From "INTELLECTUAL AND POLITICAL CURRENTS IN THE FAR EAST."
Chapter V. By Paul S. Reinsch. Copyright, 1911, by the
author.
... The zeal of the older teachers in trying to catch up with the
foreign-trained men is at times almost pathetic. In most towns a
"teachers' discussion class" has been organized. These classes were
established by the initiative of the teachers themselves, in order
that they might acquire the knowledge necessary for elementary
instruction in the new branches. With great eagerness these men,
varying in age from thirty-five to fifty-five years, will follow the
instruction given by some youngster in the early twenties who has been
fortunate enough to have had a course in Japan or the West. While the
necessary superficiality of such a system must be deplored, the mere
fact of this instruction being so eagerly sought by the teachers is
the best proof that the old order, recognizing its inevitable fate,
has abandoned the hope of regaining its former supremacy and is
hurrying to adapt itself to the new conditions.
This enthusiasm also finds expression in great individual sacrifices,
and even in martyrdom. Private gifts are made in large numbers, even
without the solicitation of officials or the hope of rewards. Within
the last few years, it has frequently happened that some person
desirous of founding a school, and lacking the means to do so, has in
truly Oriental fashion appealed to his or her townsmen by committing
suicide, after writing out a touching request for aid in the new
cause. A Tartar lady at Hankow who had founded a school for girls was
unable to secure sufficient money for carrying on the work of the
institution. In order to secure her object, she determined to commit
suicide. In her farewell letter, she stated that she felt the need of
the school so much that she would sacrifice her own life and thus
impress the need upon those who were able to give money. Her act had
the result desired, as after her death money came flowing in from many
sources. In most cases, fortunately, the appeals for assistance are
successful without going to such extremes. Thus, the wife of a
district magistrate in Honan, having decided to establish a school
for girls, wrote a circular setting forth that a girl, if uneducated,
brings six kinds of injury to herself and three kinds to her children.
The subtlety of her arguments fascinated the city folk, and sufficient
funds for her purpose were soon provided.
The introduction of female education, which militates against the most
deep-seated prejudices of the Chinese race, has called for greater
personal sacrifices than any other part of educational reform. Some
powerful patrons have indeed arisen. H. E. Tuan Fang urged the
importance of this reform upon the Empress herself, with the result
that, before her death, the great lady established a school for female
education in the capital. Educated women are making a strong plea for
the education of their sisters. Doctor King Ya-mei, herself educated
in the West, points out that those who lament the superficial nature
of the present reforms forget that "half the nation, whose special
function it is to put into practice the ideas governing the world in
which she lives, has not yet been touched; that the strong impressions
of childhood are the lasting ones, and that man is but an embodiment
of the ideas of the mother." But in the case of female education, it
is not primarily the provision of funds that causes difficulties. The
desire of women to share in the advantages of education is of itself
looked upon by the majority of the Chinese as scandalous and not at
all to be encouraged. Many heartrending tragedies have been brought
about by insoluble conflicts of duty toward the old and the new. A
short time ago, in an interior village in Kiang Su, a woman, ambitious
to become educated, killed herself after bad treatment from her
husband's relatives. Her farewell letter was everywhere copied by the
Chinese press. It has become a national document, and almost a charter
of the new movement. In it occur the following sentences: "I am about
to die today because my husband's parents, having found great fault
with me for having unbound my feet, and declaring that I have been
diffusing such an evil influence as to have injured the reputations of
my ancestors, have determined to put me to death. Maintaining that
they will be severely censured by their relatives, once I enter a
school and receive instruction, they have been trying hard to deprive
me of life, in order, as they say, to stop beforehand all the troubles
that I may cause. At first they intended to starve me, but now they
compel me to commit suicide by taking poison. I do not fear death at
all, but how can I part from my children who are so young? Indeed,
there should be no sympathy for me, but the mere thought of the
destruction of my ideals and of my young children, who will without
doubt be compelled to live in the old way, makes my heart almost
break."
The blood of such martyrs is beginning to make its impression upon the
Chinese people, and is turning them to favor more liberal popular
customs. A nation in which a spirit of such ruthless self-sacrifice is
still so common may bring forth things that will astonish the world.
It has been said that "China contains materials for a revolution, if
she should start one, to which the horrors of the French revolution
would be a mere squib;" but if turned into different channels, this
spirit of self-sacrifice may, as it did in the case of Japan, bring
about a quick regeneration of national life and national prestige,
through the establishment of new institutions, that correspond to the
currents of life thus striving to assert themselves.