On December 18, less than three months after the attack on Americans at Lienchow, an attempt [Page 256] was made to destroy the British settlement in Shanghai.

A woman arrested on a charge of kidnapping was sent to the foreign jail to await trial. The Chinese assessor insisted, not without reason, that she ought to be kept in a native jail. No attention being given to his protest, though supported by the taotai or local governor, a mob of riff-raff from beyond the limits burst into the settlement, put the foreign police to flight, and began to burn and pillage. Happily a body of marines with gatling guns and fire-engines succeeded in quelling the flames and suppressing the insurrection. A few hours' delay must have seen that rich emporium converted into a heap of ashes. Forty of the rioters were killed and many wounded. Though on ground granted to Great Britain, the settlement is called international and is governed by a municipal council elected by the foreign ratepayers. The Chinese residents, numbering half a million, are allowed no voice in the council; and that also is felt as a grievance. They are, however, protected against the rapacity of their own officials; and it is said they took no part in the riot. In fact had it not been promptly suppressed they must have suffered all the horrors of sack and pillage. After it was over they took occasion to demand recognition in the municipal government; promising to be satisfied if allowed to appoint a permanent committee, with whom the council should consult before deciding on any question affecting their interests.

Modest as this request was, it was rejected by an almost unanimous vote of the foreign ratepayers. They knew that such committee, however elected, [Page 257] was certain to be manipulated by the governor to extend his jurisdiction. Their decision was quietly accepted by the Chinese residents, who appreciate the protection which they enjoy in that strange republic. The question is certain to come up again, and their claim to be heard will be pressed with more insistence as they become more acquainted with the principles of representative government.

The existence of an imperium in imperio which comes between them and their people is of course distasteful to the mandarins; and they are bent on curtailing its privileges. If its franchises were surrendered, "Ichabod" might be inscribed on the gates of the model settlement.

The practice of marking out a special quarter for each nationality is an old one in China, adopted for convenience. When, after the first war, the British exacted the opening of ports, they required the grant of a concession in each, within which their consuls should have chief, if not exclusive authority. Other nations made the same demands; and China made the grants, not as to the British from necessity, but apparently from choice—the foreign consul being bound to keep his people in order. Now, however, the influx of natives into the foreign settlements, and the enormous growth of those mixed communities in wealth and population, have led the Chinese Government to look on the ready compliance of its predecessors as a blunder. Accordingly, in opening new ports in the interior it marks out a foreign quarter, but makes no "concession." It does not as before waive the exercise of jurisdiction within those limits.

[Page 258] The above question relates solely to the government of Chinese residing in the foreign "concessions." But there is a larger question now looming on the political sky, viz., how to recover the right of control over foreigners, wherever they may be in the Empire. If it were in their power, the Chinese would cancel not merely the franchises of foreign settlements, but the treaty right of exemption from control by the local government. This is a franchise of vital interest to the foreigner, whose life and property would not be safe were they dependent on the native tribunals as these are at present constituted.

Such exemption is customary in Turkey and other Moslem countries, not to say among the Negroes of Africa. It was recognised by treaty in Japan; and the Japanese, in proportion as they advanced in the path of reform, felt galled by an exception which fixed on them the stigma of barbarism. When they had proved their right to a place in the comity of nations, with good laws administered, foreign powers cheerfully consented to allow them the exercise of all the prerogatives of sovereignty.

How does her period of probation compare with that of her neighbour? Japan resolved on national renovation on Western lines in 1868. China came to no such resolution until the collapse of her attempt to exterminate the foreigner in 1900. With her the age of reform dates from the return of the Court in 1902—as compared with Japan four years to thirty! Then what a contrast in the animus of the two countries! The one characterised by law and order, the other [Page 259] by mob violence, unrestrained, if not instigated, by the authorities!

When the north wind tried to compel a traveller to take off his cloak, the cloak was wrapped the closer and held the tighter. When the sun came out with his warm beams, the traveller stripped it off of his own accord.

The sunrise empire has exemplified the latter method; China prefers the former. Is it not to be feared that the apparent success of the boycott will encourage her to persist in the policy of the traveller in the north wind. She ought to be notified that she is on probation, and that the only way to recover the exercise of her sovereign rights is to show herself worthy of confidence. The Boxer outbreak postponed by many years the withdrawal of the cloak of ex-territoriality, and every fresh exhibition of mob violence defers that event to a more distant date.

To confound "stranger" with "enemy" is the error of Bedouin or Afghan. Does not China do the same when she mistakes hostility to foreigners for patriotism? By this blunder she runs the risk of alienating her best friends, England and America. A farmer attempting to rope up a shaky barrel in which a hen was sitting on a nest full of eggs, the silly fowl mistook him for an enemy and flew in his face. Is not China in danger of being left to the fate which her friends have sought to avert?

In April a magistrate went by invitation to the French Catholic Mission to settle a long-standing dispute, and he settled it by committing suicide—in China the most dreaded form of revenge. Carried [Page 260] out gasping but speechless, he intimated that he was the victim of a murderous attack by the senior priest. His wounds were photographed; and the pictures were circulated with a view to exciting the mob. Gentry and populace held meetings for the purpose of screwing their courage up to the required pitch—governor and mandarins kept carefully in the background—and on the fifth day the mission buildings were destroyed and the priests killed. An English missionary, his wife and daughter, living not far away, were set upon and slain, not because they were not known to belong to another nation and another creed, but because an infuriated mob does not care to discriminate.

English and French officials proceeded to the scene in gunboats to examine the case and arrange a settlement. The case of the English family was settled without difficulty; but that of the French mission was more complicated. Among the French demands were two items which the Chinese Government found embarrassing. It had accepted the theory of murder and hastily conferred posthumous honours on the deceased magistrate. The French demanded the retraction of those honors, and a public admission of suicide. To pay a money indemnity and cashier a governor was no great hardship, but how could the court submit to the humiliation of dancing to the tune of a French piper? An English surgeon declared, in a sealed report of autopsy, that the wounds must have been self-inflicted, as their position made it impossible for them to have been inflicted by an assailant. But

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[Page 261] In 1870 France accepted a money payment for the atrocious massacre at Tientsin, because the Second Empire was entering on a life-and-death struggle with Germany. If she makes things easy for China this time, will it not be because the Republic is engaged in mortal combat with the Roman Church?

China's constant friction and frequent collisions with France spring chiefly from two sources; (1) the French protectorate over the Roman missions, and (2) the menacing attitude of France in Indo-China. It was to avenge the judicial murder of a missionary that Louis Napoleon sent troops to China in 1857-60. From this last date the long-persecuted Church assumed an imperious tone. The restitution of confiscated property was a source of endless trouble; and the certainty of being backed up by Church and State emboldened native converts not only to insist on their own rights, but to mix in disputes with which they had no necessary connection—a practice which more than anything else has tended to bring the Holy Faith into disrepute among the Chinese people.

Yet, on the other side, there are more fruitful sources of difficulty in the ignorance of the people and in the unfair treatment of converts by the Chinese Government. While the Government, having no conception of religious freedom, extends to Christians of all creeds a compulsory toleration and views them as traitors to their country, is it not natural for their pagan neighbours to treat them with dislike and suspicion?

In this state of mind they, like the pagans of ancient Rome, charge them with horrible crimes, and seize the slightest occasion for murderous attack. A church [Page 262] spire is said to disturb the good luck of a neighbourhood—the people burn the building. A rumour is started that babies in a foundling hospital have their eyes taken out to make into photographic medicine—the hospital is demolished and the Sisters of Charity killed. A skeleton found in the house of a physician is paraded on the street as proof of diabolical acts—instantly an angry mob wrecks the building and murders every foreigner within its reach. One of these instances was seen in the Tientsin massacre of 1869, the other in the Lienchow massacre of 1905. Nor are these isolated cases. Two American ladies doing hospital work in Canton were set upon by a mob, who accused them of killing a man whose life they were trying to save, and they narrowly escaped murder. But why extend the gruesome list? In view of their mad fury, so fatal to their benefactors, one is tempted to exclaim: Unglaube du bist nicht so viel ein ungeheuer als aberglaube du! "Of the twin monsters, unbelief and superstition, the more to be dreaded is the last!"

In China if a man falls in the street, the priest and Levite consult their own safety by keeping at a distance; and if a good Samaritan stoops to pick him up it is at his peril. In treating the sick a medical man requires as much courage and tact as if he were dealing with lunatics! These dark shadows, so harmful to the good name of China, are certain to be dissipated by the numerous agencies now employed to diffuse intelligence. But what of the feeling towards religious missions?

Medical missions are recognised as a potent agency in overcoming prejudice. They reach the heart of [Page 263] the people by ministering to their bodily infirmities; high officials are among their supporters; and the Empress Dowager latterly showed a disposition to give them her patronage. But how about the preaching missionary and the teaching missionary? Are the Chinese hostile to these branches of missionary work?

Unlike Mohammedan or Brahman, the Chinese are not strongly attached to any form of religious faith. They take no umbrage at the offer of a new creed, particularly if it have the advantage of being akin to that of their ancient sages. What they object to is not the creed, but the foreigner who brings it. Their newspapers are in fact beginning to agitate the question of accepting the Christian faith and propagating it in their own way, without aid from the foreigner. That they would be glad to see merchant and missionary leave them in peace, no one can doubt. Yet the influence of missions is steadily on the increase; and their influence for good is acknowledged by the leading minds of the Empire.

Said the High Commissioner Tuan Fang, in an address to the Mission Boards at New York, February 2,1906:

"We take pleasure this evening in bearing testimony to the part taken by American missionaries in promoting the progress of the Chinese people. They have borne the light of Western civilisation into every nook and corner of the Empire. They have rendered inestimable service to China by the laborious task of translating into the Chinese language religious and scientific works of the West. They help us to bring happiness and comfort to the poor and the suffering by the establishment [Page 264] of hospitals and schools. The awakening of China which now seems to be at hand may be traced in no small measure to the hand of the missionary. For this service you will find China not ungrateful."

Mission stations, now counted by hundreds, have generally high schools or colleges. Not only is the science taught in them up-to-date, but the conscientious manner in which they are conducted makes them an object-lesson to those officials who are charged with the supervision of government schools. To name only a few:

Here in Peking is a university of the American Methodist Episcopal Church which is not unworthy of the name it bears. At Tungchow, a suburb of the capital, is a noble college of the American Board (Congregationalist) which is in every point a worthy compeer. These cooeperate with each other and with a Union Medical College which under the London Mission has won the favour of the Empress Dowager.

The American Presbyterian Mission has a high school and a theological seminary, and cooeperates to a certain extent with the three societies above named. A quadrilateral union like this speaks volumes as to the spirit in which the work of Christian education is being carried forward. The Atlantic is bridged and two nations unite; denominational differences are forgotten in view of the mighty enterprise of converting an empire. In the economy of their teaching force they already experience the truth of the maxim "Union is Strength."

In Shantung, at Weihien, there is a fine college in [Page 265] which English Baptists unite with American Presbyterians. The original plant of the latter was a college at Tengchow, which under Dr. Mateer afforded conclusive proof that an education deep and broad may be given through the medium of the Chinese language. In most of these schools the English language is now claiming a prominent place, not as the sole medium for instruction, but as a key to the world's literature, and a preparation for intercourse with foreign nations.

At Shanghai, which takes the lead in education as in commerce, there is an admirable institution called St. John's College which makes English the basis of instruction. Numberless other schools make it a leading branch of study to meet the wants of a centre of foreign trade.

One of the best known institutions of Shanghai is a Roman Catholic College at Siccawei, which preserves the traditions of Matteo Ricci, and his famous convert Paul Sue. In connection with it are an astronomical observatory and a weather bureau, which are much appreciated by foreigners in China, and ought to be better known throughout the Empire.

Passing down a coast on which colleges are more numerous than lighthouses, one comes to Canton, where, near the "Great City" and beautifully conspicuous, rises the Canton Christian College.

These are mentioned by way of example, to show what missionaries are doing for the education of China. It is a narrow view of education that confines it to teaching in schools. Missionaries led the way in Chinese journalism and in the preparation of textbooks in all branches of science. The Society for the [Page 266] Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is spreading broadcast the seeds of secular and religious truth.

Gratitude for the good they have already done, as well as for benefits to come, ought to lead the Chinese Government to accord a generous recognition to all these institutions. At the opening of the Union Medical College, Mr. Rockhill, the American minister, in a remarkable address, proposed the recognition of their degrees by the Government; and as a representative of the Empress Dowager was in the chair on that occasion, there is reason to hope that his suggestion will not be overlooked.



[Page 267] CHAPTER XXXII

THE MANCHUS, THE NORMANS OF CHINA

The Ta-Ts'ing Dynasty—The Empress Dowager—Her Origin—Her First Regency—Her Personality—Other Types—Two Manchu Princes—Two Manchu Ministers—The Nation's Choice—Conclusions

In a wide survey of the history of the world, we discover a law which appears to govern the movements of nations. Those of the north show a tendency to encroach on those of the south. The former are nomads, hunters, or fishers, made bold by a constant struggle with the infelicities of their environment. The latter are occupied with the settled industries of civilised life.

The Goths and Vandals of Rome, and the Tartars under Genghis and Tamerlane all conform to this law and seem to be actuated by a common impulse. In the east and west of the Eastern hemisphere may be noted two examples of this general movement, which afford a curious parallel: I refer to the Normans of Great Britain and the Manchus of China. Both empires are under the sway of dynasties which originated in the north; for the royal house of Britain, though under another title, has always been proud of its Norman blood.

The Normans who conquered Britain had first [Page 268] settled in France and there acquired the arts of civilised life. The Manchus coming from the banks of the Amur settled in Liao-tung, a region somewhat similarly situated with reference to China. There they learned something of the civilisation of China, and watched for an opportunity to obtain possession of the empire. In Britain a kindred branch of the Norman family was on the throne, and William the Conqueror contrived to give his invasion a colour of right, by claiming the throne under an alleged bequest of Edward the Confessor. The Manchus, though not invoking such artificial sanction, aspired to the dominion of China because their ancestors of the Golden Horde had ruled over the northern half of the empire. The Norman conquest, growing out of a family quarrel, was decided by a single battle. The Manchus' conquest of a country more than ten times the extent of Britain was not so easy to effect. Yet they achieved it with unexampled rapidity, because they came by invitation and they brought peace to a people exhausted by long wars. Their task was comparatively easy in the north, where the traditions of the Kin Tartars still survived; but it was prolonged and bloody in the south.

Both houses treated their new subjects as a conquered people. Each imposed the burden of foreign garrisons and a new nobility. Each introduced a foreign language, which they tried to perpetuate as the speech of the court, if not of the people. In each case the language of the people asserted itself. In Britain it absorbed and assimilated the alien tongue; in China, where the absence of common elements made amalgamation [Page 269] impossible, it superseded that of the conquerors, not merely for writing purposes, but as the spoken dialect of the court.

Both conquerors found it necessary to conciliate the subject race by liberal and timely concessions; but here begins a contrast. In Britain no external badge of subjection was ever imposed; in process of time all special privileges of the ruling caste were abolished; and no trace of race antipathy ever displays itself anywhere—if we except Ireland. In China the cue remains as a badge of subjection. Habit has reconciled the people to its use; but it still offers a tempting grip to revolutionary agitators. Every party that raises the standard of revolt abolishes the cue; would it not be wise for the Manchu Government to make the wearing of that appendage a matter of option, especially as it is beginning to disappear from their soldiers' uniform?

The extension of reform in dress from camp to court and from court to people (to them as a matter of option) would remove a danger. It would also remove a barrier in the way of China's admission into the congress of nations. The abolition of the cue implies the abandonment of those long robes which make such an impression of barbaric pomp. Already the Chinese are tacitly permitted to adopt foreign dress; and in every case they have to dispense with the cue. The Japanese never did a wiser thing than to adopt our Western costume. Their example tends to encourage a reform of the same kind in China. A new costume means a new era.

Another point is required to complete the parallel: [Page 270] each victor has given the conquered country a better government than any in its previous history. To Confucius feudalism was a beau-ideal, and he beautifully compares the sovereign to the North Star which sits in state on the pole of the heavens while all the constellations revolve around it, and pay it homage. Yet was the centralised government of the First Hwang-ti an immense improvement on the loose agglomeration of the Chous. The great dynasties have all adopted the principle of centralisation; but not one has applied it with such success, nor is there one which shows so large a proportion of respectable rulers as the house of Ta-ts'ing. Of the first six some account has been given in Part II. As to the next two it is too soon to have the verdict of history. One died after a brief reign of two years and three months, too short to show character. The other now sits at the foot of the throne, while his adoptive mother sways the sceptre. Both have been overshadowed by the Empress Dowager and controlled by her masterful spirit.

China has had female rulers that make figures in history, such as Lu of the Han and Wu of the T'ang dynasties, but she has no law providing for the succession of a female under any conditions. A female reign is abnormal, and the ruler a monstrosity. Her character is always blackened so as to make it difficult to delineate. Yet in every instance those women have possessed rare talent; for without uncommon gifts it must have been impossible to seize a sceptre in the face of such prejudices, and to sway it over a submissive people. Usually they are described much as the Jewish chronicler sketches the character of Jezebel [Page 271] or Athaliah. Cruel, licentious, and implacable, they "destroy the seed royal," they murder the prophets and they make the ears of the nation tingle with stories of shameless immorality.

Among these we shall not seek a parallel for the famous Empress Dowager, so well known to the readers of magazine literature. In tragic vicissitudes, if not in length of reign, she stood without a rival in the history of the world. She also stood alone in the fact that her destinies were interwoven with the tangle of foreign invasion. Twice she fled from the gates of a fallen capital; and twice did the foreign conqueror permit her to return. Without the foreigner and his self-imposed restraint, there could have been no Empress Dowager in China. Did she hate the foreigner for driving her away, or did she thank him for her repeated restoration?

The daughter of Duke Chou (the slave-girl story is a myth), she became a secondary wife of Hienfung in 1853 or 1854; and her sister somewhat later became consort of the Emperor's youngest brother. Having the happiness to present her lord with a son, she was raised to the rank of Empress and began to exert no little influence in the character of mother to an heir-apparent. Had she not been protected by her new rank her childless rival might have driven her from court and appropriated the boy. She had instead to admit a joint motherhood, which in a few years led to a joint regency.

Scarcely had the young Empress become accustomed to her new dignity, when the fall of Taku and Tientsin, in 1860, warned the Emperor of what he might [Page 272] expect. Taking the two imperial ladies and their infant son, he retired to Jeho, on the borders of Tartary, in time to escape capture. There he heard of the burning of his summer palace and the surrender of his capital. Whether he succumbed to disease or whether a proud nature refused to survive his disgrace, is not known. What we do know is, that on his death, in 1861, two princes, Sushun and Tuanhwa, organised a regency and brought the court back to the capital about a year after the treaty of peace had been signed by Prince Kung as the Emperor's representative. Prince Kung was not included in the council of regency; and he knew that he was marked for destruction. Resolving to be beforehand, he found means to consult with the Empresses, who looked to him to rescue them from the tyranny of the Council of Eight. On December 2 the blow was struck: all the members of the council were seized; the leader was put to death in the market-place; some committed suicide; and others were condemned to exile. A new regency was formed, consisting of the two Empresses and Prince Kung, the latter having the title of "joint regent."

What part the Empress Mother had taken in this her first coup d'etat, is left to conjecture. Penetrating and ambitious she was not content to be a tool in the hands of the Eight. The senior Empress yielded to the ascendency of a superior mind, as she continued to do for twenty years.

There was another actor whom it would be wrong to overlook, namely, Kweiliang, the good secretary, who had signed the treaties at Tientsin. His daughter [Page 273] was Prince Kung's principal wife, and though too old to take a leading part in the Court revolutions, it was he who prompted Prince Kung, who was young and inexperienced, to strike for his life.

The reigning title of the infant Emperor was changed from Kisiang, "good luck," to Tung-chi, "joint government"; and the Empire acquiesced in the new regime.

One person there was, however, who was not quite satisfied with the arrangement. This was the restless, ambitious young Dowager. The Empire was quiet; and things went on in their new course for years, Prince Kung all the time growing in power and dignity. His growing influence gave her umbrage; and one morning a decree from the two Dowagers stripped him of power, and confined him a prisoner in his palace. His alleged offence was want of respect to their Majesties; he threw himself at their feet and implored forgiveness.

The ladies were not implacable; he was restored to favour and clothed with all his former dignities, except one. The title of Icheng-wang, "joint regent," never reappeared.

In 1881 the death of the senior Dowager left the second Dowager alone in her glory. So harmoniously had they cooeperated during their joint regency, and so submissive had the former been to the will of the latter, that there was no ground for suspicion of foul play, yet such suspicions are always on the wing, like bats in the twilight of an Oriental court.

On the death of Tung-chi, the adroit selection of a nephew of three summers to succeed to the throne as her adopted son, gave the Dowager the prospect of another long regency. Recalled to power by the [Page 274] reactionaries, in 1898, after a brief retirement, the Empress Dowager dethroned her puppet by a second coup-d'etat.

During the ruinous recoil that followed she had the doubtful satisfaction of feeling herself sole aristocrat of the Chinese Empire. Was it not the satisfaction of a gladiator who seated himself on the throne of the Caesars in a burning amphitheatre? Was she not made sensible that she, too, was a creature of circumstances, when her ill-judged policy compelled her a second time to seek safety in flight? A helpless fugitive, how could she conceive that fortune held in reserve for her brighter days than she had ever experienced?

Accepting the situation and returning with the Emperor, the Empire and the world accepted her, and, taught by experience, she engaged in the congenial task of renovating the Chinese people. Advancing years, consciousness of power, and willing conformity to the freer usages of European courts, all conspired to lead her to throw aside the veil and to appear openly as the chief actor on this imperial stage.

Six years ago her seventieth birthday was celebrated with great pomp, although she had forbidden her people to be too lavish in their loyalty. At Wuchang, Tuan Fang, who was acting viceroy, gave a banquet at which he asked me to make a speech in the Dowager's honor. The task was a delicate one for a man who had borne the hardships of a siege in 1900; but I accepted it, and excused the Dowager on the principle of British law, that "The king can do no [Page 275] wrong." Throwing the blame on her ministers, I pronounced a eulogy on her talents and her public services.

The question arises, did we know her in person and character? Have we not seen her in that splendid portrait executed by Miss Carl, and exhibited at St. Louis? If we suspect the artist of flattery, have we not a gallery of photographs, in which she shows herself in many a majestic pose? Is flattery possible to a sunbeam? We certainly see her as truly as we see ourselves in a mirror!

As to character, it is too soon to express an opinion. Varium et mutabile semper femina.

To pencil and sunbeam add word-pictures by men and women from whose critical eyes she did not conceal herself; and we may confidently affirm that we knew her personal appearance as well as we knew that of any lady who occupies or shares a European throne. A trifle under the average height of European ladies, so perfect were her proportions and so graceful her carriage that she seemed to need nothing to add to her majesty. Her features were vivacious and pleasing rather than beautiful; her complexion, not yellow, but subolive, and her face illuminated by orbs of jet, half-hidden by dark lashes, behind which lurked the smiles of favour or the lightning of anger. No one would take her to be over forty. She carried tablets on which, even during conversation, she jotted down memoranda. Her pencil was the support of her sceptre. With it she sent out her autograph commands; and with it, too, she inscribed those pictured characters which were worn as the proudest decorations [Page 276] of her ministers. I have seen them in gilded frames in the hall of a viceroy.

The elegance of her culture excited sincere admiration in a country where women are illiterate; and the breadth of her understanding was such as to take in the details of government. She chose her agents with rare judgment, and shifted them from pillar to post, so that they might not forget their dependence on her will. Without a parallel in her own country, she has been sometimes compared with Catherine II. of Russia. She had the advantage in the decency of her private life; for though she is said to have had favourites they have never dared to boast of her favours, nor was a curious public ever able to identify them.

Her full name, including honorific epithets added by the Academy, was Tse Hi Tuanyin Kangyi Chaoyu Chuangcheng Shoukung Chinhien Chunghi. A few hours before her death, which occurred on the day after the Emperor's, she named his nephew as successor, and the present ruler, Hsuan-Tung, who was born in 1903, began to reign November 14, 1908.

Let the Dowager be taken as a type of the Manchu woman. The late Emperor, though handsome and intelligent, was too small for a representative of a robust race. Tuan Fang, the High Commissioner, is a more favourable specimen. The Manchus are in general taller than the Chinese, and both in physical and intellectual qualities they prove that their branch of the family is far from effete.

Prince Kung, who for fifteen years presided over the imperial cabinet, was tall, handsome and urbane. [Page 277] Despite the disadvantages of an education in a narrow-minded court, he displayed a breadth and capacity of a high order. Prince Ching, who succeeded him in 1875, though less attractive in person, is not deficient in that sort of astuteness that passes for statesmanship. What better evidence than that he has kept himself on top of a rolling log for thirty years? To keep his position through the dethronement of the Emperor and the convulsions of the Boxer War required agility and adaptability of no mean order. Personally I have seen much of both princes. They are abler men than one would expect to find among the offshoots of an Oriental court.

Wensiang, who from the opening of Peking to his death in 1875 bore the leading part in the conduct of foreign affairs, showed great ability in piloting the state through rocks and breakers. His mental power greatly impressed all foreigners, while it secured him an easy ascendency among his countrymen. Such men are sure to be overloaded with official duties in a country like China. Physically he was not strong; and on one occasion when he came into the room wheezing with asthma he said to me: "You see I am like a small donkey, with a tight collar and a heavy load." The success of Prince Kung's administration was largely due to Wensiang. Paochuin, minister of finance, and member of the Inner Council, was distinguished as a literary genius. Prince Kung delighted on festive occasions to call him and Tungsuin to a contest in extempore verse. To enter the lists with a noted scholar and poet like Tung, showed how the Manchus have come to vie with the Chinese in the [Page 278] refinements of literary culture. I remember him as a dignified greybeard, genial and jocose. On the fall of the Kung ministry, he doffed his honours in three stanzas, which contain more truth than poetry:

"Through life, as in a pleasing dream, Unconscious of my years, In Fortune's smile to bask I seem; Perennial, Spring appears.

"Alas! Leviathan to take Defies the fisher's art; From dreams of glory I awake,— My youth and power depart.

"That loss is often gain's disguise May us for loss console. My fellow-sufferers, take advice And keep your reason whole."

In more than one crisis, the heart of the nation has cleaved to the Manchu house as the embodiment of law and order. The people chose to adhere to a tolerably good government rather than take the chance of a better one emerging from the strife of factions.

Three things are required to confirm their loyalty: (1) the abolition of tonsure and pigtail, (2) the abandonment of all privileges in examinations and in the distribution of offices, (3) the removal of all impediments in the way of intermarriage.

This last has been recently authorised by proclamation. It is not so easy for those who are in possession of the loaves and fishes to admit others to an equal share. If to these were added the abolition of a degrading [Page 279] badge, the Manchu dynasty might hope to be perpetual, because the Manchus would cease to exist as a people.

CONCLUSIONS

1. More than once I have demanded the expulsion of the Manchus, and the partition of China. That they deserved it no one who knows the story of 1900 will venture to deny. It was not without reason that Mene tekel and Ichabod were engraved on the medal commemorating the siege in Peking. If I seem to recant, it is in view of the hopeful change that has come over the spirit of the Manchu Government. Under the leadership of Dowager Empress and Emperor, the people were more likely to make peaceful progress than under a new dynasty or under the Polish policy of division.

2. The prospect of admission to the full privileges of a member of the brotherhood of nations will act as an incentive to improvement. But the subjection of foreigners to Chinese jurisdiction ought not to be conceded without a probation as long and thorough as that through which Japan had to pass. In view of the treachery and barbarism so conspicuous in 1900—head-hunting and edicts to massacre foreigners—a probation of thirty years would not be too long. During that time the reforms in law and justice should be fully tested, and the Central Government should be held responsible for the repression of every tendency to anti-foreign riots.

A government that encourages Boxers and other rioters as patriots does not merit an equal place in the [Page 280] congress of nations. The alternative is the "gunboat policy," according to which foreign powers will administer local punishment. If the mother of the house will not chastise her unruly children, she must allow her neighbours to do it.

3. Prior to legal reform, and at the root of it, the adoption of a constitution ought to be insisted on. In such constitution a leading article ought to be not toleration, but freedom of conscience. As long as China looks on native Christians as people who have abjured their nationality, so long will they be objects of persecution; self-defence and reprisals will keep the populace in a ferment, and peace will be impossible. If China is sincere in her professions of reform, she will follow the example of Japan and make her people equal in the eye of the law without distinction of creed.

4. All kinds of reform are involved in the new education, and to that China is irrevocably committed. Reenforced by railroad, telegraph, and newspaper, the schoolmaster will dispel the stagnation of remote districts, giving to the whole people a horizon wider than their hamlet, and thoughts higher than their hearthstone. Animated by sound science and true religion, it will not be many generations before the Chinese people will take their place among the leading nations of the earth.



[Page 281] APPENDIX

I.

THE AGENCY OF MISSIONARIES IN THE DIFFUSION OF SECULAR KNOWLEDGE IN CHINA[*]

[Footnote *: This paper was originally written for Dr. Dennis's well-known work on The Secular Benefits of Christian Missions. As it now appears it is not a mere reprint, it having been much enlarged and brought down to date.]

While the primary motive of missionaries in going to China is, as in going to other countries, the hope of bringing the people to Christ, the incidental results of their labours in the diffusion of secular knowledge have been such as to confer inestimable benefit on the world at large and on the Chinese people in particular. This is admitted by the recent High Commission.[**]

[Footnote **: See page 263.]

It was in the character of apostles of science that Roman Catholic missionaries obtained a footing in Peking three centuries ago, and were enabled to plant their faith throughout the provinces. Armed with telescope and sextant they effected the reform of the Chinese calendar, and secured for their religion the respect and adherence of some of the highest minds in the Empire. So firmly was it rooted that churches of their planting were able to survive a century and a half of persecution. Their achievements, recorded in detail by Abbe Huc and others, fill some of the [Page 282] brightest pages in the history of missions. I shall not enlarge on them in this place, as my present task is to draw attention to the work of Protestant missions.

A CENTURY OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS.

It is not too much to claim for these last that for a century past they have been active intermediaries, especially between the English-speaking nations and the Far East. On one hand, they have supplied such information in regard to China as was indispensable for commercial and national intercourse, while on the other they have brought the growing science of the Western world to bear on the mind of China. Not only did Dr. Morrison, who led the way in 1807, give the Chinese the first translation of our Holy Scriptures; he was the very first to compile a Chinese dictionary in the English language.

THE PIONEER OF AMERICAN MISSIONS

It was not until 1838 that America sent her pioneer missionary in the person of Dr. Bridgman. Besides cooeperating with others in the revision of Morrison's Bible, or, more properly, in making a new version, Bridgman won immortality by originating and conducting the Chinese Repository, a monthly magazine which became a thesaurus of information in regard to the Chinese Empire.

THE PRESS—A MISSIONARY FRANKLIN

The American Board showed their enlightened policy by establishing a printing-press at Canton, and [Page 283] in sending S. Wells Williams to take charge of it, in 1833. John R. Morrison, son of the missionary, had, indeed, made a similar attempt; but from various causes he had felt compelled to relinquish the enterprise. From the arrival of Williams to the present day the printing-press has shown itself a growing power—a lever which, planted on a narrow fulcrum in the suburb of a single port, has succeeded in moving the Eastern world.

The art of printing was not new to the Chinese. They had discovered it before it was dreamed of in Europe; but with their hereditary tendency to run in ruts, they had continued to engrave their characters on wooden blocks in the form of stereotype plates. With divisible types (mostly on wood) they had indeed made some experiments; but that improved method never obtained currency among the people. It was reserved for Christian missions to confer on them the priceless boon of the power press and metallic types. What Williams began at Canton was perfected at Shanghai by Gamble of the Presbyterian Board, who multiplied the fonts and introduced the process of electrotyping.

Shut up in the purlieus of Canton, it is astonishing how much Dr. Williams was able to effect in the way of making China known to the Western world. His book on "The Middle Kingdom," first published in 1848, continues to be, after the lapse of half a century, the highest of a long list of authorities on the Chinese Empire. Beginning like Benjamin Franklin as a printer, like Franklin he came to perform a brilliant part in the diplomacy of our country, aiding in the [Page 284] negotiation of a new treaty and filling more than once the post of charge d'affaires.

EXPANSION OF THE WORK

The next period of missionary activity dates from the treaty of Nanking, which put an end to the Opium War, in 1842. The opening of five great seaports to foreign residence was a vast enlargement in comparison with a small suburb of Canton; and the withdrawal of prohibitory interdicts, first obtained by the French minister Lagrene, invited the efforts of missionary societies in all lands. In this connection it is only fair to say that, in 1860, when the Peking expedition removed the remaining barriers, it was again to the French that our missionaries were indebted for access to the interior.

MEDICAL WORK

From the earliest dawn of our mission work it may be affirmed that no sooner did a chapel open its doors than a hospital was opened by its side for the relief of bodily ailments with which the rude quackery of the Chinese was incompetent to deal. Nor is there at this day a mission station in any part of China that does not in this way set forth the practical charity of the Good Samaritan. This glorious crusade against disease and death began, so far as Protestants are concerned, with the Ophthalmic Hospital opened by Dr. Peter Parker at Canton in 1834.

MEDICAL TEACHING

The training of native physicians began at the same date; and those who have gone forth to bless their [Page 285] people by their newly acquired medical skill may now be counted by hundreds. In strong contrast with the occult methods of native practitioners, neither they nor their foreign teachers have hidden their light under a bushel. Witness the Union Medical College, a noble institution recently opened in Peking under the sanction and patronage of the Imperial Government. A formal despatch of the Board of Education (in July, 1906) grants the power of conferring degrees, and guarantees their recognition by the state. For many years to come this great school is likely to be the leading source of a new faculty.

THE SEEDS OF A NEW EDUCATION

Not less imperative, though not so early, was the establishment of Christian schools. Those for girls have the merit of being the first to shed light on the shaded hemisphere of Chinese society. Those for boys were intended to reach all grades of life; but their prime object was to raise up a native ministry, not merely to cooeperate with foreign missions, but eventually to take the place of the foreign missionary.

THE EARLIEST UNION COLLEGE

One of the earliest and most successful of these lighthouses was the Tengchow College founded by Dr. C. W. Mateer. It was there that young Chinese were most thoroughly instructed in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. So conspicuous was the success of that institution that when the Government opened a university in Peking, and more recently in Shantung, [Page 286] it was in each case to Tengchow that they had recourse for native teachers of science. From that school they obtained text-books, and from the same place they secured (in Dr. Hayes) a president for the first provincial university organised in China.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL UNIVERSITY IN PEKING

The missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church have of late taken up the cause of education and carried it forward with great vigour. Not to speak of high schools for both sexes in Fukien, they have a flourishing college in Shanghai, and a university in the imperial capital under the presidency of H. H. Lowry. Destroyed by the Boxers in 1900, that institution has now risen phoenix-like from its ashes with every prospect of a more brilliant future than its most sanguine friends ever ventured to anticipate.

AMERICAN BOARD COLLEGE AT TUNGCHOW

A fine college of the American Board at Tungchow, near the capital, met the same fate and rose again with similar expansion. Dr. Sheffield, its president, has made valuable contributions to the list of educational text-books.

These great schools, together with the Medical College of the London Mission, above referred to, and a high school of the United States Presbyterians, have formed a system of coeoperation which greatly augments the efficiency of each. Of this educational union the chief cornerstone is the Medical College.

A similar cooeperative union between the English [Page 287] Baptists and American Presbyterians is doing a great work at Weihien, in Shantung. I speak of these because of that most notable feature—union international and interdenominational. Space would fail to enumerate a tithe of the flourishing schools that are aiding in the educational movement; but St. John's College, at Shanghai (U. S. Episcopal), though already mentioned, claims further notice because, as we now learn, it has been given by the Chinese Government the status of a university.

PREPARATION OF TEXT-BOOKS

Schools require text-books; and the utter absence of anything of the kind, except in the department of classical Chinese, gave rise to early and persistent efforts to supply the want. Manuals in geography and history were among the first produced. Those in mathematics and physics followed; and almanacs were sent forth yearly containing scientific information in a shape adapted to the taste of Chinese readers—alongside of religious truths. Such an annual issued by the late Dr. McCartee, was much sought for. A complete series of text-books in mathematics was translated by Mr. Wylie, of the London Mission; and text-books on other subjects, including geology, were prepared by Messrs. Muirhead, Edkins, and Williamson. At length the task of providing text-books was taken in hand by a special committee, and later on by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, now under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Richard.

[Page 288] So deeply was the want of text-books felt by some of the more progressive mandarins that a corps of translators was early formed in connection with one of the government arsenals—a work in which Dr. John Fryer has gained merited renown. Those translators naturally gave prominence to books on the art of war, and on the politics of Western nations, the one-sided tendency of their publications serving to emphasise the demand for such books as were prepared by missionaries.

Text-books on international law and political economy were made accessible to Chinese literature by Dr. W. A. P. Martin, who, having acted as interpreter to two of the American embassies, was deeply impressed by the ignorance of those vital subjects among Chinese mandarins.

On going to reside in Peking, in 1863, Dr. Martin carried with him a translation of Wheaton, and it was welcomed by the Chinese Foreign Office as a timely guide in their new situation. He followed this up by versions of Woolsey, Bluntschli and Hall. He also gave them a popular work on natural philosophy—not a translation—together with a more extended work on mathematical physics. Not only has the former appeared in many editions from the Chinese press, but it has been often reprinted in Japan; and to this day maintains its place in the favour of both empires. To this he has lately added a text-book on mental philosophy.

A book on the evidences of Christianity, by the same author, has been widely circulated both in China and in Japan. Though distinctly religious in aim, it [Page 289] appeals to the reader's taste for scientific knowledge, seeking to win the heathen from idolatry by exhibiting the unity and beauty of nature, while it attempts to show the reasonableness of our revealed religion.

THREE PRESIDENTS OF GOVERNMENT COLLEGES

It is not without significance that the Chinese have sought presidents for their highest schools among the ranks of Protestant missionaries. Dr. Ferguson of the Methodist Episcopal Mission was called to the presidency of the Nanyang College at Shanghai; Dr. Hayes, to be head of a new university in Shantung; and Dr. Martin, after serving for twenty-five years as head of the Diplomatic College in Peking, was, in 1898, made president of the new Imperial University. His appointment was by decree from the Throne, published in the Government Gazette; and mandarin rank next to the highest was conferred on him. On terminating his connection with that institution, after it was broken up by Boxers, he was recalled to China to take charge of a university for the two provinces of Hupeh and Hunan.

CREATORS OF CHINESE JOURNALISM

In the movement of modern society, no force is more conspicuous than journalism. In this our missionaries have from the first taken a leading part, as it was they who introduced it to China. At every central station for the last half-century periodicals have been issued by them in the Chinese language. [Page 290] The man who has done most in this line is Dr. Y. J. Allen, of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He has devoted a lifetime to it, besides translating numerous books.

Formerly the Chinese had only one newspaper in the empire—the Peking Gazette, the oldest journal in the world. They now have, in imitation of foreigners, some scores of dailies, in which they give foreign news, and which they print in foreign type. The highest mandarins wince under their stinging criticisms.

THEY LEAD A VERNACULAR REVOLUTION

It is one of the triumphs of Christianity to have given a written form to the language of modern Europe. It is doing the same for heathen nations in all parts of the earth. Nor does China offer an exception. The culture for which her learned classes are noted is wholly confined to a classic language that is read everywhere, and spoken nowhere, somewhat as Latin was in the West in the Middle Ages, save that Latin was really a tongue capable of being employed in speech, whereas the classical language of China is not addressed to the ear but to the eye, being, as Dr. Medhurst said, "an occulage, not a language."

The mandarin or spoken language of the north was, indeed, reduced to writing by the Chinese themselves; and a similar beginning was made with some of the southern dialects. In all these efforts the Chinese ideographs have been employed; but so numerous and disjointed are they that the labour of years is required to get a command of them even for reading in a vernacular [Page 291] dialect. In all parts of China our missionaries have rendered the Scriptures into the local dialects. so that they may be understood when read aloud, and that every man "may hear in his own tongue the wonderful works of God." In some places they have printed them in the vernacular by the use of Chinese characters. Yet those characters are clumsy instruments for the expression of sounds; and in several provinces our missionaries have tried to write Chinese with Roman letters.

The experiment has proved successful beyond a doubt. Old women and young children have in this way come to read the Scriptures and other books in a few days. This revolution must go forward with the spread of Christianity; nor is it too much to expect that in the lapse of ages, the hieroglyphs of the learned language will for popular use be superseded by the use of the Roman alphabet, or by a new alphabet recently invented and propagated by officials in Peking.

In conclusion: Our missionaries have made our merchants acquainted with China; and they have made foreign nations known to the Chinese. They have aided our envoys in their negotiations; and they have conferred on the Chinese the priceless boon of scientific text-books. Also along with schools for modern education, they have introduced hospitals for the relief of bodily suffering.

W. A. P. M.

PEKING, Aug. 4. 1906.



[Page 292] II.

UNMENTIONED REFORMS[*]

[Footnote *: Written by the author for the North-China Daily News.]

The return of the Mission of Inquiry has quickened our curiosity as to its results in proposition and in enactment. All well-wishers of China are delighted to learn that the creation of a parliament and the substitution of constitutional for autocratic government are to have the first place in the making of a New China. The reports of the High Commissioners are not yet before the public, but it is understood that they made good use of their time in studying the institutions of the West, and that they have shown a wise discrimination in the selection of those which they recommend for adoption. There are, however, three reforms of vital importance, which have scarcely been mentioned at all, which China requires for full admission to the comity of nations.

1. A CHANGE OF COSTUME

During their tour no one suggested that the Chinese costume should be changed nor would it have been polite or politic to do so. But I do not admire either the taste or the wisdom of those orators who, in welcoming the distinguished visitors; applauded them for their graceful dress and stately carriage. If that indiscreet flattery had any effect it merely tended [Page 293] to postpone a change which is now in progress. All the soldiers of the Empire will ere long wear a Western uniform, and all the school children are rapidly adopting a similar uniform. To me few spectacles that I have witnessed are so full of hope for China as the display on an imperial birthday, when the military exhibit their skilful evolutions and their Occidental uniform, and when thousands of school children appear in a new costume, which is both becoming and convenient. But the Court and the mandarins cling to their antiquated attire. If the peacock wishes to soar with the eagle, he must first get rid of his cumbersome tail.

This subject, though it savours of the tailor shop, is not unworthy the attention of the grand council of China's statesmen. Has not Carlyle shown in his "Sartor Resartus" how the Philosophy of Clothes is fundamental to the history of civilisation? The Japanese with wonderful foresight settled that question at the very time when they adopted their new form of government.

When Mr. Low was U. S. Minister in Peking some thirty years ago, he said to the writer "Just look at this tomfoolery!" holding up the fashion plates representing the new dress for the diplomatic service of Japan. Time has proved that he was wrong, and that the Japanese were right in adopting a new uniform, when they wished to fall in line with nations of the West. With their old shuffling habiliments and the cringing manners inseparable from them, they never could have been admitted to intercourse on easy terms with Western society.

[Page 294] The mandarin costume of China, though more imposing, is not less barbaric than that of Japan; and the etiquette that accompanies it is wholly irreconcilable with the usages of the Western world. Imagine a mandarin doffing his gaudy cap, gay with tassels, feathers, and ruby button, on meeting a friend, or pushing back his long sleeves to shake hands! Such frippery we have learned to leave to the ladies; and etiquette does not require them to lay aside their hats.

Quakers, like the mandarins, keep their hats on in public meetings; and the oddity of their manners has kept them out of society and made their following very exiguous. Do our Chinese friends wish to be looked on as Quakers, or do they desire to fraternise freely with the people of the great West?

Their cap of ceremony hides a shaven pate and dangling cue, and here lies the chief obstacle in the way of the proposed reform in style and manners. Those badges of subjection will have to be dispensed with either formally or tacitly before the cap that conceals them can give way to the dress hat of European society. Neither graceful nor convenient, that dress hat is not to be recommended on its own merits, but as part of a costume common to all nations which conform to the usages of our modern civilisation.

It must have struck the High Commissioners that, wherever they went, they encountered in good society only one general type of costume. Nor would it be possible for them to advise the adoption of the costume of this or that nationality—a general conformity is all that seems feasible or desirable. Will the Chinese [Page 295] cling to their cap and robes with a death grip like that of the Korean who jumped from a railway train to save his high hat and lost his life? As they are taking passage on the great railway of the world's progress, will they not take pains to adapt themselves in every way to the requirements of a new era?

2. POLYGAMY

We have as yet no intimation what the Reform Government intends to do with this superannuated institution. Will they persist in burning incense before it to disguise its ill-odour, or will they bury it out of sight at once and for ever?

The Travelling Commissioners, whose breadth and acumen are equally conspicuous, surely did not fail to inquire for it in the countries which they visited. Of course, they did not find it there; but, as with the question of costume, the good breeding of their hosts would restrain them from offering any suggestion touching the domestic life of the Chinese.

The Commissioners had the honour of presentation to the Queen-Empress Alexandra. Fancy them asking how many subordinate wives she has to aid her in sustaining the dignity of the King-Emperor! They would learn with surprise that no European sovereign, however lax in morals, has ever had a palace full of concubines as a regular appendage to his regal menage; that for prince and people the ideal is monogamy; and that, although the conduct of the rich and great is often such as to make us blush for our Christian civilisation, it is true this day that the crowned heads of Europe are in general setting a worthy example of [Page 296] domestic morals. "Admirable!" respond the Commissioners; "our ancient sovereigns were like that, and our sages taught that there should be 'Ne Wu Yuen Nu, Wai wu Kwang-tu' (in the harem no pining beauty, outside no man without a mate). It is the luxury of later ages that keeps a multitude of women in seclusion for the pleasure of a few men, and leaves the common man without a wife. We heartily approve the practice of Europe, but what of Africa?"

"There the royal courts consider a multitude of wives essential to their grandeur, and the nobles reckon their wealth by the number of their wives and cows. The glory of a prince is that of a cock in a barn-yard or of a bull at the head of a herd. Such is their ideal from the King of Dahomey with his bodyguard of Amazons to the Sultan of Morocco and the Khedive of Egypt. Not only do the Mahommedans of Asia continue the practice—they have tried to transplant their ideal paradise into Europe. Turkey, decayed and rotten, with its black eunuchs and its Circassian slave girls, stands as an object-lesson to the whole world."

"We beg your pardon, we know enough about Asia; but what of America—does polygamy flourish there?"

"It did exist among the Peruvians and Aztecs before the Spanish conquest, but it is now under ban in every country from pole to pole. Witness the Mormons of Utah! They were refused admission into the American Union as long as they adhered to the Oriental type of plural marriage."

"Ah! We perceive you are pointing to the Mormons as a warning to us. You mean that we shall not be admitted into the society of the more civilised nations [Page 297] as long as we hold to polygamy. Well! Our own sages have condemned it. It has a long and shameful record; but its days are numbered. It will do doubt be suppressed by our new code of laws."

This imaginary conversation is so nearly a transcript of what must have taken place, that I feel tempted to throw the following paragraphs into the form of a dialogue. The dialogue, however, is unavoidably prolix, and I hasten to wind up the discussion.

With reference to the Mormons I may add that at the conference on International Arbitration held at Lake Mohonk last July, there were present Jews, Quakers, Protestants and Roman Catholics, but no Mormons and no Turks. Creeds were not required as credentials, but Turk and Mormon did not think it worth while to knock at the door. Both are objects of contempt, and no nation whose family life is formed on the same model can hope to be admitted to full fraternity with Western peoples.

The abominations associated with such a type of society are inconsistent with any but a low grade of civilisation—they are eunuchs, slavery, unnatural vice, and, more than all, a general debasement of the female sex. In Chinese society, woman occupies a shaded hemisphere—not inaptly represented by the dark portion in their national symbol the Yinyang-tse or Diagram of the Dual principles. So completely has she hitherto been excluded from the benefits of education that a young man in a native high school recently began an essay with the exclamation—"I am glad I am not a Chinese woman. Scarcely one in a thousand is able to read!"

[Page 298] If "Knowledge is power," as Bacon said, and Confucius before him, what a source of weakness has this neglect of woman been to China. Happily she is not excluded from the new system of national education, and there is reason to believe that with the reign of ignorance polygamy will also disappear as a state of things repugnant to the right feeling of an intelligent woman. But would it not hasten the enfranchisement of the sex, and rouse the fair daughters of the East to a nobler conception of human life if the rulers would issue a decree placing concubinage under the ban of law? Nothing would do more to secure for China the respect of the Western world.

3. DOMESTIC SLAVERY

Since writing the first part of this paper, I have learned that some of the Commissioners have expressed themselves in favour of a change of costume. I have also learned that the regulation of slavery is to have a place in the revised statutes, though not referred to by the Commissioners. Had this information reached me earlier, it might have led me to omit the word "unmentioned" from my general title, but it would not have altered a syllable in my treatment of the subject.

Cheering it is to the well-wishers of China to see that she has a government strong enough and bold enough to deal with social questions of this class. How urgent is the slave question may be seen from the daily items in your own columns. What, for example, was the lady from Szechuen doing but carrying on a customary [Page 299] form of the slave traffic? What was the case of those singing girls under the age of fifteen, of whom you spoke last week, but a form of slavery? Again, by way of climax, what will the Western world think of a country that permits a mistress to beat a slave girl to death for eating a piece of watermelon—as reported by your correspondent from Hankow? The triviality of the provocation reminds us of the divorce of a wife for offering her mother-in-law a dish of half-cooked pears. The latter, which is a classic instance, is excused on the ground of filial duty, but I have too much respect for the author of the "Hiaoking," to accept a tradition which does a grievous wrong to one of the best men of ancient times. The tradition, however unfounded, may serve as a guide to public opinion. It suggests another subject, which we might (but will not) reserve for another section, viz., the regulation of divorce and the limitation of marital power. It is indeed intimately connected with my present topic, for what is wife or concubine but a slave, as long as a husband has power to divorce or sell her at will—with or without provocation?

Last week an atrocious instance, not of divorce, but of wife-murder, occurred within bow-shot of my house. A man engaged in a coal-shop had left his wife with an aunt in the country. The aunt complained of her as being too stupid and clumsy to earn a living. Her brutal husband thereon took the poor girl to a lonely spot, where he killed her, and left her unburied. Returning to the coal-shop, he sent word to his aunt that he was ready to answer for what he had done, if called to account. "Has he been called to account?" [Page 300] I enquired this morning of one of his neighbours. "Oh no! was the reply; it's all settled; the woman is buried, and no inquiry is called for." Is not woman a slave, though called a wife, in a society where such things are allowed to go with impunity? Will not the new laws, from which so much is expected, limit the marriage relation to one woman, and make the man, to whom she is bound, a husband, not a master?

Confucius, we are told, resigned office in his native state when the prince accepted a bevy of singing girls sent from a neighbouring principality. The girls were slaves bought and trained for their shameful profession, and the traffic in girls for the same service constitutes the leading form of domestic slavery at this day—so little has been the progress in morals, so little advance toward a legislation that protects the life and virtue of the helpless!

But the slave traffic is not confined to women; any man may sell his son; and classes of both sexes are found in all the houses of the rich. Praedial servitude was practised in ancient times, as it was in Europe in the Middle Ages, and in Russia till a recent day. We read of lands and labourers being conferred on court favourites. How the system came to disappear we need not pause to inquire. It is certain, however, that no grand act of emancipation ever took place in China like that which cost Lincoln his life, or that for which the good Czar Alexander II. had to pay the same forfeit. Russia is to-day eating the bitter fruits of ages of serfdom; and the greatest peril ever encountered by the United States was a war brought on by negro slavery.

[Page 301] The form of slavery prevailing in China is not one that threatens war or revolutions; but in its social aspects it is worse than negro slavery. It depraves morals and corrupts the family, and as long as it exists, it carries the brand of barbarism. China has great men, who for the honour of their country would not be afraid to take the matter in hand. They would, if necessary, imitate Lincoln and the Czar Alexander to effect the removal of such a blot.

It is proposed, we are told, to limit slavery to minors—freedom ensuing on the attainment of majority. This would greatly ameliorate the evil, but the evil is so crying that it demands not amelioration, but extinction. Let the legislators of China take for their model the provisions of British law, which make it possible to boast that "as soon as a slave touches British soil his fetters fall." Let them also follow that lofty legislation which defines the rights and provides for the well-being of the humblest subject. Let the old system be uprooted before a new one is inaugurated, otherwise there is danger that the limiting of slavery to minors will leave those helpless creatures exposed to most of the wrongs that accompany a lifelong servitude.

The number and extent of the reforms decreed or effected are such as to make the present reign the most illustrious in the history of the Empire. May we not hope that in dealing with polygamy and domestic slavery, the action of China will be such as to lift her out of the class of Turkey and Morocco into full companionship with the most enlightened nations of Europe and America.



[Page 302] III.

A NEW OPIUM WAR

The fiat has gone forth—war is declared against an insidious enemy that has long been exhausting the resources of China and sapping the strength of her people. She has resolved to rid herself at once and forever of the curse of opium. The home production of the drug, and all the ramifications of the vice stand condemned by a decree from the throne, followed by a code of regulations designed not to limit, but to extirpate the monster evil.

In this bold stroke for social reform there can be no doubt that the Government is supported by the best sentiment of the whole country. Most Chinese look upon opium as the beginning of their national sorrows. In 1839 it involved them in their first war with the West; and that opened the way for a series of wars which issued in their capital being twice occupied by foreign forces.

Their first effort to shake off the incubus was accompanied by such displays of pride, ignorance and unlawful violence that Great Britain was forced to make war—not to protect an illegal traffic, but to redress an outrage and to humble a haughty empire. In this renewed onslaught the Chinese have exhibited so much good sense and moderation as to show that they have learned much from foreign intercourse during the sixty-seven years that have intervened.

[Page 303] Without making any appeal to the foreigner, they courageously resolved to deal with the evil in its domestic aspects. Most of the mandarins are infected by it; and the licensed culture of the poppy has made the drug so cheap that even the poor are tempted to indulge.

The prohibitory edict asserts that of the adult population 30 or 40 per cent. are under the influence of the seductive poison. This, by the way, gives an enormous total, far beyond any of the estimates of foreign writers.

Appalled by the signs of social decadence the more patriotic of China's statesmen were not slow to perceive that all attempts at reform in education, army, and laws must prove abortive if opium were allowed to sap the vigour of the nation. "You can't carve a piece of rotten wood," says Confucius. Every scheme for national renovation must have for its basis a sound and energetic people. It was this depraved taste that first made a market for the drug; if that taste can be eradicated the trade and the vice must disappear together, with or without the concurrence of Great Britain.

Great Britain was not, however, to be ignored. Besides her overshadowing influence and her commercial interests vast and varied, is she not mistress of India, whose poppy-fields formerly supplied China and are still sending to the Chinese market fifty thousand chests per annum? No longer an illegal traffic, this importation is regulated by treaty. Concerted action might prevent complications and tend to insure success. The new British Government was approached on the [Page 304] subject. Fortunately, the Liberals being in power, it was not bound by old traditions.

A general resolution passed the House of Commons without a dissentient voice, expressing sympathy with China and a willingness to adopt similar measures in India. "When asked in the House what steps had been taken to carry out the resolution for the abolition of the opium traffic between India and China, Mr. Morley replied, that he understood that China was contemplating the issue of regulations restricting the importation, cultivation, and consumption of opium. He had received no communication from China; but as soon as proposals were submitted he was prepared to consider them in a sympathetic spirit. H. B. M.'s minister in Peking had been instructed to communicate with the Chinese Government to that effect."

The telegram containing these words is dated London, October 30. The imperial edict, which initiated what many call "the new crusade," was issued barely forty days before that date (viz., on September 20). Let it also be noted that near the end of August a memorial of the Anti-Opium League, suggesting action on the part of the Government, was sent up through the Nanking viceroy. It was signed by 1,200 missionaries of different nations and churches. Is it not probable that their representations, backed by the viceroy, moved the hand that sways the sceptre?

The decree runs as follows:

"Since the first prohibition of opium, almost the whole of China has been flooded with the poison. Smokers of opium have wasted their time, neglected their employment, ruined their constitutions, and impoverished their households. Thus for several decades China has presented a [Page 305] spectacle of increasing poverty and weakness. It rouses our indignation to speak of the matter. The Court is now determined to make China powerful; and it is our duty to urge our people to reformation in this respect.

"We decree, therefore, that within a limit of ten years this harmful muck be fully and entirely wiped away. We further command the Council of State to consider means for the strict prohibition both of opium-smoking and of poppy-growing."

Among the regulations drawn up by the Council of State are these:

That all smokers of opium be required to report themselves and to take out licenses.

Smokers holding office are divided into two classes. Those of the junior class are to cleanse themselves in six months. For the seniors no limit of time is fixed. Both classes while under medical treatment are to pay for approved deputies, by whom their duties shall be discharged.

All opium dens are to be closed after six months. These are places where smokers dream away the night in company with the idle and the vicious.

No opium lamps or pipes are to be made or sold after six months. Shops for the sale of the drug are not to be closed until the tenth year.

The Government provides medicines for the cure of the habit.

The formation of anti-opium societies is encouraged; but the members are cautioned not to discuss political questions.

The question no doubt arises in the mind of the reader, Will China succeed in freeing herself from bondage to this hateful vice? It is easy for an autocrat to issue a decree, but not easy to secure obedience. It [Page 306] is encouraging to know that this decisive action is favoured by all the viceroys—Yuan, the youngest and most powerful, has already taken steps to put the new law in force in the metropolitan province. A flutter of excitement has also shown itself in the ranks of Indian traders—Parsees, Jews, and Mohammedans—who have presented a claim for damages to their respectable traffic.

On the whole we are inclined to believe in the good faith of the Chinese Government in adopting this measure, and to augur well for its success. Next after the change of basis in education, this brave effort to suppress a national vice ranks as the most brilliant in a long series of reformatory movements.

W. A. P. M. PEKING, January, 1907.



[Page 307] INDEX



[Page 309] INDEX

Adams, John Quincy, on the Opium War, 153 Albazin, Cossack garrison captured at, 57 Alphabet, a new, invented by Wang Chao, 217 Amherst, Lord, declines to kneel to Emperor, 168 Amoy, seaport in Fukien province, 14 its grass cloth and peculiar sort of black tea, 15 Anhwei, province of, home of Li Hung Chang, 49 Anti-foot-binding Society, supported by Dowager Empress in an edict, 217 Anti-foreign Agitation, 244-266 American influence in the Far East and, 245-251 "Appeal from the Lion's Den," 176 Army, the Chinese, 200-202 Arrow War, the, 162-169 allied troops at Peking, 168 Canton occupied by British troops, 164 China abandons her long seclusion, 169 crew of the Arrow executed without trial, 163 negotiations of the four powers with China, 165 seizure of the lorcha Arrow, 162

Bamboo tablets, writings of Confucius engraved on, 106 Battle of the Sea of Japan, 191-192 Bell-tower, boy's soul supposed to be hovering in, 21 Black-haired race, Chinese style themselves the, 151 Bowring, Sir John, Governor of Hong Kong, and the Arrow case, 162-163 Boxer War, the, 172-180 a Boxer manifesto, 175 Boycott, the, 247, 252, 253, 259 Bridges, 16, 41, 42 Bridgman, Dr., pioneer missionary to China, 282 founds the Chinese Repository, 282 Buddhism, introduction of, into China, 95 "Apotheosis of Mercy," a legend of Northern Buddhism, 108 number of Buddhist monasteries, 108 rooted in the minds of the illiterate, 108 Burden, Bishop, of the English Church Mission. Hang-chow, 23 Burlingame, Hon. Anson, U. S. Minister to China, 212

Cambalu, Mongol name for Peking, 59 [Page 310] Camoeens, tomb of, at Macao, 9 Canton, the most populous city of the Empire, 9-12 American trade suffers most in Canton from boycott of 1905, 13 averts bombardment by payment of $6,000,000 ransom, 154 Christian college, 10 cock-fighting the popular amusement, 10 crowds of beggars, 12 excellence of tea and silk produced in the vicinity, 13 "flower-boats," 9 historical enigma contests, 11 narrowness of streets, 12 passion for gambling, 11 Canton (Kwangtung), province of, 7-13 Viceroy of, has also Kwangsi under his jurisdiction, 13 Caravan Song, 61 Chang Chien, legend of, 63 Chang-fi, rescues son of Liu Pi from burning palace, 114 Chang Tien-shi, arch-magician of Taoism, 109 Chang Chi-tung, Viceroy of Hukwang, his life and public career, 219-241 first to start the Emperor on the path of reform 213 case of Chunghau, 223-224 his commercial developments at Wuchang, 231 official interviews with, 238-241 Chang Yee, an able diplomatist of the Chou period, 99 Chao, Prince of, is offered fifteen cities for a Kohinoor belonging to him, 98 Chau-siang subjugates Tung-chou-Kiun, last monarch of the Chou dynasty, 99 Chefoo (Chifu), port in Shantung province, 32 Chehkiang, province of, smallest of the eighteen provinces, 17-24 Cheng-wang, "the completer," a ruler of the Chou dynasty, 86-87 his successors, 87-88 Chentung, Liang, Sir, interview with Dr. Martin with reference to the Exclusion Laws and the boycott, 252 Chin, one of the Nan-peh Chao, 117 China, probable derivation of name, 101 agency of missionaries in diffusing secular knowledge in, 281-291 American exclusion laws, 253 anti-opium edict, 304-305 boycott, 247, 252, 253, 259 condition after five wars, 181 displays of barbarity during the Boxer War, 180 effect of her defeat by Japan, 171 effects of Russo-Japanese War, 193 eighteen provinces, 6 [Page 311] five grand divisions, 3 Grand Canal, 31 Great Wall, 4, 31, 32, 101 interference in Tongking, 62 interference in Korea, 62 physiographical features, 4 reforms in, 196-218 rivers, 19, 15, 18, 25, 41, 52 sincerity of reformatory movements, 306 China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, 200 Chingtu-fu, capital of the state of Shuh, 113 Chinhai, city at the mouth of the Ningpo, 18 Chosin, Prince of, 196 Chou dynasty, founded by Wen-wang, 84 annals of, 84-88, 96, 99 form of government praised by Confucius, 96 term Chung Kwoh, "Middle Kingdom," originates in, 85 Chou-sin, brings ruin on the house of Shang, sets fire to his own palace, and perishes in the flames, 81 Christians, attitude of Chinese Government towards, 261 newspapers and the Christian faith, 263 Chu Fu-tse, the philosopher, 128 Chu Hi, the Coryphaeus of Mediaeval China, 128 Chu-koh Liang, a peasant who became minister to Liu Pi, 114-115 Chuang Yuen, Chinese term for senior wrangler; his importance and privileges 123 Chungchen, last of the Mings, hangs himself after stabbing his daughter, 139 Chunghau and the restoration of Ili, 223 accused by Chang Chi-tung, 224 Chunking, city on the Yangtse, 51 Chusan, Archipelago and Island, 17 Chu Yuen Chang, Father of the Mings, 135 Chwan-siang, exterminates the house of Chou, 99 Confucius, birth and parentage of 89, 90 account of his education, 90 describes himself as "editor, not author," 91 edits the Five Classics, 92 Golden Rule the essence of his teaching, 92 number of his disciples, 90 passion for music, 91 search for lost books by Liu-Pang, 106 tomb of, 30-31 worshipped by his people, 92-93 writings burned and disciples persecuted by Shi-hwang-ti, 102-103 Control of Chinese over foreigners throughout Empire, 258 Corvee, myriads of labourers drafted by, for construction of the Grand Canal, 32 [Page 312] Corvino, missionary, 133 his church at Peking perishes in the overthrow of the Mongols, 137 Cotton produced in all the provinces, 3 Cue, abolition of, requisite to confirm loyalty to Manchus, 278

Degrees, literary, 122-123 Diaz and da Gama, voyage to India, 136 Diplomacy, becomes an art under the Chou dynasty, 97 Diplomatic College, 209 Dr. Martin president of, 209 "Drinking Alone by Moonlight," poem by Lipai, 120

Eclectic Commission, the, 197-198 Educational reforms, 210 the Imperial University, 210 Elgin, Lord, and the Tai-pings, 161, 166 Elliott, Captain Charles, and the Opium War, 154 Empress Dowager, and the Boxer War, 172-174, 179-180 celebrates her seventieth birthday with great pomp, 274 convert to the policy of progress, 197 coup d'etat, 272 full name, 276 parentage, 271 personal description of, 275 reactionary clique and, 174 type of the Manchu woman, 276 England takes lease of Wei-hai-wei, 174 Eunuchism, 112, 297 Examinations, system of civil service, instituted by the Hans, 109 continued for twelve centuries, 121 details of, 122-124 developed under the T'angs, 121 reforms in, 213 Exclusion laws, the, Chinese resentment of, 253 most feasible way to deal with, 255 President Roosevelt on, 251

Factories, the, at Canton, 150,152 Favier, Bishop, defends his people in the French Cathedral, Peking, 176 Fishing, queer methods of, 19 Five dynasties, the, factions contending for the succession on the fall of the house of T'ang, 126 the later Liang, T'ang, Ts'in, Han, and Chou are united after fifty-three years in the Sung dynasty, 126-127 Foochow (Fuchau), on the River Min, 15 fine wall and "bridge of ten thousand years," 16 Kushan, its sacred mountain, 15 Manchu colony, 16 [Page 313] Formosa, Island of, colonised by people of Fukien, 14 France takes lease of Kwang-chou-wan, 174 France, war with, 169 allowed to retain Tong-king, 170 French seize Formosa, 170 Fraser, Consul, and Viceroy Chang in the Boxer War, 227 Fuchau (Foochow), province of Fukien, 15 large and prosperous missions in, 16 Fuhi, mythical ruler, teaches his people to rear domestic animals, 72 Fukien (Fuhkien), province of, 14-16 derivation of name, 15 dialect, 14 inhabitants bold navigators, 14 Fungshui, a false science, 202 Fungtao, inventor of printing, 116

Gabet and Huc, French missionaries, reach Lhasa in Tibet, 63 Gama, da, voyage to India, 136 Gaselee, General, and his contingent relieve the British Legation, Peking, 177 Genghis Khan, splendour of his court eclipsed by that of his grandson, Kublai Khan, 131 Gods, the numerous, of the Chinese, 82 worship of many of them referred to the Shang dynasty, 82 Gordon, General, victorious over the Tai-pings, 161 Grand Canal, journey down from Tsi-ning, 31 as useful to-day as six hundred years ago, 31 constructed by Kublai Khan, 31-32 its object, 32 Grand Lama, the Buddhist pope, 62, 109 Great Wall, the, origin of, 4 an effete relic, 31 built by Ts'in, 101 its construction overthrows house of its builder, 32 Gunpowder, early known to the Chinese, but not used with cannon, 115 spoken of by Arabs as "Chinese snow," 115

Han dynasty, founded by Liu-pang, 105 annals, 105-111 civil service examinations inaugurated, 109 marked advance in belles-lettres, 109 Hangchow, capital of Cheh-kiang province, its streets first trodden by white men in 1855, 22 its "bore", 24 its magnificent West Lake, 22 "The Japanese are coming," 23 Hanlin Academy, contest before the Emperor for seats in, 123 [Page 314] Han Yu, eminent writer of the eighth century, ridicules the relics of Buddha, 107 Hart, Sir Robert, his opportune services in the war with France, 170 development of the maritime customs, 206-208 father of the postal system, 206 many honours of, 207 Hayes, Dr., president of first provincial university in China, 286 Helungkiang, province of Manchuria, 56 Hia dynasty, founded by Ta-Yue, 78 together with the Shang and Chou dynasties, known as the San Tai or San Wang, 78 Hien-feng, Emperor, escapes to Tartary and dies there, 168 Himalayas, a bulwark to China, 4 Hiao Lien, literary degree, now Chu-jin, equivalent to A. M., 122 Hiunghu, supposed ancestors of the Huns, 111 Honan province of, 41-44 agricultural resources, 42 bridge over the Hwang Ho,41 Hong Kong, "the Gibraltar of the Orient," ceded to Great Britain, 7 British make it chief emporium of Eastern seas, 8 rapid development of, 8 Huc and Gabet, French missionaries, make their way to Lhasa, 63 Hung Siu-tsuen, leader of the Tai-pings, 157 his aid Yang, 158 invites his first instructor, Rev. Issachar Roberts, to visit his court, 160 new method of baptism 160 raises the flag of rebellion in Kwangsi, 157 Huns, supposed ancestors were the Hiunghu, 111 Hupeh, province of, 45-49 Hankow, Hupeh province, a Shanghai on a smaller scale, 45 Hanyang, Hupeh province, a busy industrial centre, 46 Wuchang, capital of Hupeh, 45 Hwai, Prince, regent during minority of Shunchi, 141 called Amawang by the Manchus, 141 effects the subjugation of the eighteen provinces, and imposes the tonsure and "pigtail," 141 Hwan, Duke, of western Shan-tung, convokes the States-General nine times, 96 Hwang-ti, term for "Emperor," first used by the builder of the Great Wall, 78 Hwei-ti, a ruler of the Han dynasty, 106

Ichang, city on the Yang-tse, 15 [Page 315] Ili, Chunghau and the restoration of, 223-224 Ito, Marquis, 196 I-yin, a wise minister who had charge of the young ruler T'ai-kia, 80-81

Japan, war with, provoked by China's interference in Korea, 170 Japanese expel Chinese from Korea, and take part of Manchuria, 171 Japan left in possession of Port Arthur and Liao-tung, 171 Russia is envious and compels her to withdraw, 171 having defeated Russia unreservedly restores Manchuria to China, 195 Jews, of K'ai-fung-fu, 43 ancestors of, reach China by way of India, 43 Shanghai, help their K'ai-fung-fu brethren, 44 Jin-hwang, Tien-hwang, and Ti-hwang, three mythical rulers, 71

K'ai-fung-fu, formerly the capital under Chou and Sung dynasties, 42 visit to the Jews of, 43 Kairin, province of Manchuria, 56 Kalgan, Mongolia, a caravan terminal, 58, 61 Kanghi, the greatest monarch in the history of the Empire, 142 alienated by the pope, 144 patron of missionaries, 142 Kanghi, progress of Christianity during his reign, 143 Kang Yuwei, urges reform on the Emperor, 213 Kansuh, province of, comparatively barren, and climate unfavourable to agriculture, 55 Kao-tsung, son of Tai-tsung, raises Wu, one of his father's concubines, to the rank of empress, 121 Ketteler, Baron von, killed during siege in Peking, 176 Kiachta, a double town in Manchuria, 58 Kiak'ing, succeeds on the abdication of his father, Kienlung, 144 a weak and dissolute monarch, 145 Kiangsu province, 25-29 derivation of name, 25 Kiao-Chao (Kiau-Chau), port occupied by Germans, 30, 165 Kiayi, an exiled statesman, dates a poem from Changsha, 110 Kie, last king of the Hia dynasty, his excesses, 80 Kien Lung, emperor poet, lines inscribed by him on rock at Patachu, 35 abdicates, after a reign of sixty years, for the reason that he did not wish to reign longer than his grandfather, 144 adds Turkestan to the empire, 144 dynasty reaches the acme of splendour in his reign, 144 [Page 316] Kin Tartars, obtain possession of Peking, and push their way to K'ai-fung-fu, the Emperor retiring to Nanking, 129 Kin Tartars, the, 140 Kingdoms, the three, Wei, Wu, and Shuh, 112-113 King Sheng Tau, annotator of popular historical novel, 113 Kinsha, "River of Golden Sands," 52 Komura, Baron, and Portsmouth treaty, 193 Korea, the bone of contention between Japan and Russia, 182, 183, 186, 192 Kuanyin Pusa, a legend of, "The Apotheosis of Mercy," 108 Kublai Khan, absorbs China, 131 Kung, Prince, and the Empress Dowager, 273 disgraced and confined in his palace, 273 personal characteristics, 277 restored to favour but not to joint regency, 273 Kuropatkin, General, and the Russo-Japanese War, 185-192 Kwangsi, province of, subordinate to Canton, 13 in an almost chronic state of rebellion, 13 Kwangsu, Emperor, and the Empress Dowager, 172, 173 his desire for reforms, 197 imprisoned in a secluded palace, 173, 174 influenced by Kang Yuwei 173 Kwangtung (Canton), province of, 7-13 Kweichau, province of, the poorest province of China, 52 one-half its population aborigines, 52 Kweilang, secretary to the Empress, 272 prompts Prince Kung to strike for his life, 273

Lao-Tse, founder of Taoism, his life and influence, 94 Lhasa, treaty of, 62 Li and Yu, two bad kings of the house of Chou, 88 Liang, one of the Nan-peh Chao, 116 Liang Ting Fen, letter to Dr. Martin requesting his good offices with President Roosevelt, 252-253 Liaoyang, battle of, 187 Lienchow, attack on Americans at, 248, 255 Lien P'o, a general of Chao, who threatens to kill the envoy Lin at sight, 98 makes friends with his adversary, 99 Li Hung Chang, a native of Anhwei, 49 preeminent in the work of reform, 212 sent to Japan to sue for peace he is shot by an assassin, 171 wins earldom through Gordon's victory, 161 [Page 317] Li Ling, a commander for whom Sze-ma Ts'ien stood sponsor, and who surrendered to the enemy, 110 Lin, Commissioner, and the opium traffic, 152 Lin Sian Ju, a brave envoy, 98 Lineivitch, General, and the Russo-Japanese War, 190-192 Lipai, the Pope of Chinese literature, 119 Li-Sze, chancellor of Shi-hwang-ti, denounces the works of Confucius to that ruler, and causes them to be burned, 102 Little, Mrs. Archibald, and the Anti-foot-binding Society, 217 Liu-pang founds the Han dynasty, 105 Liu Pi founds the state of Shuh, 113 Li Yuen, assassinates Yang-ti and sets up the T'ang dynasty, 118 Lo Kwan-chung, author of a popular historical novel, 113 Lo-yang, capital of the state of Wei, 112 Lu, Empress, holds the Empire in absolute subjection for eight years, 106

Macao, Portuguese town of, 8 burial place of Camoeens and Robert Morrison, 8 McCartee, Dr., annual issued by, 287 Manchuria, 3 consists of three regions or provinces under one governor-general, 56 home of the Manchus, 56 ignorance of Manchus in their original habitat, 57 Japan takes possession of parts of, 171 population and products, 57 restored by Japan to China, 195 Russia occupies the very positions from which she compelled Japan to withdraw, 171 sacred city of Mukden, 56 Manchus, the, ignorance of those remaining in Manchuria, 57 give to China a better government than any of her native dynasties, 142 the Normans of China, 267-280 they settle at Mukden and await an opportunity to descend on China, 140 Marco Polo. See Polo Maritime customs, the, 206-208 Sir Robert Hart's long and valuable services, 206-209 Martin, Dr. W. A. P., head of the Tung-wen College, 209 in siege at Peking, 176, 177 president of the Imperial University, 210 Mateer, Dr. C. W., founds Teng-chow College, 285 [Page 318] Meadows, Consul T. T., reports in favour of the Tai-pings, 159 Medhurst, Dr., his description of the Chinese Classical language, 290 Mencius, more eloquent but less original than Confucius, 93 his tribute to Confucius, 94 owed much to his mother's training, 93 Merchant marine, the, 200 Mings, last of, stabs daughter and hangs himself, 139 Ming-ti, sends embassy to India to import Buddhist books and bonzes, 107 Mining enterprises, 202 Min River, 15 Missions, development of, 264 Minister Rockhill's address upon, 266 Missionaries, attacks on, 40, 180, 248, 260, 261, 262 agency of, in the diffusion of secular knowledge, 263-291 apostles of science, 263 creators of Chinese journalism 290 medical work, 284 lead a vernacular revolution, 290 preparation of text-books, 287 presidents of government colleges, 289 teaching and preaching, 263 Mongolia, the largest division of Tartary, 57, 61 contribution to the luxuries of the metropolis, 50 inhabitants nomadic, 58 has only three towns, 58 Russians "came lean and went away fat," 58 Russians granted privilege of establishing an ecclesiastical mission, 57 Mongols, liable to military service, but prohibited from doing garrison duty in China, 59 dress, 60 forty-eight Mongolian princes, 59 Mongol monks at Peking, 60 nomadic wanderings, 58 princes visit Cambalu (Peking), in winter, 59 their camel, 60 victorious over the Sungs, 130 Yuen or Mongol dynasty, 131-134 Morrison, John R., son of Dr. Morrison the missionary, attempts to establish a printing-press, 283 Morrison, Robert, pioneer of Protestant missions to China, tomb of, at Macao, 9, 282 Moule, Bishop, makes Hang-chow seat of his diocese, 23 Mukden, city of, sacred to every Manchu, 56 battle of, 189 Mu-wang, a Chou ruler, who seeks relief from ennui in foreign travel, 87