NOTES ON PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN CHINA
Two thousand four hundred and fifty-eight Protestant workers (including
wives) represent the missionary energies and the many divisions of
Christendom. The native Protestant communicants number 80,632.[61]
The shock which China received through her defeat by Japan has produced,
among other results, a disposition to make inquiries regarding the God,
faith, and learning of those “Western Barbarians” from whom Japan
received the art of war. Although hostility to Christianity as a
destructive and socially disintegrating power has been recently
evidenced by the anti-Christian riots at Kien-ing and elsewhere, the
spirit of inquiry gathers volume, and expresses itself in large
gatherings in street-chapels and churches, the thronging to mission
schools, and the avidity with which Christian literature is purchased.
Those who profess themselves ready to abandon heathenism and connect
themselves with Christianity are more than the missionaries can
instruct. In MANCHURIA there are six thousand inquirers in connection
with the Scotch and Irish missions. In the FU-KIEN province the movement
towards Christianity is on so extensive a scale as to attract the
serious attention of the provincial authorities, as well as emphatic
recognition by our own consuls. In one mission alone of the American
Board, in another province, the number of inquirers into the Christian
religion is estimated at 12,000.
The growing influence of Christianity, however, cannot be measured
either by the numbers of communicants or inquirers. For many years past,
large numbers of Christian men and women have been scattered through
nearly all the provinces of China, making their homes among the Chinese,
with the avowed object of promulgating what is known as the “_Jesus
Religion_.” Their methods of propagandism—preaching, conversation,
schools, dispensaries, hospitals, and the circulation of Christian
literature only differ slightly. Their knowledge of Chinese is
necessarily imperfect, and they often make grotesque and even serious
blunders. As their methods and mistakes in the language are much alike,
so too are their lives. The keenest Chinese critic finds no difference
in conduct and the motives which rule it, between the Scotch
missionaries in MANCHURIA, the China Inland Mission and Canadian, etc.,
in SZE CHUAN, the Church Missionary Society in the FU-KIEN Province, and
the German and American in KWANTUNG. These 2500 men and women are seen
under the “fierce light” of criticism which beats upon them, whether at
home or abroad, to lead pure, just, truthful, kind, honest, virtuous,
patient lives, restraining temper and suffering long. These lives preach
a higher standard of living than is inculcated by the highest Chinese
teaching, and by slow degrees produce results which cannot be tabulated.
The fame of the foreign teacher’s payment of wages agreed upon, without
drawbacks, his truthfulness, justice, kind treatment of servants,[62]
control of temper, and accessibility, travels far, and each life so
lived is an influence making for righteousness in the neighbourhood,
exciting inquiry into the “Jesus Religion” and foreign learning, and
exercising a distinct influence on surrounding morality in certain
directions.
The direct part of missionary work need scarcely be touched upon. It
consists in awakening the conscience to a sense of sin, by the preaching
of “righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.” It dwells upon the
justice and love of God, on the atonement of Christ, on that Divine
Fatherhood before whose infinite compassions there is not a stranger, an
alien, a foreigner; on the “one sacrifice for sin once offered”; and
teaches that the purpose of the sacrifice, and of law and gospel, is,
that men may live “soberly, righteously, and godly in this present
world,” in preparation for a stainless and endless life. It teaches that
the morality of the Great Teacher is but a “shadow of good things to
come”—of the higher and perfect morality demanded by the Divine law, and
that the power outside ourselves which “makes for righteousness” and
“helps our infirmities,” is the power of God; that “God is love,” and
yearns over His wandering children; that He has “showed man what is
good,” and that “His only begotten Son,” who in some mysterious manner
“bore our sins in His own body on the tree,” is “He who is alive for
evermore,” and “ever liveth to make intercession,” and that He “hath
abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through His
Gospel.”
This, in brief, is the teaching of all Protestant missionaries in China,
to whatever church they belong, and with one or two exceptions all
regard baptism as an obligatory confession of faith, and as the evidence
of a complete break with the beliefs and practices of heathenism.
Under such teaching 80,000 Chinese in 1898 were making a public
profession of the Christian faith. Many annually lapse; the greater
number owing to family influence, and difficulties in the abandonment of
the time and custom-honoured social observances connected with idolatry;
some because they find the moral restraints of Christianity too hard for
them, and others because they hoped for worldly advantages which they
failed to obtain. A large number of professing converts are employed by
missionaries as servants, gatekeepers, teachers, printers, translators,
and writers, of whose sincerity it may not always be possible to judge,
as foreign employment is much coveted.
But after putting these and other dubious converts aside, there remains
a large body of native Christians, gathered into societies, which after
long and careful inquiry I believe to be fully up to the average mark of
our churches at home in essential knowledge, and above it in practice,
specially in propagandist zeal and liberality—societies of men and
women, in which the virtues of purity, honesty, self-denial, and charity
are apparent. These converts contribute liberally out of their poverty
to Christian objects, specially for the advancement of Christianity in
their own country, in some regions contributing 6_s._ per head per
annum. These Christian societies are constantly showing an increasing
disposition to help themselves by the building of church edifices, as at
Paoning Fu and elsewhere, and by contributing the entire support of not
a few of their own pastors.
A large number of these converts are earnest and successful
propagandists, and the very large increase in the number of Christians
during the last five years is mainly owing to the zeal, earnestness, and
devotion of Chinese converts, both men and women, who owe their
conversion and instruction, as well as guidance and inspiration, to the
foreign teachers. In Manchuria a few years ago the senior missionary
told me that out of between three thousand and four thousand converts he
estimated that not more than twenty had received Christianity directly
from the European missionaries, and the same proportion holds good with
regard to the 8875 inquirers at the present date. In Che-kiang the
present Bishop of Victoria estimated the number of converts through the
work of Chinese as 80 per cent. of the whole.
These societies, in the beginning very small, and numbering from ten up
to over four hundred members, are gradually crystallising into
brotherhoods, with a very strong bond of union and definite aims of
their own. They show in a marked degree the strong Chinese tendency to
combination and association, and may be regarded as guilds. At present
among the communicants there is a strong desire to conserve the purity
of the churches by a careful exercise of discipline. Members who fall
back into evil ways, as many do, are “suspended,” and if incorrigible
are sloughed off, and it certainly would not be possible for such abuses
as disgraced the church of Corinth to exist in the infant churches of
China.
In brief these Christian societies are earnest in propagandism, zealous
for purity and discipline, liberal in their contributions, desirous for
instruction, docile and teachable, and apparently increasingly anxious
to translate Christian doctrine into righteous living. These bodies in
very many places are slowly exercising an influence in favour of
righteousness, and are thus among the many influences which are tending
to undermine the old superstitions.
If China is to be Christianised, or even largely leavened by
Christianity, it must inevitably be by native agency under foreign
instruction and guidance. The foreigner remains a foreigner in his
imperfect and often grotesque use of the language, in his inability to
comprehend Chinese modes of thinking and acting, and in a hundred other
ways, while a well-instructed Chinese teacher knows his countrymen and
what will appeal to them, how to make “points,” and how to clinch an
argument by a popular quotation from their own classics. He knows their
weakness and strength, their devious ways and crooked motives, and their
unspeakable darkness and superstition, and is not likely to be either
too suspicious or too confiding. He presents Christianity without the
Western flavour. It is in the earnest enthusiasm of the Chinese converts
for the propagation of the faith that the great hope for China lies.
Until now Christianity has made very slow progress. Among the special
obstacles are: First, the national vanity, and the contempt for anything
introduced by the foreign barbarians. Second, the posthumous influence
of Confucius, whose moral teaching, negative and defective as it is on
some points, is regarded as final, and his maxims as perfect in their
adaptation to the needs of society and government for all time. Third,
the Chinese language itself, with its absence of an alphabet, the
peculiar inflections and tones, the guttural and aspirated modulations
which must be carefully observed, and the necessity of creating a
vocabulary which shall rationally express the Christian ideas, and yet
not be offensive to a critical and literary people. Fourth, the
carefulness and universality of home education in superstitious and
idolatrous beliefs and practices, children being taught from early
infancy that reverence for the divinities of the Chinese Pantheon, shown
according to established forms, is necessary to success in life.
Fifth, greater than all these special obstacles combined, is that of
ancestor-worship, the actual and universal cult of the Empire. To
abandon idolatrous worship and practices is easy, but withdrawal from
the worship of the ancestral tablets, with its rites and sacrifices,
brands a man as a reprobate and a brute. These rites represent
reverence, sacredness, and filial piety; they have the sanction of
immemorial usage and of the earliest memories of home, and the first act
of worship recorded is the worship of ancestors by the Emperor Shun on
his accession, in the dawn of Chinese history.
The practice probably took its rise in a tender and beautiful filial
feeling, but apparently it has come to be largely inspired by fear. A
Chinese truly “passes the time of his sojourning here in fear,” and is
in slavery not only to the terror of a dim and demon-haunted future, but
to the present dread of the evils wherewith he may be afflicted in this
life by the malevolence of the dissatisfied spirits of his ancestors.
Dr. Yates, a very careful student of things Chinese, in an able paper on
ancestor-worship, states that, including the cost of the festivals for
the destitute dead, the enormous sum of 151,752,000 dollars is annually
expended by the Chinese in quieting the spirits of the departed, and
securing the living from their malignant action. If this worship ever
dies, it will die hard.
Islam is absolutely intolerant of every form of ancestor-worship. The
Roman Catholic missions, as my readers are aware, were agitated by a
controversy as to concessions on this subject from 1610 to 1758, when
Pope Benedict XIV. rejected all compromise. Protestant missions take the
same course.
While making careful inquiries into mission work, both from the workers
and from outsiders, and comparing the present status and conduct of
Chinese converts with what they were when I was in China twenty years
ago, I formed certain opinions on Protestant missions in China, which I
now place briefly before my readers. At this time missions constitute so
important a factor in the awakening of the empire, that no sensible or
thoughtful person can ignore them without sacrificing his reputation for
both sense and thoughtfulness. If I venture to write of myself at all in
connection with the subject, it is but to say that I am not an
enthusiast regarding foreign missions, but soberly believe that to
“teach all nations” is the path of duty and of hope.
During the earlier period of my eight years of Asiatic travel the
subject was of little or no interest to me. I may even have enjoyed the
cheap sneers at missions and missionaries which often pass for wit in
Anglo-Asiatic communities, among persons who have never given the work
and its methods one half-hour of serious attention and investigation,
and in travelling, wherever possible, I gave mission stations a wide
berth.
On my later journeys, however, which brought me often for months at a
time into touch with the daily life of the peoples, their condition even
at the best impressed me as being so deplorable all round, that I became
a convert to the duty of using the great means by which it can be
elevated. To pass on to these nations the blessings which we owe to
Christianity—our eternal hope, our knowledge of the Divine Fatherhood,
our Christian ideals of manhood and womanhood, our best conceptions of
the sanctities of domestic life and of the duties involved in social
relationships, our political liberties, the position of women, the
incorruptible majesty of our equal laws, the reformatory nature of our
punishments, the public opinion permeated by Christianity which sustains
right and condemns wrong, and a thousand things besides, which have come
to us through centuries of the “Jesus Religion”—is undoubtedly our
bounden duty. It is surely the height of unchristian selfishness to sit
down contentedly among our own good things, and practically to regard
China merely as an area for trade. Is it not also the height of
disloyalty and disobedience to our nominal Master, whose last command,
ringing down through centuries of selfishness, we have been satisfied to
leave unfulfilled?
I was influenced not so much by seeing the good work done by
missionaries, as the tremendous need for it and the hopelessness of the
religious systems of Asia. Several of the Asiatic faiths, and notably
Buddhism, started with noble conceptions and a morality far in advance
of their age. But the good has been mainly lost out of them in their
passage down the centuries, and Buddhism in China, aiming at
eclecticism, absorbed so much of the dæmonism, nature-worship, and
heathenism of the country, that in the number and puerility of its
superstitions, its alliance with sorcery, its temples crowded with
monstrous and grotesque idols, the immorality of its priests, and the
absence of the teaching of righteousness, it is now much on a level with
the idolatries of barbarous nations. There is nothing to arrest the
further downward descent of these systems, so effete, and yet so
powerful as interwoven with the whole social life of the nation. _There
is no resurrection power in any one of them_, and to the men who here
and there are athirst for righteousness, and are groping after Him “who
is not far from every one of us,” they offer neither guidance nor help.
That there are such seekers is certain. Among the many “secret
societies” of China, a “good few” are mainly religious, and a great
number of the Christian converts in North China have been in their
membership. An attempt to attain righteousness is their characteristic,
and something may be learned from them of self-denial and aspiration.
Their efforts all take more or less of an ascetic direction.
Among them are “Vegetarians,” who abstain from meat with the object of
“rectifying the heart, accumulating merit, and thus avoiding calamities
in this world and retributive pains in the next.” Several others are
pledged to abstain from gambling and the use of opium, wine, and
tobacco. The chief teaching of another is the duty of maintaining a
patient spirit under injuries.
The books of the religious secret societies contain the best maxims and
the highest moral teaching of “The Three Religions.” They exhort to
chastity, benevolence, carefulness in speech, self-denial, good works,
the _conservation of the mental energies by rest and reflection_, the
cultivation of the heart, and to much besides which is good. In alliance
with the good are idolatrous rites, incantations, divination, and many
grossly superstitious and puerile practices. It is believed that even
the best among these societies are not altogether free from seditious
tendencies, _i.e._, the accomplishment of reform by destruction. But
after making due allowance for what is foolish and evil, it is evident
that in these unsatisfied spiritual instincts and cravings after
righteousness, and above all in the substitution of a dissatisfied and
earnest spirit for the self-satisfied complacency of the Confucianist,
and the stolid materialism of the average Chinese, Christianity has
allies not to be despised.
Up to this time (1899) the slow success which has been won has been
almost entirely among the lower classes, and it has not been possible,
by the methods hitherto pursued, to reach the _literati_, who in China
are the leaders of a people whose reverence for letters is phenomenal.
Of the 2458 Protestant missionaries, including wives (many of whom are
incapacitated for work by maternal duties), accredited to China, a large
number are always at home “on furlough.” Promising Christian work is
often broken up by the departure of the missionary. A substitute may or
may not be appointed, but the “personal equation” counts for much in
China as elsewhere. The force available for actual work ought not to
include the large number of new missionaries, who must inevitably spend
the first year or two in learning to speak Chinese, during which period
they are useful chiefly by lives of consistent righteousness. Throughout
my long journeys I never saw a mission station, except perhaps Paoning
Fu, which was not undermanned, _i.e._, in which mission work was not
seriously crippled and denied its natural expansion by lack of men.
In this time of inquiry into Western religion and science it becomes
more and more important that missionaries, both men and _women_, should
study the difficult language carefully, so as to fit themselves for
conversation with the _literati_, and not be content with a limited
command of the colloquial speech of coolies. It is being recognised in
most influential quarters that if our trade is to expand, clerks and
others going into mercantile life in China must begin the study of
Chinese here under competent Chinese teachers. It might possibly be
desirable for intending missionaries to do the same, and it would have
the advantage of testing in each case the capacity for learning a
difficult language, the incapacity being under present methods only
discovered when it is too late to draw back. It appears very important
that medical missionaries should have an undisturbed year after arriving
in China for the study of the language.
Women’s work has grown, and is growing so rapidly in China that its
regulation needs serious consideration. Admirable as much of it is, and
might be, it is beset with special difficulties. The fact of a young
unmarried woman living anywhere but under her father’s roof, exposes her
character to the grossest imputations, which are hurled at her in the
streets, and which can only be lived down by scrupulous carefulness. The
Chinese etiquette, which prescribes the conduct seemly for women, and
limits the freedom of social intercourse between the sexes, certainly
tends to propriety, and though to our thinking tiresome, no young
foreign woman attempting to teach a foreign religion can violate its
leading rules without injury to her work.
For instance, it is improper for a woman to “ride” in an open chair, to
receive men visitors at her house, or to shake hands with men, or to
walk through the street of a town or village or to visit at native
houses unattended by a middle-aged Chinese woman. It is not only
improper but scandalous for a woman to be seen in a tight bodice, or any
other fashion which shows her figure, and a foreign girl lays herself
open to remarks which I scarcely think she would like to hear, when she
appears in a fly-away hat, bent up and bent down, on which birds,
insects, feathers, grasses, and flowers have been dumped down
indiscriminately! The Mission Board of one large and successful Mission
has found it desirable to issue rules for missionaries regarding dress
and etiquette, and the China Inland Mission everywhere, and the Church
Missionary Society missionaries in SZE CHUAN have solved the difficulty
by adopting Chinese costume, the only Oriental dress which Europeans can
wear with seemliness and dignity. I think it would add much to the
safety of female missionaries, and to the respect in which they are
held, if those missionary societies which object to Chinese costume
would agree upon neat, simple uniforms for summer and winter, fulfilling
the Chinese demand for propriety, and the European demand for
tastefulness, and which should indicate at once that the wearer belongs
to a large and important international union, and cannot be insulted
with impunity.
Again it is necessary for young women to remember that a yellow skin
makes no difference, and that any familiarity of manner or carelessness
in deportment, which would be unsuitable here, is ten times more
unsuitable in the case of Chinese men, such as servants, teachers, and
“native helpers.” In one province in which lady missionaries are
specially numerous the violations of etiquette by some of them have been
regarded as so likely to lead to outbreaks that the attention of our
Foreign Office has been called to the subject. The openings for the work
of sensible “godly” women are very great, but as a large proportion of
those who go out are young and inexperienced, and the number is
increasing, it is desirable that the whole subject should be
reconsidered, and that women’s work and general conduct should have the
advantage of experienced and effectual supervision for the protection of
the workers, and the prevention of those hindrances to the work which
arise out of ignorance and inexperience, and in a few cases out of
self-conceit and self-will.
Having ventured on these criticisms and suggestions, I must add that
much of the wisest, most loving, most self-denying, and most successful
work that I saw done in China was done by women.
My earliest ideas of missionary work were taken from a picture which
represented a white man standing under a tree, preaching to an earnest,
quiet, and dark-visaged crowd. Crowds gather round the foreign preacher
in China, but this is often a temporary phase, with curiosity for its
leading motive. His appearance, mistakes in speech, and attitudes are
satirised, jeered at, and mimicked. One of the most popular theatrical
performances in Shanghai a few years ago was a clever farce,
representing a foreign missionary preaching to a crowd of Chinese.
Preaching is not a Chinese mode of instruction. Confucianism, still the
great force in China, never had a preacher, and was propagated solely by
books. It is said that there is not a lecture-hall in the empire. The
Chinese methods of influencing are chiefly literary, catechetical, and
conversational. The results of preaching have not been what was once
hoped for, nor what they have been in some other countries. Many
missionaries have told me that even the Chinese preaching in the “street
chapels” is not fruitful in results.
It is possible that the introduction of Western modes of evangelising,
not applicable to China, was at least premature, and has been the cause
of much failure and disappointment. The foreign element, whether in
methods, church architecture, house building, or the ignoring of Chinese
custom, though partly inevitable, must always tend to represent
Christianity as a “foreign religion,” and to perpetuate it but as a
sickly exotic. It is, I think, of great importance that Christianity
should ally itself with all that is not evil in the national life, that
it should uphold Chinese nationality, that it should incorporate Chinese
methods of instruction with our own, and conserve all customs which are
not contrary to its spirit. The teachings of experience have not been
thrown away, and many missionaries have come to see that these are the
lines of progress.
Those competent to judge have no doubt that Christianity is about to
make great progress in China. With this, many questions already emerging
will come to the front, and among the foremost is that of native agency
in foreign pay. There is on one side the certainty that China can only
be Christianised by the Chinese, and on the other the risks connected
with the worldly or mercenary element, which have been fatal to many
such persons whose sincerity had not been suspected. Here again
experience is teaching useful lessons, one being that Christianity is
never so extensively and rapidly propagated as by the spontaneous
efforts and renovated lives of private Christians.
Among other questions are: How far the differences between Western
churches are to be perpetuated in China; the place of the Chinese
classics and of English in missionary schools; the obligation of the
Sabbath; the attitude of Christianity to certain Chinese customs, and to
any modified form of ancestor-worship; social intercourse between
foreigners and Chinese; the social and pecuniary position of a native
pastorate; the self-government of churches; and in Anglican missions the
retention of the Prayer Book, as it at present stands, as the sole
manual for public worship.
In conclusion I think that there is now an “open door” for the gospel in
China, and that the prospect for Christianity is fairer than at any
former period, but that if the Christian nations fail to realise their
obligations to enter that door promptly and in force, with an army of
earnest and well-equipped teachers, China may follow the example of
Japan, and accept Western civilisation, while rejecting the Christian
religion.
“Talk,” said Mr. Gladstone on one occasion, “about the question of the
day; there is but one question, and that is the gospel. It can and will
correct everything needing correction.”
It may be that the gospel will yet bring about the regeneration of
China.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The subjects of our political and trade relations with China have been
so ably and exhaustively treated by Lord Charles Beresford, M.P., and
Mr. Colquhoun, and have been threshed out by so many other writers, that
in these brief remarks I shall chiefly confine myself to the Chinese
people and to my impressions of them, received in fifteen months of
journeyings in three of the most important years in modern Chinese
history.[63]
I doubt very much whether China is “breaking up.” _If_ she breaks up it
will be owing to the policy of the great European nations in making her
“lose face,” and thereby weakening the authority of the Central
Government over the provinces, local risings and possible
disintegrations being the result. The “sphere of influence” policy, if
pursued in earnest, would undoubtedly break up the empire.
In the three years in which I was travelling, off and on, in China, the
Dragon Throne reeled, but righted itself, and the Government survived
the Japanese war, the heavy indemnity, the loss of the suzerainty of
Korea, and the aggressions of Russia. It extinguished, in blood, the
serious Mohammedan rebellion in KANSUH, and has lately brought about the
collapse of the rebellion in SZE CHUAN. The bond of union which connects
the provinces with each other and with Peking has survived all these
mishaps, and if it is broken, I believe it will be by foreign
interference, and by the shifting and opportunist policy, enormous
ambitions, and ill-concealed rivalries of certain foreign powers.
Nor do I believe that China is “in decay.” I have travelled more than
8000 miles in the empire, and have seen, in some regions, roads, canals,
temples,[64] and some ancient public works, falling into disrepair. The
Oriental throughout Asia prefers construction to renovation, and
alongside of these decaying works there are new temples, new pagodas,
new and handsome bridges, new _pai-fangs_, new bunds, and new works,
rather of private than public origin.
The reader who has followed the foregoing chapters with any degree of
interest can scarcely think that SZE CHUAN, at least, is in decay.
Commercial and industrial energy is not decaying, the vast fleets of
junks are not rotting in harbours and reaches; industry, thrift,
resourcefulness, and the complete organisation both of labour and
commerce, meet the traveller at every turn. Mercantile credit stands
high, contracts are kept, labour is docile, teachable, and intelligent,
its earnings are secure, and, on the whole, law and order prevail.
Nor is it like “decay” that in 1898—in spite of a political situation
full of menace, of sporadic rebellions which largely checked business in
their localities, of the serious news from Peking in September, which
disorganised the trade of the northern ports, and of the disasters in
connection with the Yellow River—the elasticity was such that the value
of the import trade exceeded all previous records, while that of the
export trade exceeded that of every previous year except 1897, the total
volume of trade being the highest on record.
There was no export of silver, but a net import of Hk. Tls. 4,722,025,
and there was no scarcity of it in any part of the country. China met
the whole of her obligations without any depletion of her currency, and
imported nothing that she did not obtain in exchange for exports.[65]
The importance of stimulating the Chinese export trade is apt to be
overlooked. China will only purchase from foreign countries that for
which she can pay with her own products. The verdict of the
Inspector-General of Maritime Customs in China on the commercial
situation for 1898 is, “No doubt the Government is hard pressed for
funds, but _the country grows wealthier every year_.”[66]
Among the reasons given for the alleged “decay” of China is its
“over-population.” It is true that there are seriously congested areas,
even in SZE CHUAN, but if we take 400,000,000, the extreme estimate of
the population, it is but ten times that of Great Britain, while the
area of the empire is from sixteen to eighteen times as great.
What is “in decay” is the administration of government. The people are
straight, but officialism is corrupt.[67]
The subject has been fully dwelt upon in other books, with which I
suppose my readers to be acquainted. The theory of the Chinese
Government is one of the best ever devised by the wit of man. Against
every possible abuse apparent safeguards were provided. The enjoyment of
property and life was secured to the people. The laws in the main were
just, concise, and of equal pressure. The right of rising against a
corrupt and oppressive official was guaranteed. Literary examinations
were made the entrance to official life. Inferior birth was no bar to
the attainment of high position. The laws of the country embodied the
highest teaching of political ethics which it had received. The
patriarchal theory of government was never so systematised, or acted
upon for so long, and with so much consistency. The ethical teaching and
the laws based upon it remain, and the strongest power in China to-day
is Confucius; but the admirable theory of government has proved weak in
presence of the neglected factor of the downward tendency of human
nature in a pagan nation. The infamies of Chinese administration to-day
have been riveted upon China by centuries of political retrogression,
and the gradual lowering of the standard of public virtue in the absence
of a wholesome public opinion. Certain forms of bribery, corruption, and
peculation have obtained the force of custom, seven-tenths of the
revenue is arrested by the “three hands” of officials, all sums allotted
for public works, repairs, and military and naval equipment, suffer
enormous depletion _en route_ to their destinations, so that in the
Japanese war “a straight people with a corrupt Government” were easily
subdued by “a corrupt people with a straight Government.”[68]
One of the heaviest indictments against the system is, that under it it
is hardly possible for a good man to be rigidly honest, and there are
good men: and there are mandarins who, after a long and laborious period
of office, actually live and die poor. A well-meaning man, finding
himself entangled in the meshes of this system, is greatly to be pitied.
Custom is all in favour of peculation, and however much such men would
welcome a way of escape, to break with custom is as hard as to break off
the opium habit. Another difficulty besets the well-intentioned man—his
knowledge that his best efforts will certainly be frustrated by the
unscrupulous clerks and retainers of his _yamen_.
In Chapter XXIII. I just touched on the very laborious life of a
mandarin, who has to perform the work of six men, and rarely gets a
holiday. For this amount of work he is virtually unpaid, far more than
his wretchedly insufficient salary being expended on the necessary state
of his office. These nominal salaries are the deadly upas tree, which
has cast its fatal shadow over Chinese official life. They are the
_crux_ of the situation. They make peculation and corruption all but an
absolute necessity. Short periods of office, paying for appointments,
the evil custom of making presents to official superiors, the practice
that, after paying into the Imperial Exchequer the fixed quota of
taxation for his district, the magistrate can appropriate all that he
can squeeze beyond it, subject to liberal gifts to the high officials of
his province, are only a few of the evils of the Chinese administrative
system. It is chiefly out of this margin squeezed out of the people that
the fortunes of the higher officials are made.[69]
Every writer on China exposes the iniquities of the system, and they
come more or less to the ears and under the observation of every
traveller. They affect a fourth of the human race, and have brought the
most ancient of existing empires into the position of a “sick
man”—helpless, appealing, with voracious Western nations gnawing at his
extremities, and prepared to prey upon his vitals.
But China bristles with contradictions. The “sick man” ought to be “in
decay,” but he is not. His innate cheeriness is scarcely clouded by our
repeated assertions that he ought to be dead, and he faces the future
which we prophesy for him without misgiving! On the whole, peace, order,
and a fair amount of prosperity prevail throughout the empire. The gains
of labour are secure, taxation, even with the squeezes attending it, is
rarely oppressive in the country, and in the towns is extremely light.
The phrase “ground down” does not apply to the Chinese peasant. There is
complete religious toleration. Guilds, trades unions, and other
combinations carry out their systems unimpeded, and the Chinese genius
for association is absolutely unfettered. The Chinese practically in
actual life are one of the freest peoples on earth!
The reader may be staggered by what appears a monstrous paradox, in face
of the opinions regarding the infamies of administration previously
expressed, but if a single statement is applicable to the whole empire
it is this, that freedom is the birthright of the people, that they
possess “inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness,” and that China is one of the most democratic countries on
earth. The Government, feeble and evasive in its dealings with
foreigners, when it sets its mind on something among its own people, is
quite capable of carrying out its will, and is not nearly so impotent as
many suppose. Yet it habitually plays only a most minute part in the
economy of national life, and a Chinese may live and die without any
other contact with it than the payment of land-tax. He is free in all
trades and industries: to make money and to keep it: to emigrate and to
return with his gains: free to rise from the peasant’s hut to place and
dignity: to become a millionaire, and confer princely gifts upon his
province: free in his religion and his amusements: and in his social and
commercial life.
I have not space, knowledge, or ability to enter into the inwardness of
these extraordinary contradictions, and would only remark that we have
to deal in China not with a mass of downtrodden serfs, but with a nation
of free men.
I may be permitted, however, very diffidently to point out a few of the
reasons which, in my opinion, militate against the evils of
administration, and tend to the stability of the country. First among
these is the village system. In China the unit is not the individual but
the family, indivisible and sacred, the members of which are bound to
each other in life and death by indissoluble ties, of the strength of
which we cannot form a conception. Villages consist of groups of such
families, with their headmen and elders, who are responsible for each
individual, the step above them being the _hsien_, or district
magistrate, who may be regarded as the administrative unit. The Chinese
have a genius for self-government, and are by no means the “dumb, driven
cattle” which some suppose them to be. The villages are self-governing,
and no official dares to trench on their hereditary privileges. Every
successive dynasty has found itself bound to protect them in these, and
no “Son of Heaven” who called them in question could occupy the Dragon
Throne for six months.
These privileges, which by established custom have become actual rights,
consist primarily in the complete control of local affairs, the
possession of lands, and absolute freedom for trade and industry. Among
the many advantages of the village system is, that it enables villagers
in countless civil cases to avoid the serious evils of litigation in the
_yamens_ by the simple method of referring them to arbitration before
their headmen and elders.
Among other causes which tend to counterbalance the evils of the
administration, is the system of strict surveillance and mutual
responsibility, under which no man stands alone, and which as a vast
network holds China together. This has its own evils, one of which is
_mutual distrust_, which has, however, the good result of preventing men
from combining intelligently against the Government. The system makes
government easy, and certainly does not tend to disintegration.
Besides these there are the recognised right of rebellion when
grievances become intolerable; the execution of a species of lynch law
on culpable officials, which often takes the place of memorials to the
Throne, and courts of appeal; a certain dread on the part of magistrates
of being reported for corruption or inefficiency by the many spies of
the Central Government, or by the Censors, who, though said not to be
altogether free from venality, can, on occasion, be most remarkably
outspoken; the general education of the people in the principles on
which government is based; the genius for association which gives
strength to the weak; and the universal training both at home and school
in “The Five Duties of Man,” which are: (1) Loyalty to the Sovereign,
(2) piety to parents, (3) submissiveness to elders, (4) harmony between
husband and wife, (5) fidelity to friends.[70]
This is the empire which we speak of “partitioning” and “breaking up,”
with as little emotion as if it were an ant’s nest, with all its
singular contradictions, and emphatic antagonisms of good and evil.
There is a wide difference between bullying, in diplomatic language
“applying strong pressure,” and making righteous and politic demands
upon China. Nothing could be better for herself than the drastic reforms
suggested by Lord C. Beresford, but some of them involve what I think
would be an unwarrantable interference with her internal organisation.
Among righteous demands may certainly be placed the fulfilment of treaty
obligations—the giving security to the lives and property of foreigners
throughout the empire, which can only be attained by the formation of an
efficient army, or _gendarmerie_, well disciplined, drilled, armed, and
paid, and _mobile_—giving foreigners the right to live for trade
purposes in the interior (a right only conceded by Japan in July, 1899),
and an equable rearrangement of _likin_ and _loti-shui_.[71]
_Likin_ and _loti-shui_ are obnoxious taxes, and hamper trade
effectively, and the abuses of the system are very great, but abrupt and
sweeping changes would be very dangerous. It must be remembered that the
provincial governments have lost seriously through the operations of the
Imperial Maritime Customs (see p. 155), and rely mainly on _likin_ for
their revenue, that its abolition would involve a resort to direct
taxation, which would be intolerable to a people accustomed to indirect,
and would certainly lead to very serious risings in the West River and
Yangtze valleys. Official needs, established custom, and the relations
of the masses to custom, render the forcing of abrupt fiscal changes of
this nature upon the Chinese most impolitic, risking the disorganisation
and break up of China.
By bullying the Central Government it is made to “lose face” with its
subjects, and its authority is by so much weakened. The value of our
treaties absolutely depends on the power of the Government to give
effect to them. The sole security of the Chinese bondholder, and for the
sums invested, or to be invested in the railroads of the future, is the
integrity and cohesion of the Chinese Empire. Touch this integrity,
whether by active claims for “spheres of influence,” with consequent
disintegration, the enforced abolition of _likin_, or any policy of
pressure, and our treaties will be but waste paper. With regard to most
arrangements, however desirable in the way of reform they may be, the
word “insist,” pointing to coercion, should be blotted out of the
vocabulary of discussion.
I am still a believer in the justice and expediency of the “Open Door”
policy, as opposed to what I think is the fatal alternative policy of
“spheres of influence.” Many who would “rush” reforms in China, and are
impatient of delay, and are perhaps bitten by the “lust of domination,”
assert that it is too late for it, but I fail to see the reasons for
such a “counsel of despair.” The Marquess of Salisbury, at the end of
June, 1898, said: “If I am asked what our policy in China is, my answer
is very simple. It is to maintain the Chinese Empire, to prevent it
falling into ruins, to invite it into paths of reform, and to give it
every assistance which we are able to give it, to perfect its defence or
to increase its commercial prosperity. _By so doing we shall be aiding
its cause and our own._”[72] This announcement of policy has not been
recalled.
In the meantime it is impossible for China, pressed on every side, and
vaguely conscious that she stands at the “parting of the ways,” that
“the old order” is changing, and that she is in the grip of new forces,
to collect herself with a view to the reforms from which she cannot hope
to escape, and she falls back on her old idea of statesmanship—the
playing off one foreign country against another. After a career of
empire of two thousand years, in which she has increased in wealth and
population up to the present time, she finds herself at the dawn of a
new century, confronted by problems of which her classics and her
experience offer no solution, and the greatest of these is the
FOREIGNER.
In concluding this chapter, it is worth while to consider whether there
are any indications of reform from within, and whether the phrase, “The
awakening of China,” represents fact or not.
Our mechanical inventions, steamers, railroads, gas, telegraphs,
electric light, steam machinery, dredgers, artillery, torpedoes, arms of
precision, submarine telegraphy, steam printing, photography—our
surgery, the beauty and “up-keep” of our foreign settlements, and their
admirable municipal government, and our obvious wealth, have all been
emissaries knocking the conceit out of those who come in contact with
them. Chinese now work telegraph lines, own and run steam launches in
large numbers, enter our hospitals as medical students, and take
admirable photographs, nearly perfect in _technique_, only lacking in
artistic feeling. Factories owned and run by Chinese are springing up
here and there, and may eventually be successful. One of the great
passenger lines on the Lower Yangtze belongs to the “Chinese Merchants’
Company.”
Inland, for many years, foreign families have been living lives
elsewhere described—of different nationalities, but all worshippers of
one invisible God. Such persons have introduced into remote regions
kerosene lamps—which are doing much to alter social life in China, soap,
lucifer matches and vesta lights, condensed milk and tinned provisions,
sewing machines—enormously adopted by tailors, and much else, the
utility of all of which has been recognised, and which have compelled
the Chinese to admit the ability of the “barbarians.”
It is known, at least to the Chinese within fifty miles of the coast,
and up the Yangtze, on which Japanese steam lines are now running, that
the Japanese, who received from themselves the Chinese classics
centuries ago, have adopted the political and legal systems, industries,
and naval and military methods of foreigners; that they have a straight
Government, which no foreign power dares to bully; that they have been
received on equal terms into the family of nations, and that their
methods of warfare, before which China collapsed, were foreign methods.
The fact that a yellow people, venerating and teaching their own
classics, with a social order founded on Confucian principles, and with
Chinese as its official language, has adopted, to a great extent,
Western civilisation, and with manifest advantage, has produced a
remarkable effect since the war.
Last, but very far from being least, as it affects the brain of the
country and its natural leaders, is the circulation of the scientific,
historical, and Christian literature of the West. This is the Western
ferment which may “leaven the whole lump.” This circulation received an
enormous impulse when the reform edicts of the Emperor were promulgated,
making a knowledge of Western learning imperative on students, and has
not been greatly affected by the subsequent retrograde movement. It
cannot be doubted that those edicts, premature and unwise as some of
them were, were the direct result of the foreign literature which the
Emperor had previously been reading with avidity.
The larger portion of this literature, which I believe is destined to
reform and transform China, has been published by a society founded
twelve years ago by some of the leading men in China, and named the
“Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge.” Sir
Robert Hart, G.C.M.G., is its president in China, and Mr. Timothy
Richards, an enthusiast about the language and people, and an optimist
about the future of the empire, is its secretary and inspiring spirit.
The literature for which the demand is now greater than the supply,
consists of distinctly Christian books, such as _Butler’s Analogy_; _a
Life of Christ_; _Christianity, and the Progress of Nations_; scientific
books, as on _Agricultural Chemistry_ and _Astronomy_; books on economic
subjects, such as _Productive and Non-Productive Labour_, _The Relation
of Education to National Progress_, etc., and some of our best standard
books are now in circulation, together with such special literature as
_Essays for the Times_, _The Renaissance of China_, _Progress of China’s
Neighbours_, a periodical called _A Review of the Times_, and various
others. The drift of the desire for knowledge is shown by the very large
sale of Mackenzie’s _History of the Nineteenth Century_, and of a
_History of the Japanese War_; _Sixty Years of Queen Victoria’s Reign_
being also much in demand.
These books and many others, circulating largely among the _literati_,
at once creating and expressing aspirations, all present in some form or
other that higher ideal which produced those reformers, greatly led by
Kang Yen-Wei, who advocated political, commercial, educational, and
religious reform in 1898, rendering it memorable in Chinese history as a
year in which men showed that the welfare of their country was dearer to
them than life itself.
A few instances taken at random show how the Western leaven is working.
Large sums have been subscribed by the Chinese for the object of
teaching Western languages and learning, specially in the ports. Two
wealthy Chinese offered to raise 10,000 dollars for the enlargement of
the Women’s Hospital in Shanghai, if Dr. Reifsnyder, the lady medical
missionary, would consent to teach Western medicine to Chinese girls. A
Cantonese, one of the managers of the China Merchants’ Co., was so
impressed by Mr. Richards’ translation of Mackenzie’s _History of the
Nineteenth Century_, that he bought a hundred copies, and sent them to
the leading mandarins in Peking.
A HUNAN gentleman, visiting Shanghai two years ago, met with the
“C.L.S.” magazine, _Review of the Times_, and was so impressed with its
helpfulness to China, that he ordered two hundred copies, and
distributed them monthly in HUNAN to those who had specially opposed
foreigners and Christianity. These men, in their turn, ordered a
complete set of the “C.L.S.” books, and read them for two years in order
to be sure of their contents. Recently the Literary Chancellor of the
province wrote to the “C.L.S.” to the effect that China must reform, and
on the lines indicated in the Society’s publications, and in the name of
the governor and gentry of HUNAN invited the Chinese editor to become a
professor in the college of the provincial capital.[73]
The volume on _Agricultural Chemistry_ has been very largely read. Early
in 1899 the Viceroy of Nanking and others raised £50,000 for an
agricultural college, and invited Mr. Bentley, the author of the book,
an American missionary, to be its head. The Viceroy in Central China,
Chang-Chih-Tung, whose views on the use of opium I have previously
quoted, actually sympathised with the Yangtze anti-foreign riots in
1891, but by 1894 had been so profoundly influenced by the study of
Western literature that he sent a large donation to the “C.L.S.,” and
has lately published a book in which he strongly advocates the immediate
adoption of a modern system of education.
It is not alone among the older men that our literature is producing
marked effects here and there, but the literary students in considerable
numbers are fired with the desire for Western learning. Fifteen hundred
applied for entrance to the new Peking University, of which the learned
Rev. W. Martin, author of _A Cycle of Cathay_, is principal.
Occasionally foreign literature produces almost grotesque effects. A
_Hsien_ magistrate, having read Dr. Faber’s _Civilization, East and
West_, was much impressed by the chapter on our Western treatment of
prisoners, and at once set his own to work at spinning, weaving, and
basket-making, to the intense amusement of the retainers of the _yamen_.
In SZE CHUAN I saw few, if any, indications of the awakening which
undoubtedly exists. A foreign traveller, whether he speak Chinese or
not, does not see below the surface, and the province is far away from
the centres in which the Western leaven is working most energetically,
but in several places where I halted the mandarin sent to inquire if I
had any “foreign books?” Kuei-chow is one of the most anti-foreign of
the provinces, and it is noteworthy that lately her governor has sent to
the “C.L.S.” for 1000 dollars’ worth of Western literature.
I think that there is no doubt that the leaven of Western thought is
working surely though slowly among the literary class, and that the
reform movement, scotched, but not killed, by the strong measures of the
Empress Dowager, grew out of it.
Two causes favour the spread of Western literature; first that the four
hundred millions of the empire possess one written language, and second,
that there are 200 examination centres in China, and that at each, from
5000 to 10,000 students, the mandarins, lawyers, and leaders of the
future, a million in all, are under examination every year. Our best
literature, and our Christian literature, supplied to these centres
reaches the most influential homes in the country. Mr. Archibald Little,
the pioneer of steam navigation on the Upper Yangtze, and himself a
Chinese scholar, strongly urges the supply of “C.L.S.” literature to all
these centres. He considers that the mental revolution now proceeding,
and the reform movement, are largely due to the influence of books, and
even says that in the circulation of Western literature he sees the
great hope for the “Open Door!”
That irresistible forces are beginning to drive China out of her conceit
and seclusion is evident. Ten years ago there were only two or three
papers in the vernacular besides the official _Peking Gazette_. To-day
there are over seventy, and native journalism is actively developing.
Through the press the Young China Party—the creation of Anglo-Chinese
schools and foreign influence, chiefly in the ports—gives expression to
those feelings of unrest and discontent which its wider outlook on
affairs produces. Through it the younger _literati_, awakened to a new
conception of patriotism by contact with Western thought, denounce the
ignorance and corruption of the magistracy, and urge as a remedy the
introduction of mathematics and political economy into the provincial
examinations! The Viceroy, ChangChih-Tung, not only founded a paper
“which was to engage the sympathies of the literary class in the work of
progress and reform, and to interest its readers in questions of
international and general importance,”[74] but made its support
compulsory in all the _yamens_ and libraries in the _Hu_ provinces. Its
staff is said to be composed of men who combine broad views with
classical scholarship, and it is reputed to have great influence with
the upper classes, even though the reforming Viceroy has had to withdraw
his official support from it.
It is too early to write of the probable influence of the coming
railroads. It is easy to take an exaggerated view, but undoubtedly rapid
communication is a great foe to darkness and ignorance. Everywhere there
are indications of a change in the “classes” which lead the “masses.”
There is a Chinese saying, that “if you wish to irrigate a piece of land
you must first carry the water to the highest level, so, if you wish to
enlighten a nation, you must begin with its leaders.” Very important and
valuable inquiries have been made into all subjects connected with
trade; but this mental change, which will probably exercise an enormous
influence on trade and our relations with China, has been singularly
overlooked.
It is perhaps best that there should be no abrupt rupture with the past.
The reform edicts, though abrogated, have kindled a flame; and though
there may be suspended progress, China can never really go back any
more, for the forces which have been set in motion have never yet
suffered defeat. “The mills of God grind slowly,” but they grind
inexorably. Let us be patient with our ancient ally, and “invite” rather
than bully her into “paths of reform.” I fear much that the desperate
determination of the European nations to secure her potentialities of
trade by fair means or foul, may be driving her to her doom, and that in
the clash and turmoil the symptoms of an increasing desire for reform
from within—a reform which would slowly give us all we can righteously
ask—are being overlooked or ignored.
Into her archaic and unreformed Orientalism the Western leaven has
fallen for good or evil. Rudely awakened by the Japanese victories out
of her long sleep, China, half dismayed and wholly dazed, with much loss
of “face,” and shaken confidence in the methods of diplomacy which have
served her so well in the past, finds herself confronted by an array of
powerful, grasping, ambitious, and not always over-scrupulous powers,
bent, it may be, on over-reaching her and each other, ringing with
barbarian hands the knell of the customs and polity which are the legacy
of Confucius, clamouring for ports and concessions, and bewildering her
with reforms, suggestions, and demands, of which she sees neither the
expediency nor the necessity.
In this turmoil, and with the European nations thundering at her gates,
it is impossible for China to attempt any reforms which would not from
the nature of the case be piecemeal and superficial. The reform of an
administration like hers needs the prolonged and careful consideration
of the best minds in the empire, with such skilled and disinterested
foreign advice as was given by Sir Harry Parkes to Japan when she
embarked on her new career.
It must be remembered that the remodelling of the administrative system
of China is beset with difficulties which have not existed in any other
country, and which are accentuated by the vast population and area of
the empire. Chinese statesmen (if there be such) have to consider what
reforms could be carried out with the approval of the masses, _i.e._,
without bringing about a revolution. The very abuses of administration
have gained something of the sanctity which attends on custom among this
singular people. It is most important that those who have to deal with
Chinese affairs should be able to obtain such information as would
enable them to make a just estimate of the strength and probable
diffusion of the desire for reform among the _literati_, at whose feet
the masses lie with a genuine reverence.
China is certainly at the dawn of a new era. Whether the twentieth
century shall place her where she ought to be, in the van of Oriental
nations, or whether it shall witness her disintegration and decay,
depends very largely on the statesmanship and influence of Great
Britain.
ITINERARY
_Li._[75]
Wan Hsien to San-tsan-pu 65
Ting-tsiao 63
Liang-shan Hsien 50
Wen-kia-cha 60
Chai-shih-kiao 60
Hsia-shan-po 73
Kiu Hsien 60
Ching-sze-yao 60
Siao-kiao 65
Sha-shih-pu 55
Hsieh-tien-tze 75
King-kiang-sze 65
Heh-shui-tang 65
PAONING FU 65
Hsia-wu-li-tze 40
Sin-tien-tze 90
Mao-erh-tiao 90
Tien-kia-miao 70
Wu-lien 115
Tze-tung Hsien 80
Cheng-hsiang-po 80
Mienchow 43
Lun-gan (?) 90
Mienchuh 70
Shuang-tu-ti 45
Peng Hsien 80
Kuan Hsien 70
Sin-fan Hsien 105
Sin-tu Hsien 30
CHENG-TU FU 40
Kuan Hsien 120
Fu-ki 30
Sin-wen-ping 60
Shuo-chiao 40
Wei-cheo 60
Li-fan Ting 65
Tsa-ku-lao 60
Chuang-fang 60
Chu-ti 45
Miao-ko 50
Matang 105
Somo 60
Cheng-tu Fu to Shanghai, by water, 2000 miles.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A.
The Rules of the Chinese Guilds are too long and elaborate for insertion
in this appendix, and condensation would do them an injustice.
APPENDIX B.[76]
1. NET VALUE OF TOTAL
TRADE OF PORTS IN THE
YANGTZE BASIN, 1898.
£
Shanghai 13,296,643
Chungking 2,614,031
Ichang 194,359
Sha-shih 25,666
Hankow 8,065,717
Kiukiang 2,625,083
Wuhu 1,527,079
Chinkiang 3,471,532
Soochow 229,113
Hangchow 1,199,022
—————
£33,248,245
===========
2. TRADE OF SHANGHAI, 1898.
_Foreign Goods_— £ £
Total import =19,073,534=
Less re-exported—
(_a_) To foreign countries and Hongkong 745,000
(_b_) To Chinese ports (chiefly to
northern and Yangtze ports) 13,914,558
——————————
14,659,558
Making net total foreign imports =4,413,976=
_Native Produce_—
Imported (chiefly from northern and Yangtze
ports, Ningpo, Swatow, Canton, and =11,413,637=
Hangchow)
Less re-exported to foreign countries and
Chinese ports 9,724,673
——————————
Making net total Native imports =1,688,964=
Native produce of local origin exported =7,193,704=
to foreign countries =4,676,674=
Ditto to Chinese ports =2,517,029= „
—————————— ——————————
Gross value of trade of Shanghai =£37,680,875=
Net „ „ „ =£13,296,643= ==========
==========
3. TOTAL NET IMPORT OF
OPIUM INTO CHINA FOR
1898.
Quantity 6,638,333 lbs.
Value £4,388,365
4. TOTAL VALUE OF FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA IN 1898.
= Hk. Taels 368,616,483 = £55,292,472.
5. SHARE OF ENGLAND IN CHINA’S TRADE FOR 1898.[77]
I. _Shipping._
───────────────────┬───────────┬───────────┬───────────────────────────
Flag. │Entries and│ Tonnage. │ Percentages of Tonnage.
│Clearances.│ │
───────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼─────────────┬─────────────
„ │ „ │ „ │ (A.) │ (B.)
│ │ │ Including │ Excluding
│ │ │ Chinese. │ Chinese.
British │ 22,609│ 21,265,966│ 62·12│ 81·65
Chinese │ 23,547│ 8,187,572│ 23·92│
Other nationalities│ 6,505│ 4,780,042│ 13·96│ 18·35
───────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼─────────────┼─────────────
│ 52,661│ 34,253,580│ 100│ 100
───────────────────┴───────────┴───────────┴─────────────┴─────────────
II. _Trade._
───────────────────┬───────────┬─────────┬───────────┬─────────────────
Flag. │ Total │ Transit │ Total. │ Percentages of
│ Values │ Trade. │ │ Value.
│ Foreign & │ │ │
│ Coast │ │ │
│ Trade. │ │ │
───────────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼───────────┼────────┬────────
│ £ │ £ │ £ │ (A.) │ (B.)
British │ 76,236,290│2,695,437│ 78,931,727│ 51·88│ 79·40
Chinese │ 50,163,445│2,410,663│ 52,574,108│ 34·56│
Other nationalities│ 19,385,235│1,217,343│ 20,602,578│ 13·56│ 20·60
───────────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼───────────┼────────┼────────
│145,784,970│6,323,443│152,108,413│ 100│ 100
───────────────────┴───────────┴─────────┴───────────┴────────┴────────
6. PRINCIPAL IMPORTS INTO CHINA FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES,
1898.[78]
Quantity. Value.
Opium 6,638,000 lbs. £4,388,385
Cotton goods 11,642,824
Raw cotton 30,534,000 lbs. 425,959
Woollen Goods 478,525
Metals 1,468,061
Matches (mainly Japanese) 11,352,304 gross 389,561
Oil (Kerosene) 96,882,126 gallons 1,787,205
Sugar 10,793 tons 2,029,267
Other imports 8,827,113
———————————
Total £31,436,900
===========
7. PRINCIPAL EXPORTS FROM CHINA TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES,
1898.[78]
Quantity. Value.
Silk, of all kinds 35,651,333 lbs. £8,415,584
Tea „ „ 205,146,667 lbs. 4,331,922
Other Exports 11,108,066
———————————
Total £23,855,572
===========
INDEX
A.
Aconite, Trade in, 339.
_Agricultural Chemistry_, Circulation of the vol. on, 541.
Albumen factories, 65.
Allen, Consul Clement, his report on mission hospitals, 47.
Altar of Incense, An, 418.
American Baptists, The, 471.
Ancestor-worship, 522.
An Hui, North, 6.
An-shun Bridge, The, 460.
B.
Baber, Mr., 3, 265, 451;
his papers on Western China, 156;
on rock-dwellings, 467.
Baggage coolies, 196.
Baian Kara range, The, 2.
Baker, Mr., 416.
Bamboo suspension bridges, 378.
“Barbarians,” Villages of the, 376, 377, 382–385.
Barbers, Itinerant, 80.
Be-dien, The author’s interpreter, 55, 155;
his character, 207.
Beggars, Treatment of, 187.
“Bellows” gorge. See Feng Hsiang.
Benevolent guilds, 182.
Benjamin, Bishop, 99, 100, 102.
Beresford, M.P., Lord Charles, 530;
his suggested reforms, 536.
Blakiston, Captain, his description of the “Pillar of Heaven,” 106;
of trackers, 142.
Bourne, Consul, 140, 142, 149 (note), 496 (note), 499;
on opium smoking, 515.
Brick tea factories, 65.
Bridges, 231, 232, 252.
British Merchant, Dependence of the, upon the Chinese compradore, 20,
21;
decrease of his trade, 64.
Buffalo, The water, 232, 235.
Bullock, Mr. and Mrs., 15.
C.
Callum, Mr., 348.
Canadian Mission, The, 519.
_Canons of Filial Duty_, The, 277.
“Canton opium,” 512.
Carles, Consul, 188 (note);
on missionaries helping trade, 47.
Cassels, Bishop, 281, 286.
Census, The taking of a, 270.
_Century of Surnames_, The, 277.
Chai-jen, 211, 390, 393, 396.
Chair travelling, 202.
Chang, 423.
Chang Chih-tung, H. E., on opium smoking, 516;
on education, 541;
influence of Western literature on, 541.
Chang-fei, The temple of, 166, 167, 168 (note).
_Chang-wo_, The s.s., 83.
Chapel of Meditations, The, 358.
Che, 145.
Che-kiang, Province of, 1;
use of _pahs_ or haulovers in, 32;
Christian converts in, 521.
Chengtu, 2, 8, 351, 352, 458, 463;
musk trade of, 339;
canals and bridges of, 355;
population of, 343;
temples of, 357;
wall of, 355.
Chengtu plain, The, 194, 324, 329, 334, 347, 458;
products of, 343, 348.
Chia-ling Fu, 3, 464, 477.
Chia-ling river, The, 3, 273, 280, 281, 314;
affluents of, 4;
walls on, 86.
Chiang-Ku, 463.
Ch’ien Tang river, The, 34.
China, administration of Government in, 532;
books most in demand in, 540;
contradictions in, 534;
examination centres in, 542;
maritime customs of, 155, 531;
newspapers in, 542;
population of, 532;
trade of, 531, 546–548;
travelling necessaries in, 56 (note);
village system in, 535;
Western literature in, 539–542.
“China ink,” 58.
China Inland Mission, The, 471, 477, 495, 519, 527.
Chinese brutality, 420;
Buddhism and Western civilisation, 12;
charities, 181–193;
civilisation, 12;
classics, 276–279;
cotton factory, 59;
curiosity, 210;
currency, 92;
delicacies, 298;
divinities, 193;
drinks and food, 300, 302;
education, 274 _et seq._;
energy and skill, 6, 10;
genius for self-government, 535;
guest-room, 175;
inns, 202, 205;
justice, 214;
medicines, 52;
mob, 219;
proverb, 7;
roads, 243;
social and commercial organisation, 13;
theatricals, 330;
towns, 250;
trading instincts, 12;
views of humanity, 182;
women, 242, 270.
Chinese bondholder, Security of the, 537.
_Chinese Gazetteer_, The, 8.
“Chinese Merchants’ Company,” The, 538.
Ching-chou Fu, 87–89.
Ching-sze-yao, 246.
Chinkiang, 3, 9;
benevolent institutions in, 184 _et seq._;
British concessions at, 56 (and note), 57;
grand canal at, 6;
guilds and trade of, 57, 58;
influence of the Yangtze river at, 7;
situation of, 56.
Chin Sha river, The, 471;
source and course of, 2;
junction with the Min, 2, 3;
navigable portion of, 2.
Chin-shuan river, The, 429.
Chin-tai, 224.
_Chipa_, 118, 128, 147.
_Chod-tens_, 423.
Cho-ko-ki tribe, The, 442, 443.
Christian converts, 524.
Christianity, Influence of, 48, 518, 522, 529.
Chuang-fang, 413.
Chungking, 3, 463, 486;
effect of opening as a treaty port, 142, 155, 180;
importation of cotton into, 8;
Mr. Little’s voyage to, 138;
position of, 490;
products of, 490;
rapids near, 8;
rise of the Yangtze at, 4, 5, 7;
trade of, 339, 496, 499;
union of Chia-ling and Yangtze at, 280.
Chung-ku-lo temple, The, 179.
Church Missionary Society’s Mission, 286, 519, 527.
Chusan archipelago, The, 55.
Chu-ti, 415, 416.
Classics, Chinese school, 276, 277.
“Cloudy Province,” The, 460, 464.
Coal-mine, A visit to a, 481.
Coffins, 313.
Colquhoun, Mr., 530, 536 (note).
Confucianism, 11, 12, 528, 532.
_Cores de Vries_, The s.s., 184.
Cormack, Mr. and Mrs., 323.
Cottons, English, 308.
Couching Dragon, Gorge of the, 338.
“Cross Beam” rapid, The, 136.
“Cycle of Cathay,” A, 541.
D.
Davies, Mr., 176.
Dudgeon, Dr., 513.
Dust storms, Agency of, 5.
_Dzai-zen-pusa_, or the God of Wealth, 356.
Dzo, Herds of, 422, 425, 455.
E.
Educated, Ignorance of the, 177.
Education in China, 274 _et seq._
“Eight Cliffs,” Gorge of the, 171.
Elephantiasis, A case of, 442.
Elgin, Lord, his visit to Hankow, 61.
“Emily Clayton Memorial,” The, 320.
Endacott, Mr., 83, 114, 149;
rock-dwellings in his garden, 467.
Erh-Wang temple, The, 340.
_Esk_, the gunboat, Accident on, 96.
F.
Faber’s _Civilization East and West_, Dr., 541.
Fans, Export and manufacture of, 37, 478;
use of, 478.
Feng Hsiang gorge, The, 110, 151, 155, 505.
Fire wells, 273.
“Five Duties of Man,” The, 536.
“Five Hundred Disciples,” Temple of the, 38.
Foot-binding, The practice of, 240.
“Foreign smoke,” 508.
Fou river, The, 316, 319.
Fox, Mr., escorts the author over native Shanghai, 25.
Fu river, The, 280.
Fu-chow, 4, 501, 502.
Fuh-ri-gan pass, 224, 227.
Fu-ki, 366.
Fu-kien, Christianity in, 518.
Fu-ling river, The, 3, 4, 501, 502.
Funeral ceremonies, 314.
Fung Shui mystery, The, 96.
G.
Gandar, Père, 6.
Gardner, Consul, 114.
Gerard, M., 101.
“Get-down-from-horse” rapid, The, 151.
Gill, Capt., 142, 357 (note), 377, 389, 393 (note), 424, 457 (note).
“Glorious Rapid,” The, 140.
“Glory of Buddha,” Pilgrimage to the, 464.
Goitre, Prevalence of, 442, 449.
“Goose-tail” rock, The, 152.
Government administration, Corruption of, 532.
Gowers, Miss, 291.
Grainger, Mr., 339, 343.
Grand Canal, The, 3;
at Chinkiang, 6;
between Hangchow and Chinkiang, 31.
“Great Gold River,” The, 424, 434, 514.
Great Plain, The, 4;
characteristics of, 5;
dust storms in, 5;
annual inundations on, 10, 501.
Guilds, 58, 66, 499, 534.
H.
Han river, The, 4;
trade on, 6, 9;
at Hankow, 77.
Hangchow, 29–54;
the entrance to, 33;
silk looms at, 37;
situation of, 38;
the “bore,” 38;
wall of, 43;
population of, 43;
Japanese settlement in, 43;
the Medical Mission Hospitals at, 44–54.
Hang-kia, 425.
Hankow, 4, 505;
rise of the Yangtze at, 4, 7, 8, 62;
communication with, 9;
first impressions of, 59;
the Bund, 61;
Lord Elgin’s visit to, 61;
chief buildings in, 61;
foreign community in, 62;
climate of, 62;
currency in, 63;
trade in, 63, 64, 65, 66;
loss of English trade in, 64;
guilds of, 66;
native quarter, 67;
the wall and streets of, 67, 68;
coffin shops of, 72;
the harbour of, 78, 79;
English Wesleyan missionaries in, 81;
charities at, 189.
_Hankow Times_, The, 62.
Han Yang, 61.
Hart, G.C.M.G., Sir Robert, 540.
Heng-liang-tze rapid, The, 128.
“Henrietta Bird” Hospital, The, 291.
Henry of Canton, Dr., 182.
Hicks, Mr., 104.
Hill, Rev. David, 82, 181.
Hing-lung-t’an rapid, The, 140.
Hirst, Consul, on opium smoking, 515.
Hoang Ho, The, 6.
Ho, Admiral, 149.
Ho-chow, 4.
Holland, Mr., 99.
Honan, Province of, 1, 6.
Hongkew, the American settlement of Shanghai, 17.
Honton, or Fu river, The, 4.
Horsburgh, Rev. Heywood, 323, 324, 361.
Hsai-shan-po, 239.
Hsiang river, The, 4;
trade on, 6.
Hsin-tan rapid, The, 118, 121, 123, 127, 505.
Hsin-tan village, 121.
Huai and its tributaries, Commercial routes on the, 6.
Huang-pu river, Trade on the, 16, 24.
Hunan, Province of, 1;
possibilities for Lancashire trade in, 65.
“Hunan Tracts,” The, 257.
Hunan “braves,” 88.
Hupeh province, 1.
—— ranges, The, 8.
I.
Ichang, 4, 505;
cotton imports into, 8;
first view of, 95;
foreigners in, 96;
junks at, 95;
mission buildings at, 95;
rapids near, 8;
Roman missions at, 99–101;
the Yangtze at, 8.
Ichang gorge, The, 106, 109, 505.
Idols, Dealers in, 71.
Indian opium, Use of, 512.
Inland mission work, 285 _et seq._
—— sanitarium, 292.
I-ren, The. See Mantze.
“Iron Coffin Gorge,” The, 150.
Itinerary, The author’s, 545.
J.
James, Mr., 477.
Jamieson, Consul-General, 221.
Japanese commercial activity, 65, 91;
adoption of Chinese classics and Western methods, 539.
Ja-ra Peak, The, 457.
Jardine, Matheson, and Co., 18.
John, Dr. Griffith, 60.
Jsai li Sect, The, 511.
Junks, 79, 95, 138–149;
at Fu-chow, 502.
_Juvenile Instructor_, The, 278.
K.
Kanpo, Towers at, 383.
Kan river, The, 4;
junction with the Yangtze, 6.
Kansuh, S.E. drainage area of, 1, 3;
the Mohammedan rebellion in, 530;
trade of, 280.
Kay, Mr., 361, 362, 393, 394, 396, 419, 420, 425, 429, 438, 441.
Kelly and Walsh, Book-store of, 20.
Kerosene oil, Import of, 66.
Kiang-peh, 490.
Kiangsi china, 66.
—— Province of, 1.
Kiangsu, Province of, 1;
influence of the Yangtze on, 7.
Kien-ing, Anti-Christian riots at, 518.
Kimber, Dr., 44, 54 (note).
_Kin hwa_, or “golden flowers,” 161.
King Ho stream, The, 249.
King-kiang-sze, 269.
King-mien-sze, 249.
Kin-ta river, The, 434.
“Kitten” rapid, The, 151.
Kiu-ho river, The, 244.
Kiu Hsien, 244.
Kiu-kiang, 9, 59.
Koko Nor, The, 339.
Ku river, The, 4, 280.
Kuan, 458.
Kuang Yuen, 280.
Kuan Hsien, 2, 338;
the city temple of, 362;
hostility to foreigners, 347.
Kueichow, 31, 128.
—— Province of, 1;
import of opium into, 507, 515;
demand for Western literature in, 542.
—— City, dust storm in, 5.
Kueichow Fu, or Kuei Fu, 8, 152–165;
inhabitants’ hostility to foreigners, 153;
value of _Likin_ at, 154;
New Year’s Day at, 160–165.
Ku-erh-kio, 415, 456.
Kukiang, Benevolent institutions at, 189.
Kung-tan river, 501.
_Kwan Yin_, the goddess of Mercy, 55.
Kwa-tung rapid, The, 118.
Kyin-pan-si pass, 244.
L.
Lamas, Earnings of, 445.
Lao-ma, or “Old Horse” rapid, 166.
Lao-min-tze, 117.
Lao-pan, or skipper, The, 104, 124, 141, 145, 149.
Lawton, Rev. W., 181, 188 (note).
Liang-shan Hsien, 219, 222.
Li-fan Ting, 361, 377, 382, 384, 389, 457;
a custom at, 390.
_Likin_, 93, 537;
at Kuei Fu, 154, 155.
Limin-fu, 490.
Li Ping, Temple of, 339, 343;
irrigation works of, 344.
Literary examinations, 532.
Literati and Christianity, The, 525;
Western literature chiefly circulated amongst, 540;
its influence, 542, 544.
Literature, The god of, 312, 313.
—— of the West, Circulation of, 539–542.
Little, Mr. A., at Chung-King, 495;
his description of the “Pillar of Heaven,” 106;
estimate of volume of water in Yeh-tan rapid, 132;
his voyage on the Yangtze, 138;
estimate of the loss of junks, 140;
on Sze Chuan, 477;
on trackers, 142;
on the influence of books, 542.
—— Mrs. Archibald, 241 (note).
Litton, Mr., 280;
his report on Sze Chuan, 11 (note), 194;
on the use of “water tobacco,” 513 (note).
Lo-kia-chan, 331;
assault on the author at, 332.
Lolo tribes, The, 471.
Longevity, The temple of, 166.
Loti-shui, 537.
Louvets, Mons., 518 (note).
Lu, Dr., 48.
Lu-chien, 485.
Lu-chow, 3, 477.
Lu-fang, 311.
Lu Yew, the traveller, 31, 32.
M.
Mackenzie’s _History of the Nineteenth Century_, 540.
Main, Dr., 33, 44, 48, 49, 50, 54 (note), 510, 513.
Maitreya Buddha, Figure of, 467.
Malcolm, Dr., 54 (note).
Manchuria, Scottish and Irish missions in, 518.
Mandarins or _kuans_, 253, 533.
Mantze cultivation, 422;
custom, 415;
dwellings, 377, 382–386, 389, 395, 408, 410, 413, 415;
hospitality, 413.
Mantze, The, absence of disease amongst, 442;
burials amongst, 445;
character of, 450;
customs of, 444;
dress of, 451;
language of, 449;
maladies and morals of, 449;
position of women amongst, 446;
religion of, 445;
trade and commerce of, 450.
Mao-erh-tiao, 302.
Martin, Rev. W., 541.
Matang, 339, 430, 455;
beauty of Mantze women at, 430.
Matang river, The, 433, 434.
Meadows, Mr., 534 (note).
Medical missions, 44–54.
Meichow, 463.
Mei-ling pass, The, 6.
Meitel, Bishop, 102.
Melon seeds, Games with, 299.
Mia-ko, 421–423.
Miao Chitze, or “Temple Stairs” rapid, 166.
_Middle Kingdom_, Dr. W. Williams’s, 276 (note), 314 (note).
Mien-chow, 319;
temple of Confucius at, 320.
Mien-chuh Hsien, 324;
C.M.S. House at, 329.
“Military Code,” Gorge of the, 128.
_Millenary_, The, 277.
Min, or Fu river, 337, 338, 339, 340, 460;
source of the, 2;
navigable waters of, 2;
junction with the River of Golden Sand, 3;
importance in the eyes of Chinese geographers, 3;
affluents of, 3;
traffic on, 8;
bamboo bridges over, 365;
character of, 366;
branches of, 374, 426;
villages on, 375;
junction with the Ya and Tatu, 464;
rock-dwellings on, 467, 468, 471.
Min gorge, The, 367.
Mission hospitals, 44–54;
Dr. Christie’s at Mukden, 49 (note);
patients in, 52.
Missionaries, Attitude of Chinese towards, 528;
protection afforded to, 258;
troubles of, 320.
Mitan gorge, The, 110, 128.
Money annoyances, 212.
Morphia, Importation of, 510.
Morrison, Dr., of the _Times_, 172.
Mosquitoes, 478.
Mou-kung Ting road, The, 373.
Moule, Bishop, 44.
Mount Omi, 463.
Mukden, 533 (note);
suicides in, 51.
Musk trade, 339.
N.
Nan river, The, 463.
Nanking, 9, 59.
Nan-mu-yurh, 150.
Nan-po glen, The, 505.
Nan-pu, 274, 280.
Nan-to, 110, 117.
Nganhui, Province of, 1;
manufacture of “China ink” in, 58.
Nganking, 9, 59.
Niang-tze-ling pass, 366.
Ningpo, 55.
—— varnish, 44, 72.
Nitrate of soda, 381.
Niu-kan gorge, The, 110, 118.
Niu-kau-tan rapid, The, 128.
O.
_Odes for Children_, 277.
Official visiting, 459.
Omi-shan precipice, The, 4;
pilgrimages to, 366, 464.
“Open door” Policy, The, 537.
Opium poppy and its use, 348, 506–517.
Orphan rocks, The, 59.
P.
_Pah_, The, or haulover, 4, 32.
_Pai-fangs_, 198, 218, 252.
Pai-shui Chiang, 280.
——river, The, 4, 280.
Pa-ko-shan, 490.
Paoning Fu, 86, 280, 282;
solitary journey to, 194;
result of using opium at, 507;
church building at, 520;
mission stations at, 526.
Parkes, Sir Harry, 544.
Passport difficulties, 397, 399.
Passports, 211, 441, 452.
Peh-shi, Trade in coal at, 481;
trees at, 485 (note).
Peh-teo-shan pass, 390, 405.
Pei-shih, 151.
Peking Government, Weakness of the, 13, 14.
Peng Hsien, 333, 334.
Peng-shan Hsien, 463.
Phillips, Mr. and Mrs., 329.
Photographic difficulties, 156.
Pigou, Mr., 24.
“Pillar of Heaven,” The, 106.
Ping Shan, 2, 471.
Ping-shu gorge, The, 121, 124.
_Poyang_, The s.s., 56;
runs down a junk, 59.
Poyang lake, The, 4;
area of, 6.
Prayer-flags, 445.
—— wheels, 408, 422, 445.
“Prince’s Temple,” The, 357.
Prjevalsky, Colonel, his exploration of the Yangtze, 2.
Protestant missionaries, 102, 518 _et seq._
Pruen, Dr., 291.
Putu, The Island of, 55.
Pu-tung Point, 17.
Pyramid Hill, 96.
R.
Railroads, Probable influence of, 543.
Ramsay, Miss, 175–177.
“Red Basin,” The, 16, 63, 246, 247, 248, 264.
Reed-beds of the Yangtze, 85.
Reifsnyder, Dr., 540.
Religious dramas, 329.
_Review of the Times_, The, 541.
Rhubarb, Importation of, 339.
Rice-fields, 7.
Richards, Mr. Timothy, 540.
_River of Golden Sand_, Captain Gill’s, 357 (note).
Rock-dwellings, 467, 468, 471.
Roman missions, 99–103, 523.
Rong-Kia river, The, 433, 434.
Rope bridges, 369.
Rosthorn, Mr. Von, 3, 8, 395, 441.
S.
Sai-pei-tu pass, 228.
Salisbury, The Marquess of, on England’s policy in China, 538.
Salt boilers, 152.
—— wells, 273.
Sampans, 85, 124, 140.
San-tsan-pu, 202.
Sar-pu, 224.
Schjöltz, Mr., 96.
Secret societies, 524.
Shan-Shang-Ren. See Mantze.
Shanghai, Astor House at, 21;
author’s return to, 505;
Benevolent Society at, 22;
British and American settlements in, 19, 23;
Chinese element in, 18, 24–26;
country round, 5, 15, 16;
French settlement in, 23;
hospitality in, 21;
impressions upon landing at, 17;
Ladies’ Benevolent Society at, 22;
missions at, 22;
why called “the model settlement,” 19;
municipality of, 19;
Royal Asiatic Society’s branch at, 23;
Sailors’ Home of Rest, at, 22;
Women’s Hospital in, 540.
Shang-wa-li-tze market-place, 296.
Shanjin, 31.
Shan-rang Ho river, The, 266.
Shan-rang-sar, 224.
Shan-si, Banking talent in, 499.
Shantung, S.E. drainage area of, 1.
Shao Hsing, 55, 161.
Sha-shih, 4, 85, 86, 87;
character of the Yangtze at, 6;
commercial routes from, 93;
cottons of, 308;
fish market at, 90;
missions in, 91;
pagoda at, 89;
population of, 89;
refugees at, 89;
trade of, 91, 92.
Shen-kia-chao, Pass of, 214.
Shensi, trade route to, 93.
Shensi, S.E. drainage area of, 1.
Shih-men, 482.
Shi-Tze-Ping pass, 424.
Shih-pao-chai, 502.
_Shui Li Fu_, or “Prefect of the Waterways,” The, 347.
Shun, The Emperor, 522.
Shuo-chiao, 374;
scarcity of food at, 375.
Shu river, The, 4.
_Siao Hioh_, The, 278.
Siao-Ho, The, 361, 366, 377, 384, 395, 404, 409, 424, 455;
gorge of, 378.
Siao-Kiao, 249.
Sifans, The, 443, 449.
Si-hu, 38, 49.
Silk, Manufacture of, 37.
Silver Island, 56.
Sing-an hamlet, 467.
Sing-fang Hsien, 348.
Sing-king-pa Hsien, 266.
Sin-tien-tze, 292, 296.
Sin-tu Hsien, 311, 348.
Sin-wen-ping, 371.
“Sleeping Buddha,” Temple of the, 471.
Small River, The, 424.
Smith’s _Chinese Characteristics_, Rev. Arthur, 181, 183, 192.
Snowstorm, A blinding, 426.
“Snowy Mountains,” The, 424.
Soil, god of the, Shrines to the, 344.
Soldiers, 81.
Somo, 377, 441;
absence of bird-life in, 452;
the people of, 443;
product of, 450.
—— Castle, 452.
Spearmen, An escort of, 433.
“Sphere of Influence” Policy, The, 530, 537.
Squibb, Dr., 320.
Stevenson, Mrs. Owen, 104, 135, 136, 168.
Su-chow creek; 17, 23, 29.
Suicide in China, 51.
Sui-fu, 2, 3, 429, 471;
rapids between and Kueichow Fu, 8.
Su-ma-tou, 463.
Sun Bridge mountain, The, 2.
Sundius, Mr., 43.
Sung-pan-ting, 339.
—— road, 373.
Sunstroke in Sze Chuan, 478.
Superstitions, 122, 162, 188.
Sze Chuan, Area, climate, population, etc., of, 9–11, 532;
coal-fields of, 4, 224, 239;
cotton fabrics of, 8, 91;
exports from, 149 (note);
fanaticism in, 477;
famine in, 89;
demand for foreign books in, 542;
inns in, 251 (note);
junks of, 95, 138–149;
markets of, 265, 266;
objection to open chairs in, 196;
oil trade of, 71;
opium exports from, 514;
_pai-fangs_ of, 198;
prevalence of sunstroke in, 478;
poppy cultivation in, 506;
province of, 1, 194;
the rebellion in, 530;
“Red Basin” of, 16, 63, 246–248, 264;
resources of, 3, 247, 531;
revenue, sources of, 155;
sale of drugs in, 459;
sale of girls in, 270;
salt exports from, 153;
silver of, 63;
travelling in, 207;
villages in, 264;
women of, 176;
women’s dress in, 242.
T.
Ta Chin, or Ta Kin-Shuan River, 434.
Ta-fan, 386.
Ta-ho, The, 377.
Tai-hu lake, Area of the, 6.
_Tai-kung_, or bowsman, The, 141, 142, 145, 147.
Taiping Fu, 59.
Taiping Rebellion, The, 31, 59.
_Tai-wan-ti_, The, 145.
Ta-Kin Ho river, The, 429.
Ta-ling, 151.
Ta-lu road, The, 311, 313.
Ta-miao, Temples of, 316.
Tang-pa mountain, The, 424.
Taoism, 11, 12.
Ta-tan rapid, The, 118.
Tatu, or Tung river, The, 434, 464.
Ta-tien-lu, 441.
_T’au-lao_, or head tracker, 141.
_T’au-tai-kung_, or pilot, 141.
“Tea Extract,” 511.
Theatrical companies, 330.
Thompson, Mr. and Mrs., 175, 176, 190 (note), 196, 205, 207.
“Three Religions,” The, 525;
temple of, 178.
“Three Water Guardians,” The, 171.
“Throne of Snow,” The, 404.
Tibetan dogs, 430.
—— drugs, 338.
Tien-kia-miao, 307.
Tiger Teeth gorge, 94.
Ting-hai, 55.
Ting Library, The, 34.
Torii of Japan, The, 219.
To river, 3.
_T’ou-jen_, The, 444.
Towers, Ancient, 383.
Trackers, 132, 135, 136, 141, 142, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149;
clothing of, 146;
at dinner, 159.
Trackers’ villages, 118, 123.
Trade requirements, 308.
Travelling outfit, 195.
_Trimetrical Classic_, The, 276.
Tsa-ku-lao, 395, 457;
population of, 400;
situation of, 399.
Tsing-pu hills, The, 5.
Tsu-ku-shan pass, 429, 455.
Tsung-ming, The island of, 7.
Tung or Tatu river, The, 3, 282.
Tungting lake, The, 4;
junction of the Hsiang and Yuan at, 6;
traffic on, 64, 65, 84.
Tung Yangtze cataract, 166.
_Tu-tze_, The, 443.
_Twenty-four Filials_, The, 277.
Tze-tung Hsien, 312, 316.
U.
_Use of Opium_, by Dr. Dudgeon, 513.
V.
Vale, Mr., of Chengtu, 362, 372.
Vegetarians, 525.
Village system, The, 535.
W.
_Wai-pi-ku_ boats, 501.
Wan-cheng Ti Dyke, 85, 86.
Wan Hsien, 104;
charities of, 190;
China Inland Mission house at, 172;
cotton trade of, 180;
first sight of, 171;
junk-building at, 138, 179;
population and trade of, 172, 178;
temple of, 178, 179;
the Yangtze at, 5.
War, The God of, 312.
“Water tobacco,” The use of, 513.
Waterwheels on the Min, 463.
Weichou, 366, 367, 369, 377, 378, 382;
nitre works at, 381.
Wei-gua, 395.
Wen-chuan Hsien, 376.
Wen-shu-Yuan Temple, 357.
Went-Zu, Temple of, 285.
Wesleyan missionaries, 102.
Wheelbarrow traffic, 324.
Widows, care of, 187, 188.
Widows’ arches, 198.
Willett, Mr., 500.
Williams, Rev. E. O., 281, 285, 296.
—— Dr. Wells, 164 (note), 182, 240, 276 (note).
“Wind-box” gorge. See Feng Hsiang.
“Witch’s Mountain” gorge, The, 150, 151.
Women’s work in China, 526.
Woodruff, Mr., 99.
Woo-sung, 15, 16.
Wu-chang, 59, 61.
Wuhu, 9;
trade of, 58;
benevolent institutions at, 188.
Wu-lien, 312.
_Wupans_, 124, 140, 460, 482, 500.
Wushan, 151.
—— gorge, The, 110, 150.
Wu-sueh, 6.
Y.
Ya, The, 3, 464, 485.
Ya-chow, the centre of the brick tea trade, 3.
Yak, Herds of, 425, 455.
_Yamen_ runners, 81, 196, 211.
_Yamens_, 26, 81, 261.
Yangchow, 9, 59.
Yangtze Kiang, Mouth of the, 16.
Yangtze river, alluvial deposit of, 7, 16;
annual rise and fall of, 4, 5, 496;
ascent of British fleet up, 7;
change in character of, 6;
craft on, 501;
a flood on, 482;
at Ichang, 95;
influence of the tide on, 7;
junction with the To, 477;
length of, 2;
navigable affluents of, 3, 4, 471;
navigable portion of, 8;
reed-beds in, 85;
source of, 2;
at Sui Fu, 471, 472;
trade on, 8, 9, 10;
various names of, 3;
volume of water in, 7.
Yangtze, The Lower, trade on, 9.
—— The Upper, bed of, 117;
coal workings on, 131;
life on, 138;
perils on, 149;
rapids of, 114 _et seq._;
steam navigation on, 5;
trackers on, 118 _et seq._;
trade on, 8, 9, 10;
travelling on, 104.
_Yangtze Pilot_, The, 149.
Yangtze valley, Bridges in, 10;
British treaty rights in, 14;
commerce of, 15;
drainage area, 1;
inhabitants of, 10, 11;
as a “sphere of interest,” 13.
Yao-tsai village, 121.
Yates, Dr., 523.
Yeh-tan rapid, The, 128, 131, 505.
Yellow river, Outbreak of the, 31.
Yellow Sea, The, 16.
_Yen-tun_, or “smoke towers,” 171.
“_Yin_,” The, 509.
Ying-san Hsien, 253, 261.
Yo-chow monastery, 84.
Yo-chow Fu city, 84.
Yokohama Specie Bank, Shanghai, 21.
Yuan Ho, The river, 4;
trade on, 6.
_Yulows_, 110, 145.
Yungtze, 93.
Yun-i, 236.
Yun-Yang Hsien, 166;
Roman Christians at, 168.
Yunnan, Province of, 1;
valleys of, 247;
importation of opium into, 507, 515.
PLYMOUTH
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON
PRINTERS
[Illustration:
SKETCH MAP OF THE YANGTZE BASIN SHOWING M^{RS}. BISHOP’S ROUTE.
Stanford’s Geog^l Estab^t, London.
_The red line indicates the Author’s route_
London: John Murray, Albemarle Street.
]
-----
Footnote 1:
Politically, as H.M.’s Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
defined it in the House of Commons on May 9th, 1899, it is “the
provinces adjoining the Yangtze River and Honan and Che Kiang.”
Footnote 2:
The lowest latitude which it is believed to reach is 26° N., east of
its junction with the Yalung at its great southerly bend, and its
junction with the ocean is in lat. 31° N.
Footnote 3:
_The Geographical Journal_, September, 1898, p. 227: “The Yangtze
Chiang,” W. R. CARLES, H.B.M.’s Consul at Swatow.
Footnote 4:
_Land of the Lamas_, p. 218.
Footnote 5:
It is the Mur-usu (“Tortuous River”) in Tibet, the Chin or Kin Sha
where it is the boundary between Tibet and China, and from the
junction of the Yalung to Sui Fu the Chin Ho. Between Sui Fu and Wan
Hsien it is called the Ta Ho (“Great River”) and the Min Chiang. At
and below Sha-shih it is the Ching Chiang, and below Hankow for 400
miles it is called the Chiang, Ch’ang Chiang (“Long River”), or
Ta-Kuan Chiang (“Great Official River”).
Footnote 6:
Lest it should be supposed that I am taking an unduly favourable view
of the position of the Chinese, and especially of the Chinese of Sze
Chuan, under their government, I fortify my opinion by quoting that of
Mr. Litton, British acting consul at Chungking. He writes in his
official report to our Foreign Office, presented to both Houses of
Parliament in May, 1899, thus:—“The government, though obstructive and
unintelligent, is not as a rule actively oppressive; one may travel
for days in West China without seeing any signs of that reserve of
force which we associate with the policeman round the corner. The
country people of Sze Chuan manage their own affairs through their
headmen, and get on very well in spite of, rather than because of, the
central government at Chengtu. So long as a native keeps out of the
law courts, and does not attempt any startling innovations on the
customs of his ancestors, he finds in the general love of law and
order very fair security that he will enjoy the fruit of his labour.”
This general disposition towards law and order, though it may have
something to do with race, is undoubtedly on the whole the result of
the teachings of Confucius.
Footnote 7:
For Shanghai and the other open ports, it is the gross value of trade,
exports and imports, including re-exports, which is given in this
volume.
Footnote 8:
Yachting Club, Golf Club, Athletic Club, Lawn Tennis Club, Polo Club,
Volunteer Club, Boating Club, Bowling Club, Swimming Club, Cricket
Club, Blackbird Club, Drag Hound Club, Steeplechase Club, Racquet
Club, Racing Club, Rifle Club, Fives Court, Gymnasium, Fire Flies
Society, Lurderfatel Society, Amateur Dramatic Company; and of a
graver cast, the Philharmonic and Photographic Societies, the Royal
Asiatic Society, the Fine Art Society, etc., etc. (List by W. S.
Percival, Esq.)
Footnote 9:
Situated a few miles from the junction of the Huang-pu with the
Yangtze, in lat. 31° 10′ N. and long. 121° 30′ E., nearly on the same
parallel as Charleston and Alexandria, the port is the great outlet of
the commerce of the rich and populous provinces of Central China, and
the sole outlet of that of Sze Chuan, besides communicating by
waterways with Hangchow, Soochow, and other great cities on the Grand
Canal, and with cities innumerable by canals innumerable.
Footnote 10:
Hangchow, though not geographically in the drainage area of the
Yangtze, as the capital of Chekiang, which has been declared
officially to be within our “sphere of interest” in the Yangtze
Valley, is treated of here as being specially interesting. Of Ningpo,
Wenchow, and Soochow, open ports in the same province, merely the
_net_ value of their total net trade for 1898 is given, along with
that of Hangchow:—
Ningpo £2,162,780
Wenchow 215,669
Soochow 229,113
Hangchow 1,199,022
Footnote 11:
Another of the crack mission hospitals of the East, of which I had
lengthened opportunities of judging, is Dr. Christie’s hospital at
Mukden, Manchuria, which has been largely instrumental in bringing
about similar results in the friendliness of the officials and people.
Footnote 12:
In a paper called _Medical Missions at Home and Abroad_ for 1898, p.
70, the reader will find such experiences very graphically told by Dr.
Malcolm.
Footnote 13:
These hospitals and dispensaries under the care of Dr. Main and Dr.
Kimber treated 47,000 patients in 1898, of which number 1000 were
in-patients, and besides these 187 would-be suicides received back the
unwelcome gift of life. These benevolent Christian institutions
comprise hospitals for men and women, an opium refuge, three leper
hospitals, two convalescent homes, and a home for the children of
lepers.
Footnote 14:
In China the necessaries of existence, food, clothing, shoes,
waterproofs, and travelling-trunks and baskets are always to be
procured, and there, as everywhere, if a traveller uses native
arrangements, he has much less difficulty in getting them handled or
repaired.
Footnote 15:
Concession is not, as is supposed by many, a synonym for settlement. A
concession is a piece of land leased by the Queen’s Government and let
to Western merchants, a stipulation being made that the land is not to
be sub-let to Chinese, while a settlement is an area within which
Europeans may lease land directly from the native proprietors. In both
cases the Queen’s Government stipulates for the right of policing and
controlling the land, and delegates it to a council of resident
merchants.
Footnote 16:
A specimen of guild rules is given in Appendix A.
Footnote 17:
For brief statistics of the trade of the Yangtze open ports see
Appendix B.
Footnote 18:
For minor causes of the loss of the import trade see _Trade of Central
and Southern China_, BOURNE, Foreign Office, May, 1898.
Footnote 19:
In 1868 the average consumption of tea per head of the population of
the United Kingdom was 3·52 lbs., of which 93 per cent. was Chinese
tea, and 7 per cent. Indian. Since that date the consumption has risen
to an average of 5·73 per head of the population, but only 11 per
cent. is Chinese tea, while the tea grown in India and Ceylon is 89
per cent.
Footnote 20:
“There is no harbour in the world where one may see so many craft as
at Hankow. Anchored in several rows, they reach for miles along the
river banks.”—Consul BULLOCK, _The Geography of China_.
Footnote 21:
Foreign Office Report No. 2086, May, 1898.
Footnote 22:
It is usual for the missionaries of the China Inland Mission and for
those of the SZE CHUAN mission of the C.M.S. to live in Chinese houses
actually among the city populations, a course which is considerably
criticised on grounds of health and safety.
Footnote 23:
Diplomatic and Consular Reports, No. 458, China, Foreign Office, May,
1898.
Footnote 24:
_Through the Yangtze Gorges_, A. J. LITTLE, p. 246.
Footnote 25:
Consul Bourne “risks” an estimate of the value of goods exported from
Sze Chuan by this route at £3,300,000 annually, while imports coming
up the rapids and passing through the Imperial Customs amounted to
£1,776,586 in 1897. The freight on cotton goods from Ichang to
Chungking is estimated at £3 8_s._ 6_d._ per ton, a scarcely
appreciable increase in cost on every yard after a transit of 500
miles.
Footnote 26:
These pits are reported as producing 132 lbs. of salt daily each.
Captain Gill learned at Kuei Fu that SZE CHUAN salt brings in a
revenue of about £2,000,000 sterling annually, but this seems
incredible, as it would make the annual salt production of the
province about 237,946 tons.
Footnote 27:
Dr. WELLS WILLIAMS, on p. 812 of _The Middle Kingdom_, vol. i., says
that a literary man would have such a sentence as—
“May I be so learned as to secrete in my mind three myriads of
volumes”;
“May I know the affairs of the world for six thousand years.”
While a shopkeeper would adorn his door with such mottoes as these—
“May profits be like the morning sun rising on the clouds”;
“May wealth increase like the morning tide which brings the rain”;
“Manage your occupation according to truth and loyalty.”
“Hold on to benevolence and rectitude in all your trading.”
Dr. Williams adds that the influence of these and countless similar
mottoes which are to be seen throughout the land is inestimable, and
is usually for good. At all events it is better to have a high ideal
than a low one.
Footnote 28:
Although the Temple of Chang-fei stands 200 feet above the river at
low water, the one which preceded it was carried away in a great flood
in 1870, when the water actually rose to the height of the present
roof. The present gorgeous structure cost 10,000 taels.
Footnote 29:
The volume from which this picture was taken and enlarged was printed
in Shanghai.
Footnote 30:
This term “dog-faced” apparently does not bear the meaning which we
put on it, for the woman in the illustration on page 496 with a
head-dress of solid silver and heavy white silk from the mountains of
FU KIEN is a member of what the Fu-chow Chinese call “dog-faced”
tribes.
Footnote 31:
The charities of China have been several times alluded to, and it
seems fitting before leaving Wan Hsien, where they are both numerous
and active, to devote a special chapter to them. The sketch is an
imperfect and limited one, but it may help to point the way to a field
of very interesting inquiry.
Footnote 32:
A mow, roughly speaking, is about one-seventh of an acre.
Footnote 33:
I am indebted for most of the foregoing facts to Mr. W. R. Carles,
lately H.B.M.’s consul at Chinkiang, and to the very careful
investigations made by the Rev. W. W. Lawton for the Christian
Literary Association of Chinkiang.
Footnote 34:
For these very interesting facts regarding Wan, I am indebted to my
host there, Mr. Thompson, of the China Inland Mission. Statistics are
not available.
Footnote 35:
I must also mention, in extenuation of sundry faults of which I am
conscious, that I went to Western China solely for interest and
pleasure, and not with any intention of writing a book, and that,
instead of having careful and copious notes, I have only journal
letters to rely upon.
Footnote 36:
This word, which we apply universally to Chinese officials, is
Portuguese. The Chinese designation is _kuan_.
Footnote 37:
I was told afterwards that a foreign missionary in an open chair had
passed through not long before, and being annoyed at the curiosity and
crowding of the people, had gone with a complaint to the _yamen_, and
it was supposed by some of my friends that they were avenging this on
me.
Footnote 38:
I cannot give the local distances in English miles, because, though
the Chinese _li_ is 1818 English feet, the _li_ of the mountain and
the plain, and even of the good and bad road, differ in length.
Footnote 39:
I was present at a “drawing-room meeting” in Shanghai when Mrs.
Archibald Little, of Chungking, took the humane initiative of
establishing an “Anti-Footbinding Society,” which has now many
branches, and is undoubtedly commending its aims to many men of the
intelligent classes. The mission schools for girls are in general
absolutely against the crippling process, and the wives of many of the
younger Christians have “big feet.”
Footnote 40:
See Mr. Bourne’s Report on the Trade of Central and Southern China,
Foreign Office, May, 1898.
Footnote 41:
I must repeat that there are very good inns in SZE CHUAN in the
cities, _i.e._ good for China, and at the regular stages, but, besides
that I was avoiding cities because of the rough element which they
contain, I was travelling less than the usual distance daily, and had
to put up with the Chinese equivalent of the “hedge alehouse”
accommodation, which the ordinary travelling Chinese would have
disdained.
Footnote 42:
These are all attainable in scholarly translations, and, along with
chapter ix. of Dr. Wells Williams’ invaluable volumes, _The Middle
Kingdom_, should be read by everyone who takes more than a merely
superficial or commercial interest in China.
Footnote 43:
A translation of these is given in the _Chinese Repository_ (vol. vi.,
p. 131).
Footnote 44:
Dr. WELLS WILLIAMS, _Middle Kingdom_.
Footnote 45:
Funeral ceremonies and superstitions are given in detail in _The
Middle Kingdom_, vol. ii., p. 244.
Footnote 46:
A detailed description of this building is given by Captain Gill in
_The River of Golden Sand_, vol. ii., p. 13. Chengtu has been often
visited, and two or three times described by English travellers, so
that I consider myself exonerated from giving more than mere notes of
my impressions of it.
Footnote 47:
The fall of the Min between its bifurcation at Weichou and Kuan Hsien,
taking the altitudes of these two towns as the basis of the
calculation and the Chinese _li_ at its average length, is
twenty-seven feet to the mile, but from Weichou to Li-fan Ting it is
no less than forty-five feet to the mile.
Footnote 48:
I could not hear of any but Captain Gill, and three Russians a few
months before, and all had reasons of their own for doing so.
Footnote 49:
A pony had rolled on my hypsometer, and I spent much of the day at
Li-fan in constructing another with the aid of a tinsmith. It was but
a rude construction, but as it made the height of Li-fan come to
within ten feet of that given by Captain Gill, I venture to present
the altitudes of Tsa-ku-lao and a few other places as approximations
to the truth.
Footnote 50:
In this case a _Tu-tze_ is a tribal chief, recognised as such by the
Chinese Government.
Footnote 51:
Captain Gill met with a mountain of the same name on his Tibetan
journey, so it would appear that Ja-ra is a Tibetan name. I could not
unearth any Chinese name for the mountain.
Footnote 52:
A careful and deeply interesting account of these excavations is given
by Mr. Baber in “A Journey of Exploration in Western _Sze Chuan_.” See
_Supplementary Papers_, vol. i., _Royal Geographical Society_.
Footnote 53:
Among the trees and plants behind Peh-Shih, which were interesting as
growing in one locality, were: the orange, pommeloe, pomegranate,
apricot, peach, apple, pear, plum, persimmon (_Diospyros Virginiana_),
loquat (_Eriobotrya Japonica_), date-plum (_Diospyros Kaki_), the
Chinese date tree (_Rhamnus Theezans_), walnut, Spanish chestnuts, the
_Ficus religiosa_, palms, bamboos, cypresses, pines, the “varnish
tree” (_Rhus-vernicifera_), the Tung oil tree (_Aleurites cordata_),
mulberry, oak, the _Cudrania triloba_, much used for feeding young
silkworms, a hibiscus, plane, the _Sterculia platinifolia_, the
_Paulonia Imperialis_, three varieties of soap trees (_Acacia negata_,
_Gymnocladus Sinensis_, and _Gleditschia Sinensis_), the tallow tree,
and very many others, my specimens of which were so destroyed by damp
as to render subsequent botanical identification impossible. Hemp was
considerably grown, and of two economic shrubs, both new to me, there
were several patches, the _Boehmeria nivea_, from the fibre of which
grass cloth is manufactured, and the _Fatsia papyrifera_, from the
pith of which rice paper is made.
Footnote 54:
The estimated distance to Cheng-tu by the windings of the rivers is:—
Chung-king to Luchow 125 miles.
Luchow to Sui Fu 87 „
Sui Fu to Chia-ling Fu 130 „
Chia-ling Fu to Cheng-tu Fu 133 „
———
Total 475 miles.
Footnote 55:
Mr. Bourne estimates the imports of cotton and cotton goods as
follows:—
Raw cotton £500,000
Native piece goods, home spun 1,000,000
Indian yarn 600,000
Lancashire cottons 300,000
——————————
£2,400,000
And the exports, which are chiefly raw or half-manufactured produce,
as follows:—
Opium £1,800,000
Salt 300,000
Drugs 400,000
Silk 200,000
Miscellaneous articles, insect wax, tobacco, sugar, musk, 600,000
wool-skins, hides, feathers, bristles, etc.
——————————
£3,300,000
The returns for 1898, not yet out, are expected to show a very
considerable increase.
Footnote 56:
Readers are referred to sections 28 to 33 of Mr. Bourne’s report on
_The Trade of Central and Southern China_, May, 1898. (Eyre and
Spottiswoode.)
Footnote 57:
In order to avoid the fragmentariness of references to the Opium Poppy
and Protestant Missions, at intervals throughout this volume, I have
adopted the more convenient arrangement of giving a chapter on each of
these subjects.
Footnote 58:
_Report of a Journey to North Sze Chuan_, 1898. By Mr. G. J. L.
LITTON, of H.B.M.’s Chinese Consular Service.
Footnote 59:
This is not from any distrust of the accuracy of their facts, for no
foreigners know the lives and ways of the Chinese so well as they do,
but simply because many people think that they are prejudiced.
Footnote 60:
“This year the value of foreign goods imported amounted to more than
eighty million [taels]. The export of Chinese products might be about
fifty million [taels] or more. The foreign drug [_i.e._, opium] was
valued at more than thirty million [taels]. Thus there was a leakage.
China is not impoverished by commerce, but the impoverishment comes
from the consumption of opium.”
Footnote 61:
In _Les Missions Catholiques_, vol. xxiii. (1891), M. Louvets returns
the number of Roman Catholic converts in Pechili, Manchuria, Mongolia,
and Shantung as 73,620 in 1870, and in 1890, including 2000 in Kansuh,
as 155,900.
Footnote 62:
A servant of my own, not a Christian, gave a quaint reason for liking
to serve missionaries—“I never get boots at my head in the foreign
teachers’ houses.”
Footnote 63:
If I seem to pronounce opinions _ex cathedrâ_ on very insufficient
bases, it is owing to the avoidance of the constant repetition of the
modest phrase “I think,” which in nearly all cases must be understood.
Footnote 64:
Hundreds of temples, however, had undergone recent and thorough
repair.
Footnote 65:
See Appendix B.
Footnote 66:
_Imperial Maritime Customs. Report on the Trade of China for 1898._
King & Son. London.
Footnote 67:
A couplet from a well-known anonymous lampoon, largely current as an
expression of popular opinion, is translated thus:—
“Three hands has every magistrate,
And every officer three feet.”
(The hands to clutch at bribes, the feet to run away from the enemy!)
Footnote 68:
In Mukden, early in that war, I saw Chinese regiments of remarkably
fine physique marching to their doom, armed with matchlock and “Tower”
guns, and pikes, the money which should have provided them with modern
rifles having enriched the officials who had the spending of it. The
modern rifles with which some of the rank and file were armed were of
all patterns, so cartridges of a dozen different makes and sizes were
dumped down on the ground in a vacant space in the city, without any
attempt at classification, and the soldiers fitted them to their arms,
sometimes throwing eight or ten back on the heap before finding one to
suit the weapon. The commissariat officials were grossly dishonest,
and where stores had accumulated, sold them for their own benefit. It
is a common practice for a military mandarin to draw pay for 800 men,
having only 400 with the colours, and, on an inspection day, to
impress 400 coolies of the city, put them into uniforms, and parade
them with the soldiers.
Footnote 69:
Mr. Meadows states that the highest mandarins get about ten times and
the lowest about fifty times the amount of their legal incomes by
means of “squeezes.”
Footnote 70:
Since writing the above pages I have read Mr. A. R. COLQUHOUN’S
chapters on “Government and Administration,” “The Chinese People,” and
“Chinese Democracy,” in which I find views similar to my own stated
with great force, breadth, and intimate knowledge. The last chapter
concludes with these important words: “It is only fitful glimpses
which strangers are able to obtain of the inner working of Chinese
national life—quite insufficient to form a coherent theory of the
whole ... but the data ascertained seem sufficient to warrant the
inference of a vast, self-governed, law-abiding society, costing
practically nothing to maintain, and having nothing to apprehend save
natural calamities and national upheavals.”
Footnote 71:
Many people think that _likin_, an inland tax, levied by the
provincial authorities on foreign goods in transit (_loti-shui_ being
a terminal tax), is an illegal blackmail, but it rests on precisely
the same foundation as every other Chinese ordinance—an Imperial
Decree—and its legality was certainly recognised by the British and
German Governments when they accepted seven _likin_ collectorates as
collateral security for the last Anglo-German loan.
Footnote 72:
The italics are my own.—I. L. B.
Footnote 73:
It was what are known as the “Hunan Tracts,” an infamous literature
circulated throughout the Empire, which accuses Christians of the
vilest crimes, and urges the populace to expel them, which have been
the cause of several of the anti-foreign riots. Now HUNAN is welcoming
Western learning and Christian teachers.
Footnote 74:
_Times’_ Shanghai correspondent.
Footnote 75:
The Chinese _li_ is 1814 English feet, but the mountain and the plain
_li_ differ in length.
Footnote 76:
These tables were kindly prepared for this volume by W. H. Wilkinson,
Esq., H.B.M. Consul at Ningpo, from the Trade Report for 1898 of the
Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. The Haikwan tael, in which the
Customs accounts are kept, has been taken at 3_s._, as a fairer
current equivalent than the ²⁄₁₀–⁵⁄₈ average, by the advice of Mr.
Jamieson, C.M.G., late Consul-General at Shanghai.
Footnote 77:
Note that these figures include trade conducted by Chinese, or under
the Chinese flag, passing through the Maritime Customs.
Footnote 78:
These tables, giving an excess of imports over exports, will be seen
not to tally with my statement in the final chapter. In other years
similar tables have given rise to the belief that China is being
denuded of silver to pay for the balance, and is drifting towards
bankruptcy. But the Inspector-General, in the Customs Report for 1898,
from which these figures are taken, points out that, taking into
account the value of the gold exported from China, of the tea sent to
Siberia and Russia _viâ_ the Han River, of the twenty million pounds
of tea exported annually to Tibet, of the junk traffic to Korea and
the South, and of other exports of which the Customs take no
cognizance, there is an actual excess of exports over imports, as was
shown by careful statistics in 1897. He also points out as a positive
proof that the nation is well able to pay its way, that the Government
remittances to Europe for the service of loans, amounting in 1898 to
about Hk. Tls. 18,000,000, were made through foreign banks by the
medium of bills of exchange against exports.—I. L. B.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
● Corrected the Errata.
● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last
chapter.
● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
● Enclosed bold font in =equals=.
● The caret (^) serves as a superscript indicator, applicable to
individual characters (like 2^d) and even entire phrases (like
1^{st}).