_CHINESE STUDENTS._
Number of Degrees.--Aged Bachelors.--Up for
Examination.--Necessary
Qualifications.--Crowding.--Scarcity of Posts.--Chinese
Dress.
Far more formidable than the soldiery are the literati of China.
Soldiering is despised in China; learning is esteemed. The literati
also are far more numerous; they arrive in great armies, nominally ten
thousand strong or more, and each young man of any standing has his
pipe-bearer and three or more servants, possibly in the case of
military students a horse or two and attendant grooms as well. In the
summer of 1897 at Chengtu there were fourteen thousand candidates, who
had already passed the first of the five examinations necessary before
entering the highest body in China, the Hanlin College. They were all
what is commonly Englished into B.A.'s; that is, Shiu Tsai, or Budding
Talent. _And there were ninety-six degrees to be conferred!_ Picture
the disappointment in a land where for twelve centuries no official
post of any kind has been conferred without preliminary examination.
Men go up year after year, year after year, in many cases collecting
contributions from friends and patrons towards travelling expenses.
Sometimes these contributions are given under promise that, if the
needy student do not pass this year, he will not try again. But this
is a promise made to be broken. And I believe it is really true, if a
man go on competing for his B.A. and failing, at the age of eighty he
is considered to have passed.
In 1891 the Governor of Yunnan said that it was also permissible under
certain circumstances to bring to the notice of the Throne cases of
scholars well advanced in years who have failed to pass their
examinations for the degree of _chüjen_, and begged to recommend for
favourable consideration the case of Lien Hsiang-yang, a Bachelor of
over eighty years of age, who had failed to pass at the last
examination. He had obtained his degree of Bachelor only nine years
before, and in the eyes of the memorialist his praiseworthy endeavours
to scale the heights of Parnassus ought to meet with some recognition.
[Illustration: TEMPLE OF GOD OF LITERATURE.
_By Rev. E. J. Piper._]
It is a curious method, that of a Chinese examination. The Literary
Chancellor of the province travels round from city to city. Suddenly
there is an influx of new faces, and the streets are full of strangers
looking about them. Missionaries always say, "The students are
swaggering about." When the Consul does not send out a request for
Europeans to keep within-doors or to be careful, I straightway order
my sedan-chair, and pretend I want to buy something near the
examination-hall. Any one, who knows the monotony of always blue gowns
and a slouch, would understand that the idea of "some one swaggering"
is irresistible. But so far I have never succeeded in seeing even one
military student swagger. I know the mandarin swagger, and the
Tientsin swagger, which is the most audacious of all, and would make
every one in Bond Street turn round to look; and I know the young
merchant swagger, which is amusing, and not very unlike a very young
London clubman's swagger, when he does swagger. I am afraid it a
little went out when high collars came in. But the students I have
seen have mostly been pale, very anxious-looking young men, who drop
in at our luncheon-time, and look with great interest at our foreign
things, sitting on for ever, when they find we have actually specimens
of the books of that most useful Society for the Diffusion of
Christian and General Knowledge. Then they turn them over and are
happy, till they suddenly wake up sadly to the fact we have no more.
"And I wanted to take back copies to all my friends in the town of
----," said one student that I know. But then he did not pass. He is a
reformer, a dreamer, as the Secretaries of Legation at Peking dub all
of the party of progress in China; for that city seems to deaden the
very souls of the Diplomatic Corps, walled up inside it, away from all
their own nationals, and full of their parties and theatricals and
petty jealousies, unaware apparently that there is a great Chinese
nation throbbing across some two thousand miles of country south and
west.
Then there are the brilliant students, who pass every time, and are
going up for the Hanlin College. They are very much afraid of turning
their attention away from the classics for a moment to look even at
histories of the Japanese War or of the nineteenth century. They know
all about the Röntgen rays, but they dare not be interested. They have
got to pass, and to get means to do so they must teach other young men
to pass preliminary examinations; and they have brought the latter up
with them from some small country town, and are responsible for them.
More than the weight of empire seems resting upon their young
shoulders; but the fact that they come to see us, and come again,
shows that they are interested in foreign affairs. To one I undertook
to teach English in a six weeks' holiday last Chinese New Year season.
He learnt the alphabet in two days; then he learnt easy words; but why
_c a t_ should spell _cat_, because _b a t_ spelt _bat_, he could not
imagine. The very idea of an alphabet is so strange to a Chinaman. He
thinks what you want him to do is to learn it by heart, and he
conscientiously learns it. Then when you dodge him he is mortified. As
to spelling, I know no way to make him understand it, until he has
learnt how to spell; till then it is a mystery to him. He was a most
brilliant young scholar, who had already passed his second examination
with great _éclat_, whom I essayed to teach, and every now and then I
seemed to see glimmerings of understanding, but then again all became
dark, as I tried desperately to teach him to read, so that he might go
on teaching himself in his distant country town.
But when the examinations are really on, no more students, swaggering
or not swaggering, are seen about the streets. They are all shut up
for twenty-four hours, and they come out in batches, according as to
when they have done their essays, at the three watches of the night,
tired out and hungry. They go up for this preliminary according to
their district; then those who are most successful of the different
districts are shut up to compete against one another. At each
examination a poem must be written in addition to two essays. Not
uncommonly students die at these examinations. But the marvel to me is
that the Literary Chancellor survives, for he _keeps on at it_ pretty
well all the time. Sometimes he is accused of being very much
influenced by money bribes as to those he passes; sometimes he is
reputed honest.
[Illustration: MAP OF CHINA, SHOWING CHIEF EXAMINATION CENTRES.]
When the second of two brothers passed in the same year his
examination as _chüjen_ (or M.A.), he was carried round Chungking in
triumph in a sedan-chair; and a favourite subject of embroidery is
the triumphal return of the successful student, with a silk official
umbrella borne over his head, himself mounted on a spotted pony, and
all the village in its best clothes come out to do him honour.
There are very strict rules as to who may compete at examinations.
Barbers are not allowed to go up; and a barber's son having passed
brilliantly in Hupeh province a few years ago, his degree was taken
from him because of his father's business. On this all the barbers of
the principal cities of Hupeh struck work--a terrible position, for no
Chinaman can endure life without frequent resort to a barber to shave
afresh the front part of his head, and comb and plait his long queue.
But not only must your father not be of low occupation, but you must
most emphatically be native born.
The _Peking Gazette_ of February 20th, 1891, records that "the number
of provincial graduates being limited, and the right to compete for
the degree of _chüjen_ being strictly confined in each province to
those, who have attained the standing of natives thereof either
through birth or domicile, the intrusion of outsiders is jealously
resented, and much contention frequently takes place as to the origin
of a successful candidate. The Censorate recently received a petition
numerously signed by graduates from Kweichow, in which they
represented that a number of persons had attained degrees in their
province under circumstances which urgently called for an
investigation. The Governor, from whom a report was called for on the
subject, admits that the graduates to whom exception had been taken
are not natives of the province, although they are, he adds, either
domiciled there, or the descendants of officials who have not been
able to return to their native places. The province, he explains, was
originally the home of the aborigines, and strictly speaking contains
no native population of Chinese. The first provincial examination was
held in the year 1537, but even then the number of Chinese settlers
was very small. During the beneficent rule of the present dynasty
influential families have flocked in from other provinces, and
literature has received a marked impetus; but the formality of
becoming domiciled subjects has very rarely been attended to. Indeed,
had a hard-and-fast rule been adopted in the matter, there is good
reason for believing that Kweichow would never have emerged from its
state of barbarism. The last quarter of a century has witnessed
repeated disturbances in the province, which interfered seriously with
the regular conduct of the examinations. A great change has recently
taken place for the better; but still there are numerous cases where
people have become domiciled and have completed the necessary term of
residence without having made a formal report of the circumstances to
the authorities. The memorialist concludes by suggesting that five of
the accused graduates should be debarred from competing next time at
the higher examinations, and that the law respecting property
qualification and a term of residence extending over twenty years
should be strictly enforced for the future."
Again, on April 10th, 1891, "the Governor of Fengtʽien brings forward
a grievance on the part of the farmers attached to the Collectorate of
Rent Department, a branch of the Imperial household at Moukden. These
farmers have hitherto been debarred from competing at the examinations
on what would seem to be insufficient grounds, and have asked that
their status be thoroughly gone into and definitely established. It
appears there are four classes of employés attached to the
Collectorate of Rent; namely, the foremen of agricultural labourers,
the agricultural labourers themselves, labourers attached to the
households of the foremen in a menial capacity, and foundlings brought
up in what presumably is an orphanage. The two classes first
enumerated are borne on the regular banner-roll by themselves. In a
memorial presented to the Throne in 1862 it was requested that
permission be given to the foremen to compete and that menials and
foundlings be debarred. Nothing was said about the agricultural
labourers, and the authorities did not in consequence feel justified
in allowing them to enter. These latter have, however, produced
regular stamped title-deeds showing that they are the _bona-fide_
holders of banner-land. Strictly speaking, such title-deeds ought
never to have been issued to them; but as they bear date as far back
as 1791, and as it has been proved that they are actually borne on the
same roll as the foremen, it would seem as if there were no
distinction between them and the ordinary bannermen. Memorialist would
point out that in 1825 the same question was raised with regard to the
labourers tilling ecclesiastical lands under the Moukden Board of
Revenue, and that it was then decided that all such, who were borne on
the regular banner-roll, and whose record was without stain, should be
allowed to compete. They accordingly would request that the matter be
referred to the Board of Rites for consideration, and they trust the
Board will see its way to remove the present restriction.--_Let the
Board of Rites consider and report._"
Yet in spite of all these restrictions "while the students were
rushing into the Wuchang examination-hall for a recent competition an
errand-boy nine years old was trampled to death and horribly
mutilated. The crowd was so dense that it was impossible to extricate
the body until the space was cleared."
The literati are generally charged with being the most reactionary
body in China. Yet we find "Chang-chih-tung and the Provincial
Examiner of Hupeh asking for permission to allow the latter to proceed
by steamer to conduct the examinations at Chingchow and Ichang. They
describe very graphically the extreme inconvenience and discomfort of
the native modes of conveyance, the long delays beating up against the
stream, and the risk their papers and other belongings run of being
lost or damaged by water. The Examiner mentions that on former trips,
when the roads have been flooded, several of his coolies have been
drowned by mistaking the paths, and all the inhabitants having fled
before the water no accommodation was to be had for man or beast. To
proceed by steamer would in every way be a saving, no risk would be
run, the journey would be accomplished in two or three days, and the
students be saved the vexatious delays they have had to undergo in
former years while awaiting the arrival of the Examiner, who has met
with delays and difficulties on the road.--_Granted._"
[Illustration: OUTSIDE CONFUCIUS' GRAVE.]
Alas! when all is over, when men have got the right to compete and
have competed successfully--are, for instance, among the ninety-six
chosen out of fourteen thousand--what then? According to the _Peking
Gazette_ of September 22nd, "ten years ago the Governor of Honan
asked that no expectant officials should be sent to the province for a
period of two years, in order to relieve the stagnation which
prevailed in the lower ranks of the Civil Service. The present
Governor states that immediately after the expiration of the above
period crowds of expectant officers again began to pour into the
province, the evil having been greatly intensified by the renewal of
the system of purchasing office. At the present moment there are 60
expectant candidates for the posts of Taotai, Prefect, and Senior
Magistrate; over 70 for those of Sub-Prefect and Assistant
Sub-Prefect; more than 300 aspiring to be Department and District
Magistrates; and 1,020 waiting for minor appointments in the Civil
Service. The stream of arrivals continues month after month, and utter
congestion is the natural result. Considerable retrenchment is being
carried out in the provincial administration, and the great majority
of these expectants have little prospect of temporary and much less of
permanent employment. A process of weeding out the less meritorious
could not fail to be attended with invidious consequences, and all the
memorialist can suggest is that the measure introduced by his
predecessor should be reinforced for a further term of two years. This
will, he hopes, work off to some extent the present redundant supply
of official aspirants, and, being applicable only to Honan, will not
materially interfere with the funds raised for coast-defence purposes
from the sale of the office.--_Referred to the consideration of the
Board of Civil Office._"
Whilst, according to a Chinese newspaper in 1891, "there were over two
thousand expectant military officials in Nanking alone, all offices
were filled, and these expectants have scarcely any hope of obtaining
one. A monthly examination in rifle-shooting, with rewards for skilful
marksmen, is the only means to afford them a precarious livelihood. On
the arrival of the new Viceroy Liu, the _yamen_ was daily crowded by
those, who had formerly fought against the Taipings, petitioning for
some office or commission."
About fourteen thousand Bachelors are added to the list every year.
There are probably close on seven hundred thousand Chinese graduates
now living. It is the expectants of office, who are one of China's
greatest dangers, men embittered by feeling that they have themselves
been unjustly passed over, who have never been given opportunity to
show what they could do, and who are incapable of doing what alone
lies before them; although in the west of China we have come across
one man who had taken a high degree keeping a wayside inn in a very
lonely place, believed by our coolies, as it happens, to be the resort
of robbers.
Yet notwithstanding all this the desire to learn and the honour for
learning seem almost to overtop the desire for money in a Chinaman's
breast, and it is difficult to see that there is not some special
significance in the curious fact, in regard to the worship of
Confucius, that he was once worshipped as a duke, at another time as a
prince, then as an emperor, after which his rank was, what we should
call, lowered, and he was honoured as "the most wise ancestral
teacher Confucius."
Confucius is still their master in preference to Laotze, whom
Confucius himself compared to a dragon, and whose writings are so
spiritual as to approach closer to the Gospel of St. John than
anything else. Both write about "The Way," or, as Laotze calls it,
_Tao_, on which word alone whole volumes have been written. Yet I see,
in a note made at the time of a visit, I wrote: "A party of young
Chinese called to-day, all ready for their degrees, preparing for the
mandarinate, and in the meantime _schwa_-ing for a few days in a
neighbouring guild garden. They had seen the newly arrived Japanese
consular officials. One of them said he had read the _Tao-teh-ching_,
Laotze's great book, and praised it as very beautiful. But the nearest
they got to a sensible remark was: 'We do not like our women to walk
about. Do women with you study equally with men? With us very few can
read. I think it is a good thing they should study.' This last clause,
though, said timorously, rather more as a feeler than as a decided
expression of the speaker's convictions. They went away with some
copies of Pastor Kranz's admirable pamphlet against footbinding, which
they at once looked into, and pronounced very good. But it was curious
to notice how eager they were to learn who the writer was."
[Illustration: APPROACH TO CONFUCIUS' GRAVE.]
And now how can one dismiss the literati without a remark upon Chinese
dress? Louis le Comte, Jesuit and Confessor to the Duchess of
Burgundy, makes such quaint comments upon it in his letters,
written in 1687, I prefer to quote from them; for although they are
steadily shortening their jackets and narrowing their sleeves, thus
approximating more and more to the European style, the Chinese, having
once thought out the best style of dress for their habits and climate,
adhere to it still. Father le Comte, writing of their caps, says:
"They add also a great flake of red silk, which, hanging irregularly,
gives a particularly pleasing grace as the head moves." I have never
quite seen it in this way, but, thanks to the good Father, I hope to
notice this "pleasing grace" when I return to China. "In riding they
wear a sort of long hair, dyed of a brisk shining red, which rain will
not deface. It grows white upon the legs of cows in Szechuan, and,
receiving this tincture, is dearer than the finest silk." This must
evidently be off Tibetan yaks' legs, and is very familiar to me, and
also I think very effective. "In summer their neck appears bare, and
is no good sight." I quite agree with the Father here; in fact, the
more a Chinaman's person is covered up the better, I always think.
Their brocades and furs are a "very good sight." "They wear boots
always; and when any person visits them, if they have not their boots
on, they will make them wait till they go and fetch them." But this
probably is rather true of officials than of literati.
In conclusion, I must say I like the young literati of China. They
seem to me very much like the young men of other nations, except that
they are more easily amused, and amuse me less. I am told they hate
foreigners and are very dissipated. It may be so, but they seem to me
very good-humoured and easy-going. They love fine clothes, and are
sometimes very smartly dressed; and they are on the whole cleaner and
somewhat nicer in their ways than the rest of the community. The hope
of China, I think, is in the young literati. But I can quite
understand that they do not show their best side to missionaries, any
more than rather arrogant young agnostics, fresh from the learning of
the schools, would to hard-working Evangelical curates, if such
curates exist still in England. I have no doubt, however, they are not
really quite as nice as they seem to be. Perhaps, however, that is
true of all young men.
* * * * *
NOTE.--Those who wish to see an enlightened Chinaman's views on
education may like to refer to Prince Kung's Memorial on the following
page.
MEMORIAL OF PRINCE KUNG ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COLLEGE
FOR THE CULTIVATION OF WESTERN SCIENCE (1887).
Your Majesty's servant and other Ministers of the Council for Foreign
Affairs on their knees present this memorial in regard to regulations
for teaching Astronomy and the selection of students.
The sciences being indispensable to the understanding of machinery and
the manufacture of firearms, we have resolved on erecting for this
purpose a special department in the Tung-wen College, to which
scholars of a high grade may be admitted, and in which men from the
West shall be invited to give instruction.
The scheme having met with your Majesty's approval, we beg to state
that it did not originate in a fondness for novelties, or in
admiration for the abstract subtleties of Western science, but solely
from the consideration that the mechanical arts of the West all have
their source in the science of Mathematics. Now, if the Chinese
Government desires to introduce the building of steamers and
construction of machinery, and yet declines to borrow instruction from
the men of the West, there is danger lest, following our own ideas, we
should squander funds to no purpose.
We have weighed the matter maturely before laying it before the
Throne. But among persons who are unacquainted with the subject there
are some who will regard this matter as unimportant; some who will
censure us as wrong in abandoning the methods of China for those of
the West; and some who will even denounce the proposal that Chinese
should submit to be instructed by people of the West as shameful in
the extreme. Those who urge such objections are ignorant of the
demands of the times.
In the first place it is high time that some plan should be devised
for infusing new elements of strength into the government of China.
Those who understand the times are of opinion that the only way of
effecting this is to introduce the learning and mechanical arts of
Western nations. Provincial governors, such as Tso Tsung-tang and Li
Hung-chang, are firm in this conviction, and constantly presenting it
in their addresses to the Throne. The last-mentioned officer last year
opened an arsenal for the manufacture of arms, and invited men and
officers from the metropolitan garrison to go there for instruction;
while the other established in Foochow a school for the study of
foreign languages and arts, with a view to the instruction of young
men in ship-building and the manufacture of engines. The urgency of
such studies is, therefore, an opinion which is not confined to us,
your servants.
Should it be said that the purchase of firearms and steamers has been
tried, and found to be both cheap and convenient, so that we may spare
ourselves the trouble and expense of home production, we reply that it
is not merely the manufacture of arms and the construction of ships
that China needs to learn. But in respect to these two objects, which
is the wiser course, in view of the future--to content ourselves with
purchase, and leave the source of supply in the hands of others, or
to render ourselves independent by making ourselves masters of their
arts--it is hardly necessary to inquire.
As to the imputation of abandoning the methods of China, is it not
altogether a fictitious charge? For, on inquiry, it will be found that
Western science had its root in the astronomy of China, which Western
scholars confess themselves to have derived from Eastern lands. They
have minds adapted to reasoning and abstruse study, so that they were
able to deduce from it new arts which shed a lustre on those nations;
but, in reality, the original belonged to China, and Europeans learned
it from us. If, therefore, we apply ourselves to those studies, our
future progress will be built on our own foundation. Having the root
in our possession, we shall not need to look to others for assistance,
an advantage which it is impossible to over-estimate.
As to the value to be set on the science of the West, your illustrious
ancestor, Kang Hsi, gave it his hearty approbation, promoting its
teachers to offices of conspicuous dignity, and employing them to
prepare the Imperial calendar; thus setting an example of liberality
equalled only by the vastness of his all-comprehending wisdom. Our
dynasty ought not to forget its own precedents, especially in relation
to a matter which occupied the first place among the studies of the
ancients.
In olden times yeomen and common soldiers were all acquainted with
Astronomy; but in later ages an interdict was put upon it, and those
who cultivated this branch of science became few. In the reign of
Kang Hsi the prohibition was removed, and astronomical science once
more began to flourish. Mathematics were studied together with the
classics, the evidence of which we find in the published works of
several schools. A proverb says, "A thing unknown is a scholar's
shame." Now, when a man of letters, on stepping from his door, raises
his eyes to the stars, and is unable to tell what they are, is not
this enough to make him blush? Even if no schools were established,
the educated ought to apply themselves to such studies. How much more
so when a goal is proposed for them to aim at?
As to the allegation that it is a shame to learn from the people of
the West, this is the absurdest charge of all. For, under the whole
heaven, the deepest disgrace is that of being content to lag in the
rear of others. For some tens of years the nations of the West have
applied themselves to the study of steam navigation, each imitating
the others, and daily producing some new improvement. Recently, too,
the Government of Japan has sent men to England for the purpose of
acquiring the language and science of Great Britain. This was with a
view to the building of steamers, and it will not be many years before
they succeed.
Of the jealous rivalry among the nations of the Western Ocean it is
unnecessary to speak; but when so small a country as Japan is putting
forth all its energies, if China alone continues to tread indolently
in the beaten track, without a single effort in the way of
improvement, what can be more disgraceful than this? Now, not to be
ashamed of our inferiority, but when a measure is proposed by which
we may equal or even surpass our neighbours, to object to the shame of
learning from them, and for ever refusing to learn, to be content with
our inferiority--is not such meanness of spirit itself an indelible
reproach?
If it be said that machinery belongs to artisans, and that scholars
should not condescend to such employments, in answer to this we have a
word to say. Why is it that the book in the _Chao-li_, on the
structure of chariots, has for some thousands of years been a
recognised text-book in all the schools? Is it not because, while
mechanics do the work, scholars understand the principles? When
principles are understood, their application can be extended. The
object which we propose for study to-day is the principles of things.
To invite educated men to enlarge the sphere of their knowledge by
investigating the laws of nature is a very different thing from
compelling them to take hold of the tools of the working man. What
other point of doubt is left for us to clear up?
In conclusion we would say that the object of study is utility, and
its value must be judged by its adaptation to the wants of the times.
Outsiders may vent their doubts and criticisms, but this measure is
one that calls for decisive action. Your servants have considered it
maturely. As the enterprise is a new one, its principles ought to be
carefully examined. To stimulate candidates to enter in earnest on the
proposed curriculum, they ought to have a liberal allowance from the
public treasury to defray their current expenses, and have the door of
promotion set wide open before them. We have accordingly agreed on six
regulations, which we herewith submit to the eye of your Majesty, and
wait reverently for the Imperial sanction.
We are of opinion that the junior members of the Hanlin Institute,
being men of superior attainments, while their duties are not onerous,
if they were appointed to study Astronomy and Mathematics, would find
those sciences an easy acquisition. With regard to scholars of the
second and third grades, as also mandarins of the lower ranks, we
request your Majesty to open the portals and admit them to be examined
as candidates, that we may have a larger number from whom to select
men of ability for the public service.
Laying this memorial before the Throne, we beseech the
Empresses-Regent and the Emperor to cast on it their sacred glance,
and to give us their instructions.