who first organizes and then administers the government of his
own country; and having made a nation, seeks to reconcile the
national interest with those of Europe and of mankind. He is
not a mere theorist, nor yet a dealer in expedients; the whole
and the parts grow together in his mind; while the head is
conceiving, the hand is executing. Although obliged to descend
to the world, he is not of the world. His thoughts are fixed
not on power, or riches, or extension of territory, but on an
ideal state, in which all the citizens have an equal chance
of health and life, and the highest education is within the
reach of all, and the moral and intellectual qualities of every
individual are freely developed, and ‘the idea of good’ is the
animating principle of the whole. Not the attainment of freedom
alone, or of order alone, but how to unite freedom with order
is the problem which he has to solve.
“The statesman who places before himself these lofty
aims has undertaken a task which will call forth all his
powers.”—BENJAMIN JOWETT.
_Chapter II_[11]
_The Model Governor—Yen Hsi-Shan_
[Illustration]
The province of Shansi boasts having the best governor in the Chinese
Empire, and he has accomplished in the last ten years a remarkable change
in the entire province—a province which is considerably larger than Great
Britain. The city of Taiyuanfu is perhaps the most striking evidence of
this change. The whole place is unrecognizable since the days when I
first knew it in 1893. The streets are wide and well kept; at night they
are lighted by electricity, and an efficient police force keeps order
and regulates the traffic, whereas in old days the crowd used to fight
their quarrels out in their own sweet way. The horrible pariah dogs which
infested the streets without let or hindrance have entirely disappeared;
for a dog, licence has now to be obtained, and any unlicensed dogs
are promptly destroyed. The Governor Yen Hsi-Shan is the promoter of
education in all its manifold aspects; though not a Christian, he
realizes that there must be a radical change in morals, as well as in
education, if China is to become a strong nation, capable of taking her
place among the Great Powers.
To this end he has formed an organization called the “Wash the Heart
Society,” which strongly reminds one of the Mission of John the Baptist,
although he does not recognize the fact that repentance is only the
first step on the upward path. A large hall has been built in a nice
open part of the city, close to the city wall, but, alas! not in Chinese
style. The Governor is unfortunately under the influence of a Teuton,
who is the worst possible adviser in matters of architecture, as well
as other things. The hall is a deplorable mixture of every conceivable
style of Western art; it holds 3,000 people and services are held there
every Sunday morning, each lasting one hour, and each for the benefit of
a separate class of people—merchants, military, students. So far there
seems to be no provision for women, but perhaps that will come later.
The population is bidden to come and reflect on its evil ways and to
seek amendment of life. A special feature of the service is a time of
silence for self-examination. This Society was started in the province of
Shansi, but I found its halls in other parts of the Empire as well, and
it is a hopeful sign of the times. The approach to the hall is by a good
macadamized road, and near by is a tea-house beside the tiny lake—the
Haizabien—and a bandstand where the élite of the city gather on summer
evenings to listen to sweet music and sip countless cups of tea.
[Illustration: Yen Hsi Shan, Statesman.
_Page 49_]
Big houses are being built by wealthy Chinese in this neighbourhood, and
there are large Government schools for girls as well as boys. Facing
the entrance to a girls’ school, which is housed in a disused temple,
we saw a list pasted up on a wall, giving the names of successful girl
students in a recent Government examination. What an amazing contrast to
the old days, when no Government schools for girls were in existence;
they only came into being since the downfall of the old regime in 1907,
but the Chinese Ministry of Education, which based its present system on
that of Japan, is recognizing the importance of women’s education and is
encouraging it by this official recognition of success in examinations.
It is not sufficient only to give the women schools, but it is
imperative to supply them also with scope for wider culture and congenial
activities when they leave school. To this end a kind of club, or
institute, is to be started at once on ground opposite the Governor’s
hall, and it is in response to the ladies’ own request: they have long
been saying, “The men have their Y.M.C.A., why cannot we have such a
place?” and although the mission ladies have done their best to meet the
need, obviously no private house can be adequate, not to mention the
fact that Chinese ladies have too much self-respect to be willing to
be always guests of ladies with limited incomes, to whom they can make
but scant return. It is hoped that the new hall will do much to forward
the woman’s movement in Taiyuanfu; there will be social gatherings,
lectures on hygiene (for illustration of which there is to be a complete
installation of sanitary fittings), a child-welfare department, invalid
cooking, lessons on nursing, and many other classes connected with
women’s welfare. There is room for a garden and tennis courts in order
that recreation and physical culture may be encouraged and the place
made attractive to girls as well as women. The Governor is promoting
this last matter indirectly, by putting a fine on foot-binding, which is
unfortunately still extremely prevalent. The movement that took place
some years ago in favour of a natural foot seems to have died down, and
everywhere there is foot-binding in full swing. The queue has practically
disappeared from China during the last few years, and men wear their
hair mostly rather short, while some go in for a clean shave. I find
this quite attractive when the skull is well-shaped, and if the man is
in immaculate summer garb, the effect of cleanliness is wonderful. If
the women of China were less conservative, and would make an equally
clean sweep of foot-binding, it would make an immense difference to their
health.
The Governor has encouraged physical culture not only indirectly but
directly as well, for he even went so far as to ride in a bicycle race
once in Shansi, and in 1918 public sports took place at Taiyuanfu, which
Sir John Jordan honoured by his presence, having taken the tiresome
nineteen hours’ journey from Peking for the purpose.[12] A disused temple
acted as the grand-stand and an angle of the city wall was converted into
the arena, the tiers of seats being hewn in the base of the wall. Quite a
fine sports ground was prepared under the superintendence of one of the
missionaries, whose advice in practical matters is continually sought
by the Governor. The only matter for regret on this occasion was the
deplorable weather, for even sunny Shansi has moments when a dusty fit of
temper obscures its lustre.
One of the Governor’s most valuable new institutions is a farm for
cattle-breeding. It is just outside the city and has been successfully
started by an American and his wife. The main object is to improve the
breed of horses, cows, sheep, etc., and for this purpose stock is being
imported from the United States, whose Government has recently supplied
the necessary transport for horses, when this difficulty of shipment
arose with regard to animals already purchased; a large number of sheep
have already been imported from Australia. Shansi is a suitable province
for this experiment and missionaries have already proved there the
excellent results of cross-breeding cows, obtaining supplies of milk of
improved quality, as well as largely-increased quantity. In a recent book
on China, highly recommended to me, an American writer states that there
is only one milk-giving cow in the Empire, and that tinned milk supplies
the rest, but evidently the traveller had not travelled far!
Another of the Governor’s institutions is a College of Agriculture and
Forestry in connexion with which there are many mulberry trees being
planted for the promotion of sericulture. This has never been pursued
with success in Shansi; hitherto only the commoner kinds of silk have
been produced, but it is considered a patriotic deed to promote it,
and the most exquisite and costly silk is now being made in a disused
temple, by Yen’s order. Perhaps the almost religious way in which it
was regarded in bygone times, when the Empress herself took a ceremonial
part in the rearing of silkworms 3,000 years ago, has caused this revival
of schools of sericulture. I visited one in the South, and after seeing
all the processes was invited to take a handful of worms away as a
memento! Governor Yen has sent 100 students to France to study textiles.
Afforestation is nowhere more needed than in Shansi, and it is to be
hoped that the Government will push this side of the work of the college.
We found such a college had been started in remote Kweichow also, cut
off from most of the new movements in China. Plantations had been made
in various parts, but they will need to be carefully guarded, as the
poverty of the inhabitants lead them to destroy ruthlessly every twig
they can for firewood; where there used to be large forests nothing now
remains of them. The genius of the Chinese race for agriculture is so
remarkable that one may well expect great results from these colleges:
the vast population has been able in the past to produce food more or
less according to its needs, but when there is a dearth of rain, or other
cause producing bad harvests, there is at once terrible scarcity, and the
application of Western knowledge and agricultural implements ought to be
of considerable value.
There are in some parts such as Chekiang as many as four harvests per
annum, and no sooner is one reaped than the land is prepared for the
next. The introduction of new trees, vegetables, etc., would add greatly
to the wealth of the country, and with its unrivalled climate and soil
there is every reason to promote the multiplication of agricultural
colleges.
One of the most noticeable changes in Taiyuanfu is the complete absence
of the beggar of hideous mien, who dogs the steps of strangers in every
other city in China, and who seems to be the most immovable feature
of life in the East. He was an integral part, one had been taught to
believe, of the social fabric, and as hallowed as the very temple itself;
yet Taiyuanfu has the glory of having solved this difficult problem.
All the male beggars have been collected into the splendid old temple of
Heaven and Hell to be taught a trade, so as to be able to earn a living,
and they are not dismissed until they are capable of doing so. They
seemed quite a jolly crew, and were hard at work in various buildings,
though others of these were closed for the New Year. The most interesting
part of the institution was the town band which has been formed out of
the younger part of the beggar population. They were summoned to play for
our amusement, and they ended by playing for their own. The performance
was most creditable, especially considering that the band was only seven
months old; if there was some defect in tune, there was an excellent
sense of rhythm, which I have found lacking in many bands of long
standing at home; and it was really fascinating to see the gusto with
which they all played. The band has already taken part in various town
functions, and is making itself useful. The music is, of course, Western,
as are the instruments. Chinese musical instruments do not give enough
sound, as a rule, for large gatherings.
The rules of the workhouse seem good, and the inmates can earn money
(five dollars per month) so as to have something in hand when they leave.
The women’s department is in another part of the city and we had not time
to visit it. It is very noticeable how the temples are being everywhere
used for such useful purposes, for the housing question is here, as at
home, a serious problem. No doubt it would be good from a practical point
of view that these buildings should be replaced by new ones, built for
the purpose, but the loss of beauty would be incalculable. The temple of
Heaven and Hell has glorious turquoise-blue roofs and handsome tiles and
large medallions of green pottery on the walls. It is the most beautiful
of all the temples, in my opinion, though the Imperial Temple, where the
Dowager Empress stayed on her historic flight to Sianfu, is also very
fine. This is now used as a school for the teaching of the new script,
which is a simplified form of the Chinese character. It was devised in
1918 by the Ministry of Education in order to make literacy easier for
the population. The ordinary Chinese boy takes three or four years longer
than the Western boy to learn to read. When the old system of education
was abolished in 1907 a new one had to be devised, but it is an extremely
difficult thing to carry out such a reform throughout so vast an empire.
Governor Yen Hsi-Shan is an ardent promoter of the scheme, and he has
established the school for the express purpose of promoting it. Every
household in Taiyuanfu is required to send at least one member to study
the script; in order to make it easier, there are a few characters, with
their equivalent in the old script, put up outside many of the shops, so
that people may learn it as they go about their business. Not only so,
but all over the city may be seen notice boards with the two scripts in
parallel columns, and these boards have generally some one studying them,
not infrequently with notebook in hand. Many of the schools are teaching
it, but it is difficult to add this to an already well-filled time-table.
It may be of interest to know that it is “a phonetic system containing
thirty-nine symbols (divided into three denominations, viz. twenty-four
initials, three medials and twelve finals).”—_North China Daily News._
This is one part of an important movement for the unification of the
language, the importance of which can only be fully realized by those
who have travelled widely in China. Not only every province varies from
every other province, but also every district from every other district.
There are sixty-four dialects in Fukien alone. The unification of the
Empire would be greatly promoted by the unification of the language, and
this has been frankly recognized by the Ministry of Education, which has
issued a notice to that effect:
“We recognize that because of the difference between our classical and
spoken language, education in the schools makes slow progress, and the
keen edge of the spirit of union both between individuals and in society
at large has thereby been blunted. Moreover, if we do not take prompt
steps to make the written and the spoken language the same quickly, any
plans for developing our civilization will surely fail.
“This Ministry of Education has for several years made positive advances
in promoting such a National Language. All educationists, moreover,
throughout the country are in favour of a change by which the teaching
of the national spoken language shall take the place of the classical
language. Inasmuch, therefore, as all desire to promote education in the
National Language, we deem it wise not to delay longer in the matter.
“We therefore now order that from the autumn of this current year,
beginning in the primary schools for the first and second years, all
shall be taught the National Spoken Language, rather than the National
Classical Language. Thus the spoken and written languages will become
one. This Ministry requests all officials to take notice and act
accordingly.”
It is not sufficient, as we all know, merely to issue such an order.
Governor Yen has taken various practical ways of enforcing it. Posters
with large script characters have been widely set up, exhorting the
people to study the script, and a daily paper is issued in it. He has had
2,500,000 copies printed of a simple script primer, and has published
at a nominal price, and in vast numbers, various educational books,
such as _What the People Ought to Know_,[13] _New Criminal Laws of the
Republic_, and _Handbook for Village Leaders_. The last-named is of
special importance in view of the fact that by his order reading- and
lecture-rooms have been established in all the cities and large villages
of the province, where lectures and talks are given from time to time
on various subjects of interest to the people. A regular educational
campaign may be said to have been inaugurated by Yen. On every post and
wall in the remotest villages may be seen maxims inculcating honesty,
diligence, industry, patriotism and military preparedness.
[Illustration: Temple of Heaven and Hell, Workhouse.
_Page 53_]
An important new book which Governor Yen has recently published, is
called _What Every Family Ought to Know_, and is a description of what he
conceives to be a good home and the happiness which results from it. “If
we desire to have a good home, virtue is of first importance,” he says,
but alas! he gives no clue as to how it is to be achieved.
The chief rules for family life are, (i) Friendliness, (ii) Magnanimity,
(iii) Dignity, (iv) Rectitude, (v) Diligence, (vi) Economy, (vii)
Cleanliness, (viii) Quietness. He makes the Head of the House
responsible, as setting the example, and exhorts him to repentance
(if he falls short) before God and his ancestors. The whole book is
eminently practical, and he recommends what would be a startling change
of immemorial custom, that the son should not marry until he is grown
up and able to support a wife in a home of his own—namely, not under
his father’s roof. This is an innovation which is beginning to be seen
elsewhere, as the result of foreign intercourse.
As a writer, Governor Yen is concise and practical: he has completely
broken away from the old Chinese classical style. His last work is
written, like all his books, in simple mandarin instead of in beautiful
classical mandarin, so that every one may be able to understand it. This
is the more noteworthy, because the additional cost entailed was $5,400
per leaf; he states this fact in the preface of _What the People Ought to
Know_.
His one object appears to be the uplift of the people in every way, and
he believes in God and in righteousness. As an index of his view of life
it may be interesting to quote a few of the forty Family Maxims which
form the concluding chapter of his above-named book.
“Unjust wealth brings calamity.”
“Vitiated air kills more people than prison.”
“To be cruel to one’s own is to be worse than a beast.”
“Of people who lack a sense of responsibility—the fewer the
better.”
“If your conscience tells you a thing is wrong, it _is_ wrong:
DON’T do it.”
“The experience of the uneducated is much to be preferred to
the inexperience of the educated.”
“The wise are self-reliant, the stupid apply to others.”
“There is no greater calamity than to give reins to one’s
desires, and no greater evil than self-deception.”
Governor Yen, it will be seen, from his words as well as from his deeds,
is a clear-sighted, independent thinker, and he believes in religious
liberty. His reforms deal with a wide range of things—opium-smoking,
narcotics, polygamy, infanticide, early marriages, early burial,
gambling, training and morals of the troops, compulsory free education
for boys, the introduction of uniform weights and measures, alteration
in legal affairs. All these and other matters have within the last five
years occupied his thoughts and been practically dealt with—no small
achievement, especially when the insecurity of his position and lack of
trained men to carry out his projects is taken into consideration.
As will be readily understood, all these enterprises cost money, and
taxation is never looked on kindly by the taxed, so there is some
discontent among the people of Shansi, and the Central Government,
instead of showing satisfaction at the prosperity and good government of
the province, which is in striking contrast to that of so many others,
has taken the opportunity of threatening to impose a Civil Governor in
Shansi—that means a heavy squeeze, and in consequence, the stoppage of
many of the Governor’s schemes. He is continually threatened by those who
would like to see him out of the way, and is consequently rarely seen,
and then strongly guarded.
The system of having military governors is extremely bad, but in the case
of an exceptional man like Yen it has worked well, and the Government
saved its “face” by uniting the civil and military governorship in his
one person. At the present time the Government has ordered the military
governor of Shensi to retire in favour of another Tuchun. He refuses to
do so, and his various military friends are all hurrying to the rescue.
It is estimated that there are one and a half million soldiers in China,
largely unpaid, so that they are glad of any excuse to loot and pillage.
Feng Yu Hsiang has been sent up to Shensi by the Government to compel the
Tuchun to leave, and has carried out the work with brilliant success.
He has in vain been demanding money to pay his troops, while turbulent,
unscrupulous generals have been receiving large sums to prevent them from
committing excesses.
The Tuchuns have been encouraging opium-growing in order to get funds,
and now there is hardly a province where it is not done more or less
openly. Governor Yen has set his face against it, but smuggling goes
on all the time, mainly from Japan, and morphia is also becoming
increasingly popular. No wonder Young China is clamouring for the
suppression of the Tuchuns and disarmament: there can be no peace in
China till this is done.
One of the most interesting places in the city is the model gaol, which
was planned and carried out by Mr. Hsü, who studied in Japan and has
progressive views. It covers a considerable space of ground and is
entirely one-storied; it is in the shape of a wheel, with many spokes
radiating from the centre. The entrance is charming, as unlike as it is
possible to imagine to any English prison. Within the gates is a lovely
garden, for Chinese are first-rate gardeners, and the prisoners raise all
the vegetables necessary for the inmates, and a grand show of flowers to
boot. An avenue of trees leads to the offices, and when we were there in
February we saw beautiful little trees of prunus in full bloom on the
office table! All the prisoners have to work at useful trades, and if it
were not for their fetters it would be difficult to imagine one was in a
prison at all. The workshops were bright and airy; every one looked well
cared for and not unhappy. A feature of the workrooms was the boards on
which all tools were hung up when not in use, each tool being numbered
and outlined on the board, so that it should be hung on its own peg.
Every kind of trade was in full swing, and the work is so well executed
that there is never any lack of orders. Certainly one would be only too
glad to have things made under such good conditions.
The sleeping accommodation was excellent: the cells and beds of
remarkable cleanliness and comfort; no one could object to them. The
bath-house was of some interest. All the inmates have to undergo a weekly
bath on Sundays, in batches of ten at a time, and their clothes are also
kept thoroughly clean. The kitchen looked most attractive, and the rice
and soup, which form the staple of their food, compared favourably with
what one sees in the inns. The prisoners, too, are allowed as much as
they like at their two daily meals. Throughout the Army there are no more
than two meals a day. The place of punishment looked uncommonly like a
theatre stage, and one cannot but hope that soon all executions will take
place within the prison precincts instead of in public; but as Europe has
not yet learnt to do this, one cannot be surprised that China has not.