sent to the Empress Dowager on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday,
he at once secured from the American Bible Society a copy of the
complete Bible for himself. He began studying the Gospel of Luke. This
gave him a taste for foreign literature and he sent his eunuchs to the
various book depositories and bought every book that had been
translated from the European languages into the Chinese. To these he
bent all his energies and it soon became noised abroad that the Emperor
was studying foreign books and was about to embrace the Christian
faith. This continued from 1894 till 1898, during which time his
example was followed by tens of thousands of young Chinese scholars
throughout the empire, and Chang Chih-tung wrote his epoch-making book
"China's Only Hope" which, being sent to the young Emperor, led him to
enter upon a universal reform, the chief feature of which may be
considered the adoption of a new educational system.
But now let us notice the animus of Kuang Hsu. He has been praised
without stint for his leaning towards foreign affairs, when in reality
was it not simply an effort on the part of the young man to make China
strong enough to resist the incursions of the European powers? Germany
had taken Kiaochou, Russia had taken Port Arthur, Japan had taken
Formosa, Great Britain had taken Weihaiwei, France had taken
Kuangchouwan, and even Italy was anxious to have a slice of his
territory, while all the English papers in the port cities were talking
of China being divided up amongst the Powers, and it was these things
which led the Emperor to enter upon his work of reform.
In the summer of 1898 therefore he sent out an edict to the effect
that: "Our scholars are now without solid and practical education; our
artisans are without scientific instructors; when compared with other
countries WE SOON SEE HOW WEAK WE ARE. DOES ANY ONE THINK THAT OUR
TROOPS ARE AS WELL DRILLED OR AS WELL LED AS THOSE OF THE FOREIGN
ARMIES? OR THAT WE CAN SUCCESSFULLY STAND AGAINST THEM? Changes must be
made to accord with the necessities of the times.... Keeping in mind
the morals of the sages and wise men, we must make them the basis on
which to build newer and better structures. WE MUST SUBSTITUTE MODERN
ARMS AND WESTERN ORGANIZATION FOR OUR OLD REGIME; WE MUST SELECT OUR
MILITARY OFFICERS ACCORDING TO WESTERN METHODS OF MILITARY EDUCATION;
we must establish elementary and high schools, colleges and
universities, in accordance with those of foreign countries; we must
abolish the Wen-chang (literary essay) and obtain a knowledge of
ancient and modern world-history, a right conception of the present-day
state of affairs, with special reference to the governments and
institutions of the countries of the five great continents; and we must
understand their arts and sciences."
The effect of this edict was to cause hundreds of thousands of young
aspirants for office to put aside the classics and unite in
establishing reform clubs in many of the provincial capitals, open
ports, and prefectural cities. Book depots were opened for the sale of
the same kind of literature the Emperor had been studying, magazines
and newspapers were issued and circulated in great numbers, lectures
were delivered and libraries established, and students flocked to the
mission schools ready to study anything the course contained, literary,
scientific or religious. Christians and pastors were even invited into
the palace by the eunuchs to dine with and instruct them. But the
matter that gave the deepest concern to the boy in the palace was: "How
can we so strengthen ourselves that we will be able to resist the White
Peril from Europe?"
Among the important edicts issued in the establishment of the new
education was the one of June 11, 1898, in which he ordered that "a
great central university be established at Peking," the funds for which
were provided by the government. Among other things he said: "Let all
take advantage of the opportunities for the new education thus open to
them, so that in time we may have many who will be competent to help us
in the stupendous task of putting our country on a level with the
strongest of the western powers." It was not wisdom the young man was
after for the sake of wisdom, but he wanted knowledge because knowledge
was power, and at that time it was the particular kind of power that
was necessary to save China from utter destruction.
On the 26th of the same month he censured the princes and ministers who
were lax in reporting upon this edict, and ordered them to do so at
once, and it was not long until a favourable report was given and, for
the first time in the history of the empire, a great university was
launched by the government, destined, may we not hope, to accomplish
the end the ambitious boy Emperor had in view.
Kuang Hsu was aware that a single institution was not sufficient to
accomplish that end. On July 10th therefore he ordered that "schools
and colleges be established in all the provincial capitals,
prefectoral, departmental and district cities, and allowed the viceroys
and governors but two months to report upon the number of colleges and
free schools within their provinces," saying that "all must be changed
into practical schools for the teaching of Chinese literature, and
Western learning and become feeders to the Peking Imperial University."
He ordered further that all memorial and other temples that had been
erected by the people but which were not recorded in the list of the
Board of Rites or of Sacrificial Worship, were to be turned into
schools and colleges for the propagation of Western learning, a thought
which was quite in harmony with that advocated by Chang Chih-tung. The
funds for carrying on this work, and the establishment of these
schools, were to be provided for by the China Merchants' Steamship
Company, the Telegraph Company and the Lottery at Canton.
On August 4th he ordered that numerous preparatory schools be
established in Peking as special feeders to the university; and on the
9th appointed Dr. W. A. P. Martin as Head of the Faculty and approved
the site suggested for the university by Sun Chia-nai, the president.
On the 16th he authorized the establishment of a Bureau for
"translating into Chinese Western works on science, arts and
literature, and textbooks for use in schools and colleges"; and on the
19th he abolished the "Palace examinations for Hanlins as useless,
superficial and obsolete," thus severing the last cord that bound them
to the old regime.
What, now, was the Empress Dowager doing while Kuang Hsu was issuing
all these reform edicts, which, we are told, were so contrary to all
her reactionary principles? Why did she not stretch forth her hand and
prevent them? She was spending the hot months at the Summer Palace,
fifteen miles away, without offering either advice, objection or
hindrance, and it was not until two delegations of officials and
princes had appeared before her and plead with her to come and take
control of affairs and thus save them from being ousted or beheaded,
and herself from imprisonment, did she consent to come. By thus taking
the throne she virtually placed herself in the hands of the
conservative party, and all his reform measures, except that of the
Peking University and provincial schools, were, for the time,
countermanded, and the Boxers were allowed to test their strength with
the allied Powers.
Passing over the two bad years of the Empress Dowager, which we have
treated in another chapter, we find her again, after the failure of the
Boxer uprising, and the return of the court to Peking, reissuing the
same style of edicts that had gone out from the pen of Kuang Hsu. On
August 29, 1901, she ordered "the abolition of essays on the Chinese
classics in examinations for literary degrees, and substituted therefor
essays and articles on some phase of modern affairs, Western laws or
political economy. This same procedure is to be followed in examination
of candidates for office."
And now notice another phase of this same edict. "The old methods of
gaining military degrees by trial of strength with stone weights,
agility with the sword, or marksmanship with the bow on foot or on
horseback, ARE OF NO USE TO MEN IN THE ARMY, WHERE STRATEGY AND
MILITARY SCIENCE ARE THE SINE QUA NON TO OFFICE, and hence they should
be done away with forever." It is, as it was with Kuang Hsu, the
strengthening of the army she has in mind in her first efforts at
reform, that she may be able to back up with war-ships and cannon, if
necessary, her refusal to allow Italy or any other European power to
filch, without reason or excuse, the territory of her ancestors.
September 12, 1901, she issued another edict commanding that "all the
colleges in the empire should be turned into schools of Western
learning; each provincial capital should have a university like that in
Peking, whilst all the schools in the prefectures and districts are to
be schools or colleges of the second or third class," neither more nor
less than a restatement of the edict of July 10, 1898, as issued by the
deposed Emperor, except that she confined it to the schools without
taking the temples.
September 17, 1901, she ordered "the viceroys and governors of other
provinces to follow the example of Liu Kun-yi of Liang Kiang, Chang
Chih-tung of Hukuang, and Kuei Chun (Manchu) of Szechuan, in sending
young men of scholastic promise abroad to study any branch of Western
science or art best suited to their tastes, that in time they may
return to China and place the fruits of their knowledge at the service
of the empire." Such were some of the edicts issued by the Emperor and
the Empress Dowager in their efforts to launch this new system of
education which was to transform the old China into a strong and sturdy
youth. What now were the results?
The Imperial College in Shansi was opened with 300 students all of whom
had already taken the Chinese degree of Bachelor of Arts. It had both
Chinese and foreign departments, and after the students had completed
the first, they were allowed to pass on to the second, which had six
foreign professors who held diplomas from Western colleges or
universities, and a staff of six translators of university textbooks
into Chinese, superintended by a foreigner. In 1901-2 ten provinces,
under the wise leadership of the Empress Dowager, opened colleges for
the support of which they raised not less than $400,000.
The following are some of the questions given at the triennial
examinations of these two years in six southern provinces:
1. "As Chinese and Western laws differ, and Western people will not
submit to Chinese punishments, what ought to be done that China, like
other nations, may be mistress in her own country?"
2. "What are the Western sources of economic prosperity, and as China
is now so poor, what should she do?"
3. "According to international law has any one a right to interfere
with the internal affairs of any foreign country?"
4. "State the advantages of constructing railways in Shantung."
5. "Of what importance is the study of chemistry to the agriculturist?"
While Yuan Shih-kai was Governor of Shantung he induced Dr. W. M. Hayes
to resign the presidency of the Presbyterian College at Teng Choufu and
accept the presidency of the new government college at Chinanfu the
capital of the province. Dr. Hayes drew up a working plan of grammar
and high schools for Shantung which were to be feeders to this
provincial college. This was approved by the Governor, and embodied in
a memorial to the throne, copies of which the Empress Dowager sent to
the governors and viceroys of all the provinces declaring it to be a
law, and ordering the "viceroys, governors and literary chancellors to
see that it was obeyed."
Dr. Hayes and Yuan Shih-kai soon split upon a regulation which the
Governor thought it best to introduce, viz., "That the Chinese
professors shall, on the first and fifteenth of each month, conduct
their classes in reverential sacrifice to the Most Holy Confucius, and
to all the former worthies and scholars of the provinces." Dr. Hayes
and his Christian teachers withdrew, and it was not long until those
who professed Christianity were excused from this rite, while the
Christian physicians who taught in the Peking Imperial University were
allowed to dispense with the queue and wear foreign clothes, as being
both more convenient and more sanitary.
When Governor Yuan was made viceroy of Chihli, he requested Dr. C. D.
Tenny to draw up and put into operation a similar schedule for the
metropolitan province. This was done on a very much enlarged scale, and
at present (1909) "the Chihli province alone has nine thousand schools,
all of which are aiming at Western education; while in the empire as a
whole there are not less than forty thousand schools, colleges and
universities," representing one phase of the educational changes that
have been brought about in China during the last dozen years.
The changes in the new education among women promise to be even more
sweeping than those among men. Dr. Martin, expressing the sentiments
then in vogue, said, as far back as 1877, "that not one in ten thousand
women could read." In 1893 I began studying the subject, and was led at
once to doubt the statement. The Chinese in an offhand way will agree
with Dr. Martin. But I found that it was a Chinese woman who wrote the
first book that was ever written in any language for the instruction of
girls, and that the Chinese for many years have had "Four Books for
Girls" corresponding to the "Four Books" of the old regime, and that
they were printed in large editions, and have been read by the better
class of people in almost every family. In every company of women that
came to call on my wife from 1894 to 1900, there was at least one if
not more who had read these books, while the Empress Dowager herself
was a brilliant example of what a woman of the old regime could do.
Where the desire for education was so great among women, that as soon
as it became possible to do so, she launched the first woman's daily
newspaper that was published anywhere in the world, with a woman as an
editor, we may be sure that there was more than one in ten thousand
during the old regime that could read. What therefore may we expect in
this new regime where women are ready to sacrifice their lives rather
than that the school which they are undertaking to establish shall be a
failure?
End of Project Gutenberg's Court Life in China, by Isaac Taylor Headland