bros., New York. $1.50.
The first edition appeared in 1898 and was one of the best books
of Its kmd. It is now thoroughly revised, with several new chap-
ters added.
Ross, E. A. The Changing Chinese. 1911. The Cen-
tury Company, New York. $2.50.
Written by a professor of sociology, this book contains much
that would escape the ordinary observer. Perhaps the most
readable of the recent books.
Reinsch, P. S. Intellectual and Political Currents in the
Far East. 191 1. Houghton Mifflin Co., New
York.
Another work by a university professor and careful student
of the East. Three very full chapters on China.
254
Appendix B 255
Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord William. Changing China. 1910.
D. Appleton & Co., New York. $2.00.
A record of a survey of China made in behalf of the United Uni-
versities Scheme. Discussions from educational and missionary
standpoints.
Blakeslee, G. H., editor. China and the Far East. 1910.
T. Y. Crowell Co., New York. $2.00.
A symposium of addresses delivered at Clark University in 1909
by many experts. Treats political, social, and religious conditions.
China — Social and Economic Conditions. Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social
Science. Whole Number 128, January, 1912.
Another symposium containing several papers by Chinese.
Ball, J. Dyer. The Chinese at Home. 1912. Fleming
H. Revell Co., New York. $2.00, net
One of the most recent books, written by an authority on China.
He treats in detail nearly every phase of Chinese life.
Smith, Arthur H. China and America To-day. 1907.
Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. $1.25, net.
Covers some ground of the present volume, but emphasizes
strongly America's duty to China.
Brown, Arthur J. The Chinese Revolution. 1912.
Student Volunteer Movement, New York. 75
cents.
An interesting sketch of the present situation, with parts of
the author's New Forces in Old China incorporated.
Special Subjects «
Chang Chih Tung. China's Only Hope. Translated by
S. I. Woodbridge. Fleming H. Revell Co., New
York. 75 cents.
A trumpet-call to the nation written twelve years ago. A book
that has exerted an immense influence.
Douglas, Robert K China (Story of the Nations
Series). Revised. 1901. G. P. Putnam's Sons,
New York. $1.50.
A history of China, giving special attention to the last three
centuries. Rather anti-Chinese in tone.
256 Appendix B
Bland, J. O. P., and Backhouse, E. China Under the
Empress Dowager. 1910. J. B. Lippincott Co.,
Philadelphia. $4.00, net.
A fascinating account of one of the great women of history.
The authors have had access to sources of information not usually
obtainable.
Burton, Margaret E. The Education of Women in
China. 191 1. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York.
$1.25.
A valuable summary of what has been accomplished in this
most important field.
Morse, H. B. The Trade and Administration of the
Chinese Empire. 1908. Longmans, Green & Co.,
New York. $2.50, net.
Generally considered to be the most authoritative treatment of
this subject.
Religions
De Groot, J. J. M. The Religion of the Chinese. 1910.
The Macmillan Co., New York. $1.25.
Lectures by an eminent authority, showing the psychological
basis of Confucianism. Perhaps unduly appreciative of Buddhism.
Douglas, Robert K. Confucianism and Taoism. Re-
vised. 1906. E. S. Gorham, New York. 75 cents.
One of the most satisfactory statements of the precepts of China's
indigenous religions to be found in brief compass.
Legge, James. The Religions of China. 1881. Charles
Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.50.
Four lectures delivered on Confucianism and Taoism, including
a comparison with Christianity, by one of the ablest English au-
thorities.
Beal, S. Buddhism in China. 1884. E. S. Gorham,
New York. 75 cents.
An account of the introduction and history of Buddhism in
China, with a valuable statement of the northern view of Buddha
and his teaching.
Appendix B 257
Missions
MacGillivray, D. The China Mission Year Book,
volumes for 1910 and 191 1. Missionary Educa-
tion Movement, New York. $1.25 and $1.50, re-
spectively.
Annual survey of missionary work and its setting which is in-
dispensable. The many phases of work are treated by specially
qualified writers.
Centenary Missionary Conference Report, Shanghai,
China, 1907. American Tract Society, New York
$2.50, net.
Contains resolutions and discussions of the Centenary Conference
of 1,000 missionaries assembled in Shanghai in 1907. No student
of missions in China can afford to ignore this volume.
World Missionary Conference Report, Edinburgh, 1910.
Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. 9 vols. $5.00.
These reports lead up to weighty conclusions as to the prin-
ciples of missionary work. China bulks large in the whole dis-
cussion.
Headland, Isaac T. China's New Day. 1912. Central
Committee on the United Study of Missions,
West Medford, Mass. Cloth, 50 cents; paper,
30 cents.
Prepared as a text -book for the Central Committee on the United
Study of Missions.
Fisher, D. W. Calvin Wilson Mateer. 191 1. West-
minster Press, Philadelphia. $1.50, net.
The life of a strong man who did a great work of education and
Bible translation in China.
Hubbard, Ethel D. Under Marching Orders. 1909.
Missionary Education Movement, New York.
Cloth, 50 cents; paper, 35 cents.
An attractively written sketch for young girls of the life of Mrs.
F. D. Gamewell.
258 Appendix B j
Soothill, W. E. A Typical Mission in China. 1906. i
Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. $1.50. j
Mission problems and mission methods discussed by one who ;
has a keen sense of the needs of China. It contains most valuable ]
information on the social and religious life of the Chinese.
Gibson, J. Campbell. Mission Problems and Mission
Methods in South China. 1901. Fleming H. j
Revell Co., New York. $1.50. |
An exceedingly well written volume, treating missionary prob- i
lems, their failures, their successes, and achievements, in a scientific |
and statesmanlike manner. i
Osgood. E. I. Breaking Down Chinese Walls. 1908.
Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. $1.00. (
An interestingly written account by one who has conducted a i
hospital and dispensary in China for eight years, preaching the I
gospel and healing the sick in the villages round about. j
Kilbom, Omar L. Heal the Sick. 1910. Missionary '
Society of the Methodist Church, Toronto. 50 1
cents, cloth ; 35 cents, paper. 1
'_ Story of medical missions as carried on by a Canadian missionary I
in West China. Contains two chapters on the Canadian Methodist
Medical Work.
Appendix C
259
APPENDIX C
Area and Popul.\tion*
Chinese Empire
Square miles Population
China Proper 1,532,420 407,253,030
Dependencies :
Manchuria 363,610 16,000,000
Mongolia 1,367,600 2,600,000
Tibet 463,200 6,500,000
Chinese Turkestan, etc. 550,340 1,200,000
Total 4,277,170 433,553,030
Provinces of China
An-hui 54,810 23,670,314
Che-chiang 36,670 11,580,692
Chiang-hsi 69,480 26,532,125
Chiang-su 38,600 13,980,235
CKih-li 115,800 20,937,000
Fu-chien 46,320 22,876,540
Ho-nan 67,940 35,316,800
Hu-nan 83,380 22,169,673
Hu-pei 71,410 35,280,685
Kan-su 125,450 10,385,376
Kuang-hsi 77,200 5,142,330
Kuang-tung and Hong-
kong 99,970 31,865,251
Kuei-chou 67,160 7,650,282
Shan-hsi 81,830 12,200,456
Shan-tung 55,9/0 38,247,900
Shen-hsi 75,270 8,450,182
Ssii-ch'uan 218,480 68,724,890
Yiin-nan 146,680 12,324,574
Total 1,532,420 407,253,030
* Statesman's Year-Book, 1906.
Popula-
tion per
sq. mile
266
44
2
14
2
lOI
432
316
382
362
172
494
520
266
492
82
67
319
114
149
683
III
314
84
266
26o Appendix D
APPENDIX D
Opium Edict,^ September 20, 1906.
" I. Farmers are forbidden to plant new ground to
poppies, and the area now used for that purpose must
be diminished ten per cent, each year, and cease entirely
at the end of the tenth year.
2. All persons who use opium are required to reg-
ister their names with the police and obtain permits
which will allow them to purchase a given quantity of
the drug at certain periods. All persons over sixty
years of age may continue its use as at present, but all
persons under that age will be required to reduce their
consumption by twenty per cent, yearly, and cease to
use it entirely at the end of five years. The permits
are to be renewed annually, and the allowance indi-
cated upon them will be reduced twenty per cent, in
time and in quantity. At the end of the five years, per-
sons under sixty-five years of age who continue to
use opium will be compelled to wear a distinctive badge
which will advertise them publicly as opium fiends.
3. All government officials, even princes, dukes, vice-
roys, and generals, less than sixty years of age, must
give up the habit within six months or tender their
resignations.
4. All teachers and students must abandon the habit
within one year.
5. All officers of the army and navy must abandon
the habit at once.
1 The Baptist Missionary Magazine, April, 1907.
Appendix D c6i
6. Dealers in opium are required to take out licenses.
and to report all purchases and sales to the police.
Their purchases of stock must decrease annually at the
rate of twenty per cent., and at the end of five years
must cease altogether.
7. The number of licenses issued will decrease m
the same proportion, so that the opium shops will be
abolished gradually.
8. The sale of pipes, lamps, and other smoking ap-
pliances must cease within the year.
9. All places of public resort for opium smoking are
to be closed, and those who are addicted to the habit
must practise it at their own homes.
10. Violations of this law are to be punished by the
imprisonment of the offenders and by the confiscation
of all their property.
11. The importation of morphia and other medicinal
forms of opium and hypodermic syringes is permitted
under most stringent regulations, and the sale limited
to practising physicians.
12. The government will establish dispensaries at
which medicines to counteract the craving for opium
will be furnished tr the public free of cost."
262 Appendix E
APPENDIX E
Dates of Important Events in Modern
Chinese History
A. D.
1275 Marco Polo arrived at Court of Kublai Khan.
1516 Portuguese arrived at Canton.
1575 Spanish arrived at Canton.
1580 Father Roger and Matteo Ricci entered Canton.
1622 Dutch arrived in China.
1635 English arrived at Canton.
1660 Tea first carried to England.
1670 Beginning of trade vi^ith the East India Company.
1719 Beginning of commerce with Russia.
1784 First American merchant vessel left New York
for China.
1792 Earl Macartney received by the emperor.
1816 Lord Amherst's unsuccessful embassy.
1834 Opium dispute begins.
1839 Beginning of war with Great Britain.
1842 August 29, treaty of peace signed at Nanking.
1844 July 3, first treaty between United States and
China.
1859 November 24, commercial treaty with the United
States.
i860 October 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.
187s Death of Emperor T'ung Chih, and accession of
present emperor.
Appendix E 263
1880 November 17, new treaty with the United States
signed.
1887 February, assumption of government by the
Emperor Kuang Hsii.
1888 American exclusion acts against Chinese passed.
1891 Anti-foreign riots in the Yang-tzu valley.
1894 War with Japan, concluded in 1905.
1897 November, seizure of Kiao-chou by Germany.
1895 March, Russia leases Port Arthur of China.
Reform edicts by the emperor.
Counter edicts by the empress dowager, and de-
thronement of the emperor.
1899 Rise of the Boxer movement.
1900 June 17, capture of Taku forts by the allies.
1900 June 20, murder of the German minister. Siege
of the legations in Peking.
1900 August 14, relief of the Peking legations by allies.
1900 August 15, flight of the court to Hsi-an.
1900 September 9, signing of the peace protocol.
1902 January, return of the court to Peking.
1904 February 8 to September 5, 1905, war between
Japan and Russia.
1905 December, dispatch of two imperial commissions
to America and Europe to study constitutional
government.
1905 Abolition of old style civil service examination.
1905 Adoption of Occidental system of education.
1906 Issue of imperial edict against opium.
1907 Extension of educational privileges to women.
1909 Introduction of Provincial Councils.
1910 Meeting of National Assembly.
1911 Beginning of the revolution.
1912 Imperial decree of abdication by Manchu clan.
1912 Formation of the Republic of China with Yiian
Shih-k'ai as provisional President.
2&4
Appendix F
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Appendix G— Statistics of
NAME OF SOCIETY
American Societies
United Evangelical Church Missi^on .
Women's Union Mission i
British /Societies
Baptist Missionary Societ /y.
Baptist Zenana Miss'''"
Cliina Inlan'' '
Christ'"
'-( ics .
Advent Christian Mission
American Bible Siiciety
American Board oi- Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Baptist Foreign Mission Society
Christian Catholic C'hurch in Zion (1)
Christian and Missionai-y Alliance (4)
Evangelical Associati.Qn'of North America
Foreign Christian _Mish.,ionaiy Society
Free Methodist Mission. , .
Friends' Mission
Gospel Baptist Mission {'\)
Hauge Synod's China Mi: 4ion
International Y. M. C. A .
International Y. W. C. A. V.'.'.'.'! ! '.'.'.....
Lutheran Mission
Lutheran Augustana Synod .
Lutheran Brethren Mission
Methodist Episcopal Mission ( ;j
M. E. M., Women's Society.
Methodist Episcopal Mission, S. luth
Presbyterian Board of Foreign 1 Missions . .
Presbyterian Church Mission, So uth
Protestant Episcopal Church Mist^ion
Reformed Church in America
Reformed Church in United State:'^
Reformed Presbyterian Mission . . . '■
Seventh Day Adventist Mission (7) \
Seventh Day Baptist Mission .V
Southern Baptist Convention j
South Chihli Mission (1) .'
Swedish American Mission /....,
Swedish American Missionary Cove'yuant . .
United Brethren in Christ
FORBIGN MiSSIONARIEB
Total Staff
a
o
S
1897
1S43
1847
1836
1899
1888
1904
ISSti
19D4
1890
1392
1S93
1895
1903
•:s9s
1905
!90u
1847
1871
1848
1837
1367
1835
1842
1900
1895
1909
1847
1845
1S9G
1SS8
1890
1889
1901
1861
1859
1893
1866
1844
\'S63
\30
178
\%
4
8
46
58
2
40
4
14
6
2
3
9
41
'ii
3
6
95
'is
120
53
57
12
9
6
15
3
51
4
7
4
11
(c)52
370
iog
14
5
13
16
68
46
32
1
22
2
10
3
7
3
7
2
8
S
3
4
99
88
22
56
25
34
12
6
7
3
3
'is
"6
3
2
8
16
308
iis
8
52
7
3
9
26
Hm
Medical
Staff
3
7
37
56
2
27
4
16
6
2
3
6
28
"9
3
4
88
'ii
103
43
33
8
8
6
11
3
2
290
'75
7
"3
1!
1!
52
2
10
13
15
129
146
5
89
10
40
15
11
9
22
71
8
28
9
14
282
88
47
■279
12:
12
32
23
19
29
9
125
20
11
19
11
21
8
82
16
908
302
29
5:
1
27
30
146
W17
19
(e)'^
24
35
INDEX
267
INDEX^
Abdication decree of Man-
chu clan, 212
Abel Yun (Yoon), 124
Adherents and inquirers in
the first stages, 160
Afforestation, 17
Agencies or forms of mis-
sion work, 156-178, 230-
239
Agriculture, 14, 17
Alexandria, Va., 137
Allen, Dr. Young J., 170,
233
Altar of Heaven, 8g
American, Baptists, North,
148, 202; Bible Society,
the, 169, 202; Board of
Commissioners for For-
eign Missions, 147, 186,
198; educational institu-
tions, 236; Methodist
press, 171 ; Presbyterian
Board, see Board of For-
eign Missions of the Pres-
byterian Church in the U.
S. A.; Presbyterian Press,
171 ; Reformed Church
Mission at Amoy, 14Q,
202 ; Southern Baptist
Mission, 149
Amoy (E5), 133, 134, 149,
215; missionary union in,
202
Ancestor-worship, 58, 96-98,
185, 231
Anglo-Chinese Dictionary,
126
An-hui (An-whe, E3), 147
Antagonism to foreign na-
tions, 225
Anti-Opium movement, 222,
260; results secured, 223,
224; some counter-evils,
22Z, 224
Antiquity of Chinese race,
47
Apostle and Missionary
having same meaning, 157
Ashmore, Dr. William, 150
Asia, I
Awakening of China, 216-
227, 239; seen in educa-
tional changes, ig^-igj,
218
Baldwin. Dr. S. L., 147, 150
Ball, J. Dyer, quoted, 54, 84
Banks, system of, 15
Baptisms, first, 159, 160
Barley, 14
Basel and Rhenish Mission-
ary Societies, 146
Bashford, Bishop J. W.,
quoted, 156
"Belt of power, the," I
Bengal, 8
Berninger, Miss Martha,
178
Bible, 134, 242; circulation,
169; familiarity of Chi-
nese writers with, 238;
Societies, 168, 169, 202;
translation, 119, 122-127,
147, 168, 169
1 Pronunciation follows Chinese proper names, and the location of
geographical places is shown on map at end of text-book.
26g
270
Index
Blind, mission blessings for
the, 128, 168, 175
Bloch, Future of War, 171
Board of Foreign Missions
of the Presbyterian
Church in the U. S. A.,
148, 198
Boatmen and "boats, Chi-
nese, 6, 7
Body, care of the, 35
Book of Changes, the, 93
Book of Rites, the, 99
Books and tracts, 159, 191
Boone, Bishop, 149
Boxer uprising, 105, 216,
217; induced mission
union movements, 198,
199; influence of martyrs,
238
Boys' schools, 165
Bredon, Sir Robert, 188
Bridges, picturesque, 4
Bridgman, Dr. Elijah C,
146
British and Foreign Bible
Society, 168, 202
Broomhall, Marshall, 194
Brown, Arthur J., 184, 210
Brown, Dr. S. R., 236
Bryan, William Jennings,
quoted, 54
Bubonic plague, il
Buddhism in China, 4, 84,
86, 106-108; effect on con-
science, 109
Budget, China's first, 221
Bullion, use of, 14
Burdon, Mr., 148
Burns, William C, 131-137,
150; early revival work,
132; evangelistic career in
China, 133-^37
Cabinet, 213, 221
Cambaluc, later, Peking,
119
Canada, 132; Mission of
Methodist Church of, in
Ssu-ch'uan (Ssii-chooan),
148, 202
Canals, 6
Candidates for government
positions, 44
Canon of Reason and Vir-
tue, the, 100
Canton (D5), 9, 10, 123, 130,
176, 212, 215, 225; Prov-
ince, see Kuang-tung
Canton Missionary Alliance,
177
Care of the body, 35
Cash, Chinese, 14
Caste little known, 36
Cathay, 32
Cemetery, model of, 174
Chalmers, Dr. John, 147
Chang (Jang), 102
Chang Chih-tung (Jang-
Jer-doong), quoted, 84
Chang-chou (Jang-j6, E5),
134
Ch'ao-chou (Chow- jo, Es),
136
Characters transformed by
Christianity, 230-232
Che-chiang (Ju-jeang, E4),
t6
Ch'eng-tu (Chung-doo, B3),
202
Chiang-hsi (Jeang-she, E4),
41, 147, 160
Ch'ien Lung (Cneen-
Loong), Emperor, 60
Chih-li (Jer-le, E2), 8, 10,
103. 232, 23s
Childhood in China, 76
China Inland Mission, 149,
160, 202
China Proper, area, 2 ; cli-
Index
271
mate, i, 9, 10; coast-line,
I, 19; conditions and des-
tiny, 19; currency, 14, 15;
favorable situation, i ; im-
proved methods, 17; in-
ventions, 47; investments,
16; irrigation, 14; lakes,
7; mountains, i; names
for, I ; original settlers,
i; physical features, i-io;
political and social
changes, 211-222; popula-
tion, see Population ; pro-
ducts, I1-14; progress of
Christianity, 145-151. i8g,
228-239; railways, 18, 224,
225 ; reform, 222-224 ;
rivers, i; scenery, 4;
wealth, 15, 16
"China's Sorrow," 5
Chi-nan (Je-nan, E2), 174
Chinese Church, the, 188-
205
Chinese Empire, i ; area,
2 ; divisions and depend-
encies, I, 2; population, 3
Chinese family, a new spirit
needed, 78; the collective
household, 57; patriarchal
type, 56
Chinese manuscript in Brit-
ish Museum, 122
Chinese officials, bad and
good, 63, 64
Chinese people, adaptive-
ress, 38, 39; anomalies of
character, 72; conserva-
tive, 46; contending with
extreme poverty, 16; ed-
ucated, 194; hedged about
by formality, 85; industry
and economy. 41, 42; in-
novation difficult among,
58-60; long-enduring, 64;
meals and home without
social zest, 77; of some-
what cruel nature, 71 ;
qualities inherent and
lacking, 38-47, 184, 231;
social system defective,
54-78; value as immi-
grants, 42
Chinese Repository, the, 146
Chinese Republic, see Re-
public of China
Chinese work in Japan, 177
Ch'ing-chou (Ching-jo, E2),
Chiu-chiang (Jeoo-jeang,
E4), 147
Cholera, il
Chou (Jo) dynasty, the, 30
Christ, 55, 78, 237; a Savior,
no; creates human
brotherhood, 230
Christian home, effect of,
the, 162
Christian Literature So-
ciety, 170
Christianity, an ancient faith
in China, 118; divisions
harmful, 200; power to
uplift and transform, 20,
100, 135, 229-239
Chu Hsi (Joo She), com-
mentator, 32
Chung-ch'ing (Joong-ching,
C4). 5 . .
Church Missionary Society,
148, 149, 202
Church, problem of native,
201-205
Cigarette habit, 223
Circulation of the Scrip-
tures, 169
City walls, with ivy, 4
Civil service changes, 218,
219
Civilisation East and West,
233
272
Index
Classics, teachings of the,
34
Climate, 9
Coal, 11-13
Coast-line of China, i, 19
Cobbold, Mr., 148
Collins, Judson D., 147
Colporteurs, 159
Comity and federation, 194
Commerce, 19
Communistic ideas, 31
Compass, mariners', 47, 214
Conference of foreign mis-
sion boards of North
America, 203
Confucianism, 84-88, 99, 185
Confucius, avoids a difficult
problem, 94; idea of good
government, 90; v^orship
of, 96, 210
Constitutional government,
220-222
Conventions successful, 176
Cooperation in missions,
198-200
Copper, 13
Cornaby, Rev. William A.,
171
Corruption, temptation to,
65
Corvino, Monte, 119
Cotton, 14, 18, 214
Currency, the, 14, IS
Cushing, Caleb, 130
Dates in modern Chinese
history, 2, 54, 262, 263
Deaf-mutes, missionary care
of, 17s
Deforestation, 16
De Groot, Dr., 185
Democracy set free, 220,
221
Dialects, Chinese, 133
Dignity not a fruit of the
Spirit, 78
Diphtheria, II
Discoveries made by the
Chinese, 38, 214
Disobedience to parents
counted a crime, 35
Dispensaries, 126, 128, 162,
220-223
Divisions, see Christianity
Doolittle. Justice, 147
Dragon King, a, 102, 103
Du Bose, H. C, quoted, 84
Duke Chou (Jo), 96
Dust storms, 17
Dynasties, founder of, 32;
table of, 264
Earth-dragon, the, 18
East India Company, 122-
126, 215
Edinburgh Conference, 201,
202
Educational Association of
China, the, 172, 191
Educational system of
China, earlier ideal, 35,
61 ; new needs and stand-
ard, 78, 194-196
Educational work of mis-
sions, 126, 146, 164-168;
industrial schools, 167;
problems, 196-198; train-
ing schools for women,
166, 167
Eighk Fairies, the, loi
Eight Immortals, the, 102
Eighteen Provinces, the, 3 ;
see also China Proper
Emperor, the, 216-219
Emperors, Chinese, 31-34;
worship of early, 96
Empress Dowager, 216-219,
236
Index
273
Engineering skill required,
English Baptist Missionarj-
iMuseum, 173
English Presbyterian
Church, Missions, 132, 202
Epidemic diseases, II
Episcopal missions, 148, 149;
see also Church Mission-
ary Society and Protes-
tant Episcopal Church,
Mission
European ships visit China,
Evangelistic work, 131-137,
140, 150, 157-162, 229-233
Evangelists, native, 140
Evolution of a mission, 157-
174 . .
Examinations, Chinese, 61,
62; now abolished, 218
Faber. Dr., 233 ; quoted, 95
'"Face" defined, 70
Faith required, 5°
Falsehood prevalent, 78
Family, Chinese, see Chi-
nese family
Famines and famine relief,
17. 158, 175
Farmer, Chinese view of
the, 36
Fcng-shui (fiing-shooe), 13,
18
Fertilizers, 14
Filial piety of the Chinese,
35, 60
Five Constant Virtues, the,
91
Five open ports, 215
Five Social Relations, the,
92
Floods, destructive, 17
Foot-binding, 75
Foreign, aggression, 16; in-
tervention dreaded, 225,
226
Foreigners, Chinese early
attitude toward. 66; influ-
ence of on China, 189, 215-
239
Forests destroyed, 16
Foster, Hon. John W.,
quoted, 183, 210
'"Four Streams," 5
France, war with, 215, 216
Francis Xavier, 119
French, Mr., 148
Fu-chien (Foo-jeen, E4),
40, 166, 231
Fu-chou (Foo-jo, E4), 136,
147. 164, 170, 212, 215
Fulton, Dr. Mary, 164
Gambling repressed, 224
Gems, 13
Genghis Khan, 40, 47
Geomancy. 13, 18
Gibbon, quoted, 87
Gibson, Dr. J. Campbell,
quoted, 72
Giles, Herbert Allen,
quoted, 84
Girls' education, 165, 166,
237
God, a new idea of, given to
China, 229, 230
Gods, of non-Christian
faiths, 16, 89, 96, 101-109
Gold, 13
Gorges of the Yang-tzu
(Yang-dsu), 4, 5
Government, of China, 2)3,
61-66; appointees, 44;
change to a republic, 188,
212; democratic feature,
184, 221 ; recent Manchu
evolution, 214-225; revo-
lution and republic, 184,
186, 210-213; toleration,
274
Index
185-191; see also Confu-
cius
Gracey, J. T., quoted, 28
Grand Canal, the, 6, 47, 135
Grand Council, 221
Gray, Archdeacon, quoted,
57, 59
Great Britain, 2, 130, 135;
war with, 215
Great Plain, the, 8; rain-
fall on, 10
Great Pure dynasty, the, 32
Great Wall, the, 30
Guilds, the. 43
Gulf Stream, 9
Gunpowder, 47, 214
Gutzlaff, Dr. Karl, 146
Han-ch'uan (Han-chooan,
D3, near Han-k'ou), 139
Han (Han) dynasty, the, 31,
218
Han-k'ou (Hiin-ko, D3), S,
19. 138, 144, 145. 170, 212
Han Wen-kung (Han Wun-
goong), 103
Han-Yang (Han-yang, D3),
212
Hang-chou (Hang-j6, F3),
6
Happer, Dr. A. J., 148
Hart, Mr. and Mrs. Virgil
C, 147
Harvard Medical College m
Shanghai, 235
Health of foreigners, il
Heaven, worshiped by the
emperor, 89; Temple of,
89
Heber. Bishop Reginald,
quoted, 116
History, China's, 29, 47; of
the Chinese-Japane«e war.
Dr. Allen's, 233
History of the Nineteenth
Century, 233
Hobson, Dr., 147
Holidays, 42
Holy Man, the, a title, 95
Holy Spirit, the, 132, 240-
243
Hongkong (D5), 10, 11,
133. 175, 236
Hospitals, statistics of, 234,
265
Household, see Chinese
family
Hsi-an fu (She-an foo, G3),
200, 217
Hsien Feng (Sheen Fung),
Emperor, 90
Huang Ho (Hooang Hou),
5,6
Hugo, Victor, quoted, 213
Hu-nan (Hoo-nan, D4), 211
Hu-pei (Hoo-ba, D3), 147,
211
I-ch'ang (E-chang, D3), 5,
225
Illusion dispelled, 199
Immigrants, Chinese as, 42
Indemnity, 3
Independent Chinese
Church, see Church
India, 9, 10
Indian corn introduced, 214
Indigo. 14
Individual regeneration the
aim, 22,2
Industry of Chinese, 41, 42
Ingle, Bishop James Addi-
son, 137-145
Innovation difficult, 58, 66
Inquirers, early. 160
Intellectual tasks of the Chi-
nese, 44
Inventions and discoveries
Index
-/:>
by Chinese, 47, 214; re-
cent, by native, as aid to
reading, 172
Investment of influence, 244
Investments in China, few
safe, 16
Iron, 11-13
Irrigation, 14
Islam in China, 194
Itineration in mission work,
159, 160
Japan, 4; Current, 9; effect
of her success, 216; stu-
dents from China in, 63
Jeme Tien-Yow, 225 b
Jesuits, the, 200
Jews in K'ai-feng (Ki-
fung),86
John, called Monte Cor-
vino, 119
John, Dr. Griffith, 145, 149,
150; quoted, 145
Johnson, Stephen, 147
K'ai-fang (Ki-fung, D3), 86
Kalgan CDi), 225
Kerr, Dr. J. G., 148, I75.
176
Kindergarten work, 164
Kuan Ti (Gooan De), god
of war, 96
Kuan Yin (Gooan Yin),
goddess of mercy. 109
Kuan g-hsi (Gooang-she,
CS), 3
Kuang Hsii (Gooang-shoo),
216
Kuang-tung ( Gooang-
doong, D5), 224
Kublai Khan, 32, 119
Kuei-chou (Gooa-jo, Ci), 3,
199, 203
K'ung (Koong) family, the,
95
Lakes, 8
Lao-tzu (Low-dsii), 100, 102
Leaders needed, 194
Lecturers, 173
Legge, Dr. James, 147;
quoted, 94, 95, 98
Lepers, asylums for, 175
Liang A-t'a (Leang A-fa),
Liberty of conscience as-
sured, 191
Li Hung-chang (Le Hoong-
jang) Dragon King wor-
ship, 103 ; view of mission
work, 116; of the New
Testament, 99
Life, the new civic, 213
Lin (Lin), Commissioner,
.39
Lin-ch'ing (Lin-chTng, E2,
west of Chi-nan), 6
Literary work, 146-150, 168-
172, 233
Little, Mrs. Archibald, 214;
quoted, 13, 75
Loans, interest on, 16
Lockhart, Dr., 148
Lockhart Union Medical
College, 234
Loess soil, the, 8; map, 12
London Missionary Society,
121, 125, 145, 198
Lowrie, Rev. Walter M.,
148
Lu (Loo), god of barbers,
102
Macao, 124, 236
Macgowan, Dr. J. D., 148
Mackenzie, Dr. Kenneth,
149
McCartee, Dr. D. B., 148
Madison, James, Secretary
of State, 123
Maize and millet, 14
276
Index
Manchu, clan's imperial de-
cree of abdication, 212;
duke, address of, 173;
rulers, 32
Manchuria, i, 2, 8, 19, 136;
ready response to Chris-
tian appeal, 231, 232; ter-
rible pneumonic plague,
234
Manchus, the, 132, 190
Mandarins, 17
Manufacturers of the future,
18
Maps, coal, iron, and soil
areas, 12; lines of trans-
portation, 7
Marco Polo, 32, 200
Maritime customs, 225
Marriage customs, 56
Martin, Dr. W. A. P., 75»
86, 92
Martyrs in China, influence
of, 150, 238
Mass movement possible,
194
Match-maker, the, 57^
Mechanic, Chinese view of
the, 36
Medhurst, Dr., 148
Medical helpers, 235, 241
Medical missions, 162-164,
234-236; founder of, 127;
tours, 162; woman's op-
portunity, 164
Meeting at Wuchang, 211
Memorizing the classics, 44
Mencius, 34
Message and resolutions
favoring Chinese Church,
202
Message of President Yuan
to Christians, 188-191
Methodist Church in Can-
ada, Mission, 147, 148
Methodist Episcopal
Church, Missions, 147,
198, 202
Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, Mission,
149
Miao tribes, 193
Middle Kingdom, i ; see also
China Proper
Mills, Mrs., in Chefoo, 175
Milne, Rev. William, 125,
146, 150
Mineral resources, 11, 13
Ming dynasty, 32
Minor faiths, 85
Mints, the provincial, 15
Mission, press, 148, 149, 171 ;
schools, 164-168, see Edu-
c a t i nal work and
Schools; study classes,
243
Missionaries, 116-151, 228;
need of reinforcements,
151, 239-244
Missionary, agencies, 156-
182, 232-237; see also sep-
arate topics, as Educa-
tional zvork; problems,
191-20=;, 210; results, 234-
238, 265
Missions, Protestant, 121-
182, 200, 201, 229; move-
ment toward union, 198-
204; three periods, 145-
150; woman's work, 160-
162
Models of buildings, 174
Mohammedanism, 85, 194
Mollendorf, quoted, 74
Monarchy, Chinese govern-
ment formerly a, 33
Mongol, dynasty, 32; prin-
cess at lecture, 173
Mongolia, 2, 3, 20
Mongols, the, 173, 190
Monotheistic worship, 89
Index
277
Monsoon, the southwest, 10
Morrison, Robert, 121-127,
200; famous reply of, 124;
memorial building to, 177;
translation of Bible, 125,
126; work summarized,
126, 127
Morton, Miss Mary, 124
Motives in reforms by Em-
press Dowager, 217, 218
Mott, Dr. John R., 202
Mountains, i, 4
Muirhead, Dr.. 148
Murray, Mr., 175
IMuseum, as missionary
agency, 173, 174 _
Mutual responsibility of the
Chinese family, 59
Nanking (£3"), 212, 215
Napoleon of China, the, 31
Napoleon's view of China's
awakening, 227
National, Assembly, 191,
192, 220, 221 ; Parliament,
220, 221
Native preachers, 160
Nature worship, 96
Nervousness, absence of, 40
Nestorian, tablet, 118, 200;
work in China, 117
Neutrality of thought
among missions to give
way to unity, 201
Nevius, Dr. J. L., 149, 150;
quoted, 57, 156, 183
Nevius, Mrs., 149
New China, 184, 186, 212,
226, 227
New York, 203
Niles, Dr. Mary, 164
Ning-po (Ning-poii, F4),
148, 215
Nitrous efflorescence, 8
Niu-chu'ang (Neoo-choo-
ang, Fi), 137
Nominal Christianity may
be a mass movement to-
ward, 193
Nonconformity, 1S5, 210
North China, American Col-
lege Club, 188; Educa-
tional Union, 198
North China Herald, quoted,
Northern China, 4, 9, 10
Object-lesson of the Chris-
tian home, 162
Occident, influence of in the
Orient, 216
Official, accountability. 65 ;
position, how secured, 35,
61
Olopun, Syrian priest in
China, 118
Opening of China, 20, 215
Ophthalmic Hospital. 128
Opium, 14; evil of, 39, 164;
imperial edict against, 222,
260; International Con-
ference on, 223 ; pipes de-
stroyed, 223 ; smokers,
163; trade in, 215, 224;
War, 130
Orphanages, 175
Pacific Ocean, mastery of
the, 19, 20
Pagoda, the, 4
Pantoja, Father, 120
Pao-ting fu (Bow-ding foo,
E2), 198
Paper, 214
Parker, Dr. Peter, 127-T31,
150; favorite expression,
129; opens Ophthalmic
278
Index
Hospital, 128; remarkable
success, 128, 129; United
States Commissioner, 131
Parker, Professor, quoted,
63
Parliament, National, 220,
221
Patriarchal system, the, 33,
62
Patriotism, undeveloped, 62;
will grow, 213, 220-222
Pearly Emperor Supreme
Ruler, 102
Pechuia, 135, 136
Peet, Mr. and Mrs., 147
Peking (E2), 9, 89, 119, 124,
136, 148. 170,220. 222, 234;
Protestant colleges in,
198; thanksgiving service
for republic in, 186-191
Persecution, 86
Physical vitality of Chinese,
37
Pilgrim's Progress, trans-
lated, 133, 136
Pioneer evangelistic work,
158, 189, 201, 228, 229
Pioneers, summary review
of, 145-150
Plague, pneumonic, 234, 235
Political assumption of
Roman Catholic Church,
121
Poppy, cultivation of the,
40; repressive measures,
222, 224, 260
Population, China Proper,
2, 3, 259; Chinese Em-
pire, 3, 259; density, 3, 8;
Great Plain, 8
Porcelain, 47
Postal system, 225
Poverty of the people, 16, 71
Power, abuse of, 63
P'o-yang (Pou-yang, E4)
Lake, 8
Practise and theory in gov-
ernment, 63
Presidents of republic. Pro-
visional, 186-189, 192, 212,
213
Press unwarned, 211
Presses, mission, 171 ; see
also Literary work
Priests of native religions,
104, 107
Princess, Mongol, educating
girls, 173
Printing, invention of, 47,
214
Privacy, unknown in the
East, 68
Products, I, II, 14
Property, held in common,
57
Protestant Episcopal
Church, Mission, at
Shanghai, 148, 149; at
Han - k'ou (Han-ko),
work of Bishop James
Addison Ingle, 137-145
Protestant missions, see
A-Iissions
Proverbs, Chinese, 29
Provinces, the Eighteen, i ;
size of, 3, 4; see also
China Proper, and sepa-
rate provinces, as An-hui
(An-whe)
Provincial Councils, 2x9. 221
Provisional Cabinet, Chris-
tians in, 213
Public opinion, 33, 68
Pu Hsien (Boo Sheen),
god of action. 109
P'ung (Poong), Mr., 98
Pupils in missionary col-
leges, 236
Index
279
Qualifications for work, 240-
Quebec, 2
Race, the Chinese, 29;
traits, 37-47
Railroads or Railways,
mileage, 18, 225 ; lines, 12,
13; revenue from, 18
Rain and rainfall, 10
Rapids of the Yang-tzu
(Yang-dsu), 5
Red soil basin, map, 12
Reformed Church, 202
Religion, no Chinese word
for. 87
Religions of China, 84-114.
1S5 ; Buddhism, 84, _ 87,
106-110; Confucianism,
84, 87-100, 185, 210, 229;
Judaism. 86; Mohammed-
anism, 85, 86. 190. 194;
Taoism, 84, 87, 100-106,
216
Republic of China, date of
its inception, 212; events
leading up to it, 211, 212,
218-222; question of its
permanence, 184. 213, 226-
228; spirit of religious tol-
eration, 186-191
Resources, 17
Respect for intellectual and
moral forces, 44, 184
Reverence for parents and
rulers, 97
Review of the Times, 170,
232
Revolution, the Chinese, 186,
111-213, 226, 227
Rice, 14
Ricci. Matteo, 120
Richard, Dr. Timothy, 170,
233
Rivers, i, 5, 6
Rockhill, Mr., 2
Roger, Michael, 120
Roman Catholic Missions,
159, 186; early attempts,
119, 120; industrial work,
167; earlier history, 120,
121. 200
Russell, Mr., 148
Sages, China's, 34, 210
Sanitary work, 233
Scenery of China, 4
Schools, for boys, 165 ; for
girls, 165, 166; higher in-
stitutions, 167, 168; in-
dustrial 167 ; training,
166 ; various government
and mission problems,
194-199
Scholar, Qiinese view of
the, 36
Scotland, 131, 132; Bible
Society of, 169
Scriptures, see Bible
Secret societies, 42, 43
Self-discipline in converts,
140, 141
Self-maintenance urged, 141,
242,
Service, 207
Shanghai (F3), 10, 13S. 148,
149, 170, 171, 178, 212,
223 ; commercial metropo-
lis, 19
Shan-hsi (Shan-she, D2),
8, 12, 75, 164
Shan-tung (Shan-doong,
E2), 2, 6, 136, 174, 232,
235
Sheffield, Dr., quoted, 93
Siberia, plague in, 234
Silk, 14, 47. 211
Skepticism general among
educated men, 85
Slavery, 224
28o
Index
Slow evolution of China,
214
Smallpox, II
Society, the gradations in,
36
Soils, I, 8; map, 12
Soldier, Chinese view of
the, Z7\ military force, 45
Son of Heaven, 2)i
"Sons of Han" (Han), 31;
"of T'ang" (Tang), 31
Soothill, W. E., quoted, 116
Southern China. 4, 9
Speer, Robert E., 184
Spirit world, the, 103
Spirits, influence of, 93
Ssii-ch'uan (Ssu-chooan,
B4), 3- 5. 9, 14, 147, 199,
202, 203
Ssii-ma Kuang (Ssu-ma
Gooang), historian, 31
Standards of weight, 15
Stations "manned" by
ladies. 161
Statistics of China, areas of
China Proper and the
Empire, 2 ; coal-bearing
area, 11; foreign mis-
sionaries, 239, 265; hos-
pitals and patients, 234,
265 ; offerings to Con-
fucius, 95 ; population, see
Population: pupils in mis-
sion schools, 236. 265 ;
railway mileage, 18; re-
sults of missions, 265
Staunton, Sir George, 122,
124
Steamers on the Yang-tzu
(Yang-dsu), 5
Stone-cutters of Kuang-hsi
(Gooang-she), 41
Street chapels, 159
"Strikes" in schools, 196
Stronach, Alexander and
John, 147
Strong drink peril, the, 39
Student class, are China's
aristocracy, 35
Su-chou (Soo-jo, F3), 136
Suicide, 42
Sung (Soong) dynasty,
the, 31
Sun Yat-sen (Soon Yat-
siin). Dr., 213
Superintendent, work of
the, 160
Superstition, 13, 71 ; Taoist,
in power of military an-
cestors, 216
Sutras of Taoism, the, loi
Swatau (Es), 150
Sympathy lacking, 71 ;
causes of lack, 72
Ta Ch'ing (Da Ching)
dynasty, the, s~
Tact, instance of, in pio-
neering, 158
Tael, the, 15
T'ai-chou (TT-j6, F4), 194
T'ai P'ing (Ti Ping) re-
bellion, 215, 216; prayers
during the, 90
T'ai Tsung (Ti Dsoong),
received early Christians,
118
Talmage, John Van Nest,
149, quoted, 202
T'ang (Tang) dynasty,
the, 14, 31, 200, 218
Taoism, 84-86, 100-106; an
evil, 84, 104-106; de-
scribed, 87, 100; super-
stitions of, 101-106
Taoist, mass, 103; Pope,
102; superstitious belief,
216
OF
C PI 1 N A
CoiTipilfil Ijy
H«tla»i 3?. Beach.
EC*LECFM'l-e9 ,
Ex planaiory
Provireia! Capitals «
Department Capitals ■
T'ine District Capitals t
Chou District Capitals |
Hsien Dismct Capitals •
Market Towns. Villaeea, etc. o |
Ports are underscored I
These Designations should be added 'to the'
1. Thti:
•uld t
Su-chou Fo: « Lien-hua would be Lr
T'ing; |T"ung would be T'ung Chou
• Wei ivould be Wei Hsicn,
Railroads completed are indicated th
tJiDse projected, thus
'-•^^^rrr
«^.
-^U.'ii I
V#i-.
nWtJ
H«Ni-'iB°"*'
5Vt n ^ Nan J),;d'nE .^
//a Ml All Strait
POPULATIONS AND DENSITIES OF THE
CHINESE PROVINCES
Below is given the population of each of the Provin-
ces and Manchuria according to the estimates of
"The Statesman's Year boob, iqoS" The ngureswilh-
in parentheses loUowing the millions Eive the num-
ter ot inhabitaDtk Rer square mile
An hui 33,670.314(433) Kunng-hsl 5.Ma,33o (67J
Che-chiBng 11.580,691(316) Kuane-tung3l,86s,)Sll3l9)
Chiang-hsi 36,531,135(381) Kuel-chou 7,65o.iflj(rr4)
Chiang-HU 13,980,135(361) Manchuria 8.500,000 (1?)
Chih-li 30,937.000(175) Shan-hai 11,100,4561149)
Fu.chien 13,876,540 UM) Shan-tung 38.147.900(683)
Ho-nan 35 .31 6, Boo (510) Shen-hsi 6,450,iBa("l)
Hu-nao M,l^.&73 (j661 Sau-ch'uan 68.714,890(314)
Hu-pel 35,»3o.685(49*) Yun-non »3Ji4-574 (Bi)
Kin-su 10,385,376 (8j]
Copyright, 1903, by Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Miuions
Copyright, 1913, by Student Volunteer Morement for Foft'K" Missions
•
Index
281
Taxes and "ten cash"
pieces, 15
Taylor, J. Hudson, 149, 150
Tea, 14
Teaching of the sages, 34
Temple of Heaven, 89
Temples, 6
Terraces of the loess
country, the, 8
"Thaumatrope," the, 192
Theatricals, passion for, 45
Theological seminary, how
beginning, 160
Theory and practise in gov-
ernment, 63
Thomson, Archdeacon, 137
Three Pure Ones, the, 102
Three Rulers, the, 102
Tibet, 2, 3, 5, 20
Tibetans, 190
Tientsin, 6, 188
Ting Li-mai (Ding Li-ml),
Pastor, 232
Tobacco, introduced, 214;
use promoted by foreign-
ers, 223, 224
Toleration in Chinese Re-
public, 186-191
Tornadoes, unknown in
China, 10
Tract Society, American,
170; Religious, of Lon-
don, 170
Tradesman, Chinese view
of the, 36
Training schools, 166
Translations of Scriptures,
119; see also Bible
Transmigration of souls,
106
Transportation Map, 7
Treaty rights of Christian
missionaries, 190, 191
Tubercular affections, it
Tung-chou (Doong-j6)
Union Arts College, at,
198
Tung-t'ing (Doong-ting,D4)
Lake, 8
Turkestan, 2, 3, 20
Tyler, President, 131
Typhoons, 10
Ultra-Ganges Mission, 127
Unemotional nature of the
Chinese, 231
Union, Academy for Girls,
198; Arts College, 198;
Medical College. 198;
Theological College, 198;
Woman's Medical College,
198 ; Women's College,
198; work of missions,
198-204
United States, 2, 9, 10, 19,
123, 130, 131, 143, 145, 146,
184, 225
Unity of Church along
Chinese lines, 205; of the
parts of Chinese empire,
225 _
Uprising, Boxer; see Boxer
uprising
Village work, 134
Volunteers, call for, 239-244
Wai Wu Pu (Wi Woo
Boo), the, _iS8
Wang An-shih (Wang An-
sher) socialist, 31
War, the Opium, 39
Wars of China, with France
and Great Britain, 215,
216
Wealth, 16
Webster, Miss Harriet, 130
Wei (Wa) River, 6
282
Index
S.,
Wellesley College, commis-
sioners' visit to, 236
Wen Shu (Wiin Shoo),
worshiped in Shan-hsi
(Shjin-she), 109
Wen Wang (Wiin Wang),
Emperor, 96
West China, Educational
Union, 199; Mission, 147;
Missionary Conference,
202 ; "one united Church
for West China," 203
Westcott, Bishop, 201
Western civilization, effect
on China, 227, 228
Wheat, 14
White, M'oses C, I47
Whitewright, Rev. J.
174
Williams, Dr. S. Wells,
146; quoted, 9, 31, 98
Williamson, Dr. Alexander,
170
Williamstown haystack
place of prayer, 242
Wives and w^omen of China,
bondage and burdens of,
54, 73-76, 164. 218, 230;
missionary agencies
work for, 160-162,
236, 237 _
Women missionaries.
Missionaries
Workers, call for, 239-
developing, 142 ; number
of Protestant, 239
Worship of ancestors, 96,
and
198,
see
244;
185 ; benefits and evils of,
97
Woolston, Misses Beulah
and Sarah, 147
Written characters, 214
Wuchang (D3), 211
Wu Wang (Woo Wang)
Emperor, 96
Wylie, Mr., 148
Yang-tzu(Yang-dsu), 6, 8,
212, 222; gorges of the,
4, 5
Yao (Yow) and Shun
(Shoon), 30, 34, 46, 61,
89, 96
Yellow River, the, 5, 6
Yen (Yun), Dr., 188, 192
Yong Sam-tak (Yong Sam-
diik), in London, 122
Young Men's Christian As-
sociation, 176, 177, 200,
202
Young people's organiza-
tions, 176
Young Women's Christian
Association, 178, 200
Yii (Yii), Emperor, 47
Yiian (Yiian) dynasty, 32,
200
Yiian Shih-k'ai (Yiian She-
ki), republic's leader and
President, 186-189, 192,
213; takes the oath, 212
Yun-nan (Yoon-nan, B5),
199, 203
Forward Mission Study Courses
"Anywhere, provided it he forward." — David Livingstone.
Prepared under the direction of the
MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
Editorial Committee: T. H. P. Sailer, Chairman; A. E.
Armstrong, T. B. Ray, C. L. White, J. E. McAfee, C. R. Watson,
A. R. Gray, L. B. Wolf, G. F. Sutherland, H. P. Douglass,
W. E. Doughty.
The Forward Mission Study Courses are an outgrowth of a
conference of leaders in young people's mission work, held in
New York City, December, 1901. To meet the need that
was manifested at that conference for mission study text-books
suitable for young people, two of the delegates, Professor Amos
R. Wells, of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and Mr.
S. Earl Taylor, Chairman of the General Missionary Committee
of the Epworth League, projected the Forward Mission Study
Courses. These courses have been oflficially adopted by the
Missionary Education Movement, and are now under the imme-
diate direction of the Editorial Committee of the Movement.
The books of the Movement are now being used by more than
forty home and foreign mission boards and societies of the
United States and Canada.
The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering th^
various home and foreign mission fields and written by leading
authorities.
The following text-books having a sale of over 900,000 have
been published:
1. The Price of Africa. (Biographical.) By S. Earl
Taylor.
2. Into All the World. A general survey of missions.
By Amos R. Wells.
3. Prinxelv Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. (Biograph-
ical.) By Harlan P. Beach.
4. Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. Revised Edition.
A study of Japan. By John H. DeForest.
5. Heroes of the Cross in America. Home Missions.
(Biographical.) By Don O. Shelton.
6. Daybreak in the Dark Continent. Revised Edition.
A study of Africa. By Wilson S. Naylor.
7. The Christian Conquest of India. A study of India.
By James M. Thoburn.
8. Aliens or Americans? A study of Immigration. By
Howard B. Grose.
9. The Uplift of China. Revised Edition. A study of
China. By Arthur H. Smith.
10. The Challenge of the City. A study of the City.
By Josiah Strong.
11. The Why and How of Foreign Missions. A study
of the relation of the home Church to the foreign missionary
enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown.
12. The Moslem World. A study of the Mohammedan
World. By Samuel M. Zwemer.
13. The Frontier. A study of the New West. By Ward
Piatt.
14. South America: Its Missionary Problems. A study of
South America. By Thomas B. Neely.
15. The Upward Path: The Evolution of a Race. A
study of the Negro. By Mary Helm.
16. Korea in Transition. A study of Korea. By James
S. Gale.
17. Advance in the Antilles. A study of Cuba and
Porto Rico. By Howard B. Grose.
18. The Decisive Hour of Christian Missions. A study
of conditions throughout the non-Christian world. By John
R. Mott.
19. India Awakening. A study of present conditions in
India. By Sherw'ood Eddy.
20. The Church of the Open Country. A study of the
problem of the Rural Church. By Warren H. Wilson.
In addition to these courses, the following have been pub-
lished especially for use among younger persons:
I. Uganda's White Man of Work. The story of Alex-
ander Mackay of Africa. By Sophia Lyon Fahs.
2. Servants of the King. A series of eleven sketches
of famous home and foreign missionaries. By Robert E. Speer.
3. Under Marching Orders. The story of Mary Porter
Gamewell of China. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard.
4. Winning the Oregon Country. The story of Marcus
Whitman and Jason Lee in the Oregon countr}'. By John T.
Paris.
5. The Black Bearded Barbarian. The story of George
Leslie Mackay of Formosa. By Marian Keith.
These books are published by mutual arrangement among the
home and foreign mission boards, to whom all orders should be
addressed. They are bound uniformly and are sold at 50 cents,
in cloth, and 35 cents, in paper; postage, 8 cents extra.
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