trained in reform at Shanghai and in law at Yale College, in America.
He was the eminent Wen Tsung Yao, destined to be the assistant foreign
minister of the first rebel government, and whose son (a West Point
graduate) was slated to lead the most daring charges at Hankau and
Nanking. Even in the home of the Manchus, at Mukden, Wu Yun Lien, a
Chinese immigrant, president of the Manchuria Assembly, was filled with
the doctrine and ready to declare for reform. Great viceroys, who had
served China long in official positions under the Manchus, were ready
to go over, but for the most part the radical reformers were new men,
unknown to the world, as the Manchus had naturally never given office
to them.
Many causes, all important, helped to precipitate the crisis. Sheng
Kung Pao and others at Peking, Tientsin and Hankau, both Chinese and
Manchus whom foreigners know well, had, partly under foreign advice
and Japan’s example, planned to compel the provinces and the gentry
of the guilds to sell out their many little railroads, a number of
which were paying well, to the central government, which intended to
nationalize the railroads quickly under immense loans from the banking
nations of the Occident and Japan. These loans meant to the local
gentry the extinction of distributed small fortunes and opportunities;
concessions of mines to foreigners, such as the immense gifts of
franchises to the British “Peking Syndicate” in Shansi province, to
the London and China syndicate in Hupeh province, to Belgian, German,
French, Italian and other syndicates; heavy interest; continuation of
the unscientific Likin system of customs as a security, and payment
of obnoxious bonuses, as when Hupeh province, under Chang Chih Tung,
in 1904, had to pay a bonus to buy back a Chinese railway concession;
and in 1911, when China had to buy the bonds which represented by an
excess payment of $3,750,000 a Chinese railroad which existed only on
paper; and as Professor Ross points out in _The Changing Chinese_, when
Shansi province had to pay a syndicate over two millions to relinquish
an undeveloped concession in China which cost them almost nothing.
The bitter complaint, _written in blood_, of the Hunanese of Changsha
City on this subject is quoted in the New York _Railway-Age Gazette_
of October 13, 1911, and includes this sentence: “When a piece of meat
is in the traitorous railway thief’s mouth, it is hard to take it
out.” All may not agree with the Chinese position, but all should duly
consider the Chinese side of the question as expressed in their words.
“Peking has betrayed Wuchang,” cried the Hupeh men.
There were many more instances from the Sungari to the Yangtze basins,
yea, to the Mekong basin, through 2,500 miles of mine and men, traffic
and trade, of the hard bargain driven by the foreign lender, generally
under bad foreign advice.
No foreign house should ever send a representative to China unless it
is willing to send an enlightened and humane man, who intellectually
appreciates the able Chinese as much as he appreciates the foreigner,
and whose sympathies are equally divided between Cathay and his own
nation. Only such a man can deal fairly and give impartial advice,
which alone in the end will win for the foreigner what properly is
his of the profit and prestige. “Why should we, with the richest
mines on earth; the richest passenger, freight and labor field; with
lands plethoric of water power and grain; and the lowest debt, if
unjust coerced indemnities were wiped out, pay foreigners such immense
bonuses, interest and concessions, discounts and profits to go out of
our country”; rang the cry, not only in Hupeh, Hunan, Szechuen, Shansi
and Kwangtung provinces, but even in native papers printed under the
shadow of the foreign banks on the bund at Tientsin in the north.
There was one large meeting of protest held by the Chinese of British
Hongkong in the Chui Yin Hotel on September 3, 1911, delegates
attending even from distant Szechuen province. Viceroy Liu Ming Chuan’s
memorial was recalled: “The wealth of the country is being monopolized
by foreigners”. The Railroad Protective Association, of Chingtu City,
in August, 1911, issued a famous placard in which the four banking
nations in caricature were made to say: “The wealth of the four
provinces of Szechuen, Kwangtung, Hunan and Hupeh, all is given to
us four foreign nations to swallow down at one gulp”. Chinese men,
women and children, bound together before the ancestral graves, are
made to say: “Bound helplessly; it is unbearable. We are bound in one
bunch to be given to foreigners. Come quickly, friends of the Railroad
Protective Association, and deliver us.” The loot, lying ready for the
syndicates of the four nations to take away, is pictured as cash money,
bullion sycee, bank bills, and books of China’s Confucian classics and
history. Other caricatures were prepared so as to inflame patriotism
in the breasts of the new students, the foreigner being made to say
cynically: “The venal students only want their up-keep, purchased
diplomas, political office, four chair bearers, free theatricals and
they’ll hush up. The mask may be brave as a dragon’s head, but the tail
is cowardly as a crawling snake.”
Remembering that Russia and Japan, in 1896, etc., first sought for
railway control and then practically occupied the three Manchurian
provinces, we can understand the patriot’s side of the following
article objecting to the three nations’ railway loan, published in
Chinese in a Hankau paper: “The merchants of Hupeh urge the people to
take shares in the Szechuen, Canton and Hankau railways. The people of
China are in a sad plight. Why is China so poor that every foreigner
is eager to come to her aid? You Chinese say you have plenty of money,
but you are unwilling to loan it. Why do you not use your money to
construct these railway lines? If you do not, the foreigners will
come under false pretenses, destroy your nationality, and cut off
your supplies. England has used this diabolical system to obliterate
Egypt; otherwise how could she have got it?” Even if a foreign banker,
statesman or merchant does not fully agree with the local feeling of
the Chinese, it is wise to look frankly at their side of the argument
in making educational, financial and political plans in the future.
There was much complaint also of the private hoards of the Manchu
princes, both in strong-boxes and in foreign banks. The taxes levied
in the southern provinces mainly supported the empire, and these
taxes were increased. Something then was brewing, especially in the
southern and central provinces. The word went forth, “We are not Boxer
murderers if we cry China for the Chinese, and it is not fair to put a
stone around China’s neck with indemnities just because you are ahead
of us in possessing fleets. We love the American and British peoples,
and their glorious books on _Liberty_, even if we do not love some of
your unregulated trusts any more than you and your Supreme Court’s
decisions do! We are willing to pay a fair rate of interest. Not a
hair of a foreigner is to be touched. We appreciate the education and
lovable alienation of the missionaries, and especially the miracle of
Occidental medicine and surgery.”
Here is the guarantee of the “Sia Hwei” (reform association), of
Fuchau, to the Methodist and other missionaries of Fukien province. “We
have just heard that the missionaries, on account of the uprising of
the New China revolutionary associations, with their just cause, have
been requested by your foreign consuls to go to the provincial capital,
Fuchau, to be protected. The Chinese people have become very much
enlightened and their old customs have changed. The Chinese people and
the missionaries’ church are at peace, because your church has opened
schools, hospitals, orphanages and similar good institutions. Not one
of these but is held deep in the hearts of the Chinese people. Although
we are a humble folk, still we have seen and appreciated these things.
This reform association requests that you missionaries remain at your
posts throughout the province. Should anything unforeseen occur, we
should, of course, exert ourselves to protect you and your property.
We are quite sure that we can afford efficient protection from mobs
and imperialists.” These Fukien people were as good as their word,
for besides sending levies to the revolution, the “hsiang lao” (head
men) of the villages organized home guards for the protection of both
foreigners and natives. When the revolution broke out at Wuchang, the
soldiers of the thirtieth regiment escorted the American missionaries
out of the line of fire from Serpent Hill. The American Episcopal
missionaries crowded aboard the German freighter _Belgravia_, bound for
Shanghai, the American gunboat _Helena_, Commander Knepper, standing
by. The revolutionary soldiers of Generals Li and Hwang shouted a peace
message: “American republicans are brothers of ours; good-by!”
A cry went through the vast nation that the Manchu dynasty of usurpers
was signing away the land with hardly a struggle: Tonquin to France;
Formosa and vast Korea to Japan; rich Manchuria, and possibly Jungaria,
to Russia; Kiaochou to Germany; and so on, even little Portugal wanting
more of Heungshan Peninsula; the effete nations of Europe, with only
paper ships, “bluffing” like the monster nations, all demanding “your
provinces or your life”, and getting the provinces. The articles in the
independent press in America were translated in many instances into
Chinese, and the spirit of protest in America, Britain and Germany was
emulated in awakened China. The minority Manchus could not be trusted
to control the Chinese, and “pack” boards (Pus), ministries, and even
assemblies, to suit themselves. Government by “privileged minority”
was being called in question throughout the earth as unconstitutional;
why not in China? There must be true popular government, which the
Manchus postponed from month to month with “standpat” doctrines, and
while a deliberative body was formed at Peking, the ministries, boards
and the majority of the National Assembly were appointed in “machine”
style by the Manchus from their set, which, of course, included many
of the Manchuized Chinese, as well as Manchus and Mongols. The Chinese
officials--the old literati--are the viceroys, ministers and members of
the governing boards, whom we foreigners best know. Many of them are
very able, and some of them love reform, but few of them dared anything
for the revolution except Wu Ting Fang. Give him that credit as often
as possible.
The heavy indemnities, amounting to the awful sum of $250,000,000, for
the massacres of 1900, which the “Boxer” empress dowager, Tse Hsi, a
Manchu, approved, have been a heavy load upon the Chinese people of
the southern and central provinces, who had nothing to do with the
persecution of foreigners. The Chinese of the taxed south greatly
appreciated, therefore, American and British action in returning
part of their indemnities. But other nations should do likewise. The
_Westminster Gazette_, of London, now supports this position.
Histories of peoples, not dynasties and oligarchies, such as John
Richard Green’s _History of the English People_; books which helped
to bring about the American revolution; the American missionary,
Doctor Macklin’s, Chinese translation of Henry George’s _Progress and
Poverty_; great pæans of liberty and political pain the world over;
editorials from the progressive American press; chapters from American
and English books which sympathized with the Chinese, were translated
and read. The notable book _Service_ was re-read. It was written in
1897 by Tan Sze Tung, the son of a governor of Hupeh province. Tan
was one of the martyrs of 1898 who were beheaded by the dowager, Tse
Hsi. Tan’s book criticized absolute monarchy and recommended reform in
politics and commerce. Sin Chin Nan, by translating parts of Dickens,
had shown the Chinese people that the common man endured wrongs
that should be righted. Thomas Paine’s _The Crisis_, which was read
before the American regiments of 1776, was translated to be read to
revolutionary societies like Sun Yat Sen’s “Ka Ming Tang” and the “Sia
Hwei.” Special note was taken of the establishment of a Duma even in
oligarchic Russia; the success of the Young Turk party in even such a
terrific oligarchy as Turkey; the successful revolt in Mexico, where a
practical oligarchy gave lands to favorites and would not grant real
popular government; and the representation of the Oriental race in the
legislative bodies of Hongkong, India, Straits Settlements and the
Philippines.
The preliminary dance was opened in September, 1911, by far western
Szechuen province, Peking issuing this edict in the yellow _Peking
Gazette_: “Whoever shall serve us by killing rebels or by capturing and
binding members of the rebellion party, shall be rewarded regardless of
rules.” The Peking government had practically confiscated the railways
of the Szechuenese, as the paper which they were given in exchange bore
no guarantee of interest, and no reliance was put upon the value of the
security by the provincial gentry, bankers and farmers. When provinces
and states lose confidence in the sincerity of a fixed central
government that is not run by parties, that government totters to its
fall. A national anthem was given to the nation to sing:
“May China be preserved!
In this time of the Manchu dynasty,
We are fortunate to see real splendor;
May the heavens protect the imperial family.”
The south only sang it in parodies. The railway board (Yuchuan Pu) was
putting through its nationalization-of-railways scheme, in accordance
with the $50,000,000 gold loan from the syndicates of four of the
banking nations. To back up arguments, troops were increased under the
various generals, Tartar and Manchuized Chinese. Some of these troops
were from the federal army, northern divisions, and had been trained
by Yuan and General Yin Tchang. Some were provincial viceroys’ troops,
trained both under foreign and native systems, like the splendid army
of the Yunnan viceroy, Li Chin Hsi. The small railway owners, the small
mine owners, the contractors of man-transportation, the noted farmers
and river men of Szechuen province, were ordered to consent to the new
scheme of a national railway to break across Szechuen province from
Ichang to Chingtu, and for other railways in the province. The terms of
the foreign loan, the price at which the bankrupt federal government
would pretend to buy out the provincial gentry and guilds, the heavy
new taxes on the west and south, were all partly explained, and the men
of Szechuen (by blood largely Hupeh and Hunan provinces’ emigrants)
rebelled and “fired the shot that was heard around the world”.
[Illustration:
Copyright, American Episcopal Church, Foreign Board, N. Y.
The Assembly Hall at Wuchang, where the Eighth Hupeh Division under
General Li Yuan Heng fired the volley that was heard round the
world, and ushered in republican China. In the background is
Serpent Hill.
]
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
The high tide of the revolution; Nanking’s walls; the crowded boat life
of China.]
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
The Honorable Doctor Sun Yat Sen, founder of the Chinese republic,
Director-General of the National Railway development; leader
of the Tung Men Hwai, the advanced party in China. By birth, a
Southern Chinese (Kwangtung province), the type best known to
foreigners.
]
A noted, partially loyal Chinese general was shortly put in command
of the imperial troops in the ancient capital, Chingtu. His name was
General Chao Ehr Feng, the famous commander who did the astonishing
thing, both from a religious and military point of view, in 1910, of
driving the Dalai Lama out of Lhasa and Tibet into Darjeeling, in
India, and thus putting Buddhism and its pope at the feet of Confucian
China. China also brought up her bloodiest general, Tsen Chun Hsuan,
infamous for putting out the last terrific Mohammedan rebellion in
mountainous Yunnan province of the clouds, in unnecessary rivers of
blood. Foreigners scowled at the employment of this man, and Manchu
China was a little uncertain. Promises meant nothing to Tsen. He was
a man-eating tiger, the bloodiest man in the world, who pretended and
looked to be nothing else, and was descended from as bloody generals.
Peking meant business, and the railway policy, which was as much a war
policy, seemed to be going through.
It was not long, however, before General Chao’s forces were cooped up
in Chingtu, which was besieged by the rebelling province of Szechuen
under the leadership of the president of assembly, Pu Tien Chun, and
in the engagements General Chao was captured and decapitated. The
strategic importance of the railways already built then appeared like
the flash of a saber at the bare neck of the victim. Modern troops were
hurried down to Hankau by rail in twenty-four hours and up the river
to Ichang by steamer, in the rear and on the flank of the besiegers.
Then something like thunder happened among the divisions which had
been mobilized at the triple cities of Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankau.
The Eighth Division, under General Li Yuan Heng, territorial troops of
the modern army, hoisted the rebel tri-color sun flag of red, white
and blue over the yellow dragon of the Manchus, put white bands on
their arms and rebelled for the new-born republic of Han. They captured
the leading arsenal, steel and coal plant at Hanyang, the populous
commercial city of Hankau, and the luxurious viceregal capital of
Wuchang on October 13, 1911. This put a high standard on the rebellion,
for Li was a young well-trained general of the new school, a diplomat,
a sturdy man in the field, a patriot who could not be bought and who
was organizer enough to see that his men were not bought. Admiral
Sah, with a fleet of gunboats and small cruisers, aided the imperial
divisions under the bloody general, Chang Piao Tuan, which tried to
retake the native city of Hankau. Li’s troops, especially his “Dare
to Die” (Pu Pa Tsze) Brigade of shaven round-heads, fought bravely,
although their artillery was only equipped with percussion shells, as
compared with the time-fuse shells brought down from Peking, Tientsin
and Kiaochou to supply the imperial troops. When ammunition ran out,
the rebel troops used the bayonet charge with reckless daring. It was
a new era in fighting in China when yellow men would charge, with
only cold steel, across an area swept by machine guns. On October
21st, Generals Li and Hwang, with 15,000 ill-equipped rebels, won the
battle of Kwang Shili in Hupeh against General Yin Tchang, the Manchu
minister of war and commander-in-chief, with 20,000 finely equipped
loyalists. Part of General Li’s force was a section of an army division
which had gone over. Others of his new troops were recruited from the
most famous boatmen of the world, the Szechuen trackers of the wild
rapids and sublime gorges of the glorious Yangtze River, and from the
indefatigable, cheerful mountain coolies of Hupeh province, who are as
agile as a chamois.
The propaganda of the rebels now bore fruit in rapid succession. On
October 22nd the rebels, under the leadership of Tan Yen Kai, president
of the Hunan Assembly, took Changsha, the capital of Hunan province.
Yale College has a branch in this long forbidden city. Hunan has
always been notable for honest, sturdy, independent men. It is the
proudest province and the sternest in China. “What way Hunan goes,
that way goes China.” It was the last province to permit missionary
activity. Nanchang, the capital of Kiangsi province, the land of
pottery, was taken on the same day, completing the occupation of the
four adjoining central Yangtze provinces, which was all that Sun
(Sunyacius) first planned to do, as a beginning and a basis on which
to solicit foreign loans. It was rebellion indeed, and not a riot. The
Tartars, Manchus and loyalists fled. New provincial governments were
set up, each with a popular assembly. Peking was desperate, for China
was almost split in half by the political earthquake. Peking felt sure
that she held the north, however, with a well-equipped army of about
twenty divisions. The reformers, however, had breathed into the ear of
the troops, and pay was overdue in the impoverished condition of the
central government.
On October 24th, ancient Singan, the capital of the north-western
province of Shensi, the original capital of China, where the empress
dowager, Tse Hsi, fled in 1900, went over to the rebels, despite the
threats of the bloody Mongol governor, General Sheng Yun. This really
meant a fifth seceding province, as far as the populace was concerned.
On the same day, Kowkiang on the Yangtze went over. Then Kweilin, the
capital of Kwangsi province, went over on October 25th. This was the
first of the southern provinces to join the movement openly. On October
25th noble Fuchau, the famous seaport capital of old Fukien province,
went over, and we have already quoted a wonderful message to the white
man from their “Sia Hwei” (reform association). On October 26th,
Ngan-king, capital of Nganhwei province, declared for the rebels, and
on the same day General Li was suggested as provisional president of
the forming republic of Han, with six of China’s twenty-one provinces
already seceding. Reform was as hot as a prairie fire, and almost as
hard to manage.