There is a very common statement made by persons who have lived in
China--among the people, but not of them--and the more superficial the
acquaintance, the more emphatically is the statement made, that the
ordinary Chinaman, be he prince or peasant, offers to the Western
observer an insoluble puzzle in every department of his life. He is, in
fact, a standing enigma; a human being, it may be granted, but one who
can no more be classed than his unique monosyllabic language, which
still stands isolated and alone.
This estimate is largely based upon some exceedingly false inferences.
It seems to be argued that because, in a great many matters, the
Chinaman takes a diametrically opposite view to our own, he must
necessarily be a very eccentric fellow; but as these are mostly matters
of convention, the argument is just as valid against us as against him.
"Strange people, those foreigners," he may say, and actually does say;
"they make their compass point north instead of south. They take off
their hats in company instead of keeping them on. They mount a horse
on its left instead of on its right side. They begin dinner with soup
instead of dessert, and end it with dessert instead of soup. They drink
their wine cold instead of hot. Their books all open at the wrong end,
and the lines in a page are horizontal instead of vertical. They put
their guests on the right instead of on the left, though it is true that
we did that until several hundred years ago. Their music, too, is so
funny, it is more like noise; and as for their singing, it is only
very loud talking. Then their women are so immodest; striding about in
ball-rooms with very little on, and embracing strange men in a whirligig
which they call dancing, but very unlike the dignified movements which
our male dancers exhibit in the Confucian temple. Their men and women
shake hands, though know from our sacred Book of Rites that men and
women should not even pass things from one to another, for fear their
hands should touch. Then, again, all foreigners, sometimes the women
also, carry sticks, which can only be for beating innocent people; and
their so-called mandarins and others ride races and row boats, instead
of having coolies to do these things for them. They are strange people
indeed; very clever at cunning, mechanical devices, such as fire-ships,
fire-carriages, and air-cars; but extremely ferocious and almost
entirely uncivilized."
Such would be a not exaggerated picture of the mental attitude of
the Chinaman towards his enigma, the foreigner. From the Chinaman's
imperturbable countenance the foreigner seeks in vain for some
indications of a common humanity within; and simply because he has not
the wit to see it, argues that it is not there. But there it is all the
time. The principles of general morality, and especially of duty towards
one's neighbour, the restrictions of law, and even the conventionalities
of social life, upon all of which the Chinaman is more or less nourished
from his youth upwards, remain, when accidental differences have been
brushed away, upon a bed-rock of ground common to both East and West;
and it is difficult to see how such teachings could possibly turn out a
race of men so utterly in contrast with the foreigner as the Chinese
are usually supposed to be. It is certain that anything like a full
and sincere observance of the Chinese rules of life would result in a
community of human beings far ahead of the "pure men" dreamt of in the
philosophy of the Taoists.
As has already been either stated or suggested, the Chinese seem to be
actuated by precisely the same motives which actuate other peoples. They
delight in the possession of wealth and fame, while fully alive to the
transitory nature of both. They long even more for posterity, that
the ancestral line may be carried on unbroken. They find their chief
pleasures in family life, and in the society of friends, of books, of
mountains, of flowers, of pictures, and of objects dear to the collector
and the connoisseur. Though a nation of what the Scotch would call
"sober eaters," they love the banquet hour, and to a certain extent
verify their own saying that "Man's heart is next door to his stomach."
In centuries past a drunken nation, some two to three hundred years
ago they began to come under the influence of opium, and the abuse of
alcohol dropped to a minimum. Opium smoking, less harmful a great deal
than opium eating, took the place of drink, and became the national
vice; but the extent of its injury to the people has been much
exaggerated, and is not to be compared with that of alcohol in the West.
It is now, in consequence of recent legislation, likely to disappear, on
which result there could be nothing but the warmest congratulations to
offer, but for the fact that something else, more insidious and deadly
still, is rapidly taking its place. For a time, it was thought that
alcohol might recover its sway, and it is still quite probable that
human cravings for stimulant of some kind will find a partial relief in
that direction. The present enemy, however, and one that demands serious
and immediate attention, is morphia, which is being largely imported
into China in the shape of a variety of preparations suitable to the
public demand. A passage from opium to morphia would be worse, if
possible, than from the frying-pan into the fire.
The question has often been asked, but has never found a satisfactory
answer, why and how it is that Chinese civilization has persisted
through so many centuries, while other civilizations, with equal if not
superior claims to permanency, have been broken up and have disappeared
from the sites on which they formerly flourished. Egypt may be able to
boast of a high level of culture at a remoter date than we can reach
through the medium of Chinese records, for all we can honestly claim
is that the Chinese were a remarkably civilized nation a thousand years
before Christ. That was some time before Greek civilization can be said
to have begun; yet the Chinese nation is with us still, and but for
contact with the Western barbarian, would be leading very much the same
life that it led so many centuries ago.
Some would have us believe that the bond which has held the people
together is the written language, which is common to the whole Empire,
and which all can read in the same sense, though the pronunciation of
words varies in different provinces as much as that of words in English,
French, or German. Others have suggested that to the teachings of
Confucius, which have outlived the competition of Taoism, Buddhism and
other faiths, China is indebted for the tie which has knitted men's
hearts together, and enabled them to defy any process of disintegration.
There is possibly some truth in all such theories; but these are
incomplete unless a considerable share of the credit is allowed to the
spirit of personal freedom which seems to breathe through all Chinese
institutions, and to unite the people in resistance to every form of
oppression. The Chinese have always believed in the divine right of
kings; on the other hand, their kings must bear themselves as kings, and
live up to their responsibilities as well as to the rights they claim.
Otherwise, the obligation is at an end, and their subjects will have
none of them. Good government exists in Chinese eyes only when
the country is prosperous, free from war, pestilence and famine.
Misgovernment is a sure sign that God has withdrawn His mandate from the
emperor, who is no longer fit to rule. It then remains to replace the
emperor by one who is more worthy of Divine favour, and this usually
means the final overthrow of the dynasty.
The Chinese assert their right to put an evil ruler to death, and it is
not high treason, or criminal in any way, to proclaim this principle in
public. It is plainly stated by the philosopher Mencius, whose writings
form a portion of the Confucian Canon, and are taught in the ordinary
course to every Chinese youth. One of the feudal rulers was speaking to
Mencius about a wicked emperor of eight hundred years back, who had been
attacked by a patriot hero, and who had perished in the flames of his
palace. "May then a subject," he asked, "put his sovereign to death?"
To which Mencius replied that any one who did violence to man's
natural charity of heart, or failed altogether in his duty towards
his neighbour, was nothing more than an unprincipled ruffian; and he
insinuated that it had been such a ruffian, in fact, not an emperor
in the true sense of the term, who had perished in the case they were
discussing. Another and most important point to be remembered in any
attempt to discover the real secret of China's prolonged existence as
a nation, also points in the direction of democracy and freedom. The
highest positions in the state have always been open, through the medium
of competitive examinations, to the humblest peasant in the empire. It
is solely a question of natural ability coupled with an intellectual
training; and of the latter, it has already been shown that there is no
lack at the disposal of even the poorest. China, then, according to a
high authority, has always been at the highest rung of the democratic
ladder; for it was no less a person than Napoleon who said: "Reasonable
democracy will never aspire to anything more than obtaining an equal
power of elevation for all."
In order to enforce their rights by the simplest and most bloodless
means, the Chinese have steadily cultivated the art of combining
together, and have thus armed themselves with an immaterial, invisible
weapon which simply paralyses the aggressor, and ultimately leaves them
masters of the field. The extraordinary part of a Chinese boycott or
strike is the absolute fidelity by which it is observed. If the boatmen
or chair-coolies at any place strike, they all strike; there are no
blacklegs. If the butchers refuse to sell, they all refuse, entirely
confident in each other's loyalty. Foreign merchants who have offended
the Chinese guilds by some course of action not approved by those
powerful bodies, have often found to their cost that such conduct
will not be tolerated for a moment, and that their only course is to
withdraw, sometimes at considerable loss, from the untenable position
they had taken up. The other side of the medal is equally instructive.
Some years ago, the foreign tea-merchants at a large port, in order to
curb excessive charges, decided to hoist the Chinese tea-men, or sellers
of tea, with their own petard. They organized a strict combination
against the tea-men, whose tea no colleague was to buy until, by what
seemed to be a natural order of events, the tea-men had been brought
to their knees. The tea-men, however, remained firm, their countenances
impassive as ever. Before long, the tea-merchants discovered that some
of their number had broken faith, and were doing a roaring business for
their own account, on the terms originally insisted on by the tea-men.
There is no longer any doubt that China is now in the early stages
of serious and important changes. Her old systems of education and
examination are to be greatly modified, if not entirely remodelled.
The distinctive Chinese dress is to be shorn of two of its most
distinguishing features--the _queue_ of the man and the small feet of
the woman. The coinage is to be brought more into line with commercial
requirements. The administration of the law is to be so improved that
an honest demand may be made--as Japan made it some years back--for the
abolition of extra-territoriality, a treaty obligation under which China
gives up all jurisdiction over resident foreigners, and agrees that
they shall be subject, civilly and criminally alike, only to their own
authorities. The old patriarchal form of government, autocratic in name
but democratic in reality, which has stood the Chinese people in such
good stead for an unbroken period of nearly twenty-two centuries, is
also to change with the changes of the hour, in the hope that a new era
will be inaugurated, worthy to rank with the best days of a glorious
past.
And here perhaps it may be convenient if a slight outline is given of
the course marked out for the future. China is to have a "constitution"
after the fashion of most foreign nations; and her people, whose sole
weapon of defence and resistance, albeit one of deadly efficiency, has
hitherto been combination of the masses against the officials set over
them, are soon to enjoy the rights of representative government. By an
Imperial decree, issued late in 1907, this principle was established;
and by a further decree, issued in 1908, it was ordered that at the
end of a year provincial assemblies, to deliberate on matters of local
government, were to be convened in all the provinces and certain
other portions of the empire, as a first step towards the end in view.
Membership of these assemblies was to be gained by election, coupled
with a small property qualification; and the number of members in each
assembly was to be in proportion to the number of electors in each
area, which works out roughly at about one thousand electors to
each representative. In the following year a census was to be taken,
provincial budgets were to be drawn up, and a new criminal code was to
be promulgated, on the strength of which new courts of justice were
to be opened by the end of the third year. By 1917, there was to be a
National Assembly or Parliament, consisting of an Upper and Lower House,
and a prime minister was to be appointed.
On the 14th of October 1909 these provincial assemblies met for the
first time. The National Assembly was actually opened on the 3rd of
October 1910; and in response to public feeling, an edict was issued a
month later ordering the full constitution to be granted within three
years from date. It is really a single chamber, which contains the
elements of two. It is composed of about one hundred members, appointed
by the Throne and drawn from certain privileged classes, including
thirty-two high officials and ten distinguished scholars, together with
the same number of delegates from the provinces. Those who obtain seats
are to serve for three years, and to have their expenses defrayed by the
state. It is a consultative and not an executive body; its function is
to discuss such subjects as taxation, the issue of an annual budget, the
amendment of the law, etc., all of which subjects are to be approved by
the emperor before being submitted to this assembly, and also to deal
with questions sent up for decision from the provincial assemblies.
Similarly, any resolution to be proposed must be backed by at least
thirty members, and on being duly passed by a majority, must then
be embodied in a memorial to the Throne. For passing and submitting
resolutions which may be classed under various headings as
objectionable, the assembly can at once be dissolved by Imperial edict.
There are, so far, no distinct parties in the National Assembly, that
is, as regards the places occupied in the House. Men of various shades
of opinion, Radicals, Liberals and Conservatives, are all mixed up
together. The first two benches are set aside for representatives of the
nobility, with precedence from the left of the president round to his
right. Then come officials, scholars and leading merchants on the
next two benches. Behind them, again, on four rows of benches, are the
delegates from the provincial assemblies. There is thus a kind of House
of Lords in front, with a House of Commons, the representatives of
the nation, at the back. The leanings of the former class, as might be
supposed, are mostly of a conservative tendency, while the sympathies
of the latter are rather with progressive ideas; at the same time, there
will be found among the Lords a certain sprinkling of Radicals, and
among the Commons not a few whose views are of an antiquated, not to say
reactionary, type.
With the above scheme the Chinese people are given to understand quite
clearly that while their advice in matters concerning the administration
of government will be warmly welcomed, all legislative power will
remain, as heretofore, confined to the emperor alone. At the first
blush, this seems like giving with one hand and taking away with the
other; and so perhaps it would work out in more than one nation of the
West. But those who know the Chinese at home know that when they offer
political advice they mean it to be taken. The great democracy of China,
living in the greatest republic the world has ever seen, would never
tolerate any paltering with national liberties in the present or in the
future, any more than has been the case in the past. Those who sit in
the seats of authority at the capital are far too well acquainted with
the temper of their countrymen to believe for a moment that, where such
vital interests are concerned, there can be anything contemplated save
steady and satisfactory progress towards the goal proposed. If the
ruling Manchus seize the opportunity now offered them, then, in spite of
simmering sedition here and there over the empire, they may succeed
in continuing a line which in its early days had a glorious record of
achievement, to the great advantage of the Chinese nation. If, on the
other hand, they neglect this chance, there may result one of those
frightful upheavals from which the empire has so often suffered. China
will pass again through the melting-pot, to emerge once more, as on all
previous occasions, purified and strengthened by the process.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. _The Chinese Classics_, by James Legge, D.D., late Professor of
Chinese at Oxford.
A translation of the whole of the Confucian Canon, comprising the Four
Books in which are given the discourses of Confucius and Mencius, the
Book of History, the Odes, the Annals of Confucius' native State, the
Book of Rites, and the Book of Changes.
2. _The Ancient History of China_, by F. Hirth, Ph.D., Professor of
Chinese at Columbia University, New York.
A sketch of Chinese history from fabulous ages down to 221 B.C.,
containing a good deal of information of an antiquarian character, and
altogether placing in its most attractive light what must necessarily be
rather a dull period for the general reader.
3. _China_, by E. H. Parker, Professor of Chinese at Victoria
University, Manchester.
A general account of China, chiefly valuable for commercial and
statistical information, sketch-maps of ancient trade-routes, etc.
4. _A Chinese Biographical Dictionary_, by H. A. Giles, LL.D., Professor
of Chinese at the University of Cambridge.
This work contains 2579 short lives of Chinese Emperors, statesmen,
generals, scholars, priests, and other classes, including some
women, from the earliest times down to the present day, arranged
alphabetically.
5. _A Comprehensive Geography of the Chinese Empire_, by L. Richard.
This work is rightly named "comprehensive," for it contains a great deal
of information which cannot be strictly classed as geographical, all of
which, however, is of considerable value to the student.
6. _Descriptive Sociology (Chinese)_, by E. T. C. Werner, H.B.M. Consul
at Foochow.
A volume of the series initiated by Herbert Spenger. It consists of a
large number of sociological facts grouped and arranged in chronological
order, and is of course purely a work of reference.
7. _A History of Chinese Literature_, by H. A. Giles.
Notes on two or three hundred writers of history, philosophy, biography,
travel, poetry, plays, fiction, etc., with a large number of translated
extracts grouped under the above headings and arranged in chronological
order.
8. _Chinese Poetry in English Verse_, by H. A. Giles.
Rhymed translations of nearly two hundred short poems from the earliest
ages down to the present times.
9. _An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art_, by H. A.
Giles.
Notes on the lives and works of over three hundred painters of all
ages, chiefly translated from the writings of Chinese art-critics, with
sixteen reproductions of famous Chinese pictures.
10. _Scraps from a Collector's Note-book_, by F. Hirth.
Chiefly devoted to notes on painters of the present dynasty, 1644-
1905, with twenty-one reproductions of famous pictures, forming a
complementary supplement to No. 9.
11. _Religions of Ancient China_, by H. A. Giles.
A short account of the early worship of one God, followed by brief
notices of Taoism, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Mahommedanism, and
other less well-known faiths which have been introduced at various dates
into China.
12. _Chinese Characteristics_, by the Rev. Arthur Smith, D.D.
A humorous but at the same time serious examination into the modes of
thought and springs of action which peculiarly distinguish the Chinese
people.
13. _Village Life in China_, by the Rev. Arthur Smith.
The scope of this work is sufficiently indicated by its title.
14. _China under the Empress Dowager_, by J. O. Bland, and E. Backhouse.
An interesting account of Chinese Court Life between 1860 and 1908,
with important sidelights on the Boxer troubles and the Siege of the
Legations in 1900.
15. _The Imperial History of China_, by Rev. J. Macgowan.
A short and compact work on a subject which has not been successfully
handled.
16. _Indiscreet Letters from Peking_, by B. Putnam Weale.
Though too outspoken to meet with general approbation, this work is
considered by many to give the most faithful account of the Siege of the
Legations, as seen by an independent witness.
17. _Buddhism as a Religion_, by H. Hackmann, Lic. Theol.
A very useful volume, translated from the German, showing the various
developments of Buddhism in different parts of the world.
18. _Chuang Tzu_, by H. A. Giles.
A complete translation of the writings of the leading Taoist
philosopher, who flourished in the fourth and third centuries B.C.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Civilization Of China, by Herbert A. Giles