courts of Canton. It was in session when we entered it, and I never can
forget the sight that met my gaze. Before the judge was a prisoner on his
knees, pleading for mercy and protesting innocence. Chains were around
his neck, waist, wrists, and ankles. Beside him knelt an aged woman,
whose gray hair swept the floor as she rocked back and forth, imploring
vengeance on her son's assassin. At last the culprit confessed his crime
of murder, and was led back to prison. How sincere his confession was, it
would be hard to say; for if, in the face of powerful adverse testimony,
an accused man still asserts his innocence, he is often punished in the
court-room till he does confess. Around the hall were various instruments
of torture--bamboo rods to flog the naked back; hard leather straps with
which to strike the prisoner on the mouth, thus sometimes breaking the
teeth and even the jaw; thumb-screws and cords by which he is suspended
by his thumbs and toes; and heavy sticks with which to beat his ankles.
I did not happen to see these used, because in the three trials I
witnessed all of the prisoners confessed. But they are used; and just as
I was entering the court, I met a criminal being led back to prison, so
weak and crippled by his punishment, that he could hardly step without
assistance. Curiously enough, after the torture has been administered,
the culprit is required to fall upon his knees and thank the judge. This
I should think would be "the most unkindest cut of all."
[Illustration: A CHINESE COURT.]
It seems impossible to say anything in defense of such a system as this;
for in China a man is not only looked upon as guilty till he is proved
innocent, but is kept in loathsome confinement, and may be even put upon
the rack, in spite of the established fact that torture is never a test
of truth. And yet a foreign resident made, as an apology, the following
statement: "You must remember that testimony here amounts to nothing, and
that, by paying sixpence apiece, you can pack the court-room with men
who will swear that black is white. Hence, where a man can easily bribe
false witnesses to ruin his enemy, the Chinese law provides that no one
shall under any circumstances be put to death unless he has confessed his
crime. But since a prisoner on trial for his life will usually protest
his innocence to the last, the court attempts by torture to force him to
confess."
We visited finally an object in Canton far pleasanter than its scenes of
punishment, yet equally characteristic of the national life. It is the
place where natives of this province take the first step in the only path
which in China leads to political and social rank. It is the scene of the
competitive examinations, the fame of which has filled the world.
[Illustration: THE EXAMINATION GROUND, CANTON.]
[Illustration: THE GREAT WALL AT A PRECIPICE.]
[Illustration: A STUDENT.]
The courtyard where the contest takes place is by no means inviting. It
is an area of sixteen acres, covered with nearly nine thousand rough
brick sheds. At the time of an examination each of these is occupied by
a candidate. Before he enters it, his person is carefully searched, and
soldiers and policemen guard all passageways to prevent communication.
"Each in his narrow cell," these applicants for office then remain for
three consecutive days and nights, about as pleasantly lodged, I should
imagine, as Jonah was for the same length of time; for these dirty dens
of brick are only four feet long, three feet wide, and possibly six feet
high. One of the horse-sheds in the rear of a New England meeting-house
would be a far more comfortable place in which to eat and sleep. Perhaps
they are meant, however, to emphasize the triumph of mind over matter.
Their only furniture consists of two small planks, one for a seat, the
other for a table. Rest is, of course, impossible in such a cage, and
candidates have sometimes died here from physical and mental strain.
All this seems inexcusably cruel; yet the Chinese government may have
good reasons for maintaining this severity. For instance, such a system,
if introduced at Washington, would rid the District of Columbia of
nine-tenths of its office-seekers within twenty-four hours. While some
of these students persevere in their attempts till they are seventy or
eighty years of age, others are quite young; but the fact of youth is not
considered discreditable, for Confucius said: "A youth should always be
regarded with respect. How do we know that his future may not be superior
to our present?" At all events, the highest place is open to them, if
their brains will take them there; for every village in China has its
school, and every free-born citizen may qualify for this struggle, the
governing principle of which is "Let the best man win!" It is the law of
the "survival of the fittest" exemplified in politics.
[Illustration: FISHING ON THE RIVER.]
[Illustration: A CHINESE GENERAL AND HIS ATTENDANTS.]
In all the provinces of China, on the appointed day, thousands of
candidates assemble, eager for the contest. Subjects are given them on
which they must produce a poem and original essays. Their work is then
examined by officials appointed by the Government, and so extremely rigid
is the test, that out of every thousand applicants only about ten gain
the first, or "District," degree. There are, however, three degrees to
be attained by Chinese aspirants for fame. Those who come out as victors
in the first receive no office, but are at least exempt from corporal
punishment, and may attempt the examination for the next degree. Even the
few who pass the second, or "Provincial," test (about one in a hundred)
receive no government appointment. Yet they are distinguished among their
countrymen by wearing a gold button in their hats, and by a sign over
their houses signifying "Promoted man."
[Illustration: LI HUNG CHANG.]
Those who succeed in standing the third, or "Imperial," test at
Pekin,--severer even than the other two,--have reached the apex of
the pyramid. They are now mandarins, and have acquired all they can
desire,--social distinction, office, wealth, and (what is sometimes still
more highly prized) great national fame. For in the results of this
examination the entire country takes the greatest interest. The names
of the successful men are everywhere proclaimed by means of couriers,
river-boats, and carrier-pigeons, since thousands of people in the empire
have laid their wagers on the candidates, as we might do on horses at the
Derby. Strange, is it not, to think that this elaborate Chinese system
was practised in the land of the Mongols substantially as it is to-day,
at a time when England was inhabited by painted savages?
Moreover, the honors of successful candidates in China cannot be
inherited. Young men, if they would be ennobled, must surpass their
competitors and win their places as their fathers did. Even the youthful
son of Li Hung Chang, whom General Grant considered, next to Bismarck,
the most remarkable man he met with in his tour around the world, is
not entitled, because of his father's office, to any special rank.
Hence, China, though an absolute monarchy, has no privileged class
whose claims rest merely on the accident of birth. Her aristocracy
consists of those who have repeatedly proved themselves intellectually
superior to their rivals. Among no people in the world, therefore, have
literary men received such honors as in China; and it is a remarkable
fact that this vast nation has worshiped for two thousand years, not a
great warrior, nor even a prophet claiming inspiration from God, but a
philosopher,--Confucius.
[Illustration: LI HUNG CHANG AND SUITE ON THEIR TOUR AROUND THE WORLD.]
I have often thought that were I asked to compare the Chinese empire of
to-day with some material object, I would select for such comparison the
Great Wall on its northern frontier. This mighty work has hardly been
surpassed in the whole history of architecture, not even by the builders
of the Pyramids. It is no less than twenty-five feet high and forty feet
broad, with watch-towers higher still, at intervals of three hundred
feet. And yet it has a length of nearly fifteen hundred miles, a distance
exceeding that from Boston to St. Paul, and in its uninterrupted march
spans deep ravines and climbs to lofty mountain crests, in one place
nearly five thousand feet in height. Although it was built three hundred
years before the birth of Christ, it still exists, and during fourteen
centuries sufficed to hold in check the savage tribes of Tartars from the
north. It has been calculated that if the Great Wall were constructed
at the present time, and with Caucasian labor, its cost would pay
for all the railroads in the United States. One hundred years ago an
English engineer reckoned that its masonry represented more than all the
dwellings of England and Scotland put together, and, finally, that its
material would construct a stone wall six feet high and two feet thick
around the entire globe.
[Illustration: THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.]
[Illustration: A GATEWAY IN THE GREAT WALL.]
In many respects this great rampart is typical of China. Both have a vast
antiquity, both have an enormous extent, and both have had their periods
of glory,--China her age of progress and invention, and this old wall
a time when it was kept in perfect order, when warriors stood at every
tower, and when it stretched for fifteen hundred miles--an insurmountable
barrier to invasion. But just as this leviathan of masonry has outlived
its usefulness, and is at present crumbling to decay, so the huge Chinese
empire itself now seems decrepit and wholly alien to the nineteenth
century. Her roads, once finely kept, are now disgraceful; her streets
are an abomination to the senses; her rivers and canals are left to choke
themselves through want of dredging; and even her temples show few signs
of care. Stagnation and neglect are steadily at work on her colossal
frame, as weeds and plants disintegrate this mouldering wall. Will this
old empire ever be aroused to new activity, and can fresh life-blood be
infused into her shrunken veins to animate her inert frame? There is, I
think, a possibility that, in the coming century, the new, progressive
party here will overcome the dull conservatism of the nation, connect
her vast interior with the sea, utilize her mineral wealth, develop her
immense resources, and make her one of the great powers of the world.
Napoleon once warned England that if the Chinese should learn too well
from her the art of war, and then acquire the thirst for conquest which
has characterized other nations, the result might be appalling to the
whole of Europe. For think what inexhaustible armies they could raise,
and what great fleets they could build and launch upon their mighty
rivers! But this is a problem of the future, about which no man can
predict with certainty.
[Illustration: A LEVIATHAN OF MASONRY.]
Many have asked me if I am glad that I went to China, and I have always
answered that, as a unique and useful study of humanity, I think it one
of the most valuable experiences of my life. Still I am bound to say,
that when I stood upon the deck of an outgoing steamer, and felt it move
beneath my feet responsive to the engine's stroke, I drew a breath of
pleasure and relief. For I was assured that the swarming millions of the
Chinese empire were being left behind me, and that my face was turned
toward that historic land where, lighted by the Southern Cross, I was to
visit Hindu shrines and Mogul palaces, and gaze on the Himalayas and the
Taj Mahal.
[Illustration]
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Transcriber Note
Illustrations were repositioned so as to not split paragraphs. Some
extremely long paragraphs were split so that illustrations might remain
close to the original position in the text.