of Foreign Minister Wu Ting Fang that if Britain joined the three
monarchical powers in loaning Yuan money, a trade boycott would be
instituted in the southern and central provinces against foreign
trade, of which Britain held the largest share. This won Hongkong, and
Hongkong was able to hold British diplomacy on Downing Street, London,
and indirectly on Legation Street, Peking. It was a master move, as
brilliantly effective as Napoleon’s Berlin Decree of November 21,
1806, blockading British commerce, and only for it the rebellion would
have been swamped by four of the six nations arming and provisioning
Yuan, the Manchu and the north. Whatever comes in the next few years,
this cry surely is forever in the heart of Lincoln’s and Washington’s
America: “Long live the republican idea of distributed wealth and
distributed liberty in good old China, America’s yellow brother
across the narrowing purple Pacific.” On Christmas day, 1911, the
steamship _Cleveland_, from New York and San Francisco, with five
hundred American world tourists, arrived at Hongkong. The republican
army immediately invited them to Canton to see their barracks at the
Five Hundred Genii Temple and elsewhere, the resolution saying: “as
America was the first country to become a republic.” Auspiciously on
December 26th, Sun Yat Sen arrived at Shanghai, two war-ships escorting
his launch up the river from the Wusung bar. He immediately took an
automobile at the bund wharf and proceeded to Wu’s residence, where
conferences were held, and Nanking decided on as the provisional
capital of the fighting republic. The republican Chinese were delighted
that the Americans had eleven war-ships at Shanghai.
On December 26th, Yuan and the Manchu princes wired Tang Shao Yi from
Peking that they would leave the decision as to a form of government
to a national convention of the twenty-one provinces, the delegates
to meet as soon as possible. The harmony which prevailed in the
conferences at Shanghai between Sun, Wu and Li’s representatives
was delightful to those interested in Chinese progress. The harmony
which prevailed between the missionaries and the revolutionists was
also inspiring. In a village of Hupeh province (Taiping) the people
insisted that Mr. Landahl, of the Netherlands Mission, should head
the local Safety League which was maintaining order, and they pushed
that astonished gentleman to the head in the successful pursuit of
notorious pirates who were injuring the causes of both revolutionists
and imperialists. One notorious brigand of Honan province, named Wang,
collected a band of 2,000 robbers, and at Harbin in Manchuria a band
of Hunghutz captured an imperial treasure train with half a million
of money. Vast preparations should now have been made to protect
Chinese and foreigners in the north from massacre, if the National
Assembly should on convening declare for a republic. There could not
but be bitterness when only 17 million Manchus abdicated the rule of
400 millions Chinese, and the widest and most absolute throne the
earth has known, wider than Pharaoh’s, Alexander’s, Xerxes’, Cæsar’s,
Charlemagne’s, Baber Mogul’s, or Tsar’s. The problem of ruling 17
million Manchu discontents was a greater one than the long dominion
which the subsidized Manchus had enjoyed over 400 millions of disunited
and supine Chinese. The republic of China has mighty problems before
it. Let all the world help her; above all, let education, hope and
creature comforts be bestowed as quickly as possible. There is glorious
altruistic work ahead of everybody for the whole of one’s life.
As the republicans solidified their government about Nanking, the
enemies of China--the land-grabbing nations--who forgot their old
antipathies and quarrels and acted in accord in their scheme of
aggrandizement, prepared to strip her of her vast dependencies,
Russia towering over Turkestan, Mongolia and Northern Manchuria, and
Japan gathering about Lower Manchuria, a secret treaty between the
two having been effected. No place was to be reserved for the great
Chinese people to accommodate their emigration, as the size of farms
should be necessarily increased throughout the land. The American and
British doctrine of the “non-partition of China” was to be struck
down. America, Britain and China will remember, for a Chinese republic
can yet gather an army of millions to take these provinces back, and
American and British naval forces, as a world’s altruistic police,
can, if necessary, stand at the doors of the Baltic and Black Seas and
remind Russia of her broken promises and greed. What a conflict there
will yet be, won either by a swamping emigration, or by an engulfing
army, as Russia, Japan and China come nearer together in the old
Chinese dependencies of Turkestan, Mongolia and Manchuria. Mongolia,
with her capital at Urga, and Turkestan, with her capital at Kashgar,
practically seceded on December 29th under Russian intrigue. Religious
Khans and Lamas, named by Russia, drove the Chinese ambans out and took
charge, a Russian railway policy to break across country and control
Peking being at once planned. The Manchu dynasty, with a following of
from ten to seventeen million Manchus, sheltered in either Mongolia,
Pechili province, Shangtung or Manchuria, under the egis of either
Russia, Japan, or other nations, will always be a covert weapon for
intrigue, which the bureaucrats of those nations can use against a
Chinese republic.
On December 29th, the military convention at Nanking--one vote to a
province--voted unanimously for Sun Yat Sen as the first president of
the provisional republic, until elective assemblies could meet. The
civil delegates from fourteen of the provinces, meeting at Shanghai,
also agreed on Sun Yat Sen as provisional president. The armistice
was now extended, President Sun calling upon the imperialists to
respect the neutral zone between the opposing armies. The rise of
President Sun was astounding and his task immense. From an impoverished
propagandist and exile, wandering over the earth for a whole lifetime,
with the Bible in one hand and _Progress and Poverty_ in the other, he
suddenly became the head of the largest nation upon the earth, and the
government of that nation he was expected to change from being the most
absolute monarchy into the freest of republics. His career is the most
inspiring example that was ever presented to reformers in the world’s
history. They say of typhoons and of troubles, that when things are at
their worst, only a change for the better can be looked for, and so it
has been with President Sun’s career.
At the peace conferences at Shanghai, the imperialists pressed for some
northern city as the venue of the convention of provincial delegates,
and the republicans pressed as strongly for Shanghai, because in
distinction from Peking, it was removed from Russian influence. Yuan
refused to disband his army and gave notice that if the republicans
advanced, he would order an attack. The imperialists then tried to get
the republicans to agree to pay the northern troops a sum of money
in return for laying down their arms, but the republicans wisely
refused to provision the imperialists in this way for a continuance
of the fighting. They did, however, offer to pay for the surrender of
artillery and ammunition. Yuan held many fruitless conferences with the
Manchu princes and dowager, offering to continue the war if they would
give up their hoards, but of the hundreds of millions of dollars of
their wealth, all he could get was a subscription of $100,000 from the
old lion, Prince Ching, who has been the mentor of the Manchus since
Prince Kung died in the 60’s. The whole of the south, in emulation
of the Christian president, Doctor Sun (Sunyacius), began cutting
off their queues and wearing khaki, as a sign that servility to the
Manchus was ended. Committees of persuasion, the members of which
carried shears, operated even in Yaumati and Kowloon (mainland sections
of Hongkong colony). The Chinese were approached and asked to go to
the barbers. If they refused, shears were drawn and the ancient badge
of servitude to the Manchu, the queue, was severed. The Chinese of
Bangkok, Siam, were humorous in their methods. The republican tri-color
was hoisted to the peak, and two hundred sheared queues were hoisted
under it, up the flagpole! Doctor Sun, president, named the following
as his provisional cabinet:
Vice-President, General Li Yuen Heng, commander of the republican left
wing;
Premier, Hwang Hing, organizer in Japan of the rebellion;
Minister of Justice, Wu Ting Fang, formerly Minister to the United
States, and reformer of the Chinese penal code;
Minister of Communications, Posts and Commerce, Wen Tsung Yao, American
educated, formerly Amban in Tibet, unusually able official;
Colonial Secretary, Fung Chi Yueh, represented Sun in the United States;
Secretary of State, Wu Hon Man, President Canton Assembly;
Ministers of Finance, Chin Tao Chen, and M. Y. Sung, Manager Chung Hua
rebel bank. I know both well.
Minister of Navy and Marine, General Hwang Hing, second in command
at Hankau, and Sun’s personal representative while he was absent in
America and England;
Foreign Minister, Wang Chung Wei, American educated;
Chief of Staff, General Hsu, the victor of Nanking.
The subject of adopting the Christian calendar was discussed and
decided on, though it was decided to please Chinese pride by letting
the republican bank-notes, issued in December, stand. These notes went
back to mythological times, and named 1911 as the 4609th year since the
first Emperor Huang Ti! The custom of dating the year with each Manchu
emperor’s succession was of course at once discarded in fourteen of
the rebelling provinces. President Sun assumed charge at Nanking and
immediately collected a strong garrison in the old capital of China.
In his former work, _The Chinese_, the author strongly recommended
the change of the capital of China farther south so as to be nearer
the center of China, closer in touch with the majority of the people
who popularly desire the change, and safely removed from Russian
influence and possibility of attack by Mongolian railway. Preparations
were at once made to bring finance, education, army, navy and a
federal government under the control of the coming parliament, the
provincial parliaments already being in tentative operation in half of
the provinces. We have already quoted the text of notes issued by the
republican government of Kwangtung province. Dictator Yuan, at Peking,
in a temporary huff, wired that he would not recognize Tang Shao Yi as
his representative any more at the Shanghai and Nanking conferences,
and that he would only confer by telegram. He demanded that Peking,
and not Nanking, should be named as the meeting place of the proposed
national assembly, which was to select the form of government. This
really broke up the peace conferences, and Wu Ting Fang so informed the
foreign governments.
Yuan then called upon the Manchu princes and royalty for money, saying
that if they would draw two millions a month for six months from their
foreign banks, he could carry on the war. Fearing that the republicans
would send an army by sea from Shanghai to Chin Wang Tao (where the
Great Wall and Peking railway meet the sea, and the only ice free
port in the north) to break Manchuria from the north, and march on
Peking, Yuan sent an army to Chin Wang Tao, but several of the Chinese
regiments rebelled. The republicans had arranged for such a transport
service, as they had seized the ships of the government steamship line,
the China Merchants’ Steamship Company. At the Lanchow camp east of
Peking, several Chinese regiments also rebelled, and there was much
bloodshed in putting down the riots. Yuan had five strong northern
armies, one under General Feng at Hanyang, one under Chang the Second
north of Nanking on the railway, one under Sheng Yun operating in
Shensi and Shansi provinces, and an army in both Shangtung and Honan
provinces. It looked as though the war would continue, the republican
strength being mainly in that they threatened, if successful, to
repudiate any loans made after January 1, 1912, by foreigners to the
Manchus. Hongkong now sent the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Indian
Regiment of Baluchis, a battalion of the Yorkshires and a battery
of English garrison artillery to Shameen Island, Canton, to protect
the famous foreign settlement and assist President Wu, of Canton, in
maintaining order. The island was fortified with sand-bags and barbed
wire entanglements. The Hongkong Chinese were enthusiastic for a
republic, and the British government did not prohibit their rejoicing.
Their processions included the use of automobiles and brass bands. What
a changed Hongkong, which used to hide its head in a monster dragon and
parade the streets!
President Sun now informed foreigners that while he could employ them
in all the remainder of China’s development, he could not do so in the
republican army, as the republicans desired to be free of suspicion,
and did not want to create foreign entanglements or embarrassments. The
foreign nations divided up the Tientsin-Peking railway, and foreign men
of war, independent of the republican navy, patrolled the whole rebel
front from Shanghai to Hankau. Germany despatched another full regiment
to Tsingtau in addition to the large garrison already there, America
alone up to January 7, 1912, had held her troops at Manila. When the
imperialists were evacuating Hanyang on January 4th, a regiment broke
parole, necessitating an attack by General Li’s republicans, which
attack was promptly and effectively sent in. On the right wing the
republicans advanced up the Nanking-Tientsin railway, forcing General
Chang the Second to withdraw to the north. President Sun was now active
in appeals to the foreigners for recognition of the republic, his
manifesto of January 5th, reading as follows:
1. Treaties of Manchus up to October 13, 1911, will be observed.
2. Concessions granted by Manchus up to October 13, 1911, will be
respected.
3. Foreign loans and indemnities incurred by Manchus up to October 13,
1911, will be recognized.
4. Foreigners and their property will be protected by the republic.
5. Manchus and their property will be protected by the republic.
6. We will remodel laws; revise civic, criminal, commercial and mining
codes; reform finances; abolish restrictions on trade and commerce;
insure religious toleration; and cultivate better relations with
foreign peoples and governments.
It will be noted that President Sun does not here take up that
difficult question, the nationalization of railways, the premature
forcing of which by the five banking nations on the Manchus largely
precipitated the preliminary revolution in Szechuen province in
September, 1911. When the republican finances will permit just
compensation of provincial owners of railways, the nationalization of
trunk railways will be a proper and opportune project, but confiscation
of railways by a promissory note at sixty per cent. of investment, as
was offered by the Manchus to the Kwangtung province owners, can only
bring revolt. By the end of the first week in January, 1912, certain
of the banking groups and powers, fearing that there would be a long
civil strife, attacked the American doctrine of the “non-partition
of China” and canvassed for two Chinas, the northern section to be
retained by the Manchu monarchy, or a republic with Yuan at the head.
Even this would bring its difficulties. To mention one of a thousand,
where would the dividing line be, the Yellow River or the Yangtze
River? The feeling of the republicans on this division can be gaged
by asking what was the feeling of the Americans on the subject of
secession. On January 8th the republicans approved a heavy bond issue,
based on internal revenue (the customs being already pledged by the
Manchus for foreign loans made before October 13, 1911, which loans
the republicans recognized), and bearing eight per cent. It was also
decided to put the currency on a gold basis, and though one-dollar,
fifty-cent and subsidiary silver coins would be issued, they were to be
only tokens, and their face value was to be secured by a gold reserve,
as in the case of America’s and Japan’s silver coinage, which is only a
token system.
On January 12, 1912, Major-General Franklin Bell despatched on the
transport _Logan_ from Manila the First Battalion of the Fifteenth
Infantry, under Major Arrasmith, to take care of that part of the
Peking-to-the-coast railway allotted to the Americans. This was a
confession of two things: first, that the Manchus might not be able
to restrain the “Boxer” mobs in the north, and second, that it was
expected that the republicans would be able to come north with their
three old and two new armies when hostilities should be opened. Part
of General Bell’s thrilling and characteristic American speech to the
troops should be quoted: “The Chinese are worthy of a square deal.
Treat them in a worthy way.” The expedition was a trying one, and was
provided with cords of fire-wood. The enervated troops left the hot
humid climate of Manila for the cold windy climate of North China. The
news that came from the Lanchow camp at this time was most distressing,
to the effect that Yuan’s imperialists were massacring and torturing
republicans by the fiendish lin chee (cutting into a thousand pieces,
the victim being placed in a cage). Men who had adopted the republican
badge of the New China by cutting off their queues were being slain.
Even the Red Cross attendants were attacked. Clearly the Manchu troops
at Lanchow had gone out of hand and become a mob. The American Bishop
Bashford now telegraphed from Shanghai to Dictator Yuan, urging the
Manchus to abdicate for humanity’s sake. General Hwang Hing, minister
of war, was now arranging for five republican armies to march north and
converge on Peking. These armies were:
General Li, with the left wing, from Hankau to Peking, through Honan
province.
Generals Hsu and Ling, with the right wing, from Nanking, through
Kiangsu and Shangtung provinces, along the railway.
A new army, by transport and cruisers, from Shanghai to Chifu, or some
northern port.
A new army of Canton and Hupeh troops to march north in General Li’s
rear.
The combined republican forces of Shensi and Shansi provinces to march
northeast.
The Chinese are exceedingly excitable when aroused from their usually
placid state. This is because their experience is limited, and they
have not yet learned to adapt themselves rapidly to new conditions.
They therefore commit suicide in surprising numbers under the sudden
pressure of anger, shame, poverty, trouble, uncertainty and fear.
At this time of revolution, especially in the northern provinces
of Shensi and Shansi where the republicans were strongly opposed,
many officials, widows of soldiers and the poor, jumped into wells,
swallowed balls of opium, or begged their friends to strangle them.
On January 15th, the republicans sent three cruisers and three
transports, with three battalions, machine and mountain guns, from
Shanghai to Chifu, in preparation for a converging attack on Peking,
America sent in the cruiser _Cincinnati_, and the Japanese sent in two
cruisers to watch proceedings and protect the foreign colony, which,
however, was not menaced. On January 19th, Foreign Minister Wang
Chung Wei sent a despatch to the powers, requesting recognition of
the republic “to avoid a disastrous interregnum”. On the same day the
republic from Shanghai sent the following drastic demand to Yuan and
the Manchus:
1. Abdicate.
2. No Manchu to participate in the provisional government until the
country is quiet.
3. The provisional capital can not be Peking.
4. Yuan can not participate in the provisional government until the
republic has been recognized.
President Sun gave the Associated Press this statement:
1. I have taken an oath to oust the Manchu rulers and restore peace to
the country before resigning.
2. I have taken an oath to establish a republic in China, and if I
consented to the proposal laid down by Yuan (to resign and put him in
charge) I would be foresworn. I am convinced that a republic is not
only practicable, but that it would be the best thing for China. Those
(monarchical nations and syndicates) asserting otherwise know nothing
about the Chinese. This republic is now an established fact. Nothing
can swerve me from what I consider my duty to my fellow countrymen.
Undoubtedly the best thought unanimously supports the republic.
3. China can not allow outsiders to dictate as to her form of
government.
4. There is no question of North and South China; it must be One China.
5. We are confident of the righteousness of our cause and the
superiority of the military strength of the republicans. If Yuan Shih
Kai persists in obstructing, our armies will be instructed to march
northward.
On January 21st the Manchus persisted in not abdicating, and
contemplated appointing the minister of war, Yin Tchang, and the
president of the War Board, Tieh Liang, both Manchus of the ultra type,
as dictators over Yuan. This was in contravention of the agreement
of Nineteen Constitutional Articles between the Manchus and the old
National Assembly, pressed by the soldiers of the Lanchow camp in
October, 1911, that no Manchus were to be placed in authority until a
constitutional government was established.
While the world was watching the camps of war, where the men stamped
eager for blood, two million women and children, in three other parts
of the land were starving from flood, famine and the absence of their
bread providers. Look on the map at the old bed of the Yellow River
across the middle of Kiangsu province; the valley of the Hwei River
across northern Nganhwei province, emptying into Lake Hangsu; and Wuhu,
on the Yangtze, where the flooded river tried to break east across
the flat country to Shanghai, instead of arching north to Nanking.
Not since 1906 have crops or homes been long above water in these
crowded districts. What the missionaries mainly, and others (native
and foreign) of the Central China Relief Committee, with headquarters
at Shanghai, have done, a library of books could not adequately tell.
Part of the story would be the relief trains of gift flour which left
Minneapolis and was transported free across the Pacific by the United
States army transport _Buford_; and more of the story would be the work
of the American Red Cross; the grand missionary periodicals of America;
and the Pacific Coast Chambers of Commerce, which put business aside
for philanthropy. Their altruism, their manly effectiveness, their
human kindness that has been so deeply Christian and Confucian (as you
look at it from both an Occidental and an Oriental standpoint) has been
moving beyond words, and it is largely owing to this action on the part
of America that the hand of the war-inflamed Chinese was stayed against
foreigners in this campaign. Their women said: “Don’t strike the white
physicians and bread-givers; the men who speak in mercy and are clothed
in altruism.” The soldiers of the Eighth Division of Hupeh men, under
General Li, at Wuchang, in bidding the American Episcopal missionaries
good-by, cheered them with these words: “Americans are our brothers.”
Never had such a scene of suppressed emotion and earnestness occurred
in China. I have already recited General Li’s manifesto to his men
concerning the treatment of missionaries. None was more surprised than
the good missionaries themselves. From their experience in the “Boxer”
campaign of 1900, the missionaries expected unflinching loyalty from
their converts, but they did not look for the highest Geneva Convention
amenities from the new levies of the revolutionary soldiers. It was
really astonishingly delightful. But on second thought, it might have
been seen that it was only the first fruits of the seed sown long ago
by the missionaries themselves, and now being garnered after many days
when the sowing had been almost forgotten.
Reports came from Peking that the boy emperor, Pu Yi, was utterly
unconscious of trouble and the tottering of the oldest and widest
throne on earth, in all this ebb and flow of war and intrigue. Deserted
by his guardians, parent and tutors, he was left most of the time in
the Forbidden City with eunuchs, who humored his every whim, with
the result that his temper took on true Manchu characteristics. When
opposed, he threw the first thing at hand at those near him. When
the food displeased him, he cracked the dishes over the heads of his
kneeling servitors. The _Break-Up of China_ indeed, but by another
author than Lord Charles Beresford!