Treaty. Probable Results of the War
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Battle Field of Ping-Yang, Frontispiece.
Battle of the Yalu, 21
The Fight of Ping-Yang, 28
Chinese Musician, 32
Chinese Idea of Creation, 35
Emperor Shun Plowing, 36
View from Summer Palace, Peking, 37
Chinese Temple, 42
Image of Confucius, 46
Manchoorian Ministers, 48
Great Wall of China, 50
Buddhist Priest, 52
Chinese Archers, 57
Chinese Writer, 59
Chinese Cannoniers, 64
Ancient Chinese Arch, 65
A Chinese Lodging House, 70
Chinese Priest, 75
Man of Swatow, 76
Chinese Paper-Maker, 79
Chinese Peasant, Peiho District, 82
Battle of Crickets, 85
Chinese Mandarin, 87
Gate at Peking, 89
Opium Smokers, 92
Chinese Miners, 101
Chinese Farm Scene, 108
Chinese Tea Farm, 109
Chinese Street Scene, 111
Chinese Farmer, 113
An Imperial Audience, 117
Preparation of Vermicelli, 119
Chinese Ladies, 122
Palanquin of a High Official, 125
The Governor of a Province, 126
Punishment by the Gangue, 130
Flogging a Culprit, 131
Outside Peking, 134
Discipline on the March in the Chinese Army, 143
A Typhoon, 150
Bandaging the Feet, 151
The Seat of the War, 156
The Punishments of Hell, 158
Chinese Cart, 162
School Boy, 163
Chinese School, 164
Chinese Engineers Laying a Military Telegraph, 165
Chinese School Girl, 167
Chinese Artist, 168
Chinese Barber, 169
[Female Types and Costumes, facing 170]
Porter’s Chair, 171
Chinese Emperor, King of Corea, and Chinese Officials, 175
Buddhist Temple, 178
Temple of Five Hundred Gods, at Canton, 181
Japanese Musician, 184
The Mikado and his Principal Officers, 187
Japanese God of Thunder, 189
Japanese God of Riding, 190
Japanese Peasantry, 192
Japanese God of War, 196
Tokio Types and Costumes, 198
Japanese Musician, 199
Japanese Silk Spinner, 200
Colossal Japanese Image, 205
Japanese Female Types, 207
Shinto Temple, 209
Japanese God of Wind, 211
Daimios of Japan, 212
Sketch Showing Development of Japanese Army, 213
Buddhist Priest, 215
Japanese Junk, 218
Old Time Japanese Ferry, 220
Scenes of Industrial Life, 221
Japanese Bell Towers, 229
Image of Buddha, 232
Japanese Samurai or Warrior of the Old Time, 233
Japanese General of the Old Time, 234
Japanese Bridge, 235
Baptism of Buddha, 240
Woman of Court of Kioto, 249
Chinese Coolie, 254
Japanese Gymnasts—Kioto, 256
Formosan Type, 258
Entrance to Nagasaki Harbor, 261
Fuji-yama, 267
Japanese Idols, 272
Japanese Jugglers, 277
Japanese Court Dress, Old Style, 281
Council of War on a Japanese Battle-Ship, 284
Dressing the Hair, 287
Child Carrying Baby, 291
The Chinese Fleet at Wei-hai-wei, 293
Japanese Bath, 296
Japanese Couch, 299
Sketches in Japan and Corea, 304
Geisha Girls Playing Japanese Musical Instruments, 307
Japanese Alphabet, New, 308
Japanese Alphabet, Old, 309
Shinto Priest, 311
Japanese Troops Landing at Chemulpo, 313
Street Scenes, 316
The Ainos, 319
Rats as Rice Merchants, 321
Corean Landscape, 324
Raw Levies for the Chinese Army, 326
Pagoda at Seoul, 333
Corean Soldiers, 334
Fighting Before the Gate of Seoul, 335
Old Man in Corea, 337
Coast Near Chemulpo, 342
Corean Mandarins, 347
Colossal Corean Idol—Un-jin Miriok, 358
Map Showing Japan, Corea and Part of China, 368
Corean Bull Harrowing, 375
Corean City Wall, 376
Chinese Protected Cruiser Chih-Yuen, 377
Gate of Seoul, 381
Naval Attack on the Chen-Yuen Before Chemulpo, 384
Corean Magistrate and Servant, 387
Japanese Naval Attack on Forts at Wei-hai-wei, 390
Statesman on Monocycle, 393
Corean Brush Cutter, 394
Porters With Chair, 395
Japanese Warship, “Yoshino,” 399
Corean Boat, 403
The Battle at Asan, 405
Corean Eggseller, 407
Japanese Soldiers Descending from the Castle at 412
Fenghwang,
Corean Band of Musicians, 413
Japanese Coolies Following the Army, 418
Japanese Army at Chiu-lien-cheng, 421
The Corean Regent, 424
Corean Natives Viewing Japanese Soldiers, 427
Sinking of the Kow-shing, 432
Mr. Otori Before the Commissioners, 434
Japanese Army on the March, 436
Procession in Seoul, 439
After the Battle, 441
The Attack on Ping-Yang, 448
Opening the Gates at Ping-Yang, 454
Fighting at Foochow, 463
Capture of Ping-Yang, 469
First Sight of Ping-Yang, 473
Battle of the Yalu—Sinking of the Chih-Yuen, 476
Bringing in the Wounded, 478
The Mikado Reviewing the Army, 480
Corean Police Agent, 481
Japanese Kitchen in Camp, 482
Japanese Soldier Saluting a Field Cemetery, 484
Crowd in Tokio Looking at Pictures of the War, 485
Japanese Ambulance Officer, 487
Chinamen Mutilating Remains of Japanese Soldiers, 488
The Ping-Yuen, 489
The Yoshino, 494
Japanese Advance at the Crossing of the Yalu River, 496
The Matsusima, 497
H. Sakomoto, 498
Japanese Infantry Attacking a Chinese Position, 505
Principal Street of Mukden, 509
Chinese Troops Trying to Save Their Artillery, 512
Transporting Chinese Troops, 513
Japanese Military Hospital, 515
Review of Chinese Troops at Port Arthur, 518
Japanese Soldiers Digging Well, 521
Constantine von Hannecken, 526
The Attack on Port Arthur, 527
Surrender of Chinese General and Staff, 533
Map of Territory Adjacent to the Mouth of the Yalu, 535
Japanese Army Crossing the Yalu on a Pontoon Bridge, 537
The Japanese at Port Arthur, 540
Sinking of the Kow-shing, 547
Naval Skirmish July 25th, 548
Routed Chinese Flying Before the Victorious Enemy, 549
Skirmish on July 27th, 551
Before the Wall of Seoul, 552
Japanese Cavalrymen, 558
Port Arthur—Transports Entering the Inner Harbor, 560
General Nodzu, 562
Chinese Earthworks, 564
View of Talien-wan Bay, 565
Port Arthur—Japanese Coolies Removing Chinese Dead, 569
Japanese Skirmishers before Port Arthur, 577
Retreat of Chinese Soldiers After the Fall of Port 580
Arthur,
Japanese Soldiers Removing Dead Bodies, 581
Japanese Attack on Port Arthur, 587
The Attack on Kinchow, 589
Port Arthur from the Bay, 593
Japanese Soldiers Mutilating Bodies, 599
Marshal Oyama, 603
Chang Yen Hoon, 610
Distant View of Wei-hai-wei and its Surroundings, 630
Admiral McClure, 639
Japanese Soldiers Escorting Chinese Prisoners, 640
Chinese Soldiers on the March, 645
Chinese Soldier Laden with Provision, 649
Gap in the Great Wall at Shan-hai-kwan, 653
INTRODUCTION.
The unexpected news of war between the Mikado’s Empire and the Celestial
Kingdom has startled the whole world. Thereby considerable light was
thrown upon the Oriental world.
Japan, up to a very short time ago, through the pen and tongue of poets
and artists, who have visited this land, has been thought to be merely a
country of beautiful flowers, charming mademoiselles, fantastic
parasols, fans and screens. Such misrepresentation has long impressed
the western mind, and the people hardly imagined Japan as a political
power, enlightened by a perfect educational system and developed to a
high pitch of excellence in naval and military arts.
The war in the East is certainly interesting from more than one point of
view. Viewing it from the humane standpoint, Japan is, indeed, the true
standard-bearer of civilization and progress in the far east. Her
mission is to enlighten the millions of slumbering souls in the
Celestial Kingdom, darkened for generations. Politically, she, with her
enterprising genius, youthful courage and alert brain, as well as the
art and science of civilization, has lifted herself into the ranks of
the most powerful nations of the earth, and compelled the whole of the
western powers to reckon her as a “living force,” as she has proved her
right to a proud place among the chief powers of the world.
Commercially, she has demonstrated herself the mistress of the Pacific
and Asiatic Seas.
From the outbreak of the war all the civilized nations, except England,
have sympathized with Japan, especially the people of America have given
a strong moral support to Japan, not because this country is the warmest
friend of Japan, but because Japan is, to-day, the propagandist of
civilization and humanity in the far east.
At the beginning of the hostilities a majority of the people had an
erroneous idea that the overwhelming population and resources of China
would soon be able to crush the Island Empire of Japan; but they
overlooked the fact that in our day it is science, brains and courage,
together with the perfected organization of warfare that grasp the palm
of victory. Thousands of sheep could do nothing against a ferocious
wolf. So the numerical comparison has but little weight.
Some sagacious writer compared Japan to a lively swordfish and China to
a jellyfish, being punctured at every point. Truly Japan has proved it
so.
From the sinking of the Kow-shing transport, up to the present time,
Japan has an unbroken series of victories over China. At the battle of
Asan she gained the first brilliant victories and swept all the Chinese
put of Corea, and at Ping-Yang, by both tactics and superb strategy,
crushed the best army of China, which Li Hung Chang brought up to the
greatest efficiency, by the aid of many European officers, as if it had
been an egg shell. Again, at the mouth of the Yalu River, she gained a
brilliant naval victory over China, by completely destroying the
Ping-Yang squadron. Once more on the land the Japanese army stormed Port
Arthur, the strongest naval fort, known as the Gibraltar of China.
All these facts are viewed with amazement by the eyes of the world. For
all that the people know about Japan and the Japanese is that the people
of Japan are very artistic, as the producers of beautiful porcelain,
embroidery, lacquer work and all sorts of artistic fancy goods, and they
wonder how it is possible that such an artistic people as the Japanese
could fight against sober, calm Chinamen. But such an erroneous notion
would soon vanish if they came to learn the true nature and character of
the Japanese.
More than once the world has seen that an artistic nation could fight.
The Greeks demonstrated this long ago, and the French in the latter
times have shown a shining example. Japan is reckoned as one of the most
artistic people in the world, as the producer of beautiful things, as
the lover of fine arts and natural beauties. The Japanese have proved
the same as what the ancient Greeks and modern French have shown. The
history of Japan reveals the true color of the Japanese as brilliant
fighters and a warlike nation. “In no country,” says Mr. Rogers, “has
military instinct been more pronounced in the best blood of the people.
Far back in the past, beyond that shadowy line where legend and history
blend, their story has been one of almost continual war, and the
straightest path to distinction and honor has, from the earliest times,
led across the battle field. The statesmen of Japan saw, as did Cavour,
that the surest way to win the respect of nations was by success in
war.”
The ancestor of the Japanese people, who claim to have descended from
high heaven, seems to have been the descendant of the ancient Hittites,
the warlike and conquering tribe once settled in the plain of
Mesopotamia. The Hittites, so far as our investigation is concerned,
extending their sway of conquest towards the north-eastern portion of
Asia, must have, at last, brought the Japanese family to the island of
Japan. As they settled on the island, they found it inhabited by many
different tribes; but they soon vanquished them and established the
everlasting foundation of the Mikado’s Empire, which they called the
“Glorious Kingdom of Military Valour.” The first Mikado was Jimmu, whose
coronation took place two thousand five hundred and fifty-four years
ago, long before Alexander the Great thought he had conquered the world
and Julius Cæsar entered Gaul. The present Mikado is the one hundred and
twenty-second lineal descendant of the first Mikado Jimmu. The unbroken
dynasty of the Mikado has continued for twenty-five centuries. The
people are brave, adventurous and courageous. Fanatical patriotism for
country and strong loyalty towards the Mikado are essential
characteristics of the Japanese people. And all these tend to form the
peculiar nationality of Japan. Since the establishment of the Mikado’s
Empire their land has never been defiled by invaders and they have never
known how to be subject to a foreign yoke. The history of Japan is the
pride of the Japanese people.
The Japanese, in an early time, have displayed their superior courage
and distinguished themselves from the rest of the Asiatic nations in the
point of military affairs.
In the year A.D. 201 the Empress Jingo, the greatest female character in
the Japanese history, undertook a gigantic expedition to the Asiatic
continent. She assembled an immense army and built a great navy. Placing
herself as the commander-in-chief of the invading army, she sailed for
the continent. Her victory was brilliant. Corea was at once subjected
without any bloodshed. Long since the Japanese power was established on
the Asiatic continent.
Again in the sixteenth century, ambitious Taiko, who is known as the
Napoleon of Japan, undertook a great continental expedition, to show the
military glory of Japan before the world. He found Japan too small to
satisfy his immoderate ambition, and sent word to the emperor of China
and the king of Corea that if they would not hear him, he would invade
their territory with his invincible army. It was his plan to divide the
four hundred provinces of China and eight provinces of Corea among his
generals in fiefs, after conquering them. So he assembled his generals
and fired their enthusiasm, recounting their exploits mutually achieved.
All the generals and soldiers were delighted with the expedition. Fifty
thousand samurai were embarked for the continent and sixty thousand
reserve was kept ready in Japan as re-enforcement.
The Japanese army was everywhere victorious. After many battles fought
and fortresses stormed, the entire kingdom of Corea was subdued. The
capitol was taken, the king fled. The emperor of China sent an army
forward against the Japanese and a severe battle was fought. The
victorious Japanese were on the point of invading China, when in 1598,
the death of Taiko was announced and the Japanese government ordered the
invading army to return home. Peace was concluded. Thus the conquest of
China was frustrated.
The invasion of the Mongolian-Tartars is the most memorable event in
Japanese history, which excited the utmost patriotism and valour of the
nation. The dangers and glories at this time will never be forgotten by
the Japanese.
In the thirteenth century, Genghis Khan, who is now identified as
Minamoto Yoshitsune or Gen Gi Kei in Japanese history, who left Japan
for Manchilia, began his sway of conquest in Mongolia. The conquest of
the whole earth was promised him. He vanquished China, Corea and the
whole of Central and Northern Asia, subjected India and overthrew the
Caliphate of Bagdad. In Europe, he made subject the entire dominion of
Russia and extended the Mongolian Empire as far as the Oder and the
Danube. After his death the Empire was divided among his three sons.
Kublai Khan received as his share North-eastern Asia. He had completely
overthrown the Sung dynasty of China and founded the Mongolian dynasty.
He placed the whole of Eastern Asia under his yoke, and then sent envoys
to Japan, demanding tributes and homage. The nation of Japan was
indignant at the insolent demand, for they were never accustomed to such
treatment, and dismissed them in disgrace. Six embassies were sent and
six times rejected. Again, the haughty Mongolian prince sent nine
envoys, who demanded a definite answer from the Japanese sovereign. The
Japanese reply was given by cutting off their heads.
At the sight of imminent foreign invasion, the Japanese were in a great
hurry to prepare for war. Once more, and for the last time, Chinese
envoys came to demand tribute; again the sword gave the answer. Enraged,
the great Mongolian prince prepared a gigantic armada to crush the
island of Japan, which had refused homage and tribute to the invincible
conqueror. The army, consisting of one hundred thousand Chinese and
Tartars and seven thousand Coreans, aided by thirty-five hundred of
armed navy, that seemed to cover the entire seas, sailed for the
invasion in August of 1281. The whole nation of Japan now roused with
sword in hand and marched against its formidable foe. Re-enforcements
poured in from all quarters to swell the host of defenders. The fierce
Mongolian force could not effect their landing, but were driven into the
sea as soon as they reached the shore. Aided by a mighty typhoon, before
which the Chinese armada was utterly helpless, the Japanese fiercely
attacked the invaders and after a bloody struggle, they succeeded in
destroying the enemy’s war ships, and killing all or driving them into
the sea to be drowned. The corpses were piled on the shore or floating
on the water so thickly that it seemed almost possible to walk thereon.
Only three out of hundreds of thousands of invaders, were sent back to
tell their emperor how the brave men of Japan had destroyed their
armada.
The courage of the Japanese is fully manifested in these great events.
Many ambitious men, seeking for military glory, have expatriated
themselves from their own native lands, and gone off to the less warlike
countries of Asia, where they found themselves by their distinguished
courage and military genius, kings, ministers and generals.
The Japanese seamen have long been renowned for their adventurous spirit
and audacity. Trading ships of Japan, in the remotest ancient age, are
said to have sailed around the Persian Gulf, beyond the Indian seas. It
is said that at the beginning of the fourteenth century a Japanese junk
had discovered the American Pacific sea-coast, now known as the regions
of Oregon and California. For a long time the Japanese pirates were the
mistress of all the eastern seas. China, Siam, Birmah and the southern
islands had paid tribute to them. The name of the Japanese was, indeed,
the terror of the Oriental world, just as the northmen had been the
object of dread to the southern Europeans.
A policy, that was adopted by the Japanese people in the seventeenth
century, was an injurious one for its national development. Up to this
time, foreign intercourse was free and commerce flourished. Nagasaki,
Hirado, Satsuma, and all western seaports were the cosmopolitan cities,
where all European and Asiatic tradesmen were found crowded.
Unfortunately these foreigners were sources of vice. The avarice and
extortion of the foreign traders; bitter sectarian strife between
Dominicans, Franciscans and the Jesuits; and the most cruel intolerance
and persecution by the Catholic people, which were vices unknown to the
Japanese mind; political-religious plots of the Christians against the
Japanese government; the slave trade carried on by the foreign
merchants, and the like events, disgusted the Japanese authority, and
forced them to believe the exclusion of the vicious foreigners was
absolutely necessary to the welfare of Japan. Thus the Japanese resolved
to expel all foreigners out of the islands. Tokugawa, the founder of Tai
Kun shogunate, vigorously enforced this principle and carried it so far
that all the Roman Catholics both native and foreign were extinguished
and all foreign merchants except a few Dutch, were expelled out of the
country. The policy of the Tokugawa Government not only excluded the
foreigners but also kept the natives at home. No foreigners (except the
Dutch) were allowed to peep in this forbidden land and no native was
permitted to leave his own country. Thus it was cut off from all the
rest of the world. Japan furnishes different varieties of productions,
which can amply supply all the needs of the nation without any
inconvenience; hence commercial intercourse with foreign lands, was not
absolutely necessary. In the course of time she had forgotten all about
the outside world and so the world neglected her.
The people, however, enjoyed a profound peace by this policy. Ignoring
the rise and fall of other nations, the people in this ocean guarded
paradise, cultivated arts and learning and developed their own
civilization, which is quite different from what we call now the
civilization of the nineteenth century. While thus she was enjoying
tranquility and cultivating the arts and learning in a secluded corner
of the earth, in the western nations, endless struggles and everlasting
contests completely revolutionized the old phases of the earth. The
peace and culture of two centuries and a half, which Japan has enjoyed,
exalted her to the certain state of civilization. But her isolated
condition and tranquility lacked the systematic development of army and
navy and the arts of international negotiation, which are the weapons
vitally important in order to stand on the field of struggle for
existence.
Suddenly this tranquility that has continued for two hundred and fifty
years, was broken, when in 1853, the war ships of Commodore Perry
appeared in the Bay of Yeddo. This event threw into great confusion and
panic the whole nation. Japan had no navy and no army to fight with the
foreign intruders, nor had she the art of diplomacy, with which to
consult in regard to the protection of Japan’s interest. Japan stood
then with her naked civilization against the armed civilization of
Europe. She was forced to make a disadvantageous treaty with the
European and American states at the cannon’s mouth. In this treaty she
conceded her sovereign right to the western people who live in the
realm.
Thus Japan entered, infamously, the group of the civilized world. She
saw at once that the western nations were far in advance of her in the
art of war and diplomacy, that they have learned from the constant
struggle of the past three centuries, while she was devoted to arts and
learning. She perceived that the so-called civilization of the 19th
century is but a disguised form of barbarism of iron and fire, covered
with comity and humanity, and that to exist in the field of struggle for
existence she must adopt the same means by which the European nations
stand. Hence the whole nation of Japan, since the intercourse with the
western people, has struggled, with the utmost energy, to adopt what is
called the 19th century civilization.
In 1868 a revolution took place, from which the New Japan suddenly
emanated. The French Revolution did not cause greater changes in France
than the Revolution of 1868 in Japan. The old feudal regime, in full
force, was cast away. The social system was completely reorganized. New
and enlightened criminal and civil codes were enacted; the modes of
judicial procedure were utterly revolutionized; the jail system
radically improved; the most effective organization of police, of posts,
of railways, of telegraphs, telephones and all means of communication
were adopted; enlightened methods of national education were employed;
and the Christian religion was welcomed for the sake of social
innovation. The most complete national system of navy and army, after
the modern European model, was achieved. The sound order of the imperial
government, financially and politically, were firmly established; the
most improved and extended scheme of local government was put into
operation, and the central government was organized according to the
pattern of the most advanced scale. The imperial constitution was
promulgated, and the Imperial Diet, consisting of two houses—the House
of Lords and House of Commons—elected by popular votes, was founded.
Freedom of thought, speech and faith was established; the system of an
influential press and party rapidly grew up. Now the monarchial
absolutism of the Mikado’s Empire is replaced by a government by
parliament and constitution.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF THE YALU.—Japanese Drawing.]
Such is the progress which Japan has achieved in the past twenty-five
years. This progress must not, by any means, be taken as strange. The
Revolution of 1868 also, must not be imagined as the birthday of the
Empire of the Rising Sun. Those who do not know the true condition of
the Japanese before the Revolution, and who observe superficially the
phases of modern Japan, have often said that the Japanese are merely
imitating western civilization without any idea of understanding it.
This a gross mistake. The Revolution of 1868 is merely a moment of
transition when Japan adopted the western system. The Japanese mind was
fully developed and enlightened, at the time when they came in contact
with foreigners, to fully grasp western civilization. Mentally, the
Japanese people were so enlightened as to be able to digest European
science and art at one glance. As a clever writer has said: “It must be
clearly understood that like a skillful gardener, who grafts a new rose
or an apple upon a healthy and well-established stock, so did Japan
adopt the scientific and civil achievement of the west to an eastern
root, full of vigorous life and latent force.” For these causes we have
no reason to wonder at the rapid progress which the Japanese have made
in the past twenty-five years. And by all these facts, we have no reason
to wonder how the colossal Celestial Empire, that was thought by the
Europeans invincible, came to ask the mercy of Japan.
The collision between Japan and China, though it was thought strange to
those who are not familiar to eastern affairs, is not a surprising
matter to the person well acquainted with Asiatic politics. Japan had
predicted, long ago, that the inevitable conflict of the two powers in
the Orient must come sooner or later, and the nation has been long
prepared for to-day. She has perceived the weakness and corruption of
the Celestial Empire, while the European diplomats were dazzled, in the
court of Peking, by an outward appearance of unity, power, and majesty
that the huge Middle Kingdom maintained for centuries. She knew quite
well that the lack of national spirit and effective system of
government, hatred of races, depravity of the officers, ignorance of the
people, corruption of naval and military organization and constant
maladministration of the Manchoorian government dominated the stupid
empire, whose people still proudly style their country the “Flowery
Kingdom, in the Enlightened Earth.”
The Japanese, as they are polite and artistic, are by no means a
blood-thirsty race; nay, far from that. But the present war is in an
inevitable chain of circumstances. For a long time the Japanese and
Chinese were not good friends, they hated each other, as much, if not
more than the French and the Germans do to-day.
Since Japan came in contact with the Europeans, she adopted, with the
most marvelous activity, the western methods which have completely
revolutionized the nation in a quarter of a century, while China
maintained her regime and looked upon all western arts and science with
utmost hatred and contempt. So she regarded Japan as the traitor of
Asia. Naturally Japan represented the civilization and progress in the
far east; and China ultra-conservatism. It was long expected that the
collision of these two antagonistic principles must come. And so it has
now come.
Moreover, the goal of Japan was, as the leading spirit of Asia, to exalt
herself among the first-class powers of the civilized world. But China,
up to a very short time ago, pretended to be the mistress of Asia. Thus
they envied each other, and conflict of the two powers for supremacy
became inevitable. The first collision between Japan and China came in
1874, with the question of the Liu Kiu Islands, which China abandoned
for Japan, then the Formosa expedition provoked serious trouble between
the two countries. In both cases Japan came off successful in the end.
Again there were collisions in Corea, just as Rome and Carthage met in
Sicily. Corea has for a long time, paid tribute both to Japan and China,
yet neither had any definite sovereign right over Corea, but mere
suzerain powers. In 1875, the Japanese government abandoned all her
ancient, traditional suzerain rights in Corea, and concluded a treaty
which recognized Corea as an independent State, enjoying the same
sovereign powers as Japan. Soon after, the United States, England,
France, Germany and Russia followed Japan’s example. This friendly act
of Japan by which she introduced Corea as an independent State among
civilized nations, was a terrible blow to China, who still had the
intention of claiming her traditional suzerainty over Corea. It must be
remembered that the permanent neutrality of the Hermit Kingdom is of
vital importance to the prosperity and safety of the country of the
Rising Sun. It is evident from this point of view that Japan can never
permit the Chinese claim of suzerainty, nor Russian aggression in Corea.
From the time that Japan recognized Corea as an independent nation, she
made great efforts for the progress of Corea. Many Corean students were
educated and many Japanese, sent there as instructors and as advisors,
assisted the advancement of her civilization. Japan has never failed to
show her friendly sympathy towards Corea, for the progress and welfare
of Corea as a firm independent state, has great bearing upon Asiatic
civilization, and upon the safety of Japan itself.
While Japan was using her best efforts as the sincere friend of Corea,
China constantly and secretly intrigued with the Corean government and
the conservatives, in order to restore her old suzerainty and to
annihilate Japan’s influence in Corea. In 1882, an insurrection,
instigated by the Chinese officers, broke out in Seoul. It was directed
chiefly against the Japanese, as the promoters of foreign intercourse.
The mob attacked the Japanese legation and several members were
murdered. The Japanese minister and his staff escaped to the palace to
find refuge, but found there the gates were shut against them, then they
were obliged to cut their way through the mob and run all night to
Chemulpo, where they were rescued by an English boat and returned to
Japan. The insurrection was suppressed by a Chinese force and a number
of the leaders were executed. The Corean government consented to pay a
sum of $500,000 as indemnity, but this was subsequently forgiven to
Corea in consequence of inability to pay it. There were already existing
in Corea two parties, that is, the progressive and the conservative. The
former party represented civilized elements and the spirit of Japan,
while the latter represented the majority of the officers and it was
supported by the Chinese government. These two parties were bitter
enemies and struggled for supremacy.
Since the rebellion of 1882, Chinese influence in Corea rapidly
increased, consequently the conservative spirit predominated. Two years
later, the leaders of the progressive party undertook a bold attempt
when they saw that their party influence was waning. During a dinner
party to celebrate the opening of the new post-office, a plan was made
to murder all the conservative leaders who had dominant influence in the
government. They partly succeeded in the attempt. The revolutionary
leaders proceeded to the palace, secured the person and the sympathy of
the king, who sent an autograph letter to ask the Japanese minister for
the protection of the royal palace. Thereon, the Japanese minister
guarded the palace for a few days with his legation guard of one hundred
and thirty Japanese soldiers. In the meantime the Chinese force in
Seoul, two thousand in number proceeded to the palace, and without any
negotiation or explanation fired upon the Japanese guard. The king fled
to the Chinese army and the Japanese retired to the palace of their
legation which they found surrounded by the Chinese army. They abandoned
the spot, finding it impossible to maintain the legation without any
provisions, fought their way to Chemulpo, where they found their way to
Japan. Many Japanese were killed in this event. The Japanese government
demanded satisfaction from China on account of the action of the Chinese
soldiers. The convention of Tien-tsin, after long negotiation between
Count Ito, the present premier of Japan and Li Hung Chang, the viceroy
of China, was concluded. The main points of the Tien-tsin treaty were
three: (1) that the king of Corea should provide a sufficient force to
maintain order in future, to be trained by officers of some nation other
than China or Japan; (2) that certain internal reforms should be made;
(3) that if necessary to preserve order and protect their nations either
Japan or China should have the right to dispatch troops to Corea, on
giving notice each to the other, and that when order was restored both
forces should be withdrawn simultaneously.
The event of 1885 completely extinguished the Japanese influence and
established the Chinese authority in Corea. The Chinese minister in
Seoul got complete possession of the Corean government, entirely crushed
the revolutionary party and organized an ultra-conservative government
and appointed ministers at his will. Japan’s influence in Corea has been
almost nill during the past ten years, for she has been very busy with
her internal reorganization and has not had much time to look after
Corea.
[Illustration: THE FIGHT AT PING-YANG.]
Two prominent leaders of the revolutionary party fled to Japan on
account of the failure of the coup d'état of 1885, where they found
their asylum. The Chinese and Corean governments dispatched missions to
demand the extradition of these unfortunate political reformers, but
Japan was firm in her refusal, on the ground of the ethics of
international law. The Corean government, sanctioned by that of China,
at once began to take measures to effect the removal of these ruined
leaders by other processes. Official assassins followed their footsteps
for ten years in vain. But at last they succeeded in murdering
Kim-ok-Kiun, one of those reformers, and most barbarous cruelties were
committed by the Chinese and Corean authorities. The murder of
Kim-ok-Kiun excited great sympathy from the Japanese public. Many a time
China and Corea cast disdain and contempt upon Japan’s name. Many a time
the political and commercial interest of Japan were impaired by them.
Yet Japan forgave their insolence with generous heart.
The progress of the late rebellion in Corea was beyond her power to
check. A state of perpetual anarchy seemed to prevail. Insolent China
seemed to be using the Corean mobs for her own advantage, and directly
against Japan’s interests. China, ignoring the treaty of Tien-tsin in
1885, sent troops to Corea. Japan no longer lightly viewed China’s
insolence and Corean disorder.
Japan’s ardent need to take a decided step in Corea, at this moment
seemed a more cogent one in the commercial point of view than her
political interest. The greater part of the modern trade of Corea has
been created by Japan and is in the hands of her merchants; the net
value of Corean direct foreign trade for 1892 and 1893 together was
$4,240,498 with China, while $8,306,571 with Japan. Hence the interest
of Japan is twice that of China. In tonnage of shipping the proportion
is vastly greater in favor of Japan. Her tonnage in 1893 was over twenty
times that of China, as the exact figures show: tonnage—China, 14,376;
Japan, 304,224. Thus Japan’s economic interests in Corea are decidedly
greater than any other nation’s.
Immediately after China sent troops to Corea, Japan, also, sent her
force, to preserve her political as well as economic interests, and
determined not to draw back her troops until Corea should restore the
sound order of society and wipe out the Chinese claim of Corean
suzerainty, for so long as Chinese influence predominates in Corea, any
thoughts of her advancement are hopeless. For a long maladministration
of the Li government had weakened the Hermit Kingdom. The country is no
more than a desert and its people are plunged in the most miserable
poverty of any in the poverty-stricken east. The Japanese government
proposed to the Chinese government according to the Tien-tsin treaty, a
measure of internal reform for Corea, which was rejected with insult by
the Chinese authority.
At first Japan had, by no means, any intention to make war with China,
but she was forced by her to enter the struggle. She has never infringed
the ethics of international law, nor the comity of nations. It was China
that provoked the eastern war, now raging in the Orient, but not Japan;
the true idea of Japan, in the war, is, by conquest, to put the blame on
China for refusing to adhere faithfully to the spirit of her treaties
and for trying to keep Corea in barbarism, and for endeavoring to stop
the progress of civilization in Eastern Asia. Her mission in the east is
to crush the insolent and ignorant self-conceit of the Peking government
and to reform the barbarous abuses of the Corean administration.
Therefore Japan fights to-day for the sake of civilization and humanity.
After the eastern war was declared, four months had hardly passed, until
the fighting power and the economic resources of the Chinese Empire were
destroyed and exhausted. China was forced to beg the mercy of Japan. The
banner of the “Rising Sun” is now triumphant. Japan dictating the terms
of peace, signifies the beginning of a better era for benighted China
and the preservation of permanent peace in the Orient.
JULIUS KUMPÉI MATUMOTO, A.M.,
Tokio, Japan.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_CHINA_
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: CHINESE MUSICIAN.]
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CHINA FROM THE EARLIEST
TIMES TO FIRST CONTACT WITH
EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION.
--------------
Origin of Chinese People—Legends—Golden Age of China—Beginnings of
Authentic History—Dynasty of Chow—Cultivation of Literature and
Progress—Music, Slavery, Household Habits Three Thousand Tears
Ago—Confucius and his Work—First Emperor of China—Burning of Books—Han
Dynasty—Famous Men of the Period—Paper Money and Printing—Invasions of
Tartars and Mongols—Sung Dynasty—Literary Works—Famous Chinese
Poet—Literature, Law and Medicine—Kublai Khan—Ming Dynasty—Private
Library of a Chinese Emperor—Founding of the Present Dynasty—Connection
Between Chinese History and the Rest of the World.
Obscurity shrouds the origin of the Chinese race. The Chinese people
cannot be proved to have originally come from anywhere beyond the limits
of the Chinese empire. At the remotest period to which investigations
can satisfactorily go back, without quitting the domain of history for
that of legend, we find them already in existence as an organized, and
as a more or less civilized nation. Previous to that time, their
condition had doubtless been that of nomadic tribes, but whether as
immigrants or as true sons of the soil there is scarcely sufficient
evidence to show. Conjecture, however, based for the most part upon
coincidences of speech, writing or manners and customs, has been busy
with their ultimate origin; and they have been variously identified with
the Turks, with the Chaldees, with the earliest inhabitants of Ireland,
and with the lost tribes of Israel.
The most satisfactory, however, of recent conclusions, based on most
careful investigations are as follows: The first records we have of them
represent the Chinese as a band of immigrants settling in the
north-eastern provinces of the modern empire of China and fighting their
way amongst the aborigines much as the Jews of old forced their way into
Canaan against the various tribes which they found in possession of the
land. It is probable that though they all entered China by the same
route they separated into bands almost on the threshold of the empire,
one body, those who have left us the records of their history in the
ancient Chinese books, apparently following the course of the Yellow
river, and turning southward with it from its northernmost bend,
settling themselves in the fertile districts of the modern provinces of
Shan-hsi and Honan. But as it is believed also that at about the same
period a large settlement was made as far south as Anam of which there
is no mention in the books of the northern Chinese, we must assume that
another body struck directly southward through the southern provinces of
China to that country.
Many writers answer the question that arises as to whence these people
came, by declaring that research directly points to the land south of
the Caspian sea. They find many reasons in the study of languages which
furnish philological proof of this assertion. And they affirm that in
all probability the outbreak in Susiana of possibly some political
disturbance in about the 24th or 23rd century B.C., drove the Chinese
from the land of their adoption and that they wandered eastward until
they finally settled in China and the country south of it. Such an
emigration is by no means unusual in Asia. We know that the Ottoman
Turks originally had their home in northern Mongolia, and we have a
record of the movement at the end of last century of a body of six
hundred thousand Kalmucks from Russia to the confines of China. It would
appear also that the Chinese came into China possessed of the resources
of western Asian culture. They brought with them a knowledge of writing
and astronomy as well as of the arts which primarily minister to the
wants and comforts of mankind.
[Illustration: CHINESE IDEA OF CREATION.]
According to one native authority, China, that is, the world was evolved
out of chaos exactly 3,276,494 years ago. This evolution was brought
about by the action of a First Cause or Force which separated into two
principles, active and passive, male and female. Or as some native
writers explain it, out of a great egg came a man. Out of the upper half
of the egg he created the heavens and out of the lower half he created
the earth. He created five elements, earth, water, fire, metal and wood.
Out of the vapor from gold he created man and out of vapor from wood he
created woman. Traditional pictures of this first man and first woman
represent them wearing for dress, girdles of fig leaves. He created the
sun to rule the day, the moon to rule the night, and the stars. Those
who care to go deeper into these traditions than the limits of this work
permit will find ample material for interesting research in the
analogies to Christian history.
These principles, male and female, found their material embodiment in
heaven and earth and became the father and mother of all things,
beginning with man, who was immediately associated with them in a
triumvirate of creative powers. Then ensued ten immense periods, the
last of which has been made by some Chinese writers on chronology to end
where every sober history of China should begin, namely, with the
establishment of the Chow dynasty eleven hundred years before the birth
of Christ. During this almost immeasurable lapse of time, the process of
development was going on, involving such discoveries as the production
of fire, the construction of houses, boats and wheeled vehicles, the
cultivation of grain, and mutual communication by means of writing.
The father of Chinese history chose indeed to carry us back to the court
of the Yellow Emperor, B.C. 2697, and to introduce us to his successors
Yao and Shun and to the great Yu, who by his engineering skill had
drained away a terrible inundation which some have sought to identify
with Noah’s flood.
[Illustration: EMPEROR SHUN PLOWING.]
This flood was in Shun’s reign. The waters we are told rose to so great
a height that the people had to betake themselves to the mountains to
escape death. Most of the provinces of the existing empire were
inundated. The disaster arose, as many similar disasters, though of less
magnitude, have since arisen, in consequence of the Yellow river
bursting its bounds, and the great Yu was appointed to lead the waters
back to their channel. With unremitting energy he set about his task,
and in nine years succeeded in bringing the river under his control.
During this period so absorbed was he in his work, that we are told he
took heed neither of food nor clothing, and that thrice he passed the
door of his house without once stopping to enter. At the completion of
his labors he divided the empire into nine instead of twelve provinces,
and tradition represents him as having engraved a record of his toils on
a stone tablet on Mount Heng in the province of Hoopih. As a reward for
the services he had rendered for the empire, he was invested with the
principality of Hea, and after having occupied the throne conjointly
with Shun for some years he succeeded that sovereign on his death in
2308 B.C.
[Illustration: VIEW FROM SUMMER PALACE, PEKING.]
But all these things were in China’s “golden age,” the true record of
which is shrouded for us in the obscurity of centuries. There were a few
laws, but never any occasion to exact the penalties attached to
misconduct. It was considered superfluous to close the house door at
night, and no one would even pick up any lost property that lay in the
high road. All was virtue, happiness and prosperity, the like of which
has not since been known. The Emperor Shun was raised from the plow
handle to the throne simply because of his filial piety, in recognition
of which wild beasts used to come and voluntarily drag his plow for him
through the furrowed fields, while birds of the air would hover round
and guard his sprouting grain from the depredations of insects.
This of course is not history; and but little more can be said for the
accounts given of the two dynasties which ruled China between the
“golden age” and the opening reigns of the House of Chow. The historian
in question had not many sources of information at command. Beside
tradition, of which he largely availed himself, the chief of these was
the hundred chapters that had been edited by Confucius from the
historical remains of those times, now known as the “Book of History.”
This contains an unquestionable foundation of facts, pointing to a
comparatively advanced state of civilization, even so far back as two
thousand years before our era; but the picture is dimly seen and many of
its details are of little practical value. This calculation declares
that with Yu began the dynasty of Hea which gave place in 1766 B.C. to
the Shang dynasty. The last sovereign of the Hea line, Kieh Kwei, is
said to have been a monster of iniquity and to have suffered the just
punishment for his crimes at the hands of T'ang, the prince of the state
of Shang, who took his throne from him. In like manner, six hundred and
forty years later, Woo Wang, the prince of Chow, overthrew Chow Sin, the
last of the Shang dynasty, and established himself as the chief of the
sovereign state of the empire.
It is only with the dynasty of the Chows that we begin to feel ourselves
on safe ground, though long before that date the Chinese were
undoubtedly enjoying a far higher civilization than fell to the share of
most western nations until many centuries later. The art of writing had
been already fully developed, having passed, if we are to believe native
researches from an original system of knotted cords, through successive
stages of notches on wood and rude outlines of natural objects down to
the phonetic stage in which it exists at the present day. Astronomical
observations of a simple kind had been made and recorded and the year
divided into months. The rite of marriage had been substituted for
capture; and although cowries were still employed and remained in use
until a much later date, metallic coins of various shapes and sizes
began to be recognized as a more practicable medium of exchange. Music,
both vocal and instrumental, was widely cultivated; and a kind of solemn
posturing filled the place that has been occupied by dancing among
nations farther to the west. Painting, charioteering and archery were
reckoned among the fine arts; the crossbow especially being a favorite
weapon either on the battle field or on the chase. The people seem to
have lived upon rice and cabbage, pork and fish, much as they do now;
they also drank the ardent spirit distilled from rice vulgarly known as
“Samshoo” and clad themselves in silk, or their own coarse home stuffs
according to the means of each. All this is previous to the dynasty of
Chow with which it is now proposed to begin.
The Chows rose to power over the vices of preceding rulers, aided by the
genius of a certain duke or chieftain of the Chow state, though he
personally never reached the imperial throne. It was his more famous son
who in B.C. 1122 routed the forces of the last tyrant of the
semi-legendary period and made himself master of China. The China of
those days consisted of a number of petty principalities clustering
round one central state and thus constituting a federation. The central
state managed the common affairs, while each one had its own local laws
and administration. It was in some senses a feudal age, somewhat similar
to that which prevailed in Europe for many centuries. The various dukes
were regarded as vassals owing allegiance to the sovereign at the head
of the imperial state, and bound to assist him with money and men in
case of need. And in order to keep together this mass, constantly in
danger of disintegration from strifes within, the sovereigns of the
House of Chow were forever summoning these vassal dukes to the capital
and making them renew, with ceremonies of sacrifice and potations of
blood, their vows of loyalty and treaties of alliance. At a great feast
held by Yu after his accession, there were, it is said, ten thousand
princes present with their symbols of rank. But the feudal states were
constantly being absorbed by one another. On the rise of the Shang
dynasty there were only somewhat over three thousand, which had
decreased to thirteen hundred when the sovereignty of the Chows was
established.
The senior duke always occupied a position somewhat closer to the
sovereign than the others. It was his special business to protect the
imperial territory from invasion by any malcontent vassal; and he was
often deputed to punish acts of insubordination and contumacy, relying
for help on the sworn faith of all the states as a body against any
individual recalcitrant. Such was the political condition of things
through a long series of reigns for nearly nine centuries, the later
history of this long and famous dynasty being simply the record of a
struggle against the increasing power and ambitious designs of the
vassal state of Ching, until at length the power of the latter not only
outgrew that of the sovereign state, but successfully defied the united
efforts of all the others combined together in a league. In 403 B.C. the
number of states had been reduced to seven great ones, all sooner or
later claiming to be “the kingdom,” and contending for the supremacy
until Ching put down all the others and in 221 B.C. its king assumed the
title of Hwang Ti or emperor and determined that there should be no more
feudal principalities, and that as there is but one sun in the sky there
should be but one ruler in the nation.
It is interesting to glance backward over these nine hundred years and
gather some facts as to the China of those days. The religion of the
Chinese was a modification of the older and simpler forms of nature
worship practised by their ruder forefathers. The principal objects of
veneration were still heaven and earth and the more prominent among the
destructive and beneficient powers of nature. But a tide of
personification and deification had begun to set in and to the spirits
of natural objects and influences now rapidly assuming material shape
had been added the spirits of departed heroes whose protection was
invoked after death by those to whom it had been afforded during life.
The sovereign of the Chow dynasty worshipped in a building which they
called “the hall of light,” which also served the purpose of an audience
and council chamber. It was 112 feet square and surmounted by a dome;
typical of heaven above and earth beneath. China has always been
remarkably backward in architectural development, never having got
beyond the familiar roof with its turned up corners, in which
antiquaries trace a likeness to the tent of their nomad days. Hence it
is that the “hall of light” of the Chows is considered by the Chinese to
have been a very wonderful structure.
[Illustration: CHINESE TEMPLE.]
Some have said that the Pentateuch was carried to China in the sixth
century B.C., but no definite traces of Judaism are discoverable until
several centuries later.
The Chow period was pre-eminently one of ceremonial observances pushed
to an extreme limit. Even Confucius was unable to rise above the dead
level of an ultra formal etiquette, which occupies in his teachings a
place altogether out of proportion to any advantages likely to accrue
from the most scrupulous compliance with its rules. During the early
centuries of this period laws were excessively severe and punishments
correspondingly barbarous; mutilation and death by burning or dissection
being among the enumerated penalties. From all accounts there speedily
occurred a marked degeneracy in the characters of the Chow kings. Among
the most conspicuous of the early kings was Muh, who rendered himself
notorious for having promulgated a penal code under which the redemption
of punishments was made permissible by the payment of fines.
Notwithstanding the spirit of lawlessness that spread far and wide among
the princes and nobles, creating misery and unrest throughout the
country, that literary instinct which has been a marked characteristic
of the Chinese throughout their long history continued as active as
ever. At stated intervals officials, we are told, were sent in light
carriages into all parts of the empire to collect words from the
changing dialects of each district; and at the time of the royal
progresses the official music masters and historiographers of each
principality presented to the officials appointed for the purpose,
collections of the odes and songs of each locality, in order, we are
told, that the character of the rule exercised by their princes should
be judged by the tone of the poetical and musical productions of their
subjects. The odes and songs as found and thus collected were carefully
preserved in royal archives, and it was from these materials, as is
commonly believed, that Confucius compiled the celebrated “She King” or
“Book of Odes.”
One hundred years before the close of the Chow dynasty, a great
statesman named Wei Yang appeared in the rising state of Ch’in and
brought about many valuable reformations. Among other things he
introduced a system of tithings, which has endured to the present day.
The unit of Chinese social life has always been the family and not the
individual; and this statesman caused the family to be divided into
groups of ten families to each, upon a basis of mutual protection and
responsibility. The soil of China has always been guarded as the
inalienable property of her imperial ruler for the time being, held in
trust by him on behalf of a higher and greater power whose vice-regent
he is. In the age of the Chows, land appears to have been cultivated
upon a system of communal tenure, one-ninth of the total produce being
devoted in all cases to the expenses of government and the maintenance
of the ruling family in each state. Copper coins of a uniform shape and
portable size were first cast, according to Chinese writers, about half
way through the sixth century B.C. An irregular form of money, however,
had been in circulation long before, one of the early vassal dukes
having been advised, in order to replenish his treasury, to “break up
the hills and make money out of the metal therein; to evaporate sea
water and make salt. This,” added his advising minister, “will benefit
the realm and with the profits you may buy up all kinds of goods cheap
and store them until the market has risen; establish also three hundred
depots of courtesans for the traders, who will thereby be induced to
bring all kinds of merchandise to your country. This merchandise you
will tax and thus have a sufficiency of funds to meet the expenses of
your army.” Such were some of the principles of finance and political
economy among the Chows, customs duties being apparently even at that
early date a recognized part of the revenue.
The art of healing was practised among the Chinese in their prehistoric
times, but the first quasi-scientific efforts of which we have any
record belong to the period with which we are now dealing. The
physicians of the Chow dynasty classify diseases under the four seasons
of the year—headaches and neuralgic affections under spring, skin
diseases of all kinds under summer, fever and agues under autumn, and
bronchial and pulmonary complaints under winter. The public at large was
warned against rashly swallowing the prescriptions of any physician
whose family had not been three generations in the medical profession.
When the Chows went into battle they formed a line with the bowman on
the left and the spearman on the right flank. The centre was occupied by
chariots, each drawn by three or four horses harnessed abreast. Swords,
daggers, shields, iron headed clubs, huge iron hooks, drums, cymbals,
gongs, horns, banners and streamers innumerable were also among the
equipment of war. Quarter was rarely if ever given and it was customary
to cut the ears from the bodies of the slain.
It was under the Chows, a thousand years before Christ, that the people
of China began to possess family names. By the time of Confucius the use
of surnames had become definitely established for all classes. The Chows
founded a university, a shadow of which remains to the present day. They
seem to have had theatrical representations of some kind, though it is
difficult to say of what nature these actually were. Music must have
already reached a stage of considerable development, if we are to
believe Confucius himself, who has left it on record that after
listening to a certain melody he was so affected as not to be able to
taste meat for three months.
Slavery was at this date a regular domestic institution and was not
confined as now to the purchase of women alone; and whereas in still
earlier ages it had been usual to bury wooden puppets in the tombs of
princes, we now read of slave boys and slave girls barbarously interred
alive with the body of every ruler of a state, in order, as was
believed, to wait upon the tyrant’s spirit after death. But public
opinion began during the Confucian era to discountenance this savage
rite, and the son of a man who left instructions that he should be
buried in a large coffin between two of his concubines, ventured to
disobey his father’s commands.
We know that the Chows sat on chairs while all other eastern nations
were sitting on the ground, and ate their food and drank their wine from
tables; that they slept on beds and rode on horseback. They measured the
hours with the aid of sun dials; and the invention of the compass is
attributed, though on somewhat insufficient grounds, to one of their
earliest heroes. They played games of calculation of an abstruse
character, and others involving dexterity. They appear to have worn
shoes of leather, and stockings, and hats, and caps, in addition to
robes of silk; and to have possessed such other material luxuries as
fans, mirrors of metal, bath tubs, and flat irons. But it is often
difficult to separate truth from falsehood in the statement of Chinese
writers with regard to their history. They are fond of exaggerating the
civilization of their forefathers, which, as a matter of fact, was
sufficiently advanced to command admiration without the undesirable
coloring of fiction they have thus been tempted to lay on.
[Illustration: IMAGE OF CONFUCIUS.]
Of the religions of the Chinese we will speak in a succeeding chapter,
but it must be said here that during the Chow dynasty was born the most
famous of Chinese teachers, Confucius. He was preceded about the middle
of the dynasty by Lao-tzu, the founder of an abstruse system of ethical
philosophy which was destined to develop into the Taoism of to-day.
Closely following, and partially a contemporary, came Confucius, “a
teacher who has been equalled in his influence upon masses of the human
race by Buddha alone and approached only by Mahomet and Christ.”
Confucius devoted his life chiefly to the moral amelioration of his
fellow men by oral teaching, but he was also an author of many works. A
hundred years later came Mencius, the record of whose teachings also
forms an important part of the course of study of a modern student in
China. His pet theory was that the nature of man is good, and that all
evil tendencies are necessarily acquired from evil communications either
by heredity or association. It was during this same period that the
literature of the Chinese language was founded. Of this subject, and
some of the famous works, more will be said in a succeeding chapter
devoted to literature and education.
In their campaign against the prevailing lawlessness and violence,
neither Confucius nor Mencius was able to make any headway. Their
preachings fell on deaf ears and their peaceful admonitions were passed
unheeded by men who held their fiefs by the strength of their right
arms, and administered the affairs of their principalities surrounded by
the din of war. The feudal system and the dynasty of the Chows were
tottering when Confucius died although it was more than two hundred
years after when Ch’in acquired the supremacy.
[Illustration: MANCHURIAN MINISTERS.]
The nine centuries covered by the history of the Chows were full of
stirring incidents in other parts of the world. The Trojan war had just
been brought to an end and Æneas had taken refuge in Italy from the sack
of Troy. Early in the dynasty Zoroaster was founding in Persia the
religion of the Magi, the worship of fire which survives in the
Parseeism of Bombay. Saul was made king of Israel and Solomon built the
temple of Jerusalem. Later on Lycurgus gave laws to the Spartans and
Romulus laid the first stone of the Eternal City. Then came the
Babylonic captivity, the appearance of Buddha, the conquest of Asia
Minor by Cyrus, the rise of the Roman Republic, the defeats of Darius at
Marathon and of Xerxes at Salamis, the Peloponnesian War, the retreat of
the Ten Thousand, and Roman conquests down to the end of the first Punic
war. From a literary point of view the Chow dynasty was the age of the
Vedas in India; of Homer, Æschylus, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Thucydides,
Aristotle and Demosthenes in Greece; and of the Jewish prophets from
Samuel to Daniel; and of the Talmud as originally undertaken by the
scribes subsequent to the return from the captivity in Babylon.
It has been stated that the imperial rule of the Chows over the vassal
states which made up the China of those early days, was gradually
undermined by the growing power and influence of one of the latter, the
very name of which was transformed into a byword of reproach, so that to
call a person “a man of Ch’in” was equivalent to saying in vulgar
parlance, “He is no friend of mine.” The struggle between the Ch’ins and
the rest of the empire may be likened to the struggle between Athens and
the rest of Greece though the end in each case was not the same. The
state of Ch’in vanquished its combined opponents, and finally
established a dynasty, short-lived indeed, but containing among the few
rulers who sat upon the throne, only about fifty years in all, the name
of one remarkable man, the first emperor of the united China.
[Illustration: GREAT WALL OF CHINA.]
On the ruins of the old feudal system, the landmarks of which his three
or four predecessors had succeeded in sweeping away, Hwang Ti laid the
foundations of a coherent empire which was to date from himself as its
founder. He sent an army of 300,000 men to fight against the Huns. He
dispatched a fleet to search for some mysterious islands off the coast
of China; and this expedition has since been connected with the
colonization of Japan. He built the Great Wall which is nearly fourteen
hundred miles in length, forming the most prominent artificial object on
the surface of the earth. His copper coinage was so uniformly good that
the cowry disappeared altogether from commerce with this reign.
According to some, the modern hair pencil employed by the Chinese as a
pen was invented about this time, to be used for writing on silk; while
the characters themselves underwent certain modifications and
orthographical improvements. The first emperor desired above all things
to impart a fresh stimulus to literary effort; but he adopted singularly
unfortunate means to secure this desirable end. For listening to the
insidious flattery of courtiers, he determined that literature should
begin anew with his reign. He therefore issued orders for the
destruction of all existing books, with the exception of works treating
of medicine, agriculture and divination and the annals of his own house;
and he actually put to death many hundreds of the literati who refused
to comply with these commands. The decree was obeyed as faithfully as
was possible in case of so sweeping an ordinance and for many years a
night of ignorance rested on the country. Numbers of valuable works thus
perished in a general literary conflagration, popularly known as “the
burning of the books;” and it is partly to accident and partly to the
pious efforts of the scholars of the age, that posterity is indebted for
the preservation of the most precious relics of ancient Chinese
literature. The death of Hwang Ti was the signal for an outbreak among
the dispossessed feudal princes, who, however, after some years of
disorder, were again reduced to the rank of citizens by a successful
peasant leader who adopted the title of Kaou Ti, and named his dynasty
that of Han, with himself its first emperor.
From that day to this, with occasional interregnums, the empire has been
ruled on the lines laid down by Hwang Ti. Dynasty has succeeded dynasty
but the political tradition has remained unchanged, and though Mongols
and Manchoos have at different times wrested the throne from its
legitimate heirs, they have been engulfed in a homogeneous mass
inhabiting the empire, and instead of impressing their seal upon the
country, have become but the reflection of the vanquished. The stately
House of Han ruled over China for four hundred years, approximately from
200 B.C. to 200 A.D. During the whole period the empire made vast
strides towards a more settled state of prosperity and civilization,
although there were constant wars with the Tartar tribes to the north
and the various Turkish tribes on the west. The communications with the
Huns were particularly close, and even now traces of Hunnish influence
are discernible in several of the recognized surnames of the Chinese.
This dynasty also witnessed the spectacle, most unusual in the east, of
a woman wielding the imperial sceptre; and hers was not a reign
calculated to inspire the people of China with much faith either in the
virtue or the administrative ability of the sex. In Chinese history
however, her place is that of the only female sovereign who ever
legitimately occupied the throne.
[Illustration: BUDDHIST PRIEST.]
It was under the Han dynasty that the religion of Buddha first became
known to the Chinese people, and Taoism began to develop from quiet
philosophy to foolish superstitions and practices. It was also during
this period that the Jews appear to have founded a colony in Honan, but
we cannot say what kind of a reception was accorded to the new faith. In
the glow of early Buddhism, and in the exciting times of its subsequent
persecution, it is probable that Judaism failed to attract much serious
attention from the Chinese. In 1850 certain Hebrew rolls were recovered
from the few remaining descendants of former Jews; but there was then no
one left who could read a word of them, or who possessed any knowledge
of the creed of their forefathers, beyond a few traditions of the
scantiest possible kind.
But the most remarkable of all events connected with our present period,
was the general revival of learning and authorship. The Confucian texts
were rescued from hiding places in which they had been concealed at the
risk of death; editing committees were appointed, and immense efforts
made to repair the mischief sustained by literature at the hand of the
first emperor. Ink and paper were invented and authorship was thus
enabled to make a fresh start, the very start indeed, that the first
emperor had longed to associate with his own reign, and had attempted to
secure by such impracticable means. During the latter portion of the
second century B. C., flourished the “Father of Chinese History.” His
great work, which has been the model for all subsequent histories, is
divided into one hundred and thirty books, and deals with a period
extending from the reign of the Yellow emperor down to his own times. In
another branch of literature, a foremost place among the lexicographers
of the world may fairly be claimed for Hsu Shen, the author of a famous
dictionary. Many other celebrated writers lived and prospered during the
Han dynasty. One man whose name must be mentioned insured for himself,
by his virtue and integrity, a more imperishable fame than any mere
literary achievement could bestow. Yang Chen was indeed a scholar of no
mean attainments, and away in his occidental home he was known as the
“Confucius of the west.” An officer of government in a high position,
with every means of obtaining wealth at his command, he lived and died
in comparative poverty, his only object of ambition being the reputation
of a spotless official. The Yangs of his day grumbled sorely at
opportunities thus thrown away; but the Yangs of to-day glory in the
fame of their great ancestor and are proud to worship in the ancestral
hall to which his uprightness has bequeathed the name. For once when
pressed to receive a bribe, with the additional inducement that no one
would know of the transaction, he quietly replied—“How so? Heaven would
know; earth would know; you would know and I should know.” And to this
hour the ancestral shrine of the clan of the Yangs bears as it name “The
Hall of the Four Knows.”
It was in all probability under the dynasty of the Hans that the drama
first took its place among the amusements of the people.
It is unnecessary to linger over the four centuries which connect the
Hans with the T'angs. There was not in them that distinctness of
character or coherency of aim which leave a great impress upon the
times. The three kingdoms passed rapidly away, and other small dynasties
succeeded them, but their names and dates are not essential to a right
comprehension of the state of China then or now. A few points may,
however, be briefly mentioned before quitting this period of transition.
Diplomatic relations were opened with Japan; and Christianity was
introduced by the Nestorians under the title of the “luminous teaching.”
Tea was not known in China before this date. It was at the close of this
transitional period that we first detect traces of the art of printing,
still in an embryonic state, and it seems to be quite certain that
before the end of the sixth century the Chinese were in possession of a
method of reproduction from wooden blocks. One of the last emperors of
the period succeeded in adding largely to the empire by annexation
toward the west. Embassies reached his court from various nations,
including Japan and Cochin China, and helped to add to the lustre of his
reign.
The three centuries A.D. 600-900, during which the T'angs sat upon the
throne, form a brilliant epoch in Chinese history, and the southern
people of China are still proud of the designation which has descended
to them as “men of T’ang.” Emperor Hsuan Tsung fought against the
prevailing extravagance in dress; founded a large dramatic college; and
was an enthusiastic patron of literature. Buddhism flourished during
this period in spite of edicts against it. Finally, it gained the favor
of the emperors and for a time overpowered even Confucianism. It was
during the reign of the second emperor of the T'angs and only six years
after the Hegira that the religion of Mahomet first reached the shores
of China. A maternal uncle of the prophet visited the country and
obtained permission to build a mosque at Canton, portions of which may
perhaps still be found in the thrice restored structure which now stands
upon its site. The use of paper money was first introduced by the
government toward the closing years of the dynasty; and it is near to
this time that we can trace back the existence of the modern court
circular and daily record of edicts, memorials, etc., commonly known as
the Peking Gazette.
Another unimportant transition period, sixty years in duration, forms
the connecting link between the houses of T'ang and Sung. It is known in
Chinese history as the period of the five dynasties, after the five
short-lived ones crowded into this space of time. It is remarkable
chiefly for the more extended practice of printing from wooden blocks,
the standard classical works being now for the first time printed in
this way. The discreditable custom of cramping women’s feet into the
so-called “golden lilies” belongs probably to this date, though referred
by some to a period several hundred years later.
It has been said before that the age of the T'angs was the age of
Mahomet and his new religion, the propagation of which was destined to
meet in the west with a fatal check from the arms of Charles Martel at
the battle of Tours. It was the age of Rome independent under her early
popes; of Charlemagne as emperor of the west; of Egbert as first king of
England; and of Alfred the Great.
The Sung dynasty extended from about A.D. 960 to 1280. The first portion
of this dynasty may be considered as on the whole, one of the most
prosperous and peaceable periods of the history of China. The nation had
already in a great measure settled down to that state of material
civilization and mental culture in which it may be said to have been
discovered by Europeans a few centuries later. To the appliances of
Chinese ordinary life it is probable that but few additions have been
made even since a much earlier date. The national costume has indeed
undergone subsequent variations, and at least one striking change has
been introduced in later years, that is, the tail, which will be
mentioned later. But the plows and hoes, the water wheels and well
sweeps, the tools of artisans, mud huts, junks, carts, chairs, tables,
chopsticks, etc., which we still see in China, are doubtless
approximately those of more than two thousand years ago. Mencius
observed that the written language was the same, and axle-trees of the
same length all over the empire; and to this day an unaltering
uniformity is one of the chief characteristics of the Chinese people in
every department of life.
The house of Sung was not however without the usual troubles for any
length of time. Periodical revolts are the special feature of Chinese
history, and the Sungs were hardly exempt from them in a greater degree
than other dynasties. The Tartars too, were forever encroaching upon
Chinese territory and finally overran and occupied a large part of
northern China. This resulted in an amicable arrangement to divide the
empire, the Tartars retaining their conquests in the north. Less than a
hundred years later came the invasion of the Mongols under Genghis Khan,
with the long struggle which eventuated in a complete overthrow of both
the Tartars and the Sungs and the final establishment of the Mongol
dynasty under Kublai Khan, whose success was in a great measure due to
the military capacity of his famous lieutenant Bayan. From this struggle
one name in particular has survived to form a landmark of which the
Chinese are justly proud. It is that of the patriot statesman Wen
T'ien-hsiang, whose fidelity to the Sungs no defeats could shake, no
promises undermine; and who perished miserably in the hands of the enemy
rather than abjure the loyalty which had been the pride and almost the
object of his existence.
Another name inseparably connected with the history of the Sungs is that
of Wang An-shih who has been styled “The Innovator” from the gigantic
administrative changes or innovations he labored ineffectually to
introduce. The chief of these were a universal system of militia under
which the whole body of citizens were liable to military drill and to be
called out for service in time of need; and a system of state loans to
agriculturists in order to supply capital for more extensive and more
remunerative farming operations. His schemes were ultimately set aside
through the opposition of a statesman whose name is connected even more
closely with literature than with politics. Ssu-ma Kuang spent nineteen
years of his life in the compilation of “The Mirror of History,” a
history of China in two hundred and ninety-four books, from the earliest
times of the Chow dynasty down to the accession of the house of Sung.
[Illustration: CHINESE ARCHERS.]
A century later this lengthy production was recast in a greatly
condensed form under the superintendence of Chu Hsi, the latter work at
once taking rank as the standard history of China to that date. Chu Hsi
himself played in other ways by far the most important part among all
the literary giants of the Sungs. Besides holding, during a large
portion of his life, high official position, with an almost unqualified
success, his writings are more extensive and more varied in character
than those of any other Chinese author; and the complete collection of
his great philosophical works, published in 1713, fills no fewer than
sixty-six books. He introduced interpretations of the Confucian
classics, either wholly or partially at variance with those which had
been put forth by the scholars of the Han dynasty and received as
infallible ever since, thus modifying to a certain extent the prevailing
standard of political and social morality. His principle was simply one
of consistency. He refused to interpret certain words in a given passage
in one sense and the same words occurring elsewhere in another sense.
And this principle recommended itself at once to the highly logical mind
of the Chinese. Chu Hsi’s commentaries were received to the exclusion of
all others and still form the only authorized interpretation of the
classical books, upon a knowledge of which all success at the great
competitive examination for literary degrees may be said to entirely
depend.
[Illustration: CHINESE WRITER.]
It would be a lengthy task to merely enumerate the names in the great
phalanx of writers who flourished under the Sungs and who formed an
Augustan Age of Chinese literature. Exception must however be made in
favor of Ou-Yang Hsiu, who besides being an eminent statesman, was a
voluminous historian of the immediately preceding dynasties, an essayist
of rare ability, and a poet; and of Su Tung-p'o whose name next to that
of Chu Hsi fills the largest place in Chinese memorials of this period.
A vigorous opponent of “The Innovator,” he suffered banishment for his
opposition; and again, after his rival’s fall, he was similarly punished
for further crossing the imperial will. His exile was shared by the
beautiful and accomplished girl “Morning Clouds,” to whose inspiration
we owe many of the elaborate poems and other productions in the
composition of which the banished poet beguiled his time; and whose
untimely death of consumption, on the banks of their favorite lake,
hastened the poet’s end, which occurred shortly after his recall from
banishment.
Buddhism and Taoism had by this time made advances toward tacit terms of
mutual toleration. They wisely agreed to share rather than to quarrel
over the carcass which lay at their feet; and from that date they have
flourished together without prejudice.
The system of competitive examinations and literary degrees had been
still more fully elaborated, and the famous child’s primer, the “Three
Character Classic,” which is even now the first stepping stone to
knowledge, had been placed in the hands of school boys. The surnames of
the people were collected to the number of four hundred and thirty-eight
in all; and although this was admittedly not complete, the great
majority of those names which were omitted, once perhaps in common use,
have altogether disappeared. It is comparatively rare nowadays to meet
with a person whose family name is not to be found within the limits of
this small collection. Administration of justice is said to have
flourished under the incorrupt officials of this dynasty. The functions
of magistrates were more fully defined; while the study of medical
jurisprudence was stimulated by the publication of a volume which,
although combining the maximum of superstition with the minimum of
scientific research, is still the officially recognized text book on all
subjects connected with murder, suicide and accidental death. Medicine
and the art of healing came in for a considerable share of attention at
the hands of the Sungs and many voluminous works on therapeutics have
come down to us from this period. Inoculation for small-pox has been
known to the Chinese at least since the early years of this dynasty if
not earlier.
The irruption of the Mongols under Genghis Khan, and the comparatively
short dynasty which was later on actually established under Kublai Khan,
may be regarded as the period of transition from the epoch of the Sungs
to the epoch of the Mings. For the first eighty years after the nominal
accession of Genghis Khan the empire was more or less in a state of
siege and martial law from one end to the other; and then in less than
one hundred years afterwards the Mongol dynasty had passed away. The
story of Ser Marco Polo and his wonderful travels, familiar to most
readers, gives us a valuable insight into this period of brilliant
courts, thronged marts, fine cities, and great national wealth.
At this date the literary glory of the Sungs had hardly begun to grow
dim. Ma Tuan-lin carried on his voluminous work through all the
troublous times, and at his death bequeathed to the world “The
Antiquarian Researches,” in three hundred and forty-eight books, which
have made his name famous to every student of Chinese literature. Plane
and spherical trigonometry were both known to the Chinese by this time,
and mathematics generally began to receive a larger share of the
attention of scholars. It was also under the Mongol dynasty that the
novel first made its appearance, a fact pointing to a definite social
advancement, if only in the direction of luxurious reading. Among other
points may be mentioned a great influx of Mohammedans, and consequent
spread of their religion about this time.
The Grand Canal was completed by Kublai Khan, and thus Cambaluc, the
Peking of those days, was united by inland water communication with the
extreme south of China. The work seems to have been begun by the Emperor
Yang Ti seven centuries previously, but the greater part of the
undertaking was done in the reign of Kublai Khan. Hardly so successful
was the same emperor’s huge naval expedition against Japan, which in
point of number of ships and men, the insular character of the enemy’s
country, the chastisement intended, and the total loss of the fleet in a
storm, aided by the stubborn resistance of the Japanese themselves,
suggests a very obvious comparison with the object and fate of the
Spanish Armada.
The age of the Sungs carries us from a hundred years previous to the
Norman Conquest down to about the death of Edward III. It was the epoch
of Venetian commerce and maritime supremacy; and of the first great
lights in Italian literature, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. English,
French, German and Spanish literature had yet to develop, only one or
two of the earlier writers, such as Chaucer, having yet appeared on the
scene.
The founder of the Ming dynasty rose from starvation and obscurity to
occupy the throne of the Chinese empire. In his youth he sought refuge
from the pangs of hunger in a Buddhist monastery; later on he became a
soldier of fortune, and joined the ranks of the insurgents who were
endeavoring to shake off the alien yoke of the Mongols. His own great
abilities carried him on. He speedily obtained the leadership of a large
army, with which he totally destroyed the power of the Mongols, and
finally established a new Chinese dynasty over the thirteen provinces
into which the empire was divided. He fixed his capitol at Nanking,
where it remained until the accession of the third emperor, the
conqueror of Cochin China and Tonquin, who transferred the seat of
government back to Peking, the capitol of the Mongols, from which it has
never since been removed.
[Illustration: CHINESE CANNONIERS.]
For nearly three hundred years, from 1370 to 1650, the Mings swayed the
destinies of China. Their rule was not one of uninterrupted peace,
either within or without the empire; but it was on the whole a wise and
popular rule, and the period which it covers is otherwise notable for
immense literary activity and for considerable refinement in manners and
material civilization.
From without, the Mings were constantly harrassed by the encroachments
of the Tartars; while from within the ceaseless intriguing of the
eunuchs was a fertile cause of trouble.
[Illustration: ANCIENT CHINESE ARCH.]
Chief among the literary achievements of this period, is the gigantic
encyclopedia in over twenty-two thousand books, only one copy of which,
and that imperfect, has survived out of the four that were originally
made. Allowing fifty octavo pages to a book, the result would be a total
of at least one million one hundred thousand pages, the index alone
occupying no fewer than three thousand pages. This wonderful work is now
probably rotting, if not already rotted beyond hope of preservation, in
some damp corner of the imperial palace at Peking. Another important and
more accessible production was the so-called “Chinese Herbal.” This was
a compilation from the writings of no fewer than eight hundred preceding
writers on botany, mineralogy, entomology, etc., the whole forming a
voluminous but unscientific book of reference on the natural history of
China. Shortly after the accession of the third emperor, Yung Lo, the
imperial library was estimated to contain written and printed works
amounting to a total of about one million in all. A book is a variable
quantity in Chinese literature, both as regards number and size of
pages; the number of books to a work also vary from one to several
hundred. But reckoning fifty pages to a book and twenty or twenty-five
books to a work, it will be seen that the collection was not an unworthy
private library for any emperor in the early years of the fifteenth
century.
The overthrow of the Mings was brought about by a combination of events
of the utmost importance to those who would understand the present
position of the Tartars as rulers of China. A sudden rebellion had
resulted in the capture of Peking by the insurgents, and in the suicide
of the emperor who was fated to be the last of his line. The imperial
commander-in-chief, Wu San-kuei, at that time away on the frontiers of
Manchooria engaged in resisting the incursions of the Manchoo-Tartars,
now for a long time in a state of ferment, immediately hurried back to
the capitol but was totally defeated by the insurgent leader and once
more made his way, this time as a fugitive and a suppliant, toward the
Tartar camp. Here he obtained promises of assistance chiefly on
condition that he would shave his head and grow a tail in accordance
with Manchoo custom, and again set off with his new auxiliaries toward
Peking, being reinforced on the way by a body of Mongol volunteers. As
things turned out, the commander arrived in Peking in advance of these
allies, and actually succeeded with the remnant of his own scattered
forces in routing the troops of the rebel leader before the Tartars and
the Mongols came up. He then started in pursuit of the flying foe.
Meanwhile the Tartar contingent arrived and on entering the capitol the
young Manchoo prince in command was invited by the people of Peking to
ascend the vacant throne. So that by the time Wu San-kuei reappeared, he
found a new dynasty already established and his late Manchoo ally at the
head of affairs. His first intention had doubtless been to continue the
Ming line of emperors; but he seems to have readily fallen in with the
arrangement already made and to have tendered his formal allegiance on
the four following conditions:
That no Chinese woman should be taken into the imperial seraglio; that
the first place at the great triennial examination for the highest
literary degrees should never be given to a Tartar; that the people
should adopt the national costume of the Tartars in their everyday life;
but that they should be allowed to bury their corpses in the dress of
the late dynasty; that this condition of costume should not apply to the
women of China who were not to be compelled either to wear the hair in a
tail before marriage as the Tartar girls do, or to abandon the custom of
compressing their feet.
The great Ming dynasty was now at an end, though not destined wholly to
pass away. A large part of it may be said to remain in the literary
monuments. The dress of the period survives upon the modern Chinese
stage; and when occasionally the alien yoke has galled, seditious
whispers of “restoration” are not altogether unheard. Secret societies
have always been dreaded and prohibited by the government; and of these
none more so than the famous “Triad Society,” in which heaven, earth,
and man are supposed to be associated in close alliance, and whose
watchword is believed to embody some secret allusion to the downfall of
the present dynasty.
In the latter part of the sixteenth century, the civilization of western
Europe began to make itself felt in China by the advent of the
Portuguese, and this matter will be returned to in the following
chapter.
In other parts of the world, eventful times have set in. In England we
are brought from the accession of Richard II. down to the struggle
between the king and the commons and the ultimate establishment of the
commonwealth. We have Henry IV. in France and Ferdinand and Isabella in
Spain. In England, Shakspeare and Bacon; in France, Rabelais and
Descartes; in Germany, Luther and Copernicus; in Spain, Cervantes; and
in Italy, Galileo, Machiavelli and Tasso; these names to which should be
added those of the great explorers, Columbus and Vasco de Gama, serve to
remind one of what was meanwhile passing in the west.
[Illustration: A CHINESE LODGING HOUSE.]
FROM FIRST CONTACT WITH EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION
TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR.
--------------
How the Western Nations Formed the Acquaintance of China—First Mention
of the Orient by Grecian and Roman Historians—Introduction of
Judaism—Nestorian Missionaries Bring Christianity—Marco Polo’s Wonderful
Journey—Roman Missionaries in the Field—Dissentions among Christians
Discredit their Work—Work of the Jesuits—The Dynasty of the
Chings—Splendid Literary Labors of Two Emperors—England’s First Embassy
to China—The Opium War—Opening the Ports of China—Treaties with Western
Nations—The Tai-Ping Rebellion—The Later Years of Chinese History.
The works of several Greek and Roman historians, principally those of
Ptolemy and Arian, who lived in the second century, contain references
of a vague character to a country now generally believed to be China.
Ptolemy states that his information came from the agents of Macedonian
traders, who gave him an account of a journey of seven months from the
principal city of eastern Turkestan, in a direction east inclining a
little south. It is probable that these agents belonged to some of the
Tartar tribes of Central Asia. They represented the name of this most
eastern nation to be Serica, and that on the borders of this kingdom
they met and traded with its inhabitants, the Seres. Herodotus speaks of
the Isadores as a people in the extreme north-east of Asia. Ptolemy also
mentions these tribes as a part of Serica and under its sway. Ammianus
Marcellinus, a Roman historian of the fourth century, speaks of the land
of the Seres as surrounded by a high and continuous wall. This was about
six hundred years after the great wall of northern China was built.
Virgil, Pliny, Ricitus and Juvenal refer to the Seres in connection with
the Seric garments which seem to have been made of fine silk or gauze.
This article of dress was much sought after in Rome by the wealthy and
luxurious, and as late as the second century, is said to have been worth
its weight in gold. From the length and description of the route of the
traders, the description of the mountains and rivers which they passed,
the character of the people with whom they traded and the articles of
traffic, the evidence seems almost conclusive that the nation which the
Greeks and Romans designated by the name of Serica is that now known to
us as China. The particular countries visited by the caravans which
brought the silk to Europe, were probably the dependencies or
territories of China on the west, or possibly cities within the extreme
north-west limit of China proper.
The introduction of Judaism into China is evidenced by a Jewish
synagogue which existed until quite recently in Kai-fung-foo, a city in
the province of Honan. Connected with this synagogue were some Hebrew
manuscripts, and a few worshippers who retained some of the forms of
their religion, but very little knowledge of its real character and
spirit. There is a great deal of uncertainty as to when the Jews came to
China, though they have, no doubt, resided there for many centuries.
Nestorian missionaries entered China some time before the seventh
century. The principal record which they have left of the success of
their missions is the celebrated Nestorian monument in Fen-gan-foo. This
monument contains a short history of the sect from the year 630 to 781,
and also an abstract of the Christian religion. The missionaries of this
sect have left but few records of their labors or of their observations
as travelers, but the churches planted by them seem to have existed
until a comparatively recent period. The Romish missionaries who entered
China in the beginning of the fourteenth century, found them possessed
of considerable influence, not only among the people, but also at court,
and met with no little opposition from them in their first attempts to
introduce the doctrines of their church. It seems to be true that during
the period of nearly eight hundred years in which Nestorian Christianity
maintained its foothold in China, large numbers of converts were made.
But in process of time the Nestorian churches departed widely from their
first teachings. After the fall of the Mongolian empire they were cut
off from connection with the west, and not having sufficient vitality to
resist the adverse influences of heathenism the people by degrees
relapsed into idolatry or took up the new faiths that were introduced.
The first western writer, whose works are extant, who has given anything
like full and explicit explanation respecting China is Ser Marco Polo.
He went to China in the year 1274, in company with his father and uncle,
who were Venetian noblemen. At this time, the independent nomad tribes
of central Asia being united in one government, it was practicable to
reach eastern Asia by passing through the Mongolian empire. Marco Polo
spent twenty-four years in China, and seems to have been treated kindly
and hospitably. After his return to Europe he was taken prisoner in a
war with the Genoese, and during his confinement wrote an account of his
travels. The description he gives of the vast territories of China, its
teeming population, and flourishing cities, the refinement and
civilization of its people, and their curious customs, seemed to his
countrymen more like a fiction of fairyland than sober and authentic
narrative. It is said that he was urged when on his death bed to retract
these statements and make confession of falsehood, which he refused to
do. He was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable travelers of any age.
During the period of the Mongolian empire which comprehended under its
sway the greater part of Asia from China on the east to the
Mediterranean on the west, an intense desire was kindled in the Roman
church to convert this powerful nation to its faith. Among the first and
the most noted of the missionaries sent to China at this time, was John
of Mount Corvin, who reached Peking in 1293. He was afterward made an
archbishop. From time to time bishops and priests were sent out to
re-enforce this mission, but they met with indifferent success; and when
the Mongols were driven from China the enterprise was abandoned as a
complete failure. After the fall of the Mongolian empire, direct
overland communication with eastern Asia was interrupted, and for about
two hundred years China was again almost completely isolated from the
western world.